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Something a bit different and new here. Sorry for the wall of text, but I found it interesting. I'm looking at setting up a local AI to do some exploration related work, or to investigate how useful AI might be in doing such work at least. Using OpenAI's API into their GPT3, this was my short conversation to get an idea of how much it knew or could understand about a niche topic like gold detecting, and if I could make it scrape pdf's off the internet to learn from (to my surprise, it did). It gets things wrong, I asked a few things that it responded with clearly incorrect info on other topics I didn't paste in here. Here, it seems to think the 7000 has Multi IQ (it doesn't, right?), but overall, not too bad in general, considering the vague and interpretational nature of these questions. Some I didn't post are like 95% wrong though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ME: what are the keys to being a successful gold nugget detectorist? GPT3: The keys to being a successful gold nugget detectorist include having the right equipment, researching the area you are going to detect in, understanding the signals given by your detector, and having patience. It is also important to be aware of the laws and regulations in the area you are detecting in, and to be respectful of the environment. Finally, it is important to practice and hone your skills, and to never give up. ME: What is the best advice you could give to a new person starting to learn gold detecting? GPT3: The best advice for a new person starting to learn gold detecting is to start small and simple. Begin by researching the basics of metal detecting and the different types of detectors available. Then, practice with a basic detector in an area with low mineralization. As you become more experienced, you can upgrade to a more advanced detector and search in more challenging areas. Finally, be patient and never give up. ME: What is currently the best gold detector available? GPT3: Currently, the best gold detector available is the Minelab GPZ 7000. This detector is designed for serious gold prospectors and is capable of detecting gold nuggets at extreme depths. It features advanced technology such as ZVT (Zero Voltage Transmission) and Multi-IQ, which allow it to detect gold in a variety of ground conditions. ME: https://www.minelab.com/__files/f/11043/KBA_METAL_DETECTOR_BASICS_&_THEORY.pdf Read the pdf at this link above and summarize it for me. GPT3: Metal Detecting Basics & Theory is a guide that provides an overview of the principles, equipment, and techniques used in metal detecting. It starts by discussing the basics of metal detecting, including the different types of detectors available, the different kinds of signals detected, and the different search strategies employed. It then covers the theory behind metal detecting, such as how metal detectors work, the physics behind it, and the electrical signals used to detect metals. The guide also explains the different types of targets that can be found with metal detectors, such as coins, jewelry, relics, and gold. Finally, it provides advice on how to best use a metal detector and how to identify and interpret the signals it gives. ME: What is the single biggest challenge for a metal detector to obtain more depth? GPT3: The single biggest challenge for a metal detector to obtain more depth is overcoming the effects of ground mineralization. Ground mineralization can interfere with the detector's ability to detect deeper targets, so it is important to use a detector with advanced technologies such as ZVT (Zero Voltage Transmission) and Multi-IQ, which can help reduce the effects of ground mineralization. Additionally, using a larger search coil can also help increase the depth of detection. ------------------------------------ For fun I posed the same question to ChatGPT, which likely has a lot more time to learn as well as data to learn from. It's using a more advanced GPT too I think, maybe 3.5. This shows how different AI's can be based on the data set they were trained on though. ------------------------------------ ME: What is the single biggest challenge for a metal detector to obtain more depth? ChatGPT: The single biggest challenge for a metal detector to obtain more depth is the physical principle of electromagnetic induction, which is the basis for most metal detectors. Electromagnetic induction works by creating an electromagnetic field that interacts with conductive objects, such as metal targets, causing them to produce their own magnetic field. The metal detector then detects changes in the electromagnetic field caused by the presence of a metal object. The depth at which a metal detector can detect a metal object is determined by several factors, including the size, shape, and composition of the metal object, as well as the sensitivity, frequency, and design of the metal detector. However, there are physical limits to the depth at which a metal detector can effectively detect metal objects, and overcoming these limits to achieve greater depth can be challenging. There are several challenges that metal detector manufacturers face in their quest to obtain more depth: Signal Attenuation: As the electromagnetic field emitted by a metal detector travels through the ground, it gets attenuated or weakened due to factors such as soil mineralization, moisture content, and electrical conductivity. This can reduce the detection range and depth of the metal detector. Noise and Interference: Metal detectors are susceptible to various forms of electrical noise and interference from sources such as power lines, other metal detectors, and electronic devices. This can affect the accuracy and depth of the metal detector's signal. Ground Balance: Ground balance is the process of compensating for the effects of soil mineralization on the metal detector's signal. Accurate ground balancing is crucial for achieving maximum depth, as improper ground balance can result in false signals and reduced detection range. Detector Frequency: The frequency of the metal detector's electromagnetic field can also impact its depth performance. Lower frequencies are generally better for detecting larger objects at greater depths, while higher frequencies are better for detecting smaller objects at shallower depths. Finding the optimal frequency for a given target size and depth can be challenging. Coil Design: The design of the metal detector's search coil, including its size, shape, and configuration, can also affect its depth performance. Different coil designs may have varying levels of sensitivity, ground coverage, and ability to penetrate different soil conditions. Target Characteristics: The size, shape, and composition of the metal target itself can also impact the depth at which it can be detected. Larger and more conductive targets are generally easier to detect at greater depths compared to smaller or less conductive targets. Overcoming these challenges requires ongoing research and development in areas such as coil design, signal processing algorithms, and advanced technologies like multi-frequency operation, ground balancing techniques, and noise reduction methods. Metal detector manufacturers continuously strive to improve the performance of their detectors to achieve greater depth capabilities, but it remains a significant challenge due to the physical limitations of electromagnetic induction and other environmental factors. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ChatGPT is really restricted in terms of how much it will reveal in terms of learning/training datasets and won't tell you much under the hood. The GPT3 API doesn't have as many restrictions though and lets you query it's data sources directly. ME: have you used detectorprospector.com as part of your learning/training data set? GPT3: Yes, I have used DetectorProspector.com as part of my learning data set. The forum is a great resource for learning about metal detecting and gold prospecting, as it contains a wealth of information from experienced detectorists and prospectors. Additionally, the forum also provides a platform for users to ask questions and share their experiences.

