Two Big Silver Coins Hunt With Manticore

[GB_Amateur]

Vertically oriented coins seem to be a problem for all detectors due simply to physics.  And the angle of attack is another key which is why swinging from different directions (as you know, and did) can make the difference between picking it up or not.  You've proven that with careful investigation and an open mind, even iron masked vertical coins can be detected.  Nice work, Jeff!  I'm inspired to listen and watch even more carefully now when I encounter such mixed signals with the Manticore.

[Elbert]

Congrats on the nice finds. The walker is one of my favorites.

[Jeff McClendon]

13 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Vertically oriented coins seem to be a problem for all detectors due simply to physics.  And the angle of attack is another key which is why swinging from different directions (as you know, and did) can make the difference between picking it up or not.  You've proven that with careful investigation and an open mind, even iron masked vertical coins can be detected.  Nice work, Jeff!  I'm inspired to listen and watch even more carefully now when I encounter such mixed signals with the Manticore.

Yep, the target information coming from the Manticore in this situation could have turned out many ways. Even when I started digging the first hole, I wasn't completely sure that there were co-located ferrous and non-ferrous targets present.

Out here digging in this soil, I have seen an interesting phenomenon on occasion and I definitely experienced it when digging the silver Washington quarter. After removing the first 3 or 4" of dirt plug or in my case cutting a slit and folding two small plugs out of the way, I started smelling a very distinctive organic/metallic odor and saw light grey and white bits of material mixed with the soil almost like fertilizer. That continued down to the quarter which also has some material loss and a whitish to light grey coating. Sometimes I see this when I am about to dig a silver coin out here. I did not see any of that around the Walking Liberty half...........

[RickUK]

Jeff,some truly outstanding finds,you certainly are taming that Manticore,very well done machine and operator in true harmony😉

[UT Dave]

Killer recovery!  Nicely done and well told.

- Dave

[NJ Art]

Outstanding plate full of finds. You have it dialed in, nice keepers.

[Redneck]

Nice recoveries Jeff!  Now Im not trying to be a smart axx when I ask this question.  How can you recover targets that deep with a screwdriver?  I personally use a garden trowel to cut out a plug.  I freak out when I see these guys enter a park with a shovel!

[Jeff McClendon]

3 hours ago, Redneck said:

Nice recoveries Jeff!  Now Im not trying to be a smart axx when I ask this question.  How can you recover targets that deep with a screwdriver?  I personally use a garden trowel to cut out a plug.  I freak out when I see these guys enter a park with a shovel!

If I am in an area with fairly healthy grass and damp dirt conditions it's pretty easy. I just cut a 6” long maybe 3" deep slit with my screwdriver, get under the first three inches or so of grass on either side of the slit, gently spread it back out of the way and start removing material with my 8” bladed screwdriver. I end up with a 6" long by 2 or 3 " wide hole.  If things go well, all the dirt goes back in, I tamp it down with the butt end of my screwdriver and squeeze the two side of the slit turf back together. That’s the plan. Sometimes it’s too dry for that to work very well but I can usually make it look like I wasn’t there. I return to the these parks at least twice a month and I have never seen any lasting damage from my holes. I have seen dead plugs and dead grass in a circle from idiots with shovels. We don't get frost, dew or fog here very often so the ground dries out really fast. Humidity rarely gets above 25%. This time of year is the best time to go deep when the ground is thawing out from snow cover. Another snow storm is on the way so more silver could be found in the next 2 or 3 weeks before this clay ground hardens into cement.

The two silver coins found relating to this topic were found on a SW facing hill under a pine tree so no grass, just pine needles and dried dirt so no issues making it look like I was never there with a screwdriver.

Found four more silver dimes in that area with Manticore during the last two hunts I did on Sunday and today.

 

[masslawman]

On 3/9/2024 at 2:20 AM, Jeff McClendon said:

I was hunting one of the original Denver area parks that was built in the late 1880s. Shovel digging is not allowed at these parks so recovery is with a screw driver or probe. I have found plenty of wheat pennies, a couple of Indian head pennies, several Barber, Mercury and Roosevelt silver dimes and two silver Washington quarters at this park in the last four years after first getting the Equinox 600 and 800.

I was deliberately hunting an area that I knew would not be too wet or frozen under some trees at the edge of a popular sledding hill. I have hunted this exact spot many times with the Nox 600/800 with 11" coil and Deus 1 and Deus 2 with their 9" coils. I am guessing I have hunted this area at least 10 times since it is near the top of the sledding hill and fresh dropped jewelry and coins happen in that area every year. I was actually looking for gold jewelry but I was also interested in deep high conductors. I had my Manticore in All Terrain General Multi, sensitivity 23, recovery speed 5, iron bias 0, and I had the horseshoe button engaged so that I would hear all target responses including iron. Ground balance was 4. This ground has plenty of magnetite, square nails, modern nails and is loaded with many years of aluminum and steel trash. There are very few places to ground balance.

I heard a deep iron signal, saw red numbers and decided to turn on it and I was able to hear some faint, very short intermittent high conductor tones along with lots of iron tones. I pinpointed the target area with the Manticore's onboard pinpoint function and was able to isolate two separate targets and saw them clearly on the 2D screen with one upper area iron and the other at the high conductor far right edge of the non ferrous line. Depth was 8" on the depth meter. I dug the high conductor farthest right target first and it turned out to be the silver Washington quarter laying half way on edge at the center of the dig hole about 7" deep. My handheld pinpointer was still picking up a target on the left edge of the hole which turned out to be the business end of that iron skeleton key in the photo. It was laying horizontally. I recovered it, filled the hole and rescanned. I got a coin sized high conductor target response plain as day with target IDs ranging from 90 to 99 with very few intermittent iron responses about 6" to the left of the hole that contained the Washington quarter and skeleton key. Depth was again 8" on the depth meter and only one solid target trace was at the far right of the non-ferrous line on the 2D screen. Basically, I was starting to freak out. I certainly had not heard any target responses like that with the other detectors that I had used at this spot. The Walking Liberty half dollar was about 8" deep standing straight up on edge at the center of the dig hole.

Basically, the Walking Liberty half and the silver Washington quarter were in a spill at the same depth with the skeleton key laying roughly horizontally between them and they were all under the Manticore's 11" coil at the same time. They were situated sort of like this but buried under about 7" of iron mineralized dirt.

 

 

[masslawman]

Very nice. Great to hit an area you've been to before and recover more great stuff.