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Anyone else got an Instagram for your finds Mine is QTeeKids

This was on TV in New Zealand tonight about a guy finding a gold sovereign with his Nox worth about $50,000 NZD, about 33,000 USD. It was an Aussie minted coin. The video even has what I see as a typical Garrett user in it 😛 Just kiddin'

Went back to an old poured concrete foundation in the woods which is a popular Elk hunters campsite. This is a site where I found my first seated dime a few years ago. The area is loaded with modern trash and lot's of iron nails and old tin buried near the foundation walls. I brought my Teknetics G2 with both the 5" and 11"x7" coil as I also intended to try some nugget detecting near the creek. I didn't find any nuggets but managed to pull 2 nice V nickels, 1890 and 1883. I set the detector in disc mode after ground balancing at 83. The ground here is very mineralized. I then set the tone break at 40 to separate ferrous from nonferrous and started swinging . I dug everything that hit in the ferrous range and all one-way signals that sounded good one direction but like iron the other. I also managed a few relics and a small pile of trash.

I was sent some photos overnight of some incredible finds with the GPX and an X-coil that forum member Elijah found. I thought I'd put the photos up for people to see as they're pretty incredible, I really love the old coin, imagine the history that goes with an old coin like that, I can't even imagine how old it must be It must have been a very wealthy person that lost it. I would love to detect in locations that have ancient coins like this. It looks like they just take a big nugget and stamp an image on it. It looks like a bird of some sort? And check out it's weight!!!! That coins heavy! I wonder what you could buy with it when it was used as currency. He also found this, I'm not sure what it could be, any ideas? It's likely to be very ancient too.

I took my wife, and two young boys to the river for a couple hours this morning. I figured I'd bring my Detector, and get a couple hours of hunting in while the kids played. I have been hunting the rivers all week long. I possibly put in close to 30 hours, with very little success. I am learning the machine with each swing though. I was hunting in Park 2, knee deep in the water, a spillway at my back, and open river in front of me, with a strong current. My settings were default, except the Iron Bias was switched to F2 giving it a value of 6 automatically. I went with 50 tones, and periodically did a ground balance, increasing the number it settled on by 2 or 3. (I had heard this was a trick) My first target was an all to familiar aluminum piece, followed by a metal flake. I thought to myself, "That's ok, one of this holes will eventually surprise me. I only have two hours so I'll just dig away, and enjoy myself" I was right, my third dig was about 2 inches down, I saw the glimmer. I knew this was no beaver tail. I pulled the ring, and lifting it thought "wow, looks like silver" I scanned the inside, seing a hallmark my eyes immediately caught 14k. I stood up, and started walking towards my wife grinning ear to ear, almost deviously. It took her a minute to notice I looked odd with a smile like that, and asked what? I showed her, and she promptly made me stow it away, convinced I'd lose it I went on to pull three more rings, my next one being a MASSIVE Palladium wedding band (I had never heard of Palladium when I dug it) Each time I would approach my wife proclaiming yet another victory, and each time she would say "no, I don't believe you" and then I would show her. The next two were one Sterling Silver, and one Stainless Steel. I also found a total of 8 fishing lures, and a commemorative medallion for a 1988 space flight. This was by far the best day I've had medal detecting, and was a reminder of why the hobby was love at first dig for me. I know a 4 ring day is not gonna be a regular thing, so I'm chewing it slowly. I couldn't be happier with my first gold experience, and wanted to thank all of you on Detector Prospector for being so kind, and answering any questions I've had. I know I'll have many more, and the experience you guys bring to the table is quintessential to my learning this fine hobby. I wish you all the best of luck in your upcoming hunts. As always HH - Luke