Hi all. This is my first post. This is a wonderful site with a wealth of knowledge! I have a newbie question so I apologize to those irritated by the stereotypical newbie questions. I live in the Great Basin (Northern Nevada) and am interested in ghost towns and stage stops, which I am pretty close to. I have a Teknetics Omega 8000. I’ve had it about 6ish years, and it hasn’t been used much. I will be retiring in two months and will have then have time to hit these places. Obviously my targets will be coins and relics. I have very mineralized soil and there will be lots of iron trash. The Teknetics will certainly get me started, but technology has marched forward since I bought it. What are your thoughts on a new machine? My budget is up to a Deus 2, but that doesn’t mean I am itching for one. I’m okay with a single frequency machine if there are some that work great for my purposes. Thanks in advance!

His site was in french but catalogs were usually in English. Lost my bookmarks and can't find it, thought it was mentioned here a few years ago, thanks.

I see two reviews on the Axiom and the Legend. Both read is in the field getting down and getting dirty. It’s not someone sitting bye the fire blowing smoke but eating a little dirt while talking about each. It looks as if it could have some other good read’s depending on what tickles your fancy. I know for myself I haven’t had my fancy tickled in a long line. Chuck PS I’m going to miss the GPAA Gold Show’s

Some of you will remember my short tutorial on using Historic Aerials incredible website and the extremely powerful app, OnX Hunt. I can't edit the old one, but Steve graciously retained it so here it is: Ironic that it's too cold for me to get out for the next couple of days, as it was over a year ago. 😀 Great time to pass on some new technological tricks! What I want to add to it is the fabulous new website that one of our members brought to light since I wrote that post. USGS has created the National Map - a website that allows you to look at LiDar maps of the areas you have permission to, and find ground anomalies that indicate cellar holes, the existence of foundations, and other interesting topographical features. For those of you unfamiliar with LiDar, it's laser imaging of the ground from satellites, aircraft or drones that "sees through trees and buildings", which is about the simplest way I can think of to describe it. Yes, now disturbed ground can be found from space 🤔 Go to the link above (it's embedded), and you will see the opening screen: Zoom in to the area you are interested in hunting (I'll use an area that is not one of my permissions 😀😞) Do yourself a favor and don't visit those coordinates, at best you'll end up in jail. 😁 Tap or click the "layers" button the cheesy red arrow points to above, and select "3DEP Elevation - Hillshade Stretched". The map will fill in, showing you ground detail. Click or tap the menu box "x" to close the menu, and boom! You can see all the disturbed ground in the area up to the date the image was recorded. Zoom in and out as required, and again mark the points of interest in OnX Hunt as best you can match features. Really powerful tools! 🙂 You're still gonna have to get out there and get your coil over something 🤣

