Time Over Target - Relaxing Detecting

 Metal detecting targets here in Florida are usually found in distinct layers, in accordance with the age of the item; older targets are usually deeper than newer targets. But not always, this is just an example. (we will use coins as the standard target, as most metal detectors are usually designed with coins in mind) Let's say targets from recently lost coins to those dropped a decade ago  can usually be found in regular soil from 1" to around 5" deep. We will call this the first layer. The second layer, coins lost 25 to 50 years ago, or so, will usually be found around 6" to 8" deep, in undisturbed ground. The third layer consists of coins dropped from 75 to 200 years ago, and are found, again, in undisturbed ground, up from 9" to 15" deep or deeper.

        An 1830's Spanish coin found by a friend around 6 or 7" deep  

A lot of factors can change these estimates, such as the make-up of the matrix, or in other words, the composition of the soil. Here in Florida, we have a black loamy soil in places, which can discolor older coins quite badly, to a sand-shell matrix which is easier on coins, and is more like beach detecting in certain ways. Metal detecting older coins can be very exciting, but requires you slow down a bit and listen closely for those deep signals. Sometimes nothing much more than a whisper is heard, and with experience, you'll know the target is worth digging. Slow, deep, coin hunting is an excellent way of bringing back the fun the hobby has always been known for. And since most detectorists' are impatient, they will be racing off at flank speed looking for the shallow finds, leaving the heavy silver for you! So get out there and listen closely as you slowly race about the park and get back into the exciting world of metal detecting! 

Detector Protector - Simple Things Keep It Running

 New detectorists usually have nowhere to turn to learn some of the basics of metal detecting. Oh sure, the old response to a question is usually "Watch YouTube, yeah Detector Dude and Dudet will show you all you need to know!" which of course can help you somewhat, but they are usually trying to make a few bucks and keeping their sponsors, more than filling you in on the basics. Most tubers assume you already know the basics.   And detector salespeople can help somewhat, but they are far more interested in selling machines then they are willing instructors to teach a rather complicated art and science to the layman. New detectorists should learn the proper ways and ethics of the hobby from the start. I'm going describe several of the basic pitfalls new detectorists get themselves into. Don't be embarrassed, we have all been there, either recently or a half-century ago. Tech advances, but human nature stays the same. 

Keep waterproofing caps on and the cable connection tight!

As I said last time, same place same channel, READ THE MANUAL, then read it again. I do, even though I have hours and hours on my machines. Many detectors nowadays can be electronically UPDATED, and characteristics may change on the same machine! Here are the very, very basic issues that can plague first time users. Erratic operation, the target signal jumps into and out of the headphones, tones increase and decrease. Possible issue is that the CONNECTOR from the coil-cable is LOOSE. Check this vital connection before every hunt, as they loosen up all the time and can be a major headache and ruin a hunt or worse a competition hunt! Another pain-in-the-neck is an improperly wrapped search-coil cable. A loose cable can cause false signals galore and make you crazy, or crazier than you normally are!

A well-wrapped coil is a happy coil...no loose windings!

Keep the coil cable wound tight but not too tight, and don't let the cable flop onto the top of the search coil! Another secret from the files of the Detectorist Guild is that the search coil detects metal from BOTH SIDES OF THE COIL and the floppy cable may, again, cause false signals due to the electrodynamic action on the metal wire in the cable.

Keep the control cable from flopping on the top of the coil!

I cannot tell you how many times an errant control-cable dragging across the top of a search-coil has caused massive digging for a target that never seemed to be there. as well as some new curse words being created at an alarming rate!  Also the obvious problem with steel-toes shoes should present itself, although it has happened, with the detectorist swearing his machine was defective! Make sure the batteries are in the machine properly, and at the proper polarity...one cell in backwards can delay or ruin a hunt! Last, but not least, as a tip for newbies, that VDI screen is filled with good info, and the more you learn what it is telling you, the more keepers you will be finding! 

Another issue is a debris-filled plastic coil-cover, or scuff-plate, designed to prevent scratches and damage to the bottom of your expensive search-coil, it can also be a source of mysterious detector problems. This is a common problem causing nothing but trouble...false signals, scratchy interference, weird audio sounds. Especially when filled with sand and salty, mineralized, water, it can drive you nuts! These covers are not the easiest things to remove and sometimes you wonder how they can collect anything inside, they fit so tightly. And if you don't remove it after every few trips, you may never be able to remove it again, it can get so encrusted with dirt and salt! Once pried off, wash it out with fresh water, wash the search coil the same way, dry them and reassemble them. It can get rid of a lot of mysterious problems in one fell swoop.

