1st gold jewelry with the CTX3030

After nearly 11 hunts with the CTX3030, I finally detected a couple of beach gold rings and a silver ring, on the 2nd-to-last hunt.

The CTX 11 inch coil pulled out an old broken 10k gold ring.
The 17 inch coil pulled out a deep 14k gold band out in the extreme low tide zone.

Previous beach and park hunts produced the other 3 silver rings and 3 silver dimes. The E-trac pulled out one of the silver rings and one of the silver Roosevelt dimes.



Here’s a photo of the 14k gold band and the old broken gold ring, along with the 4 silver rings.

Air-tested with:
11 coil
Auto-sensitivity = 16
Noise Cancel #11
ID = inner diameter (in millimeters)
Rings air-tested with ring parallel to coil, unless otherwise noted

carat ID   grams depth  FE-CO  max depth description
14k   19.5 3.09   4”    12-19    8.5”    14k gold band
10k   ---- 1.30   2”    12-02    4”      old broken 10k gold ring

Here are some before and after cleaning photos.
The 14k gold band had the typical reddish-brownish discoloration, and was cleaned using electrolysis, baking soda/water paste rubdown, and tumbling.
The 10k broken gold ring was another story. It also required using silver test acid to cut through the thick discoloration layers.
The silver mercury dime, at the bottom, was a hopeless cause.



Here are some of the other jewelry finds. The 1st day out with the CTX3030 produced the “gold plated” partial gold chain in the upper-right photo. I thought it was a corroded 10k gold chain, and thought it was my 1st gold find with my new CTX3030. But it turned out to be a heavy gold plate.



Here are some of the not so glamorous finds.

Detecting since Feb, 2010
E-trac with 18"x15" SEF, 13" Ultimate coil, Pro coil, Minelab 8" coil, 4.5"x7" SEF, Sunray target probe
CTX3030 with 17"x13" DD coil, 11" DD coil

Nice haul Digs_alot!

Looks like fun ;-)

Congrats

Nice!And let me say,you take the best pictures.

Nice digs..

Im most impressed with the broken 10K ring off the beach..

Keith

((( Keith...... agree )))

I found that EXACT same silver and opal ring maybe 10 years ago...cool.

Nice finds! WTG!

Looks like that machine is working well for you. Congratulations on some nice finds!

Thanks, all.

The camera’s macro function, along with lighting seems to work well.

One in Florida, and 10 years later, one in California. Cool.

It does appear to be more stable than the E-trac at certain “high falsing” locations where I hunt. But the sounds/target strength seems softer/smoother than the E-trac, which will take some time to get used to.

Usually, at least at the main beach where I hunt, the older 9k and 10k gold ring solder joint(s) corrode away, and the metal alloyed with the gold can leach out of the jewelry, making them lighter and brittle. (I’ve broken several of the older 9k and 10k gold rings during the cleaning process, my “broken rings of shame”). The ring face appears to survive the longest.

The stronger tidal currents can wash these ring parts up higher on the beach, and sometimes in the shallow sand areas and rocky areas. Fortunately, quite a few of these very low conductive broken rings were overlooked by previous detectorists at this beach.

Detecting since Feb, 2010
E-trac with 18"x15" SEF, 13" Ultimate coil, Pro coil, Minelab 8" coil, 4.5"x7" SEF, Sunray target probe
CTX3030 with 17"x13" DD coil, 11" DD coil

Congrats!

What did that broken ring register/sound like?

Aaron

Aaron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Congrats!
>
> What did that broken ring register/sound like?
>
> Aaron


At the beach, the conductivity was around 02 and had a very low tone. I don’t recall what the ferrous value was. Usually, when small gold jewelry is near or at maximum detection depth in the wet sand, the ferrous value can be up in the iron range. Even though the ferrous value can be very high in the wet sand, most of the very low conductive targets are either non-ferrous or stainless steel.

Below the 1st photo above are the results of the gold ring air tests, using Auto Sensitivity at only 16.

Detecting since Feb, 2010
E-trac with 18"x15" SEF, 13" Ultimate coil, Pro coil, Minelab 8" coil, 4.5"x7" SEF, Sunray target probe
CTX3030 with 17"x13" DD coil, 11" DD coil

Congrats on some great digs.
Corey