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Question about GOLD

Hey Simplex peeps.

I'm closing in on about 100 hours on the Simplex. I feel like I'm getting to know the machine. I've found tons of clad (not literally, but probably close to $60 for my 100 hours), 8 or 9 rings (2 really nice ones) and a bunch of other cool and interesting stuff. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that unless or until I get some permissions, I'm going to be hunting jewelry in parks. It's fine, and I enjoy it. I don't see myself pulling any old coins out of parks in the near future, because my state is so damn young.
I'm consistently hunting the oldest park in my state (Utah) and getting SKUNKED as far as silver coins. But I find rings on a regular basis.

My question: What range VDI on the Simplex should I be paying extra attention to in order to really focus on Gold Rings? I've found a few different silver rings / items and I feel confident in that. But I really want to zero in and concentrate on gold jewelry.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!
 
Oh brother I feel your pain! Im running both a Fisher F5 and F75 and no gold as of yet. Nearly 30 silver rings and about $400 clad (and a few silver dimes/quarters from an intramural athletic field. Found a silver half and a silver dollar but no gold. After I inquired about the same thing you are I found out it most likely hits in the foil range (smaller womens) clear up to low zinc (mens larger rings). I have sleays dug nickels and they are there too. Found all this out after walking the better part of 15 acres of ball fields and ignoring foul and tabs and zinc. I’m guessing its the same on most machines, dig it all.........
 
'dirt swinger', there are a lot of variances in site-opportunities around the state of Utah. Matter of fact, there are differences wherever we may travel or be. I am a native Utahan from Ogden, and over the last five and a half decades my Utah travels have let me hunt many towns from St George to Snowville, and I can assure you I have not stayed away from quite a few ghost towns and other old sites.

I hunt any place I travel to, and although I have lived in various parts of Oregon most of my life, I get to Utah very often to see friends and family. Naturally, for me that includes as much detecting time as I can put in. I likely will be back there two weeks from today. All my years of detecting travels have shown me that some locations have been quite productive, most locations would be about average, if there is such a thing, and then there is the category for locations that are just very slow producers. Sometimes that is because there's just not enough human activity, or type of activity, to generate very much small-tarkgt loss. To be most successful at finding quantities of coins or as much jewelry loss as possible, 'location' is the key.

The type of site, and the amount of activity a site gets, will be the main factor in our search success. If we find a lot of jewelry in most tot-lots it is generally going to be costume jewelry associated with the age group of the youngsters who played there. That does not exclude finding good silver and gold jewelry, because I have found a lot in those types of sites, but the higher percentage is going to be costume jewelry.

Since it is generally adults who wear most of the gold and silver jewelry, we are better off if we hunt the types of sites where most young adults and adults frequent, especially those that have some sort of reason for there to be good-jewelry loss. That would draw our attention to places such as swimming areas, wading areas, sunbathing locations, sports fields and so forth. Keep in mind also that you can often find more jewelry at certain locations then you can silver coins because jewelry is still being lost and has over the last 55 years that they have not been making silver coins.

Another reason as that as the years have progressed since we got coin-target ID back in '83, as more and more hobbyists have been using TID detectors, we have had a growing percentage of people who will ignore any target that does not give them a nice and proper lock-on for a coin. Therefore, they will recover more of the coins that are out there but leave more trash, and that includes any good targets that produce a non-coin and likely-trash ID.

And because there is such a wide variety of sizes and shapes and karat or percentage ratios of gold and silver jewelry, from smaller to larger, from thin to thick, and due to all these variables good jewelry can range anywhere from close to the ferrous / non-ferrous breakpoint on up to the upper range of pull tabs or into screw caps. I have found a couple of 24 karat gold rings that read like a penny, but only two in over half a century of detecting. The bulk of the gold rings are typically in the foil to upper-end of nickel range, but there are so many other types of good jewelry, such as earrings, neck chains, wrist chains and ankle chains, pendants, charms, ---- and many, many more desirables.

