Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Man's Watch on Ground |
An expensive watch can sound like a piece of junk. No ID meter is going to tell you when you are detecting a watch, but if you are digging everything, or if you are discriminating but know how a watch is likely to sound, you will still find a fair share of watches.
In the above photo you see a watch. That shows one way a watch can be positioned. The face and band are standing on edge. Watches can also be positioned so the face of the watch is facing up or down with the band lying flat on the ground. (See example below.)
Watches are usually made of a variety of materials. Even if the casing is gold or silver, part of the watch and band will be made of other materials. That means that you can get some confusing signals. Not only that, but if you swing your coil over it in different directions you will get different sounding signals and different conductivity ratings.
If you swing left and right over the above watch, the Equinox will give conductivity ratings of 13 to 16, but if you swing north to south, you will get higher readings - something like 18 - 22.
Your readings won't be consistent, but will depend to some extent upon exactly where the watch is positioned under the coil.
Watches will often give two or more tones because of all the different parts and materials used in the watch.
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| Watch Lying Flat. |
Although there are so many kinds of watches and the signals can be very complex and varied, it is still good have an idea of what they might sound like, You can learn what to expect by experimenting with a variety of watches.
I previously posted three YouTube videos that illustrate the effect of the position of a watch and the sweep direction of the coil on the detector signal you get from a watch.
Here are those links.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqZ9XJiKy7o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtIVumXmtyU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYGswg64oWE
I've found a lot of watches in shell-filled dips right in front of the beach.
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Its amazing what is online. If you want to scout around a little without actually going anywhere, you might try Google Maps street-view. It is almost like you are there.
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| Entrance to White City Park as Seen Using Street View on Google Maps. |
As you drive down the road using street view you might want to look around for construction areas, like that being done on Midway Road through White City. I've posted many stories in this blog about old things being exposed by construction projects.
The views you see on street view will be somewhat out of date, but still you might get some good leads. The construction in this area has been going on for years, so things might be different now, but they are still turning earth.
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We hear so much these days about the massive amount of data being kept on private individuals by both internet companies and the government, but how about your scholastic "permanent record?"
Decades ago when I was in elementary and high school (we didn't have kindergarten or middle school in our rural area), whenever you did something bad enough to warrant it, your teacher or school principal might threatened that IT (whatever it was) could go on your "permanent record." My wife remembers it too, so it wasn't just a local thing. I've heard it joked about on TV sitcoms too, so it must have been near universal.
It sounded really ominous when it was referred to by authority figures that were twice your size and as much as 35 or 40 years old. I don't know where those "permanent records" were kept, but at the time your permanent records sounded just a little less important than the Book of Life. It sounded like it could determine the rest of your life somehow. Now I know it was a fake.
Only a few people in the world now know if I even went to first grade, and nobody knows or cares what graduate degrees I completed. That is one of the things about being retired - what you thought was so important and spent so many years on becomes irrelevant. After spending years of time and lots of money, the degrees did help me get jobs, but now there are only about two people in the world that actually knows anything about that. Time flies and things change.
Despite the sham of the mythical permanent record, there are records that last. For example, there is your ancestral record encoded in your DNA.
But each and everyone of us keeps a record of our own. It might be selective and spotty, but it is there. Some long lasting memories seem to have been indelibly imprinted on our brains. There are successes, embarrassments, sports moments, and things that someone said that you seem to never forget. Some of those are metal detecting experiences.
I remember some finds very clearly even though they occurred many years ago. I remember the location, what the weather was like, etc., etc. Many of those memories are of what I call first finds.
I remember, for example, the first Rolex watch I found, even though it was drowned. I also remember the last Rolex I found, but that wasn't so long ago.
I remember the first shipwreck silver I found on a Treasure Coast beach. I told about that one in this blog before. It was at John Brooks beach. It was almost in front of the beach walkover, but a little to the right. My wife took it out of my scoop, looked at it and was in the process of giving it a toss, when I stopped her. It was flat and black, and I didn't know for sure it was silver until I got back home and tested it. But I remember it all very well.
I remember the first silver ring I found, but strangely not the first gold ring. That silver ring was found on Hollywood beach down near the water in the evening. My parents were there and I was showing them my new detector. They were surprised when I came back with the ring in hand. Their reaction of surprise probably made it more memorable.
I remember one large solitary multi-carat diamond ring find very well. I was in the water. The sky was cloudless and blue and the water was crystal clear that day. I saw the ring sparkle when the sand slid off of it while it was still in the scoop just a few inches off the bottom. I saw it sparkle through a two or three feet of water.
Those are just a few examples. Some of my favorite metal detecting memories weren't finds. They were just beautiful sights.
One of those occurred came just off Fort Lauderdale Beach in and about thee feet of water. One day I was metal detecting in the water when it started raining. The water was flat and the rain surrounded me like a shower curtain of rain surrounding me. I could only see a few feet in every direction. It seemed like I was alone in the world. It was eerily quiet and stunningly beautiful.
That is one of the benefits of metal detecting. You can accumulate an album full memorable moments that can last for decades.
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I'm going to start harping on including some indication of the size of finds submitted for identification. It is so important. Often just a coin for comparison or the object shown in hand will do, but the more information you provide, the better chance you will have of getting an answer.
It looks like another week of one foot surf is predicted for the Treasure Coast.
Nothing that will affect us is on the National Hurricane Center map.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
