Angel (angellionel)
Site Administrator
Angel hails from Western Massachusetts, where he spends a great deal of his free time engaged in the hobby of metal detecting. He moved to New York City from Puerto Rico at the age of 9, and has lived in the Northeastern United States since that time. Career-wise, he has for many years been involved in the financial and insurance fields, working as a registered representative, sales director, and relationship manager. His other interests include chess, poetry, and fishing.
Angel has been an avid metal detectorist since 1983. His experiences with land and water detecting over the years have produced many silver coins, as well as silver and gold jewelry and relics of all types. He is familiar with a number of detectors manufactured by White's, Garrett, and Minelab. Most recently, he has become proficient with the Minelab E-Trac and has logged hundreds of hours on this machine, although he also has extensively used the White's DFX, White's Surfmaster PI Pro, Minelab's Excalibur, Minelab's Explorer SE, and Minelab's Sovereign GT. He is known to many of his peers for his propensity to patiently and thoroughly work "hunted out" parks to find coins and relics that have until this time remained elusive. He loves the challenge of the hobby, and the sense of peace it brings.
Angie (Epi-hunter)
Site Administrator
Angie has been interested in metal detecting her entire life, but never had the time to focus on the hobby until several years ago. She was born and raised in eastern Iowa, then lived
in central Iowa for 25 years while going to college and later doing research and teaching at the University of Iowa. She currently lives in central Kentucky and works in a hospital as a health care professional.
She was quickly hooked shortly after getting her first detector, the ACE250. Against all odds, her very first coin find -- including any kind of clad -- was a 1847 Seated Half Dollar. What an introduction to the hobby! No wonder the memorial pennies are frustrating now!
Angie used the Garrett ACE250 extensively for the first year of her detecting experience. She then moved on to a Fisher CZ3D which proved productive at old parks and homestead sites. She has also owned and used the Minelab Explorer SE, and currently uses the Minelab E-Trac. She is enjoying the process of becoming proficient with the E-Trac. This coming year her goals are to do some cellar hole hunting with some of the other forum staff members here and to become more acquainted with her Tesoro Tiger Shark while water detecting. Her true passion is finding old coins, but she also loves relics and knows she will immediately get addicted to cellar hole detecting.
Angie's other interests include writing, downhill skiing, and spending time with her three kids. Currently she is in the process of teaching her eight year old daughter to metal detect.
George (coinnut)
Global Moderator
Forum Mentor
George was digging in the dirt even before he owned a metal detector. He remembers being around 8 years old and always looking down at the ground. He found marbles, baseball cards and even a green 1890 Indian head penny in a torn up driveway.
George lived most of his life in Holyoke, MA, but did spend some time in Chula Vista, CA; Granby, CT; and W. Suffield, CT. His first job was at 13, doing odd jobs for a local stamp dealer. That is what fueled his passion for stamp collecting. Other "hats" he has worn career-wise include industrial fireproofing, professional drum making, janitorial work, forklift driver and many others. He has since started a Commercial Janitorial Company with his wife along with a Wind and Drum Chime business called Shadetree Chimes. George's other interests include collecting stamps, digging for bottles, and playing the guitar.
George started detecting around 1971 and hunted mostly parks. His first machine was a $19.95 Radio Shack with a Heathkit amplifier attached to it. After that he had a Bounty Hunter Rebel and Outlaw, and eventually a White's Coinmaster V Supreme. That was followed by a 5000D, 6000D series 2, Eagle, Eagle Spectrum, and a DFX, which he still uses today. Today his primary machine is a Minelab E-Trac. His interests have changed over the years and he now mainly detects at colonial sites. He, along with del, has a great deal of skill and experience hunting cellar holes and old colonial sites, and he has many excellent coin and relic finds to show for it. Although this is his detecting 'niche', George will hunt anywhere for the fun and challenge of it. You never know where treasure may lie.
Dan (del)
Global Moderator
Forum Mentor
Dan lives in Connecticut and has been participating in the hobby for the past several years. He often detects with George (coinnut) as a team, and are good friends. When he's not detecting, Dan is spending time with family and working as a crane operator. Other hobbies he enjoys are camping with the family, fishing and 4wheelin the jeep whenever time allows.
