Friday, May 9, 2014

5/9/14 Report - Relics and Vintage Jewelry Finds, Minelab SDC 2300 and The Value of Digging Beach Junk


Written by the TreasureGuide for the exlusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Finds From a Turn of the Century Site.
Finds and photo by William M.
As the most recent blog poll showed, many of the blog's readers hunt dry land sites.  William M. is one who is digging a lot of nice old relics. 

Here are some of William's finds.


American Defense Society Button
Find and photo by William.

Wikipedia says that the American Defense Society was ... a nationalist American political group founded in 1915. It advocated American intervention against Germany during Word War I and opposition to the Bolsheviks when they came to power in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917.


Gold Color Pin Dug by William

William says he doesn't get excited by modern finds, but likes to dig older items.  He did however get excited when he saw the gold color of he pin shown here.  These items haven't been tested yet.


A Piece of Vintage Costume Jewelry
dug by William.

 
 


Roofing Hatchet dug by William at the same site.
Despite the large number of relics, William says this site has only yielded three old coins so far.

Thanks for sharing all of the photos William.

A site like this can produce some real surprises if you keep at it.






One More Vintage Piece
dug by William at the same site.

 
The new Minelab SDC 2300 metal detector should be available soon.  You might have heard about that, but if not here is a link giving some of its features.

http://www.minelab.com/consumer/knowledge-base/news?article=215928



I'm probably not like most people, but I don't like a detector with a lot of features, programs, gidgets, gadgets, and doodlebobs.  For my main detector I want a simple sturdy reliable machine that does one job extremely well - detecting small gold and other precious and common metals very well in a variety of environments.  Some people like to play with a lot of adjustments, settings and programs - not me. 

I've talked about discrimination a lot.  You probably know that I seldom use it.  It isn't that I don't use it at all - I do, but I don't use it nearly as much as most people.  I used it too much before I learned better.

On the wet beach or in the shallow water, I almost never use any discrimination because I prefer to know exactly what is in the ground, how far down, and in what type of sand or layer a particular type of item is in.  It matters to me if a piece of junk is on the surface or down a few inches.  I want to know that.  It matters to me if the junk, as well as good targets, is in a one type of sand or layer or another.  I want to see that.  That information is critical to me and tells me where to go. 

What I focus on more than anything is finding the spots where the dense targets have settled and accumulated.  If I am where there are a lot of light junk targets, that simply tells me I'm not in the kind of area that I want to be in and tells me something about where to go.  Junk provides important information that I don't want to miss.

There are times when I'll resort to hunting dry sand or mucking around in less than optimal junky areas, but that is not my primary type of detecting.   That is not the type of detecting that I prefer, and it is far from the most efficient and productive type of hunting.

When you get in the right type of spot, you won't be digging junk anyhow.  You might have to dig a few pieces of junk before you get to that spot, but once there, there will be very little junk.  The junk that you do dig before you get to that spot will help tell you if you are getting closer to where you want to be.


Here is an article from Kovels about the new record for oldest message found in a bottle.

http://www.kovels.com/news-news-news/beer-bottle-found-with-oldest-message-in-a-bottle.html?utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=http%3a%2f%2fwww.kovels.com%2fnews-news-news%2fbeer-bottle-found-with-oldest-message-in-a-bottle.html&utm_campaign=Kovels+Komments%3a+5+Mother%27s+Day+Gifts+a+Collector+Would+Love


On the Treasure Coast we are still stuck with East/Southeast winds, very small surf and flat tides.  None of that adds up to any improvement in beach detecting conditions.

Rip currents can cause good detecting spots by removing a lot of sand, however, as I explained the other day, unless you are very comfortable in the water and know about rip currents that is not the place to be.  Don't get into situations you can't handle.  The first time I got into a rip current, I was surprised by how hard it was to get out of it.  I didn't really know what to do then. 

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net