Reg Wilson is a bit of a legend in Australian detecting circles and has kept a comprehensive photo collection of his finds over 4 or 5 decades. Now everyone likes gold images and stories - and there are plenty here! I've been offered existing topics to post on, but I believe the topic deserves its own thread to do it full justice. All images are those of Reg Wilson unless otherwise attributed. The album consists of hundreds of photographs of not only gold, but many gold detecting industry characters, some of whom are no longer with us, but who all contributed in their own unique ways to the great gold chase we still enjoy today. Firstly, a bit of background. Reg first shot to international fame with the finding of this 98 ounce piece which he named the "Orange Roughie" in 1987, decades later to be fraudulently rebirthed as the "Washington Nugget" By no means his first find, Reg was already a successful detector operator and at the time was testing a prototype GT 16000 for Minelab's wizz kid engineer Bruce Candy: Photo: Australian Sun Herald L to R: Bruce Candy, the late Doug Robertson, Ian Jacques, Reg, John Hider Smith. Reg recalled: "The man standing next to Bruce Candy is the late Doug Robertson, who with his brother Bruce worked the aluvials below the famous and fabulously rich Matrix reef at McIntyres. They had an old Matilda tank with a blade attached to clear Mallee scrub. Between them they had a wealth of knowledge of the northern Victorian gold fields. (Doug's name may have been Robinson. Memory is a bit foggy)" Ian, Reg and John were prototype SD 2000 testers in Victoria, AU and were collectively known as the "Beagle Boys" a name bestowed upon them by Dave Chappel, the publican of the Railway Hotel Dunolly. On any Friday night huge nuggets, some weighing well over a hundred ounces could be seen displayed on the bar. 120oz from Longbush. Found all on its own, finder anonymous: The playing cards and US currency indicate that the nugget has just been purchased by the late "Rattlesnake" John Fickett, a US gold buyer who bought many of the big pieces back then: Ian Jacques and Reg with 44 oz 1989: Ian Jacques with his SD 2000 prototype late 80's. Real prospectors don't use bungees All for now, but at least we've made a start - - -

Is this the biggest gold find in the United States, so far in 2020? I’ve been patiently waiting for the time to share this magnificent recent discovery. It's funny because I actually had a conversation with some newer prospectors this last winter and they wondered if there was still any mammoth gold finds to be made. Once again I share some Success Pics of my customer and his 3 pound golden rock. Ron from Idaho purchased an SDC-2300 from me, but what was more important, he took the 3 days Field Training class my staff and I offer. Guess I don’t need to tell you, but I think he has it figured out. This Arizona gold discovery recently is said to be the largest piece of Au found in the United States this year with a metal detector. I can only confirm what I have heard and seen posted on other sites and so far I think it is. Here are the details. The golden rock weighs in at 3 pounds and after numerous Specific Gravity Test’s it shows over a pound of gold. It was even sent to a specialist and professionally tested again with authentication paperwork and came back at 16.973 ozt of gold. The rock was approx. 16” deep and he was about to dismiss it as huge trash, but since he’d already found a few smaller bits in the area, he decided to keep digging. Those who know the SDC-2300 realize Big Gold is not it’s specialty and most owners of the 2300 don’t dig beyond 10 to 12” at most. I wonder how most folks would react if they just dug up something like this? I’d immediately go back to the truck, change my shorts, grab a GPZ-7000 with Super Deep heavy boat anchor 19” coil and head right back there. And since I already have a bad back, I'd have to get Lunk to do the digging. So glad you did not give up Ron and I hope you do find a buyer for that beauty. Thanks for allowing me to share.

Gotta love those chunks.. Only 500 meters deep... a bigger search coil just isn't going to cut it. '