As for silver coins, those are not a problem at all with about 9 out of every10 dimes or quarters being silver. OOOOPS!!! I forgot, this is not the late sixties and early seventies anymore it is 2020. Sorry about that, just a little late-night dreaming again. But that's how it was when I started detecting in March of '65 and it continued to be very good with many silver coins being found for the next decade, and then, thanks to all the activity from hobbyists getting out there, the number of silver coins has been diminishing.

Are there still silver coins to be found? Of course, but again I'll make reference to 'location' being of utmost importance. We have to try to find the sites that have been missed in the past, work old-use sites patiently and methodically to try and locate any leftovers, and that also includes an encouragement to recover all targets at any old site. In short, you can forget about Target ID and just use the good old 'Beep-Dig' approach to successful metal detecting.

That will help get the shower masking trash targets out of the way so you'll have a better chance at finding older and possibly deeper coins, and along the way you're also likely to recover some of that good jewelry that is out there that has a conductivity similar to common trash. Thus, it's a win-win.

Monte
 
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I would concentrate on any good sounding targets between 20 and 70, so just below US nickels to just above zinc pennies. Any target that is 6” or less deep and lands in that range could easily be 10K to 18K gold.
 
Oh brother I feel your pain! Im running both a Fisher F5 and F75 and no gold as of yet. Nearly 30 silver rings and about $400 clad (and a few silver dimes/quarters from an intramural athletic field. Found a silver half and a silver dollar but no gold. After I inquired about the same thing you are I found out it most likely hits in the foil range (smaller womens) clear up to low zinc (mens larger rings). I have sleays dug nickels and they are there too. Found all this out after walking the better part of 15 acres of ball fields and ignoring foul and tabs and zinc. I’m guessing its the same on most machines, dig it all.........
Thanks for taking the time to respond! Appreciate the info!
 
'dirt swinger', there are a lot of variances in site-opportunities around the state of Utah. Matter of fact, there are differences wherever we may travel or be. I am a native Utahan from Ogden, and over the last five and a half decades my Utah travels have let me hunt many towns from St George to Snowville, and I can assure you I have not stayed away from quite a few ghost towns and other old sites.

I hunt any place I travel to, and although I have lived in various parts of Oregon most of my life, I get to Utah very often to see friends and family. Naturally, for me that includes as much detecting time as I can put in. I likely will be back there two weeks from today. All my years of detecting travels have shown me that some locations have been quite productive, most locations would be about average, if there is such a thing, and then there is the category for locations that are just very slow producers. Sometimes that is because there's just not enough human activity, or type of activity, to generate very much small-tarkgt loss. To be most successful at finding quantities of coins or as much jewelry loss as possible, 'location' is the key.

The type of site, and the amount of activity a site gets, will be the main factor in our search success. If we find a lot of jewelry in most tot-lots it is generally going to be costume jewelry associated with the age group of the youngsters who played there. That does not exclude finding good silver and gold jewelry, because I have found a lot in those types of sites, but the higher percentage is going to be costume jewelry.

Since it is generally adults who wear most of the gold and silver jewelry, we are better off if we hunt the types of sites where most young adults and adults frequent, especially those that have some sort of reason for there to be good-jewelry loss. That would draw our attention to places such as swimming areas, wading areas, sunbathing locations, sports fields and so forth. Keep in mind also that you can often find more jewelry at certain locations then you can silver coins because jewelry is still being lost and has over the last 55 years that they have not been making silver coins.

Another reason as that as the years have progressed since we got coin-target ID back in '83, as more and more hobbyists have been using TID detectors, we have had a growing percentage of people who will ignore any target that does not give them a nice and proper lock-on for a coin. Therefore, they will recover more of the coins that are out there but leave more trash, and that includes any good targets that produce a non-coin and likely-trash ID.

And because there is such a wide variety of sizes and shapes and karat or percentage ratios of gold and silver jewelry, from smaller to larger, from thin to thick, and due to all these variables good jewelry can range anywhere from close to the ferrous / non-ferrous breakpoint on up to the upper range of pull tabs or into screw caps. I have found a couple of 24 karat gold rings that read like a penny, but only two in over half a century of detecting. The bulk of the gold rings are typically in the foil to upper-end of nickel range, but there are so many other types of good jewelry, such as earrings, neck chains, wrist chains and ankle chains, pendants, charms, ---- and many, many more desirables.

