11/19/18 Report - Checking Your Metal Detecting Thoroughness and Coverage. Marx Lecture Enjoyed. Archaeo Trashing in CO.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeaches report blogspot.com.

Two Possible Patterns of Coil Coverage As You Metal Detect.

When you metal detect you walk ahead while swinging your coil from side to side.  You might think that you are getting complete coverage, as shown by the illustration on the right.  There might even be some overlap on each sweep.  That gives you more complete ground coverage, and since your coil sensitivity might be greater near the center of your coil, overlap can help you get greater overall depth.

If you are walking ahead at a quicker pace, your actual coverage might be more like that shown on the left, which leaves some ground uncovered.  That pattern leaves more uncovered ground near the end of each sweep.

Some detectorists, when they see that the footprints of another detectorist are far apart, will go over the same ground figuring that the first detectorist will have missed things.

The first time I learned how much I was missing was not too long after I began detecting.  Someone on the beach asked if I could detect their watch.  I said yes, and they told me to turn around and they buried the watch on the beach.  I then started detecting and passed over it without detecting it.  I was shocked to learn that I missed it.  It was not my detector's fault, it was my fault.  My pattern was like that shown above on the left and I was skipping more area than I realized.

After that experience, I would occasionally check myself.   At the beach I would throw a coin out  in front of me without looking.  I would then detect in the direction that I threw the coin and detect exactly as before but without looking at the ground so I would not see where the coin landed.  If I missed it or if the signal was not very good, I knew some changes were in order.  That self-test is good for checking your sweep pattern and also your sweep speed.  If your coil passes over the object but you don't get a good signal, it could be because of your settings or sweep speed.

You might want to repeat the self-test several times.

It is not always necessary to use a good tight pattern.  There can be times when you are doing a quick scan and just want to sample some ground, but you should be aware that you are skipping ground and find that acceptable.  Be aware, and be strategic.

It is easy to get in a hurry and just think about covering ground without realizing what you could be missing.

If you want to get maximum depth and are using a coil that is more sensitive near the center of the coil, you might want to overlap your sweeps more to get that maximum depth.

I recommend testing yourself occasionally.  It is important that you do not know where the target is and do not look.  If you know where the target is, the results will not tell you much because you will alter your technique unconsciously very subtly but significantly.  Try to keep your sweep pattern and rhythm normal.

I also advise testing your coil so you know where the sweet spot is and how the sensitivity varies under different areas of the coil.

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Roberto S. saw the notice of the Marx lecture in my blog and decided to go.  Here is what he said about it.

I just wanted to say thank you for posting information about the lecture given by Sir Robert Marx. He provided interesting information and specially personal experiences ...

Enjoyed the lecture very much and also the return to the school where I received my associates degree in Oceanographic Technology in 1973, that was very special, although I never practiced the field and went on to a different career. 

Glad you enjoyed the lecture Alberto. Thanks for the report.

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The adage "one man's trash is another man's treasure" was especially true at Garden of the Gods Thursday morning as archaeologists dug for remnants that were tossed out of the estate of Colorado Springs Founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer.

Yes, there was an archaeological dig underway inside the park for trash from more than 100 years ago...

Here is the link.

https://www.krdo.com/news/digging-up-william-palmer-s-artifacts-at-garden-of-the-gods/867223130

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We might get some nice post-turkey surf on the Treasure Coast.

The weather this year made it seem like we went from 90 degree August weather right into the holiday season.  Seemed really quick.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/12/18 Report - Two Types of Metal Detecting Mistakes and Which Is Worse. Marx FIT Lecture. 54th Foot Button.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.con.

Pewter British 54th Regiment of Foot Button

The above button years ago in the West Indies.  It was found near a battle site where the French and British fought in December of 1788.  I'll talk about that more below.

The 54th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Originally formed in 1755 as the 56th Regiment of Foot, it was renumbered as the 54th when the 50th Regiment and 51st Regiment were disbanded. It was renamed as 54th (the West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot on 31 August 1782.

I've made a lot of mistakes and expect to keep making mistakes as long as I walk this earth.  I expect to make mistakes but I try to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

There are two types of mistake that I want to talk about today.  They are opposites.  One is thinking a find is not a good when it actually is, and the other is thinking an item is good when it is actually not.

The first example of the first type of error that comes to my mind is a musket flint that I found.  I detected a very twisted rusted piece of metal that I uncovered, but paid no attention to.  I then saw the flint.  This was my first time that I detected a site like that.  I was accustomed to digging gold rings in those days and didn't know much about hunting artifacts.  I can remember that experience precisely today: where I was, uncovering the rusty metal item, etc.  And I regret to this day that I didn't recognize the twisted piece of rusty metal and flint.  I'd appreciate them much more today than I did then.

Not only do I wish I had kept what I later realized was a musket hammer and the flint, but the failure to appreciate the find in the field resulted in not hunting the immediate area more effectively. Who knows what else might have been found where those items were.  I did find several other nice finds during that hunt including grape shot, soldier art and military buttons ( including the one at the top of this post ) but I still wish I had picked up the flint and hammer.

That is an error caused by not recognizing the possible significance of a find when it was found.  If I had taken the item home but still didn't realize its significance, I could have still lost it or damaged it through improper cleaning.  If you do not treat an item as potentially significant until you prove otherwise, a good find can easily be lost again or damaged beyond repair.

The area had already been studied by archaeologists but the park ranger was interested to see what I could find near the ocean where the archaeologists couldn't excavate.  They had a small museum there, and they kept a grapeshot that I found.

Another example would be a medallion from a  1715 Fleet beach that I did not recognize because when I dug it up it was encrusted and didn't look like anything other than a common coin.  I kept it for quite a while without really studying it and eventually put it in a tumbler with a bunch of modern coins.  When I took it out of the tumbler, it was clean enough that I could recognize it as a religious medallion and it still had some silver gilt on it.  After that it was studied, but the damage was already done.

I could give you more examples of times when I made the same type of mistake, some of them involving even nicer items, but the point is that treating a find as being nothing significant before you know for sure can have disastrous results.

If, on the other hand, you make the other kind of mistake - that of treating an item as valuable or significant when it is nothing - the results aren't nearly as bad.  The biggest thing with that type of error is that you end up getting disappointed when you learn that the item is not as good as you hoped it would be.  That is why I recommend trying to avoid the first type of error even if it means making the second kind of error.

Here are two recommendations that I often repeat.  First, never throw away an item until you KNOW that it is nothing good.  Don't be hasty.  And second, if an item has any chance of being good, treat it as if it is.  As I've shown in the past, it can take a long time to be absolutely sure.  You might never solve the puzzle.  It is better to think a find might be good even if it is not, than to make the mistake of concluding that it is no good and then finding out too late that it is better than you thought. I learned the hard way.  Some of my biggest regrets are the result of not appreciating an item enough to care for it properly.   My advice is that when there is any doubt, keep it and study it until you are absolutely sure.

To give just one example of when I thought a find was good when it wasn't, I once found what appeared to be a gold escudo.  That was back in my early days of detecting.  It would have been my first gold escudo, and it came from a treasure wreck beach, so it seemed possible.  It was encrusted and so I tried to clean it.  I took great pains to carefully clean it.  I got it fairly well cleaned and was confused by the fact that I couldn't identify it.  This was before I was experienced with testing metals, and I didn't have the reference books that I have today.  Eventually I figured out that it was a fake.  Yes I was disappointed, and I wasted time in trying to carefully clean it, but I learned a lot.

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There will be a free Robert Marx lecture at FIT on February 20.

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Civilized people should be able to disagree without being disagreeable.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net