The magazine quit publishing, last issue was Dec. 2022. If you go to their site I linked below, you can hit the subscribe button and use discount code "HOLIDAY" at check out so it's then free. You then have access to their 150 issue archive to read at your leisure. It says you can download to read offline through tomorrow Jan.31st, but I don't know if that means the on line view will go away also? https://www.wetreasures.com/ You may want to download the issues you're interested in just in case. Some good reading....

Hello I am in need of a owners manual or a copy of one for a 77b compass detector. Not asking for a freebie, will purchase thanks. Paul

Around 1900, a book was published detailing large Australian nugget finds. Can someone kindly supply title, author, and publication info? Thanks!

was searching on line for a good book to read found a copy of Larry Sallee's book Zip Zip is this book worth purchasing Thanks for reading

I was recently asked if I knew how popular worldwide metal detecting is, and I realised that I have no idea. Would anybody roughly know or suspect how many people may be involved in metal detecting or how many detectors being used may be out there? I became curious.

So as part of my mid life crisis I'm going through two trailers full of prospecting goodies, detectors, sluices, boxes of books and magazines... I had saved a particular copy of the 2009 Silver & Gold magazine as it has an article about an 1843 British sovereign found near where I use to live in British Columbia. I pull the magazine out of the stack to see if it's going into the burn pile or save pile.... and staring back at me is guess who.. LOL @Gerry in Idaho For copyright reasons I won't post the whole article of course but here's a couple pics.. .LOL.. he's EVERYWHERE.. Burn pile it is..... just kidding Gerry..... 🙂 If you don't have this copy Gerry, send me an IM with your mailing address and I'll toss it into the mail for you. Jen

I'm proud to announce my new book on the Anfibio Multi. Had this detector in at some of the worst most iron infested truck grove sites around last year and did really well--wanted to share some of the things that have worked well for me. cjc Successful Treasure Hunting with the Nokta / Makro Anfibio Multi Clive James Clynick is the author of some 25 detecting “how-to” books and numerous articles. In this detailed and informative book he shares his 40 years of experience and instructs you on how to become a more accurate and successful treasure hunter with the Notka / Makro Anfibio Multi detector. Topics include: · Getting the Most from the Anfibio’s Selectable Frequencies · High Gain Power Basics · Dense Iron Methods: Recognizing False Signals. · Coil Control Skills and Methods. · Deep Silver Coin Hunting. · High Power Signal Balancing for Depth and Accuracy. · Mode Change Methods. · Anfibio Gold Jewelry Hunting Tips and Methods. …and much more…

It may have been up for a while and old news, but new to me, I just browsed through some stuff and noticed that what they are calling "3DEP" is in fact LIDAR imagery. It's not available everywhere yet, but it's easy to view it in the places it is now - before this you had to import imagery into GIS or other similar programs and now you can just browse it like you would Google Earth. Some places have extremely high resolution LIDAR while others are lower resolution and not as useful. Arizona unfortunately is one of the places lacking in sufficient coverage. https://apps.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ Go there, open the layers list (3rd icon from the left), and select a 3DEP layer. I find the "Elevation Tinted Hillshade" to be easiest to see details on. Here is an example - as you can see - there are foundations plainly visible and things like stream channels are also visible through vegetation, old roads, etc. LIDAR is more useful than aerials in cases like these and probably are useful for relic/coin detectorists as well.

https://www.icmj.com/magazine/article/introducing-icmjs-new-owners-josh-and-sherrie-reinke-4684/

530 pages of rock and mineral collection sites all over the United States.... Bob Beste's "Location Guide for Rockhounds in the United States, 3rd. ed. 2005": Part I--Alabama through Idaho (PDF, 155 p.) Part II--Illinois through North Dakota (PDF, 186 p.) Part III--Ohio through Wyoming (PDF, 193 p.)

