Regarding the Lack of Finds on the Beach

[Sand Swinger]

I recently came back to detecting after a few years hiatus and have noticed a lot of posts on the forums about the lack of Gold & Rings found on the beach. I’ve seen some posts saying that the detectorist used to find 70 or so rings in a typical season, but now they’re lucky to get 5 or 6. Lots of others are reporting that they’re only finding junk jewelry, and even that their clad finds are down.

I’ve been thinking about this, comparing my beach hunting several years ago, how it used to be, against how things might be today and came up with several possible reasons why this is happening. I know some of these have probably been mentioned or discussed, but 1 of the reasons I thought of, which I consider to be a BIG reason, I haven’t really seen anyone else mention, so I’ll throw it out to add to the list.

First off, we all know that the price of Gold & Silver, has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. I’m very happy about that, as for the last 3 years, I’ve been converting my 401K funds every year into physical gold & silver, also got my wife to do the same. I got tired of checking my 401K account and seeing red arrows pointing downward, and I just don’t trust the stock market or even the bond market, which I always considered to be a “safe haven” when the stock market was getting weird. I mean, if my investments are volatile or have been going down, then why bother. I could lose my money in a casino just as easily, and have much more fun while losing it, lol.

But IMO, the rise in the price of gold & silver has done a couple of things that can affect metal detecting:

• I don’t think this is a secret, but I think more & more people are probably keeping their gold and more expensive jewelry in their room safe while they’re out on the beach. I don’t think the general public thought much about this years ago, but there’s been a lot of talk about gold & silver over the last 2 - 3 years, so just about everyone knows that the prices of precious metals have been skyrocketing. And where they may have worn their jewelry out on the beach in the past when the market was “normal” and nobody was talking about it, they’re now realizing their jewelry is much more valuable, and much more expensive to replace. So, I think a greater number of people want to safeguard their good stuff by keeping it in the safe in their rooms. I’ve always done this, I always take my wedding ring off and stash it before heading out to the beach when I detect, because I wear gloves and know it only takes a quick moment of distraction for that ring to come flying off if I pull that glove off without thinking, or when I get my hands wet while working the wet and water. You know what isn’t the only thing that shrinks when hit with cold water, fingers shrink too, lol.

• Higher prices for gold & silver mean more people buying detectors, to try their luck at finding something valuable. There’s a lot more “competition” out on the beaches these days, but I think most of those detectorists are newbies or are on vacation. I’ve seen some of them detecting without a scoop, a trowel, or some type of tool they can use for digging. They’ll get more dangerous with a few more years’ experience, but you can usually tell beginners by their lack of preparedness and the way they swing their coil. Some of these guys have their coil ½ foot off the sand and are swinging from side to side in a large arc, like they’re swinging a golf club. So, their coil is only over the sand for maybe 1 second before shooting skyward, but even then, it’s a ½ foot above the sand, so there goes their depth. But God bless them, they’re out there trying, but it’s apparent that they’ve never received instruction on how to use a detector, or why it’s important to keep the coil close to the sand to get more depth and to keep the coil at an even height from the sand when swinging using a horizontal arc, not vertical arc, basic detecting stuff. They probably never cracked a beach hunting book or watched some instructional videos on YouTube. Just a few minutes of simple instruction could make them a lot more dangerous, lol. I just smile, give them a nod or a wave when passing by, and keep going. But just like they say that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, some of these guys are going to find some stuff, in spite of themselves. In the past, where you might have 1 or 2 other guys out on the beach, maybe there’s now 8 or 10 or 12. Greater numbers of detectorists increase the odds that they’ll find something, which will lower the odds that we’ll find it instead. We’ll have to work to find the deep stuff, but they have a chance at finding the easy, fresh drops, just as much as anyone else.

What about coins, clad and such, why the drop?

• Seems more and more people these days use their credit cards, or their cell phones to make purchases, so the need for cash and/or coinage has decreased with technology. All the parking meters down at the resort areas and beaches in DE, except for the State Parks, take credit cards. Go to main street in Rehoboth, find a parking spot, and you’ll notice that they no longer even take coins or cash, they’ll only accept credit cards. So, the days of me stopping at the bank to get a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters have come to an end. Now, I too use my credit card when I need to park at a metered spot. Well, at least I no longer have to walk around with a couple pounds of quarters in my pocket. So, without the need for people to get those rolls of quarters or to have a bunch of change in their pockets, that will reduce the number of potential coins spilling out of their pockets when sitting at the beach.

• More detectorists (see #2 above). Get a dozen guys out on the beach hitting the dry, and any easy clad that’s lying around and not too deep will be scooped up quickly, even if they’re swinging like a golfer.

But here’s another BIG reason I think is leading to a reduced number of rings & jewelry finds, haven’t really seen this one discussed much, if at all, in the forums.

• Let’s go back 6, 7, 8 or more years ago. Back then, I didn’t care who was on the beach searching, because I owned the wet & water. There could be a dozen guys wondering around on the dry and it didn’t matter to me one bit. Because I’d just take my Minelab Sovereign Elite down on the wet and even into the water a bit, and I had no competition. Every now and then I’d see a guy swinging an Excalibur in the water or on the wet, I really didn’t run into too many other Sovereign owners. But all the guys working the dry seemed to be using Garrett Ace’s, maybe an AT Pro, I saw Tesoro’s, Bounty Hunters, a few Whites and some other brands. But all the detectors I saw the other guys using were SF detectors just a few years ago. And I had my Sovereign SMF BBS, so I could hunt the dry, wet, water, wherever I wanted to go. But if those guys running their SF detectors tried venturing down onto the wet with me, their detectors would start screaming and chattering like a cat that just had its tail stepped on. They’d last a few seconds, maybe a minute, then it was back up to the dry sand they would go. So, it was usually just me, maybe 1 other guy, hunting the wet and into the water. That’s where I wanted to be to find the heavy stuff. I might work the dry, mainly the towel line, if the tide was high or if I was waiting for the tide to drop. But as soon as it started dropping, I’d start at the top of the wet and work my way down, following the receding tide.

