Celebrations on the beach lead to good finds

On December 31st 2010 I was raising a glass of champagne with my lovely wife, on Jan 1st 2011 at 4am I was on the beach with my metal detector!  
By 5am I was picking this 18K gold beauty with 4 sapphires out of my scoop,  opposite a posh beachside hotel after a big new years eve party had taken place on the beach.

Nothing like a quick start to the new treasure hunting year lol!
A couple of hours later the beach was swarming with other people swinging metal detectors hoping to find gold, but I like to think the early bird got the golden worm.
This is the second nice gold bracelet I have found at this site, and both gold bracelets were found after celebrations had taken place at the beach the evening before.
Wether it is a new years eve, the 4th of July, or any other celebration that draws crowds to the beach, you need to grab your metal detector and go find some goodies. 
The earlier you arrive at the beach after the celebration has ended, the more chance you have of finding something special before the competition arrives. 
If the water is too rough to search, make sure you search the beach on the following high tides, yes that is not a spelling mistake, the following high tides. 
Jewelry and coins wash up onto the beach during the following high tides, sometimes several days after. 
Jewelry and coins do not wait around in the lower wet sand waiting for you to show up two hours before low tide. 
Do not miss the treasure boat by showing up a couple of hours before low tide,  other beach and water hunter's not watching the clock will have already beaten you to the punch.
When crowds are at the beach celebrating, try to hit the beaches that are more likely to be littered with champagne and wine bottles, instead of beer bottles. 
Although beaches in upscale areas see fewer crowds, they are far more likely to hold more expensive finds like the bracelet in the photo.
I have the local TV station to thank for giving me the incentive to go treasure hunting, showing people crowded on the beach drinking champagne, ready to light fireworks at midnight. 
Champagne, ocean and expensive jewelry, what could possible go wrong? 

Always good to get your jewelry appraised

Yesterday I learned the importance of getting any jewelry you find and think may be valuable appraised by a jeweler.
Back in 2012 after hurricane Sandy, I found several nice rings that made their way to the bank safety deposit box.
One heavy gold ring really stood out, at the time I found the ring I thought it had an old look about it , especially as it was found at a beach where a mid 19th century ship wrecked opposite.
Old stuff has been found on this beach when coastal storms have stripped the sand away from the base of the dunes. 
Although the ring was unmarked, I assumed the ring was modern because of the two diamonds. 
When I first found the gold ring I had a neighbor who used to work in a jewelry store take a look at it, 18 K gold with a 5 carat emerald, and probably a $5000.00 ring was the best guess.
Fast forward to yesterday and I finally got around to taking a few nicer rings recovered over the last couple of years for proper appraisals.
One of rings I had appraised yesterday was this nice ring, that I now wish I had made more of an effort to identify correctly.

I came away from the jewelry store with a totally different professional take on the ring, and I was wrong to assume it was a modern piece of jewelry.
It is an old 18 K gold ring dating back to the 1800s, with a really nice old piece of jade and two old cut diamonds. I am even happier with the $6500.00 appraisal! 
I have heard a few stories of people scrapping rings, and later finding out the ring was old. 
Obviously, I never gave any thought to scrapping this ring because I believed it was an emerald.
This experience has also shown me the importance of getting more gem stone savvy,  so I can better learn to identify colored stones mounted in recovered gold and silver jewelry.
I was also invited to sit in the back of the jewelry store and saw a couple of pieces of platinum and gold jewelry I had taken in, soldered and repaired.
Now my wife can wear the repaired jewelry without losing them like the unlucky previous owner. 
Nice bling is definately one of the perks of being a beach and shallow water hunter. 

Well known beach and water hunter's.

If you go to the same beach and metal detect the same areas every time you go metal detecting, you are going to be well known, but probably not for finding jewelry and coins.

When you have been beach or water hunting for a few years, you get to see people searching the same sites all the time. 

You also get to see many other beach or water hunter's show up to metal detect two hours before low tide, I can set my clock to some local beach and water hunter's. 

My platinum, gold and diamond finds from yesterday, show that there is jewelry and coins to find on almost any beach you take your metal detector to. 

These three gold rings add up to a combined weight of 0.6 ounce, a good return in scrap gold for a three hour water hunt.  The platinum and diamond ring (not in photo) has to be worth several thousand dollars, an upcoming appraisal will verify that. 
I never saw another person metal detecting yesterday morning, probably because everyone else with a metal detector headed to the same place everyone else is seen metal detecting on a sunday morning. 

