<p><strong>The scene is: I’m hunting in a spot I’ve hunted in many times before.</strong> Because of all the time I’ve spent here, I’ve conditioned myself to ignore a lot of signals, because of the high density of trash, both ferrous and non-ferrous targets. It’s a City park – lots of noise. So here I am, getting tons of signals, listening for that sweet tone of a coin. But let me tell you a little story about my friend, Gerry</p> [split] <p>He and I had been hunting in Boise a while back. He got some non-coin tones, and invited me to listen, and asked if I would dig this target. I said, “No, it’s not a coin.” So he went in there, and came out with some jewelry. At the end of the day, he said, “You’re really good at cherry-picking coins, but you’re going to leave a lot of good targets in the ground by just going for coins. Maybe there’s something else down there. Maybe?”</p> <p>Now when I go out, I ask myself the Key Question: “Would Gerry Dig It?” That’s my mantra now. Would Gerry dig this? So, here am I at my noisy city park spot, hunting an area where I’ve been many times before. Suddenly, I get this sweet tone! ID number 11/39-11/40. Five to six inches deep. I stand there knowing it’s not a coin, but I ask myself the Big Question. The answer is, “Yeah, Gerry would dig this.” So I dig the plug.</p> <p>On the end of the plug, I spot yellow. “Hey,” I said to myself, “a ring.” Smashed, maybe. But as I turned the plug, it fell back into the hole with a hefty thud. “Whoa,” I said, “The earth moved!” My heart slowed. My vision blurred. Well, it was what it really was: a 28.6 gram gold nugget. I have no idea what that nugget was doing there. I pondered that for a while, and finally I stopped pondering. No matter how it got there, it’s mine now.</p>