• But now, it seems that’s all changed and now everyone seems to be swinging high-tech SMF detectors. I just picked up an X-Terra Elite myself to augment my Sovereign. 7 or more years ago, the Sovereign’s and Excalibur’s ruled the wet, as far as VLF’s go, along with a couple White’s, and of course the PI’s. I don’t ever recall running into many hunters running PI’s when I was out on the beach, it was always predominately VLF’s. But now, the surge in lower priced SMF detectors from brands like Minelab, Nokta, XP, and probably some other brands has now brought SMF technology to the masses, at very reasonable and sometimes downright low prices. So, in the past, where I may have been the only guy swinging an SMF detector on the wet and into the water, many more guys are now also swinging waterproof SMF detectors and now have the ability to follow me down to the wet and into the water. So, all the guys with SF detectors can spend their time on the dry, but now a larger number of guys with SMF detectors can venture into what used to be my almost exclusive territory. Now, they also can search anywhere on the beach, just like I’ve enjoyed for over 10+ years with my Sovereigns. They may not have the experience, and that counts, but at least now they have a machine capable of hunting wherever they want, just like me and my Sovereign. Oh, how I miss the old days, lol.

So, if we combine the fact that more and more people are probably safeguarding their good jewelry before hitting the beach, with the decreasing need for people to carry cash or coins in their pockets, along with the fact that there’s now a greater number of detectorists swinging some very high-tech SMF detectors in the dry, wet, or water, that’s going to affect the number of finds that we all make. In other words, less potential good jewelry targets + reduced need for people to carry cash/coins + more detectorists swinging high-tech SMF detectors = less targets potentially for us all to find.

Of course, the great thing about the beach is that I’ve always considered it to be a giant piggy bank. What we don’t find today, we might find tomorrow. Every shift in the tides and every storm has the potential to move sand, making targets appear within reach, or it can also dump sand, moving targets out of reach. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about beach hunting, is persistence. We all know that the sand can change constantly throughout the day and evening. There’s been many times I’ve gone to the beach and saw large cuts or troughs that formed that weren’t there the day before. So, persistence is very important, gotta be the right person at the right spot at the right time.

And then, there’s a great tip I picked up from Terry Shannon on one of his videos. I’ve had this same idea over the years but never acted on it, always tried to go with what I thought was a “sure thing”. But now that I’ve seen some of his finds using this tip, the next time I’m at the beach, I’m gonna give it a try.

I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, probably missed a few reasons, but these were the ones the popped into my mind as the most logical reasons why finds might be down at beaches we’ve done well at in the past.

 

[TORRERO]

I had another thought on this yesterday. I went to remove my wedding band and it was like it was welded to my finger. Took a moment to figure out, I used an ingredient cooking very high in salt content. I blew up like a five cent balloon. I’ve been on a nutritarian diet for over five years. No meat, salt , sugar or oils. I thought if this thread. Maybe the human race is growing into their jewelry at a rate where we don’t skip out of it so easily any more ? Just an observation. Suns coming up. There’s a ring with my name on it at the beach! Have a blessed day. 🏖️

TBH I think it's a little bit of everything, less people wearing gold to the beach, I've seen a LOT more Stainless Steel rings than I did 10 years ago. (which some could pass for Gold if your not paying attention) Also less pocket change because we don't really need to carry it around with us.
And the last and worst reason of course is the fact that there are SO many more people out there looking for those fewer and fewer targets than there was 10 years ago.
Also (although this may not be that relevant on the beach) Technology has gotten a lot better at pinpointing and locking onto targets, at deeper depths with cleaner signals than older machines did..

 

[camichael]

One more view on this is that people can't afford gold wedding rings and are switching to tungsten carbide, titanium and stainless steel rings. My finds of those types has increased10 fold in the last several years....

 

[TORRERO]

One more view on this is that people can't afford gold wedding rings and are switching to tungsten carbide, titanium and stainless steel rings. My finds of those types has increased10 fold in the last several years....

I'm with you on that..
Or maybe... those who could NEVER afford Gold before are now buying those rings and because there were never many before but the market is flooded with them now, we are suddenly finding them like crazy..

Plus I think Gold is a status symbol, if you can afford it, or you want it bad enough you will buy it regardless of the cost..
Wedding bands have historically been made of Gold, and there are probably a lot of people who would think that their significant other is super cheap if they don't get an actual Gold Ring...

 

[pepperj]

I it comes down to the location. The location is key.

