Paid for my AT/Pro today

[fongu]

I haven't been able to go dirt fishing lately and had the fever so I scratched the fever yesterday. Starting out, I thought I had made a bad decision because all I found was lots of trash and a few clad coins. 4-dimes, 10-pennies, 3-nickels and 2-quarters. One of the quarters was about a foot deep and I bet I spent 30 minutes trying to recover it in neck deep water and I sure thought it would be a silver, but it was clad. Some people came up and I decided to work the side of the park that's always been disappointing and the wall on this side was full of pull tabs and other trash. 22 caliber bullets wear me out, but the tone is similar to jewelry and I dig and watch them fall back out of my scoop. I worked the side of the dock and went towards chest deep water and got a DVI of 64 which is what some of the pull tabs had been showing and found a chain and it fell out of my scoop 2-3 times and I said the heck with this I just made a bad decision coming to the river today. But, I didn't give up and was rewarded with a 14K chain. I don't have a jewelry scale yet, but it weighed between 1.0 & 1.1 ounces on my postal scale. With the 14K, 18K & 10K rings I found with my AT/Pro it's paid for and all the extra coils, also. 1st photo is the trash, 2nd photo is the clad and last, but certainly not least, 3rd & 4th photo is my best chain yet. 5th and 6th photos are postal scale weight. HH. Photo of clasp -(4)- wasn't plain enough to show jewelry stamp.
[attachment 270822 Harddayattheriverampreward-7-24-13007Custom.jpg][attachment 270823 Harddayattheriverampreward-7-24-13009Custom.jpg][attachment 270824 Harddayattheriverampreward-7-24-13011Custom.jpg][attachment 270825 Harddayattheriverampreward-7-24-13012Custom.jpg][attachment 270826 Harddayattheriverampreward-7-24-13001Custom.jpg][attachment 270827 Harddayattheriverampreward-7-24-13002Custom.jpg]
Now I have to start working toward enough money for a Sea Hunter and some of those new Gray Ghost headphones. There's deeper water with plenty of jewelry and nobody else is getting that deep so far.

 

[mudpuppy]

You really have been a dedicated and hard working detectorist...man, you earned it!
Mud

 

[BigCatDaddy]

Nice chain!! I got one much similar to that last year and it too was stamped 14 K on the clasp. When I started cleaning it, the gold started flaking off of the chain. The clasp was the only thing really gold....dangit!!

 

[fongu]

I want to get a gold test kit and check it out, BCD. I would be disappointed if it was fake. The weight feels right, but I want to make sure.

 

[knightsquad]

Looks a little dull to be gold no?
I don't know.. I sure hope it is though!
Pete

 

[mudpuppy]

Sometimes gold does get dark like that for some reason...I remember reading some of the posts on the water and beach detector forum about that. Let us know what you find out, take it to a jewelry store and they will tell you or test it for free I would hope..theres a pawn shop here that tested mine for free until I got a test kit of my own.
Mud

 

[William-NM]

That....is....EXCELLENT! I already had a digital scale, but wanted one that calculates grams to two decimals because you can easily find the specific gravity (density) of a metal item (& 2 decimals give a more accurate reading). Some older or partial/broken finds may not be stamped and some new ones may be fake, but the density test is 100% positive. So, for $11, I just picked up this little scale: http://www.ebay.com/itm/370546703910?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 . (I hope that works - otherwise, the item ID is 370546703910 (type it in the search box). No affiliation - just a pretty good deal. A lot of the 2 decimal scales only go to 100 grams, but this one goes to 300,

If you need a quick run through on how to do it, just ask, I'd be happy to help. There are also some youtube vids on it - but I wound up watching about 4 of them because they aren't all very clear.

I also splurged on some gold test needles (10K, 14K, 18K) and a larger natural acid test stone so I can test many mystery metals at once and do an easy comparison with known karat samples (the needles). Probably worth spending a couple of hours to master if you're going to be bringing home chests of gold like you have been lately!

 

[Ytcoinshooter]

I've pulled a few 10K and lower karat jewelry that had discoloration from the alloy reacting with salt water. See my "salty gold" post in the Excalibur/Sovereign forum. But you recovered that chain from a river? Get it tested & good luck.

 

[B.RATNY]

Nothing better than a hobby that pays for itself.. WTG
HH Butch NY

 

[ajaj]

Awesome. That's exciting! Remember the feeling of gold in the water scoop!

aj

 

[John-Edmonton]

n/t

 

[idaho dan]

Great Job!! A thousand mile journey begins with one step. You're surely on your way to finding many, many more!! What an exciting hobby this is!! WOW!!!

 

[61chip]

Congrats on the gold chain! It's awesome that you have paid for your Pro with funds, already! Gold has been eluding me, so it's gonna take some time to pay mine off

 

[widebody]

[size=large]congrats on the find. keep in mind the testing solutions have expiration dates. at the rate you're going that won't be a problem. you'll run out of fluid before targets. [/size]

 

[fongu]

I got quite a few items to test, widebody. Hope to order a kit by Friday.