LawrencetheMDer
Hero Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
- Messages
- 991
- Reaction score
- 2,441
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Ohio and Florida
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Manticore, Minelab CTX3030 w 11" and 17" DD coils,
Minelab Excalibur II w 10" coil, Equinox 800 (4) w 11" and 15" coils,
Troy Shadow x2 w 7" coil, Pointers; Garrett Carrot, Pro Find 35,
- Primary Interest:
- Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Not sure as to the number of Florida beaches that have changed shoreline due to Irma, but I came across one recently while metal detecting. I was literally waking down the beach with my CTX 3030 along the blanket line, looked up and the darn beach was G-O-N-E. Well, guess I'll have to change my strategy since there isn't a blanket line any more. That's when I moved to the foot of the sand dunes and, for the next 3 hrs, worked my butt off digging coins as fast as humanly possible. [Met Mike with the Excal and we talked for 15 minutes. Belongs to the Sunshine state Recovery Society, have to look them up.]
Its well known that in big storms where waves swamp the beach, coins become surf-bound and travel to the foot of the dunes where MDers discover them. Such was the case today. Almost all the surfer coins were heavily encrusted, "greenies", or highly deteriorated zinc cents. After all, they eluded countless MDers on the beach, possible for years, to be swept up by a big Irma waves and deposited in their final resting place (before I discovered them).
This pic shows all my finds for the day; most of the coins are heavily encrusted or deteriorated zinc cents.
This pic shows a close-up of the greenies and encrusted quarters - surfer favorites.
Spent 7 1/2 hrs detecting and found 155 coins including my first dollar coin (2001). Also found, oddly enough 2 small thin hearts - also something that can surf. This comes to about 20 coins/hr for the day or about twice my usual coin rate. However, 3 of those hrs were spent recovering coins at a rate of about 30-40/hr. When I hit the foot of the dunes, there were so many coins that once I got a scoop of sand and checked the hole to see if the target was still there; heard that it was, only to pour out the scoop to find a target in the dump as well. On returning from down the beach I rescanned the area with the most coin finds and found 3 additional coins, laying on the surface where I missed them in the dump. Looking back at my tracks, it looked like a hole dug every yard or so. At one point I had difficulty locating the target with my 17" coil because I kept bumping into other targets as I tried to back-away and locate the one. I was in MD Heaven.
The thing about working the foot of the dunes and looking for surfer coins is that I seldom find good jewelry. Rings do not surf well neither does gold. But sometimes it just feels good to work like a mad-man digging targets. While the probability is very high that the next target is a coin...ya just never know. Happy Hunting.
Its well known that in big storms where waves swamp the beach, coins become surf-bound and travel to the foot of the dunes where MDers discover them. Such was the case today. Almost all the surfer coins were heavily encrusted, "greenies", or highly deteriorated zinc cents. After all, they eluded countless MDers on the beach, possible for years, to be swept up by a big Irma waves and deposited in their final resting place (before I discovered them).
This pic shows all my finds for the day; most of the coins are heavily encrusted or deteriorated zinc cents.
This pic shows a close-up of the greenies and encrusted quarters - surfer favorites.
Spent 7 1/2 hrs detecting and found 155 coins including my first dollar coin (2001). Also found, oddly enough 2 small thin hearts - also something that can surf. This comes to about 20 coins/hr for the day or about twice my usual coin rate. However, 3 of those hrs were spent recovering coins at a rate of about 30-40/hr. When I hit the foot of the dunes, there were so many coins that once I got a scoop of sand and checked the hole to see if the target was still there; heard that it was, only to pour out the scoop to find a target in the dump as well. On returning from down the beach I rescanned the area with the most coin finds and found 3 additional coins, laying on the surface where I missed them in the dump. Looking back at my tracks, it looked like a hole dug every yard or so. At one point I had difficulty locating the target with my 17" coil because I kept bumping into other targets as I tried to back-away and locate the one. I was in MD Heaven.
The thing about working the foot of the dunes and looking for surfer coins is that I seldom find good jewelry. Rings do not surf well neither does gold. But sometimes it just feels good to work like a mad-man digging targets. While the probability is very high that the next target is a coin...ya just never know. Happy Hunting.
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Last years massive storms will reveal many treasures.All up & down the coast.Some,will be where you might least expect .
