7/5/16 Report - Largest Gold Nugget Ever Found In Western Hemisphere. Skill, Effort and Luck. First Metal Detector Ever.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasrebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Largest Gold Nugget Ever Found In Western Hemisphere
Source: http://www.goldrushnuggets.com/bootofcortez.html

Did you ever hear of the Boot of Cortes?  It is the largest gold nugget ever found in the Western Hemisphere.  It weighs 389.4 grams.

That is amazing enough, but how do you think it was found.  If you guessed by a metal detector, you'd be right.  

A fellow heard about nuggets being found in an area in the Southwest and, of course, he wanted to find his own, so he bought a metal detector.  What do you think he bought?  Remember, this is a fellow who found a record breaking gold nugget.  You might think it was a Minelab GPX 5000 or some other high-end gold detector.  Actually, it was nothing like that.

The year was 1989, and the fellow bought his metal detector at a Radio Shack store.

If you are old enough to remember, Radio Shack sold metal detectors back in the 1980s and earlier. My grandma got one maybe around 1960.  She probably paid less than $20 for it. I don't remember the exact year, but I do remember the detector and trying it out.

That was the first time I ever used a metal detector, and as I recall it wouldn't detect much.  I don't think it would even find coins.  We would find things like horse shoes and door knobs.

Of course, neither grandma nor I really knew what we were doing at the time.  And I don't remember the details very well, but it wasn't really a very good detector.

Our story about the Boot of Cortes starts about thirty years later than that (1989), so I'm sure it was better detector than the one grandma and I had.  Yet it wasn't a high-end gold detector.  I'm sure that the Radio Shack detector that found the Boot of Cortes was nothing like a modern top of the line gold detector.

One point I want to make today is that some of the best finds are made with less than the best equipment and are made by people that are not always the most skilled.  As I've detailed over and over again, many amazing discoveries are made by accident and without any metal detector at all.

Anyone who put a coil on this nugget would have detected it.  What made this find so special is what made it easy to find.  It was huge.  It didn't require any high level of skill and it didn't require the best detector.

You'd just have to put your coil on it and dig it.  I'm sure there are people out there who would get that signal, decide it could not be a gold nugget, and pass it up.

This fellow was digging everything it seems.

Here is what I read.   He learned how to operate it, and then he set out for an area that was reported to have produced nuggets. Once there, he started to walk; slowly and carefully across the desert, all the while following a grid pattern that would ensure that no areas would be unchecked. Hundreds of boring hours slowly ebbed away with an occasional 'beep' from his ear-phones to signal a potential find. Most were due to scrap iron or old lead bullets. Then one day; the 'beep' sounded a little different. Digging down; he caught that first gleam from his own personal El Dorado. Hardly believing his eyes he kept digging, the gleaming surface kept going - and going. By the time he had completely uncovered this incredible nugget, it was obvious that it was huge.  

That would be totally exciting.

This is also a story of patience and persistence.  

There is always some measure of luck and skill and effort involved.  Skill is doing the things you can to improve the probability of success.  Luck has to do with the things you can not know and can not control.  Skill improves the chance of success, but when it comes to any particularly special find, there is always some luck involved.  I'd say that is something like life in general.

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When was the first time a metal detector was used?

The first time a metal detector was used was back in 1881 by its inventor Alexander Graham Bell who used the detector to try to find the bullet in the body of assassinated US President James Garfield.

It is said that the metal detector worked but did not find the bullet partly because of the metal bed frame on which the President was lying.

Sorry.  I forget where I read that.

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The most read post of June was the 6/8/16 Report - Treasure Coast Treasure History: Cobb Coin VS Unidentified Wreck. 2000 Year Old Cache of Hasmonian Coins.
  

And the most Google Plused post was the 6/26/16 Report -  Found Fashion - Post-Apocalyptic Fashion by TG.  This one wasn't read by many people, but it seems some of the people who did read it really liked it.

