Archive for the 'Stories' Category

In this latest submission, I will share some tips for finding buried treasure on California beaches.

The equation is a simple one: beach + crowds = finding buried treasure. While some beaches have attractions in the form of retail stores or hotel accommodations, many have strong local appeal with others drawing large crowds of tourists. Before I go on a beach trip, I make a decision on which beaches to search with metal detectors.

Here is a list to help in making plans for finding buried treasure on California beaches:

• The Wedge – Newport Beach, where some of the most expensive So Cal real estate can be found, not far from two piers that serve as tourist attractions, this area gets very high traffic.
• Huntington Beach – Surf City – holding world famous surf competitions, popular amongst the locals and has a drum circle meeting every Sunday.
• South Bay – home to Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beaches with their piers that serve as gathering places, volleyball competitions that get worldwide coverage, and also known as “The O.C.” stomping grounds.
• Paradise Cove – This spot is famous, not only as a location for movies and TV commercials but also a location where you can hang out to see movie stars.
• Venice Beach – and Santa Monica Pier; the boardwalk, which actually has no boards, is a two-and-a-half mile promenade for pedestrians only, featuring vendors, artists, fortune tellers, and a variety of performers. Venice Beach is a major tourist attraction known world-wide and also seen in many TV shows and movies, but most importantly, also has a very popular drum circle.
• Pismo Beach – this beach is classic California and you can still drive your car or truck right onto the beach, only three hours drive from L.A.
• Crystal Cove – uniquely pristine with restored beach front rental cottages and dining at the Beachcomber  (appropo)
• Laguna Beach Boardwalk, Main Beach – features famous beachfront retail and hotel accommodations, volleyball and basketball competitions with year round high tourist traffic.
• Trestles Beach – so popular as one of California’s greatest beaches to surf, it plays host to multiple surfing contests throughout the year.
• Doheny Beach – located right next to Dana Point Harbor, a favorite So Cal beach for camping, surfing and swimming.
• San Clemente State Beach – a favorite surf spot close to town and San Clemente Pier Bowl, this campground and picnic area is also great for swimming and skin diving.
• Malibu Beach – 21 miles of some of the most famous coastline where the stars live, bringing plenty of tourism to the shoreline.
• San Onofre State Beach – two campgrounds, six trails that lead down to this popular surfing beach.
• Pacific Beach – San Diego’s beach and boardwalk and a most popular path for bikes and running, tourists pack this beach.
• Del Mar – from the surf to the turf, Del Mar is world famous for its greatest beaches, historic race track and mercantile shops, restaurants and art galleries.
• Leo Carillo – this mile and a half beach is known for its tide pools, reefs, caves, campsites and visitor center.
• Salt Creek Beach – another popular surfing spot that reaches back to the sixties, with the Ritz Carlton and the St Regis overlooking.

Consider the crowds and what they are doing. The very popular drum circles that gather weekly can bring huge crowds of spectators who spread out their picnic blankets and love to get up and dance to the rhythms. Crowds that gather for the competitions of surfing and volleyball bring plenty of money to buy refreshments as they tend to be there most of the day. These all make rich target areas for finding buried treasure. Surfers tend to take off their jewelry and watches before going into the water; perhaps they lost a thing or two to the sandbox. Tourist traffic will always leave something behind. Beach treasure more often than not is expensive jewelry, so be sure to adjust the discriminator on your metal detector for what you are expecting to find.

Beaches are vast. There is room for everyone so you needn’t feel edged out should you spot a fellow treasure hunter. Truth is, you are more likely to have the territory all to yourself. In any case, the tourist traffic is persistent so you should be, too.  The more you work at it, the more you will detect. Making it a shared experience and with a friend or your spouse will enhance the level of competition. While a problem shared is a problem halved, a treasure shared feels like the riches are doubled. You won’t get bored and give up too early in tandem hunting, plus you can save more by carpooling.

Once the spouse knows that extraordinarily nice Christmas gift of a silver band was the result of finding buried treasure, you will have a partner in the field for life. For me, all it took was the silver band with garnets for my wife to follow me anywhere. Since then, we have been all over Southern California enjoying the beautiful outdoors, doing the things we love to do together.

I have learned over the years to go where others have been before you.  (This happens to hold true for both gold panning and metal detecting.) One of my tips for finding buried treasure is to return to the same locations after leaving it alone for at least three months.  The advantage of a secondary search is in finding valuables such as gold, silver, modern or ancient coins or jewelry that are not so deep for the digging.  Having already dug deep the first time to retrieve those well-buried items, there will always be a good chance of finding buried treasure that was missed on the first pass.

