GB_Amateur

IMO this second point is the clincher in dry land detecting. In water, open coils tend to be better. Mars makes a similar size open DD coil which is also excellent but trying to distinguish performance between the three may be an impossible task. Both NEL and CORS can be found in the USA. Something I read is that NEL granted exclusive sales rights to one or a few companies and regretted it later on. Using the CORS label allowed them to skirt this constraint. Makes sense but I have no idea as to the veracity of this claim.

Did there happen to be parking meters in those curb strips? The reason I ask is that I've had a similar experience. Here pennies aren't 'redeemable' in parking meters and I figure the annoyance/disgust of persons digging through pockets and purses to find coins to pump the meters leads to both realization and outrage that pennies today (and for the last 30-40 years for that matter) are nearly worthless in the USA economy. Why the f___ can't the mint/legislature figure that out?????????????????? Good to see you finding the oldies. I guess Tom Dankowski hasn't vacuumed up all those from the FL penninsula.

Uh, they didn't have Zip Codes in the 1940's. (Mid-60's was their creation. Prior to that some large metro areas has single digit 'zone' codes.) A neat find, but not as old as you (or I) had hoped. Homesites are tough. If you compare them to parks, how many years of a few people dropping things can be compared to years of many people dropping things? A big advantage of permissions is they are way less likely to have been previously detected. And when they produce they can sure give up some goodies! I think the two Wheaties are an indication of what could have been and might still be there. I hope you have more chances at that site. How many person-hours of detecting give a site justice? IMO it's closer to 100 than 10. Time is our biggest asset/liability. And the older we get the more we realize that....

Welcome back, Sasquatch! You are correct that there are loads of useful information here as well as many knowledgeable users who will answer questions, give advice, etc. Regarding your question about saving an entire thread, I can't help you there. As was mentioned, Site Admin Steve Herschbach may have a recommended solution. He doesn't read every thread (although I think he reads the Meet And Greet ones, eventually...). You can PM him (envelope icon on upper right) to get a quick response.

True, but you can get close which is why I 'vote' for keeping options open. IMO, the (current) ML Equinox 800 package does that: 1) Want to plug in wired headphones directly? Check. 2) Want to go with Bluetooth and the low cost headsets widely available? Check. 3) Want to use fast Bluetooth (APTX-LL)? Check. 4) Want even faster proprietary transmit/receive (T/R) and plug in headphones with 3.5 mm jack or (w/adapter) 1/4" jack? Check. 5) Want to use fast proprietary aftermarket T/R system such as the Garrett Z-Lynk system? Check. I get that options cost more. For decades MacDonald's lived with the "we'll make what we want and convince you to buy it" attitude while others (such as Burger King's direct jab advertising "Have it Your Way") tried to compete by giving customers more choices. The public lemmings made MacDonald's the winner. I hope that isn't the direction this is headed.

This topic comes up a lot, and there are many opinions. Site and user dependent? 'Yes' and 'yes' are the typical answers there. Target goal dependent? Another 'yes'. AFAIK the main advantage to faster RS settings (i.e. 6,7,8 on the Eqx 800) are ability to separate close targets. (Well, coil swing rate must be adjusted, so some might say being able to swing the coil faster is an advantage of higher RS settings.) BTW, there was a long post by Tom Dankowski on his forum about RS = 3 on the Eqx 800 being the optimal setting from a design standpoint. Don't remember if he said how he 'knew' this. His post had a link on our site, and it's probably still around. I'm too lazy ("in a hurry" sounds better 😄) this AM to try and dig it up. You could try RS = 2 on your Eqx 600 and compare with RS = 3. I would be very careful detecting with RS = 1 if I were you, but it never hurts to experiment. I'm still annoyed that Minelab didn't use the same scale for the 800 and 600. They could still leave out the intermediate values with no loss of 'marketability.'

That is what I was hoping. Those wrong planchet errors happen from time to time and as you note are valuable. In the past (maybe present, too) the US Mint will stamp coins for other countries and occasionally their planchets work their way into one of our presses. But more common our just our own planchets. That 25% nickel, 75% copper alloy is apparently pretty vulnerable to chemicals in some soils. I think some tree leaves in particular are hard on them. But fertilizer is another suspect, too, as mh9162013 points out. Freshwater lakes seem particularly bad, not surprisingly. A couple years ago I posted a photo of a coin (modern quarter) where the Ni alloy outer layers were completely eaten away, leaving only the copper core. I found that in a very small artificial pond at a friends house which was loaded with decaying leaves. Thanks for the photo, F350. I was hoping....

