Treasure Stories

Rare 1840’s campaign metal recovered by 13 year old!

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

White's Electronics,

Austin is a White's V3i user from Catskill, NY. He started metal detecting a few years ago. He has recovered cannon balls, colonial coins and artifacts from old foundations in his area. His collection is outstanding.

Last week he recovered a very rare 1840's Henry Clay presidential campaign metal. This metal has a value of approximately $1,000. I have detected with Austin many times and consider him an expert with his detector. What's really amazing about Austin is that he is only 13 years old.

Thanks White's,

Bob

Lost Treasure weekend in the Catskills

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Hi White's,

The Lost Treasure weekend June 4-6 at the Blackthorne resort in the Catskill area of New York was a great success. In addition to the multiple seeded hunts each day you had a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt revolutionary war properties that were only available on the day of the hunt. Over 100 hunters from all over the country showed up for the event.

Hundreds of prizes were won in the seeded hunts & some great recoveries were made in the colonial sites. In the unseeded hunts I recovered a 1781 Spanish silver reale & few early American large cents. I saw many early American coins & artifacts recovered by others. One of the most notable finds recovered on these properties was a rare 1840's Henry Clay campaign metal. This item was recovered by a 13 year old boy Austin using a white's V3i. Steve of Canton Connecticut was the winner of the White's V3i presented from White's by Bob at Northeast Metal Detectors. We had so many prizes it would be impossible to mention them all. It was simply one great detecting weekend.

Thanks for the help and donations on this event.

Bob at Northeast Metal Detectors

My great gold find with my DFX!

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Dear White's,

I have a great story to tell you! It's been two years since my last great find, a 1683 Spanish Cob. This one was this past April 2010. My 2 hunting buddies (Andy and Tony) and I were at the Jersey Shore hunting low tide late at night. It was nice out and the beach wasn't producing much so we quit hunting around 2:00 AM and went back to the house. I knew I only had about 20 coins but I had about 4 pieces of silver jewelry, the most I ever got in an outing so I was thrilled.

Andy and Tony took their coins in and started looking at what they found I only took in my jewelry. They both started saying "silver dime, silver quarter, buffalo nickel, wheatie". So I said well I have to have some too, so I went and got my 15 or so coins and laid them on a napkin.

Now, just to let you know how this happened. When we were out on the beach earlier, I was wearing my hat with a light built into the brim. I had gotten a signal, I recall around 1:30 AM and had briefly turned my light and looked down into my scoop and I said to myself "great, a shiny new penny it couldn't be something good" and proceeded to dump it into my side basket.

Now back at the house, with the coins on the napkin, as I spread them out and popped that "shinny new penny" (or so I thought) I quickly held it up and said "Hey Andy, what's this coin, some kind of French coin?" Then a few adjectives were shouted as Andy proceeded to tell me that I had actually found a 1928 2 ½ DOLLAR GOLD PIECE! And it is in fantastic condition! I wish I had looked better at it on the beach instead of throwing it into my side basket for the last ½ hour of hunting.

It's probably every treasure hunter's dream to find a gold coin! I got one in 4 years of semi-serious treasure hunting. You just never know what the next swing will bring! Thanks White's, couldn't have done it without you!! I used White's DFX with the Super 12" loop.

Mike from Etters, PA

Life is good with my V3i

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Dear White's Electronics,

I've owned the Spectra V3 since last year, April 2009 it being my first new White's machine since purchasing the GM2 some 20 years ago. The V3 was definitely different from my old 6000Di Pro but I quickly began finding items.

Now jump ahead to just about a month ago and I took my V3 to my dealer and had him ship it off to get the upgrade to a V3i. It was assuredly a different machine; they had made a good detector GREAT. My first weekend out I went to some schools and park I frequent acquiring plenty of newer coins and items but also scored nicely on four rings that weekend, two silver, one 18K gold at 16.2 grams (that's a half ounce of gold) and one copper in not too great a shape. So the V3i in my book is a detector that just keeps finding that good stuff in places heavily worked before, no complaints from me.

Attached are two photos: The one of the four rings and the second one is what I found detecting with the V3i the next week. Life has been good with my V3i.

Carl
Orangevale, CA

V3i pays back to those who serve our country

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

I Love My White's Spectra V3i!