 

[TORRERO]

I it comes down to the location. The location is key.
View attachment 2212386

Is this in the US ? Because it looks more like Brazil or South America

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

do more research - find water that was popular 100 yrs ago
I have found lot of my gold at older spots that are no longer swim areas or still swim but area used to be huge and is now small
I have a spot im hoping to hit that is across from an old restaurant that is mostly fishing
but few still swim in a 30 yard area - restaurant has a pic from the 50'ies that the swim area was over
100 yrds long and had swim rafts out deep - 100s of people in the water
I have other spots like this - if you can dive or get a hookah or NEMO system
will guarantee whole new world of gold will open to you
you know a place i never hear anyone talk about - old camp grounds that have a lake or pond or river they swam in yrs ago - my family camped all throughout New ENGLAND in late 60's - 70's
ive never hunted a single one - ive never heard of anyone else either hit ones i know

I had a spot like that decades ago. My partner and I were wading a freshwater lake finding nothing. We decided to return with our scuba gear. The (new sand) went out to neck deep then dropped right off to blackness. We’re both black water divers but this was insane. As soon as we waved the detectors it sounded like a machine gun and stirred up black silt. Couldn’t see my hand touching my mask. Plan C. We returned with 5 gallon buckets drilled full of holes. We’d dive down, dig the bucket into the mud and weeds and walk back up to the sand. Mud wouldn’t go through the holes. So we got hub caps off and and Chevy van and fixed cabinet drawer knobs onto them. Used them as plungers. Worked perfectly. Multiple wheaties, buffalos, mercuries, even some seated quarters.
Plan D. My buddy drove down toward cape cod and bought some scallop rakes. We lines them with rabbit wire and built extension handles. Working from a small pram, we started raking the bottom until one of us snagged an old chain. Turned out to be the mooring chain from the raft that was there in the 40’s - 60’s. We worked that area til it froze over. Wed each fill a coffee cup with goodies every trip, including hold class rings and medallions from the Catholic school down the street. Sure miss those days.

 

[OBN]

I had a spot like that decades ago. My partner and I were wading a freshwater lake finding nothing. We decided to return with our scuba gear. The (new sand) went out to neck deep then dropped right off to blackness. We’re both black water divers but this was insane. As soon as we waved the detectors it sounded like a machine gun and stirred up black silt. Couldn’t see my hand touching my mask. Plan C. We returned with 5 gallon buckets drilled full of holes. We’d dive down, dig the bucket into the mud and weeds and walk back up to the sand. Mud wouldn’t go through the holes. So we got hub caps off and and Chevy van and fixed cabinet drawer knobs onto them. Used them as plungers. Worked perfectly. Multiple wheaties, buffalos, mercuries, even some seated quarters.
Plan D. My buddy drove down toward cape cod and bought some scallop rakes. We lines them with rabbit wire and built extension handles. Working from a small pram, we started raking the bottom until one of us snagged an old chain. Turned out to be the mooring chain from the raft that was there in the 40’s - 60’s. We worked that area til it froze over. Wed each fill a coffee cup with goodies every trip, including hold class rings and medallions from the Catholic school down the street. Sure miss those days.

Blessed, I live in Annapolis/ Chesapeake bay area with years of beach history, most opened in the 30s and a few in the late 1800's. All were hammered hard in the 80s and 90s then the hobby slowed for the beaches closed and the land was sold in the 90s to private developers. Add several years of no one hunting them and most being very hard to get to....... hunting has been great. Its pure adrenalin to find a spot and know you have seen this before and its going to be good. Beach go'ers did not wear the big chains back then but they sure had a great taste in gold.

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

I recently came back to detecting after a few years hiatus and have noticed a lot of posts on the forums about the lack of Gold & Rings found on the beach. I’ve seen some posts saying that the detectorist used to find 70 or so rings in a typical season, but now they’re lucky to get 5 or 6. Lots of others are reporting that they’re only finding junk jewelry, and even that their clad finds are down.

I’ve been thinking about this, comparing my beach hunting several years ago, how it used to be, against how things might be today and came up with several possible reasons why this is happening. I know some of these have probably been mentioned or discussed, but 1 of the reasons I thought of, which I consider to be a BIG reason, I haven’t really seen anyone else mention, so I’ll throw it out to add to the list.

First off, we all know that the price of Gold & Silver, has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. I’m very happy about that, as for the last 3 years, I’ve been converting my 401K funds every year into physical gold & silver, also got my wife to do the same. I got tired of checking my 401K account and seeing red arrows pointing downward, and I just don’t trust the stock market or even the bond market, which I always considered to be a “safe haven” when the stock market was getting weird. I mean, if my investments are volatile or have been going down, then why bother. I could lose my money in a casino just as easily, and have much more fun while losing it, lol.

But IMO, the rise in the price of gold & silver has done a couple of things that can affect metal detecting:

• I don’t think this is a secret, but I think more & more people are probably keeping their gold and more expensive jewelry in their room safe while they’re out on the beach. I don’t think the general public thought much about this years ago, but there’s been a lot of talk about gold & silver over the last 2 - 3 years, so just about everyone knows that the prices of precious metals have been skyrocketing. And where they may have worn their jewelry out on the beach in the past when the market was “normal” and nobody was talking about it, they’re now realizing their jewelry is much more valuable, and much more expensive to replace. So, I think a greater number of people want to safeguard their good stuff by keeping it in the safe in their rooms. I’ve always done this, I always take my wedding ring off and stash it before heading out to the beach when I detect, because I wear gloves and know it only takes a quick moment of distraction for that ring to come flying off if I pull that glove off without thinking, or when I get my hands wet while working the wet and water. You know what isn’t the only thing that shrinks when hit with cold water, fingers shrink too, lol.

