Gold: Primer 101

[Peachy]

It may suprise some of you to learn that gold is NOT the best electrical conductor that there is. It is not even in the top three! #1 silver, #2 copper, #3 annealed copper and coming in at #4, gold. I have been in arguments about this for years. "Then why is it used in high end electrical connections?" I've heard that probably a hundred times. The only reason is that gold, 24 karat gold, is very resistant to tarnish and corrosion, not because it is the best conductor. If gold were more common than copper, we still wouldn't have it for house wiring. I am not preaching to those in the know ,but so much gold gets passed over out in the field because of low reading numbers. Gold falls right between copper and aluminum electricaly. If you are not digging aluminum, you are not finding all of the gold that you detect. Keep in mind that most jewelry is not 24K, it is much to soft to hold up to use. So now, the readings drop even lower or higher. A simple test: set your wedding band, or other gold jewelry ( no settings, stones, solder), on the ground and in an all metal mode scan it. What reading do you get? Now, switch to a coin- jewelry setting and what do you get? Did it even register? Over the summer, lets do this here, Detector brand, setting, meter reading and karat. I think that we all stand to learn something. If this has already been done, let me know.
Spring peeper ready to leap!
Just sayin'

 

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[Trooper733]

AMEN peachy.

 

[Peachy]

Sorry for the rant. I am sitting here with my local know it all. Well,was. Spooling up new fishing line and POW he blurted some nonsense.

 

[woof!]

Peachy, I hope you listened carefully to that "nonsense".

 

[woof!]

Trooper, I wish that the wicked would flee when no man pursueth, but half the time that isn't their strategy, they're convinced they can "stand their ground" and win even after the cops have told them to back the hell out of it. ......When I say "wicked" I really do mean "wicked", unfortunately I'm not at liberty to recite specifics. Glad to say that at least this one isn't about the metal detector industry.

 

[Skippy SH13]

I'm game. I'll pull out both my Ace 250 and Ace350 and run some gold tests on it, and report back the tones/notches for the various sizes (by gram). My wife has some lovely pieces that range from thin women's bands, to thick wedding bands. Wish I'd done this before selling the rings I just had, but it should be ok.

Skippy