How To Tell The Difference Between Gold Rings And Trash???

[Bhogg]

Hi All 

I’m just wondering if there’s anyway to tell the difference between gold rings/ jewellery and trash eg pull tabs as it all seams to come in around the same numbers!.

I’ve dug many many targets between 10 and 15 and all have been trash I spent a few weeks at the beach and dug hundreds or targets between them numbers in the hope that one of them might have been a gold target but without luck!, I don’t usually dig much between them numbers as a rule but being the beach I didn’t want to miss the chance of it being something good.

Anyway I just thought I’d ask the question if there was anyway of being able to see / telling the difference between a good target and trash between them numbers??, I know there’s Guys / Girls that would do a Lot more Detecting then myself and might’ve found a way or know some tell tale signs between trash and good targets between them numbers.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 Cheers 

[fredmason]

Well, in 40 years and many detectors I have NOT found the secret...gold can appear at any lower level...and be discriminated out easier then not.

fred

[Northeast]

'You can't' is the simple answer.  There is a video on here somewhere that shows gold rings coming in on the VDI's from anywhere between 2 and the mid 20's on the Nox. 

Dig it or miss it  ?

[Chase Goldman]

Please let us know when you figure that one out.   It's kind of a cruel practical joke nature has played on detectorists

About the closest I have found is telling the difference between an irregularly shaped target like a jagged piece of aluminum and a nice round ring or mid-conductive coil (US Nickel).  They may all ring up with similar numbers in the mid-teens (that is why I do not worry about precise TIDs,  I am just looking for viable ranges in TID numbers).  If you train your ear, the AUDIO is the key.  You can get a LOT more useful information from the quality of the audio tone than you can get from a number flashing on the screen.  In 50 tone mode, the tone frequency will correspond to a unique Target ID number, but the quality of the tone will vary depending on some of the physical characteristics of the target such as shape, orientation, and even density or mass.  Listen for solid "ping" tones without a lot of distortion indicating the symmetric magnetic field lines associated with a round target vs. scratchy, sharp or even muted/flat tones associated with light weight targets such as irregular strips of aluminum.  On the other hand round junk or nearly round junk like pull tabs or round aluminum freshness seals from fruit drinks sound awesome.

Basically, if you want to find the gold, you are going to have to dig your share of junk to get to it.

[strick]

Gold and trash sound the same however sometimes gold sounds better then trash and sometimes trash sounds better then gold. This is just the way it is. 

strick

[Jeff McClendon]

Honestly for me the way to tell the difference is patience, perseverance and lots of luck.

My Equinox lets me know through audio modulation if I'm over deep, large aluminum, smaller multi surfaced shallow aluminum and shallow modern and square pull tabs. Pull tabs have slightly different target IDs on the Nox too. As all here have said, Gold jewelry can land anywhere from the high iron range to the copper penny/dime range depending on depth and the size and purity of the gold (10K to 24K). I make myself dig virtually every shard of aluminum, every pull-tab and lots of the pennys that my coil passes over hoping for my next gold ring..........

 

Jeff

[NCtoad]

13 hours ago, Bhogg said:

Hi All 

I’m just wondering if there’s anyway to tell the difference between gold rings/ jewellery and trash eg pull tabs as it all seams to come in around the same numbers!.

 Cheers 

No?   Seriously though, I've found three gold items with my nox.  The first was a 14.6 gram 10k class ring that was the third target when I first got my nox.  It rang up 20/21 and sounded really nice, but zinc cents come in at those numbers and sound the same to me.  The second item was a solid 14k, 2.9 gram pin of a hand holding a baseball.  It wasn't round, but oblong and it rang up a solid 10.  The third was a 14k, 5.65 gram wide women's wedding band.  It rang up a solid 17.  

[schoolofhardNox]

Most gold rings of any substance, I find will ring very well on the Equinox, giving a wide solid signal. Scraps of aluminum read a bit different and aren't as consistent as solid rings are. Pull tabs are another story, as they ring well. Some of you may be able to tell the tonal qualities between the two, but for me I find it quicker to just dig those targets. The area that I run into that is harder to tell, is the fine small gold jewelry (or pieces of). It's the thin, stamped gold pieces and odd shaped pieces that will not sound as big as a ring and may sound similar to aluminum, beach can slaw. So I just dig it all. In a park my dig it all process is suspended. I would cherry pick and concentrate more on the nuances of the tones. I guess my advice is to always try and guess what you are digging and have a reason why you believe you have guessed what it is, and then just see if you are correct. Repetition will eventually give you the confidence to be as accurate as possible, with just a few mistakes.

[NCtoad]

There may be a difference in the audio of a gold ring verses a pulltab, but let's face it, to get that tonal difference etched into our memories, we have to dig a lot of gold.  But that just doesn't happen.  If gold rings were as plentiful as pulltabs I'm sure I could note a difference in the signal....if there is a difference.  I don't believe air tests cut it on how it sounds in the wild.  I've done air tests on gold rings and pulltabs side by side and just can't tell a difference in the audio.