3/23/15 Report - Strange Tight Cluster Including Unexpected Coins. How Does A Rolex ID On A Detector Readout.

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

Strange Cluster.
Aruba 5 Cents.  Mexico 1 Peso,  U. S. Quarter.

The other day I talked about selecting a strategy for a particular hunt.  In order to select an effective strategy, you have to have knowledge of the site.  You also need to know what your detectors do well and what they don't do well.

The other day when I was checking out a hunted out area I did find this strange cluster of coins.  They were the only coins found in the hunted out area.

The were closely clustered together, and on my PI detector gave a huge signal.  It was a confusing signal though.  It didn't sound like anything I recognized.  I scooped the area and found all three coins.  Each and everyone gave a good strong signal on the PI detector.

There is nothing strange about the quarter, of course.  But the other two coins are sort of unusual.

The 2005 Mexican peso is bimetallic.  The center is aluminum-bronze and the ring is stainless steel.  On the Garrett Ace 250, it usually is identified as a quarter, but not totally consistently.  It occasionally shows as iron.

Now the little 5 cent Aruba coin is small.  It weighs only two grams, is 16 mm in diameter and 1.7 mm thick.  It is made of nickel bonded steel.

The PI detector gave a gives a good loud signal on that little coin.   The Ace does not give a signal to that coin in any mode other than the All-Metals mode.   As you probably know I have a preference for working in an all-metals mode anyhow.   The Ace gives a good strong signal on it only in All-Metals mode.

I can see how a detectorist could miss this cluster.  The Aruba coin would definitely not give a good ID, and would not give any signal at all in many cases.  I'm sure you wouldn't hear it with an Excalibur, for example.   The peso could mix things up too, however if you are using a PI detector or All-Metals mode, you are not going to miss targets like that. 

Even with a PI detector I could tell it was something other than the usual.  It confused me at first.  I've learned to identify a variety of trash targets using a PI.  Fish hooks for example, give a signal something like a elongated object such as a nail when you do a criss-cross scan, but it is a little quirky in a way that I can't easily explain.  

I've explained how to identify elongated objects like nails by scanning repeatedly first in one direction and then again at a 90 degree angle.

The point is, know your detector and how it responds to a wide variety of targets.  Try to guess what the target is from the signal before you dig it even if you don't have target ID.   That will help you learn how your detector responds to various types of targets.

Remember, there are a lot good targets that will not be correctly Identified by a target ID detector.  How will a Rolex watch be identified by your detector?  Not knowing could be an expensive mistake, especially if you don't dig unknown targets.  Cobs won't be identified correctly either. 

As an example, if you use a simple ID detector such as the Ace 250, working in the Coin mode you will not get a signal from a Rolex Yacht-Master watch.

You know that quiet you like so much when you use discrimination - that was your Rolex watch.   Just kidding - sorta.

By the way, the Rolex that I tested was found on the Treasure Coast using an Excalibur in pinpoint mode.

Using the Ace, you will get an inconsistent ID on the Rolex Yacht-Master if you are working in the Jewelry or All-Metals mode.   There is that "All-Metals" word I preach so much.  In those two modes the ID jumps around depending upon what part of the watch your coil is over.  Mostly you will get a reading going between 1 cent and 5 cent, which is also where bronze and gold, and also pull-tab,  is marked on the ID readout display.

You might remember that a few months ago I did a poll to determine the primary motive for most detectorists.  One person added something I didn't have in the poll by sending me an email.  He said that what keeps him going is the possibility of that one big unexpected find that might occur at any time.  I'm sure that motivates a lot of us, never knowing what big find might pop up unexpectedly.  You have a lot better chance of finding that one big find if you know your detector very well and aren't passing over everything that isn't easily identified.

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Here is a good video of the surf and beach from a couple of days ago.

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On the Treasure Coast today we'll have West winds today, a good smooth surf and some nice big spring tides.

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