As for silver coins, those are not a problem at all with about 9 out of every10 dimes or quarters being silver. OOOOPS!!! I forgot, this is not the late sixties and early seventies anymore it is 2020. Sorry about that, just a little late-night dreaming again. But that's how it was when I started detecting in March of '65 and it continued to be very good with many silver coins being found for the next decade, and then, thanks to all the activity from hobbyists getting out there, the number of silver coins has been diminishing.

Are there still silver coins to be found? Of course, but again I'll make reference to 'location' being of utmost importance. We have to try to find the sites that have been missed in the past, work old-use sites patiently and methodically to try and locate any leftovers, and that also includes an encouragement to recover all targets at any old site. In short, you can forget about Target ID and just use the good old 'Beep-Dig' approach to successful metal detecting.

That will help get the shower masking trash targets out of the way so you'll have a better chance at finding older and possibly deeper coins, and along the way you're also likely to recover some of that good jewelry that is out there that has a conductivity similar to common trash. Thus, it's a win-win.

Monte
Monte, thanks for the generous time and wisdom. It's much appreciated.
 
I would concentrate on any good sounding targets between 20 and 70, so just below US nickels to just above zinc pennies. Any target that is 6” or less deep and lands in that range could easily be 10K to 18K gold.
Funny you say that 20 is just below US nickels. For me, I've yet to pull a nickel out of the ground that isn't holding steady at 31. I mean, like, ROCK STEADY at 31. If I'm seeing that number, I KNOW I'm digging a nickel. It's my most reliable ID. Have not dug any nickels in the 20s. Thanks for the gold range though. It's a big range, but I'll keep digging!
 
You'll need the patience of a saint to dig all the junk from 20-30 !!! You'll be amazed. I know when I see 29-30, it usually a nickel.
I did find 1 name ring on that 29-30 range . Crappy signal but glad I dug it !!! Gotta dig an awful lot of junk to find gold in the dirt.
Best bet is to try and find a 'not so trashy' location and dig every good, repeatable signal.

Good Luck,
HH
Donna(NJ)
 
Funny you say that 20 is just below US nickels. For me, I've yet to pull a nickel out of the ground that isn't holding steady at 31. I mean, like, ROCK STEADY at 31. If I'm seeing that number, I KNOW I'm digging a nickel. It's my most reliable ID. Have not dug any nickels in the 20s. Thanks for the gold range though. It's a big range, but I'll keep digging!
If you do a nickel air test it should read 24 unless you have a really weird nickel. In the ground depending on depth I have seen nickels jump around between 20 and 50 or so. There is usually a 24 in all of those jumpy numbers. Also, have you done the latest updates to either 2.77 or 2.78? The new Park 1 is great and target ID stability is much better on shallower 6" or less targets.
 
If you do a nickel air test it should read 24 unless you have a really weird nickel. In the ground depending on depth I have seen nickels jump around between 20 and 50 or so. There is usually a 24 in all of those jumpy numbers. Also, have you done the latest updates to either 2.77 or 2.78? The new Park 1 is great and target ID stability is much better on shallower 6" or less targets.
I've been on 2.78 for quite a while now. I've literally never had a nickel in the ground below 30. And 95% of the time, it's DEAD ON 31. It's the most solid ID I get for coins.
 
You'll need the patience of a saint to dig all the junk from 20-30 !!! You'll be amazed. I know when I see 29-30, it usually a nickel.
I did find 1 name ring on that 29-30 range . Crappy signal but glad I dug it !!! Gotta dig an awful lot of junk to find gold in the dirt.
Best bet is to try and find a 'not so trashy' location and dig every good, repeatable signal.

Good Luck,
HH
Donna(NJ)
Thanks so much. I'll start meditating and working on my patience. Maybe I'll have a cocktail before I detect!
 
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