Old Sailing Ships Are Works of Art.Last week when I was off-beach, I used a digger that I hadn't used before. On the beach I almost always use a stainless steel scoop with a long handle. At the site I was at the other day, I didn't want to use such a big scoop for various reasons. For one thing, I didn't want to make big holes.
I selected the black plastic digger shown in the photo below that day. It had been in my trunk, but I hadn't used it before.
The Gator-Digger (with the orange handle) also in the photo below, is the one I dug up on a treasure beach a couple of weeks ago.
While using the black plastic digger that I received free when I purchased a detector some time ago, I found it had a some very nice features. I was using it primarily in dry and wet fine sand
A Couple Diggers.One of the things I liked about it was the fact that it is all plastic. You can drop it right by the hole and detect over it if you need to pin-point. Or you can wave it right under or over your coil with the sand still in it to see if the object is in it too. I found the all-plastic construction very handy.
It has inch markings on it so you can see how deep the object or how deep your hole is. I didn't find that very useful.
One thing that I liked about the little black digger is the shape. The sides of the concave scoop held the sand very nicely, particularly wet sand, when you picked up the digger. I liked that a lot. Sometimes it was almost like plugging.
The Gator-Digger is more heavy duty, but I didn't need anything heavy on this occasion.
I always say that detectors are something like golf clubs. You choose the one that will work best for the particular situation. Scoops and diggers are like that too.
The Gator-Digger, being made of heavy duty metal and having serrated edges, might be the better choice when you are in grass or harder earth. The serrated edges allowa you to saw through small roots.
The other day there were times when I found deep targets that I wished that I was using a bigger scoop, but overall I was happy with the little black digger. It worked well in fine sand, and I really appreciated the advantages of the all-plastic construction.
Harry Miller, in Numismatic News, posted the December clcsing prices for silver for the last decade.
Here are the numbers.
2001 – $4.58 no change
2002 – $4.80 + 4.8 %
2003 – $5.95 +24 %
2004 – $6.81 +14.3 %
2005 – $8.82 +29.6 %
2006 – $12.82 +45.3 %
2007 – $14.80 +15.4 %
2008 – $11.27 -26.8 %
2009 – $16.82 +49.3 %
2010 – $30.91 +83.7 %
2011 – $27.88 -9.8 %
And here is the link.
http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=24778
This doesn't include the time period when the Hunt brothers caused the price to go above fifty dollars an ounce. I think that was in the eighties.
And you have to remember that the dollar has become worth much less in the same time period.
Nonetheless, silver prices have risen rather consistently in dollar terms.
Today it is around $34.35.
Today on the Treasure Coast the wind is out of the southwest. Seas are claming down again. They'll be increasing on Friday, but only to recent levels. Not enough to change beach conditions significantly.
I just realized that I didn't talk at all about what I planned to talk about today. Guess I'll get back to that some other day.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
