Question on Strange Occurance...

I don't hunt gold/jewelry on land. Too much junk to wade through. I'm more of a silver/old coin guy. Love the history.

Strange occurance today. I got a solid 38 signal on my Safari. Repeatable from every angle. Again, rock solid 38. Depending on depth, it could be a wheat or silver. This was a shallow target though. Just 2 or 3". Decided to dig it anyway since it sounded good. Besides, even if it was just clad, dimes & quarters still add up

Dug a plug maybe 3" deep. I can see something shiny in a clod of dirt. Wow, silver, I thought! Wrong. It was a gold ring. 14k with an emerald stone. I said to myself; how in the heck did gold come up so high? After the shock wore off, I recovered the hole & swung my detector over it again. Still a solid 38 signal. Opened the plug back up, took the dirt out again and inserted my pinpointer. Maybe a half inch down, I pop out a clad quarter. Soooo...

Why didn't the gold ring register AT ALL on my VDI? It wasn't deep. And it was ABOVE the quarter. Yet, the Safari only heard & registered the coin. I could understand if the coin was on top, but, not the ring. No wavering whatsoever. No bounce from high tone to low/mid or vice versa.

What say you???

Joe



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2013 11:20PM by njnydigger.

Many many machines register gold rings as coins/silver

I've found many gold rings reading exactly the same as a silver dime or silver quarter (and clad quarter #'s too) with an AT Pro. 2 or 3 CZ's, and 2 in one hole with the Etrac.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2013 12:33AM by MichiganRelicHunter.

Hi, I agree with Michigan Relic Hunter 100%....I have had gold class rings that I could not even knock out past the tab settings.....The size and density comes into play on some gold rings as far as VDI's go....I'm not familiar with the VDI's on a Safari but you seem to be lucky with a pair of 38's ...LoL.... Anyways congratulations on your gold ring that's better than a bowl of Wheaties any day....JJ

Joe I had a strange occurrence over the weekend relic hunting I got a good sounding target dug down a couple inches and up pops a Indian arrow head the next scoop up pops a big rusty bolt. Finding that arrowhead was a first for me while detecting. I guess it was just luck.

Joe........ what does the gold ring ID as.... on the Safari...... in open air (air test)?

My question is how big is the ring as large mens college type rings will read high coin....
Another aspect what is the metal the gold ring is mixed with to maintain durability and could be a copper alloy causing a high reading.
Last but not least did you take to a jeweler for verification as many gold plated costume jewelry out there and yes some is mismarked and counterfeit which would explain a high reading..
In any case that what drives us as you never know until you dig and buried soda can masking both the quarter and the ring would result in a high reading

Hi, I read your strange occurrence story again and thought you said both the ring and quarter each read 38....I now assume that the ring will read a lower number 14 or so and the quarter will read 38....Even summed up your detector only seen the more conductive target....It was just a coincidence and pure luck that you got the ring.........I am now more curious as to what the ring VDI's at, now that it's out of the ground.....Thanks Tom for bringing this to light.....JJ

Ring comes in 12, 13 or 14, depending on sweep speed, angle I'm passing it in front of coil, etc.

Joe

Quote

Why didn't the gold ring register AT ALL on my VDI?

If a clad or silver quarter registers at about 37-39 on the Safari and the ring registers 13 - then the ring wasn't conductive enough to compete with the coin. In most cases, unless a ring is thick or has high gold content (alloys decrease conductivity) the ring will produce only a very weak signal - which by itself is just above foil trash and around small brass buttons. Since the FBS machines primarily operate at a very low frequency - the excitation of the ring surface is going to be minimal, especially if the ring is thin (little room for surface eddies to circulate).

At 3" in the ground with FBS machines, it is likely a ring will be perceived as foil or brass junk with its TID below 13. In the ground the ring probably was only in the 6-7 response area - maybe even lower (if at all), so much so that it adds little to the phase display.

In the end, you found the ring only because it was in proximity with the quarter. Finding small jewelry and rings is not the FBS machine's forte. For that you'd want to look at a much higher operating frequency detector (which would have picked the ring up alone in the ground without the help of the coin).


But if you want to find more rings - dig those low conductive signals - the foil to nickel area. That's were the thin white and yellow gold rings will be (if they register at all).