Old and modern productive sites

These 18th century Spanish military buckles are two of my favorite beach hunting finds, they were found a month apart at the same Treasure Coast beach.

Check out the hand file marks on the buckle on the left, the encrusted sand was knocked off by my scoop as I dug the buckle out of the hard packed shell line on the lower beach.
A month later on the next full moon low tide, I recovered the second buckle.
I have no doubt there are more artifacts or treasure coins waiting to be recovered at the same site. 
The old Spanish shipwreck beaches that I like to metal detect at, always produce old artifacts and coins. 
Sometimes these sites are heavily sanded in for months, or a year or two, but when the sand levels fall again they become productive. 
Unlike searching for fresh jewelry drops on modern tourist beaches, you have to be more patient when stalking old finds. 
I regularly check out sand levels on my favorite older productive sites, using nearby beach webcams to decide if it is time to drop modern bling hunting to go in search of older finds. 
Even though I find mega bling in south Florida,  I would rather find an old Spanish shipwreck artifact than a modern diamond ring, any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Through the years I have noticed that my favorite treasure hunting sites for old and modern finds, remain equally productive.  
I just have to wait a bit longer for Spanish shipwreck sites to open up, unlike tourist beaches where finds tend to be shallower. 
Metal detector depth is very important when searching for old artifacts and treasure coins,  target separation is more important when searching for shallower modern jewelry. 
Large targets like these old Spanish buckles, are less likely to be found washed up after rough surf than the cut Spanish silver reale I found a couple of weeks ago on a Treasure Coast beach using my CTX 3030.
You need a VLF metal detector with a large search coil, or a pulse induction metal detector to punch deep into the sand to detect deeply buried targets. 
I hardly ever use any discrimination when searching my favorite shipwreck beaches, to avoid missing a potentially valuable target. 
On the other hand, when I search my favorite productive modern sites, I avoid digging any potential junk target to increase my chances of recovering valuable targets.
Two different approaches to two different kinds of productive site, I never search every beach the same way using the same equipment.