3/24/13 Report - Time To Analyze Your Find Records? It Might Tell You Something. What you do has a lot to do with what you find.

Written by the Treasure Guide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.

Fossils And Sea Glass Recently Found In A Shell Piles
On A Treasure Coast Beach.

I got some email concerning the signal or ID you'll get from a Rolex watch.  As I said, using an Ace 250, if you are in coin mode, the test Rolex gave no signal, however in the Jewelry and All-Metals mode, you get an ID that shows up in the nickel to penny range, which also includes the pull-tab and gold/bronze range.  

The ID was different when the coil was swept over different parts of the watch.  If the coil was mostly over the band that produced a different ID than when the coil was more directly over the watch case. 

Robert H. said he got a good coin signal on a Rolex when using an Excal II in discrimination mode.  I don't know how much discrimination he was using.   He also said he almost gave up digging after a number of scoops because he thought it might be a can. Good thing he went for that last scoop.

Robert's observation is consistent with the ID I got when using the Ace in the Jewelry and All-Metals modes, but don't forget, the Rolex produced no audio signal in the Coins mode.  That is the critical point.  I don't know about you, but I don't want that to happen.  I'd gladly give up hundreds of clad coins for one good Rolex.  What I am talking about is making informed intentional strategic decisions that will maximize success however you may define success.  If success to you is a pile of clad coins, then  use the techniques and strategies that will accomplish that.  However if your goal is to find other types of targets, perhaps targets that are of a less determinate size or composition, you might choose to operate otherwise.

As I mentioned yesterday, one person said that the thing that motivates him is the possible big find that might come at any time.  In that case you want to be ready for the unexpected, not eliminating everything but the common.

I'm not trying to suggest that a Rolex will give one type of signal no matter what.  Just the opposite.  There are many types of Rolex watches.  They come in different sizes and are made of different materials.  Some are gold and others stainless steel.  And of course there are a variety of different types of bands too, which can affect your signal or ID.

There are also many types of detectors and different modes and settings you can select on each detector.  I've mentioned some of those differences.

The point is that you need to know the detector you are using because there is the distinct possibility that you could misidentify or entirely miss a very good target - perhaps repeatedly and consistently because of the way you hunt.  That is especially more likely if you always hunt the same way using the same settings.  You might habitually eliminate a specific set of good targets. 

I recommend a periodic review.  Analyze your record of finds.  What do you find a lot of?  What do you seldom find?  What have you never found that you would like to find?  The answer to those questions might tell you something about how you are detecting that you might want to change.

I've said this before, but back when I began detecting, I found a lot of men's rings but few women's rings.  I thought that men lost more rings.  That was wrong.  I was using a level of discrimination with my 1280 that made me miss many of the smaller and often more valuable women's rings.  After decreasing the discrimination setting on the 1280 I found out that there were as many women's rings to be found as men's.

Maybe you know everything there is to know, but I don't.  I intend to continue learning.  That is something that makes it all more interesting, and it is also something that helps me do better.

If you haven't made any changes in how you hunt for a long period of time, maybe that is a sign that you should think about that.  It is all too easy to fall into habits and get in a rut. 

I always like learning something new.  Not only does it improve performance but it also keeps it interesting. 

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The photo above shows some fossils and sea glass found on a Treasure Coast beach a few days ago.
Nothing great, but I do enjoy finding them.  Some, not these particular ones, can actually be worth some money.

If you keep your eyes open while detecting you can find things like this.  The fossils are much older than the cobs you might find.  And sometimes they can be worth more than a treasure coin. 

Nice pieces of sea glass can also worth something.  Fine examples of the less common colors, such as red or yellow, can be worth more.   They can also provide good clues.  An occasional Native American artifact can also occasionally be seen in shell piles.

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Spike Found by Joseph G.
Photo by Joseph G.

I've been thinking of a bunch of things lately, but haven't put them together for a post. 

Did you ever hear of soil liquefaction?

Soil liquefaction is when saturated or partially saturated soil loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress, such as the vibrations caused by an earthquake or other  stress conditions, causing the soil to behave like a liquid.

Interesting!  Buildings can collapse etc. 

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I've really noticed huge differences in how some detectors eat batteries.  Battery life is much higher in some detectors than others. 

