Metal detector finds

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Richard gladfelter, May 3, 2018.

  1. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    I miss Richard who started this thread.
    Time to do a little recap. Well I did some detecting in Colorado 30 years ago but I didn't have much success. I did pull 4 silvers (2 rings, an earring, and a piece of a bracelet) and I dug up a half dollar from a dog walking strip, I thought that was cool. But I only really had 1 decent hunt. So I never really thought about it, I did pull up a dollar coin here about 25 years ago. Around 10 years ago she's like why don't you start doing that again? My old rig was fried, I bought another one but it sat in the box for a while before I put it together and headed out.
    After my previous experience, I never thought for a million years I would have gotten all this swag. Out here I am over 43,000 targets recovered. I just hit 40 half dollars (including the 1st) which makes 2 rolls. I know they aren't worth much, but they are so large I really like them. I have 1 90% Benjy and 1 40%, and a few lower mintage but no NIFCs. I have 162 dollar coins, 3 Ikes which are just monster sized. And I think 4 NIFCs. Almost 10,000 quarters almost 7,000 dimes, over 3500 nickels and of course almost 17,000 pennies. I have found 12 golds. 2 chains, 1 religious medallion and 9 rings. I expected to find zero gold. 123 silvers, mostly rings, but some coins, and some cool odds and ends that aren't rings. 21 pieces that are stamped but fake, 7 plated, 166 foreign coins, a few of them are pretty cool, almost 1400 pieces of junk jewelry, over 300 arcade tokens (car wash tokens, etc) over 300 miscellaneous. Pressed coins, etc. I have 28 things listed as other. Tungsten rings, stainless steel, things that are made very well but don't contain precious metals. The tungsten is very interesting. It never tarnishes and never needs to be polished and it has a very good resale/ retail value even though it's not a precious metal. Also found $60 in cash and another $5 in Colorado. Things are starting to slow down here as they have locked up all the elementary schools, and the playgrounds were great for finding, money, dollar coins, silver rings. I still have the parks but they are not as good. And the ground here has been picked over for decades by metal detectorists, so there's nothing left, and the ground is like cement. No one was doing what I was doing, so I was cleaning out all the schools when they were open on the weekends. Never expected to find anything, and I am at over 3700 in money, and the value of the silver and gold almost 700 in silver and over 2500 in gold. 9 volt battery prices keep going up as well as gas, and I cant find good headphones anymore, they break too soon. So there are expenses. Anyway, not bragging, because I never expected to find anything, and I was very serious when I would go out. That's just how I am.
     
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  3. BRandM

    BRandM Counterstamp Collector

    A lot of good memories, Michael. That's what it's all about.

    Bruce
     
  4. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    A lot of nickels. Didn't make my gas. day525.JPG
     
  5. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Made more than my gas but I expected better. Hooked up the new camera. day526.JPG
     
  6. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Made more than my gas. The wheatie is 1929 looks better in hand, the reverse has some detail and a little luster. day527.JPG 100_2429.JPG 1929R.JPG
     
  7. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Gonna try acetone on this coin and see if anything improves.
     
    SensibleSal66 likes this.
  8. SensibleSal66

    SensibleSal66 U.S Casual Collector / Error Collector

    Okay. I like seeing the before and after Pics. ;)
    My guess is that it won't improve too much. Maybe I'm wrong. :sorry:
     
  9. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Well when I found it I could see luster and details on the reverse and I figured it was from the 1950's, as older coins are usually slicker on the reverse. The photos seemed to reveal some crud that was not as apparent in hand. There's no risk as this is not any kind of rarity, and I want to see if some of the goo comes off the obverse.
     
  10. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Results are in after 2-3 days. Didn't really "clean" anything, but I think the
    photos are a little better. Still looks better in hand. The camera sees all, I guess.
    1929O.JPG 1929R.JPG
     
  11. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Year end hunt. Used just less than 1 gallon so it was OK. day528.JPG
     
  12. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Top Finds for the Year this will take more than 1 post. 5 half dollars 8 dollar coins, 9 silvers and 2 gold. The hunts are chronological. 1st half and even though it's not gold colored it's a 10K gold ring.
    10Kgold.jpg
    1st dollar coin abe.jpg
    2nd dollar coin. NIFC Native American dollar. NIFC.jpg
    2nd half. half2.jpg
    3rd half and 1st silver. half3 silver ring.jpg
     
  13. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Part 2.
    2nd silver. silver cross.jpg
    American Innovators NIFC 3rd dol coin. AIR.jpg AIO.jpg
    4th dollar coin, 4th half/ 3rd silver. DC Half40.jpg
    4th silver. Didn't realize until after I got home. Agdime.jpg
    5th dollar coin. Pierce. Pierce #5.jpg
     
    Mr. Numismatist and ksmooter61 like this.
  14. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Part 3
    Dollar coin #6 and silver ring. 5th silver. DC6 silver ring.jpg
    This must have been stamped 925 but it came back fake.
    fake.jpg
    Dollar coin 7. DC7.jpg
    Scrap silver. Broken part of a necklace charm I think. 6th silver. scrap ag.jpg
    10K gold chain. 2nd gold. 10k  gold chain.jpg
    Silver ring. 7th silver. silverring.jpg
     