Pry off the coil cover to solve many mysterious detector problems

Wash both the coil-cover AND search-coil with fresh water.

You metal detecting device is a precision instrument, and a nice clear, unscratched and unmarred view is the best view. But hauling the machine around, in the trunk, in the boat, or your backpack it's a good idea to keep it protected and many detectors come with a cover, But a quick and effective substitute can be had with a sock of any kind, now that the digital control head of most machines with recessed controls are the norm. It keeps the screen clean and unscratched, and protects the control housing also. It's an expensive instrument, and tearing it up is no badge of honor...keep it as new and clean as possible and it will serve you well for a long time!

Put a sock in it or put IT in a sock!

Metal Detecting Smarts - Reading the Manual

You have one of the new, everybody's-talking-about-it metal detectors; so new you could swear the electronic engineer's fingerprints are still visible, faintly, on the plastic covered VDI screen! Shaking with anticipation, you roar off to the nearest field a few miles away, switch it ON and...and...nothing happens...nothing at all, What the? You shake the machine, check the batteries are inserted, wiggle the coil cable...nothing! "This machine is the #@$@#@&!!! pits...it's junk!!!" you furiously type in the 47 social groups you belong to.  

Angrily you stuff it back in the box, drive 67 miles one-way to the shop you bought it from, slam it on the counter and tell the proprietor what you think of him for selling you a piece of expensive junk! The shop owner pulls the detector out of the box, and switches it on. Nothing. "There, you seeeeee!!!" you growl, vindicated in your righteousness. The shop owner dumps the rest of the boxes contents onto the counter; a charger, blue-tooth headphones, a screen protector, and an owner's manual, still sealed, factory fresh, inside it's plastic bag! 

The shop owner stares at you, pulls the manual out, opens it to page one, and turns it toward you. "Please note, the plastic battery terminal covers inside the compartment must be removed before inserting the batteries." A quick look in the battery compartment reveals the plastic protectors are still there, preventing the battery from making contact. The shop owner pulls the plastic device out from beneath the battery terminals and the detector powers up fine. Reading the owners manual is your very best guide to learning the mysteries and idiosyncrasies of your detecting gear. Of course the turn-it-on-and-run urge is very strong, young Skywalker, you must learn the basics, if you are to utilize the force, the electrodynamic force, that is, which will eventually unlock some of the secrets of history. And when searching for history, out in the field, let your conscience, and your operating manual, be your guide!

Gold Coins - Why Finding Them Is Difficult

Gold has always fascinated mankind, and today the lure is no less than it was in the last century the most noble of metals, the king of elements, the stuff of which dreams and treasures are made. From the very outset, gold was conceived as a part of the federal coinage system. The first United States gold coinage consisted of $5 pieces, called half eagles, delivered in 1795 followed by $10 or eagle pieces. An additional denomination, the $21/2 piece or quarter eagle, had its advent in 1796 from the Philadelphia Mint . Within the United States and abroad, there was a great distrust of paper money (previously issued Continental Currency notes were virtually worthless, so obligations of the new American government were viewed with suspicion), and emphasis was on intrinsic value. 

The weights of gold and other coins were equal to their intrinsic or melt-down value. The gold $10 piece was established at a weight of 270 grains, consisting of nine parts gold and 10 parts copper, the copper being added to give strength to the alloy. The intrinsic value concept was quite satisfactory so far as promoting the acceptance of new federal coins, but whenever the value of gold metal rose on international markets, vast quantities of minted quarter eagles, half eagles, and $10 pieces went into the hands of bullion brokers who melted or exported them. The $5 half eagle, made in greater numbers, tended to be the "workhorse" denomination. 

Gold coins of this value were struck more or less continuously from 1795 onward, with typical years generating production in the tens of thousands of pieces. There is the curious notation in the mint record that although 17,796 half eagles were minted in 1822, just three are known! An example in EF-40 grade, catalogued by the present writer for the sale of the Eliasberg Collection of U.S. Gold Coins in 1982, realized $687,500! As of today, 33 years later, in 2015, the price for one single $5 half-eagle gold coin dated 1822 goes for MORE THAN $5,000,000!! The price of gold rose during the 1820s and early 1830s, so that by the end of the period very few pieces had escaped the melting pot. A freshly-minted 1822 half eagle, or any other half eagle of the era, could be melted down and return more than $5 in value!! Congress passed legislation on June 28, 1834, effective August 1, 1834, mandating a change in the authorized weight of gold coins. After that time, gold coins were worth less in melt-down value than face value, so they were once again seen in the channels of circulation. 

