Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Here is the link for the photo and article.
Here is a 17 pound gold nugget found by a Chinese herdsman.
...That gold nugget, assuming it’s at least 80% pure, would be worth 1.6 million yuan ($255,313 U.S. dollars), says Xinhua, which also points out that a 1.84 kilogram nugget was discovered in the region in 2010. Gold US:GCJ5 for April delivery was trading at $1,261 an ounce on Thursday....
...That gold nugget, assuming it’s at least 80% pure, would be worth 1.6 million yuan ($255,313 U.S. dollars), says Xinhua, which also points out that a 1.84 kilogram nugget was discovered in the region in 2010. Gold US:GCJ5 for April delivery was trading at $1,261 an ounce on Thursday....
Here is the link for the photo and article.
That isn't what I would call the most beautiful nugget. In fact it looks odd to me. I like delicate quartz laced nuggets.
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Here are the three most popular gold detectors from the Kellyco People's Choice Awards. The Minelab is about ten times more expensive than the Garrett AT and the White's GMT. That is a big difference. In my opinion the GPX should have been in the professional category with other detectors in that price range.
Gold detectors are designed for hunting gold nuggets and are designed to handle heavily mineralized ground. As you can see from the price on the Minelab, serious nugget shooters will pay a hefty price for a machine that will do the job.
While gold detectors are generally used for nugget shooting, some people will use them when targeting small gold jewelry. Very often when thin gold chains are found, it isn't the chain that is detected but a charm or something on the chain. If a gold chain is thin enough it will be almost impossible to detect with most detectors. Some gold detectors will detect thin gold chains that other detectors will miss.
Since gold detectors can be used in challenging ground conditions such as heavily mineralized ground, they provide a lot of settings and can require ground balancing for optimal performance. As a result they might not be the easiest detectors to adjust for optimal performance and are not a good choice for the beginning beach detectorist.
Another negative is that they can be so sensitive that they will pick up minute pieces of metal, including small bits of iron that can barely be seen by eye. As you might imagine some beaches have so much small iron and junk that you would not want to use a gold detector like that on some beaches.
There are Treasure Coast beaches that really have a lot of tiny pieces of iron that will drive you crazy if you are accustomed to hunting in discrimination mode or hunting with a detector such as the Excalibur that will normally miss such small pieces of iron. That is the negative side of working with so much sensitivity. And turning up the discrimination or decreasing the sensitivity on a detector like that defeats the purpose of having so much sensitivity to begin with.
I've seen a similar Minelab (not the latest GPX model) being used on the Treasure Coast beaches, but not often.
I often use a gold detector on the Treasure Coast, but not one of the ones shown above. These three are not water proof. I prefer waterproof detectors for beach hunting. You never know when an unexpected wave might hit you, and I don't want to be bothered by rain. You also never know when you might wander into the water.
The right detector for a particular situation depends upon a variety of factors.
Even though I haven't been able to detect in areas where people usually hunt gold nuggets, I have found a few gold nuggets on Treasure Coast wreck beaches. If you go back through the old posts you'll see some gold nuggets that were found on wreck beaches.
A Garrett AT detector came in first in both the gold and all-purpose categories. There was a time when I didn't care for Garrett detectors, but am happy with the ones I have now.
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Don't forget that you can use the search box at the top of the blog to find old topics.
I've been thinking of activating comments in this blog but haven't gotten around to it yet. They will be screened comments though. I'm wouldn't be able to keep up with tons of comments. There are simply too many posts in this blog for me to be able to keep up with that.
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The surf will be really smooth on the Treasure Coast for a couple of days. That makes for some easy water hunting. The wind will be first from the south and then from the west.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
