Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.
Here is a simplified illustration. It is not real precise, but I hope it helps.
If you are interested in finding gold jewelry on a beach or in the water and want to maximize the value of your finds, you should be aware of how discrimination will affect the results and the value of your finds.
As I've said before, back a lot of years ago I thought that women didn't lose nearly as many rings as men. That was because I was using too much discrimination and missed many of the smaller women's rings.
The illustration above shows increasing ring size as you go from left to right. The smallest rings are for babies and children. Charms, ear rings and chains can also fall in this range.
On the right are the larger rings such as men's school class rings and championship rings. Larger gold rings have more gold value, but small gold rings can be more valuable if they hold valuable gem stones.
The line plotted on the chart gives an idea of how the value of gold rings of different sizes.can vary. The least valuable are small children's rings and small lady's bands. The most valuable are typically diamond engagement rings. High quality diamond rings do not typically have large bands, especially the highest quality solitaire diamonds.
Men's bands are typically bigger and have more gold weight. Men's gold diamond and gemstone rings can be quite large and hold valuable gems, although usually the gems are not of the same quality as those in quality engagement rings.
And then there are the very heavy championship rings, which usually don't have the highest quality gems, but are highly valued as sports memorabilia.
When I began serious water detecting I had a Fisher 1280X. It had simple linear discrimination controlled by a single knob. My initial setting was something like that shown by the orange line to the right of the chart. I was then getting a lot of men's rings, but few women's rings.
If you have a simple linear discrimination setting such as that on the 1280 or the Minelab Excalibur, you should be aware of what you might be missing.
One thing I want to show with this illustration is how you should strategically select your discrimination settings, simple linear or otherwise.
When I dialed back the discrimination to the level of the orange line to the left, I started getting more women's rings, which includes those in the high value engagement and gemstone category.
Large gold rings have more gold weight and gold value, but some of the most valuable rings will be those with quality gem stones. They often have very small gold bands.
There are still small and possibly valuable gold items that will be missed even with the lower discrimination setting, such as diamond stud ear rings, which have very little gold weight.
Even if you have target ID, you should be aware of valuable targets you might be missing. As I once demonstrated using the Ace 250, if you don't dig targets in the foil and aluminum range, you could miss something like 30 or 40 percent of the gold rings.
I am not showing precise experimental data in this chart, but I hope that it illustrates the main point -- that you should be aware of the effects of discrimination so you can make strategic decisions with your settings.
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If your detector uses AA batteries and you detect a lot, replacing batteries can be expensive. In that case it can be worth spending on rechargeable batteries. Every good consumer report that I've seen rates the Eneloop Pro as the best rechargeable battery. An eight pack will probably cost you nearly $40, but it could be worth it. They recharge quickly, don't loose their charge quickly during storage, and last long.
There are NiCad and NiMH batteries. NiCad batteries can develop a memory and so it is best to discharge them fully before recharging them. NiMH batteries, such as the Eneloop batteries, use a better technology and do not have the memory effect.
It can take a number of discharge/recharge cycles for your rechargeable batteries to reach maximum capacity. You can see that if you have a battery tester. After the first recharge, the batteries may only show a charge of something like 70 or 80 percent. You can expect that to improve.
I get a lot of good use out of my battery tester. If you don't have one I'd recommend getting one.
Here is a link if you want to read more about rechargeable batteries.
http://copquest.com/battery_care.htm
I was just informed that the Eneloop batteries were developed by Sanyo (not Sony as I originally typed) but were bought by Panasonic.
Champ F. also said, Always buy the highest rated amperage ones available since you will be using them for many many years.
Good tip. Thanks!
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We are back to a small surf along the Treasure Coast again. It will give you an opportunity to check out the low tide area to see what might have washed in during the larger waves.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net