My First Hammered Silver! Well, SORT Of...

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

...actually, I hammered it myself but hey, what the heck!

Went out to an old school playground today. There were wheaties everywhere and a little silver. I don't know how many wheaties my buddy Jack dug but it was a bunch. I got a dozen of them and a 1955 Canuck dime. Also got two 1937 Mercs, one of which was a lawnmower Merc and badly bent. That's where the hammer comes in...I whacked it flat after I took the picture, new improved dime at the bottom.

Got a little clad too, not pictured.

 

[James N.D.]

Nice bunch of older coins that you found. I would have to say the Merc has seen it's better days. But it still is a siver dime so you can't complain about that. HH

 

[christopher-ohio]

NICE! ALWAYS great to find some silver and from your posts you've been adding alot to your collection lately...keep it up and you may corner the market like the Hunt brothers (when silver got up to about $50 an ounce!) I did some experimenting with the EX II today comparing settings. 18 auto just doesn't air test near as deep as 18. I know air testing is not preferred for the EX II but I was just trying to look at the variables and see what happens. I put a bunch of old coins, square nails, and other junk down in my basement on a thick fiber rug. The EX II definitely picks through the signals nicer than the CZ-70 (even with a 5 inch hockey puck coil I had on the CZ-70 and the 8 inch Minelab stock coil) but it seems best when working slower and kind of meandering/short swings knowing where the iron signal is and just working around it listening like I think Charles(UPSTATE NY) has posted. Closing your eyes and feeling your way around definitely trains your ears and swing-a little ZEN-like. Also, raising up until the signals disappear and then dropping down a little then swinging gives you more of the deep coin sounds. After you listen for awhile, it definitely starts to become more clear. Swinging over a 2 inch deep coin and the same coin at 8 inches definitely sounds different. I once hunted a 1900 house yard first with my CZ-70, then with the EX II. I was surprised at all the shallow coins I found that I missed the CZ-70. I'm still working to train the brain and ears for all the deepies. I have found deep wheaties with the "chirp" in cleaner areas, I just find the deeper coins in iron a challenge. I just switched to ferrous sounds and back to 10 variability from 8 and it's just more pure to me in the iron along with fast and deep on. That's the beauty and some might say the bane of the EX II...HH

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

I tried Auto sensitivity several times today on some deep targets (8 to 10"), when I was running 18, 20, 22, and 24 for sensitivity. In ALL cases the signals deteriorated and a couple of times they went away completely. Auto hasn't done jack for me.

I did a little testing today with the Explorer II and the CZ-70. I used both at the school I hunted. Both machines were digging down deep and getting impressive depth and I found some wheats at 8" to 10" with both of them. I found the two Mercs with the Explorer II and I knew they were silver from the beautiful high pitch song they were singing. I remember when I was digging the deep wheats with the CZ I was thinking that I really had no idea if it was a wheatie or a silver. I've come to appreciate the FBS tones quite a bit.

HH!