Dan is a member of the local metal detecting club in his area (the Yankee Territory Coinshooters, Hartford, CT). He has experience with several different detectors, including White's Coinmaster, White's 6000 DI Pro Plus, White's XLT, White's Prizm 5, and Tesoro Silver UMax, and he is currently using White's DFX. He began the hobby by frequenting parks and school yards, finding a great deal of clad and jewelry, but after a year he decided he wanted the opportunity to find very old coins and relics. He took advantage of the historical areas in CT where he lives, and began detecting old farm fields and cellar foundations. He has been focusing on this exclusively for the past ten years and has become a very proficient and knowledgeable relic hunter. He finds many very old copper and silver coins at such locations, also. It appeals to his sense of history and mystery because it allows him to learn much from the people who resided at these locations so many years ago. He loves relic hunting for this reason... the history behind the finds.
Jack (CyberSage)
Global Moderator
Jack first caught the detecting bug in 1974 with a "kit" detector that his father built. For the next three years he had the time of his life; then, the detecting urge went dormant for about thirty years.
Detecting re-captured his interest in a big way when his wife gave him a metal detector as a birthday gift in 2005. He was again hooked.... and in short order, he became proficient in the use of White's metal detectors, specifically the White's MXT, DFX, and the Vision/Spectra V3. His passion is coin shooting, and he also has assembled a large collection of silver rings which just sort of got in his way when digging for old coins. Jack has spent much time gaining detailed knowledge of the White's Spectra V3, and he generously shares his experiences with others who use the machine as well. Those who have interacted with him know that he is one of the most proficient users of the Spectra V3 anywhere.
Jack has made Colorado his home for all of his life. His career is in the field of Computer IT Services and networking. He loves local and western history, and collects books on this topic. This interest is what ultimately led him back to the hobby of metal detecting. With his background in computer technology and love of history, a digital metal detector is a dream come true for Jack. He sees metal detecting as an ongoing learning experience that is never really mastered. Desire and effort are the key to finding the good stuff... never say "hunted out".
John (Lowjiber)
Global Moderator
John began "messing" with metal detecting in 1986 when his son was a teenager, but has been able to spend more time detecting since retiring in 2007 after 35 years with the Department of Defense. He was an army officer, serving one tour in Vietnam (1967-68), and a graduate of Ohio State University in the field of Electrical Engineering. He currently lives just 20 minutes from Santa Cruz beach in California and has had much opportunity to beach detect. He is in the process of relocating to Nevada.
John uses two beach detectors: the DetectorPro Wader (VLF) and White's Surfmaster PI Pro. The focus of his land hunting is silver coins, and he considers himself an "expert" with the White's MXT and is currently using, and learning about, the White's Spectra V3. He also owns the Garrett ACE250, the Fisher F2 (permanently in his jeep for impromptu hunts), and the White's M6. He is a bit of a technical "junkie" (must be the Electrical Engineering thing) ;) and he has SunRay probes on four of his detectors, and just about every coil ever made for the White's VLF machines. John is a member of his detecting club's Evidence Recovery Team and has participated in evidence searches from Monterey to Palo Alto using the MXT. His other interests include gold panning in northern California, off-road mountain biking, and windsurfing.
Tana (tanacat)
Global Moderator
Currently from Lexington, KY, Tana was born in San Francisco but has also lived in Washington, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Indiana. She has a degree in Parks and Recreation. In past careers she has led wilderness expeditions for teens, taught environmental education at camps and schools, and ran a greenhouse program at a psychiatric hospital.
Tana loves outdoor activities like camping, hiking, canoeing, birdwatching, and anything related to history and archaeology. She has been walking plowed tobacco and cornfields searching for arrowheads for nearly 20 years and has an extensive collection.
Finding artifacts from the past and researching them eventually led her to the hobby of metal detecting. She started with a White's Prizm IV and now uses a White's XLT. She loves detecting old residences and farms.
Tana's two young sons like to help her dig, and she is looking forward to introducing them to the hobby.
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