My 1 year totals from Okinawa

Bobbypins

Hero Member
May 31, 2008
503
134
Okinawa, Japan
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Whatever gets the job done
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Let me start off by saying that I came to Okinawa last year and have never beach hunted before. I did a lot of reading online, LOTS of learning before I even got my first detecting time in. It was a beast to learn, and I quickly found out that the beaches in the US are NOT the same as the ones here. That's good, and also bad at the same time. Every area has it's own set of issues to overcome, and Okinawa is no different.

I kept a log book for the entire year. In the beginning it wasn't that good, but I got better and more detailed as time went on. I did get the high points, and that's what I'm sharing today.

I don't spend my finds normally. I like to see the pile grow and grow, but my wife has been known to dip into my 'treasure box' a time or two so she could go to the vegetable mart up the road. Not a big deal, but understand that my totals aren't reflected 100% in the photos. Now that the year is up and I have an excellent baseline for this next year, I'll cash it all in and convert it to USD. I told my wife that all this money I find is for a vacation in Mexico when my contract here is up. Once she found that out, she stopped robbing my coins..... LOL

So here's how the log book says I did:

I went on 84 hunts this year. My worst day was 0 yen, and my best day was 7,526 yen ($100) along with plenty of silver and a 18k gold ring. That was a good day. :laughing9:

In 84 hunts, I logged in 164,933 yen... and at todays yen rate of 75:1 that works out to be $2,199. The numbers break down to be an average of 1,963 yen per hunt ($26)

I found 8 gold rings (5 are 18k and 3 are 14k)
I also found a total of 6 Platinum rings ( I sold my first one for $340) The other 5 are pictured below

I found 12 oz of misc silver jewelry. But it's interesting to note that I sold 5 oz in August ($200), and since that time I have acquired an additional 7 oz in just the last 2 months! I'm going to take that as my skill level is improving.

My averages also tell me that I find a gold or platinum ring every 6 hunts.

So without draggind out this too much longer, here's the pictures of the cleaned coins that I've been saving all year long specifically for THIS post. I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed finding them.

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Upvote 0
Your finds are excellent!!! Do you have a lot of competition regarding other hunters?

I wish the finds would be as nice over here. My last hunt at Clearwater beach netted me a grand total of 12 cents US and a few pull tabs..... :tongue3:

Keep posting those finds. It does give inspiration to many of us and it's nice to see finds from other places.

Good luck :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 

JP said:
Your finds are excellent!!! Do you have a lot of competition regarding other hunters?

I wish the finds would be as nice over here. My last hunt at Clearwater beach netted me a grand total of 12 cents US and a few pull tabs..... :tongue3:

Keep posting those finds. It does give inspiration to many of us and it's nice to see finds from other places.

Good luck :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

There's not that much competition here on the island, but on occasion I run into someone new. Mostly it's a service member or a retired service member. There are literally only a handful of people who RELIGIOUSLY hunt, with yours truly being one of them. Rob... aka 'Soup' is fixing to leave the island and he and my buddy Ron (Marktwa8n) hunt frequently. Some competition is nice, but too much would spoil the finds I'm sure.
 

Sounds like the comp levels are much the same as here.. sparse MD's :hello2: Inspirational year and it seems you have influenced others into it as well! Well done on the year and you must have rubbed a bit my way because last Thurs I found a 100 Yen coin! I've been grumbling of late because I'm in a 2 going on 3 week gold drought - but seeing your 8 total has made me feel I haven't done too bad over the last two months with new SS... very educational to see another's yearly totals ... I'll do the same in 10 months .. except for local currency which gets turned into refreshing ales, cheers bobbypins.
 

Excellent year..... you told your wife vacation... she must of heard retirement with the hoard you are building.

Dew
 

I have enjoyed reading you posts and looking at the pictures of your keepers for most of this year
Bobbypins. They have been quite impressive to say the least. But, after seeing almost everything
together in one group picture.....well, THAT is AWESOME. You have done very well. Congratulations.
Gold Nuggets :hello:
 

I have grandkids on Okinawa. I offered to send them a detector, but they arn't interested.
Are you allowed to roam free? I would love to detect some of the battlefields, but I guess the whole island is battlefield. I would like to drag a good magnet in the deep cracks and crevices with a long rope.
 