Four inches under the surface, three feet from a paved walking/biking trail and four feet from the base of some support cables for a power pole, not far from one of the main entrances to the county fairgrounds in town. The fairgrounds have been used for that purpose since at least 1895 according to historic maps, and maybe longer based on this coin. It's pretty well worn, with a lot of the detail gone. But, I knew I had a lifetime event on my hands as soon as it popped loose from the dirt. I saw the edge and a little bit of one side, saw the shine, and knew it was silver. I about soiled myself and passed out. Not only because of the silver, but partly because it was 91 degrees F, humid, no breeze, the sun was pounding me like a professional boxer, and sweat was dripping off my nose. Yes, I scratched it, right next to the date. Somehow I always knew I would scratch my first silver, and I came to accept that in a dream some time back. But that's okay, it makes it mine. And it wouldn't have been for sale at any price, so it doesn't matter. Well, if it was mint condition and worth $3000, maybe I would have thought about selling it for a minute or two, but I really don't think so. Found 11 other coins today, all clad and pennies, along with a copper token from Grand Slam Sports, which is a laser tag and "family entertainment" place in Burnsville, Minnesota, about 45 minutes from here. The token rang up like an old penny or a dime. I didn't scratch the damn token. Oh no, of course not, not the token, that looks as good as the day it was struck. 😭 I have probably 20 hours into hunting this fairgrounds and I've found about 40 coins, but this one is the king (queen?). Just by chance, the head groundskeeper came by right after I found it, was pretty interested, took a picture of the coin, and told me that other people detect here from time to time, and drove off on his golf cart. Bad news about other people detecting there (which I suspected because of what I was finding and not finding), but they missed this one, the dumbasses. 🙂 I bought an AT Max to give some variety from using my Equinox. I found this with the AT Max. It rang up at 87-90 in the ground and 89-90 on the surface. I wish I had found it with the Equinox because it really has a hold on my heart more than the AT Max does, but I made the decision to use the Garrett today, and now I have to live with it. I think I'll be okay. My life felt complete for about 15 minutes afterward and I was walking on air, but then I realized that that fairgrounds is old, and even though other sad schlubs have been detecting there, there is still more old silver to be found, there has to be. I've only covered about five percent of the total ground available there, and I will keep at it. I have no choice now.

Who has seen it? I'm sure someone on the forum has. This is an article about the Armstrong Nugget which is 80.33 ozt. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-armstrong-nugget

https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=282170

Does anyone have information on these silver boulders that were found in Arizona? They were on display at the Tucson Show this past February.

"INDIAN RIVER SHORES, Fla. – They don't call it the Treasure Coast for nothing. Jonah Martinez, 43, a treasure hunter from Port St. Lucie, was scanning the sand with his metal detector at Turtle Trail Beach Access on Feb. 21 when his device picked up a signal. Buried beneath him was more than three centuries of history: Martinez pulled 22 Spanish silver coins from the surf, each dating back to a shipwreck 305 years ago, he said." https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/28/spanish-coins-1715-shipwreck-unearthed-florida-beach/4902578002/

I found this nice tesoro compadre at the local goodwill today for less than $20. I couldn't resist buying it. Took it home and put in a new battery and it works great. it must be an older one because it has a metal coil screw.

