Report From First Class Miners Club member :Jon Carlson

This event was hosted by FMC and several prospecting clubs were invited including PCSC.

“Wade, The Bounty Hunter”

There were 25 participants in the coin hunt on April 27th at Ord Mountain. Two of which were youngsters including Wade age 13.

When registering Wade asked, “Will there be Nickels”? He knew that he needed to set a nickel down to make sure his discrimination control was set properly for this hunt.

His detector was a Bounty Hunter “Fast Tracker” an entry level detector introduced in 2013 for about $100 In stores such as Big 5 sporting goods. Sometimes they would go on sale for as low as $80.

The hunt had 20 U.S. Antique Coins listed as prize tokens. The first 5 on that list were designated as Grand Prizes. Next, there were 20 Lincoln cents from 100+ years ago that were buried 3 to 4" deep. Then, there were two tiny Sim Cards from a cell phone at surface level. (The Bounty Hunter wouldn’t find these). There were also 500 common Dime coins. The token coins and dimes were hidden to be found at surface level. Not too difficult. The Lincolns were more difficult as they were deeper.

At the hunt’s end the prize tokens found were called out for choice of prizes from a list.

The #1 Coin Token had not been found. Wade had found both the #2 and #3 tokens and had his first choice of one of the grand prizes. His #3 token had his choice of any of the other prizes that were not designated a grand prize. Additionally, Wade had found two other coin tokens that were on the list.

There were 20, 100-year-old Lincoln cents in the hunt and Wade found two of them.

One Lincoln cent buried in the field was dated 1921 and was designated to win a 1921 Silver Morgan Dollar. That 1921 Lincoln was not located. The back up token for the Silver Dollar was a Casino Gaming Chip with a Silver Star bonded to it. Wade had found that chip and won the Silver Dollar.

Wade also found a Liberty Head Nickel and an Indian Head cent that were not “Prize Tokens”.

Wade at age 13, competed in a field with 24 other hunters many of whom are expert nugget shooters, many were armed with state-of-the-art detectors costing $1000 or more.

Wade is a member of Prospectors Club of Southern California.

As a side note FCM member Yvonne found the largest token and the smallest. She Found a $20 Gold Piece replica and one of the tiny, itty bitty Sim cards. Not surprising, as Yvonne is often in the winner's circle at hunts.

Here is my take on the hunt results. Wade was focused on the hunt, he moved efficiently, and his detector complemented his efforts. He was not distracted by signals from aluminum foil or tiny pieces of lead or iron. It was a perfect storm for him. He was tuned correctly for the hunt such that he was able to locate even the deeper Lincoln cents. He didn’t burden himself with a bunch of awkward or large digging tools which were not needed. Using discrimination properly he did not dig much trash.

While the hunt was in progress I wandered and observed. I observed many hunters spending way too much time in trying to locate faint signals that turned out to be foil or tiny lead bullet fragments. Their time would have been better spent going for the “solid” signals.

After the hunt was over and the prizes awarded, I announced the remaining coins that were on the prize list and not reported as being found.

1. A 1891 Half Dollar 2. An 1865 two Cent piece, 3. A 1911 Quarter 4. A 1905 Dime

A number of hunters returned to the field and continued the search. One of whom was FCM member Steve Scaman who is an accomplished hunter with a top-quality detector.

Steve reported finding the 1911 Quarter out in a open area, a strong signal somehow previously missed.