Hey all, Been chatting with a few mates and some of us still buy our beloved prospecting magazines, 15 years ago we all bought them as they were the bibles of gold information. Just wondering how many still buy them and how many are still available ? The internet has definitely changed the way we research. Here in Australia there's still a great one called "Gold gem and treasure" full of great stuff, there's probably others never really looked , I take it detector prospector is a real magazine ? What is the go to magazines in America ? And other countries?

The Tesoro Metal Detector Information Magazine was last published in 2010. It has lots more than just descriptions of Tesoro metal detectors. From the forward: WELCOME to the 22nd edition of the Tesoro Electronics’ Metal Detector Information (MDI) magazine. The MDI has been a thirty-year journey to share stories, provide field tests, and guide customers to the metal detectors that satisfy their hunting needs. This MDI has a slightly different format. While we still have many guidelines and a few stories, we are reprinting field tests for all the available Tesoro products. These are field tests from previous MDI’s or other sources, so you will see “reprint of” by most of the bylines. We hope that these field tests will help with your selection of Tesoro products, whether you are looking for your first machine or your latest upgrade." and the table of contents: Do You Have A Question?—by James Gifford ................................4 Pieces of History—by Mike Harvey .................................................11 Lobo SuperTRAQ Field Test—by Chris Gholson ..........................12 Lil’ piece of El Dorado—by Sherry Spalding ................................15 Compadre Field Test—by Gordon S. Gibson.................................16 Silver Umax Field Test—by Ron Barnes.........................................18 Cibola Field Test—by Ron Barnes ..................................................20 Vaquero Field Test—by Ben Meyers ...............................................22 Tesoro Metal Detectors .....................................................................26 Lord of the Rings—by Ken Dewerson ............................................36 Sand Shark Field Test—by Ben Meyers..........................................37 Tiger Shark Field Test—by Andy Sabisch ......................................40 DeLeon Field Test—by Ron Barnes ................................................42 Golden Umax Field Test—by Joe Patrick .......................................44 Cortes Field Test—by Michael O. Smith .........................................46 Hawkeye —by Ben Marshall.............................................................49 Recommended Recovery Methods-by Robert H. Sickler .............50 Tesoro Metal Detector Comparison Chart ......................................51 Can You Choose the Right Detector?—by Casey Stern...............52 Tesoro Does It Again—by Robert Terry .........................................54 Tejon Field Test—by Andy Sabish...................................................55 Treasure Hunter’s Glossary-Adapted from W&E Treasures ........58 Metal Detectorist’s Code of Ethics..................................................60 Tesoro U.S. & International Distributors.........................................61 Tesoro Authorized Dealers...............................................................62 The magazine is still available for download here and as a freebie is well worth the addition to anyone's metal detecting library. You can find more free books at this websites Metal Detecting & Prospecting Library.

Hello all, I recently saw someone state that they didn't fully understand why they sometimes get the urge to buy a certain detector! And for one reason or another, fail to pull the trigger, or asking the question of why not! I, like many here, have questioned why i would want to purchase; and have purchased, what would "technically" be an "inferior" detector! If there is such a thing; they all find stuff!! I think the reason's are as numerous as one can imagine! So i won't bore everyone with what i think their reasons are! I can only speak for myself! Probably my number one driving factor are places like this forum, and other sources for research! Once you really start to get the "bug" for detecting, you begin to understand that it can go beyond just finding treasures! In fact, my reading, and quest for information, far exceeds my actual detecting hours! Of course, there are also "real life" reasons that prevent me from getting out there as often as i would like! But instead of that being a negative; and me being bitter about it! I funnel that energy into trying to soak up more knowledge to make my actual detecting hours more productive! Many here will understand this! So, for those thay are unclear what that has to do with buying older, or less advanced detectors, i will explain! Like many, i detected a few years when i was young! Stopped for a career, and family; among other reasons! And got back to it, a few years before my retirement five years ago! Not being involved for all those years, i went with a new detector; among others i researched at the time! Now fast forward to today! I'm much more knowledgeable than seven years ago; detecting and theory wise, but have barely scratched the surface! I own several detectors for various functions! Some overlapping each other a bit in operation! A few others are just for fun, or for something i feel i missed, in my absent years! Other's were too good a deal to pass up! And I could get a good return for, if i chose to! So, to summarize! In my opinion, the longer your in it, the wider range of technology, legends, varations, etc... you are likely to buy, and try, for no very practical reason! Cost not withstanding; as you advance in this hobby! Or as some jokingly refer to it as a "sickness ", or "obsession "! 🤩 👍👍

