Part Two...
As a follow-up to Part One, & what actually started me on this hunt for new equipment?
Well, as mentioned before, it started on a fossil hunt. After I safely removed a bellimite from the rock it had been hiding in for millions of years, “disaster struck” i broke the bellimite.
It was entirly my fault, i hasten to add, becuase I was wrestling with the zip on my backpack, trying to undo the bag which was still on my back, & instead of putting down the bellimite & taking off the backpack, which would have been the simplest & safest thing to do, i tried to open the backpack to put the fossil in, bad mistake, by twisting round, somehow, i broke the bellimite in my hand, & adding insult to injury the bags main zip broke when i bent down spilling its contents on the ground, so its back to square one on the equipment front…
Now I’ve decided to get a finds box ( the idea of a finds box is that these smaller, & more fragile fossils can be safely tucked away into this box, and be transported safely to their new home… ), although i go metal detecting a lot more than fossiling, i do not own a dedicated finds box, I’ve never had a reason to buy these as my finds have not warrented it, so when looking around for a dedicated finds box it became a nasty shock to find that the prices of these 3Dprinted boxs were more expensive than finds pouches and even the smaller bags to put your metal detectors into were more cost effective, & dont even ask my opinon of the cost of metal detecting gloves ?
I found that the cheapest box was not the right shape for my needs. It was more suitable for its intended use as a coin pod, which I discovered at Regtons for just under five pounds. The prices of the coin pods increased gradually until reaching the cost of the finds boxes.
While the Chinese finds boxes were cheaper, they were also starting off much smaller; with the prices increasing as the size increased, and the one I wanted was priced around fourteen pounds, with free postage, but I noticed that the hinges appeared weak in the photos—specifically, the plastic clips had white lines along both the hinges & the clasps also seemed questionable, whilst the lanyard fitting looked relatively small, but maybe that was just the way it was photographed…(-white lines on any plastic clips or movable plastic parts indicates stress, there fore in my mind this indicates a futre brakeing point !-)
In contrast, the dedicated metal detector finds box seemed to have a decent plastic hinge, supported by a metal rod running through, and one clasp, instead of the four clasps found on most of the cheaper items i was looking at…
Inside, this Finds Box, (-as with most other boxes-) you get an internal padded foam top (- but under the top foam on the coin pod box is a photo gauge -) this was an optional extra for a few pounds more…
Whilst on the bottom of the finds box there is egg case foam on the base, plus it does seem to have a “handle type bar with a decent looking lanyard hole” which would hold the finds box attached via a curly & expanding lanyard, so with the coin pod on the plus side moving further ahead it looks like it’s going to have to be the “coin pod finds box”…
As for the total cost, this came out at an eye-watering £ 16.33p, broken down as £ 12.95p for the box plus £ 3.38p pp…
In part three, hopefully i should have the new Backpack…
UK Detectorist 
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