• Higher prices for gold & silver mean more people buying detectors, to try their luck at finding something valuable. There’s a lot more “competition” out on the beaches these days, but I think most of those detectorists are newbies or are on vacation. I’ve seen some of them detecting without a scoop, a trowel, or some type of tool they can use for digging. They’ll get more dangerous with a few more years’ experience, but you can usually tell beginners by their lack of preparedness and the way they swing their coil. Some of these guys have their coil ½ foot off the sand and are swinging from side to side in a large arc, like they’re swinging a golf club. So, their coil is only over the sand for maybe 1 second before shooting skyward, but even then, it’s a ½ foot above the sand, so there goes their depth. But God bless them, they’re out there trying, but it’s apparent that they’ve never received instruction on how to use a detector, or why it’s important to keep the coil close to the sand to get more depth and to keep the coil at an even height from the sand when swinging using a horizontal arc, not vertical arc, basic detecting stuff. They probably never cracked a beach hunting book or watched some instructional videos on YouTube. Just a few minutes of simple instruction could make them a lot more dangerous, lol. I just smile, give them a nod or a wave when passing by, and keep going. But just like they say that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, some of these guys are going to find some stuff, in spite of themselves. In the past, where you might have 1 or 2 other guys out on the beach, maybe there’s now 8 or 10 or 12. Greater numbers of detectorists increase the odds that they’ll find something, which will lower the odds that we’ll find it instead. We’ll have to work to find the deep stuff, but they have a chance at finding the easy, fresh drops, just as much as anyone else.

What about coins, clad and such, why the drop?

• Seems more and more people these days use their credit cards, or their cell phones to make purchases, so the need for cash and/or coinage has decreased with technology. All the parking meters down at the resort areas and beaches in DE, except for the State Parks, take credit cards. Go to main street in Rehoboth, find a parking spot, and you’ll notice that they no longer even take coins or cash, they’ll only accept credit cards. So, the days of me stopping at the bank to get a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters have come to an end. Now, I too use my credit card when I need to park at a metered spot. Well, at least I no longer have to walk around with a couple pounds of quarters in my pocket. So, without the need for people to get those rolls of quarters or to have a bunch of change in their pockets, that will reduce the number of potential coins spilling out of their pockets when sitting at the beach.

• More detectorists (see #2 above). Get a dozen guys out on the beach hitting the dry, and any easy clad that’s lying around and not too deep will be scooped up quickly, even if they’re swinging like a golfer.

But here’s another BIG reason I think is leading to a reduced number of rings & jewelry finds, haven’t really seen this one discussed much, if at all, in the forums.

• Let’s go back 6, 7, 8 or more years ago. Back then, I didn’t care who was on the beach searching, because I owned the wet & water. There could be a dozen guys wondering around on the dry and it didn’t matter to me one bit. Because I’d just take my Minelab Sovereign Elite down on the wet and even into the water a bit, and I had no competition. Every now and then I’d see a guy swinging an Excalibur in the water or on the wet, I really didn’t run into too many other Sovereign owners. But all the guys working the dry seemed to be using Garrett Ace’s, maybe an AT Pro, I saw Tesoro’s, Bounty Hunters, a few Whites and some other brands. But all the detectors I saw the other guys using were SF detectors just a few years ago. And I had my Sovereign SMF BBS, so I could hunt the dry, wet, water, wherever I wanted to go. But if those guys running their SF detectors tried venturing down onto the wet with me, their detectors would start screaming and chattering like a cat that just had its tail stepped on. They’d last a few seconds, maybe a minute, then it was back up to the dry sand they would go. So, it was usually just me, maybe 1 other guy, hunting the wet and into the water. That’s where I wanted to be to find the heavy stuff. I might work the dry, mainly the towel line, if the tide was high or if I was waiting for the tide to drop. But as soon as it started dropping, I’d start at the top of the wet and work my way down, following the receding tide.

• But now, it seems that’s all changed and now everyone seems to be swinging high-tech SMF detectors. I just picked up an X-Terra Elite myself to augment my Sovereign. 7 or more years ago, the Sovereign’s and Excalibur’s ruled the wet, as far as VLF’s go, along with a couple White’s, and of course the PI’s. I don’t ever recall running into many hunters running PI’s when I was out on the beach, it was always predominately VLF’s. But now, the surge in lower priced SMF detectors from brands like Minelab, Nokta, XP, and probably some other brands has now brought SMF technology to the masses, at very reasonable and sometimes downright low prices. So, in the past, where I may have been the only guy swinging an SMF detector on the wet and into the water, many more guys are now also swinging waterproof SMF detectors and now have the ability to follow me down to the wet and into the water. So, all the guys with SF detectors can spend their time on the dry, but now a larger number of guys with SMF detectors can venture into what used to be my almost exclusive territory. Now, they also can search anywhere on the beach, just like I’ve enjoyed for over 10+ years with my Sovereigns. They may not have the experience, and that counts, but at least now they have a machine capable of hunting wherever they want, just like me and my Sovereign. Oh, how I miss the old days, lol.

So, if we combine the fact that more and more people are probably safeguarding their good jewelry before hitting the beach, with the decreasing need for people to carry cash or coins in their pockets, along with the fact that there’s now a greater number of detectorists swinging some very high-tech SMF detectors in the dry, wet, or water, that’s going to affect the number of finds that we all make. In other words, less potential good jewelry targets + reduced need for people to carry cash/coins + more detectorists swinging high-tech SMF detectors = less targets potentially for us all to find.

Of course, the great thing about the beach is that I’ve always considered it to be a giant piggy bank. What we don’t find today, we might find tomorrow. Every shift in the tides and every storm has the potential to move sand, making targets appear within reach, or it can also dump sand, moving targets out of reach. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about beach hunting, is persistence. We all know that the sand can change constantly throughout the day and evening. There’s been many times I’ve gone to the beach and saw large cuts or troughs that formed that weren’t there the day before. So, persistence is very important, gotta be the right person at the right spot at the right time.