The V3i has just given me more than silver & gold it has given me more than hours of family fun. We have been to parks, Family events & countless nights in the back yard with the kids just digging from our past. Hey kid's look this used to be daddy toy car & that might have been granddads junk lol.....
Needless to say we love the beach & to have freedom cause of our troops who protect our shores. We are able to spend time with our family playing in the sand because there serving the country.

While playing with my family up & down the shore we found a symbol of freedom in the sand it was a good one as it was this ring that belong to a man who is known as Major Bowdish in the Signal Corps Army Infantry 1/114 for operation freedom, this was a great find! To know he lost it here in the USA means he made it home.

White's has given my family so much and now we have the chance to return this ring to him & thank him for his service.

Thanks White's

Timothy (NJ)

Lost platinum wedding ring found with XLT and returned

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

White's Electronics,

This is from an email from Matt on how the ring came to be lost.

"Sarah and I were married on 3/29/09 and live in Austin, Texas. We're both originally from San Antonio. After an unusually hot summer in Austin, we decided to book a trip to Colorado Springs from 9/20 to 9/25. On 9/24, we decided to drive up Pikes Peak. Unfortunately, it had been snowing that week, and the road was only open to the half way rest stop. We drove up there and walked around some, took pictures, and threw snow balls.

After driving down, we went to lunch, and I realized I wasn't wearing my wedding ring. I thought maybe I had forgotten to wear it that day. But then I looked at the pictures on the camera and I was wearing it on some of the pictures of Pikes Peak. I knew it must have flown off while I was throwing snowballs. We decided to drive back up and look for it. We walked around the snow for well over an hour before deciding to give up because it had started to snow fairly heavily by then, and we were tired. We were extremely disappointed because we were flying out the next morning and would have to leave without my ring. Upon returning to Austin I posted an ad in the lost and found section of the Colorado Springs Craigslist."

I started Metal Detecting in the early 70's. It's a great hobby and I have shelves full of finds, jars full of coins and other neat stuff. But one jar is special. In 1999 I upgrade to White's top of the line XLT and that's when I started my special ring jar. But not all of the rings I find go into the jar. Returning found items is one of the great rewards of this hobby. I also go out of my way to support this hobby by getting permission to hunt any area.

On October, 12th 2009 I was checking the Lost and Found section of the Colorado Springs Craigslist and found a posting "Lost Wedding Ring - Reward!!! (Pikes Peak)

I answered to the listing and soon got a reply, he was going to work on a map of the area he was in and get back to me. I contacted Jo at the Pikes Peak Highway Head Quarters for permission to look for the ring. She contacted the Pike National Forest Office and I was granted permission to look for the ring on 10/24/09.

We had permission to look for the ring but now we had a new problem. Winter storms had added over two feet of snow in the area of the Half Way Rest Stop. The hunt for the ring would have to wait until spring and my return to Colorado after a Snowbird trip to Texas.

I emailed Matt on 4/29/10 with an update on the search for the ring. Finally the last week of May it started to warm up and it was time to look for the ring. On 6/07/09 I contacted Jo at the Pikes Peak Highway to check if it was still ok to come up and look for the ring. Jo was no longer with the Highway and I after updating Sandy, her replacement, I was again given permission to look for the ring.

I arrived at the Rest Stop and got out the map and pictures that Matt had sent me in October. I located the two areas to search. I had planned to use my stock coil (9") on my XLT because it would give me a wider coverage on my swing. But I changed my mind. With the stock coil I move to fast and don't get a good overlap on my swing. So I went with the White's Bullseye 5.3" coil. I find the smaller coil forces me to slow down. I loaded one of my custom programs for Jewelry. Then tweaked it to accept VDI's down to (-10) I had posted a thread on White's Forum last October wanting to know what the VDI for a Platinum Ring should be. One of the Forum members, Deolslyfox, posted it should be somewhere between zero (+0) and twenty (+20).

I started my search from where I though Matt may have toss the snowball and headed to the tree he was aiming at. When I reached the tree and started my return leg I realized I had left my grid flags in my truck. After getting the flags I started over. This time when I reached the tree I placed my marker and moved 24 inches to the left and start back.

