Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Recent Gold Finds Reported in My 7/6/25 Post. |
I reported on these finds about a week ago. The larger band is marked 14K but I couldn't find any mark on the earring. It needed some cleaning. Well, I stuck the earring in the vinegar I hadn't emptied after cleaning corroded flat button. A couple hours in the vinegar removed enough grime to reveal the 14K mark. I used my microscope to see that mark and take the following photo.
My digital microscope is a lot of help. Other than my metal detector and a scoop, it is one of my most highly valued pieces of equipment.
Here is the type I use for coins and jewelry, and it helps a lot.
While I was at my microscope I checked some other chains. Most of those were not gold, but I decided to check them to make sure, and I did find one more very small gold chain with an extremely small 14K mark. I don't know if I would have found it with a jeweler's loop because the mark was so small and so difficult to position in a way that mad e it visible.
Here is the bunch I of chains I checked.
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| Several Chains Recently Checked for Marks. |
Several that were not gold had recognizable trademarks, such as Monet, for example. Oddly, I found one (shown below) that I actually thought was strange because of the lack of a trademark.
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| Disneyland Iconic Landmark Charms. |
Those charms are clearly iconic Disneyland landmarks, but there is no Disney mark, which is unusual since Disney aggressively enforces its copyrights. I understand that there was a time when they weren't so consistent about that as they are today.
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Have you heard of the 10,000 hour rule?
Malcolm Gladwell published his blockbuster book, Outliers, in 2008 and the most talked-about idea from the text was the 10,000 Hour Rule. Gladwell, citing research by K. Anders Ericsson, explained that the key to becoming world-class in any field was to practice a specific task for at least 10,000 hours.
As you might expect, people quickly latched onto the number 10,000 and forgot the details of the argument... (See:
10,000 Hours: How Experts Practice Better Than the Rest)
There is more to it than practicing 10,000 hours. There is the matter of talent and also the quality of the practice, but I'll keep that discussion for some other time. Right, now I want to focus on the important fact that practice is critical. High levels of skill are seldom accomplished without a LOT of practice. I say seldom, because there are strange cases of amazing and unexplainable gifts, but generally speaking, practice is critical - tens of thousands of hours if you want to develop the highest levels of skill.
Although some may think that metal detecting is a matter of luck or that the technology will do everything for you, if you really want to consistently find most, there is a lot of skill involved.
If you are familiar with my formula for metal detecting success, you know that the first and biggest factor is time on task. Time on task is not exactly the same as practice, but you gain some of the same benefits by spending a lot of time doing it. You learn a lot from your hours in the field.
But intentional guided practice will improve your skills the most. Repeating an activity many times does not by itself necessarily result in improvement. You can repeat the same mistakes many times and never improve.
I always recommend taking time to get to know your metal detector, conduct air tests, spend time in a test garden and time experimenting on the beach or in the field. All that can help.
But better than just repeating an activity is analyzing performance and results. Getting feedback is important for improving skills.
In the field it is easy to get sloppy without realizing it. The coil can get higher off the ground than necessary. The sweep speed can easily get too fast without realizing it. I've recommended practicing the optimum sweep speed until it becomes what they call in sports, muscle memory. Maybe your sweeps get farther apart than you realize as you hurry to cover ground. It is easy to fall into bad habits. If saw a video of yourself metal detecting, you might be surprised by your form.
Try this. Plant some test targets and then blindfold yourself and go over the area and see if you miss any of the targets. That is a good test. I do something like that occasionally myself just for a self-check. And the results are not always as good as I'd like.
I like using different detectors for different situations, but changing detectors might require you to change. The detector might not be the same ergonomically. One detector might tolerate a faster sweep speed than another. And the different responses might require retuning your ears.
As a hobby, you might not care too much about your performance, or you might not track your performance in a way that provides the feedback you need to perform at the highest rate. That is ok, but if you want the best results, you might want to focus more on your skill level. It takes more than the best detector, which is what many detectorists focus on. The best race car won't win the race if it isn't driven by a skilled driver.
As they say, how do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. You might not want to go to Carnegie Hall, but still, I'd say don't forget the importance of practice if you want to improve your skill. Effective practice is more than simple repetition. Maybe I'll have more on that in the future.
I'm especially tuned into this topic since I spent many years of my career providing consulting and training for organizations like the Navy, Federal Express, Martin Marietta, and Eastern Airlines as well as teaching learning theory and instructional design.
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The Denver Museum of Nature & Science unearthed a 70 million-year-old dinosaur fossil beneath its own parking lot—the oldest dinosaur fossil ever found within the city limits of Denver. The discovery came during a geothermal drilling test that reached depths of over 750 feet, aiming to explore the potential for geothermal heating and to conduct scientific coring research on the geology of the Denver Basin...Here is the link for that story.
