New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

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If you find a gold ring, should you hand it in to the Cops ? - Well I thought it was the right thing to do..

digger		Posted : Sunday, 6 January 2013 12:54:09 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 13/09/2012(UTC) Posts: 40 Location: Wellington Thanks: 14 times Was thanked: 3 time(s) in 3 post(s)		I was out walking with my V3i along my local beach and, within a few minutes of hunting came across my first gold diamond ring. I wanted to yell "oh yea baby" but as there were other beach dwellers around I thought it best,,, not to indulge my passion. :) Anyway the guilts set in a little latter, as it appeared to be a wedding band so I took it down to the local cop shop and handed it in. The girl there said it looked like a cheapie (though it had 4 hallmarks and three diamond looking stones) and wasn't that keen for me to hand it in. I did so, filling out my side of the paper work. I asked if, in future should I keep bringing in any gold rings I may find. She said only if they are valuable.. (How do I know that ?? haha) So do we hand in gold rings or just add them to our coin collections.
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Shilo		Posted : Sunday, 6 January 2013 9:26:42 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 29/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 573 Location: Kawhia Thanks: 17 times Was thanked: 285 time(s) in 185 post(s)		What to do with finds is really up to the finder - there is no right or wrong. For myself whether I hand it to the police station or not depends on both of the below being true: 1. Value of item. I go on the melt value of the gold - thus if the melt is over a couple of hundred then I will take it in, if not it goes straight into my collection. I ignore the stones on the ring as their value will follow the gold content, for example the chance of that large flashy "Diamond" on a 1.5g 9ct gold ring being real is very slim but most likely will be if it was on a 18ct ring . 2. Age of drop. It is no use bugging the police if the ring found was 7" down in the dirt or only exposed because of heavy sand erosion. But if it was found near the top of the dry sand of a busy beach then it most likely only got lost the last couple of days and the person would still be looking for it. Getting the ring back from the police after the 3 months still does not give you ownership of the ring but it does show that you took all reasonable steps to find the original owner which could make reselling it easier. Also remember that if somebody looses their $10 000 diamond ring then after a few weeks they would have claimed it on insurance. If you do find that person and give the ring back they could walk away with both the ring and a $10 000 cheque from the insurance company. Once they have claimed then it is the insurance company that is has ownership. Edited by user Sunday, 6 January 2013 9:30:39 AM(UTC) \| Reason: Not specified
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Shilo		Posted : Sunday, 6 January 2013 9:54:12 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 29/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 573 Location: Kawhia Thanks: 17 times Was thanked: 285 time(s) in 185 post(s)		By the way to work out the value of a ring: Find out the percentage of gold it is made from. There should be either something like 9ct or 18k on it, alternatively it could be a set of 3 numbers like 375 (which is 9ct - 37.5% gold). Weigh the ring in grams on a set of scales. Use an online scrap gold calculator to work out the value of the gold content of the ring for example here: http://www.goldcalc.com/ Convert to NZ dollars Deduct 25% for refinery / trading costs This will be the minimum value of the ring. Don't sell it for any less. If it contains precious stones then using the info above browse Trademe or Ebay etc to see what comparable 2nd hand rings are selling for. Diamonds are a problem since their prices range so much. The smaller ones are almost worthless but if it looks like it is close to 1/2 carat in size then it will be worth taking it into a jeweller for a valuation. This will cost around $90 so you have to be sure it is going to be worth it. To check if it is a diamond without getting it appraised you will need a diamond tester like this one on Trademe. But this will not tell you the size or grade of the diamond. Edited by user Sunday, 6 January 2013 11:01:30 AM(UTC) \| Reason: Not specified
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digger		Posted : Sunday, 6 January 2013 7:59:45 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 13/09/2012(UTC) Posts: 40 Location: Wellington Thanks: 14 times Was thanked: 3 time(s) in 3 post(s)		That's a brilliant answer, thanks Shilo! Say just out on the limb, do you use polar plots or sizing. I used a polar plots. I think the one I found was a 9 ct but the polar looked really good with the 2.5 Hz registering strongly, unlike the one I would see for a pull tab with the green 2.5 hz registering very low. Even though the Vdi's are close-ish