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No change in beach conditions.  More of the same, except the holiday weekend probably increased beach traffic.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/14/15 Report - Breaking Out Of The Rut And Beating The Crowd. Prospecting For New Metal Detecting Sites. Barber Dime Find.

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

!904 Barber Dime Find
Find and photo by Dan B.

Sometimes it might seem like there are too many people with detectors these days and that every good place has been cleaned out.  There are a lot of guys with detectors, but the fact is that most of them are hunting the same few spots. It's true! If you stop at some beaches any day of the week, you'll see one or two other detectorists and sometimes six or more.  

Dan B. found the nice 1904 Barber dime shown here.  Really neat!  Besides sending the photo of his recent find, Dan  mentioned something that I talked about before.  It is something that helped him, and it might help you too.

Here is what Dan said.

 I remember what you once said about barriers or things that guard good targets. Like depth, a tree, or weather, etc.

It has served me well to actually go looking for "the dragon" that signals a possibly hidden spot.  It is really about determination and creativity.

Same Dime
Find and photo by Dan B.

I did say that, and it is true.  While there are a lot of guys out there detecting, most of them are doing the easy thing.  They go to a place where they can park their car and walk across the walkover and start detecting.  It doesn't take much time or effort.  

The guys that are finding the most are spending the most time detecting, but they are doing something else as well.  They go a step or two beyond what most people are doing.

One guy I knew was good in the water.  He was very fit and an expert at what he did.  He would swim across the intercoastal if that is what it took.  As a result he found and detected good places that he had all to himself.

Others weren't so good in the water, but would walk miles to get to a good spot.  That is how they took it to another level and beat the crowd.

I know that not everybody is able to do that kind of thing, but many just aren't willing.  That is one of the biggest differences between the guys that make more finds and the others.

In many cases, it just takes a little additional effort.  In some cases, it takes a lot.

Don't get me wrong.  If you detect for a little casual entertainment and want to get out there and relax, there is nothing wrong with that, but don't expect to get as much as someone who is dead set on coming back with something very nice and spends the additional time and puts in the additional effort.

I remember one day when I was determined to get a piece of gold.  I wasn't having much luck that day either.  I started in the morning and it took me to near sundown to hit that piece of gold.

I'm not like that anymore.  I'm much more casual about things.  Back then I was trying to see what I could do.  Now I know what I can do and what it takes, and I'm not as driven.  If I really got interested in doing something in particular, I could be just as intense again, but usually I don't need to.   

In Dan's email he mentioned an ant hill, which is where he found the dime.  Anything that can discourage others can protect a treasure for you.  It can be weeds, bushes, distance, weather, hard rocky soil, muck or mud, trash or whatever.  Anything that will discourage the crowds provides an opportunity - if you are willing and able  to overcome it.

I remember my first introduction to fire ants.  It was while digging a target.  Now it seems I'm almost immune to fire ants.

By the way, in the past year I've seen three Coral snakes.  Watch out for anything venomous.

When people are going through one of those inevitable dry spells, which are bound to happen from time to time, the first thing they start to question is their detector.  If you do some simple tests like those I've described in the past, you can quickly tell if your detector is performing well enough. The problem is seldom the detector though.  More often you have fallen into a rut, doing the same old things at the same old places time and time again.  Yes, conditions play a part in it, and to some extent luck, but when you have been striking out on a regular basis, it is always a good idea to try something different - something that will separate you from the pack, and maybe something you've never tried before.

Believe it or not, despite the number of other detectorists, there are still good spots out there that you can have all to yourself if you are willing to invest some time in exploring new areas.  When you explore new areas, you might strike out nine times out of ten, but that one hit will be worth the effort.  It can pay off for years to come.

Don't think that just because you didn't find anything the first time you visited a new spot that it is no good.  There are always the current conditions to take into account.  It will often take a few visits to identify a good new spot.

When I was hunting hot and heavy down south, I hunted some of the same spots as everyone else, but I also had a number of spots that I had very much to myself.  I would visit them over and over and never see anyone else there.  They really weren't all that difficult to find either, but they did require some prospecting.  

