Tom_in_CA

Uh, there's a lot of ... uh .... "dire sounding" stuff on there where you have to .... uh ... read between the lines. When you study the evolution of all such nifty list compendium attempts like that, you begin to see a self-fulfilling vicious circle. A bunch of what you read on attempts like that were nothing more than a giant case of "no one cared UNTIL you asked" routine going on. What I mean is, that in order to assemble lists like that IN THE FIRST PLACE, guess how they went about it ? They simply went to the powers-that-be, AND ASKED. Right ? Ie.: Sent letters, or picked up the phone, or showed up at kiosks, or sent emails, asking "Hi, can we metal detect ?" Or "what are the rules/laws regarding the use of metal detectors". And whomever is fielding these "pressing questions", gets bandied desk to desk, till it finally lands on the desk of a purist archie. Who morphs some understanding of cultural heritage, or Lost & found laws, or "alter and disturb" language, or "harvest and remove" verbiages, and returns with a "no". That makes its way into these compendium attempts. AND PRESTO ! Another policy or rule or law or "no" is born. And these were often places that, quite frankly NEVER HAD BEEN AN ISSUE BEFORE . So old-timers were left scratching their heads saying : "Since when ?", or "That's nonsense". So if ever anyone challenges a supposed rule, guess what is sure to happen next ? Yup, you guessed it : Go ask a bored desk-jockey. Do you see the vicious circle ?? Sure, avoid obvious historic sensitive monuments. Sure. But just sayin' that you have to read between the lines when trying to use lists/links like that. I wrote a commentary (upon their request), that you can read there, where it says "alternative view...." at the top.

It was a big nothing-burger in my part of CA (central coast, Monterey Bay). Most every beach simply got flattened. That's where the beach is overpowered . So instead of mother nature picking a parallel and eroding DOWNWARDS, the waves/water simply go up-&-over the dunes, and make a mess and puddles and lagoons inland. And make a mess of parking lots. And only draw down dry fluffy sand and spread it over the inter-tidal zone. And not truly take it out. That's what I saw @ all my area beaches. A few lone exceptions happened on 12/28 and 12/29 (on the heels of the big event). And if you knew where to go, there was some straggler pockets . I got perhaps 150 coins, a few silver coins, and a gold band, by sampling multiple beaches. And found a few exceptions. But all in all : A big nothing burger. Very disappointing. And the forecast continues to tease of incoming swells, that drop in strength by the time they reach our area. Not sure how southern CA did. But based on Compass' report, sounds like it wasn't an epic event there either.

Yes. These 2 systems that passed had no local on-shore winds. Good observation. They were swells that started way out at sea (Alaska, Japan, or whatever), and came all the way across the ocean . I've seen swells arrive on the west coast with NO ADVERSE LOCAL WEATHER before, that : Do indeed erode. But you're right that they are greatly assisted if there is local accompanying on-shore or cross-shore winds, to push them even more violently up on to the beach. This recent system lacked that. Still though, I would have thought we'd have had better results. Santa Cruz area beaches remain flattened, as of the info & reports I'm hearing, the beach cams, etc... Carmel and Asilomar are just flattened. Bummer.

I've never found any north of San Jose. So : I've left all those for you 🙂

Uh, they can *say* dire sounding crap like that. But ask yourself (and be honest) : Do you know of ANYONE who has ever been "arrested" for stepping onto the beach when this has happened ? I mean, sure, give "lip service" when you bump into the lifeguards and rangers , at the parking lot harping "beach closed". But .... if someone makes their way down via other endless ways in (stairways elsewhere, cross-country through paths or alleys, etc...) have you EVER heard of an md'r or surfer being "arrested" ? I been "scrammed" a few times (like during the January 2023 event, and the 1996-97 event). We just hiked in to our desired zones via coming in from the south or north, blah blah . But ARRESTED ? No. And besides : The low tides right now are happening after dark / sunset time. Right ? And who sees down there in the dark ? Who is "down there patrolling" in the dark ? So peaceful. So serene. Just go.

Hey there Doc, do you ever find Phoenix buttons up your way ?