It had been a year since I had a chance to hunt with my friend Strick. We finally were able to get together for 4 days of relic/coin/ring detecting. On day 1 we went to an old standby location (ghost town) we had visited many times in the past. Strick found 2 silver coins, an 1876 and 1877 Seated Liberty dimes in the space of 1 hour. I found a few buttons. Day 2 we took his boat up the Delta to a party beach where I hunted in the water for the first time ever. I had a blast using my CTX 3030 just wading up to my waist. I found 2 silver rings which beat the costume jewelry Strick got so I was the king that day. On day 3 of my visit with him, we were off to a private property in the low Sierra foothills of California to meet up with Strick's friend, the ranch owner, and detect an early gold camp. We have been hunting this area for a few years when our schedules will allow. The last time I was here with Strick he had found a Quarter Eagle and some seated coins while I had only found buttons. On this day things were not looking so great for me as I had only found one nice button and the usual assortment of period trash while Strick had scored a nice cast buckle wreath. We had just taken a break and had compared finds with the ranch owner, discussing the "whatizits" we had found. It was getting later in the day so we went back to detecting. I had earlier got into an area with quite a bit of scattered iron which developed into a nail bed which was obviously the remains of an old structure. So I returned to the heaviest area of nails which was about 250' away from the location of Strick's gold coin, and was carefully searching through the machine gun iron signals when I hear a definite signal but scratchy signal on my Deus. It was jumping around depending on which direction I swung but was repeatable. Just another bullet or cartridge I think as I pop the plug. Then I see about a quarter of a gold coin sticking out of the plug as it crumbles. I didn't stop to savor the moment or reflect on my find like you hear so many times. I started screaming like a 14 year old Valley Girl, " I found a gold coin" and waving my arms at my friends who were a short distance away. The coin was an 1849 Half Eagle. It has been my fondest detecting desire to find a gold coin and now I had realized it. On the journey back to Stricks I looked up the value of the coin as people always ask. I didn't much care as I did not plan to sell it but that is usually the first question from family and friends. I had not cleaned it well or looked at it too closely but I knew it had some wear so I figured a ball park figure of $500? It wasn't until we returned to Strick's place that he was looking at it through a low power microscope and he says" Her headband doesn't say liberty it says Moffat". I had never in a million years ever dreamed I may find a Territorial coin but I knew in an instant that I had just scored the find of my life. On Day 4 we went to a location of an old military base. Strick has taken buckets of military paraphernalia from there and he scored again. I found 2 pieces but they were severely corroded. I would say this has been the best detecting trip I have ever been on due to finding the Territorial Half Eagle. All the thanks go to my buddy, Strick and the ranch owner for getting me on that location. I will ask Strick to post his pics of his finds.

Several months ago friends and I went to look for some lost Civil War valuables. Since we all had signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement I am unable to say where it was at except that the state is Tennessee. We were using a new type of metal detector that I put together and had a friend from John Deere software division do some programming for the unit. This system uses 3 separate frequencies for 3 separate coils and builds a 3D image of the metal in the ground. The images show a depth of over 5 feet and we expect to find the item close to that depth. Since we are looking for something rather large this works very well to keep us from digging the smaller items. We use a standard metal detector for finds closer to the surface as well, and yes we have found more than we expected. We arrived on a rainy day and set up camp for the next 10 days and settled in. The rain ended about midnight and we knew that the ground would be wet. We had early breakfast and proceeded to gain the land owners permission to hunt on their land. That took some negotiation to get everyone’s permission but we had written permission in hand. We then unloaded the 4 wheelers and equipment and set forth to locate what we were after. After digging up almost 2,100 pounds of trash and a couple of small relics we called it a night. The next several days proved to be just as bad as our first day on the hunt, finding only small stuff and very few relics, but we still had a pile of trash left to dig. On the 7th day we had a very good target that looked like we had found what we were after. We were able to dig it up and pull it from a 6 foot hole and we knew we had found something important. We had uncovered a chest that belonged to a 2nd Lieutenant of the Union Army. Inside were several of his items including a Remington Model 1861 Army Revolver of a 22 caliber. Also there were numerous other items including 8 $1.00 gold pieces. He had some silver tableware, razor, and many other items. The chest had shown wear from being in the ground and the inside material had all but rotted. Surprising as it was the chest was In good condition as someone had put bees wax on it and it was wrapped in a trap of some type. The heavy iron straps that held the chest together was all intact and just slightly rusted. One of the locks was mostly gone, but the second one was in much better shape. Most of the chest has been cleaned and redone and looks almost new, and the other items have also been cleaned properly. Some of what we had found will be placed in a museum near the location of which it was found, while the gun and the coins have been shared between the people who went. Everyone had an equal share in this hunt and 2 of the people were brothers who wanted the pistol. I was given 4 of the gold pieces and now I have them hanging on my wall. We are planning another trip back because we know that the treasure we are looking for is there. Since we have the area narrowed down we should find it within a few days. The land owners have given us the permission again and we have plenty of equipment this time to make it go much faster. Below is a picture of my coins as I am still waiting on pictures of the chest and other items.