About halfway on the return leg I got that sweet sound of a good hit. Looking down there was the ring partly covered by a few pine needles. I took another swing to get the VDI, (+21), not what I was expecting a VDI for a pulltab. Could this be some other ring? From Matt's email I only knew that it was a Platinum Wedding Ring. I set a marker flag and went to my truck for my camera. After a couple shots of the ring I picked and with my loop looked at the ring. The Jewelry Mark was "PLAT DIANA" so it was a Platinum Ring. But was this Matt's ring? Engraved inside the ring was "S.P.B. to M.S.M. 3-21-2009". This had to be the ring Sarah gave to Matt!! In less than 15 minutes I had found the ring and was heading back down the mountain. I stopped at the office to tell Sandy I had found the ring. I also got a picture of the ring with one of the Rangers.

When I got home I sent an email to Matt "So is 3/21/2009 a special date? Send me your address and I'll ship your ring."

JC (CO)

Strangers help find lost wedding ring

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Hi White's Electronics,

I am sending you this story concerning an article that appeared in today's newspaper -- The Orange County Register which is one of the largest newspapers in the USA. In today's local section of this paper, this article almost covered the whole page and had to be carried over into another page in this section.

This story started out where I saw an article on Craigslist Lost & Found List on June 9 of a lost mans Gold Wedding Band which was lost the day before. I normally don't go out looking for men's rings but this article was worded in such a way, it cried out for me to make contact with the lady that placed this ad.

I found out that the couple that lost the ring was both out of work and replacing this lost ring at this time was out of the question plus the sentimental value was beyond anything money could replace. This was a newlywed couple that married later in life (first for both). I made email contact with the lady that placed the ad and immediately after -- I got a phone call from her.

Within the hour, she was conveying answers to my questions of exact time via emails, how far out in the water was her husband when it was noticed it was lost. Any land marks that would help me pin point the lost area more precisely? etc. etc. This ring was lost in about knee deep water at about 2 PM in the afternoon on June 8. Checking the tide table at that time showed me that the tide was at high tide.

I made up my mind that I wasn't going to go out looking for it until Friday morning - June 11th. Upon checking the tide table for June 10 as well as for June 11, the tide was lower in the morning on June 10 so all systems told me that I must go then for the best chances of me ever finding this ring even if I had to wade out in the surf a ways.

As soon as I hit the beach that morning at first light, I was the only one on this beach outside of a couple way off to my right that I could see was looking for sea shells. I fired up my White's XLT and headed out into the exposed rocks which were made visible because the tide was out but not for long because the tide was coming in and was at its lowest at 2 AM this same morning.

As soon as I stepped into the rocky area with my detector (water curling around the rocks), my detector made contact with an item that my screen showed it to be a ring or a pull tab. Well naturally, I dug it up and it was a pull tab. By this time the couple that were originally to my far right, were now within talking distance.

I held up the pull tab and asked this couple if they wanted a pull tab ring because it wasn't the ring that I was looking for. I was then asked "What type of ring was I was looking for". I then responded back, a man's gold wedding band with scallops all around the outside of the band. The next question from them was - anything inscribed on the inside of the band and my answer back was "Love you forever but I didn't remember word for word nor did I remember that an inscription inside of this ring after the wording stated PS 112. Which I found out later stood for Palms 112.

The lady that I was talking to then held up this ring and said "Is this the ring you're looking for". This lady is visiting from Utah and outside of this particular day& the day before that she visited this beach, she was then heading back home on June 12th. This ring is now back on the finger of the man that lost it and his wife was so taken by the events that led up to this ring being found, she made contact with the newspaper that had a photographer & a reporter on site the next morning at 6 AM to capture all who played a role in this Miracle.

The article in the paper the next day was titled "Fellowship of the Ring". Even though my detector didn't find it directly, it did play the key role in bringing this whole story to a Happy Ending. The link to the story is: <http://www.ocregister.com/news/ring-253029-billie-debbie.html>

Sincerely,

AL (CA)

V3i strikes water

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

V3i Strikes Water

I went to a park to try Foxes new settings before it started to rain, well I was hunting an old baseball field by the backstop and got a reading of a solid quarter at 9 inches. I dug my plug the full length of the lesche blade then pinpointed again dug some more and before I could pinpoint again the hole filled with water so I scooped it out and it filled right back up. I decided to come back another day and covered the hole which by now was a muddy soup. I might have discovered a new use for the V3i LOL dowsing for water.

So far the new settings for the C & J correlate program is sweet I was around all kind of EMI tall overhead power lines and had the RX Gain set to 15 and she ran smooth. I only hunted for an hour and netted: 6 Q, 11 D, 1N, 9P, all clad and part of an ear ring as well as a religious medal from Italy.

