Sorry, been busy, finally got to posting this. Saturday the 27th of july, I went on a beach detecting date with Howie, the maker of my Howie Beach Scoop, and his wife Lisa on North Beach. They both had Excaliburs, and I had a white's BH ID. I have a Whites Eagle Spectrum that I really have confidence in on land, but I wasn't sure that with my Beach ID I could compete against Excaliburs. Not only Howie and Lisa, but most of the water hunters in South Florida use Excaliburs.
Well, there was no gold for any of us, but we had a darn good time anyway. It was a good confidence building trip for me, I found about as many coins and junk as they did.. The next morning, I went out by myself. I took my Howie Scoop and my Whites BH ID down to the beach in predawn darkness. The water was smooth, a gibbous moon was high in the sky, it was low tide, perfect conditions.
I had a great time in the water. But no gold. Walking back to the car about 10 am, I was swinging my stick along the weed line on the wet sand, when I dug up a nice Indian .800 silver toe ring or thumb ring.
A few yards down, i get a good, round mid-range signal. After 2 shallow scoops did not reach it, I buried my 12" Howie scoop all the way down at the center bottom of the hole, which was already about 7" deep. I dumped the sand out and a bright yellow ring tumbled out of the pile. A man's pinky ring winked up at me. It had the head of a woman - laser cut I would guess - carved out in the center of its oval table. Nice! My first beach gold.
It has several hallmarks, including one that says 375, indicating that it's 9k gold, made in England. It weighs 5.2 dwt.
The next morning I went to a beach in Broward County. The water was rough so I detected the wet sand. A lot of rusty iron flakes and garbage. Then I hit a dip with a sandbar that was almost out of the water about 30 yards offshore , making a calm area inside. I enjoyed wading there. No signals, at least there was no trash and no waves. I walked along the top of the sandbar, still no signals. It went down into a rocky hole chest deep, and here there was some pretty heavy wave action. I got a midrange signal. I worked the Howie Scoop into the rocks, pulled up a basketful of rocks and coral and a gold ring with 3 diamonds. OMG! Did I say gold ring with 3 diamonds? Yup. My first water gold.
On the beach was another detectorist. I chatted a bit with him. He was a high school math teacher. I told him I had a son in high school and that I loved teachers. He seemed bemused when I said that. He was using a Teknetics 4000.
We agreed the ring looked pretty real, and we shook hands. As I made the long walk back to my vehicle, I noticed some green spots on the band. They did not rub off. Darn. Green spots and no hallmark. It was fake - a good, heavy plated fake, but a fake. Well, at least I could wear it and impersonate a real estate salesman.
Later
, I showed the ring to Howie. I had rubbed off the green spots from the band by then, and washed out the sand from behind the stones. I could now see a large, white metal, 3 position mount soldered inside the face of the ring. There was a little green where the solder was.
Howie bounced it up and down in his hand. He looked at it with a loupe.
"I think it's gold. Maybe 10k. 10k can get green spots. Also, the bands been worked on, and the solder is always a lower karat than the ring metal. You should acid test it."
I didn't have any acid. But I had an idea how to authenticate the ring myself, without acid. I had read that real diamonds flouresce under black light. None of the materials commonly used to fake diamonds flouresce, including moisanite, which can fool a standard diamond tester. To confuse things a bit, really fine diamonds do not flouresce, either. But most diamonds commonly found in most jewelry, are not high grade. So, if you question whether a "diamond" ring is real or plated, check the ring under a black light. If the stones flouresce then they are real diamonds. And real diamonds, even ones of indifferent quality, are not normally mounted in base metal rings.
Under a black light, 2 of the 3 stones, the outside ones, flouresced. The center did not. I figured the center stone was probably a fake replacement stone.
The next day I took the ring with me when I went grocery shopping; there is a jewelry store inside the grocery. The gal behind the counter had testing acids and an electronic diamond tester. I asked her to test all three stones. She did, and all three are real diamonds. That makes me wonder if the center stone is a better diamond than the other two, since it did not flouresce. She then acid tested the ring, and it's 14k.
It weighs 6.9 dwt. The center stone is about 33mm across, or about .12 carats, the side stones are slightly smaller.
Well, there was no gold for any of us, but we had a darn good time anyway. It was a good confidence building trip for me, I found about as many coins and junk as they did.. The next morning, I went out by myself. I took my Howie Scoop and my Whites BH ID down to the beach in predawn darkness. The water was smooth, a gibbous moon was high in the sky, it was low tide, perfect conditions.
I had a great time in the water. But no gold. Walking back to the car about 10 am, I was swinging my stick along the weed line on the wet sand, when I dug up a nice Indian .800 silver toe ring or thumb ring.
A few yards down, i get a good, round mid-range signal. After 2 shallow scoops did not reach it, I buried my 12" Howie scoop all the way down at the center bottom of the hole, which was already about 7" deep. I dumped the sand out and a bright yellow ring tumbled out of the pile. A man's pinky ring winked up at me. It had the head of a woman - laser cut I would guess - carved out in the center of its oval table. Nice! My first beach gold.
It has several hallmarks, including one that says 375, indicating that it's 9k gold, made in England. It weighs 5.2 dwt.
The next morning I went to a beach in Broward County. The water was rough so I detected the wet sand. A lot of rusty iron flakes and garbage. Then I hit a dip with a sandbar that was almost out of the water about 30 yards offshore , making a calm area inside. I enjoyed wading there. No signals, at least there was no trash and no waves. I walked along the top of the sandbar, still no signals. It went down into a rocky hole chest deep, and here there was some pretty heavy wave action. I got a midrange signal. I worked the Howie Scoop into the rocks, pulled up a basketful of rocks and coral and a gold ring with 3 diamonds. OMG! Did I say gold ring with 3 diamonds? Yup. My first water gold.
On the beach was another detectorist. I chatted a bit with him. He was a high school math teacher. I told him I had a son in high school and that I loved teachers. He seemed bemused when I said that. He was using a Teknetics 4000.
We agreed the ring looked pretty real, and we shook hands. As I made the long walk back to my vehicle, I noticed some green spots on the band. They did not rub off. Darn. Green spots and no hallmark. It was fake - a good, heavy plated fake, but a fake. Well, at least I could wear it and impersonate a real estate salesman.
Later
Howie bounced it up and down in his hand. He looked at it with a loupe.
"I think it's gold. Maybe 10k. 10k can get green spots. Also, the bands been worked on, and the solder is always a lower karat than the ring metal. You should acid test it."
I didn't have any acid. But I had an idea how to authenticate the ring myself, without acid. I had read that real diamonds flouresce under black light. None of the materials commonly used to fake diamonds flouresce, including moisanite, which can fool a standard diamond tester. To confuse things a bit, really fine diamonds do not flouresce, either. But most diamonds commonly found in most jewelry, are not high grade. So, if you question whether a "diamond" ring is real or plated, check the ring under a black light. If the stones flouresce then they are real diamonds. And real diamonds, even ones of indifferent quality, are not normally mounted in base metal rings.
Under a black light, 2 of the 3 stones, the outside ones, flouresced. The center did not. I figured the center stone was probably a fake replacement stone.
The next day I took the ring with me when I went grocery shopping; there is a jewelry store inside the grocery. The gal behind the counter had testing acids and an electronic diamond tester. I asked her to test all three stones. She did, and all three are real diamonds. That makes me wonder if the center stone is a better diamond than the other two, since it did not flouresce. She then acid tested the ring, and it's 14k.
It weighs 6.9 dwt. The center stone is about 33mm across, or about .12 carats, the side stones are slightly smaller.
