A week in SW FL

GYirga

Jr. Member
Mar 11, 2006
74
1
Hello all, Greg from TN here with my first ever post. The family and I just got back from a week in SW Florida and I spent every day on the beach with my DFX. The first time out was a real disappointment at a state park. The ranger informed me that MD'ing was not allowed on this beach. I did not argue but questioned that according to the web sites state park beaches were open to detecting between dune and tide line unless an offshore salvage area was present. When I questioned him he said he could not enforce the rules only make me aware of them. About that time he got a call and it was his boss, the park manager. I asked him to verify if I could detect or not and the voice on the other end of the line confirmed that I could not. Reluctantly I put the DFX back in the truck and looked for sharks teeth the rest of the morning.

When I got back to our rental home I called the state park district office and asked if metal detecting was allowed in FL state parks. The man on the other end said that it was open between dune and tide line as I had read but he added that each park manager could decide not to allow it in "his" park as he saw fit. He gave me the phone number and name of the park manager but conveniently I could not reach him on the phone during my visit to appeal his decision. Has this ever happened to anyone else and if so what did you or would you have done? I decided not to cause any disruptions and just did not detect when at this beach.

Oh well with this experience I called the Charlotte Co Sheriffs office and made sure detecting was allowed on county park beaches and was thrilled to hear there are no restrictions on county beaches.

With this info we immediately headed to Englewood Beach. The first find was a clad penny then a few feet further while walking to the high tide line I got a strong signal. About 2 inches down I dug up a nice working Seiko watch. WOW MY BEST FIND EVER!!! I could not believe it was still running and had the right time too. Must not have been there long at all.

A day or 2 later while at Venice doing the tourist shopping thing I drug my wife and son into a jeweler that had large Seiko signs. I showed them the watch and explained that I had just found it on the beach and wondered if they could give me the retail value of the watch. The jeweler said that the watch was made in 1999 and it retailed for $225 to $300. WOW AGAIN!!!

Being the doubting person that I am could anyone tell me how to identify the watch I found and where to look on the internet to determine its value. I have searched since I found the watch but no luck. I would like to find the value myself through research if anyone can point me in the right direction.

Finding the watch was a thrill and I have to say it was the highlight of my detecting for the week. The rest of the week was the normal clad.

Sorry for the long post but I have to warn you everyone says I am pretty wordy. I see it as enthusiastic.

I read the forum every day and have been waiting on something worth while to post.

Hope I have more in the future. I will post pics of the watch once I figure out how.
 

Upvote 0

bazinga

Silver Member
Oct 31, 2005
2,966
80
High Five!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Welcome to the forums!

Great find with the watch and keep the finds and posts coming! :)
 

RON (PA)

Silver Member
Sep 9, 2004
2,847
61
Pittsburgh, Pa
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Compadre & Tiger Shark
Welcome to the forum. It is great to have you on board.

Don't worry about being wordy. I'm wordy too. Great finds. Congrats on the watch.

I've never had that happen (with rangers) before, but have heard that is happens occasionally. Maybe the ranger has his own detector and doesn't want others taking his retirement money??? just a guess.

Again, welcome to the best metal detecting site on the Net.
 

DPBOB

Silver Member
Apr 12, 2006
3,585
264
DES PLAINES IL
Detector(s) used
AVATAR: MY Wife Saying....




"Your going Metal Detecting
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
EBAY!!!!!! GREAT RESEARCH PLACE !!!!!!!!
 

midas777gold

Full Member
May 29, 2006
122
6
NO MD'ing in Minnesota State Parks?, FL - certain boundaries? WHO ARE THE FOOLS THAT MAKE THE RULES?
Betcha in every Minnesota State Park you WILL see a Ranger with a detector!!!!! snagging all the goodies for himself.
 

Postalrevnant

Silver Member
Jul 5, 2006
3,086
22
Mountains
Welcome to the forum. Really sucks about not letting you detect that site. However, congratulations on the cool watch.

Postalrevnant
 

Mona Lisa

Gold Member
Jan 13, 2005
5,112
36
Great Falls, Montana
Detector(s) used
White's DFX & a Sunray probe
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Sorry to hear about the detecting ban, GYirga. A Seiko watch is a great find. :)

Welcome to Tnet. I'm looking forward to more wordy posts! ;)
 

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