8/19/14 Report - Three Surprises. One Dense Coin Hole. Brass Button Found. How To Reinforce Metal Detector Rod Stem.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.

Concave Brass Button Found This Morning

I went out this morning to do a little detecting near low tide and had a couple of surprises.  The first was that my camera battery was dead.  That turned out to be especially disappointing because of the next surprise.

I was digging a target at the waterline while facing the beach when I heard something behind me.  I turned around a saw an unusually large manatee not much more than five yards behind me.  The beach dropped off very steeply there.  Anyhow I wish I had my camera working at that point.

I guess I need to check more than my detector before going out.  I did check my detector but not my camera.

I spent most of my time in an area not much bigger than ten square yards.  The targets were dense.  Probably near fifty coins and things in that small area.  Mostly modern coins.

 I like those kinds of areas even if most targets are nothing special.  When they are densely packed, there will usually be at least one or two better things.

I didn't get a picture because of the above mentioned reason, but I'll try to draw a diagram to show what it was like and how the targets were distributed.  I'll try to do that tomorrow.  It is instructive.

That was the kind of area that you can spot a mile away (exaggeration), and the kind of place that I would never pass up.

There was very little trash in that area. 

This area is seldom detected.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone else detect there over the years.



Whites detectors seem to have some problems with the plastic parts.  I don't know if they suffer from the Florida heat or what, but I've had a few broken plastic parts that received no unusual amount of stress.

The plastic part that connects one ear phone to the ear phone holder broke.   And two different lower rod stems broke. 

Working in the water does put more stress on a detector.  

In the old days I broke about six arm rests on an old Fisher Aquanaut before I got a metal one to replace the weak plastic ones. 

But since two Whites lower rod stems broke on me, that seems to be a weakness, and so I decided to reinforce that area.

Whites Reinforced Lower Rod Stem.

The above picture shows the reinforced lower rod assembly.   A section of pvc pipe that would not fit over the entire lower stem without slitting was cut to a short length, and then the section was slit along the length of the section, and then slipped on over the lower stem.  The slit along the section of pipe allowed the short section to open just enough so that it would fit very tightly on the stem.   That should provide additional strength so that the stem will not break again.

The lines drawn on the pvc section shows the larger rod on the left, which the smaller diameter stem fits into.  Two pins go through both the larger rod and stem to hold the stem in place.

On the two breaks that I've seen, the stem broke at the lower of the two pins where the red line is drawn on the illustration.

We'll see if this reinforcement keeps the new rod stem from breaking.  I think it will.


One more surprise.  Treasure Coast conditions remain poor.  That is no surprise.  The button shown above was found.  That is a surprise, given the poor conditions.

It was found where old things have not been found before even though a lot of modern things have been found there.

The button is 2 centimeters in diameter, and is in unusually good condition, and appears to have a good bit of remaining gilt.  It must have been buried safely for a long time.   Unfortunately there is no back mark or anything to date or identify it.

The best web site about old Spanish military artifacts that I know of is the one listed in my rerference list.  

If you've never looked at it, you should.  The button information is absolutely great.

Here is a link to see similar buttons.

http://www.artifacts.org/Early%20Buttons.htm

The above button looks something like the example labeled Presidio.

Source: www.nhc.noaa.gove

On the Treasure Coast we still have a one-foot surf, and will for a while.

There are, however, two weather systems in the Atlantic to watch.  The one nearest us has a 30% of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net