Does it ID between dimes and quarters? Or has it been plated? Can you show us a closeup photo??

Glad you tried that -- something I've wondered about myself but never took the time to experiment. Thanks! So 21 and below are low tone and 22 and above are high tone? Is that so you can ignore Zincolns? Multi as in five! That 1938 Merc is a beaut. Keep up the great hunting and associated postings for us to salivate over. Is that rusty coin a 1943 zinc plated steel cent? (Or maybe a 1944? )

Here's another question along a similar vein: why does neither Minelab nor Coitek make an Equinox coil within a closed housing?

I use the WM08 module exclusively. It gives the widest range of headset choice and has the lowest latency of any wireless option. I take advantage of both of these features.

Thanks. That's quite a bit of loss due to wear, consistent with what your photo shows. Some coins (Buffalo Nickels and Standing Liberty Quarters being good examples) lose their dates with not nearly so much wear as your Barber Dime. Mercury Dimes hold their dates well, also. Just so happens I found a Barber dime today. I haven't discerned the date. When detecting I make sure to see my shoes clearly, not my wristwatch. 😄 It did appear to have all four digits showing clearly; I didn't clean the reverse enough to look for a mintmark. I'll do all that and post results (and photos) along with a report on what mine weighs so we can compare. Busy tonight so give me a day or so. (And I'm going back to the same spot detecting tomorrow, hoping lightening strikes twice!)

It's tough. I think it's a 1902. The main reason I say that is the thin 'slit' of the opening on the 3rd digit -- looks consistent with a zero. Besides this narrowness, If it were a 9, the opening width should max out and then show signs of narrowing. I don't see that. To add to the identification difficulty, the second digit does look a bit like an 8. However, I think the pitting (prominent on Liberty's chin and neck) is eating into the RH side of the 9, making it look like an 8. I'm going to say ~70% that it's a 1902. I can't completely rule out the 4th digit being a 3, although I don't think it is. If you have a scale that reads to 2 decimal places in grams, I'd be interested in knowing its weight. How much loss in weight has the wear caused? (Fresh of the press it would have been 2.50 g.)

Here are a couple photos for your perusal: https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1902-10c/4827 https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1892-10c/4796 It's difficult for us (well, for me) to discern from the photo you show. But note the triangular top of the 8 in 1892 compared to a more rounded top of the 9 in 1902. Also, look at the 9 in 1892 vs. the 0 in 1902 -- quite a difference. I think there is enough detail remaining on your coin to determine at about 90% confidence which you have. Is that the oldest park in LA? Nice finds for such a short hunt.

You need to flip that -- two 1968 pennies (worth ~2 cents each because of their copper content) and a 1964 quarter.... Way better! As far as key dates, though, your best (only?) hope for modern (post silver era) coins are the rare die varieties such as the 1972 Double Die Memorial and the extremely rare and valuable 1969-S DD Memorial. (There are a few more -- kac has mentioned some.) But living in Virginia you have a much better chance at finding earlier rarities.

Whenever I see hauls like this it takes me back to the 70's and 80's (when unfortunately I wasn't using the detectors I owned... 😪). Many, maybe most of those dimes and quarters would have been silver....

My consistent high 30's are almost always wraparound iron (including its alloys). If I think it might be otherwise I dig the first scoop or two and recheck the hole. Often the dTID's drop way down at that point. Of course if they stay high then more investigation necessary. I think silver dollars hit around 34 in air tests. 99.9% silver coins and small silver bars maybe 35. So what high conductor hits high 30's, a large silver bar?? Several pieces of silver?? If cache hunting (or in an area where a cache might be hidden) you would of course dig these high dTID signals. So as not to confuse anyone, above I'm referring to targets that consistently show high 30's. In my area and with my settings, deep silver dimes can give pretty wild dTID swings which occasionally blip into the high 30's. BTW, F350, did you mean the older copper alloy coins are at the low end of 19-25, not the other way around? Or were you just distinguishing between Zincolns (21 for very fresh drops, going lower with age) and the copper alloy Memorials (26 and down)? I must remember that you are detecting an area you don't expect any old coins, so all your dTID's are referring to modern coins that haven't been in the ground all that long. ("Long" means 50 years in my book. 😉)

That's a lot of quarters! Just imagine if we had larger denominations circulating. It's disappointing by contrast seeing the Ausies and Kiwis (Candians, Brits, EU members too?) show pictures of multiple $2 and $1 coins from their hunts. Our irrational populace (and their equally numbskull officials in charge) won't even use 50 cent pieces. Instead they mint and distribute worthless Zincolns by the billions. I better stop there before I raise too much ire....