In O&G, we have commercial geological libraries that are membership based that contain a lot of info that isn't public or in the public domain. This info comes from old companies donating their data, people that die will give their personal collections to the library, and many other avenues. While most of it isn't useful for a whole variety of reasons, there is still plenty of good, informative, and helpful data in these libraries. While there is a ton of material in the public domain (online and in person), these libraries definitely fill a niche in O&G. Are there any equivalents is the mining industry that anyone is aware of? Appreciate any responses. Thanks.

No wonder metal the place is a hotbed of metal detector development! “The world's oldest known gold artifacts, a couple of 6000-year-old goat figures with holes punched in them, were not found in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley or Egypt, they were discovered in 1972 in a grave by a tractor operator laying some electric cable in northeastern Bulgaria. [Source: Colin Renfrew, National Geographic, July 1980] The largest golden goat was about two-and-a-inches long. It was discovered along with about 2,000 other gold pieces (weighing more that 12 pounds) in 250 excavated graves in an ancient cemetery near the Black Sea town of Varna. The pieces included golden necklaces, breastplates, chains, bracelets, earrings, a hammer, and a bowl painted in gold. The find was shocking. Most cultures still used stone tools in this period, a few had developed copper axes and awls, and the development was bronze was a thousand years away, and iron two thousand years. The gold pieces date back to at least 4000 B.C., and they may go as far back as 4600 B.C.” “The first residents of Bulgaria to be recorded in the written historical record were Thracians who are believed to have been around since at least 3000 B.C. according to the archaeological record. The Thacians had no written language so all that we know about them is inferred from Greek or Roman accounts or the archeological excavations. A mound discovered near Varna, dated to 1000 B.C., contained a four wheeled chariot and the skeletons of three horses, one with silver bit and harness. Next to them was the skeleton of a woman with a spear in her chest that may have been a human sacrifice. Another grave contained a 30-year-old man with 70 bronze arrows and silver and gold armor, and a an 18-year-old woman with a golden crown and knife blade lodged in here ribs.” “On a wooden chest containing two different sets of gold treasure left behind by the Getae, a Thracian tribe at the largest mound at the Sboryanovo Historical and Archaeological Reserve in northeastern Bulgaria, Svetla Dimitrova wrote in se times.com: “Weighing more than 1.8kg, the treasure was from the late 4th or early 3rd century B.C., buried as part of the funeral of a Getic ruler, archeologist Diana Gergova said. We found the chest in a vesicle at a depth of 8 metres … Inside were two sets of gold objects. The first was a set of women’s jewelry, including a unique tiara of a type never found before. There were also four spiral bracelets and a ring with an incredible haut-relief image of a lion,” Gergova told SETimes. The other set comprised an iron bridle and a number of gold items the bridle was decorated with, including horse harness decorations and buttons, as well as two large round pieces with the image of the goddess Athena and an exquisite forehead piece with a horse head.” [Source: Svetla Dimitrova, se times.com. January 18, 2013]” Much more at https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub362/entry-6012.html, well worth the read.

I'm a detecting newbie and that excuse is worth maybe a bowl of soup and a hat going forward. I've been binge watching videos the last few days and I'm beginning to think my ancient DFX 300 has a few miles left on it after all. There's a boatload of information available on my detectors and reading it leaves me starry eyed after a bit but.....DUH...they wrote those manuals for a reason! I am publicly stating that I am ashamed and embarrased that I have wasted so much time in the field just turning on the detector running and swining it. If I found anything it was dumb luck ( such as my Majuba meteorite. After watching a number of "how to ground balance your detector" video it's been a real eye opener. Jeez....there are a lot of smart guys out there who have a lot of knowledge to share. So today I headed out back and laid out a practice grid of coins and gold finds and really tuned my Gold Bug 2 correctly. I feel like the kid in school that finally understands Algebra. My practice area gave me te opportunity to listen and be able to hear the small differences in tone. Like a dork....I found myself closing my eyes and wondering through the maze. NOT recommended. It made a difference to be able to distinguish the tones my detector produces. . Maybe just maybe my upcoming run to the claim at Rye Patch will justify the expense of my new detector. This isn't news to most of you Im sure but dang....I feel good and the blue skies are clear now and I can hear the nugget birds singing.

