Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Photo Received In Email From Sotheby's.I'll have more information on what is probably one of the most impressive collections of Spanish coins in the world along with more photos of some other really exceptional coins from that collection in my next post.
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), replacing the dollar bill with a dollar coin would save the US government $5.5 billion over 30 years.
It would also boost the average value of coin finds made by detectorists. Before getting into some more detail about that, if you want to read more on the argument for using dollar coins, here is a link.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/02/02/why-the-u-s-should-get-rid-of-the-1-bill/
I was once told that the average coin find is around 7.5 cents. What I mean by that is if you take all of the clad coins that you find, add up the total face value and divide by the number of coins, you would come out close to around 7.5 cents. Therefore if you count the total number of coins you have found and multiply by 7.5 you should get something close to the face value of the coins you found.
Anyhow, I actually tested that by going back to some good old detailed metal detecting records from years ago. Covering several months, those records recorded 9978 found coins. 4301 pennies, 1092 nickels, 1925 dimes, and 1660 quarters and a few half-dollar and dollar coins. Therefore about 43% were pennies, 11% nickels, 29% dimes, and 17% quarters. Halves and dollar coins were not counted for this experiment since they were so few in comparison.
Most of the dollar coins were Susan Anthony coins. About a half roll of Susan Anthony dollar coins were found in the water one day. I never could figure out why there would be so many dollar coins so close together in the water.
Anyhow, calculating from the above data I learned that the coins that were found during that period of time averaged about 8.1 cents. Of course there are a number of things that can affect the proportion of different denominations that you find. Your detector and settings will affect the results some, as will the locations that you hunt. A park that has a parking fee of $1.25 might have more quarters,for example.
If dollar coins replaced dollar bills, I do imagine that the average face value of coins found by detectorists would go up. It probably wouldn't increase in exact proportion to the number of coins put in circulation though. People would tend to be more careful with dollar coins than pennies, and the size would make dollar coins easier to see when dropped.
Los Angeles County has some new beach rules and regulations. Among the new rules is no digging holes of 18 inches or more. It doesn't say anything about filling holes, just digging them. What will they try to govern next.
Here is the link to that story.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/02/08/la-county-updates-ordinance-on-ball-frisbee-throwing-at-beaches/
Treasure Coast Beach Conditioins and Forecast.
Here is a cut that I found on one Treasure Coast beach yesterday. Even though the seas hadn't been high the winds were from the north and northeast for a good while, thus the erosion.
Good Two Foot Plus Cut.
The sand in front of the cut was very mushy and there were very few targets of any kind here.
Today the seas will be running around three feet most of the day and winds from the west as the cool front comes through. Tomorrow, though, the seas will be up in the five foot and above range. What is particularly interesting to me about that is that the wind direction will shift and be coming nearly directly from the north for a while and the swells more from the north. That presents possibilities for erosion.
The higher seas are predicted to last only one day before decreasing again.
I'm sticking with my level 2 beach conditions rating even though I would say it is a minimal two.
I have a lot of other stuff to talk about, including more about the Spanish coin collection and a little experiment I conducted on the beach yesterday, but I'll have to get around to talking about that some other time.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