  15. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    Part 4 finale.
    Silver charm. 8th silver. silver charm.jpg
    8th dollar coin gold plated. I've pulled a gold plated penny 1960LD, and a quarter South Dakota and now a Susan B. 8th gold plated.jpg GPR.jpg
    5th half. 9th silver. End of 2025. Gonna work on 2024.
    5th half silver ring.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2026 at 5:21 PM
  16. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    In 2024 there were no golds. But I have been averaging 1+ per year (12 in 10 years.) Also 1 year I pulled 50 dollar coins so of course I am not going to show all. I will show some of the top highlights. In 2024 3 halves, 14 dollars and 8 silvers. I will see if anything is photo worthy. 1st hunt was good with 2 dol and a silver ring. 1st hunt.jpg
    This silver ring with a secret compartment was pretty cool. secret.jpg
    This has a gold tone but it's a silver ring. Dol coin. silver gold.jpg
    I pulled a small silver ring and a Daniel Carr design Cook Islands $1 commem. carr.jpg
    I went Sat and Sun 3 dol same site on Sat, 1 and 1 on Sun. monster.jpg
    Dollar coin and a silver ring at the same site. bern el.jpg
    A nice silver ring. ring.jpg
    I thought I did my final hunt, but I was not happy with it, so I did one more and pulled this. bagged.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2026 at 7:37 PM
    Eric the Red, ksmooter61 and gronnh20 like this.
  17. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    2023 was the fewest amount of hunts. We moved and it was very stressful. So no golds and no halves. But there were 5 dollar coins and 6 silvers in 14 hunts. Doing the recaps because I have a feeling things are going to slow down in the hunts. The 1st one was good as I bagged a dollar coin and a silver medallion. ALOT of the religious stuff is stamped and fake, but this one was good. 1st hunt.jpg
    Small silver ring. silver ring.jpg
    Silver ring, dollar coin. snake ring.jpg
    A Canadian silver dime. Can't see the date on the reverse, 1920 ish.
    Can dime A.jpg




    2 dollar coins and a tungsten ring. tung.jpg
    A nice big silver ring on the surface. tiguex.jpg
    Last hunt of the year. Dol coin and small silver bracelet. final hunt.jpg
     
    Eric the Red and Mr. Numismatist like this.
  18. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic numismatist Moderator

    Cool find on the Canadian dime. I dug a Victoria Canadian large cent one time that had the date in the middle of the reverse all worn away like that.

    Your Wheatie barely looks dug. Congrats on the dollar coins and the bracelet and rings.
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2026 at 7:15 AM
    Michael K likes this.
  19. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    TY lordmarcovan
    In the mid 1990's we lived in Colorado and I did it for a couple of years without much success. 86 hunts 678 targets around $45 in finds. Had 1 good hunt. My best finds were 4 silvers, 2 rings an earring and a piece of broken bracelet. A half dollar, and a 5 dollar bill, which was sitting on the ground in the exact spot where I found one of the rings. Also 5 or 6 wheaties. When we moved to NM, I went out around 2000 or 2001 and pulled my first dollar coin (SBA). But my rig was fried and I fig I wouldn't be doing it anymore. Around 2016 she says why don't you do that again? (I took her out a few times and she found some cool stuff.) So I order a new rig and it sits in the box for a while and then I think I started around June 2016. Out here, the totals are better over 43,500 targets. Over $3700 and more than that in gold and silver. True it's mostly pennies, almost 17,000 but there's almost 3600 nickels, almost 7000 dimes over 9800 quarters. 39 halves one a Franklin and the other a 1967. 161 dollar coins 4 NIFCs I think, and 3 Ikes. 12 golds and 123 silvers, some of them cross indexed with the nickels, dimes, quarters and halves. There's also some cool non precious metal stuff, tungsten rings (they never tarnish and don't need to be polished) and some stainless steel rings as well as some other stuff, $60 in cash, pressed coins, a buff nickel, 78 wheaties etc. Here's the tungsten on the left: TgSt6-25.JPG
    A few more since this photo. Pressers6-25.JPG
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2026 at 8:39 AM
  20. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic numismatist Moderator

    What signal range do tungsten rings fall into? I never found one.
     
  21. Michael K

    Michael K Well-Known Member

    The tungstens are VERY solid, similar density to gold. My rig is not that sophisticated. When I had better headphones, I could hear the difference
    between zincs, nickel, copper pennies and dimes, quarters, silver, gold etc.
    The halves and doll coins give a stronger signal because there's so much copper there. And likewise with the tungsten you just get a generic strong, solid signal. Cause it's a big chunk of metal. Those headphones which were better acoustically were constantly breaking (wires) and they don't even make them anymore. I have used all diff kinds, but now I basically get good signals, trash signals, zinc signals and nickel signals. I preferred it before when the target was reasonably discernible. On to 2022. Only 3 halves but one 90% 1958-D. 13 dollar coins, 12 silvers and 1 gold. Photos later.
    Early in the season was this kooky hunt where I pulled a 7 wheatie spill. As well as a nice silver ring. I must not have thought the earring was silver because I don't have a close up of it. The ring with the wheaties is junk. junk 0.jpg ring doll.jpg ring.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2026 at 10:18 AM
    Mr. Numismatist and lordmarcovan like this.
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