Interesting question. I've thought a bit about how to figure it out, but it's tough. For one thing, I'm pretty sure way more gold goes into jewelry manufacturing each year than native gold found by detecting (or other small scale recovery methods). But, most of the jewelry isn't lost so it's not even findable. I know this -- I've found more gold jewelry by accident (because I'm specifically coin hunting and focus on those dTID's) than I've recovered while trying to find native gold!

(I don't know how to change my survey response, only my post.... No biggie.) The centipede in your photo appears to be oppositely patterned, but otherwise very similar to the one whose photo I found on the internet. I can't remember the exact coloring/pattern of the one I saw that night but it seemed to have brighter red highlights than what I've found online. Also it was only about 4" long. I think the ones on the internet (and the one in your photo) are considerably bigger. FWIW, here in Indiana our most dangerous wildlife might be the Brown Recluse Spider. I've heard of a couple stories locally of people suffering permanent damage from them (although not death, AFAIK). (Regardless of the above website's claim of frequent misdiagnoses, the two I refer to were actual Brown Recluse bites!) Yes, we have timber rattlers and (poisonous) water moccasins but reports of their bites are rare. And ticks have become a problem here, just like almost everywhere in the USA. My wife has two acquaitances who nearly died this summer from tick borne bacteria. Disappointingly(?), in both cases it was a friend/relative of the sick people who suggested to the attending hospital physicians what the cause might be. In one case the Dr. said "your suggestion saved your friend's life"!

One advantage to driving across country to get to the Western USA gold fields is all the towns I pass through (particularly when not driving Interstate highways). Sometimes I just 'cold call' (as Dan puts it), when I see a sign or actual park/school. Better is to use Google Maps the night before, looking for parks/schools in towns I'll be passing through the next day. So far this hasn't paid off better than a few Wheaties and lots of modern coins. Searching unhunted parks and schools doesn't mean the oldies are going to jump out of the ground.... In some cases I'm pretty sure I'm not the first. But as Dan notes, you don't know until you try.

While working in East-Central New Mexico desert we came across some small (maybe 1/2 inch long) scorpions. When we brought them up to our Texas colleagues they said: "their venom is nothing compared to our centipede's." I was staying in one of those gereric roadside motels ("no tell motel") and that very night awoke needing to use the restroom. I debated whether or not to turn on the light, not wanting to blast my dark-adjusted eyes to that, but decided I would. Barefoot, I entered the bathroom and right in front of the toilet was one of these.

Well, for most of us. But I thought you preferred those windy, sub-freezing winter days.... Bet you won't have any competition when those show up. From the looks of the front edge of that shovel's blade, it's seen considerable use. Do they make this style with a fiberglass handle? Too bad at least one of those rings wasn't gold. But I'm sure you're just getting started so the goodies are just around the corner. Addendum: looks like I was responding to a week-old post. Has the weather turned into the schoolofhardNox variety, yet?

I guess it's where you set the 'discriminator' on the 'expert' scale. Soil and targets are part of the settings input. So is trash distribution, trash type, depth of good finds, location of good finds, difficulty in digging due to ground type (clay vs. sand, depth of vegetation, etc.).... But, yes, you've got to fit your hunt into the time available. Now that you have permission to hunt more, I predict better results.

You've gotten a lot of good advice and there's nothing new I can really add. The one thing that jumped out at me is that you had (only) 2 hours to detect that site. But it sounds like you can go back, so that's good. It takes me more than 2 hours just to figure out where I want to hunt and what settings (and coils) I want to use. Sheet metal (both aluminum and iron -- aka 'tin') are really annoying. Even if you can distinguish between them and good targets by sound, extent, etc. they tend to have such a zone of influence that leaving them in the ground leads me wondering what small goodie is hiding under or nearby that's getting completely overpowered. With really short times to detect trashy sites, probably the best strategy includes moderate gain, high discrimination (above Zincolns and aluminum screwcaps), and ignoring the strongest signals. But all of those compromises will leave good targets in the ground.