Until the 1820s, there was no significant known source of native gold in the United States, and Bullion to make gold coins came from a variety of origins, including foreign gold coins melted down (an important source), bullion from Central and South America, and the reduction of various wrought items such as jewelry. By the 1820s, gold discoveries in North Carolina became important. In 1838 mints were established at Dahlonega, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, to produce coins from bullion found in those areas, with additional amounts coming from international payments, the melting down of foreign coins, and other traditional sources In the United States, gold coins were commonly used in large commercial transactions. As an example, if you were having a ship built, say a whaling ship, it would cost you around $35,000 in 1841, and paid for in gold coinage, NOT currency! At the time, during the middle of the 19th century, the country was inundated with a flood of privately-issued paper currency notes, with most values being from $1 to $10, but with abundant quantities of values from $20 to $100 as well, plus some stray examples of higher denominations. Just about every bank in existence issued its own currency. 

The enforcement of laws was loose, and many were the so-called "wildcat banks" which had little or no substantive backing, but which issued hundreds of thousands of dollars in worthless notes. The public distrusted these notes, and many demanded gold in payment for transactions. On the international scene, privately issued bank notes were not accepted, and gold coins were the norm. Thus, quantities of United States gold coins found their way to England, France, and other trading centers. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill on the American River in California in January 1848 ignited the Gold Rush, which saw the migration westward of tens of thousands of individuals. Soon, vast quantities of gold were extracted from the rivers and soil of California. Shipped to the Eastern markets, the yellow metal became "common" in relation to earlier supplies. In view of the increased availability of gold, in 1849 two new coin denominations were created. The first was the gold dollar, which was to become the smallest federal gold coin. The second denomination was the $20 double eagle, minted in pattern form in 1849 and for general circulation beginning in 1850. This new, large, heavy coin made it economical to convert large amounts of bullion to struck form, for it took much less manpower and effort to make one double eagle than it did to coin an equivalent amount of gold in four $5 pieces or eight $21/2 pieces. 

By 1853, gold had become so plentiful in relation to silver that silver had risen sharply on the market, and federal silver coins were worth more in bullion value than in face value -- the same situation which confronted gold coins two decades earlier. In general, United States gold coins were widely used for commercial transactions in America from 1795 up until about 1880, for reasons stated, and after 1880 found their main use on the international market. This history and background has important implications for the rarity of gold coins as we perceive such today. Although today it is common to read that the United States was on the "gold standard" from 1795 onward, in actuality our country did not adopt the gold standard system until the year 1900, at which time the United States was one of the last developed nations to do so. Under the gold standard, countries participating in this stored gold coins and bullion in central banks and simply exchanged currency or certificates among themselves to settle transactions. Thus, after the year 1900 large quantities of American coins were stored in European, South American, and other vaults and were seldom moved. In the meantime, within the United States gold coins were rarely seen in day to day commerce If you had been a typical citizen in the year 1900, chances are that during everyday grocery purchases, real estate transactions, and any other business transacted during a given 12-month period not a single gold coin would have been encountered, particularly if you lived in the East (gold coins were seen in circulation with more frequency in the West). 

Although gold issues were not needed in everyday circulation, they continued to be minted in record quantities. For example, the year 1904 saw a coinage of over six million double eagles at Philadelphia and over five million in San Francisco. What happened to them? Most were shipped overseas. Gold coinage continued in large quantities, and in the 1920s, when gold coins were mainly kept in banks and rarely seen in circulation, record numbers were produced. The year 1928 saw a production of 8,816,000 double eagles, an all-time high! From 1929 onward, the economic situation in the United States deteriorated (i.e. the Great Depression) in 1933 there was widespread concern for the security of the American monetary system. On April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed that gold coins were to be returned by the public to the Federal Reserve System by May 1st, with the exception of pieces of numismatic value. Citizens were prohibited from holding gold with minor exceptions In the same year, 1933, the government issued several notices to the effect that the United States would remain on the gold standard and that citizens should not be alarmed, which, of course was a bald-faced lie. The Gold Reserve Act of January 30, 1934 provided that: "No gold shall thereafter be coined, no gold coins shall hereafter be paid out or delivered by the United States... all gold coins in the United States shall be withdrawn from circulation..." This legislation effectively ended gold coinage production and removed the gold backing of paper money. In the same year, 1934, the United States withdrew from the gold standard. At the time of the decrees of 1933 and 1934, millions of dollars worth of gold coins, primarily of the higher "bullion" values of $5, $10, and $20, were held by various world banks. The idea of shipping them back to the United States in exchange for currency seemed patently ridiculous to foreign bankers, Accordingly, foreign banks held on to United States gold coins more tightly than ever! Years later, when gold coin ownership regulations for United States citizens were relaxed, then dropped entirely, European, South American, and Asian banks became a prime source for gold coin specimens.