And then, there’s a great tip I picked up from Terry Shannon on one of his videos. I’ve had this same idea over the years but never acted on it, always tried to go with what I thought was a “sure thing”. But now that I’ve seen some of his finds using this tip, the next time I’m at the beach, I’m gonna give it a try.

I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, probably missed a few reasons, but these were the ones the popped into my mind as the most logical reasons why finds might be down at beaches we’ve done well at in the past.

I just had another thought. I was slamming junk and silver rings for days and suddenly someone flipped the switch. The long low trails of stones and pebbles are gone. I failed to recognize any event which caused the beach to sand in. The next to last day there I found one silver ring and the last day, one penny. It was luck that I made the effort to get up at 3:00 am to be there at low tide at sunrise at 5:00. It was a short window.
Back in the day we had storms, the waves would break over the sea wall and pelt out house on the second floor. The nails in the walls creaked under the wind. We hear the same thing every summer “hurricane season” that a more active and stronger storm season will occur because of “global warming “ but it never happens. One good storm used to erode the beach and expose deep gold and old coins for months. Now, we get a few days at a time. Just a thought.

 

[Crunchyhippo]

Blessed, I live in Annapolis/ Chesapeake bay area with years of beach history, most opened in the 30s and a few in the late 1800's. All were hammered hard in the 80s and 90s then the hobby slowed for the beaches closed and the land was sold in the 90s to private developers. Add several years of no one hunting them and most being very hard to get to....... hunting has been great. Its pure adrenalin to find a spot and know you have seen this before and its going to be good. Beach go'ers did not wear the big chains back then but they sure had a great taste in gold.
View attachment 2212977

It must be quite a thrill to find a ring, and a gold ring at that. Those are beauties.

 

[2Peas]

I recently came back to detecting after a few years hiatus and have noticed a lot of posts on the forums about the lack of Gold & Rings found on the beach. I’ve seen some posts saying that the detectorist used to find 70 or so rings in a typical season, but now they’re lucky to get 5 or 6. Lots of others are reporting that they’re only finding junk jewelry, and even that their clad finds are down.

I’ve been thinking about this, comparing my beach hunting several years ago, how it used to be, against how things might be today and came up with several possible reasons why this is happening. I know some of these have probably been mentioned or discussed, but 1 of the reasons I thought of, which I consider to be a BIG reason, I haven’t really seen anyone else mention, so I’ll throw it out to add to the list.

First off, we all know that the price of Gold & Silver, has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. I’m very happy about that, as for the last 3 years, I’ve been converting my 401K funds every year into physical gold & silver, also got my wife to do the same. I got tired of checking my 401K account and seeing red arrows pointing downward, and I just don’t trust the stock market or even the bond market, which I always considered to be a “safe haven” when the stock market was getting weird. I mean, if my investments are volatile or have been going down, then why bother. I could lose my money in a casino just as easily, and have much more fun while losing it, lol.

But IMO, the rise in the price of gold & silver has done a couple of things that can affect metal detecting:

• I don’t think this is a secret, but I think more & more people are probably keeping their gold and more expensive jewelry in their room safe while they’re out on the beach. I don’t think the general public thought much about this years ago, but there’s been a lot of talk about gold & silver over the last 2 - 3 years, so just about everyone knows that the prices of precious metals have been skyrocketing. And where they may have worn their jewelry out on the beach in the past when the market was “normal” and nobody was talking about it, they’re now realizing their jewelry is much more valuable, and much more expensive to replace. So, I think a greater number of people want to safeguard their good stuff by keeping it in the safe in their rooms. I’ve always done this, I always take my wedding ring off and stash it before heading out to the beach when I detect, because I wear gloves and know it only takes a quick moment of distraction for that ring to come flying off if I pull that glove off without thinking, or when I get my hands wet while working the wet and water. You know what isn’t the only thing that shrinks when hit with cold water, fingers shrink too, lol.

• Higher prices for gold & silver mean more people buying detectors, to try their luck at finding something valuable. There’s a lot more “competition” out on the beaches these days, but I think most of those detectorists are newbies or are on vacation. I’ve seen some of them detecting without a scoop, a trowel, or some type of tool they can use for digging. They’ll get more dangerous with a few more years’ experience, but you can usually tell beginners by their lack of preparedness and the way they swing their coil. Some of these guys have their coil ½ foot off the sand and are swinging from side to side in a large arc, like they’re swinging a golf club. So, their coil is only over the sand for maybe 1 second before shooting skyward, but even then, it’s a ½ foot above the sand, so there goes their depth. But God bless them, they’re out there trying, but it’s apparent that they’ve never received instruction on how to use a detector, or why it’s important to keep the coil close to the sand to get more depth and to keep the coil at an even height from the sand when swinging using a horizontal arc, not vertical arc, basic detecting stuff. They probably never cracked a beach hunting book or watched some instructional videos on YouTube. Just a few minutes of simple instruction could make them a lot more dangerous, lol. I just smile, give them a nod or a wave when passing by, and keep going. But just like they say that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, some of these guys are going to find some stuff, in spite of themselves. In the past, where you might have 1 or 2 other guys out on the beach, maybe there’s now 8 or 10 or 12. Greater numbers of detectorists increase the odds that they’ll find something, which will lower the odds that we’ll find it instead. We’ll have to work to find the deep stuff, but they have a chance at finding the easy, fresh drops, just as much as anyone else.

What about coins, clad and such, why the drop?

