As a kid I had the pleasure of spending my teen years in the Victorian Goldfields in Australia and had an interest in detecting since then. That was some 20 years ago and I no longer live in the goldfields but do live near a couple of beaches so when a chance came up to buy an old X-TERRA 70 I took it with both hands. Within a short time I realised that I needed a better machine for my environment. Don't get me wrong I did okay with the X-TERRA and it did provide me the opportunity to upgrade to a multi-frequency machine which was the Explorer SE recently matched with a Coiltek 12x8 coil (great combo). As with most machines, it takes time to learn what settings work in the conditions and I have found my fair share of various bits of jewellery as well as personal items with that machine, but none as personal as the find shown. With a little bit of beach washed out of a known productive area that produced a bit of rubbish as well as some of the more delightful finds in the past this find an inch or so down in the beach sand on the 20th of November 2014 however was a first for me and had me stumped. It was a little salty crusted (as beach finds often are), I nearly dismissed it into my scrap pouch when a glint caught my eye. Scraping off some of the crusty stuff I realised what I was holding. I'm not really sure what to do with it but I have a feeling it will be one of those finds that would be hard to top as far as uniqueness. It weighed in at 5.3 grams, appears to have been stuck down originally with some sort of epoxy and probably would have had a heck of a story to tell if it could have still been able to talk.
Jason Sladok – Queensland, Australia