12/27/19 Report - A Couple Recent Treasure Coast Gold Finds. Reflections On My YouTube Videos.

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

14K Gold Pendant With Nice Looking Stone.

I've mentioned a few times that I've been on the ring trail lately.  I have been finding a lot of rings, but they've been junk.  Finally I got off of that trail and found a couple better items.

I also mentioned that I've been finding beaches with good numbers of modern coins.  They've been the non-shipwreck beaches.  While I haven't found any tightly packed coins spots or holes, there have been good numbers of coins scattered over beach front areas.  When you pick up enough coins eventually you'll get something better.

The pendant is marked 14K, but I don't know what the stone is yet.

When you find a pendant, look for the chain.  It might be broken.

I also found the following bracelet.

14K Bracelet Find.

I was trying out my new waterproof ear-phones that I got for Christmas.  They seem to work fine.

It reminds me of one year after I picked up a new Sovereign in Orlando, and on the way home stopped to test it out and found a gold crucifix just north of Ambersands.  Always nice to find gold the first day you have a new detector out.

---

I made a few YouTube videos, but not many.  One of the first, if not the first, I posted back in 2011.  I forgot about it but yesterday was notified of a comment.  The title of the video is Beachcombing for Fossils and Sea Glass.  The description is, "A walk along the beach on the Treasure Coast of Florida where a few fossils and pieces of sea glass were found."  I just wanted to show how you could walk along the beach and eye-ball interesting things.

After forgetting about the video, I was surprised to see there were 11,854 views, as of yesterday and 49 thumbs-up and 48 thumbs-down.  I was really surprised to see how many people had viewed the video, especially since  I didn't do anything to promote it.  11,000 isn't really very many, but for something I pretty much forgot about, it seemed like a good many especially considering that it certainly wasn't very good.  I just wanted to try it out, and I failed at one big thing I attempted to do with it.

Not having made any videos of that type before, whenever I bent over to pick up a fossil or piece of sea glass, my camera veered away from whatever I was picking up.  I didn't know that was happening and didn't intend for it to happen, but one person thought I was being intentionally evasive.  I wasn't.  It was just my first attempt to do something like that, and it was difficult to keep the camera focused on the target while looking at the object and bending down to pick it up.

Despite my crude first attempt at point-of-view videography, the video received what I would consider a lot of views and a few comments, mostly negative, but there were 49 thumbs up and 48 thumbs down.  It seems that some people saw some value in the video even though I failed to show the fines well.  I don't know exactly what people liked, but some evidently enjoyed something about it.

Cloverfield is a movie I like, mostly because of the innovative P.O.V. way that it was shot.  It was shot from the point of view of one of the characters using a personal video camera to capture what he saw just like a normal person would under extremely stressful circumstances.   It didn't have the feel of most movies, which have carefully planned shots, and I liked and admired the different approach.

All I intended to do was do was show what I saw as I walked along looking for fossils and sea glass.  I succeeded in that to a very limited extent, but completely failed to get the closeups of the finds.  Perhaps the careful viewer could get a glimpse of some of the fossils or sea glass, but it was difficult at best.

I suspect that some of those that gave a thumbs up to my video liked the walk along the beach, and perhaps getting a look at a Treasure Coast beach with some shells and other things scattered along.

I found out that there were many similar videos of people walking the beach looking for sea glass, but they were able to clearly show what they picked up.  Maybe being in with that group of videos is what drew so many viewers to my video.  I don't really know much about YouTube, especially promotion, but since I didn't promote it much, it seems that views can come easily if you just have something out there.

I do not think I understand most of those who made comments.  Maybe a few were trying to be helpful.  Obviously they didn't find what they were looking for, but I don't know why they were expecting much more than what they got, if they were.  No one asked them to watch or told them to watch.  There was no cost to watch.  Not even an ad.   It was their choice alone, and I don't think the title or description was deceptive. So I just can't say what they were looking for - other than something for nothing.  I think some of them must be like the people that like to honk car horns.
They just like to be heard or something.  In any case, the comments seem to be emotive more than informative.  Maybe they got something off their chest.

Another interesting thing to me is how the thumbs-up and thumbs-down were almost equal in number.  People see things differently.  Different people will see the same thing different ways.  They bring their own perspective and predispositions, to the video or post and that determines what they get out of it.  It takes two to tango, and at least two to communicate.  A message requires both a transmitter and receiver, and the originator of the message can not determine the interpretation or how much the recipient will get out of the message.

What I learned is that YouTube videos can accumulate views by just being out there, and that some people will enjoy a video while others will not.  That part was not new to me, but I was actually trying to figure out what people liked about a video that in my opinion wasn't very good.

Maybe in the future I'll try to make more videos although I generally prefer text.  I seldom find a video that I like, and when I do look at one, I usually find myself quickly skipping over most of it.  But that is just me.

I might make some more videos in the future, but they probably won't be what most people want to see.  I do have about a dozen videos on YouTube but haven't paid too much attention to them even though I think some of them could be informative or helpful.

Here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpBoxVBmVWiTF2h_r3RwBCA?view_as=subscriber

---

The surf will be decreasing for a few days, but the high tides are still high.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/15/15 Report - Different Detectors For Different Beach Hunting Jobs. Rosie and Merc.

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

Two Silver Dimes With Different Patinas.

Before I start my main topic for today, here are two dimes with different patinas.  The Rosie is a 1963 that was graded by a coin dealer as proof.  The Merc is a 1944 and was graded AU.

The Rosie has a lot of lustre.  The Merc is more the color that you might expect, but the surface is duller.

Under magnification you can see that the bluish color on the Rosie is a very thin coating that has not affected the sharpness of the coin's details.   Both have been stored in a plastic coin holder for a good twenty plus years.