• Seems more and more people these days use their credit cards, or their cell phones to make purchases, so the need for cash and/or coinage has decreased with technology. All the parking meters down at the resort areas and beaches in DE, except for the State Parks, take credit cards. Go to main street in Rehoboth, find a parking spot, and you’ll notice that they no longer even take coins or cash, they’ll only accept credit cards. So, the days of me stopping at the bank to get a roll of quarters to feed the parking meters have come to an end. Now, I too use my credit card when I need to park at a metered spot. Well, at least I no longer have to walk around with a couple pounds of quarters in my pocket. So, without the need for people to get those rolls of quarters or to have a bunch of change in their pockets, that will reduce the number of potential coins spilling out of their pockets when sitting at the beach.

• More detectorists (see #2 above). Get a dozen guys out on the beach hitting the dry, and any easy clad that’s lying around and not too deep will be scooped up quickly, even if they’re swinging like a golfer.

But here’s another BIG reason I think is leading to a reduced number of rings & jewelry finds, haven’t really seen this one discussed much, if at all, in the forums.

• Let’s go back 6, 7, 8 or more years ago. Back then, I didn’t care who was on the beach searching, because I owned the wet & water. There could be a dozen guys wondering around on the dry and it didn’t matter to me one bit. Because I’d just take my Minelab Sovereign Elite down on the wet and even into the water a bit, and I had no competition. Every now and then I’d see a guy swinging an Excalibur in the water or on the wet, I really didn’t run into too many other Sovereign owners. But all the guys working the dry seemed to be using Garrett Ace’s, maybe an AT Pro, I saw Tesoro’s, Bounty Hunters, a few Whites and some other brands. But all the detectors I saw the other guys using were SF detectors just a few years ago. And I had my Sovereign SMF BBS, so I could hunt the dry, wet, water, wherever I wanted to go. But if those guys running their SF detectors tried venturing down onto the wet with me, their detectors would start screaming and chattering like a cat that just had its tail stepped on. They’d last a few seconds, maybe a minute, then it was back up to the dry sand they would go. So, it was usually just me, maybe 1 other guy, hunting the wet and into the water. That’s where I wanted to be to find the heavy stuff. I might work the dry, mainly the towel line, if the tide was high or if I was waiting for the tide to drop. But as soon as it started dropping, I’d start at the top of the wet and work my way down, following the receding tide.

• But now, it seems that’s all changed and now everyone seems to be swinging high-tech SMF detectors. I just picked up an X-Terra Elite myself to augment my Sovereign. 7 or more years ago, the Sovereign’s and Excalibur’s ruled the wet, as far as VLF’s go, along with a couple White’s, and of course the PI’s. I don’t ever recall running into many hunters running PI’s when I was out on the beach, it was always predominately VLF’s. But now, the surge in lower priced SMF detectors from brands like Minelab, Nokta, XP, and probably some other brands has now brought SMF technology to the masses, at very reasonable and sometimes downright low prices. So, in the past, where I may have been the only guy swinging an SMF detector on the wet and into the water, many more guys are now also swinging waterproof SMF detectors and now have the ability to follow me down to the wet and into the water. So, all the guys with SF detectors can spend their time on the dry, but now a larger number of guys with SMF detectors can venture into what used to be my almost exclusive territory. Now, they also can search anywhere on the beach, just like I’ve enjoyed for over 10+ years with my Sovereigns. They may not have the experience, and that counts, but at least now they have a machine capable of hunting wherever they want, just like me and my Sovereign. Oh, how I miss the old days, lol.

So, if we combine the fact that more and more people are probably safeguarding their good jewelry before hitting the beach, with the decreasing need for people to carry cash or coins in their pockets, along with the fact that there’s now a greater number of detectorists swinging some very high-tech SMF detectors in the dry, wet, or water, that’s going to affect the number of finds that we all make. In other words, less potential good jewelry targets + reduced need for people to carry cash/coins + more detectorists swinging high-tech SMF detectors = less targets potentially for us all to find.

Of course, the great thing about the beach is that I’ve always considered it to be a giant piggy bank. What we don’t find today, we might find tomorrow. Every shift in the tides and every storm has the potential to move sand, making targets appear within reach, or it can also dump sand, moving targets out of reach. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about beach hunting, is persistence. We all know that the sand can change constantly throughout the day and evening. There’s been many times I’ve gone to the beach and saw large cuts or troughs that formed that weren’t there the day before. So, persistence is very important, gotta be the right person at the right spot at the right time.

And then, there’s a great tip I picked up from Terry Shannon on one of his videos. I’ve had this same idea over the years but never acted on it, always tried to go with what I thought was a “sure thing”. But now that I’ve seen some of his finds using this tip, the next time I’m at the beach, I’m gonna give it a try.

I’m sure I didn’t cover everything, probably missed a few reasons, but these were the ones the popped into my mind as the most logical reasons why finds might be down at beaches we’ve done well at in the past.

The gold is out there, you just gotta be in the right spot. There's alot of non precious/ costume stuff too ( I have a large jar filled).
It's great to reminisce the old days. I wish I new all this back in the 80's, I would be rich.

 

[TORRERO]

Well, a lot of things are true now that were not true back in the 80, go figure that probably starting in the 70's, people started using metal detectors on the beaches..
Before that, nobody did right ? So you have 300-400 years worth of accumulation, So when you go out, and dig $5 in pocket change, is that a days losses or a weeks losses or a months losses ? we can for sure pick up in a day, much more than was actually lost that day, so over a 30 year period we have scooped up Most of the items lost in the last 300 years that is within reach... A gold Ring being gold doesn't tarnish or change in the salt water so you can't determine how long its been there... you don't know if it was lost yesterday or 40 years ago... Although the beaches are HUGE, I think over the last 30 years a lot of what has been lost, also has been recovered so that now we are mostly picking up recent losses, not stuff that has been there for years..

