Here’s The Scoop:

[Geologyhound]

Literally, an ice cream scoop…

I can’t complain. I went to a “new to me“ local beach.  Judging by the parallel tire (equipment) tracks back and forth, lack of foot prints, and cut roots at the edges, the local park had just graded the beach.  For some reason, they graded it in a washboard pattern with ridges a foot and a half high and about 4-5 feet wide perpendicular to the shoreline.  At the top of the beach, the sand was only an inch or so thick over the top of the gray to black clay.  I am guessing they removed about 6 inches of material at least along the edges.

I made one pass close to the shoreline and didn’t find much until I got to the end where I found a wheat penny on the high side in the clay.  That got my attention.  So I started gridding that end and didn’t find much more until I hit a patch of nails at the grass line.  I switched to Tekkna on my D2 and started pulling wheat penny after wheat penny from the nails.  They were between about two and six inches into the clay.  I was able to find them either along the upper edge of the beach or in the base of each trough.  One wheat penny was actually sitting on the top of a ridge about 1 inch down in the sand.  I figured the plow must’ve caught the clay and flipped that one out.

With all the wheats (16 total), I figured there had to be silver somewhere.  Sure enough, I found a 1960 Rosie and then a 1957.  Then I hit a good quarter reading and was hoping for a silver quarter but instead up came a black ring.  It is stamped “STERLING” and was right next to the 1951 nickel.  That made it a 3-silver day!  A one silver day is good in my book.  So, maybe I really did get the scoop on things.  😄

As one final surprise, I was looking the pennies over when I got home. I figured they were all 40s and 50s from what I had seen in the field. However where one of the fours should be was actually a one - a 1915!  So there may be some older stuff out there too.

What does anybody use to clean that layer of black tarnish off silver?

[F350Platinum]

Great haul and place of opportunity Ghound! 👍

I found a huge silver ring that was brown and black:

https://www.amazon.com/Mothers-05101-Mag-Aluminum-Polish/dp/B0009H519Y

I took a Dremel with Mother's Mag Polish to it, and now it looks like this: 

47 low grade diamonds. 🥳 The Polish barely removes anything but the crud, it's really fine. I tried other methods and they didn't do anything, so I took a chance and am delighted. 

You need to go to that place more! 

[GB_Amateur]

3 hours ago, Geologyhound said:

I was looking the pennies over when I got home. I figured they were all 40s and 50s from what I had seen in the field. However where one of the fours should be was actually a one - a 1915!

That's the fifth scarcest Philadelphia minted Lincoln Cent, trailing the three Depression years [1931-33] and barely behind the 1909 VDB, so not just a typical teens mintage.  Yes, likely more goodies there.  Keep us informed.

[strick]

"What does anybody use to clean that layer of black tarnish off silver?"

Tumbler over night works a charm. Nice hunt...

strick

[mntnflyr4fun]

sonic cleaning

[DWerk]

And with all the excellent finds you have provided us with the SCOOP! Good day at the beach..

[Geologyhound]

On 7/28/2024 at 12:37 PM, F350Platinum said:

Great haul and place of opportunity Ghound! 👍

I found a huge silver ring that was brown and black:

https://www.amazon.com/Mothers-05101-Mag-Aluminum-Polish/dp/B0009H519Y

I took a Dremel with Mother's Mag Polish to it, and now it looks like this: 

47 low grade diamonds. 🥳 The Polish barely removes anything but the crud, it's really fine. I tried other methods and they didn't do anything, so I took a chance and am delighted. 

You need to go to that place more! 

Nice looking ring!

I went back this evening for about an hour before my coil went dead.  I hadn’t charged it after about 4-5 hours use, so I figured I should have several hours left.  Sadly not…. No other finds of note tonight.

I did find my dremel, bits and pads in the garage and tried some of the Mother’s mag polish.  My pad did not get down into the crevices of the sterling ring (let alone inside), but the black background sort of accentuates the raised pattern.

I also tried the polish on another ring I recently found.  It is stamped FZ .925 PC and has a single stone.  It cleaned the black out of the textured cut on the shoulders nicely.  The third ring in the picture is stamped RSC, and must be a kids ring based on the size.  I found it in the same place as the one with the stone.  Sadly the stones did not test as diamonds.  A final clean and rinse in a sonic cleaner and they look nice, though!

Just for the fun of it, I buffed the two black dimes with the polish.  One shined up (probably a bit too much).  For the other one, I couldn’t cut through the crust.  I know cleaned coins are not worth much, but neither are tar black coins.  These were not key dates, so I figured I would rather have shiny coins worth silver value instead of black coins worth silver value.

[Geologyhound]

On 7/28/2024 at 9:58 PM, strick said:

"What does anybody use to clean that layer of black tarnish off silver?"

Tumbler over night works a charm. Nice hunt...

strick

I will have to try that on the real crusty ones.  Thanks!