5/3/12 Report - Vintage Ring & Minelab Target ID

Written by the treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.


Unusual Vintage Ring Florida Metal Detector Find.



In recent posts I talked about Florida history and some off-beach sites such as Micanopy.  Here is an off-beach find from a historic area of Florida.

It was found in the Miami/Brickell area by the same fellow that found the bronze dagger that I showed back in January of 2012.

Here is what he said about the ring.

I dug this Mexican Biker Ring from my dad's swale (parking strip.) It was about a foot from the asphalt, and about 20 yards from where I found the bronze knife. These rings are highly collectible. They were made in Mexico from demonetized coins in the 1930s-1950s - and so are made of copper alloys (bronze and brass are copper alloys) and nickel. Rarely you find one made of silver. They featured Indian heads (as this one does); skulls; and horses. The shields on the side usually featured fleur de lis. Mine was unusual in that the shields had buffaloes on them, and also in how much of the colored enamel on the war bonnet had survived. When I cleaned up the ring, I left the original dark patina on the Indian's face, which is bronze or brass. I sold it for $250, but then the shields on the sides fell off before I shipped it, so I sold it to another guy for $210 as-is. The shields just need to be soldered back onto the band.

Thanks to Lawrence G. for the story and photo.

I mentioned the other day that the blog poll results showed that people thought that Minelab detectors had the best target ID.  To back up the poll results, James F. wrote in about his experience, and his experience is extensive, including a number of brands of detectors.  Besides the older Excaliber that he owns, he also has a Minelabe Explorer SE Pro.  That is a detector that I have never used. 

Talking about the newer detector, here is what James said.

I think the advantage my newer Minelab has, is it uses BOTH an audio tonal system and a visual system to help you ID the target. The visual graph kind of gets inaccurate for targets deeper than 8" deep, however, and you need to rely on your expertise identifying the tone. I very rarely use any discrimination along most of the beaches, especially near the water line as anything can be there...usually very little trash to contend with. Hunting along the St. Johns or Indian rivers, I use a bit of discrim because fishermen love to drop the bottle caps all over the bank and even in the water. I also own a small Garrett Acer 250 I got for my wife, but she never uses it, so I occasionally take it for a run, just to be different. It targets pretty well, too, for a low-cost machine. But over the last 45-years I have owed Whites's, Garrett, Tesoro, and a few other off-brand machines, and I've got to say, Minelab has the best ID system I've ever used...truly!

So there you have a good testimonial that supports the poll results. 

For the most part, I seem to always like the detector I've used the most and the detector that I know the best.  I can't say I've ever used a detector that blew me away right off the bat.   It always took me a while to learn to use any detector well.  And I've used some very high-end expensive detectors, including some great custom built and modified jobs.  Some were extremely good, but I didn't really appreciate how good until I learned to use them well.


Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions and Forecast.

I'm decreasing my Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions Rating back to a 1.  There was some erosion around the Treasure Coast as I've mentioned and shown.

The wind is out of the east/southeast.   Seas will continue to decrease until Sunday and then start to increase slightly again.

This weekend should provide some easy detecting on the front beach and in the shallow water but not the most productive detecting.  Yet there could be a few interesting finds.

At some locations the bar has been separating from the front beach forming a dip in between.  Watch those dips.


Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net