Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Barrel-like Object Dug by Jeff W. Photo submitted by Jeff W. |
I received an email from Jeff W. who sent the above picture of the item he dug. He wondered what it was. I don't know for sure what it is, but I urged extreme caution. There are still World War II bombs and other things on some beaches that can be uncovered after storms.
Anytime you are digging something big like this, exercise extreme caution. My first thought was depth charge, but of course I don't know what it is. It could also contain hazardous materials.
My recommendation would be to report it to authorities.
Be cautious. Be safe.
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| Rough Diagram of One Productive Beach. |
A few days ago I told you about a beach that I saw and could tell that it would probably have a lot of targets. I stopped to check it out and quickly found a lot of modern coins there. After getting an idea of the target distribution pattern, I stopped digging coin signals in the hope of finding a ring or something. That is the same beach I tried to illustrate above.
The cut extended about three hundred yards, going from over six feet at one end (right) and tapering down to nothing at the other end. A heavy concentration of coins (A) was found in front of the cut roughly near the middle, but actually more to the right than is shown in the illustration. Towards the far end of the cut (C) old items were found in past years.
My strategy of skipping coin signals in the hope of quickly finding a ring worked. Two things were required before it worked though.
The first thing I did was sample the beach to define the target distribution pattern. I quickly ran a very loose pattern to find out where the coin hole was and its approximate boundaries. After doing that I had a good idea of where in the hole any gold rings would most likely be found. It was near the center of the hole but closer to the water.
You can often get a good idea of where things should be found by looking at a beach, but you can quickly check that by doing a little sampling.
In the past I would have cleaned everything out - coins, junk and all. This time, with the incoming tide and the multitude of targets, I didn't have enough time to clean it out so I took a short cut.
I returned the next day, thinking there was a good chance of something else good remaining along with all the coins that I didn't remove the first day. I used to know about how many coins on average I would find per gold item on the beaches that I hunted frequently, but I can't remember those numbers now. I moved and haven't hunted those beaches for a long time. It seems to me that one or two hundred coins per gold ring was typical, but I could be way off.
I detected the same beach a few days before all of this and found the gold choker that I posted. I lost track of how many days that was too.
Although I knew there were still a lot of clad coins in area A, I wasn't much interested in them, and the gold you find at this beach, as infrequent as it is, isn't the more expensive stuff, so I was thinking about skipping down to area C where older items had been found in the past. I'm more interested in older items these day anyhow, so I did that, again running a very lose scanning pattern, and checked out area C enough to determine that it wasn't really worth spending much time on. It got mushier and the targets were scarce. So I returned to the coin hole.
On the way down to C and back, I spot checked high and low on the beach and found that area B produced a variety of very shallow coins that were barely covered by a thin layer of sand. It appeared as though they slid down the face of the cliff.
One thing I like to do is sample areas to determine what is going on in the area. Sampling can be a good strategy. It is an important strategy for me.
Another thing I like to do is develop a mental map of any target distribution patterns and get an idea of how things got to be where they are and how they have been moving.
After sampling and getting a good idea of what different areas might produce, you can then make decisions about how you want to approach the beach. Keep sampling, analyzing and modifying your strategies as you work and continue to collect information.
There are a lot of different strategies that could be used. The one that is right for you will be determined by a number of factors including what you want to find, the beach conditions, how much time you have and other factors. One good strategy when things are not looking good is to simply leave and sample some other beaches.
You might not even be interested in digging clad coins and modern jewelry. Different people are interested in different things. I'll talk more about that and different strategies in the near future.
One of the most valuable things you can take away from any hunt is new information and a more complete understanding A find is a find, but new information can help you locate many finds in the future.
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We've had a steady wind and fairly high surf, but I haven't seen anything that makes me think that beach detecting conditions have improved significantly. I am not highly confident about that though, because I haven't had much time to look around much. There could possibly be a spot or two that are producing, but if there are spots like that, I'd say they are few and far between. I don't think the water has been getting high enough in the right areas lately, but again I haven't been able to do much scouting around.
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Speakers prior to the upcoming Nov. 12 Sedwick Coins auction at the Doubletree Hotel in Orlando will be the following.
- Martin Woodward (U.K.): Treasure Wrecks in English Waters
- Isaac Rudman (Dominican Republic): La vida de un coleccionista profesional / The Life of a Professional Collector (in Spanish)
- Paul Karon (U.S.A.): Analysis for Collecting Potosi Cobs
- Dave Horner (U.S.A.): Compilation of Treasure Recovery Stories 1970-1990
For more information check SedwickCoins.com.
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I'll try to get out to take a look at a variety of beaches some time this weekend.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
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I'll try to get out to take a look at a variety of beaches some time this weekend.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net