Stu

Hi, this collector web page looks pretty good, and has about mid-way down what looks to be your example in pieces to show the manufacture. http://hglanham.tripod.com/metalinsignia/collardisk1.html . 1937-1943 seems to be the rough date. A similar issue (the fixing method) occurs with British army badges. Many changed over time from a simple start point, and some were adapted from day 1 because nobody had thought the design through - so the fixings can be a nightmare to put a date to. Interesting is that over here 1942 saw us go into 'wartime economy' production of brown plastic army badges because of the shortage of brass.

I've found all these lumps of lead over a number of years and kept them together, and I just found them again in a box in the corner of a dark cupboard - and thought it worth a post. Here in England we luckily haven't seen any real internal military fighting since the English Civil War (c1640's) so most bullets and musket balls we find all over the place were from hunting, practice or just recreation (not from battlefields). From the time of Elizabeth I (c1570's) the focus has been local training and good practice just in case anyone decided to invade. In Victorian times local militia units, rifle companies and training took place pretty well everywhere. These finds, are often not obvious and thrown in with the junk lead - I think are really good examples of what they are. They also come in a massive variety of annoying smaller fragments. The Minie bullets I have phrased as mushroom (fairly obvious why) and shoot-through. A shoot-through from where the base of the bullet, after the bullet hitting something soft?, has pushed through the soft hot lead and turned the bullet inside out. There may be some technical phrase for these things, but in my mind this is what I call them if ever found. A pancake is a flat one, fired at something hard, and normally having an imprint of sandstone brick, or rough hewn granite - the common stone for dry stone walls, or gate posts for the well off farmers of old. The silver coin is a Victorian sixpence. It has been used as a target and suffered the consequences - but probably from a later jacketed .303 bullet as tiny bits of copper are embedded in the silver after the massive force of impact obliterated it.

Project now finished with pictures below. Black pvc covering on all the exposed pine so visually it looks a whole lot better. Originally I was going to to use the Mars main stem, but could not find a correct Minelab size coil yoke (the little solid plastic bit with the hole that takes the bolt from the coli) to fit onto a Mars lower section. I didn't want to use a 3D print. I could have destroyed a spare Mars lower shaft (removed the yoke to leave the shaft), and destroyed a spare Minelab lower shaft to get the yoke - but I didn't want to do anything irreversible, or costly. In the end the Mars S section was drilled to accommodate the Minelab mid shaft section (6mm hole for the sprung pin). The insides of the Mars S were layered with a single sheet of plastic drink bottle plastic to take up the space and keep it all tight. All in all Equinox unit and shaft (no coil) 1.1kg in weight. The ergonomics just how I wanted

Hi, just though this was worth sharing as it turned out so well. A number of things happened to bring this together - the biggest one being having just bought an Equinox my neighbours changing their curtains for blinds. I ended up with 3x6ft lengths of wood curtain pole. I also (long story) smashed my right hand up some years ago in a bike crash - straight stem won't work for me. I had read the threads (various threads on straight vs S) and puzzled over the alloy pipe bending method. But then I already have a Mars universal shaft and took a closer look at this. After reading the thread on the Garrett gizmo that screws into the end of the stem so the arm cup can be moved along I got to thinking some more - I don't own a Garrett but am always intrigued to read what others are up to. So the Mars universal shaft will come apart. Held by a holding screw and with some hard pushing and pulling the arm cup pole (I'll call it that) will release. I measured the length I needed, then by hand whittled the shape to Mars flat sided (not round). A tight fit and the holding screw back in place to hold. The strength of this part of the Mars hand grip (the bit under the hand grip) left me confident that it could cope with some pretty minimal stresses - like it would have to do anyway. The curtain pole hand whittled at the arm cup end, then drilled through with a slightly under size drill bit. I didn't note the size, but it waggled freely in the Equinox upper stem hole for the arm cup. As I drilled it I waggled the drill to make it a little splayed out (as is the shape of the plastic fitting in the arm cup bits). For the Equinox itself a similar blind hole, but on an angle (judged by eye) as per the angled shape of the Minelab underneath grip bit - and also drill waggled around to get the splayed out shape. Two lines of wood were whittled away to the correct diameter for the equinox and it lower grip to meet perfectly. It could be neatened up. I may spray it black. Some things considered were the Equinox grip needed to be far enough away from the Mars grip to allow fingers of winter (thick) gloved hands - and also the coil cable and head phone cable. The Mars shaft can be made to shorten - and in effect smash into the back of the Equinox unit. I would just put a wrap of tape around the release lever. I won't ever release it - I don't need to I have a long detector bag - but I guess somebody could. Weight for weight the wood pole is pretty light. I weighted the Minelab top piece of shaft, and my piece of wood was 14 grams heavier. The next step (which I am waiting to arrive) is a proper Minelab Equinox lower stem end piece for the coil to go on, The Mars universal one is a bit narrow and this looks it will swap over fairly easily.