It still amazes me how people ignore small and less crowded beaches, especially on the weekend when most weekend warriors like myself are out metal detecting. 

If you are well known for searching the same beach site all the time, maybe todays blog will spur you to venture out and be less well known.

I have been moving around trying new beaches a lot this year, mainly due to poor beach hunting conditions on my favorite old Spanish shipwreck beaches. 

The few times I have been to popular tourist beach sites in south Florida, I saw the same faces searching the same sites, joined by many more people than before. 

Beach and water hunting is very monkey see, monkey do, meaning everyone wants to hunt the same areas, use the same metal detector, wear the same detecting gear and hope that gold will follow. 

It unfortunately does not work that way,  treasure is where you find it, not at the same place every time. 

The same applies to the wet sanders walking that straight line at low tide, or the water hunter's with the navy seal look walking the straight line in the deepest water every low tide. 

You have to mix things up,  and put some variety in your treasure hunting life to find jewelry and coins on a regular basis. 

So many beaches, so little time, far too much coastline to follow the metal detecting crowd to the same beach fighting over scraps. 

Beach markers

I use many different markers to keep watch on sand levels on all my favorite beach and water hunting sites.
It is pretty amazing how much sand can pile up on Florida east coast beaches during the summer time. 
I visited a couple of my favorite beach and water hunting sites this past week, not to metal detect,  just to see what the beaches look like.
My metal detecting time is very limited during the summer months, my kids are off school and spending time with my beautiful daughters comes first.
On one beach we visited it was hard to imagine the large concrete dock that was visible on the lower beach only a fewer months earlier.
It is now covered over with at least two feet of sand, no more musket balls and bronze Spanish galleon spikes are coming off this lower beach until the fall.
The intention of this blog is to show you why your local beach knowledge is so important over the long run.
A beach hunter visiting this beach for the first time, may decide it looks bad and never return.
A local beach hunter with long term knowledge of the same beach will look at the beach differently.
They know when a local beach is more likely to be productive, knowledge  of your local beaches is often the master key to unlocking and finding treasures when the time is right.
Beaches in my area change much slower during the summer months, they stay in the same sand building pattern until the winter months, unless a coastal storm or unusually rough surf effects them. 
During the winter months when less sand is on the beach, is the best time to locate and record lower beach markers.
Concrete pilings, boulders, coral ledges, etc are all excellent beach markers to base sand levels on. 
Fishing pier pilings are another good way to check sand levels,  I look for several different markers on piers in my area to help identify any sand movement that may have occurred.
Use beach markers to help you decide if it is best to beach or water hunt when you go metal detecting.
Although I like to search all three areas of a beach, wet sand, dry sand & water, I  base my decisions on various beach indicators ( markers) before beginning metal detecting.
there is always something to learn when you go to the beach without metal detecting. 
Tomorrow I intend to search a few places where I saw people congregating in the water earlier in the week. 
Yes even people using the beach can be used as markers to locate jewelry or coins, I will hopefully find out tomorrow. 
I will use this heavy gold coin ring with diamonds found a few years ago at the same beach as motivation. 

A few thoughts on metal detector depth and sensitivity

When I try a new metal detector, I am always asked if it is deeper than the metal detector I normally use.
Is the Excalibur deeper than the Sovereign, is the CTX 3030 deeper than an Excalibur, is my SDC 2300 deeper than my CTX 3030, and so on.
I rarely try or buy a new metal detector with depth in mind,  unless it is my GPX 5000 and the answer is hell yes!
Being able to tune my metal detector's to enhance their sensitivity to small shallow targets is always more important to me than being able to detect large targets deeper. 
Using my preferred metal detectors, I know I do not have to trade small targets over large deeper targets, they have a happy medium for jewelry and coin hunter's.
I recently had a chance to test a metal detector I wanted to buy for the longest time, but I was very disappointed after testing it on a variety of small size targets.
I am a jewelry and coin hunter, so it is very important for me to be able to detect a thin gold wedding band, or a small silver coin within the first 6 to 8 inches of sand.
Using a metal detector that could not detect small gold and silver targets is not going to happen for me, no matter how deep that same metal detector can detect larger targets.
The metal detector I tried is no longer on my wish list, luckily I was in a position to try one out instead of finding out the hard way after buying one.
The large majority of jewelry and coins I consider to be my best finds, were all recovered within the first 6 to 8 inches of sand.
Having the ability to detect a wide variety of relatively shallow jewelry and coins on the beach, is much more important to me than worrying if I have the deepest metal detector.
If you cannot find jewelry and coins within the first 6 to 8 inches of sand, forget about finding deeper targets.
Metal detector that are hot on small shallow finds, are normally just as hot on deeper targets.
I spend a lot of my metal detecting time searching tourist beaches, literally trying to find treasure in amongst the trash.
If I get skunked, I never walk off a beach thinking gold or silver jewelry must be deeper and I need a deeper metal detector or larger search coil.
I would be more inclined to question my metal detecting pace and sweep speed, than metal detector depth as the reason why I did not find anything. 