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Shilo		Posted : Sunday, 6 January 2013 9:26:04 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 29/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 573 Location: Kawhia Thanks: 17 times Was thanked: 285 time(s) in 185 post(s)		Actually I rarely use polar plot or the analysis screen any more. It is great for shallow targets especially coins but once the target is over 5-6" down it starts to become unreliable, instead I go on how well the 3 bars line up and how clear it sounds. Then I pull the trigger for pinpoint and take note of which is the predominant frequency. On pinpoint: for gold the 22.5hz (top) will be the longest bar, for silver the 2.5hz (bottom) and for $1 or $2 coins the 7.5hz (middle), matching this info with the VDI & tone tells me what to expect the target to be. But there are exceptions - for pull tabs the 22.5hz can still show up strong and I have had times when both gold and silver (3p's are bad for this) come in strong with the 7.5hz so again its not 100%. A lot of it depends on the depth, surrounding mineralisation (inc ground balance) and the detectors settings. If I am feeling choosy about what targets to dig like when hunting parks I will ignore any prominent 22.5hz targets with a VDI of 25-30 as this is where the modern pulltabs show up the most (old style pull tabs can have a very short 2nd tone as it picks up the tab) . Though doing this does mean I still run the risk of missing gold but most gold has a VDI of 40-60 for large mens bands or 10-20 for small women's rings. As yet there is no detector made that can discriminate a pulltab from gold if the golds conductivity falls into the same range as pulltabs. The advantage of the V3i is that it can supply so much information that you can make a very good judgement whether to dig or not, but its still not 100% and at least when hunting on the beach I will dig all good sounding targets since one of those 1000 of pull tabs could still be a gold ring. For targets that are likely to be deep (like on beaches) I simply use Mixed Mode and dig every target apart from iron which is set to show up on the screen but with almost no tone (have set it to 5). I mainly use Fox's Max Performance program. I changed the tones, colours and icons to suit our common coins and added the changes mentioned above for iron then renamed it FMP Park. Next added the salt settings (soil & compensate), slowed down the fade, increased the recovery delay, changed to Mixed Mode, and named it FMP Salt for beach work. These programs work well for me and are a vast improvement to the pre-programmed Coin and Jewellery etc ones. Magics Deep Silver is also good for areas free of junk. Edited by user Sunday, 6 January 2013 10:25:21 PM(UTC) \| Reason: Not specified
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digger		Posted : Tuesday, 8 January 2013 1:00:11 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 13/09/2012(UTC) Posts: 40 Location: Wellington Thanks: 14 times Was thanked: 3 time(s) in 3 post(s)		Originally Posted by: Shilo Actually I rarely use polar plot or the analysis screen any more. It is great for shallow targets especially coins but once the target is over 5-6" down it starts to become unreliable, instead I go on how well the 3 bars line up and how clear it sounds. Then I pull the trigger for pinpoint and take note of which is the predominant frequency. On pinpoint: for gold the 22.5hz (top) will be the longest bar, for silver the 2.5hz (bottom) and for $1 or $2 coins the 7.5hz (middle), matching this info with the VDI & tone tells me what to expect the target to be. But there are exceptions - for pull tabs the 22.5hz can still show up strong and I have had times when both gold and silver (3p's are bad for this) come in strong with the 7.5hz so again its not 100%. A lot of it depends on the depth, surrounding mineralisation (inc ground balance) and the detectors settings. If I am feeling choosy about what targets to dig like when hunting parks I will ignore any prominent 22.5hz targets with a VDI of 25-30 as this is where the modern pulltabs show up the most (old style pull tabs can have a very short 2nd tone as it picks up the tab) . Though doing this does mean I still run the risk of missing gold but most gold has a VDI of 40-60 for large mens bands or 10-20 for small women's rings. As yet there is no detector made that can discriminate a pulltab from gold if the golds conductivity falls into the same range as pulltabs. The advantage of the V3i is that it can supply so much information that you can make a very good judgement whether to dig or not, but its still not 100% and at least when hunting on the beach I will dig all good sounding targets since one of those 1000 of pull tabs could still be a gold ring. For targets that are likely to be deep (like on beaches) I simply use Mixed Mode and dig every target apart from iron which is set to show up on the screen but with almost no tone (have set it to 5). I mainly use Fox's Max Performance program. I changed the tones, colours and icons to suit our common coins and added the changes mentioned above for iron then renamed it FMP Park. Next added the salt settings (soil & compensate), slowed down the fade, increased the recovery delay, changed to Mixed Mode, and named it FMP Salt for beach work. These programs work well for me and are a vast improvement to the pre-programmed Coin and Jewellery etc ones. Magics Deep Silver is also good for areas free of junk. Thanks again Shilo!! Its really good to learn from someone with a bit of experience with the V3i. Am hopefully heading out to forest park (Where they filmed the Riven-dale scene for Lord of the rings) on Wednesday. So will adjust my V3i and try some new settings. Are dang I'm going to grab the V3i now and play with the settings :) Many thanks !
