1951 Franklin Half At The Beach

[mn90403]

When you are at the beach you don't know what you are going to find.  My target is normally gold jewelry of course but was I surprised to find a silver half.  It is only the second Franklin I've found.

It was found on a long, long walk near the end when I found a patch back where I started.  We have had a few really low tides and some good waves and I was headed to a spot but I knew someone else was working it for a couple of days and sure enough they were already there.  I was late again.  I give another detectorist wide berth to do their thing.  When I saw their light and them working the spot where I've found some nice jewelry in the past it was time to turn around and walk the 2 miles back where I started.

It was a good workout without too many coins until I got to the patch.  Many of the coins were surface and not many were deep as it turns out.

 

I had thought this was toy car beach until I found the coin patch.

 

This was the coin front before cleaning.

 

This was the coin back before some cleaning.

 

This was the front after using some baking soda.

 

And this is the back.

 

Along the long walk I came across a mystery object.  It is not magnetic, so I suspect it is copper as it looks.  It weighs a little over 40 grams and has worn holes in it.  It is about 2 quarters high and 2 quarters will fit across the bottom.  At first I thought it was part of a flashlight but there is a solid bottom and not a lens.  I know what comes to my mind but what do you think it could be?  I haven't done an image search.  There is only so much time.  I could/should be out at a beach now but ...

 

[F350Platinum]

Nice finds 🙂

You did a great job on the half, must be rewarding to find silver coins on the beach. Just when you think everything is gone something turns up after a storm system flips everything. 👍

Your mystery object is reminiscent of a doorknob, but seems too cheesy to be one. 🤔

Glad it wasn't just toy cars. 😬 Was this wet sand or surf?

[jim tn]

Nice hit on the half. Franklin's are rather elusive. HH jim tn

[JCR]

Interesting finds. Perhaps your Copper item was intended for a consentrated liquid like perfume. The slot in the neck is for the spring wire retainer of the stopper. Looks to have been Nickel plated. Nice Big Ben.

[mn90403]

3 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Was this wet sand or surf?

This is a familiar pattern around here of a new patch created during high tide and then when the tide goes out some of it might still be 'wet' depending how early after high tide you go and how big the patch is.  I think of the patch as having length (perpendicular to the beach) and width (shoulders) which have fewer objects but can sometimes be good and then you run out of the patch.

This patch pattern can lead to another pattern which I call 'energy lines' where I find objects in a narrow, parallel to the beach where objects have be deposited and sorted.  Both of these patterns are dependent upon 'evidence' not being removed by another detectorist who got there before you did.  There was more evidence years ago.  Just like your relic patches and of course gold nugget patches.

Beach patches move and can have the help of storms and swells.  Sometimes storms help nugget patches in washes.  Do storms help relic patches?  Maybe to get some overburden off?

[F350Platinum]

7 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Do storms help relic patches?  Maybe to get some overburden off?

Thanks for the info! About half my year is spent in the beaches now. 🙂

Some stuff that is close to the surface in a field might get caught up in a "wash", an erosion ditch formed when it rains a lot. It's usually the lighter stuff that gets caught up in that, aluminum and the lighter coins dropped recently. Just like a beach, the heavier things won't go as far.

Otherwise stuff pretty much stays where it is unless dragged by farm equipment. When I find a structure patch or an activity patch, I always cover some distance from it in both directions of tilling to look for "drags". That is, of course, if the field was always ploughed or tilled in that direction. 🤔

[Valens Legacy]

Nice hunt and a lot of digging for you, and the half is a really nice find.

The mystery object looks like maybe a knob to something similar to the old car light switches used to be.

Good luck and good hunting.

[rvpopeye]

I thought it might be a small door knob too. 

I've seen that retention slot on the side on many of them.

Hope somebody IDs it positively .🥸 

I got a clad Kennedy half the other day. Not quite as exciting as that Franklin was though, no doubt ! 

The matchbox cars always remind me of the gas station I had as a kid... Maybe someone will dig up one of those some day ?🤗