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On the Treasure Coast we'll have a three or four foot surf for a couple of days with variable wind direction.  Nothing that will affect us much.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/13/14 Report - Highest Price Gold Coin From Sedwick Auction. Usefulness Of Deep Seeking Beach Detector. Distinctive Signals. Searching For WWII Planes.

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

Gold Coin From Recently Completed Sedwick Coins Auction.

Here is the gold coin that received the highest bid in the recently completed Sedwick Coins auction.

The winning bid for this coin was over $28,000, about twice the selling price of any of the escudos.

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I ran across a YouTube video showing a fellow trying out a borrowed ATX in bathtub calm water at Miami beach.  In a short time he dug a few targets, including three coins and two bobby pins.

You are going to hear bobby pins when using pulse induction detector.  Although PI detectors don't have much in the way of discrimination, those that I've used, including the Whites Dual Field, will allow you to identify bobby pins and other junk items if you use them enough to learn how to identify the distinctive signals.  (In a previous post I showed  once how the pulse delay setting on a PI detector could be used to discriminate out bottle caps.)  

I can identify fish hooks when using a PI detector.  Fish hooks sound similar to nails or other long thin objects, but yet give a signal that is different enough to identify.  I don't know how to describe the distinctive signal from a fish hook, but, like I said, it is a little like the signal given by a nail, yet different.

I've explained in previous posts how long thin objects such as nails can be identified by many detectors - not just PI detectors.  When sweeping over a nail or similar thin object in one direction you'll get a broken signal, while sweeping in the other direction you'll get a solid signal.  

You'll can learn to identify many types of signals by sound, but it takes time.  Sometimes when I don't use a particular detector for a while it takes a little while to relearn it, but relearning is fast.

Another thing I noticed in the video is that all of the targets were dug very near the surface.  It won't argue against a good deep-seeking detector, but depth is highly over rated in my opinion.  It is not nearly as important as many people seem to think.  That is my opinion and is partly the result of some of the search strategies that I use.

If you keep track of how many good targets are actually dug at a depth that is near your detector's maximum capability, I'll bet it is a very small percentage.  I'll also bet that if you ever dug cobs on a beach, the vast majority were found within the top two inches.  Keep track of that.  Figure out how much a couple more inches would actually help you.  It might surprise you - especially for beach hunting.   And some targets that seem to come from great depth, actually don't.  They slip deeper as the hole gets deeper.

People often talk about wasting time digging junk.  Digging deep holes can be a big waste of time.  You say that the good targets are deep.  That can be true, but a big part of my strategy is to find the areas where the good targets are near the surface.  I'm not so interested in digging a few deep targets as I am interested in finding accumulations of good targets that have been uncovered.  Of course, you can't always do that.

The fellow that was using the $2000 plus ATX dug only items that were near the surface during the video.  It only took a couple seconds to dig and sift each of them.  Once again, my point is that depth is often over-rated. 

Even more than good targets, most junk on a beach will be found near the surface.  It can take more time to ID junk items than it takes to simply scoop them up and remove them, especially if your pinpointing and recovery skills are good.

A detector that will detect deep gold will also detect small gold, such as gold chains near the surface.  That is more why I like a deep seeking detector.  It is not as much that I want to dig deep holes, but a good deep seeking detector will also do a good job of detecting small shallow targets.  Considering beach hunting, if I had to choose between getting all of the good small surface targets or the good targets found in the last inch of depth that I could get out of my detector, I just might choose the first. 

Keep track and try to answer that for yourself. 

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According to the most recent issue of Kovels Komments, here is the order of most frequently used price search terms.

1) Fenton, 2) Coca-Cola, 3) Occupied Japan, 4) Stoves, 5) McCoy, 6) Wedgwood, 7) Bavaria, 8) Depression Glass, 9) Delft, 10) Capo-Di-Monte, 11) Lamps, 12) Pepsi Cola, 13) Hull, 14) Banks, 15) Belleek, 16) Scales, 17) Satsuma, 18) Trunks, 19) Haeger, and 20) Red Wing.

That tells you something about what collectors are interested in and what you could probably sell easily. 

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Here is a mesmerizing GoPro video Searching For Heroes, which shows top-notch underwater search technology being used to find WWII planes.  I should have had this one for Veterans Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wB6i7i7fKU

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The surf on the Treasure Coast will be near flat Thursday and Friday.  Then it will bump up a touch.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net