Yesterday, Santa Cruz main beach (Boardwalk), had the following phenomenon occur : Whenever epic ingredients like this coincide (high tide coincide with monster swell ), a phenomenon known as "overpowering" can occur . Where : Instead of the beach eroding DOWN , at a certain parallel (to create cuts or slopes or scallops), instead the water merely washes up into the previously high & dry sand dunes. And brings down all that fluffy sand into the inter-tidal zone. So now you just have scattered clad. And puddles and lagoons inland (parking lots flooded and strewn with seaweed, etc...). This is what happened to the S. Cruz main beach yesterday (and Cowells and Seabright) : It just "flattened" the beach. Same with Palm beach in Watsonville so far. I got some scattered clad, but it was immediately apparent that I was going to need to scout. Finally ended up by ~4pm at New Brighton. Which was eroded correctly and lots of targets were showing up. Including some silver coins (even a nice 1871 seated dime) was showing up among the 4 hunters. A few gold jewelry items. So the tactic next, based on my 45 yrs. "storm chasing" experience, is this : That in the subsequent days following an epic event (which "flattens" rather than "erodes"), you merely check back in the subsequent days. EVEN if things have calmed down in those subsequent days. And lo & behold, what can sometimes happen is that mother nature readjusts her slopes (with the intervening high/low tide cycles) . To fill in voids off shore. In other words, there WAS erosion occurring at the epic day, but that : It was happening off-shore where we can't visually see it. Then in the subsequent days, mother nature robs sand off the inter tidal zone, to fill in those off-shore voids. And THEN the slopes occur. Does that make sense ? So if any central coast CA people are reading this, and want to take a shot at it, I'd try S. Cruz main (and the various other beaches nearby) by Saturday PM's low tide . Because another swell bump is happening Saturday, and is more south facing anyhow. Scout them all, from Cowells, southward to Watsonville. Look for indentations where the low/damp/wet spots indent further into the beach than elsewhere. And where you see abnormally steep slopes, or scallops, or cuts. And best of all : Send me 20% of all your finds (I accept paypal 🙂 )

Good post. Good pix. Nice to see some CA action here 🤠

Great pictures. What country are you in ?

Regarding the possibility of making a coil, on-your-own, to compete with a manufacturer coil : This endeavor might have been possible back in the 1960s. When the hobby (in-so-far as individual coin hunting) was concerned, was in its infancy. And when electronics were crude (by today's standards). But the problem now is that the super fine-tuning exactness, to eek out the absolute depth and optimum performance, is SO exacting, that a zillionth of an inch off in your windings, can make for the difference of good vs poor depth/performance. It's now done with computerization, and assembly line exactness (where every single coil coming off the line is exactly the same ). I know someone who tried it. And gave up. It has gone far beyond the days of persons sitting around in their garages playing with vacuum tubes, soldering guns, radios, etc....

Hello from Salinas / Monterey area. About 45 min. south of Santa Cruz. Some times silver coins turn up on Seabright, New Brighton, etc.... after storm erosion. As far as ringfinders directory website : I don't see your name, on the directory map, for Santa Cruz. Are you a paid subscriber to the ringfinders ?

Love finding beach erosion cuts. That particular one , with all the rocks, is going to be a bear to dig in, but : I definitely wouldn't pass it up.

good play-by-play description of the duel Steve. Good post !

Great post. Great pix ! What a rush to be in one of mother nature's thick erosion/deposit zones. Been there/done that, and it's a blast !

Here's one type I designed :

Great pix ! I like it when the eroded beach is turning up those green coins. That tells you that it's scouring into older sand.

I'm looking at that one ^ ^ too. But alas, from the NW . Hence less effect on west & SW facing beaches. And short-lived sweep across the coast. I don't see it doing much erosion, but ... I might give it a looksie by Thurs. PM's low tide where I'm at, in the Monterey bay area.

I love these "MD'r to the rescue stories". The reunion repatriation stories are great. You can not put a price on human relations like that. Good on you !

Geotech Karl gives a great answer, as usual. Yes it's just a form of sensitivity . The sens. is the "sending" and the signal balance (aka gain) is the receiving signal. So you can essentially just think of that as sensitivity. The Eagle SL II black-box with the 950 loop was a great machine. But when the Explorers hit the market, it was clear that the old school Whites depth was ... uh .... dated. Still though, for its day, it was a fun machine. Not a very good wet-salt machine though.

