Tom_in_CA

mn90403, What are you specifically asking ? To see pictures of beaches in the old days, versus now ? I've taken a bunch of pictures in the last 10 to 15 yrs, whenever I've been hunting erosion events up here where I'm at (Monterey bay beaches). And sure, if you took a picture now, the "cut" (or scallop or slope, etc...) is now gone. I can show you pix of some erosion event lay-of-land, but unless I went and took the same vantage point now, you wouldn't really know what you were looking at (ie.: it wouldn't be a before and after pix, unless I went to the same spots today with camera). I regret not getting pictures of the 1982-83 El Nino (6 ft cuts that stretched for blocks long in some cases !). And I regret not getting pix during the 1996-97 El Nino. But go figure, that was before digital cameras. I'm sure you can find google images of erosion on CA beaches (including So. CA) during past heavy storm years. From what I hear, a lot of So. CA beaches, are so enormous like you see them now (where the water is seeminly a 5 minute walk from the parking lot, doh !), Because in the 1940s and '50s, the army corps of engineers made scores of jetties all up and down the So. CA coast. And those "trap sand", making enormous beaches. I guess to protect against erosion. So if you ever find old pictures from, say, before the 1940s, of your So. CA beaches, you'll notice that many of them were quite a bit narrower. Such that, back then, high-water storm events might bring waves all the way back to what is now parking lots and beach side streets and cliffs. But today, you could never in a million years imagine the water reaching that far back. Eh ? A micro-example of that, in my area, is Santa Cruz Main beach (the "Boardwalk") : In the mid 1960s they made the downstream Twin Lakes Yacht harbor jetty, so that the pleasure boats could come and go through the channel that the jetty protects. That had the affect of "backing up" the sand, for all the beaches north of that (since wet sand "migrates" with the tides and swells). So if you look at 1950s photo of Santa Cruz main beach, versus now, it's pretty sad. And it's the reason why silver and old coins is rarely found now on those beaches. Even after storm erosion. Because it's simply never getting down to yester-year levels anymore.

There's been never ending talk, for years, about supposed machines that will have the best of pulse-world , while at the same time, TID/Disc. ability like standard coin-machines. So that you can effortlessly go into jet-black wet-salt sand, getting fabled depth, ... AND be able to pass nails and bobby pins *all at the same time*. Who can argue with that, eh ? It's no secret that some beach pulse machines can get a dime to a foot deep, so it's merely a matter of adding the ability to disc. out iron, and presto, you have the perfect machine. Right ? But alas, any efforts to do this is always as kac says: Any such disc. (ability to pass nails, or discern TID's) is only good for the top half of the depth (down to 4 or 5" tops ?). Beyond that, everything sounds the same. So if you want the fabled depth, you kiss discrimination goodbye.

Are these from the same location as all the other recent goodies ? Sheesk you are kicking b#tt ! Is the spring grass growth heights starting to be a problem up in G.R. country about now ?

You "stopped by the police dept. and asked them 'where can I detect' ?" I wonder what would happen if I asked my local police dept. (or nearest beach agency rep) that question.

I never get tired of seeing the charcoal grey silver disks in my scoop ! Great pix.

I notice that you add the suffix that " .... most people don't care". I lived in a home across the street from a city park in my city for many years. That had the obligatory sign "Park closes at sunset". Yet it wasn't uncommon to see people who still (gasp) walked their dog after sunset. Or a couple on a romantic late-night stroll, or whatever. The park connected two separate neighborhoods in our part of the city. So the sidewalk going through needed to be walked on, if you were going one neighborhood to the other. So it was exactly as you say: "No one cared". The ONLY time I ever saw the sign enforced, was one night when some teenagers were having a keg party down there. Some neighbor (whose back-yard fence was right adjacent) apparently called the cops to all the yipping and a lights of the teens frolicking around. The cops came, and sent the teens packing. That was the ONLY time I ever saw this "obligatory" sign enforced. So in my opinion, that's the purpose of signs like that. So that no one thinks they're going to homestead the park and camp out overnight. Or to break of a late night party, etc..... But for a singular dude md'ing ? I highly doubt anyone gives 2 sh#ts. The reason I bring this up, is often-time, when I say that I do nice manicured turf at "2 am" (so as to keep gripers at bay), someone else is sure to point out the "park closes as sunset" type signs issue. Ok, sure, let them languish at home. Be my guest. But I agree with you that any such boiler-plate sign is typically only enforced in cases of someone(s) being an utter nuisance, attracting attention, garnering someone else calling the cops, etc......

