Picking the right spot to placer has to do with years of experience, and a little luck. The textbooks can tell you where it should be, but sometimes the rules just don’t seem to apply.

…the sluice is a normal first step up from a gold pan for many prospectors. They are simple to use, easily portable, can capture a lot of gold, and can process gravel 10 to 20 times faster than a person can pan…

…since many miners have wandered these hills over the years, you have to sometimes be a little more creative and unconventional in your methods to hopefully find new deposits.

Excited for this first notable evidence, I returned to that riverbed, looking for another paystreak and obviously more jade.

This was two days of gold panning, with just over 250 gold panners trying to win a medal to show they were one of the best of the best.

The coin trading world has a new gold standard, after the only known 1822 half eagle $5 piece in private hands sold at auction in Las Vegas…