Good post. Yes : If the aluminum objects are fairly uniform (and not turned to confetti), then yes, you can isolate several locations on a TID scale that will likely be : round tabs. And/or round tabs with the beaver tail still intact. And square tabs (of the 2 recurring sizes they were made in). And you can knock out smaller foil (since very few rings read in the lower foil range). This is simple Las Vegas odds. Persons, starting in the early 1980s at the advent of TID, studied this in depth. Like if someone knew a buddy with a jewelry store, he could sample hundreds of the random gold rings. And make note of their TID's on a spread sheet. Then he could go dig up hundreds of aluminum objects (mid to low conductors) in a junky park somewhere. Then air test all of those, entering them on his computer spread sheet as well. Then, as you can see, it's simply a matter of where to knock out the most junk. So for example, you would pass all high conductor coins (yes, even zinc pennies). Since very few rings read that high (unless they're super fatty men's honkers). And you would pass round tabs (since only something like 15% of gold rings fall *exactly* there). And so forth and so on. This was known as "ring enhancement programs". Yes, some persons did up their odds at gold rings vs trash in junky blighted parks. But if they're in a park where cans have mixed it up with lawnmowers, and places where BBQs are allowed (which create molten globules), then .... you will be a sorry fellow indeed. IMHO you are MUCH better served simply going to a place where gold rings have better ratios : Swim beaches, and land-spots where there's more athletics, and less eating/drinking.

Strick, now you're asking a question about relicky mindset hunting. OF COURSE I go to passing only iron (with my darndest to "see through it"). SURE ! But that's not because I'm there angling for gold rings. It's because I'm at a stage stop, or fort, or old-town sidewalk tearout, of something of that sort. So your point is separate from the discussion at hand (the direction this post had veered to anyhow), which is : Telling aluminum apart from gold, and so forth. Oh, and BTW : There are some stage stop sort of sites where they are too junky to "be a hero" and strip-mine. I can think of one, for example, where ... sadly ... a modern farm home occupies the site. And the spot where the stage stop stood, is now the farm-yard of a 1940s-ish home. And the people for this last 80 yrs. (bless their little hearts) have raised pigs, chickens, etc.... in the yard. And guess what's the best way to feed the chickens and pigs ? Easy : Take all the kitchen trash out, and dump it in your yard. They also had trash burn incinerators , blah blah. Although we got a few tokens and seateds in the mess, it was a place where my time was better spent researching sites which were less polluted with trash. And in my 45 yrs. of this, I've found a few such stage stops where all human influence ended by, say 1880 or 1900 or whatever. Now THOSE are *FUN* 😘

This video is nothing other than "ring enhancement program". AKA notching. SURE ! But this is not telling aluminum apart from gold . And so you know : Any TID machine, (from 1983's first Teknetics TID machine to the present) can do the same thing. There is nothing about that 705 that sets it apart. And trust me : When you get to a place where lawn mowers have turned cans into shrapnel, and foil wads abound, then these #'s games go out the window. 🤔 But does it work with "recurring uniform types of junkage" ? Sure. But it is not telling aluminum apart from gold. You will still miss rings and you will still dig aluminum.

Great story & great pix !! Thanx for bringing us along.

Dude, even if the ratios (of mistaken IDs) were 50 to 1, I would GLADLY go out to junky blighted parks, and get fooled that many times for each gold ring. When I challenged someone (making these claims) to join me in a duel at a junky blighted parks (that everyone has cherry picked the deep high conductors out of), he quickly adjusted his claims to assure me that the system isn't exact . And that there are still aluminum items that would fool him. But he would not venture to put down any ratio guesses. And after much scrutiny, it seemed like it was going to end up being nothing more than random eventual odds, and selective memory bias. Yet he could not bring himself to admit this. And insisted that gold will tend to sound different, blah blah You say : ".... One can take a particular ring and a particular pull tab, wave it in front of the coil at a particular orientation, and a particular distance, and they'll probably notice a difference. ..." Well sure: SO TOO will every aluminum & foil blob "sound different from each other". And SO TOO will each gold ring "sound different from each other".

Dean, if the MXT were brought to a big city blighted urban park, be honest : How much gold rings do you think you would find, while leaving how much aluminum behind ? I hear the various claims that certain machines are better at telling aluminum junk apart from gold rings . Eg.: "Static" or "soft" or "mellow" and all sorts of sound/tone claims. Yet when you invite the people out to the nearest inner city blighted junky park to show you, then : Seems that all you hear is the sound of crickets. mind you : I'm not disputing that there might not, in fact, be some "better mousetrap". But it just seems that while claims are made, yet : No one ever seems to be able to show anything other than : Random eventual odds. 🫢