A few years ago I stopped at a garage sale and bought an old Whites metal detector. I have three kids and thought it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon once in a while. We would go to the playground at the school around the block every so often. We would usually find a bunch of coins around the monkey bars and at the bottom of the slide.

In the beginning of the summer I mailed a brochure away to the Whites Company that was in a magazine I was reading. A week later I received a packet in the mail on their whole line of detectors. I read about each metal detector and the features each one had. I really wanted to get the DFX but the price range was a little high for me. Included in the packet I had gotten from Whites was the name and address of the closest distributor in my area. It was only about 20 minutes from my house.

I got off work early one day and decided to take a ride to Treasures Unlimited in Patchogue,N.Y. As soon as I walked into the shop, Mike and Fred greeted me and were very friendly. Mike was just going to give a demonstration to a couple that were interested in buying a detector. He asked if I'd like to sit in on the demo. For 45 minutes he went over all the features of an entry level machine, a midrange machine and a DFX. He was very thorough. At the end of the talk I was ready to purchase a mid range machine. When I walked up to the counter there was a DFX on a stand with a sign "Special of the day". It was a trade in from a customer who wanted a new DFX. I said," I'll take this one". For about the price of the mid range machine I was going to get, I just became the owner of the DFX on the counter. This was the model I really wanted to begin with. The feature that most interested me was that it wasn't affected by salt water. Living on Long Island we are surrounded by beaches.

The first weekend my two boys went out with me. Within 30 seconds I got a hit. The screen said 25c, 2" deep. It was amazing. We found some coins and pop tops also. About half an hour into our searching I saw ring or pop top on the screen. My son Michael took a scoop of sand and when it went through the screen a gold ring was in our basket. It was 18K gold with a Platinum lining inside the band. We were all thrilled.

I took the ring to a local coin shop and he bought it from me. I told the kids that this will be the start towards the savings for a new DFX. When we have enough to buy a new one I'll pass this one down to them. They want to go every chance we get now.

Mike P.