ECRDA's 4th Annual Beach Hunt

The East Coast Research and Discovery Association 4th annual beach hunt will be held May 18 & 19, 2013 in Ocean City NJ. http://ecrda.net

Early Registration fee per person: $95/day. Two-day Special: $175 if paid by February 28, 2013. (They have extended the deadline because a lot of people are still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.) Early registration includes buffet lunch and 3 adult hunts each day and the GOLD Hunt on Saturday. Print & mail your registration form to take advantage of the early registration prices!

REGISTRATION FORM: 
http://www.ecrda.net/2013_ECRDA_4th_Annual_Beach_Flyer.pdf Check the Ocean City web site (www.oceancityvacation.com) for information on lodging, dining and entertainment. Room rates and dining are reasonable.

The Weekend's Agenda

Saturday May 18th 8 AM to 4 PM	Sunday May 19th 8 AM to 3 PM
Adult Prize Hunt	Adult Prize Hunt
Kids' Hunt	Gold & Silver Hunt
Lunch - provided by the club	Lunch - provided by the club
Adult Prize Hunt	Adult Prize Hunt
FREE Early Registration Gold Hunt

12 Pound Gold Nugget Found In Australia

A amateur explorer who apparently wants to remain anonymous unearthed a 12 pound gold nugget in Ballarat, Australia that could be worth more than $300,000. The 12 pound gold nugget was brought into the Ballarat Mining Exchange Gold Shop to be evaluated.

Cordell Kent, the store owner, provided a few details into the find. According to Kent, the gold nugget was found within 20 miles of downtown Ballarat. It was found about 60 centimeters or 23.6 inches (if you can believe that) below the surface using a Minelab GPX-5000 detector that sells for between $6,000 -$7,000.

The person who discovered the 12-pound gold nugget could melt it down and sell it at market value for about $300,000. The finder could also decide to auction off the entire gold nugget which could also bring in significantly more money.

Source:The Inquisitr

The Gold Digger - Go Minelabbing! Metal Detector Day

Here are the details of the 2013 GO MINELABBING DAY hosted by Goldigger Metal Detectors which is scheduled for Saturday May 18th and Sunday May 19th in Atlantic City NJ

You can register on-line at https://ticketriver.com/event/5686-national-metal-detecting-day---atlantic-city--nj

Rare 1943 Copper Penny Said to be Worth $1.7 Million

Check Your Penny Collection !

In 1942, the U.S. Government halted the minting of copper-coated bronze coins – switching to steel instead – because copper was needed to manufacture ammunition during World War II. A few of these bronze pennies made it out, however. These pennies remain the most famous and valuable of all wrong-metal issues. Bill Simpson, co-owner of the Texas Rangers, owns three of them. 
Only 40 of the 1943 copper-alloy cents are known to be in existence. Coin experts speculate that they were struck by 
accident when copper-alloy one cent blanks remained in the press hopper when production began on the new steel pennies. 
It is said that the 1943 copper cent is a favorite of counterfeiters, who coat steel pennies with copper. The easiest way to determine if a 1943 cent is made of steel, and not copper, is to use a magnet. If the penny sticks to the magnet, your stuck with a worthless coin. 
But why would you buy these coins in the first place without really knowing their composition.

Source: http://www.investmentnews.com 

Why Do Coins Have Ridges All Around

Have you ever wondered why coins have those little ridges along their sides. Apparently this goes back to 1792, when the Coinage Act established the U.S. Mint. That act of legislation also specified that $10, $5 and $2.50 coins (known as eagles, half-eagles and quarter-eagles) were to be made of their face value in gold, dollar, half-dollar, quarter-dollar, dime and half-dime coins were to be made of their value in silver. (Cent and half-cent coins were made of cheaper copper.) Unfortunately would-be criminals saw they could make a good profit by filing shavings from the sides of gold and silver coins and selling the precious metal. Before the 18th-century was out, the U.S. Mint began adding ridges to the coins’ edges, a process called “reeding,” in order to make it impossible to shave them down without the result being obvious. As a side benefit, the reeded edges also made coin design more intricate and counterfeiting more difficult.

Credit: History.com

Just What We Need More Pennies In Circulation

Yikes The penny accounted for 64.2% of the US Mint Coin Shipments in 2012

For Fiscal Year 2012, the U.S. Mint shipped 9.08 billion coins representing an increase of 22.8% compared to the prior year. Pennies accounted for 5.84 billion of the total amount coins produced and 36.5% more that than the prior year.

Despite the enormous amount of pennies that the metal detecting community digs up every year the U.S. Mint is not stopping or slowing down production.

I'd Rather be Digging Up Dollar Coins

In 2011 the Treasury Department ordered production of presidential dollar coins be suspended only after The U.S. mint had already made coins for every president from George Washington to James Garfield: 1.4 billion of them which are now held in storage by the Federal Reserve. It’s was a common-sense move.  The coins cost 32 cents apiece to make.  Transporting them and storing them cost millions more.  There are so many unused coins that the Federal Reserve needed to spend $650,000 building an extra vault in Texas to store them.

Obviously it was a common-sense move.  The coins cost 32 cents apiece to make.  Transporting them and storing them cost millions more.  There were so many unused coins that the Federal Reserve needed to spend $650,000 building an extra vault in Texas to store them.

U.S. Secret Service Bans Sale of Silver and Gold Liberty Dollars on Ebay

In early 2011 Bernad Von Nothaus was convicted by the US government and identified as a domestic terrorist by Federal prosecutors  for minting his own silver and gold coinage, and then offering those coins for sale to clients. He dubbed the coins “Liberty Dollars” and by doing so he attracted the attention of the U.S. Secret Service, Federal Reserve and a host of other government agencies.

According to the government, Von Nothaus was a counterfeiter, though he made no attempts to actually counterfeit U.S. currency.

After Von Nothaus’ conviction, the Secret Service warned they would be confiscating all Liberty Dollar coins manufactured by Nothaus’ company, NorFed.

Since the shutdown of VonNothaus’ operation, many of the coins have been offered for sale or trade on Ebay, and in mid December 2011 the Secret Service took action. They contacted Ebay, which in turn advised sellers of the coins on their site that they could no longer engage in the trade of silver coins with the Norfed Liberty Dollar hallmark:

The United States Secret Service has requested the removal of all Norfed Liberty dollars on the eBay site as counterfeits. … Please do not relist this item(s). We appreciate that you chose to list this coin on our site and understand there was no ill intent on your part. Your listing fees have been credited to your account.

There is nothing special about the Liberty Dollar coins other than the fact that they are pure silver; and that they actually have essential value as compared to general circulation U.S. legal tender that is, essentially worthless in terms of metal value.

The Secret Service has gotten involved in order to ensure buyers don’t get confused by thinking they are acquiring legal U.S. tender.

http://marketdailynews.com/2012/12/18/u-s-secret-service-bans-sale-of-silver-and-gold-liberty-dollars-on-ebay/

Storing Your Detector for the Winter

Unfortunately cold Winter weather is here and it is time to put away your detector and other equipment until the Spring.

Suggest that you clean your digging tools, remove the batteries from your detector and pinpointer. And store in a warm place, I would not store my detector in a cold garage as I would be concerned about freezing temperatures harming the electronics.

For those of you who live in the southern parts of the 48 states it is business as usual, so dig on!