Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

looking for gold coins on a wreck

B

bobboy

New member
Hi all, I am a proud owner of a wreck the 'Elingamite' which sunk in 1902. There's very little left of the wreck except bits of twisted pipe (lead, brass and copper), the odd bit of heavy steel and several thousand gold 1902 half sovereign's. all this is buried under a foot or so of small rocks and corroded bits of steel residue. Is there any u/w metal detector that would sort out the coins from the rest of it? I was looking at the excalibur 1000. Two last things there's also a heap of silver coins that tend to get in the way and all this is in 40 metres (140 ft) of water so time is limited. Thanks for any help
 
The only suggestion I have is blow it up, and bring clumps of it to the surface for sorting. No detector on earth could do the job your asking, well none I know of anyway. Best of luck with it! HH regards Nugget.:)
 
I thought as much but didn't know enough to know if i was right. It seems i'll need to use your method ie 'crackers' rather than stealth. Ta for the help
 
You are gonna have to move alot of rocks and then detect. I doubt any detector will handle all that iron/steel very well underwater. Time is your enemy. How long can you dive before you have to come up. Dont remember my scuba charts. One other possibility is using an underwater dredge to move rocks and sand out of the way. Your pump would be up on the boat pumping downwards so head pressure shouldnt be a problem under water but you would need a 150 feet of lay-flat water hose. That is a tough wreck to dive at that depth but the gold might be worth it.
TNBob
 
We've rigged up a dredge to suck loose stuff into baskets so we can sort it on the boat however we are a bit constricted by bottom time (25 odd minutes) and there are big currents and seas on the site most of the time. You can see more at
http://www.stirlingsdive.co.nz/trip_report.htm
and
http://www.stirlingsdive.co.nz/gallery_kings.htm
 
Took a look at the dive site, it looks like a difficult job especially at that depth! Perhaps you could do a sequence of small explosions, and winch the larger clumps of debris aboard? In all honesty I think that the site would be too difficult to detect, however, maybe the Garrett Infinium could sort some of the gold and silver for you, if there is not too much steel in certain areas. Do any of you have rebreather cert? Would this be an option at all? I wish you all the best in your endevour, be safe! regards Nugget.:)
 
the Minelab Excalibur.The iron mask works well,but can be over run by
too much iron. I would probably get the 800(8" coil),as it would probably
work better in your situation,and could seperate targets better.IMHO.
Another thought ,depending on the size of the iron pieces,is to get
a large industrial magnet and sweep areas first,then detect.That of
coarse would not work on large hunks,just scrap.Good luck,be safe,
and do everything by the book(tables).HH Joe
 
Ta for that. There's not a lot of iron around as after 106 years its mostly rotted away but there is a lot of other metals like brass, copper and lead. Would this confuse things when looking for gold and silver? It's a lot of $$ to spend if it doesn't work but worth every $ if it does.
 
As for the Excal 1 or 2,I don't think there is a lot of difference.I have seen
some great deals on used ones($800 with the new yellow phones& few hours),
but you need to buy from a reputable person/dealer.As for the copper,lead,
etc.,these metals can sound a lot like gold,and hard to pick out the
differences.I think you may just have to dig it all.You could consider an
air lift and basket,but not sure on the details for depth and compressor
size and how much lift for the material you are working with.Some of
the old pros might be of help,or maybe Bob Marx's book on How to
find Treasure.I believe that was the book that explained air lifts-sizes of
compressors,hoses,tubes,lift,etc.Good luck on the project and be
safe.HH Joe
 
The new ones come with a 1 year warranty,and some dealers give the
extended warranty with it ,giving you a full 3 years.Nice if you are using
it a lot.I don,'t know what those gold coins are worth on the open
market,but I would think they could pay for the detector in short order,
depending on how many there are,and how efficently you can get them.
At that depth,you want to have a machine that is in good condition,
just like your dive equipment.Hopefully you have a Spare-Air with you
also at that depth.Be safe,Joe
 
Just an update for those that helped. Went up there with some 'crackers' to loosen up the bottom but the bugger at the explosives shop sold us old stuff which meant half wouldn't go off which was a bit annoying to put it mildly, we got our money back though, i guess the moral is never piss off someone who has an explosives licence. However we did get a bunch of silver coins plus 2 gold half sovereigns which was nice. Didn't take a metal detectors as it seemed a lot of money to send if it didn't work. We also took up a dredge system but the currents were too strong to use it.
 
Well I hope that you do manage to do the job, all the very best with it! HH regards Nugget.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top