Digging vs. Excavating - Unpleasant Aspects

I've enjoyed the metal detecting hobby now for almost 60-years. Getting the signal, deciding what your option is regarding the target, basing the decision on your instrument's VDI and sound indications. If the decision is to remove the target from the ground, my least favorite part of the hobby comes into play; digging, or in the Archaeologists parlance, excavating. Now, as embarrassing as it is for an old detectorist to admit, I don't like digging, and never have! It is a critical part of the hobby, and I feel the public's eyes boring into the back of my head. But I still follow the detectorists code of ethics, open the ground like I'm doing an appendectomy, carefully opening the ground and probing gently, as not to damage either the target or the matrix it resides in. And closing it up like you'd never been there.

Keep it clean and professional, Dirt Dog!

In order to keep from getting kicked out of wherever you are hunting, your excavating skills must be of the first order and not that of a dog digging a bone! Dirt everywhere, including your hair, and a messy, obvious soil-colored blotch on a park swale, or a manicured private lawn. And to make it even worse, sometimes not even filled back in, giving the dig the appearance of a small meteor crater. And to make it even worse, leaving a piece of trash you brought back into the world, laying abandoned next to the unfilled hole in the ground! Why ever would people frown on equipment-laden, clanking and beeping detectorists' marring the landscape everywhere they go?

Well, many times experienced, and not so experienced, detectorists have a tendency to aim barbs at the newbies in the hobby regarding this open hole issue. And why not? They have committed the ultimate crime of becoming a participant in your hobby, the dogs!!!! Of course they are leaving those holes!!!! But hold on just a New York Minute, my friend! I am a club officer in the largest metal detecting club in the United States. We have many club hunts and private permission hunts, on occasion, where the club members get to hunt some literally undetected virgin property here in Central Florida. Our membership ranges from brand new detectorists, even children, to the middle-of-the road detectorists, as well as the old men and women of the hobby, as they shine the golden light of experience and metal detecting street-smarts over the unwashed wannabes.

But what's this? A club hunt where a club member twists their leg after stepping in a freshly dug hole on the hunt-field? But no newbies in sight, only hardened veterans of the metal detecting hobby? Another hunt, this time on the beach, with another sprained leg after stepping into another deeply-dug, unfilled hole in the sand? Again, another member quietly reports seeing not a newcomer, but a veteran hunter dig and leave the gaping hole without even looking back! The good practice goalposts of the hobby are slowly moving back across the line, into the realm of unacceptable and irresponsible behavior, by even some of the best of us. I need not sound the alarm again about the danger to the continued health of our hobby this sort of negligence represents; the eventual outlawing of any metal detecting anywhere! So let's all agree to agree to do better, and to self-police our own pastime before police, city officials and land owners do it for us. Cheers!

Missing the Obvious - Turner Beach, Captiva, Florida

 Sometimes the search for treasure can put blinders on the detectorists' hunting it, and mostly without you even realizing it. I know, I have run up against this time and time again while treasure hunting. My old friend Ed Pfau, now detecting the great beyond, having passed many years ago, used to say "Don't miss the forest for the trees!" We were both enthusiastic about the hobby of metal detecting while treasure hunting back in the 1970's and 1980's and were well-traveled about the state of Florida while seeking it. I still retained my pilot's license back then, before diabetes clipped my wings permanently. Living in Broward County, but loving the history of Florida's west coast, many weekends we would load the detectors, coolers, and gear into the baggage compartment of my plane, and head for the islands of Lee County; Sanibel and Captiva were our usual destinations. 

These islands both had small, grass (read "sand") fields which with our rather light load, we could just make it in and barely make it out! The Sanibel strip actually crossed a paved road, with automatic barriers that would drop and stop traffic by keying your aircraft radio on a specific frequency long enough for you to land, or takeoff. We were usually looking for treasure on Captiva island, and most usually at Blind Pass, as it was always sanded in and easily accessed. We had it on "good" authority, that pirate treasure had been buried along the banks of this pass, and we spent a lot of time searching for it. On the Captiva side of the pass was a small beach called Turner Beach, which was a nice little spot, but we rarely even found clad coins there, let alone much else. There was a small bath-house/restroom/changing room up on wooden stilts, maybe 3-feet off the ground. 

