Finding gold in Nha Trang, Vietnam

[perdidogringo]

Hi all,

I recently traveled down to the Vietnamese resort (and former U.S. military base) of Nha Trang, Vietnam for a little bit of relaxation and metal detecting on the beach. The highlight was finding my first gold ring in Vietnam! It's a pretty interesting ring as you can see in the photos. I believe there are little stones imbedded within it? The inscription reads, I believe, "RR 670." I'm not sure what that is in reference to, whether it denotes the carat, the maker, or perhaps the owner of the ring? Any ideas?

I also found a whole lot of coins from various countries, and a couple of unidentified pins (if anyone has any idea about the pins, I'd appreciate if you would reach out). I'm hoping one of them is military but after searching the internet, couldn't find a match. The water was rough this time of year so I could only search the wet and dry sand, unfortunately. I hope to get back to this area in the summer when the water is more calm- there has to be a lot of lost jewelry and relics from the G.I.'s stationed there in the 1960s and 70s. I've attached some photos of my finds as well as a link to a video I made of the hunts. Happy hunting!

 

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[RTR]

Cool ! Nha Trang was a major base(and H.Q. for the CIA) all the way back to day one.Knew you find stuff .Should be a lot more left behind...

 

[pepperj]

Nicely done on your first gold.
The number stamp is a strange one, unless like you said it's just a jeweller's mark.

 

[RTR]

Dug out some old pix. for you of Nha Trang coastline back in 69

 

[perdidogringo]

Dug out some old pix. for you of Nha Trang coastline back in 69 View attachment 2007394View attachment 2007395View attachment 2007396

Great photos, RTR! I can only imagine how things were back then. Have you been back to Vietnam since you served?

 

[Blak bart]

Great work and a nice video...what a beautiful place. Congrats on the gold !! I subscribed to your YouTube channel !!

 

[RTR]

Great photos, RTR! I can only imagine how things were back then. Have you been back to Vietnam since you served?

No thanks,once was enough for me

 

[perdidogringo]

On thanks,once was enough for me

Yeah, I get it. Thank you for your service!

 

[RTR]

Great photos, RTR! I can only imagine how things were back then. Have you been back to Vietnam since you served?

Where (in country) are you off to next ?

 

[RTR]

Hey,did you metal detect the beach at the very end of Nha Trang airbase runway ?

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Congrats on the great finds !

 

[perdidogringo]

Where (in country) are you off to next ?

I'm thinking I'd like to hit Danang and detect the beaches there. There's an Ozzie guy named "Beach Pirate" who posts his videos on Youtube and he has those beaches locked up (he finds lots of gold rings). Would still like to give that a go, though.

Another possible option is the "Pirate Islands" (Hà Tiên Islands) located near Phu Quoc Island. There are legends of buried treasure there and an American named Cork Graham was arrested in 1983 while looking for it (back when Vietnam was still a no-go for most western foreigners). He wrote a book about it: The Bamboo Chest They recently opened up the islands for tourism so I think that would be a cool place to explore a bit- not expecting to find anything but would still be fun.

But I'd also like to return to Nha Trang/Phan Rang when the water is calmer to do some shallow water hunting.

 

[RTR]

Sounds great,best of luck to you

 

[perdidogringo]

Hey,did you metal detect the beach at the very end of Nha Trang airbase runway ?

I'm not sure where the end of the airbase was. Here is a map attached with the area I detected (circled in red). It is basically the middle of Nha Trang.

 

[RTR]

I'm not sure where the end of the airbase was. Here is a map attached with the area I detected (circled in red). It is basically the middle of Nha Trang.

The Nha Trang military airbase is now completely gone ? Maybe I can find a pix. that will help locate its location,let me look.

 

[perdidogringo]

The Nha Trang military airbase is now completely gone ? Maybe I can find a pix. that will help locate its location,let me look.

Looks like it closed in 2009 and moved to Cam Rahn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nha_Trang_Air_Base

 

[Gare]

Congratulations on a great find. I think A giant thrill for me would be to finds rings there and then be ABLE to hand them back to the people that lost them and thank them for there service !!!

 

[Gare]

Did I mention I Love making people show tears. I think one reason i like so much is to give people something back they think they will never see again !!!

 

[RTR]

I'm not sure where the end of the airbase was. Here is a map attached with the area I detected (circled in red). It is basically the middle of Nha Trang.

I think your red circle is very close.This pix. is about all I could find that MIGHT help you locate the end of the runway.
***** See the Mt. range In the background (as a reference point) as to its location **** I think its called (per your map) "Hon Tre".....
The runway ended at the far right of this pix. You can just make out the tail of a F-100 (the rest of the Fighter is in the sand), after an emergency -no power- landing it crossed Highway one.killing 3, and came to rest on the beach.
Now, that beach has GOT to have a lot of rings,etc. AS Nha Trang was a "in country R & R. location for decades w/a lot of G.I.s swimming at that beach.Good luck

 

[RTR]

Also, the French Military used that base for many years before the U.S. got involved