Found GOLD at Washed-out Beach

[LawrencetheMDer]

Found a 14k Men’s gold wedding band, while hunting a washed-out beach covered with fist sized stones and sand the consistency of cement. Also found 51 coins (5-.25, 9-.10, 14-.05, 23-.01), a junk ring with 2 black stones and the usual sinkers and lures. Was surprised by the number of nickels (14/51, 27%) - usually 5-10% are nickels.


Unfortunately, I bent the heck out of my scoop – now it won’t “Poop” (i.e., drop contents out). Have to give it some thought as to how to fix…


One statistic I keep track of is my Coin : Gold ratio (Full disclosure – Platinum counts as gold). Over the past 4 years of beach hunting the ratio has held in the range of 200 to 250 coins per piece of gold. Started to get concerned, but at the same time excited with anticipation, when my ratio climbed to almost 300 to 1 before today. Now with the recent finds, I'm comfortably back to 216 to 1 for 2016. Looking forward to my next hunt and where else? Back to the washed-out beach. Happy hunting.

Total 2016 (as of 2/12/16):
Gold/Platinum: 3
Coins: 647

 

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[Hydro Man]

Congrats on the ring and condolences on the scoop!

 

[digger460]

Way to go And also my condolences.

 

[Texas Ed]

Good days take congrats & condolences on scoop.

 

[CASPER-2]

IF YOU CAN FIND SOMEONE WITH A REALLY SMALL SCISSOR JACK THAT WILL FIT INSIDE - MIGHT WORK
STOP BY A BODY SHOP AND SEE WHAT THEY CAN DO
I HAD ONE (SCOOP) THAT LOOKED JUST LIKE THAT YRS AGO - I HIT A LOT OF LARGE ROCKY AREAS
WITH ROCKS AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD - I PRIED ONE UP A FEW YRS BACK AND GOT A MORGAN DOLLAR UNDER IT
CONGRATS ON THE GOLD - WITH ALL THE GREENIES - iD BE POUNDING THAT SPOT - BOUND TO BE MORE YELLOW

 

[lorraine]

Now, that's an impressive hunt, Lawrence.

That's a real nice gold ring find
Do you ever find "Indian head" nickels? My favorite kind of nickel.

Keep 'em comin'!
Lorraine

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

Now, that's an impressive hunt, Lawrence.

That's a real nice gold ring find
Do you ever find "Indian head" nickels? My favorite kind of nickel.

Keep 'em comin'!
Lorraine

I have yet to find any old coins on the beaches of Florida. Some of the cents and nickels date to the 1940s and 1950s, but no silver coins and no Buffalo head nickels. I am currently undertaking a study of "How Old are Those Coins You Find on the Beach Metal Detecting?" I'm also working on a post of "Really Worn, Eroded and Corroded Coins Found While Metal Detecting." Based on about 2,000 recent coin finds, not one is older than about 1946., about the same as found in change. Stay tuned for these exciting and provocative posts.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Great hunt!

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Nice score! Aluminum and hard pack with big stones is a recipe for a bent scoop. Take a 4/4 post piece or a chunky piece of wood, stick it in your scoop on the ground and hit it with a sledge. I've fixed my alum scoop quite a few times this way. Finally bought a stainless steel scoop for that type of terrain. Good luck and go get some more gold!!

 

[Irishgoldhound]

...also forgot to add, once you've banged out the worst of it, take a round piece of pipe or some rounded piece of steel, put your scoop on something solid and bang the roundness with a small sledge or a heavy tool if you don't own a sledge.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

Nice score! Aluminum and hard pack with big stones is a recipe for a bent scoop. Take a 4/4 post piece or a chunky piece of wood, stick it in your scoop on the ground and hit it with a sledge. I've fixed my alum scoop quite a few times this way. Finally bought a stainless steel scoop for that type of terrain. Good luck and go get some more gold!!

Unfortunately, my solution, similar to yours, really made things worse.
I decided to take a piece of wood (2”x2”x10”) and place it on the inside of the scoop and hammer out the caved-in part from the inside. Things were going well UNTIL I began working on the back of the scoop and ended-up breaking the seam and pushing out the bottom of the scoop!
First, I thought that I could solder the seam back in place: long story, but after $50.00 of material (MapX gas, torch, starter, silver solder) no luck; the solder would not adhere to the scoop.
Second, I thought that I could weld the seam shut. At the store while buying all the soldering materials I saw a small cutting/welding kit composed of an oxygen tank and MapX gas. Again, it didn’t work. Just could not melt the scoop with the small torch. Now out another $60.00. That makes about $110.00 spent and still no scoop.
I’ll eventually find an auto shop that welds and have them spot-weld the bottom so it doesn’t fall off. That should be cheap and thanks to an earlier discussant for the suggestion.
But for now, I wired the scoop together. Have the itch.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Hmmmm? That's a lot of $$ invested to fix a scoop. Could've bought a new one with that $$. An auto body shop or mechanic shop would weld your seem back together, probably for $30 or less.

 

[Normsel]

You can buy a scoop from anywhere between $39 and $250

 

[frogmaster-riviera]

Congrats Lawrence for this gold ring! Time to invest into a real scoop...