After seeing all the giant gold found by the manufacturer of the X-coils in Russia recently I've been wondering which other people have found big nuggets. We all know the likes of Reg Wilson and JR Beatty have found some mighty impressive boulders over the years and I'd like them to put their biggest in this thread too! there has to be some others who have stumbled across a biggin' I will kick it off by showing my biggest nugget, 1.208 grams found with my Equinox 800 Sure, it's not massive by any stretch of the imagination, for New Zealand however it's a pretty damn decent size rock. I'm sure everyone has a photo of their biggest nugget sitting there somewhere easy to access, after all you should be proud of it 🙂 Anyway, it's not the size that counts, it's how you found it. So if everyone can post a photo of their biggest that'd be great, no matter how small that biggest is.... It could turn into a pretty cool thread if everyone participates. Thanks 🙂

I found this strange looking rock near a river in East Tennessee and I was wondering if anyone could help me identify it.

Very cool ring that was found 2016: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7691793/Amateur-metal-detectorist-finds-gold-Medieval-ring-tipped-fetch-50-000-auction.html

I stumbled across this video on Youtube, I'm not sure if it's real, it seems unrealistic, far too much gold and huge bits.... The killer is the 90 gram.

The SS Central America had lots of coins and lots of treasure to say the least. We has a presentation (with coins and gold nuggets) at a PCSC meeting in Downey, California last year. The author said this book was coming. I don't see much of a preview online but it may be a reference book that will show up in your local library! https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/new-reference-details-gold-silver-recovered-in-2014-from-ss-central-america

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/archaeology/ultrarare-diamond-with-another-diamond-inside-found-in-siberia/news-story/fc36004d80fd986200447dffab326b4f Miners have unearthed an ultra-rare diamond with a second diamond inside it. The inner gem is loose inside the first diamond, moving around freely — and could be the first example of such a diamond ever found in the world. This rare gem is believed to have formed around 800 million years ago. It was dug up by Russian diamond miners Alrosa at the Nyurba mine in Siberia. Scientists then used X-rays and other scanning techniques to confirm the presence of a second diamond inside the first. A diamond within a diamond has wowed the world.Source:Supplied “Based on the results of the study, the scientists made a hypothesis about how the crystal was formed,” Alrosa said. “According to them, there was an internal diamond at first, and the external one was formed during the subsequent stages of growth.” The gem has been dubbed the Matryoshka diamond after the Russian nesting dolls of the same name. The outer stone weighs 0.62 carats, while the inner gem weighs 0.02 carats. “As far as we know, there has been no such diamond in the history of global diamond mining,” said Oleg Kovalchuk, of Alrosa. “This is really a unique creation of nature, especially since nature abhors a vacuum. An X-ray view of the diamond inside another diamond.Source:Supplied “Usually, in a case like this, the minerals would be replaced by others without forming a cavity.” He added: “The most interesting thing for us was to find out how the air space between the inner and outer diamonds was formed,” said Oleg Kovalchuk, of Alrosa. The diamond will now be sent to the Gemological Institute of America for further analysis. Researchers haven’t estimated its worth yet — it will be difficult due to the gem’s rarity, they say. However, they do have one theory as to how it formed. “A layer of porous polycrystalline diamond substance was formed inside the diamond because of ultra-fast growth,” Alrosa scientists explain. “And more aggressive mantle processes subsequently dissolved it. “Due to the presence of the dissolved layer, one diamond began to move freely inside another — just like a Matryoshka nesting doll.”

https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=277106

This has been picked up in the news lately by several outlets. Great story. Silver is great and all but I am more interested in the fact that the one of the detectorist is rocking the Equinox mounted on an "S" shaft and it looks pretty cool. So, just thought I would start up the ol' S-Shaft/Straight Shaft debate again. Apparently, the only conclusion you can come to is that the S shaft is better for finding silver hordes. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7413021/Seven-detectorists-stumbled-5m-ancient-coins-Somerset-field-JILL-FOSTER-joins-them.html