Biggest Haul Of Beach Coins

[stupot]

I've neglected quite a few places due to the fact that a couple of beaches have been very productive. Its all about priorities with me, some fields are only just drying out & i'm not inclined to go to most places until cultivation in April or thereabouts.

On Saturday I went a little further than I normally do as we've had some massive tides and wind in the right direction. The section I had in mind is backed by dunes of considerable height with clay & peat in the lower layers. I have removed a vast amount from here over the years, it was a popular place in the era of early motor cars and before, not so much anymore.

What I was faced with was a massive tide that had cut right into the dune leaving a huge area of disturbance. I full well knew there would be a lot of stuff but wasn't quite prepared for the sheer quantity. Took the Deus with the 9", knowing the place well t was right for the job. Instantly I put the detector at the base of the dunes, I could see coins strewn along the base on the gritty black or red layer with a good smattering of wartime iron too. They were all from Victorian through to 1950's- perfect, plus a few George III/IV

Difficult to explain, but multiple signals under the coil at once was somewhat overwhelming as all were positive. It took a few minutes for me to switch into fully auto mode. For the next 3 1/2 hours, I dug constantly as well as eyeballing many on the surface. Literally they were all over the place, but I kept up a strict discipline of straight overlapping lines pulling stuff every few seconds. I could see there were quite a few silver coins along with other stuff. In these situations, my recovery rate was as fast as I could go, on & on.

At the end my bag was really heavy with mostly coins but with a couple of rings thrown in too, one with a decent Opal. By dark I gave up totally worn out. Back at it next day I hit exactly the same spot with similar results, but not quite in the same numbers. I noticed that the coins were mostly smaller than the previous day which is normal on a second less intense pass. Day 3 was interesting as many more small bits came up including a couple of broken gold 9ct rings & many small items. Lead toys were very common, some intact & a good time indicator.

The totals were for Day 1 328 coins, then 169, lastly 102. In the first batch were 60 silver mostly pre 1947. Three days gave 109 silver back to George III. Quite a few pre-vic coppers came out too. Silver coins in England changed fineness after 1919 from sterling to 50% up to 1947.

Its a personal record on day 1, you can quickly work out the rate of coins dug per hour.
What helped the speed was the Deus with very tight settings so responses were channeled into very positive only settings. On the second & third days I opened it up to catch other items, this I have found is the best method in these situations. Needless to say I've been back there with much less results, down to a couple of dozen yesterday.

Not since the '89 Hurricane in this country have I done so well. Then, on a full day I retrieved over 600 old coins from one beach alone, but that was over seven or eight hours. Its rare even for me to come across these situations, very intense detecting that will be well remembered.

There is now a massive haul of coins in the scrap copper, this will exceed last years enormous haul thanks to the d2 and manti. Photo 3 are silver coinage from small 3 pence (Like 3c silver) up to half crown (bigger than 50c piece).

[JCR]

Congratulations on your good fortune and even more for your recognition of the opportunity and hard work.

[Tom_in_CA]

Great play-by-play description.   I love beach-erosion-chasing.   So I've seen days like you describe.   My peak record in one day was :  466 coins, of which 46 were silver, and over 100 wheaties.   Also a 1914 $2.50 gold coin that day.   And this was a beach riddled with nuisance lead to have to wade through.    So I easily had 1000 targets.    Literally multiple beeps per sweep of the coil.   Often times multiple coins per each basket.   Doh !

 

Trouble is though, that these days are few and far between .  Mother nature doesn't cooperate that often  🙂

[masslawman]

Wow!!! What a great day, lots of awesome finds. Just goes to prove mother nature loves metal detectorists. Congrats on your finds.

[mn90403]

Great finds!  I've missed the location, GB?

[CalReg]

Amazing! What I wouldn't give to have a day like yours! Congrats!

[geof_junk]

I have no idea what my records is for number of coins found  in a day / week as my main interest was gold nuggets. However the value of the coins is secondary as they are stored away only to be looked at or being left for the Grandkids. I got a copy of Aus. coin albums for the silver coins I found and spent some time trying to fill all the holes a feat that would take more than a life time.

The first link is showing the ones that were excess. The second is the link to an old post here that contains the albums.

Excess Silver Coins.

Old DetectorProspector post on silver coins

[Valens Legacy]

Looks like a great hunt with some very nice finds, I bet you are tired from all that digging.

Good luck on your next hunt and stay safe out there.

[RickUK]

Some amazing finds,alas i live right inland and it takes me a few hours each way to the coast,so although i do occasionally do beach detecting down on the south coast most of my detecting is inland around east anglia region......well done on a amazing haul.

[stupot]

I pretty much scrap everything. Copper coinage, silver and anything else not worth keeping. In England, I live right on the coast with dozens of places within an hour, but finding them in scoured conditions is harder. But, I  time if I keep an eye on them, it does come good.

I switch to the manti with the m8 coil as a preference now in the worst iron conditions. Iron is not the same as you may think, the places i like are industrial foreshores and beaches. Here the iron is littered of all sizes including pieces I cannot lift.

Keep digging!