Thanks for looking

HH Sarge

Bill finds his 100,000 penny!

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Bill Green (The Penny Man)

Bill Green lives in Apopka, Florida (the heart of the tourist vacation sites). He has been an avid
metal detectorist for over 42 years. He has always maintained a ledger of his finds but about ten
years ago a friend persuaded him to concentrate on his penny finds. The man became a
fanatic when it came to finding pennies. He doesn't have a successful day until he finds at
least 100. I can tell you, 100 pennies is mild for him. I detect with him a lot and if I find 50 pennies
Bill will have 150. If I find 100 (on rare occasions) Bill will have 250. The most pennies that he
has found in one day were 572. It would take most people over a year to find that many pennies.

June 7th was a monumental day for Bill because he finally found his 100,000th penny.

He has used many metal detectors but about 15 years ago he fell in love with White's
machines. He has used White's 5000, the 6000 DI Pro, Eagle, Eagle Spectrum, Eagle Spectrum
XLT, the M6, two DFX's and was recently introduced to the Spectra 3.

We all know a machine is only as good as the person operating it. It didn't take Bill long to master
his (new toy) and now no one can keep up with him. It is frightening when you see what this man
finds. Every time he uses it he gains more skill and his finds are unbelievable.

Along with his 100,000 pennies think about all the other coins, jewelry, artifacts and odds and ends
he has recovered - all with his White's detectors. Congratulations Bill!!!

George
Orlando, FL

A bit of humor: The morning of June 7th, Bill only needed 71 pennies for his 100,000. We both
figured this would be a "no brainier" we will be home by noon. After searching a lot where a house
had just been demolished and five (5) parks it wasn't until after 3 PM before he finally found the coin
he needed. It just goes to show you that nothing is guaranteed in life and metal detecting.

My Memorial Day find with my MXT!

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Dear White's Electronics,

On the morning of March 31st (Memorial Day) I woke up and decided to get a little digging in. So I called my digging buddy up and we decided to go to an old faithful spot I have. I have dug a lot of relics at the spot although they are getting fewer and fewer.

When we arrived I decided to hit all the trashy spots first, like beside the road and down the driveway. I was using my MXT with the 950 Eclipse coil. Second good signal of the day read 83/84 so I carefully dug a plug. Still in the hole, so I carefully continued to dig this sweet tone until I was about 6 inches deep. Seen the green patina, reached in the hole, and flipped over my first sword belt plate! There is a hand stamped number on the back # 762.

Mike (WV)

DFX finds Breitling Watch!

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Hi,

My name is Don and I own a White's DFX for approximately 3 years now. I'm mainly a beach comber and I've found my fair share of jewelry to more than pay for the detector 3 times over.

Last week while detecting the dry sand in the beach jewelry mode, a loud tone sounded out. Thinking it's a soda can I still like surprises and low and behold up came a plastic bag with a watch in it. It was only buried 4 inches down/ I found watches before, and they always seem to be the famous ten dollar knockoffs, so I wasn't too excited about it.

When I got home I emptied my side pouch and took a closer look at the watch. Must be fake! So I left it on the bureau for a few days then curiosity caught up to me and I decided to bring it to a coin/jewelry store. I showed them the watch and they checked it with the magnifying glass, then tested it for gold—18kt it's real!!!!

They offered me $2,000 for it. The watch is worth over $4,000!!!! A big THANK YOU to all who make the finest detectors ever made... WHITE'S!!!!!!

Don (NY)

V3 finds 1800 draped bust half dime

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Hi,

I was just putting together a story about some of the amazing finds I'd had with the Spectra V3 this spring in various locations: a 14K opal ring with 18 diamonds at the beach, a nice 1801 Spanish reale in an old field, and a 100 year old monogrammed silver ring, while not worth a lot of cash, is a really cool historical find, and actually one of my favorites.

Then, just the other day, I went to a small park that has been hunted to death, where even the clad is hard to find, and the Spectra V3 found this beautiful 1800 draped bust half dime. VDI was +53 (I thought it was going to be a zinc penny or a silver earring), and it was 4 inches deep. I couldn't believe it.

I don't know if the V3 found it where other machines missed it, or if by luck no one had hit that spot, and I don't care. Coin was graded VF20, worth $2500 undamaged, unfortunately coin had taken some damage from being in the ground over 200 years, but I was still offered more than half what I paid for the V3, for one coin.

Thanks White's!

Randy (PA)