Detecting at Fort Pierce Inlet Shortly After Irene.
Before I start, I posted a new survey question. I appreciate your answers. The surveys are far from perfect but they add a little information that helps us all to learn. Thanks for your participation.
I received some interesting emails yesterday. Two of those emails included stories of people that were having success, and both of those were doing something a bit different from everybody else.
I often tell you to think outside the box, although I also often make fun of that same expression by saying that anyone who utters that tired worn out expression is not thinking outside the box. I guess that includes me now. It is quick and easy, and I think you get the point.
Anyhow, the two people who sent me emails describing their successes were both doing something different than what most people are doing. I've found that that is one key to success in detecting . If you are doing what everyone else is doing, you are probably not having extraordinary success. If you are doing what everyone else is doing, you are stopping at the same beach accesses, detecting about fifty yards in one direction or the other, and after a short time deciding that there is nothing much to be found.
One person said they found a beach where they were finding a lot silver coins from the 1900s. I won't give away their secret because I am the only person they told, and they earned it.
As you undoubtedly know, there are not a lot of old silver US coins to be found on most of the beaches, but there are places where you can still find old silver US coins. You won't likely find those spots though if you are doing what everyone else is doing.
I have some of those spots that produce old US silver coins myself. They are out there. Anyone could find them, but for some reason most everybody else seems to pass them up.
They are not distant places. They aren't hard to get to. The ones that I have found are near very heavily populated and heavily hunted areas. Despite all of that, I have never seen anyone else hunt them. Those spots remain ignored even though they could easily enough be discovered.
I say all of that to illustrate an important point. Do something different. Open your eyes to what might be right under your nose. Open your eyes to new possibilities and new hunting opportunities. Detect outside the bag.
The other topic for today was also inspired by an email that I received. The email contained a discussion of where gold and other items settle and are found. The discussion contained a lot of truth, however it was misleading in some ways.
I'm not criticizing those who wrote the discussion. It is not easy to give a full explanation. Near impossible, in fact. There are many complex factors involved in where and when gold, coins, rings and things settle on a beach - in fact too many to be able to quickly summarize in a few pages without leaving out some very important factors.
You might recall one survey I posted in this blog about where treasure coins have been found. If you do remember that, you might also remember that treasure coins have been found on virtually all parts of the beach, from the low tide zone, to the slope, to the toe of a cut and the face of a cut, to the splash zone, to the flat beach, to the back dunes.
I don't doubt the accuracy of those survey results at all because I had personally observed all of the same things and reached the same conclusion before posting the survey. The survey results verified what I had observed myself.
You can find cobs and old treasure coins in different places at different times. Things change. There is no single answer to that which can be quickly and simply summarized without leaving out a lot of conditions or factors. I am often very painfully aware of that when I try to present general principles and conclusions. I simply can't include all the if, ands, or buts in any one post. There is always something else to consider. I have to leave some of that for you to piece together for yourself.
No single post is self-sufficient. Every post will be supported and amplified by referring to other older posts.
Lets say you dig a hole and bury an object to see how deep you can detect that particular object. There are a lot, and I do mean a lot of things that will vary and affect your results.
One thing you might neglect to notice is that a dug hole on a beach is very different context than an object that was buried by natural forces over time. The natural beach will be made of various layers, each layer being different and deposited under different conditions at different times. There will different types of sand, some fine, some course, some black, some brown, and then there will be layers of shell, and you might be near the water table or not, in wet sand, or dry sand, etc. etc. It all makes a difference in where different objects settle and how easily and deeply you can detect them.
That doesn't mean that you can't do a useful test. It just means that you have to realize that your results will not be entirely accurate for different situations.
Once you dig a hole, those layers are disturbed and it will not behave like the natural beach. Besides the layers being disturbed, there is no way you will tamp the sand to get the same results as when the sand is undisturbed and the object has settled over time.
I can't get into all of that in a few paragraphs or even pages. I will add one important thing though.
If you remove the sand down to the water table, you might then actually see the water loosening up the bottom of the hole and suspending the sand and shells and making the material that you didn't even dig much less dense and therefore more penetrable even in the sand that you did not touch.
I tell you all of that to simply suggest that there is always more to the story when I or anyone else tries to give simple general principles describing how beaches behave. Beware of over generalization.
Because of one thing said in the second email that I am indirectly referring to, I want to mention that if you read the stories on the internet about people who found their first Spanish treasure coin, it almost always occurred soon after a storm.
I'll leave that at that for now.
I have a lot more to say, but not much more time. I'll have to save it for another day.
On another topic, there is a new gold rush going on in the Yukon, partly because of the high price of gold.
Here is a link to that story.
http://www.resourceintelligence.net/high-bullion-price-spurs-new-yukon-gold-rush/21716
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
We have a hurricane, Katia, out in the Atlantic. It won't affect us for several days if it ever does.
There is also a storm in the Gulf that has a high probability of turning into a cyclone. That one deserves watching if you are on the Gulf Coast.
Today the seas are calm but will increase tomorrow and through the week end up to maybe three or four feet.
Conditions for finding treasure coins on the Treasure Coast beaches remain poor, but the increased seas may stir up some other things.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
