Gold rings and Tin Foil is there a way to tell the difference?

[Kevin_Fayette_Pa.]

hi everyone
I have a question and I'm hoping someone can answer this for me. how can you tell the difference between gold rings and tin foil? I was out metal detecting yesterday and I was using the new CTX 3030 and my buddy was using my E-Trac And he a found a gold ring, the gold ring read 12-2. I have never found a gold ring except for a class ring. so , I had my buddy put the ring on the ground and I wanted to see what it read for me I got 12-2 and that was iffy. myself I would have not dug the gold ring thinking it was tin foil or trash. now I can only ask myself how many gold rings have I passed over. any help and happy hunting

 

[goodmore]

You want a gold ring you need to dig it all. That simple. Your buddy was lucky. Depending on size and purity gold can come in anywhere.

Rings are round like coins. They tend to give the same VDI from every direction. Foil tends to give different nimbers when swept 90 degrees. But if you want to know for sure you need to dig it.


If you keep hunting the same place over and over dig a certain amout of low signals like that each time and then stop. Eventually you will get them all.

If cherry picking gold was easy everybody would own a detector. And all the gold would be gone. Just like most hobbies you are rewarded for hard work and being smart.

 

[Dr.Deus]

Thanks for the tip goodmore. i tried doing a little gold digging this weekend but i ended up with a pocket full of foil, can slaw and pulltabs. but it was fun trying. HH

 

[Kevin_Fayette_Pa.]

n/t

 

[WildOutdoorAddict]

I have yet to find a real gold ring and I have dug and continue to dig foil and pull tabs. I've found many fake one rings though. Even with those, when I see the shape my heart races like wildfire. As a matter of fact, I have yet to find a real silver ring. But I've found some nice silver coins and earring etc...... Like someone else mentioned, gold isn't easy but I'm not giving up!

 

[Doctorcoinz]

The only known method to tell a lump of foil from a ring is to get an idea of target size in pinpoint. With some detectors you can get an idea of target size in pinpoint.
I can't do it so well with my explorer though. In a way we are still in the stone age with regard to discrimination , i know detectors have come a long especially the explorers with there great discriminating
ability but i like so many others dig too much rubbish in the hope of a ring find. I would say in another 20 - 30 years detectors will have the facility to give a much more accurate idea of the target shape.
A nice feature on minelabs of the future would be target sizing and shaping id.

 

[Doctorcoinz]

Yep it sucks paying 2 to 3 k for a detector just to dig junk when a 200 dollar detector would do just the same thing.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

I have always found with the 3030 that foils tend not to have the strength in signal in PP mode. That is if you have a signal that won't carry the same in PP its most likely foil or can slaw. I hunt mostly the beach and have proven this in the last year that I don't dig those weak signals. However if the target sounds the same in both modes then its surely dug. Being on the beach this takes seconds as compared to the dirt. Gold and solid targets will always ramp up and down the same with little dragging and always sound round!
BCNJ

 

[aurumpro]

Hi guys
I have found that the audio response of MOST aluminum is broken or ratty sounding and the target Id usualy changes slightly if you sweep the coil over the target at 90deg.
Where as the gold signal will give a stable uniform target Id and the audio tone will be smoother ether a mono tone or a double tone depending on the rings orientation, if the ring is flat it seems to give a mono tone and if the ring is vertical or on an angle it will give a double tone.
But perhaps one of the best ways to help in some areas is to use the depth indicator feature.
Example:
When I'm serching a particular area I always take note of the depth the good targets are coming from and the depth that the lighter aluminium/junk targets are coming from.
I've found that when serching for the older coins and jewelry that they generaly would have sunk in the ground to around the same depth and the lighter junk will still be near the surface.
I have 1 spot that I frequent that if the target is NOT below 150mm it is nearly always junk.
Others have serched this place many times but when my friend and I went to this place with the CTX we were abe to extract more than 200 old 1930 - 1760 siver coins about 500 pennys and various jewelry items and digg only a couple of hand fulls of junk and modern coins.
Sure we would have left some good targets doing this but there is that much aluminum trash that is shallow that it is vertualy unserchable any other way, unless you want to digg junk all day.