When conditions won't change for the better, you might have to.

On the Treasure Coast expect something like a two foot surf for a few days.  Nothing better in sight real soon.  We do have a nice negative tide though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/15/13 Report - Storm Erin, Lots of Sea Weed, and The Importance of the E Factor in Metal Detecting

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

From National Hurricane Center

We have a new named storm - Erin.  As you can see it is over by the Cape Verdis just coming off of Africa.  It will be over a week before Erin will be in our neighborhood, if it does make it this way.

The other weather system is approaching the Yucatan.  Maybe it will go back into the Gulf after that.

Bill S. sent in this report.  Here is what he said.

...I chose today to make my first dedicated survey of the beaches opposite the 1715 wreck sites from Wabasso Beach Park northward. I can verify the seaweed was thick just north of the Amber Sands beach access. Regarding the sandbar, in the troughs a good amount of material collected, trapped there by the water movement. ... About all I found at the edge of the surf was some sea glass (a nice green piece, and some smaller amber pieces), and a boat load of iron flakes. 

I had the good fortune to see one of the salvor's boats working an area about 200 yards offshore and not far south of the McClarty Museum...

I also had the good fortune to see an amazing sight: a shark lunging into a school of bait fish just beyond the beach break. (Small fish were thick in the surf zone this morning.) Incredible!

Thanks for the report Bill.

As I showed yesterday, there was seaweed on the more southern Treasure Coast beaches too.  That is always a bad sign indicating sand and other light material washing up onto the beach.  It is a good sign when it starts to leave.



A lot of money went down the drain in the form of mashed hundred dollar bills.

According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, their D.C. factory location produced a botched batch of more than 30 million hundred-dollar bills—that makes for a useless 3 billion dollars. 

The latest printing error, called "mashing," results when too much ink is applied to the paper and does not fit within the marked parameters, making for imprecise details on the bill's artwork.

Here is the source of that quiote and the rest of the story.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100960164?__source=xfinity|mod&ticket=ST-5514-blBPj7yzCQCanbknOWS7eij7I4oaDmKxu3v-20&rememberMe=null



I started to create a formula for detecting success.  Here is what I had.   S = L x T x Sk x D x E

S stands for the amount of long term success.

L stand for general location where the detectorist lives. Some areas present many more high level opportunities than others.

T (Time on Task) is total time spent detecting.

Sk stands for the skill level of the detectorist.

D stands for the quality of the detector or detectors used.

So far these are all weighted the same.  That will definitely change as I fine tune the formula.

E stand for effort.  Maybe I should call it Ee for Extreme effort.  This factor was added recently.  It includes the willingness and ability to do things like walk miles to a site, work in extreme weather, including cold, heat, storms, and in very rough water, or on rocky bottoms, etc.

One person suggested that this factor should be perseverance, and I can see that, but I would factor perseverance in with T.

Research is a factor, but now I have that lumped in with Sk.

I'm open to suggestions on this one.

I know that many detectorists think there is too much  competition these days, but believe me, you can find spots that are pretty much your own if you have the E factor.   There are things that prevent others from finding these little detected areas.

Sometimes people think that the reason nobody is detecting at a location, is because there is nothing there.  That assumption can be a mistake.  A lot of people follow the crowd.  They go to the places they hear about or where they hear somebody else has found something.  While I have no objection to hunting where others have been, there are a lot of good places that you can have pretty much to your self.

Sometimes those places are hard to get to.  Sometimes nobody knows that anything interesting ever happened there.   Sometimes the spot is hard to hunt because of something like trash or rocks.  There is usually some barrier or reason that most people avoid those spots.  They can be good spots though.  Those are the kinds of places I spent most of my time.

If you are willing to adjust and make the effort those areas can be some of the best.  And they can be right in the middle of a very busy and otherwise over-hunted area.


On the Treasure Coast the wind continues from the southeast.  There will be a small ( 1 foot) surf for the next couple of days, then increasing to two to three feet by Monday.

Not much will change real soon.  Keep watching those storms.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net