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Ed Harding		Posted : Tuesday, 19 February 2013 9:57:59 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 28/11/2012(UTC) Posts: 27 Location: Whangarei Thanks: 6 times Was thanked: 4 time(s) in 4 post(s)		Originally Posted by: Shilo Actually I rarely use polar plot or the analysis screen any more. It is great for shallow targets especially coins but once the target is over 5-6" down it starts to become unreliable, instead I go on how well the 3 bars line up and how clear it sounds. Then I pull the trigger for pinpoint and take note of which is the predominant frequency. On pinpoint: for gold the 22.5hz (top) will be the longest bar, for silver the 2.5hz (bottom) and for $1 or $2 coins the 7.5hz (middle), matching this info with the VDI & tone tells me what to expect the target to be. But there are exceptions - for pull tabs the 22.5hz can still show up strong and I have had times when both gold and silver (3p's are bad for this) come in strong with the 7.5hz so again its not 100%. A lot of it depends on the depth, surrounding mineralisation (inc ground balance) and the detectors settings. If I am feeling choosy about what targets to dig like when hunting parks I will ignore any prominent 22.5hz targets with a VDI of 25-30 as this is where the modern pulltabs show up the most (old style pull tabs can have a very short 2nd tone as it picks up the tab) . Though doing this does mean I still run the risk of missing gold but most gold has a VDI of 40-60 for large mens bands or 10-20 for small women's rings. As yet there is no detector made that can discriminate a pulltab from gold if the golds conductivity falls into the same range as pulltabs. The advantage of the V3i is that it can supply so much information that you can make a very good judgement whether to dig or not, but its still not 100% and at least when hunting on the beach I will dig all good sounding targets since one of those 1000 of pull tabs could still be a gold ring. For targets that are likely to be deep (like on beaches) I simply use Mixed Mode and dig every target apart from iron which is set to show up on the screen but with almost no tone (have set it to 5). I mainly use Fox's Max Performance program. I changed the tones, colours and icons to suit our common coins and added the changes mentioned above for iron then renamed it FMP Park. Next added the salt settings (soil & compensate), slowed down the fade, increased the recovery delay, changed to Mixed Mode, and named it FMP Salt for beach work. These programs work well for me and are a vast improvement to the pre-programmed Coin and Jewellery etc ones. Magics Deep Silver is also good for areas free of junk. Hi Shilo, I have been also using the tone set to 5 for all the iron targets (-94 to -8), has improved my finds considerably. Was talking to Fox about a silver fob chain I found and he made the suggestion "why have tone set to =5 why not set it to =0 if you aren't going to dig those tone 5 targets why listen to the clicks, you always get the iron details on the SpectraGraph. Sounded like good sense to me so I have reset all to tone =0. The silver chain which was stretched out but broken in several places VDI'd between 37 - 42 much lower than I was expecting silver to register, I pulled the pinpoint trigger and it was strongest on the 2.5kHz, so dug it. I put this to Fox and this was his reply "Yes -that is correct. Due to the construction of chains, they will read "all over the map". Hence the reasoning to use Mixed Mode. A small gold chain "laid out" will read somewhere between -4 and +6. Ball it up and it can read anywhere between +8 and +14. Silver chains demonstrate the same anomaly. When a chain winds up in pieces, with segments laid out in various aspects to each other, you never know what you'll get as a target indication." Now I wonder how many chains have I passed over, not going to spend too much time pondering this but sure know what to look for from now on. I mostly use Fox's C&J correlate program in Stereo Mixed Mode with recovery delay set to 45 and with a few tweeks for my patch. cheers ed
		Equipment Whites V3i with a DX1 probe. Whites BeachHunter 300 XP Deus

Shilo		Posted : Tuesday, 19 February 2013 10:34:31 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 29/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 573 Location: Kawhia Thanks: 17 times Was thanked: 285 time(s) in 185 post(s)		Hi Ed, Yes I've previously tried negative VDI tones set at 0 but have a habit of not looking at the screen until a tone or AM sounds then looking to work out what it is. This meant that I was not noticing the iron because I was not hearing it (knowing where the iron is can be handy in working out the layout targets / junk in the ground). Thus I changed to the clicks of tone =5 But after recently reading about a 5 tone can mask targets (iron over coin etc) that a 0 setting won't, I have changed it back to 0 for the last couple of hunts. Interesting about the chains. I have always known that they have a low VDI and broken up spectragaph but I have still never found one! This goes for the AT Pro as well. Don't know if I have just been writing them off as junk (most likely) or simply never put a coil over one. I will have to write up my programs sometime, but they are in constant flux :) The land here in Rotorua is fairly constant with only EMI being any real challenge so I just tinker now to try and improve things - then of course tinker to try to put the program back to when it worked! In Waiheke where there was a larger range of soil types I even had park specific programs.