Ultimately, it is a matter of being at the right place (or beach) at the right time, and with the right equipment. While it doesn’t take elaborate or named brand metal detectors to find treasure, it does take a more expensive metal detector to find deep buried treasure. With time, experience and making finds, a habit develops that grows in refined knowledge, leading to a more refined arsenal of treasure hunting tools in the process.

The idea is to get out there and enjoy yourself.  You’re not getting any younger.

Good Luck and bring home the Gold and Silver!

I have very good luck metal detecting the Southern California beaches.  The best beaches are those after a high tide or a major storm.  Fire rings and picnic tables that receive heavy traffic are good places to go first followed by working the catch basins.  I always prefer Sunday afternoons to hit the beach.  They have not been raked (which is usually done on Monday morning) and most of the beach-goers have left for the week end so you avoid the crowds.  When going to the beaches remember to bring meter money as most charge for parking.  Do not forget a hat to wear and water to replenish your fluids.  You already look like a nerd with your metal detector attached to your arm like an appendage, at least the hat will cut down on the sun burn.

I hit the south facing beaches, especially the protected ones as the tides will bring in targets daily.  I prefer a high frequency metal detector as this makes the detector sensitive enough to detect small targets like broken chains.  Keep the coil flat when swinging back and forth (no arch).  This will cut down on the reset and ground balance problems.  I cover the Metal Detector with a clear plastic bag.  A one-gallon zip-lock bag with a cut in the center of the bottom, to slide the coil through, works great.  A piece of masking tape will seal up the end while in use.  Salt water is unforgiving to the box unit if you get hit be a rogue wave.

Refresh your battery cells regardless of their storage life.  The older the battery, the more depth you lose, especially when being out for awhile and leaving the detector on.  Carry an extra set with you at all times.  This will avoid the disappointing trips back to the car empty handed.

When checking out the volleyball courts on the beaches, pay special attention to the areas where viewers would normally sit.  I found more coins on sidelines than playing areas.  Beaches are like mountain streams in that coins and jewelry end up between rocks carried in by the waves so check out the rock areas.

A great way to detect metal on the beach is to have a friend or spouse with you.  I have always been told to go slow and go over the area twice.  Having a second person 4 feet over and slightly behind you will allow the two of you to cover a lot more beach in a shorter amount of time and as long as one of us goes home with the prize, I do not mind who found it.

On this trip Sue worked the upper area of the beach which included the plants and bushes.  She was constantly digging up bottle caps that people threw from their balconies.  This is one of the bad parts of this area.  I worked the wash outs and drains coming from the housing area.  Watch the waves coming and picture stronger waves pushing coins along with the sand.  This will give you an idea of where to search.  Draw a line down the beach where people are sitting and search straight down that line.  Most people sit in the same general areas as others before them.  The good spots are well used and you are able to figure that out by scouting it out in advance.

Good luck and bring home the Gold & Silver.

I like to combine my trips when treasure hunting in California since there is so much to do in this very versatile state. My wife and I will spend the morning gold panning and treasure hunting in the afternoon as we search trails and along streams for items the miners of yesterday and today have left behind. You will not believe what people lose out in the desert and in the Mountains.

On one occasion, we spent the morning looking for that elusive gold that we know is in the ground but just can’t seem to locate.  I will admit, I have found sand-sized gold nearly every time we go out, but I am always thinking about what I might be missing out on by not passing that magic wand (Metal Detector) over the grounds and through water in the streams.  I have found many unique items along the stream banks in three inches of water.  Old pocket knives, old tin cups, and old spoons.

Nearly all Metal Detectors nowadays have water proof coils.  Just remember, you will need to adjust the discriminator. My trick is to drill a small hole in a penny and tie a wire to it so I can strap it to the lace on my boot or shoe.  With your feet in the water, pass the metal detector 3 inches above it and adjust the detector to beep at the proper level.  When you are finished and out of the water, wipe off the coil and pass the metal detector over the coin again so you can adjust it for out-of-water use.  This shoelace coin keeps me from having to bend over all the time to retrieve calibration coins.

We finished off the afternoon walking up a trail that was once a stage line.  There are many old trails in California that the pack trains and stage coaches used to transport supplies and equipment to the miners.  The public library is a great source for books on old records for these trails in your area.  These are old record books which cannot be checked out of the library but you are able to make copies of these map locations which you can take with you.

