A Few Of Guessologists Finds

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Here's the first hour and a half with the E-TRAC in the field, pretty much defaults except sensitivity auto +2, trash = high and a quick pattern just knocking out the first 4 or 5 lines of iron:

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Best bits here are:
  • "Perfect" bicycle head badge, ~1900[/*]
  • De Witt's Catarrhal Cream ~1930s[/*]
  • Fouled anchor and "best ring edge" buttons[/*]
  • toy cannon or cart wheel[/*]
  • carbide lamp nozzle[/*]
 
E-TRAC first silver didn't take long...

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I've not done any tests on my own coins yet, wanted to hear it first time on a freshly dug coin and heck did it make a noise, the machine commands you to dig. The carbide lamp nozzle was only about 1m away, not sure why but the etrac loves them, got a set now to go on a double-headed holder I detected earlier in the year. I cracked a bit of a smile when the .22 brass came up as a low conductor - absolute bane of my life and I generally expect disappointment around that 10-14 or so on the Equinox - I can see that you would want this machine if you aren't able to dig absolutely every target in an area.

Getting some wonky deep ferrous signals too that are definitely interesting but I don't have the tools to get down to - it's enough depth for me for sure.
 
Good stuff today, a 1876 half penny, an Elizabeth II coronation medallion with Shire of McIvor on one face and an absolutely beaut bit of cast bronze from the old Mount Camel Station. Probably off some horse tack as there was a large buckle and a terret close by. Trove tells me that MOUNT C.P.D CAMEL as it is here was stencilled on the bales of wool produced at the station, C.P.D. being the initials of the owner, C.P. Davis. It's going to date from the 1890's to 1910's, not quite sure how it ended up where I found it...

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Still getting to terms with the E-TRAC, accidentally let the battery go flat and had to go back to the Equinox for a day but an interesting side effect is that I'm far more receptive to running 50 tones on the nox now, and I realised that I've been in a Park 1 rut for way too long. Slapping it into Field 2 is getting results for me, snagging absolutely tiny little brass targets which is quite fun, I'm sure it helps that I've cleaned out a lot of the bigger targets over the last couple of years too...
 
How good, a Coles Book Arcade token/medallion ~1885! Totally worth looking up the Book Arcade if you don't know about it, would have been an amazing place to hang out in. Seems to be the time for them, Wiley's recent thread is the only other search hit here...
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I agree.... it's such a thin layer, maybe a good soak in water for a while, then see if a bit of water pressure will lift anything that's softened up. That way you can see what's really stuck fast.
 
Not much luck, it's pretty tenacious stuff. I should invest in an ultrasonic cleaner, might help in cases like this a little...
 
Guessologist said:
Not much luck, it's pretty tenacious stuff. I should invest in an ultrasonic cleaner, might help in cases like this a little...

Good finds.

Can I suggest ... if you want to clean up something that you want for the collection rather than sell then try Andres Pencils, 0000 steel wool or magic sponges. Commercial value may be decreased but presentation-wise they'll come up better.
 
I've got a set of Andre's pencils, but pretty much the moved on to using 0000 steel wool on everything once I ran the pencil out, still use the brass and glued up steel wool ones though. Haven't used the magic erasers yet though.
 
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Three (admittedly rough) half pennies this morning, all different designs. 1909, 1915 and 1946. That's only my second 1915 so far, and coupled with the 1914 non-H that I pulled a couple of days ago I've been having quite a run on quality half pennies. Suppose that makes up for a serious silver drought I'm going through at the moment...

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I've managed to crack two long-standing sites of mine in the last week, that should have produced coins but just haven't come up with the goods until now. I'll attribute that to finding the Coffee Bush Kid's Youtube channel and binging his videos, taught me a thing or two about my own coil technique that was lacking.
 
Hit up one of the last post's sites and dropped the iron bias from F2-2 to F2-1, and had a good run:

Carriage or buggy nameplate, 1900s-1910's
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Silver jewellery, the star shape has a UK patent number dating to 1886
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Coins, including my second ever Chinese one, same as my first one funnily enough.
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Some buttons
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Tons of unfinished business still here...
 

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