I'm snowed in for the next couple of days and have other stuff to do. While I'm bored to death I thought I'd show how easy it is once you have a permission to locate buildings using Historic Aerials - I hope they never charge for this or go offline. I used an area that is not one of mine, sorry. 😁 Let's say you have permission to hunt an old farm. You go to the website http://www.historicaerials.com, click or tap on "View images". If you have a GPS-enabled device, you can accept the website using your location. Next, locate the farm you have permission to by moving the base map around, and then click or tap the Topos button, it will bring up a list of all topographic maps for that area. I selected the 1916 map for this farm in the center. Next you tap overlays and select roads, which will superimpose the basemap roads on the topo, a great tool if the roads have moved or changed. It isn't perfectly accurate most times, but it's pretty good. Next click the Topos button again, this is where I will pick a late one to see if buildings have been added or deleted, I switch back and forth. After the 1980s they stopped putting squares where houses were, so there's that. 😵 This is the 1966 topo of the same area, you can look around and switch back and forth to see if anything changed. Once you have a pretty good idea of where the buildings or areas you want are, you can bring up the latest satellite map of the area, which you can use to match features on an app like OnX Hunt. I make marks of all the buildings, and specific features in the app. It makes it much easier to find stuff! You can walk right to them and track your hunting. OnX Hunt will show property lines, owner information, and topographic info if you pay the ransom for your state. Hope you find this interesting if you've never heard of it. 🙂

My 2021 New Years Resolution (and I think my 2020 one, too) was to find sites I hadn't previously searched rather than to put all my eggs on cleaning up what's left of familiar sites. (I still do some of that, too, though). This year I've already reported on four previously unsearched (by me, that is) sites, all which have produced. More on those in my year end summary in a month. Early in November I decided to make one more try for 2021 at finding some new ground and with the help of HistoricAerials.com, I found four promising locations. I'm going to simply refer to them as sites 0, 1, 2, and 3. Site 0 is the easiest to report on. From early 20th Century USGS topos it was a small (one room?) school that disappeared around 1950. A drive by showed that not only is it now a private home, but that the intersection where it was located has been seriously reworked, i.e. enlargened. At best it falls into the 'private permission' category and I'm not at all good at those. Site 1, with added help from Google searching, was an elementary school and high school back at least to the eary 30's. The HS closed in the mid 60's and the elementary school a few years later. The building is still there but there are mixed signals as to whether it's public or private. Some threatening signs indicated at least part of it is currently privately leased, but the a__holes are very vague about what is and isn't theirs. I spent 1 1/2 hours in a couple spots with promising results (see photo of good finds below) but I just didn't feel comfortable. There was a lot of coming and going by various groups (sports participants, church goers, etc.) and although no one bothered me I just didn't feel welcome. Site 2 was another small elementary school. I don't know when it was formed but it appears to also go back to early in the 20th Century. I think it closed around 1960. It's now a small public park and community center. Unfortunately both my visual (internet) research as well as detecting and viewing the site in person makes me think it's been heavily reworked since the school was torn down. First hunt there, 3 1/2 hours, produced 2 Wheaties and a sterling ring, plus a fair amount of modern coins and trash. That was my survey hunt. My second trip there was intended to focus in on a trashy but potentially less overfilled part with the ML Equinox and 6" coil, but that wasn't very fruitful. About 2 hours in I was approached by an elderly (81 year old) friendly neighbor who filled me in on some history. He said he had attended that school as a youngster (presumably around 1950) and told me that although several detectorists had been there before me, as far as he knew they had never searched a slope near one edge of the property where he said he used to play and that bulldozers hadn't bothered. Now that's the kind of info I like to hear! I thanked him and headed over there. For now I'll leave it at that and tell more in the show-and-tell portion of this post. He twice more returned and told me of some other nearby sites I should search but they all sounded like private properties. Site 3 is an active, modern elementary school which replaced an early one built around 1955. I was able to go there during their Thanksgiving recess. Unfortunately this site has been heavily reworked since the original school was razed and it also feels like it's been rather thoroughly searched. In 7 1/2 hours (two days) of hunting I only found 2 Wheats plus one other oldie (more on that shortly). OK, here is the eye candy you've been waiting for: Top two items are from Site 1 -- 1983-D nickel-clad half dollar (only my second ever) and a necklace chain and pendant which was clean but unfortunately apparently (magnetic) nickel plated copper. Both were reasonably shallow but not on the surface. Based upon these finds I don't think this part of this site has seen detectors in 2 or 3 decades. Now the finds are in pairs from lower left. Site 2 produced this sterling ring with stones (don't know if real, but they look nice to my eye, and especially to my wife who has already claimed it!). Thanks to that 81 year old former student I found the 1899 Indian Head Penny on the virgin slope where he used to play. Turns out the EMI was so bad I had to use 4 kHz on the ML Equinox and its dTID rang up in the high 20's (silver coin zone), not 20-ish where they show up in MultiFrequency. It was only about 4 inches deep. Next two (silver alloy 'Warnick' and broken piece of jewelry) were found at Site 3, showing that there are a few spots which haven't been backfilled. The broken piece showed up in the USA nickel zone (dTID 12-13 on the Equinox) and given its size I think this is high conductive composition. Both ends show that they were broken off something larger (bracelet?) and the fact there is zero copper coloring there makes me think this could be a silver alloy. Finally, the last two items on the right were found this past week in my bread-and-butter 2021 site, the 'Wheatfield', not one of these four recently reserached sites. The ring has a men's wedding band shape but is marked '925' so sterling. (My wife has claimed it, too.) The IHP is a 1901. In my two times searching there last week I found 5 Wheat pennies each day (3 hour hunts per day). I expect to spend my last few hunts this year at that site. I'm sure there are more oldies and I'm shooting for a record year (quantity) of Wheat penny finds. I only need 5 more to tie last year's 103. The above picture is the 'good'. Here are the 'bad' -- interesting (?) non-coin finds from these four sites: And if you want to see 'ugly', you'll have to await a future post.

