Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Silver Dragon Handle of Some Sort Find and photo by John C. |
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| Ornate Silver Buckle Find and photo by John C. |
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A penny is a penny is a penny. That might be true for some but not for me.
A penny might be zinc or copper. It might be new or old. It might be recently lost, or lost a long time ago.
There are error pennies and rare pennies that can be worth more than a gold ring.
Pennies can provide good information that will lead you to a real hot spot. I look for the spots that produce concentrations of high value targets and don't spend much time where there are a lot of recently lost new pennies.
Some are obviously lost very recently. Others show corrosion and the wear of time. That can provide important information that will point you towards better things.
Pennies can define the boundaries of what I call coin holes. If you know that and take whatever other information a penny might give you, it can definitely point you to the real hot spots.
Zinc pennies travel faster than copper pennies. Zinc pennies will therefore tend to be farther away from the source than copper pennies. That will point you in the direction of the source of the coins.
Zinc pennies will tend to be more on the outer boundaries of coin holes. Coin holes produce more than coins. Gold found in coin holes will generally be towards the middle of a coin hole, while pennies will be on the outer edges. Again, pennies can help point you in the right direction. Quarters will be closer to the center of a coin hole, and closer to where more gold will be found.
Zinc pennies that are badly corroded or other coins that show evidence of having been in the water tells you something about how the sand and other objects are moving, and that helps point you to the areas where more good targets will be found.
Since I spend the majority of my time in areas that have few new pennies relative to other types of higher value targets, I don't encounter great numbers of pennies, and when I do, unless there are indicators to the contrary, such as when newer material begins to wash over a deeper hole containing older accumulations, I usually quickly move to another area, so I encounter few pennies anyhow.
If I'm finding older pennies rather than new pennies, that can be a sign that things are opening up and other older things, and possibly concentrations of higher value targets can be found nearby.
I usually pick up pennies, but there are times when I do not. I do not pick up pennies, for example, when I want to use them as markers or indicators of how the sand and other objects are moving. I leave them in place to see if they are in the same location later or if they moved in one direction or another or if they were covered or more were exposed.
While pennies are not usually found mixed with old shipwreck coins, they can be an early sign of improving conditions and places to watch for the future appearance of older items. As I mentioned above, they can be an indicator of improving or deteriorating conditions in a particular area. Older and longer lost pennies are generally a better sign than new pennies.
I've often been impressed how many more targets are found after the more obvious surface targets are removed. Pennies can mask other targets. Sometimes other deeper targets are only found after pennies and other less valuable targets are removed. In a concentration such as the one I illustrated a couple of days ago, pennies can be in the top layers of heavy target concentrations. When they are removed, additional signals and better targets can be found as the hole expands and gets deeper.
I do not focus so much on recent drops, preferring to hunt concentrations, and do not spend much time in areas where pennies or other junk targets predominate. While pennies and junk targets can provide important information, such as where not to spend much time, pennies and other junk are not much of a bother to me simply because I usually don't hunt much where they are plentiful relative to better targets.
Those are a some of the reasons why I dig pennies. Basically the same thing goes for junk targets.
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I've been spending a lot of time in a hospital and rehabilitation facility with an ailing parent. I'm reminded that loved ones don't last forever. Make the best of the time you have and appreciate good health whenever you have it.
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Expect a two or thee foot surf for a couple of days.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