Just an example.  Now on with my main topic for today.

-----

Yesterday I began a comparison of three different types of metal detectors that could be used for beach hunting, but I only got the first done.  Today I'll get to the other two.

The purpose of talking about these three detectors isn't so much about the three specific detectors, it is more about how different types of detectors have different strengths and weaknesses and about how strategic decisions of detector selection should be made.  This discussion is therefore not a detailed analysis of each of the detectors or a analysis of depth or performance, but rather more of a discussion of features and how those features help determine how different types of detectors might be used strategically.

I started with the Ace 250 yesterday, which is a detector that would be a decent choice if and when the strategy is to quickly sift through dry sand for modern coins and jewelry, especially when there is some junk.  The disadvantage of the small stock coil on the Ace is compensated by the ability to quickly pinpoint and identify targets and the ability to hunt close to metal obstacles such as beach chairs.

The Excalibur is used by many Treasure Coast beach hunters who tend to be more oriented to old shipwreck items.  Treasure Coast beach hunters, as contrasted with South Florida beach hunters, tend to focus more on targeting old shipwreck items and generally hunt less crowded beaches that are visited by more conservative beach-goers.

The Excalibur, of course, costs about four or five times what the Ace costs.  The Excalibur is water proof and can be submerged for water hunting.   That makes it more versatile.  If you want similar performance at half the price and don't need a waterproof detector, the Minelab Sovereign would do about the same job while costing less.

Unlike the Ace, the Excalibur has simple linear discrimination.  One discrimination knob is used for discrimination and another for sensitivity.

The Excalibur is simple to operate.  There is no ground balancing.  It performs about equally well in dry sand, wet sand and under water.  It will do a good job almost anywhere on a Florida beach.  You can start in wet sand and decide to scan a little dry sand or go into the water and dive with it. That is all good and easy.  You can discriminate but even with no discrimination, the Excalibur is not as hot for iron as some detectors.

The biggest difficulty that I see with the Excalibur is with the casual detectorist who tries to use the Excalibur in the wet sand in motion mode.  The less experienced detectorists can find detecting difficult where the water is coming and going.

I once had a guy come up to me and ask me what settings I was using because he saw me working the wet sand where the water was moving in and out and he was trying to do the same and was having trouble.   The main difference was that he was working in the motion mode and hadn't made any other adjustments, while I was using the pinpoint mode, as I almost always do with the Excalibur.

Anyhow, the Excalibur is a good sturdy general-purpose detector with some discrimination that has a good response to gold and small targets such as small cobs or small gold rings.  If you are hunting shipwreck items in wet sand, it is an easy choice over the Ace, whereas if you are hunting the dry sand, the Ace might be the best choice in some situations.  The Ace is also much lighter to swing on dry land.

While the Excalibur is used by many on the Treasure Coast, the Minelab CTX 3030 is very prominent on South Florida beaches.  The CTX costs about twice as much as an Excalibur.

The CTX has a lot more features and settings than the Excalibur, including a screen for target ID, various program selection, GPS, etc.  Instead of a few knobs, the CTX provides a lot of flexibility and options.

South Florida beaches have a lot more valuable modern jewelry and that is what the hard-core guys down there focus on most of the time.   It is also easier to justify the additional cost of a more expensive detector in South Florida where you can hunt in the water more of the year and where there is a lot more expensive jewelry to be found.  The additional expense can often be paid off by a single find.

I mention the relative prominence of the Excalibur on the Treasure Coast as compared to the CTX in South Florida only to point out how situations affect detector selection.

The third detector that I want to discuss is the Garrett ATX.  The ATX is often used in the gold fields and has good sensitivity to small gold.  The cost of the Garrett ATX (just over $2000) is close to that of the Minelab CTX.

The ATX is very different from the Ace, the Excalibur and the CTX, which I just discussed in passing.

I've discussed the ATX some in recent posts.  The keep it short, the ATX is a not the easiest detector to use straight out of the box - at least not if you want to be absolutely sure that you are getting good performance from it.

The ATX is a Pulse Induction detector and is very sensitive to small iron.  If you are someone who likes using a lot of discrimination, the ATX is not for you. The Excalibur is not overly sensitive to iron, but the ATX is very sensitive to iron.  Yes the ATX offers discrimination, but if you use much of it, you will really reduce sensitivity to good low conductive targets and negate the very features you paid for.

The ATX has both a non-motion and motion mode.  The non-motion mode is the most sensitive, but also the most difficult to use.  Even the manual states that the non-motion mode is not for beginners.

To get near optimal performance out of an ATX requires experience and skill.  If you want maximum sensitivity and depth, which is considerable with the ATX, you need to get the settings right.

So when would you use the ATX on a beach or in the shallow water?  My answer is, When you want the best depth on small valuable targets and have the patience and skill to deal with junk.  

The ATX will detect near microscopic pieces of iron, but it also gives you good sensitivity to small gold.  It will detect a small gold ring deeper than it will detect a clad dime. You will get good depth on small gold IF you use the ATX well.

There are a lot of options and settings on the ATX.   Careful adjustment and proper use will pay off in good performance.

There are times when the ACE, costing around $250, would be the better choice than the ATX, which costs about ten times as much.  The ACE might well be the choice in dry sand when you want to quickly skim for modern finds, as one example.

This post is not about three or four detectors.  It is about making calculated strategic decisions based upon how features of different detectors match the circumstances and your goals.

----

Odyssey Marine Explorations stock has really fallen off as they are being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

-----

On the Treasure Coast we have another couple of days of smooth surf and South winds.  Nothing new or exciting about that.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net