Sue started down the two lane trail finding pieces of iron springs and old nuts and bolts that had to come from early stage coaches.  These are a most fascinating find as you look more closely you can see how they were made back in those days and differ quite dramatically from today’s modern hardware.  We have also found old coins around horse troughs positioned at rest stops.

We noticed a number of large, old trees and rocks around the water well so we made extra passes around this area and just like it says in the treasure books, we found a cache. This old box contained money and survival supplies. You can’t help but relive the excitement of finding such a box as this under a special large tree in front of a boulder every time the story is told to friends.

Most stage coach trails have remnant bullet casings waiting to be found and once you find spent brass you can be sure you will find lead around the fallen trees, so expect to hear that distinctive beep.  Pick up and carry out any brass so people who come after don’t encounter the same disappointment.  Look for odd shaped trees and try to picture what they would have looked like 40 or more years ago and spend a little more time around them with your search coil.

I am a believer in having two different coil sizes available; a  smaller coil for desert, mountains, and streams, and a larger one for beaches, lots, and parks.  You can buy extra new or used coils from e-bay, or your local dealers, or ask members of your local Prospector Association, they are always willing to help you out.

Remember, it is easier to go metal detecting during the week as there are less people in the field and parking is no problem.  Sunday afternoons or Monday Holiday afternoons are good times to go out.

Good luck and bring home the Gold & Silver.

A gorgeous day in Southern California beckons: I was called to excursion, tools in tow and now I have another one of my metal detecting stories to tell.

Right inside your community and just outside your door awaits many a source of wealth and riches. One needn’t travel far and wide to go excavating. Our local parks are closer than many a dig site and these metal detecting sites are rich with finds, ready to give up their treasures with but a little effort and plenty of persistence.

Accessories you need:

• Metal Detector
• Trowel
• Pin Pointer
• Markers
• Knee pads

On most occasions we use our Bounty Hunter Metal Detectors, affordably priced at $100. These are very lightweight and adjustable for comfortable use. Given the number of parks in any given community, you can cruise a bit for the best choice, preferably not too crowded and the grounds layout that provides a variety of good metal detecting sites. I like to find a park that includes the kids’ playground as well as park benches, possibly barbecue area or game fields. My intention is to come after groups of many adults have enjoyed many an outing and have left many a treasure behind which nature has gracefully hidden over time.
 
When detecting, be sure to include areas around the fire pits, benches, and especially any sloping areas between the trees. Just visually scan the terrain and imagine how folks use the territory picturing in your mind’s eye where they would be most likely to sit, eat, play and otherwise enjoy their day’s outing. We were lucky enough to find our first coin in the ground without going more than a few feet from our vehicle.

 
Start by sweeping in a grid pattern if you care to be conscious of covering the territory only once. Be prepared to locate a lot of coins, including pennies, dimes and quarters in a depth of as little as 2 to 4 inches. Careful digging in a circular pattern surrounding the find will allow you to return the patch largely undisturbed. Use your pin pointer to ensure you have retrieved all the items that caused the metal detector to alert you in the first place. Sometimes the spot you locate will give up a bounty of many coins.

A children’s playground presents a great opportunity not only for treasure hunting, but also for the surprisingly dangerous elements that are often located in these areas. Don’t be surprised to come upon some  of the most surprising pieces: open safety pins, wire, even razor blades. If parents are present, you have a welcome chance to inform them that you provide a much needed service in keeping these areas safe and their kids free from harm in their own playground. You gain a welcome reputation when you talk to the parents and they appreciate what your searching produces.

Be prepared to find the odd zipper pull and lost jewelry as part of your duty (and booty).
 
Coin Grading and Cleaning
On a typical day, expect to bring home quite a collection of coins and various artifacts. They will have been under the ground for some time and could use some cleaning. You have several options but whatever you decide, be careful not to be too vigorous in your coin cleaning to avoid scratching, whether with brushes or rubbing them with your fingers while under water.

You can use cleaning agents but they should only be non-abrasive liquid solvents, preferably soap and distilled water or rubbing alcohol. Your concerns should be for any of the products that may actually perform chemical etching as these can erode the metal and produce a dull luster. The easiest method is submerging the coins in vinegar, lemon juice or Coke, first for about five minutes and then, if needed, for another fifteen minutes. Use a soft cloth to buff them dry, again, avoiding the scratching.

Valuing collector coins depends on the state of preservation. Coins are graded by number and description of their condition. Coins can very greatly depending on the damage and may be “net” graded based on wear. If your interest is in trading or selling, be sure to consult a book on coin grading and a coin dealer can accurately grade coins if you have any trouble doing it yourself.