1/30/15 Report - V Nickle Find. Copper 1943 S Penny. Some More Observations On Learning To Use A Detector.

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

V Nickle Find
Photo by Dan B.

Here is Dan's first V Nickel find.

Congratulations Dan.


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Have you ever found a copper 1943 S penny?  I really doubt it.  If you have you are very lucky.

Here is how one such penny was found.  Kenneth Wing was 14 years old in 1944 when he made his rarest penny find. The penny was dated 1943-S, but it was made of copper, rather than the expected zinc-coated steel. Wing took the coin to his local coin dealer who made him a very generous offer for the time, $500, but Wing said he didn't want to sell the coin...

Kenneth tried to have the coin authenticated, obtaining the opinion of experts from the Smithsonian as well as coin grading services and other experts.  Some thought it was not authentic, but eventually it was accepted as authentic. 

The coin was put in a safe deposit box and forgotten until Kenneth passed away.  The heirs were able to sell the coin with documentation for $72,500.

Click here to see the entire story about this copper 1943 S penny.

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According to Kovels Komments,  New York State now includes mammoth ivory in its ivory ban. The state decided the federal ban wasn’t strong enough. Jewelers have been making expensive jewelry with mammoth ivory legally found on private property. This means antique scrimshaw and jewelry with mammoth ivory can’t be sold or exported. Jewelers say it is possible to tell ancient mammoth ivory from new ivory. But the New York State conservation office says it is difficult and that new ivory may be altered to look like old, so the ban is needed. New Jersey has also banned mammoth ivory and California has a bill in the works.

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Some detectors can be mastered relatively quickly, but others can take much more time.

Recently I saw a fellow at a beach using a cheap detector.  I felt a little sorry for the fellow.  I doubt that he knew what his detector would or wouldn't do.  He was swinging the coil about a foot off of the ground.  If I wasn't in such a hurry I would have stopped and had a talk with him.  I seriously doubt that he could have detected a coin on the surface with that detector, certainly not while his coil was so high off the ground. 

Something like that is easy to demonstrate.  I've said it before.  Do some tests.  I bet that fellow would have been shocked and disappointed to learn that he couldn't detect a single coin the way he was going.

The longer I detect the more use I find for test objects.  I almost always have a few test objects with me when I'm in the field now, most especially when I'm using a detector that I haven't thoroughly mastered.  I'm also thinking that a lot of the time people have not thoroughly mastered their detector, even sometimes when the think they have.

As you move from one environment to another, performance will change.  As you move from dry sand to wet sand to moving water, performance will change.  Lately I've been testing a new detector and using test objects to see how the detector responds to different types of objects under different circumstances.   I've learned how some settings will change performance in some environments, but not all of them.  I pretty much know how many inches I'll lose in a high EMI environment as compared to a low EMI environment, for example.  I also pretty much know about how many inches I gain or lose on different types of targets as I move from one environment to another.

Maybe I'm slow, but it is taking me quite a while to really get it all down.  You can learn a lot by using different test objects in different environments with different settings.  I'm continuing to learn and know that I have a lot more tests to do before I can be satisfied that I really know as much as I want to know about using this new detector.

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On the Treasure Coast expect more of the same with maybe a slight increase in the surf this weekend. 

If you look at the surfing web site, they are predicting a big surf (something like 10 feet) for next weekend.  As I've commented before, those big predictions that are a week out are seldom correct.  My bet would be that the big surf predicted for next weekend will change in a couple days.  Nine out of ten times it does.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

10/12/14 Report - New Storm Likely To Develop Soon. Video Demonstration of Effect of Metal Detector Coil Sweep Angle and Object Position.

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

Gold Ring Used in Today's Demonstration.

There is some big weather news, but first I have something else for you.

Today I have a very good video demonstration for you that clearly shows some things that I've talked about in the past but also illustrates additional important information.   The video shows how the sweep angle and position of various objects can affect a metal detector signal.  Using that new information will help you better understand how your detector works and what type of object you are detecting.

For this demonstration I used the Ace 250 because it is well suited for this purpose.  I used All Metals mode.

Other detectors will give similar but different results.

I used three test objects: a screw, a thin rectangular copper tag, and a thin gold ring.

First I put them all flat on the ground.   I swept my coil over the first two in one direction and then at roughly ninety degrees.

I did not bother to change sweep directions on the ring when it was laying flat because it is nearly round and the sweep direction would not make any difference.

The video shows the different signals you get when you sweep over an oblong object such as a screw in one direction and then again at a 90 degree angle.

The next part of the experiment involved standing the rectangular copper tag and the gold ring upright.

When the tag was put on end, it gave a signal like iron instead of the coin-like signal it gave when laying flat.

The ring when standing on end, gave a broken signal when sweeping in one direction and a solid signal when sweeping the other.  That was very much like the signals given by the screw laying flat.   When the ring was standing up, it presented an oblong surface to the coil and gave a signal like what you would expect from an oblong object.

You can tell quite a bit about objects from the signals.

Here is the link to the demonstration video.   Pay close attention to the signal and tone over each object.  Notice how the signal changes when the sweep angle changes on some objects and how the signal changes when some objects are stood up.

http://youtu.be/1L96xy9nRZo

The most important things that I'm showing today is that the sweep angle will affect the signal, as does the position of the object in the ground.

If the copper tag was pushed into the ground at a forty five degree angle instead of straight up and down, it would give an even more variable signal.  And if it is bent, the signal is even more variable.

The most simple case is a round object, such as a coin, laying flat.

In the past I've talked about how you can identify oblong objects such as nails with detectors such as the Minelab Excalibur.  Sweeping in one direction you'll get a broken signal, while sweeping at ninety degrees will give you a solid signal.  You could see a similar thing with the screw in this video and also with the ring standing up using the Ace 250.

Although the Excal and Ace are different in many respects, they both identify long thin nail-like objects with a broken tone in one direction and a solid tone in the other direction.

I can always identify a nail or similar object with the Excalibur in all metals mode.   The Ace reacts similarly.



Source: www.nhc.noaa.gov

You should now better understand why the signals of some objects are so variable and some of the factors that can cause that.

The signal can tell you a lot if you really understand your detector.


On the weather front, Fay is heading out into the Atlantic and away from the Treasure Coast, but what I've been calling Disturbance 1, now has a 90% chance of becoming a cyclone, and it looks like it will be moving towards us.

As I've been telling you, we often get some good hunting in October or November.

That is something to watch.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net