 

[OBN]

It must be quite a thrill to find a ring, and a gold ring at that. Those are beauties.

Thank You! It was one of my most memorable spots. and crazy I would have never guessed it would be so good. Luckily I seen it coming and Go Pro most of the gold I dug from that spot. Keep on swinging your day will come I am sure!

A gold Ring being gold doesn't tarnish or change in the salt water so you can't determine how long its been there...

I think that is true for most Ocean beaches but I have seen a few where the copper was leaching on 10k..VB..Florida.

In the places where water has less sand movement with salt water 10/14/18 can come out stained and looking rough. Most of these would be 10k, sometimes 14k, and rarely 18K. And I know what a gold ring is stamped there is a chance its not the purity it is stamped.. seems some can be 1 to 2k less than marked. I've dug many over the years that looked bad but cleaned up nice. Just got these 3 last Weds... Chesapeake Bay.

Than one from 2019, 18k Before and after cleaning

 

[Sand Swinger]

Well, a lot of things are true now that were not true back in the 80, go figure that probably starting in the 70's, people started using metal detectors on the beaches..
Before that, nobody did right ? So you have 300-400 years worth of accumulation, So when you go out, and dig $5 in pocket change, is that a days losses or a weeks losses or a months losses ? we can for sure pick up in a day, much more than was actually lost that day, so over a 30 year period we have scooped up Most of the items lost in the last 300 years that is within reach... A gold Ring being gold doesn't tarnish or change in the salt water so you can't determine how long its been there... you don't know if it was lost yesterday or 40 years ago... Although the beaches are HUGE, I think over the last 30 years a lot of what has been lost, also has been recovered so that now we are mostly picking up recent losses, not stuff that has been there for years..

The first time I used a detector on a beach was back around 1971. My mom got me a Heathkit (BFO) detector around 1968/69, but it wasn't very ergonomical to swing, so around 1971 we upgraded to a White's VLF Coinmaster IV. I was about 14 at the time and I'll never forget the first time I took that detector to a beach. I was detecting the dry and got a hit. I started digging down and there it was, an old looking, dark, round coin object. Man, my heart started pounding and I started yelling "it's a doubloon, I got a doubloon". Grabbed that "doubloon", took a closer look and my heart sank. It was just a crusty, non-silver clad quarter. But damn, what a thrill that was, lol.

It's been said that there's more wealth lost, buried, in the ocean, etc., than all of the wealth currently in circulation. Don't know how "they" would know that or could estimate, but there's one thing I know for sure. I've told a lot of people, friends, family, etc., over the last 50+ years that I'm 100% confident that there's money in their lawns or on their property. They typically look at me with a bit of disbelief, so I'll take my detector, start detecting their yards and without fail, I've always been able to pop up coins, sometimes rings, metal toys from long ago, etc. So far, I've never been proven wrong.

I just can't figure out how all those coins and rings wind up in the ground. I can see people losing rings and coins at the beach and in the water due to wave action, shrinking of skin, but how the heck do they wind up in solid ground? I don't want to jinx myself, but I can't recall ever getting skunked on a hunt, seems I always found coins or some type of valuables. On every hunt, I was always focused on finding that first coin, then once I did, I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that my streak was still alive, lol. I remember detecting the back yard of a row house many years ago with a Fisher 1220X and found what I thought was some type of small metal coupling, like something that would be used for plumbing. Didn't think much of it but when I cleaned it off, it was a small but fairly wide 10K gold ring. It was so small that I couldn't get it up past the first knuckle of my pinky. So, it was small in circumference but fairly wide for a ring. How does someone lose a gold ring in their back yard, still boggles my mind, lol.

 

[Sand Swinger]

Thank You! It was one of my most memorable spots. and crazy I would have never guessed it would be so good. Luckily I seen it coming and Go Pro most of the gold I dug from that spot. Keep on swinging your day will come I am sure!

I think that is true for most Ocean beaches but I have seen a few where the copper was leaching on 10k..VB..Florida.

In the places where water has less sand movement with salt water 10/14/18 can come out stained and looking rough. Most of these would be 10k, sometimes 14k, and rarely 18K. And I know what a gold ring is stamped there is a chance its not the purity it is stamped.. seems some can be 1 to 2k less than marked. I've dug many over the years that looked bad but cleaned up nice. Just got these 3 last Weds... Chesapeake Bay.

Than one from 2019, 18k Before and after cleaning

View attachment 2213119
View attachment 2213126

Sweet finds OBN!

Looks like you picked up where Bob & Frank left off. Maybe you should write a new Treasures in the Surf book, updated version!

 

[coinshooter]

Less good finds per hunt.....in public places.....sure. IMO mostly due to:

More competition
Better equipment to hunt all environments
Plastic and emoney replacing coins
An incredible variety of good looking junk jewelry to buy instead of expensive gold, platinum, palladium, etc.
Fewer places to hunt due to rules against detecting causing more detecting being done on the remaining allowed places.

Finding virgin public land to hunt is getting very hard to find, so, private land is where the future is in this hobby IMOM

Mark,don't forget more people using services like Ringfinders. This eliminates great items off the beaches and still pays benefits to those members who pay dues to own a territory. Some of the rewards are way more than the item's value.

 

[OBN]

Sweet finds OBN!

