OLD COINS ON THE BEACH

[-Jones-]

I was just going through a "pile" of targets i've found on FL beaches from Tampa to Naples and from Daytona to South Miami. Who hasn't found a pair of sunglasses? I found this pair directly out from Hooters, Fort Lauderdale.............

I've never found any real old coins but check out the 4 post 1964 coins. The pennies in the top left and bottom right corners have pieces corroded out, the penny in the top right corner has it's surface pealed, and the dime in the bottom left corner is just about paper thin. When finding coins pre-1964 what can one expect?

 

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[surfrat96]

I've got a small bucket of coins that are corroded like that from the ocean. Gotta get a tumbler to try to get them to where at least I can cash them in!

With all those coins pictured you've had to find a lot of gold and silver too!!

HH 8) surfrat

 

[whitesid]

first of all i just want to say that there are old coins on the beaches!found and ih penny 1905 the other day
what you can expect is for them to be pretty worn down. the odd thing about the penny was the detail was good i can still see the word liberty but for being in the waves so much it wasn't even round any more. as for silver i have no clue never found one at the beach.
hope this answered your question,
whitesid

 

[stud564]

nice finds

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Thats a decents days work...WTG on the finds

 

[Foilman]

I never found any silver on the beach but one guy told me they usually are all black but can clean up nice and be in great shape. I am told gold can also come up corroded being it is an alloy. The finest gold? Well I saw a mel fisher TV show, they said some items could be there for 100s of years and come up like it was just poured. If I find either I will let you know! Maybe somebody that actually have found stuff could post a photo.

 

[mnm]

Dagnabbit , that is alot of change , way to go !!!

 

[-Jones-]

Hey mnm,

That pile of clad took serveral years of visiting FL twice a year to accum!

I found a post 64 penny that was 25% there. I think i still have it somewhere and if I can find her, I'll post her...........

 

[lou423]

Nice pile....

 

[bazinga]

When I went detecting down in Florida around January of this year I got some pretty ugly coins. Some you can't even tell what they are. They are literally balls of sand corrodded together with edges sticking out.

As for the modern zinc pennies; ie 1982 to present, they can get pretty bad pretty quickly.

 

[Foilman]

Ric,
I said I would let you know if I found an older coin at the beach. Ironically I found my first one since my last post. It is a 1943 mercury dime. I also ironically found another 1943 mercury dime in the dirt a few years ago. The one out of the dirt was pretty shiny like it had just been dropped with a little reddish-brown patina in the low spots. The beach find has better detail and less visible scratches but the finish is not good.It looks like if you were to put a pair of glasses in the salt water and let it dry it has a salted looked but it doesn't wash off. It also has more of a dark tarnish but not totally black like I had been told. However I have not tried to clean either one. Wish I could post pictures. In the macro mode my camera says "too close to focus" when close and horrible from a focusable distance, I don't know if it is a lousy camera or if their is a trick to it. I see great pics on here.
I do think this may have been high and dry. If it was rolling in the surf I don't think it would be as nice. I think there are a lot of variables that affect your finds. You never know how long they where actually there and what condition they were to start either. I have found 2005 and 2006 pennies already rotten half away. But I have found plenty of pre 1982 (when they were mostly copper) pennies at the beach. Many have been in fair to good shape even though you could tell they weren't recent drops. Of course I am not in the water. I don't have a water machine.

Foilman

 

[deepsix47]

Actually I like it when I'm finding a lot well corroded coins. It takes awhile for them to get that way and that tells me the beach or water area I'm working hasn't been worked heavily by MD'ers. I tend to go back to these places often. Have a good one!!
Deepsix

 

[Sandman]

Rik, if it's near the saltwater it corrodes. Many of the coins I have plucked from the sands have been badly wasted and the newer dropped ones are still in good shape. I haven't recovered many Canadian coins from the ocean beaches come to think of it.

HH,
Sandman

 

[Foilman]

Hey deepsix47,

I thought the same thing until one day I was going along and I found several holes and near them were crusty pennies laying on top. Someone discarded them after digging them. Now I wonder how many times those paper thin Lincolns have been found and put back . In general I think it is smart thinking though. If you are not finding much, somebody has just gone through but it is easy to miss things and new stuff keeps dropping.

Foilman

 

[deepsix47]

Hey deepsix47,

I thought the same thing until one day I was going along and I found several holes and near them were crusty pennies laying on top. Someone discarded them after digging them. Now I wonder how many times those paper thin Lincolns have been found and put back . In general I think it is smart thinking though. If you are not finding much, somebody has just gone through but it is easy to miss things and new stuff keeps dropping.

Foilman

That's interesting, I've been doing this a long time and that's a first....lol. I keep everything (except the pop tabs and that kind of thing). I put TH'ing displays up for library's, school programs, things like that, just to show the variety of things we can find out there, and to get people interested in our hobby. Sometimes I have several up at one time so need everything....lol. Thanx for the post.
Deepsix

 

[mountainman 2]

I was searching the water's edge years ago digging a lot of nails from the pier using a pulse machine. One sounded a little different.It was another nail but with a franklin half dollar stuck to it. Also recovered a lot of black silver about 10 years ago or so from the same beach after a passing hurricane made about a four foot deep cut in the sand. People were walking up and down the beach picking up coins lying on the surface.That afternoon the cut disappeared and no more older coins were found.