Passing by it or being a little too close, brought a slightly unpleasant, acrid smell, you usually found about public restrooms of the minimal maintenance/rarely cleaned kind. The floor of the bath-house consisted of 4x6 lumber with a 1/4 to 1/2 inch gap between the boards, letting shower water, as well as  even more unpleasant fluids and substances escape down onto the damp, weed-covered ground directly under the structure. We were not impressed and did our best to steer clear of this disgusting little bath-house. We spent many more trips on the opposite side of Turner Beach, hunting treasure in the sandy regions of Blind Pass. I was in my office at work back in Broward County one afternoon when Ed came in and tossed a copy of the day's newspaper on my desk. He had circled an article with a black magic marker. The reporter wrote about a young guy with a metal detector who had ducked under the bath-house, into the excrement-filled weeds and had recovered almost $17,000 worth of gold and silver jewelry (and this is at 1988 gold prices!) along with clusters of high-grade diamonds the bling had contained. I looked at Ed and he looked at me. He said "I STILL would not have hunted under there, even if I'd known!" We both laughed until we couldn't laugh any more!

Recognizing Treasure - It Ain't As Simple As It Looks!

 Many times, treasure hunters may not always recognize treasure AS treasure. Now this sounds like some type of contradiction, but it's not. And this maxim forms the core of this afternoon adventure so many years ago. My friend Kevin Reilly and I were not only metal detecting pals, but also diving buddies. SCUBA diving and metal detecting was usually our MO when we were exploring and treasure hunting in mid-1980's south Florida, One of our treasure hunting targets had been a good-sized, cloudy water "lake" called Crystal Lake, in Pompano Beach, which was anything BUT crystal in your wildest imagination. There was an an old bare-barked tree leaning over the water on the south-side of the lake with a long, knotted rope dangling from one of the few remaining spindly branches. High school and college kids swing on this rope all day and every day during summer, doing the "cannonball" into the murky waters, 

We figured there should be a mound of class rings and gold chains under the impact point, and we were gonna make a killing on all that lost stuff! With our diving gear on, we waded slowly into the disgusting water, and dipped under the surface. If you thought the lake looked bad from the surface you were in for an an even more unpleasant surprise under the surface. Horrid stringy water plants rose up from the bottom, a nasty sewage-color, like mutated seaweed, you could not avoid it. Turning on our dive lights, the surrounding water was filled with plant debris and bits of organic particles, making it difficult to see much of anything. We descended deeper onto the plant-choked bottom, and tried to use our metal detectors among the close-spaced weeds, the coils hanging up on anything and everything. The few signals we got were submerged beer cans, pop-tabs and assorted car parts. We surfaced and Kevin frowned, with weeds hanging off his head and wrapped around his regulator. "We are not gonna find $#@! here in this sewer and I don't know why I let you talk me into this...there is nothing here!"

I nodded and said "Yea, not much here and yuck, what a mess in here!" We submerged again and headed back to the place we had come in, me shinning the light toward the bottom, about 10-feet down. A flash of yellow paint slowed me down a second as I played the light-beam along the bottom where I had seen the object. I signaled Kevin I was going deeper, and headed toward the object. The light revealed a sorry-looking Fort Lauderdale News/Sun Sentinel newspaper machine, dirty and weed covered. I moved the beam around the bottom and found two more machines, then a dozen, then even more. About 30 newspaper machines were lying in a heap on the bottom!

It looked like somebody broke open the coin-box on a bunch of them, then tossed em' in the lake to cover up the crime. We were about to surface and head back to the truck with an interesting story to tell, when I noticed a small plaque on the front of the machine that mentioned that there was a $50 reward for returning the machine to the newspaper!!!!!! Kevin and I grabbed a few lift-bags from the truck and brought up machines 4 or 5 at a time, With the truck bed full of dripping wet newspaper machines, we drove directly to the newspapers downtown office in Fort Lauderdale and true to the plaque, the good Sun Sentinel people handed us $1500 cash, in 50-dollar bills, on bill for each machine returned. We had made $750 each, in addition to an interesting story to tell. A much better turn of events, Lesson learned; treasure is not always easy to recognize, so look closely,