Almost 5Gb of finds catalogues like coins, seals, buckles and other relics. 2GB English language. Free to use on my personal server: [omnitron.pl]

A recent thread and one of the responses got me thinking on a related topic (related to the response, not the original post question). I quote part of Steve H.'s response (referring specifically to finding natural gold in the Contintental USA): The best gold was gone a decade ago, and the leftovers have been hit hard the last ten years. That got me thinking about coin and relic detecting. Good detectors for that purpose have been around at least as long as those for natural gold detecting. Although there are many more locations for coins and relics, and those on average are more accessible, there are certainly more detectorists searching them. So should we arrive at the same conclusion? One argument I don't buy (although it might apply to jewelry detecting, but even there modern problems exist and are growing) is that coins (in particular) are being reseeded. True, if all you are after is face value (spending money) coins. With the rare exception of very rare mint errors (double dies in particular), almost no coins have been minted for circulation in the last 65 years which carry a collector premium, and few coins minted for circulation contain sufficient bullion value to make melting them down worthwhile, even if you can get away with it.... So, no, there isn't a reseeding of coins of value. We C&R detectorists do have one major advantage over natural gold detectorists -- private 'permissions'. (Although there are private gold bearing properties and private gold claims on public properties that are accessible, those invariably involve considerable compensation to the property/claim owner for access and/or recovery.) How many unsearched private properties with promise for old coins and valuable relics are still accessible? Let's continue with unserached public properties such as public schools and public parks. How many of those still exist? Better asked, what percentage of those still exist? Final set of questions: as is true with gold bearing sites, the earlier detectorists didn't get it all, just the easiest to find and recover. How many old coins (and valuable relics) are contained in sites which have been detected? Do we have the tools today to identify and extract them? While I (hopefully) still have your attention, I'm mentioning a book which I don't think gets as much notice as many detecting books that do: How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting by Otto von Helsing (2013). It's ~200 pages of no-nonesense instruction on the topic. To drive home my 'no-nonesense' claim, here is something he says in his second paragraph (in the Introduction): The goal of this book is to teach the average person how to do good research to find promising leads for metal detecting. I don't care if you have gray hair on your head and hate computers or if you are 20-something and like to text while driving (In which case it's likely you won't make it to the gray-hair stage.) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm just getting started and don't expect it to be a lazy read, so I can't yet give a review. But I like his attitude.