Tiffany Silver Heart

[johnj45586]

Last night I made contact with the friend that wanted to check out metal detecting by email. We arranged an 8AM treasure hunt at a little out of the way beach near San Juan Capistrano (Mission SJC that the swallows fly back to, and Dana delivered supplies to in his book).
I didn't really expect much since this isn't a name beach. When I parked and got a first look at the beach my heart sank. There are fire pits every 40 feet or so along much of the beach. Only one kind of wood gets burned in firepits, wood with nails.
We started scanning and sure enough there were rusty nails aplenty! But I heard another signal in with the rusty nails. I switched to jewelry mode to get a little discrimination against iron. That almost works, but not when you swing. The iron saturates the sensing circuit and you get a bell tone anyhow. But if you scan very slowly or stop you only get a constant high tone if there is a coin.
After digging out 4 nails there was a good clear coin signal. Expecting a bottle cap I pinpointed it and scooped. The first good scoop of the day produced a 10 cent euro. The country side is the image from France. It is the "sower" like was on the French franc. (Sowing as sowing seeds).
A couple of passes later and there was another mixed signal. After digging out the nails there was still a signal that said coin (dime actually). It turned out to be a quarter. And there was still a signal in the ground, another quarter.
I worked a few more passes and even with the discrimination on it was getting really irritating trying to dig out enough iron to be able to hunt. Every fast swing produced a bell tone, just about every slow scan did not verify a good hit. And a lot of melted foil was starting to show up.
So I decided to go down the beach a way to where some volleyball courts were set up. Along the way I found a ring pretty deep (12-15 inches). And finally found cans, foil drink pouches and bottle caps at 14 inches. That made it very discouraging to dig deep.
At the volleyball courts I scanned a while and finally got a hit on a nickel. A few more scans and some quarters showed up, then pennies etc. Nothing spectacular, but interesting nonetheless.
Finally I hit a hole with at least a six-pack of beer bottles broken up with a few beer cans that were torn. That took about 15 minutes to dig and sift out. When I was done all the broken glass was in a trash can. I can't repeat what I was grumbling to my friend.
After a lot more scanning nothing but trash was showing up, so back to the original stretch of beach we went. Almost as soon as we got back I heard a good signal along with all the bad ones. We cleared away the nails and foil and finally found the source. It was a Tiffany & Co. sterling silver heart. That is the second marked Tiffany & Co. silver item I have found.
Besides the 10 cent Euro, the ring and the heart we found 15 quarters, 2 dimes, 2 nickels and 17 pennies. Pretty good for an out of the way beach. Most of the coins were in sand that is always dry (except for rain), but were very heavily corroded. I guess that means there aren't many metal detectors run over this area. The nails would tend to discourage the casual hunter.
My friend is wanting to try a grassy park next. I will have to check it out. There is a sign of all the restrictions on the park. I will have to make sure metal detecting isn't one of them. There is an area for playing football and a large tots playground. It looks very promising.
I think I got another person addicted to hunting. He asked all the right questions and made the correct observations. He understands it is all about the tones and the more experience listening to the tones the better.
I am wondering how much it would cost to rent one of those GREAT BIG electromagnets from the car wrecking companies. I sure would like an easier way to clear a beach of rusty nails.
Good hunting to all.

Even in all that trash and junk, the good stuff is still to be found! Congrats!

[toye026]

Thank you for Cleaning up. I know you cant stand a dirty beach!!!

Great finds!!!!

[gordiesgirl]

Glad you stuck it out and found the good stuff. Nice finds WTG

[Steve in PR]

Nice silver, John. Apparently they like the brand name silver in California!

[MinelabMan]

Nice finds and congratulations on getting someone involved in this hobby.

Just wondering about the heart, it says to return to Tiffany, do you think it alone was a piece of jewelry on a chain, or a fob on something?

Love the Tiffany heart !!! Congrats John !!!

[johnj45586]

Originally Posted by MinelabMan

Just wondering about the heart, it says to return to Tiffany, do you think it alone was a piece of jewelry on a chain, or a fob on something?

Tiffany sells the heart as a pendant on a necklace or a charm on a bracelet. A Sterling silver necklace (16 inch) goes for about $10 and a necklace with this pendant is $100. Plus the machine engraving on the reverse (3 initials) costs $8. All this from the Tiffany site.
I looked all around and didn't find anything else in the area (after clearing out all the rusty nails). I don't know the significance of the number on the bottom (M42878), it isn't on the Tiffany site.

[julieburger]

I think they are supposed to be like dog tags each # registered to different people. I have a pretty strong magnet mounted on a metal pole that I got at the tractor supply store.

[MinelabMan]

Originally Posted by johnj45586

I don't know the significance of the number on the bottom (M42878), it isn't on the Tiffany site.

Put me in mind of the fobs that businesses used to give to customers to put on their keychain that said "if found, drop in any mailbox"