Nice going Andrew !

I do all of my "nice manicured turf" park-hunting @ > 9pm. Because that's when restaurants close, traffic on streets dies down. People are done walking their dogs, etc... Full moon nights. So peaceful. So serene.

I don't argue with barber dimes.

I never get tired of seeing those charcoal grey silver disks in my sand scoop basket 😍

Correct. We do not allow any of our key date S mints to cross over the Mississippi. Oh so sorry 😘

Congratz on your first silver. Many more to come !

haha, great launching point for your post 😆 We have a HARD TIME matching you east coast guys on a date-by-dates basis. So if I can even TIE any of you, I'll accept that, haha And very few coppers of that era made it out here from the east, or up from Latin America, to Alta CA. We get VERY few colonial coppers or fractional copper reales here. We will get busts and early seateds, before we EVER get any LC's or colonial coppers. The reason is, that since alta CA was at the remotest ends of the earth, in those days, that therefore, when anyone was getting ready to travel here (or send cargo, manufactured goods, etc...) , they had to be conscious of space & weight. Therefore they tended to reach for a bust half, a gold coin, etc... Instead of "50 LC's " or "500 LC's", etc.... when getting ready to move their life to the west coast.

Hey there Tim : My camera is not good on dark objects like a dark-green-patina LC. Unless I played around with tripod, lights, etc.... So I'm too lazy to take a better pix. But it's clearly there: 1834. There's a few different varieties of 1834 LC's. And to be honest: I haven't even studied to see which variety mine is. One of them *might* merit some $$. But ... not enough to fool with the distinction, the hole, the wear, etc.....

haha, yes: Those bic pencils and zinc cents are *so* hard to find these days, as you know . 🤣

I simply couldn't stand seeing CVIS-Chris post all his escapades. And he's so rude (even though he's within 3 hrs. of me) that he won't invite me and Elbert along. 😂 So I had to go out and plunder some of my own sites 🤣 Got this 1787 2 reale, and this 1834 Large Cent. My buddy got a small cuff #27 on this trek. This was from a site that had previously given up some other reales, PB's, early seateds, etc.... I know I can't steal the celebrity status from Chris, but it was Fun fun fun !

oh well gee : Only on the east coast can someone go to a "random spot on a floodplain forest" and get a who's -who of early USA coins. Sick sick sick. But great report and great pix 🤪

Can you shed a little light as to the location itself ? Eg.: Stage stop ? homestead (cellar-hole, or whatever) ? etc... Because machine-settings are one-thing. But the bigger picture (of "tricks to find old coins) is: Location location location. Right ?

Wow, based on the description of the site (the modern junk you had to wade through) : You have a LOT of patience !

Love the unfolding on-going story of this site. Hopefully you'll assemble a Riker shadow box, that is dedicated to finds from just-this-site. Will make for a nice home museum display.

Good show. I never get tired of seeing those charcoal grey-ish-black silver coin disks in my sand-basket 😜

Yes El. Thanx for planting that GPS tracking device on his vehicle. 👀 This will teach him not to avoid the 30% extortion tax on CA finds, eh ? CVIS-Chris : Kindly leave every 3rd conductive signal un-dug and un-disturbed, so that there's some targets left for El & I. No strip-mining allowed!

Love the on-going story and tallies. Is it possible, that the next time you're there, can you get some location shots so that we have a feel for type location ? There's a pocket cove beach near me "Lover's Point", where the sand never goes up or down more than a few feet. D/t the cove is protected from the normal beach/swell erosion (wind/tides/swells) that normally dictate erosion for our normal ocean-facing beaches. So there is never any way to know when the sand will be "down" or "up" . And the "bedrock" depth at this beach, varies from 6 ft. deep on one end, to only ~3 ft. deep on the other end. So when the sand is "down", some enterprising fellows (including myself) have got there and shovels out areas. About as big as a billiard table, and the requisite 3 to 4-ish ft. deep, to reach this "bottom" bedrock layer. And when we reach that, we start tossing out barbers, V's, wheaties, old sinkers, etc.... But that is HARD work , doh ! Also, after many years of doing this , we began to forget exactly where we'd dug before (or others had dug). So it became increasingly frequent to come down on "dry holes". Doh ! Or if you didn't plan your tides right, your hole would fill in with water, stopping you from digging any deeper. Your story sort of reminds me of this beach of ours.

beautiful reale.

Are you sure you're not confusing an earlier incarnation of the 6000 Di pro ? We're talking the black box with the 950 loop, right ? If so, I thought that didn't come out till 1989-ish ?