Tom_in_CA
Gold Member
- Mar 23, 2007
- 13,804
- 10,336
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
I know "commissioned" aka "tame" finds probably don't qualify for banner votes rules, but here's a fun commissioned hunt story nonetheless:
A fellow had buried gold coins in a city near me (for hiding or safe-keeping or something) about 5 years ago. But when he'd gone back late last year, to dig them up, he couldn't remember exactly where he'd buried them. He had hidden them in a buddy's yard. And the friend of his, over the years, had done landscape work in the general area. So years later, when the two men went to retrieve them, the friend had un-wittingly changed the look and lay of the land. Bushes now in different spots, etc... And fence posts that ....... at the time years ago, seemed a "cinch" to remember by ........ now all of the sudden "every fence post looks the same", doh!
After digging a bunch of dry holes, the man went and bought an Ace 250 for $200. He spent several hours digging a variety of junk items from the yard. But alas, no gold coins
He figured maybe he just wasn't using it right. So he went to the local detector dealer and asked if there were anyone in the area who was more familiar with detectors, who would come look FOR him. The dealer referred him to me. I went out the first time, and discovered the problem: The man who owns the yard, had gone out a few years ago, and put about a hundred shiskabob skewer spike things, in the ground, all over his yard, to hold down some fabric. You know, the type fabric you put down when you're intending to spread tan-bark all over. And these iron pokey skewer "U-shaped" spike things were be-devilling our standard detectors. After an hour of trying to see through them (figuring that the size item he was describing would certainly "over-power" shallow iron), I finally gave up in defeat.
I wondered if a 2-box machine would be fit for this job. NOT so much because of DEPTH needed, but more-so to simply see through all the surface small iron, and STRICTLY only-find larger items.
After many schedule delays, the man and I were finally able to coordinate our schedules for another try yesterday. This time I came to his place with a 2-box unit that the local Whites dealer was gracious enough to loan me. After doing some tests in a nearby field on a soda can, it seemed like it was fit for the job. Simply gives no signals on a pile of 6 or 7 clad coins, yet DOES give a signal on a soda can
So we took it in to the yard, and started going over the same area we had tried months ago. Finally, after about 10 min of trying to discern every single quiver of audio, a larger better "beep" came through 
We dug down, all the while pulling these nuisance shiskabob skewer things aside as we dug ... And then.... CLUNK, hit the top of a plastic box. There she was! The man .... who was by this time beginning to wonder if he'd ever see his gold coins again, was ecstatic
He allowed me to take these pictures. As you can see, there's close to 40+ gold coins here. Double eagles, and a whole bunch of commemoratives from various countries (maple-leafs, krugerands, etc...). The commemoratives appeared to be in both 1/4 and 1/2 oz. sizes (eg.: $5 and $10 size). Easily $20k to $30k worth of gold there, at today's prices.
Some day I hope to find a non-commissioned non "tame" one of these, but in the meantime, this was a fun little hunt. The man tipped $250 for the work, of which I will be splitting that with the dealer for the referall.
A fellow had buried gold coins in a city near me (for hiding or safe-keeping or something) about 5 years ago. But when he'd gone back late last year, to dig them up, he couldn't remember exactly where he'd buried them. He had hidden them in a buddy's yard. And the friend of his, over the years, had done landscape work in the general area. So years later, when the two men went to retrieve them, the friend had un-wittingly changed the look and lay of the land. Bushes now in different spots, etc... And fence posts that ....... at the time years ago, seemed a "cinch" to remember by ........ now all of the sudden "every fence post looks the same", doh!
After digging a bunch of dry holes, the man went and bought an Ace 250 for $200. He spent several hours digging a variety of junk items from the yard. But alas, no gold coins
He figured maybe he just wasn't using it right. So he went to the local detector dealer and asked if there were anyone in the area who was more familiar with detectors, who would come look FOR him. The dealer referred him to me. I went out the first time, and discovered the problem: The man who owns the yard, had gone out a few years ago, and put about a hundred shiskabob skewer spike things, in the ground, all over his yard, to hold down some fabric. You know, the type fabric you put down when you're intending to spread tan-bark all over. And these iron pokey skewer "U-shaped" spike things were be-devilling our standard detectors. After an hour of trying to see through them (figuring that the size item he was describing would certainly "over-power" shallow iron), I finally gave up in defeat. I wondered if a 2-box machine would be fit for this job. NOT so much because of DEPTH needed, but more-so to simply see through all the surface small iron, and STRICTLY only-find larger items.
After many schedule delays, the man and I were finally able to coordinate our schedules for another try yesterday. This time I came to his place with a 2-box unit that the local Whites dealer was gracious enough to loan me. After doing some tests in a nearby field on a soda can, it seemed like it was fit for the job. Simply gives no signals on a pile of 6 or 7 clad coins, yet DOES give a signal on a soda can
So we took it in to the yard, and started going over the same area we had tried months ago. Finally, after about 10 min of trying to discern every single quiver of audio, a larger better "beep" came through We dug down, all the while pulling these nuisance shiskabob skewer things aside as we dug ... And then.... CLUNK, hit the top of a plastic box. There she was! The man .... who was by this time beginning to wonder if he'd ever see his gold coins again, was ecstatic
He allowed me to take these pictures. As you can see, there's close to 40+ gold coins here. Double eagles, and a whole bunch of commemoratives from various countries (maple-leafs, krugerands, etc...). The commemoratives appeared to be in both 1/4 and 1/2 oz. sizes (eg.: $5 and $10 size). Easily $20k to $30k worth of gold there, at today's prices. Some day I hope to find a non-commissioned non "tame" one of these, but in the meantime, this was a fun little hunt. The man tipped $250 for the work, of which I will be splitting that with the dealer for the referall.
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