Looks like you picked up where Bob & Frank left off. Maybe you should write a new Treasures in the Surf book, updated version!

Thanks SS.......Been Very Blessed in where I live and able to hunt..

I've had many say the same "If you wrote a book I would buy it"
I feel somethings can not be explained since every beach is different and each holds its own secrets, best I let Bob and Frank live on as the Kings of "Diamonds in the Surf"
Plus I failed English in Jr High..

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

The first time I used a detector on a beach was back around 1971. My mom got me a Heathkit (BFO) detector around 1968/69, but it wasn't very ergonomical to swing, so around 1971 we upgraded to a White's VLF Coinmaster IV. I was about 14 at the time and I'll never forget the first time I took that detector to a beach. I was detecting the dry and got a hit. I started digging down and there it was, an old looking, dark, round coin object. Man, my heart started pounding and I started yelling "it's a doubloon, I got a doubloon". Grabbed that "doubloon", took a closer look and my heart sank. It was just a crusty, non-silver clad quarter. But damn, what a thrill that was, lol.

It's been said that there's more wealth lost, buried, in the ocean, etc., than all of the wealth currently in circulation. Don't know how "they" would know that or could estimate, but there's one thing I know for sure. I've told a lot of people, friends, family, etc., over the last 50+ years that I'm 100% confident that there's money in their lawns or on their property. They typically look at me with a bit of disbelief, so I'll take my detector, start detecting their yards and without fail, I've always been able to pop up coins, sometimes rings, metal toys from long ago, etc. So far, I've never been proven wrong.

I just can't figure out how all those coins and rings wind up in the ground. I can see people losing rings and coins at the beach and in the water due to wave action, shrinking of skin, but how the heck do they wind up in solid ground? I don't want to jinx myself, but I can't recall ever getting skunked on a hunt, seems I always found coins or some type of valuables. On every hunt, I was always focused on finding that first coin, then once I did, I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that my streak was still alive, lol. I remember detecting the back yard of a row house many years ago with a Fisher 1220X and found what I thought was some type of small metal coupling, like something that would be used for plumbing. Didn't think much of it but when I cleaned it off, it was a small but fairly wide 10K gold ring. It was so small that I couldn't get it up past the first knuckle of my pinky. So, it was small in circumference but fairly wide for a ring. How does someone lose a gold ring in their back yard, still boggles my mind, lol.

I’m grinning having my first coffee which I made on my way out the door at 3:30 this morning. Never had time to drink it. Good stories. Thanks for sharing. Well, I’ll satisfy your curiosity a bit. My sister in CT has a big hill front yard. At a cookout party they had the teenagers were rolling down that well manicured lawn, and one of the girls felt her little silver diamond ring slip off. She knew right where and they all searched but never found it. Of course my sister didn’t know where and I looked for a while with my old Garret but as far as I know it’s still there.
It’s all about the memories isn’t it? I almost didn’t go out today but the beach was jammed yesterday. And at 3:00 I saw a headlamp in the dark through a remote camera. He was gone as usual when I got there and the tide was pretty high. The beach all sanded in. Aside from a key and penny, I got a message from some unknown stranger and a new screen saver for my phone. It’s all good.

 

[Paul Revere’s Ghost]

Thanks SS.......Been Very Blessed in where I live and able to hunt..

I've had many say the same "If you wrote a book I would buy it"
I feel somethings can not be explained since every beach is different and each holds its own secrets, best I let Bob and Frank live on as the Kings of "Diamonds in the Surf"
Plus I failed English in Jr High..

That’s what editors are for. 😂

 

[Sand Swinger]

Thanks SS.......Been Very Blessed in where I live and able to hunt..

I've had many say the same "If you wrote a book I would buy it"
I feel somethings can not be explained since every beach is different and each holds its own secrets, best I let Bob and Frank live on as the Kings of "Diamonds in the Surf"
Plus I failed English in Jr High..

Let me know if you ever decide you'd like to write a book OBN, and I would be more than willing to assist you in your quest.

English and writing words are my jam. I'm in MD and grew up on the Chesapeake. Dad is retired Coast Guard, we always had boats, and I spent the bulk of my life before entering the military on the water. Mom & Dad also used to have a 2nd house on the water down on Tilghman's Island, so I spent a lot of time down there crabbing and fishing at Sharp's Island Lighthouse.

My Motto: "Why use a sentence when a paragraph will do", lol.

 

[Sand Swinger]

I’m grinning having my first coffee which I made on my way out the door at 3:30 this morning. Never had time to drink it. Good stories. Thanks for sharing. Well, I’ll satisfy your curiosity a bit. My sister in CT has a big hill front yard. At a cookout party they had the teenagers were rolling down that well manicured lawn, and one of the girls felt her little silver diamond ring slip off. She knew right where and they all searched but never found it. Of course my sister didn’t know where and I looked for a while with my old Garret but as far as I know it’s still there.
It’s all about the memories isn’t it? I almost didn’t go out today but the beach was jammed yesterday. And at 3:00 I saw a headlamp in the dark through a remote camera. He was gone as usual when I got there and the tide was pretty high. The beach all sanded in. Aside from a key and penny, I got a message from some unknown stranger and a new screen saver for my phone. It’s all good.

Cool message that you found. I'll be 68 next month but truth be told, I'm not "scared" at all about getting old. To my grandkids, I'm old, to those older than me, I'm just a "kid", lol. But mentally, in my mind, I'm still 30, so I don't know what getting "old" is all about. That said, my body does get "scared" when I'm trying to get up off the floor, so there's that, lol.