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digger		Posted : Friday, 22 February 2013 1:10:53 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 13/09/2012(UTC) Posts: 40 Location: Wellington Thanks: 14 times Was thanked: 3 time(s) in 3 post(s)		Wow interesting reading guys ! I tried High-Pro and it was like a totally different machine. It was like, back to the "test garden" different.. If you don't mind I may try some of your guys settings. Interesting also about the masking effect if iron when set to 5. I take it you guys are using the standard coil as well ? I heard that the aftermarket ones may give more depth but that may be sales hype and for me in my valley anything over 6" means digging river boulders.. Thanks guys Pete
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Shilo		Posted : Friday, 22 February 2013 5:21:53 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 29/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 573 Location: Kawhia Thanks: 17 times Was thanked: 285 time(s) in 185 post(s)		Hi Digger, That's what I like about this machine - you can change it so much its like having completely different detectors in one package. I have both the 10" DD that came with it and the Super 12" coil (also Whites) which is a good coil for beaches and areas without much junk. My next coil will be one of the smaller ones for junky parks. I haven't made the risk in getting one of the after market Excelerator brand SEF coils, from what I read it can still be a chance getting one that works on the V3i even with their new black ones. I can't see how much advantage they would be over the 10"DD.
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Lammerlaw		Posted : Friday, 22 February 2013 12:37:03 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 24/05/2011(UTC) Posts: 1,721 Thanks: 72 times Was thanked: 579 time(s) in 396 post(s)		Yes I would hand it in - the fact is the fact is that is does belong to someone else and one never knows but it may have belonged to a parent or grandparent etc before them and thus mean a great deal to them - if I hand it in then I have at least done my bit toward giving them a chance to get it back and some rings can be identified by any number of markings - my wedding ring has my name engraved in it, some rings have Jewellers identification in the form of a number engraved or even scratched in the inside and so on. To my its great fun to find something or to catch a fish - but the greatest reward is to see a persons face or to hear of a persons surprise and pleasure when they get returned to them something that they think is gone for ever.

Ed Harding		Posted : Friday, 22 February 2013 4:47:37 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 28/11/2012(UTC) Posts: 27 Location: Whangarei Thanks: 6 times Was thanked: 4 time(s) in 4 post(s)		Hi Digger, Yes of course you can use the settings, lately I have been using my Eclipse 950 coil (White's) mainly because the pin pointing is so much more accurate and I can disturb less ground in recovering hits. I have been using recovery delay of 45 which gives me a quite fast swing, hits are still good but can recheck them at a slower swing to really get a good response. The Whites forum have V3i programs, both deolslyfox and Magic have some great V3i programs, here it is if you haven't already found it;- http://forums.whiteselec...php?70-Detector-Programs Cheers ed
		Equipment Whites V3i with a DX1 probe. Whites BeachHunter 300 XP Deus

creamer		Posted : Friday, 22 February 2013 4:53:48 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 19/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 2,022 Location: Bay of Islands Thanks: 2289 times Was thanked: 525 time(s) in 391 post(s)		Found one GOLG ring. Its my first one and i aint parting with it. If i thought it should of been handed in then i would of for sure. And all metal mode finds all. I dont know, do you hand this ring in or hang on to it. Probably worth 70 bucks now. Happy friday yall. . Edited by user Friday, 22 February 2013 5:12:49 PM(UTC) \| Reason: happy
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Shilo		Posted : Friday, 22 February 2013 6:37:17 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 29/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 573 Location: Kawhia Thanks: 17 times Was thanked: 285 time(s) in 185 post(s)		Creamer - personally I wouldn't hand it in. If it was a valuable ring (i.e. that size but with a nice 1/2 carat diamond) and it was obviously a recent drop then yes hand it in. But the cops themselves don't want to be bugged with jewellery lost years ago or something that doesn't have much worth. They don't keep records of reported lost jewellery for years, in fact the station on Waiheke only kept theirs records for a few months, and mainly relied on the memory of the lady behind the counter. Yes all jewellery has some sentimental value but the chance of finding the owner after a few months is almost zilch especially at beach resorts. And after talking to people who have told me that they have lost something, very little is ever reported lost to the police to start with. But if you know of a lose or have been approached about lost jewellery then yes give it back to them. As Lammerlaw said the look on their faces is worth a lot more then the monetary value of the ring! Digger & Ed, figured it best to start a new V3i topic under Makes, Models & Equipment. Edited by user Friday, 22 February 2013 6:40:42 PM(UTC) \| Reason: Not specified
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andy		Posted : Friday, 22 February 2013 8:00:49 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 13/12/2012(UTC) Posts: 471 Location: ngongotaha rotorua Thanks: 70 times Was thanked: 88 time(s) in 72 post(s)		wait till ya see the look on my face when i actualy find one lol
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creamer		Posted : Saturday, 23 February 2013 7:56:06 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 19/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 2,022 Location: Bay of Islands Thanks: 2289 times Was thanked: 525 time(s) in 391 post(s)		Originally Posted by: andy wait till ya see the look on my face when i actualy find one lol When i found my first one, i ran an excited 50 meters across the beach waving it in the air, over to show Crisyboy. .
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