DrJoePrime
Bronze Member
- Sep 9, 2007
- 1,535
- 948
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 2
- Detector(s) used
- XP Deus, White's Surfmaster Dual Field, Tesoro Sand Shark, Garrett ATX
- Primary Interest:
- Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Southern California Swells of January! FIVE Gold Rings
The Southern California swells of January flooded our beaches and washed away a lot of sand. It was wild at the beach with many lookyloos and excited surfers. I was giddy with joy detecting one of my favorite beaches .. this was Tuesday the 21st. My first gold ring came out very quickly. It's a tiny 14K at 0.9 grams with a diamond chip. Just a couple of small silver rings and quite a few coins was keeping me digging as I headed in what I expected to be the better direction. Wrong choice as I later learned.
As I headed the other way and passing where I found that first gold ring the coins increased but time was running out and I was forced to quit. I was, of course, back the next day. Unfortunately finds seemed to get slower and just a silver ring or two. The next few days I was anxious to try some other of my favorite beaches. Very unusually it was poor the three or four spots I tried.
Saturday the 25th I decided to go back to the flooded beach and head in the better direction. My reward came quickly in the form of a nice diamond solitaire ring. it's a 14K Helzberg Diamond ring at 1.95 grams (It had the HDS maker's mark). The only gold that day but lots and lots of coins.
Sunday had me coming back there and hitting more fresh beach in that better direction. I hit pockets of coins that were unbelievable! It was coming on 1 pm and my older son was planning to pick me up at my house and take me out for lunch. I called him and asked him to pick me up at the beach instead. As I headed back to meet him I got my first ring of Sunday and the third storm ring. It's a 14K at 2.85 grams.The lunch break gave me a nice rest but I was very anxious to get back to my beach.
When I got close to the beach I saw 2 detectorists swinging at my coin pockets. But remarkably they were not scooping anything. They were upslope just a few feet too high. I began to detect and started wandering in their direction. They went higher on the beach and I went lower. I waved as we passed each other. I got to the pocket and coins started singing out. Very quickly I got another ring. But an unusual ring .. only a very small part had the gold look.. the remainder was encrusted in greenish crud. I was 75% sure it was gold and happily put it in my pouch.
I stayed there a couple hours and filled my pouch to overflowing with coins. It was very close to quitting time .. I was pooped. But before I stopped I did get a final gold ring. Third for the day. An initial ring with C M P. It's very cruded up so I'm assuming it's 10k. Weighing in at just 2.24 grams.
A very tired but happy detectorist drove home.
A vinegar bath for two days did pretty good for the number one and two ring. The number three ring soaked for 2 weeks but the crud stuck tight. I finally had to scrape some of it off with one of those four sided nail polishing abrasive sticks. I'm pretty sure hydrochloric acid will work but I am out.
The prize of the three Sunday rings is the 10K second which is marked on the outside with "Fashion Design 05" which I'm taking to indicate 1905...and engraved inside with the initials V M R in nice old time script. The diamonds look real and the bars holding in the green jewel looks very unusual.
Here's a group portrait of my Storm Rings.
Gotta Love this hobby!
The Southern California swells of January flooded our beaches and washed away a lot of sand. It was wild at the beach with many lookyloos and excited surfers. I was giddy with joy detecting one of my favorite beaches .. this was Tuesday the 21st. My first gold ring came out very quickly. It's a tiny 14K at 0.9 grams with a diamond chip. Just a couple of small silver rings and quite a few coins was keeping me digging as I headed in what I expected to be the better direction. Wrong choice as I later learned.
As I headed the other way and passing where I found that first gold ring the coins increased but time was running out and I was forced to quit. I was, of course, back the next day. Unfortunately finds seemed to get slower and just a silver ring or two. The next few days I was anxious to try some other of my favorite beaches. Very unusually it was poor the three or four spots I tried.
Saturday the 25th I decided to go back to the flooded beach and head in the better direction. My reward came quickly in the form of a nice diamond solitaire ring. it's a 14K Helzberg Diamond ring at 1.95 grams (It had the HDS maker's mark). The only gold that day but lots and lots of coins.
Sunday had me coming back there and hitting more fresh beach in that better direction. I hit pockets of coins that were unbelievable! It was coming on 1 pm and my older son was planning to pick me up at my house and take me out for lunch. I called him and asked him to pick me up at the beach instead. As I headed back to meet him I got my first ring of Sunday and the third storm ring. It's a 14K at 2.85 grams.The lunch break gave me a nice rest but I was very anxious to get back to my beach.
When I got close to the beach I saw 2 detectorists swinging at my coin pockets. But remarkably they were not scooping anything. They were upslope just a few feet too high. I began to detect and started wandering in their direction. They went higher on the beach and I went lower. I waved as we passed each other. I got to the pocket and coins started singing out. Very quickly I got another ring. But an unusual ring .. only a very small part had the gold look.. the remainder was encrusted in greenish crud. I was 75% sure it was gold and happily put it in my pouch.
I stayed there a couple hours and filled my pouch to overflowing with coins. It was very close to quitting time .. I was pooped. But before I stopped I did get a final gold ring. Third for the day. An initial ring with C M P. It's very cruded up so I'm assuming it's 10k. Weighing in at just 2.24 grams.
A very tired but happy detectorist drove home.
A vinegar bath for two days did pretty good for the number one and two ring. The number three ring soaked for 2 weeks but the crud stuck tight. I finally had to scrape some of it off with one of those four sided nail polishing abrasive sticks. I'm pretty sure hydrochloric acid will work but I am out.
The prize of the three Sunday rings is the 10K second which is marked on the outside with "Fashion Design 05" which I'm taking to indicate 1905...and engraved inside with the initials V M R in nice old time script. The diamonds look real and the bars holding in the green jewel looks very unusual.
Here's a group portrait of my Storm Rings.
Gotta Love this hobby!
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