Can't wait to see what you find at the next place you go to. :notworthy: :headbang:

Jonnie
 

what a fantastic year!! congrats and hope you have a fantastic vacation!
 

I've been detecting on land for years... but never on a real beach. Knowing I was coming to Okinawa in advance, I bought a few machines... 2 PI's, Excal, and even an ATpro that I just recently sold. It soaked up a lot of time to learn and understand these machines... so in the first few months, the finds were extremely modest at best. Then I went to the Middle East for a month, and had to go home for some training... so there was some other time that I lost all together. So looking at it, to have found what I have in just 84 hunts, is pretty damn good.

I finally started understanding how Okinawa beaches are set up about 6 months ago. There are a lot of beaches here, but only a few are worth going to. Every swimming beach has its own personality... some are a lot tougher than others, and some are just like the beaches in Florida... albeit a lot smaller. There's a set criteria I look for now... and if it has it, I usually do pretty good.

The learning never stops, and I still try different beaches from time to time to see how well they pan out, but mostly they just bring my averages down. Now that I'm getting better with my equipment, this next year should be pretty good. I've set a standard for myself now. All I have to do is keep surpassing my own expectations. :coffee2:
 

Ok... I just got back from the currency exchange place. Lucky for me, they advertise to "bring in your coin jars".... so I did... but just the bigger money... 50 yen, 100 yen, and 500 yen coins.

I was $2 shy from making a $100 bill, so I threw in the difference and came away with this:

$1,900

The selling rate today turned out to be 77.20 yen for the dollar, but they'll sell you yen at the 75:1 rate. Didn't account for the spread. But alas... I got it converted, they took their cut, and I got my Benjamins :D And I still have a jar full of 10 yen coins that my son can put in the vending machines. The 1 and 5 yen coin jar I'll just give to the homeless Japanese man who gets my aluminum cans every other day. Apparently the wife robbed over 10,000 yen before I caught her :-\
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That money sure looks good, when piled up like that! I have the same problem as you had, the wife dips into it, when she goes to the local 7/11. I also had to promiss a trip, when the vase is full. What do the locals think of your detecting, do they usually ask what your looking for, or just look? Our locals, (Thailand) will follow for a while, before asking, "what u looking?". There are many Thai detectorest at the beach, sometimes 10, on a good tide, but the locals never ask them anything, only me or any other European. Now lots of Russian tourist, and they ask even more questions, but I try just to look away when I see them coming, since the low tide doesn't wait for a lot of questions!

Your totals are much higher than mine, but I'm still learning my new Excal. One problem is that the Thai Baht is not worth so much, so even with a lot of targets, its a good day, if I can manage $5, plus a ring or two, usually junk. I know there is a lot of gold out there, but it will take time to learn the signals, and the beaches are FULL of pull tabs and alu screw caps.

Thanks for showing, and keep swinging
 

I lost a pretty heavy sterling silver bracelet on Okinawa in a field at Camp Shields in 1974...if ya find somethin like that ....just sayin ;D
 

Amazing how your clad finds added up. I also thought it was interesting that by weight you found more platinum than gold. Feel free to throw some of that platinum down toward Florida. Very nice hunting indeed!

:icon_pirat:
 

Tony in FL said:
Amazing how your clad finds added up. I also thought it was interesting that by weight you found more platinum than gold. Feel free to throw some of that platinum down toward Florida. Very nice hunting indeed!

:icon_pirat:

I was thinking the same thing. It seems that the Japanese don't wear much gold, but opt for the platinum instead. I've also noticed that the women don't normally wear an engagement ring with a big fat diamond. Most times you see a simple band.
There was a time not long ago that I was 1:1 on Pt vs gold. I'm hoping that this year keeps the averages about the same. But considering I had such a long learning curve, various machines, and a lot of lost time... I'm expecting much better numbers this year.
 

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