Trees are a magnet for people. Big trees especially, and the area around trees can hold many finds, classically from people resting in the shade, working in the shade or playing. In the UK where the weather is not normally that hot, a shady tree on a hot summers day to sit under, is a great way to spill coins from pockets. Oak trees have great part to play in the landscape here. Their root system is especially well developed and has a particular relationship with a fine fungus type membrane - the name of which I completely forget. Trees of all kinds however will normally cause a change in mineralisation. The root system, the change in plant fauna (or lack of), the drip line - that is the area around the tree that purposely grows to catch maximum water droplets from rain, and for deciduous trees that shed their leaves an annual mineral boost to the soil beneath them. Add to that the sap from the trees natural defences when leaves are in place and the soil will gradually be conditioned and be different to any non-tree surrounding soil. For some long dead trees the sign left in the landscape is sometimes a 'fairy ring'. Where the soil type is just right and the large circular drip line (imagine the outer diameter of the tree when it was there) has changed the soil you get a dark ring, and sometimes as if by magic a ring of mushrooms.

That's a nice looking coin, and I'd be suggesting not to try cleaning any more. Cleaning can be difficult at best with these GIIIR coins - where it it rare to see one out the ground looking so nice. Over here (UK) these are normally green with the surface detail a mass of small corroded craters, but every so often a nice one may turn up depending on the ground. Nice find.

Hi, the XP company make a really neat looking 'detecting' backpack for their own gear. They look really smart with lots of pockets, and what looks like a bit of thought in the design. http://www.xpmetaldetectors.com/blog-detection/en/news/xp-backpack-280/

For coin shooting - for me that is searching a dense layer of shallow targets and hooking the coins out it has to be an older Tesoro with the 4 inch concentric coil. The reaction to targets, the small size and wand like movement in a carpet of signals makes this the go to option. It's not for general searching, but roadside verges, edge of sports fields, river bridges with a grass verge edge and play parks etc.

Hi, yes I have the 10x12, the 11x8 and the 5x10 but rarely use the big coils unless on pasture - in which case the 10x12 for sure. On ploughed land after crops harvested, with maize fields the 5.75DD gets in around the stalks, and on barley stubble the coil is small enough to knock barley stubble over after its rotted slightly. The physics of small coil against resistance makes a big difference in that scenario, in any case I'm happy to go with area of coverage rather than depth. At those rare times I can get to a rolled and seeded permission, the 18x3 Cleansweep wins.

Thanks for welcome. US cent (never actually found one of these), but made sense for scale in a global forum. The UK 1 penny coin is a touch bigger, and probably not that well recognised. The bone dice turned up on a field that is covered in buttons. Mainly metal, but some glass, and some bone buttons. Normally the dirt finds the veins in the bone and leaves brown streaky lines, but this dice was in a very sandy dry part of the site. The tax on dice originally related paying for the US revolutionary war, but they must have also started taxing all dice as these can be found in antique shops/flea markets etc. with a bit of looking. The site was attached to a wool mill, and they used to re-use old clothing after cutting off the hard buttons buckles and thick seams that couldn't be re-milled. This product called 'shoddy'. A shoddy field is a beautiful thing to search in and you hardly have to move to get a signal. But for every coin, perhaps 100 buttons.

Hi, I've been reading the forum for a while now and enjoying the depth of knowledge and expertise, and the love of finding things. I started detecting about 30 years ago, wrote a few articles for the UK 'Searcher' magazine and then had a break while working and raising a family. Returned about 5 years ago and still love it. I'm particularly not looking for deep finds, the coins I love are tiny and thin hammered silver, or the thin copper 17th Century traders tokens - in my part of England the low value small coins are far more common that the big ones - only a small part of the wealth from London moved to my area. So the method on the ploughed fields is slow and careful and pick around the iron debris with minimal discrimination, its a compromise I like and it works for me - the Tejon being my go to machine. I find all the normal big stuff of course, but I'll wait for the plough to pull it up. Surface finds are always welcome, and Neolithic flint turns up now and again and later pottery and glass, etc. The US cent for scale of course. The smallest silver coin James I halfpenny of around 1625. The bone dice of GIIIR with its mark to show tax paid. Regards Stu

Any special things to think about, or something else? Hi, no idea on detector settings - I was reading the comments but looking at the field! I have found musket balls in all kinds of places, but if a battlefield the sides of the ridges, the old treeline (if there was a map or any clues it has moved?), hedges, or a description of the action. The tactics of the time may give some clues, routes in, numbers of men in lines shooting at who, where?. Each find is likely to be a clue to a bigger picture. Un-fired musket shot (normally no marks), spent (just grazed slightly) or direct impact - normally flattened or mushroomed. Other finds would be expected. The or something else in such a big field is to keep a note of what found where - it makes the big picture easier to see in the long run. Hope you find what you are after.