Old beach entrances

Although I find my fair share of bling on the beaches of south Florida, I really enjoy finding old coins.

These old US coins were found a couple of years ago on the beach opposite an old beach walkway.

The beach was eroded back to the dune line, and I found these coins in an area I had discovered several years earlier.
I run across interesting beach sites because I try many different beaches every year. 
The more beaches you try, the more chances you have of finding long forgotten beach entrances.
Just like todays beach entrances, old beach entrances are great places to find lots of coins and jewelry.
Many old beach entrances were closed to make way for beachside construction, houses, condos or hotel development.
Old beach entrances from the days before beach and water hunting became a popular hobby like it is today.
When you find old beach entrances, you may have to wait until some form of beach erosion occurs before you can find old gold and silver.
That is exactly what happened to me a couple of years ago, when Davy Jones locker opened up at an old beach entrance I had been keeping an eye on for several years.
I still have the old gold rings in the bank safety deposit box, to remind me why I like old beach entrances.
Beach hunters who go to the same beaches all the time, are highly unlikely to run across long forgotten beach entrances.
I have discovered many interesting beach sites through research, sometimes in unexpected ways.
Old aerial photos of  beaches are an excellent way of finding old beach entrances.
You can spot early parking lots, paths, or walkways leading to the beach on old aerial photos.
Pay close attention to buildings or houses that used to be located opposite the beach, people would have used the beach directly opposite.
Look for gravel roads or tracks leading to the beach, compare old and new aerial shots of the same beach.
Many times old beach entrances are several blocks from the site of modern beach entrances.
Old inlets and fishing piers can often be seen on vintage photos or postcards, many inlets change through the years due to coastal storms.
Whether you do the leg work, or the research,  old beach entrances and their old coins and jewelry await beach hunters when they open up.
 Finding them is the easy part, having the patience to wait for the wind and waves to open up the area is the hard part. 

Gold the hard way

I went out in the middle of the night on Friday trying to take advantage of a full moon low tide on a local beach.
I figured why not, after finding quite a few pieces of silver jewelry in the wet sand on my previous hunts. 
My strategy was a little different on this night hunt, I normally use a Minelab CTX 3030 or Excalibur to  help me avoid digging ferrous or other junk targets.
This time I took my new waterproof pulse induction metal detector, the Minelab SDC 2300 to dig all targets. 
I planned to hit the water at first light, and see if I could find some gold jewelry on the lower beach at this popular little area.  
Not wanting to be a "Box hunter" I like to mix things up from time to time, so digging all ferrous and non ferrous targets on a tourist beach was a nice change of pace.
These two pieces of14K gold jewelry were my reward for digging a target every sweep of my search coil, sometimes two or three targets per sweep. 

I was hoping to find a gold chain with my new pulse induction metal detector, but it was not to be.  Im pretty sure if my search coil had passed over one I would have detected it. 
After the hard work of digging all targets on the lower beach in the dark, I figured I would have an easier time in the water with my CTX 3030, even though the tide changed fast and the surf was rough.
Maybe I fell into the "Its all in the water" trap" as all I found in the water was two silver rings, a junk chain and a junk ring before calling it quits using minimal discrimination. 
The high amount of non ferrous junk ( pennies) would probably have discouraged other beach hunters from recovering so many of them on the lower beach. 
I really believe the two pieces of gold jewelry were being masked in the carpet of junk targets on the beach. 
It just goes to show how much gold is on the lower beach, and of course what you have to do to find it. 
Being a beach and water hunter, it is not important to me where the gold comes from, as long as I can recover it. 
Maybe if I only water hunted, these two pieces of gold along with many others from the past would still be waiting to be found. 
Trying different search techniques, different metal detectors and search coils, can and often does lead to recovering gold at the beach.