Solid Gold at last-2008

[johnj45586]

I finally finished the work I promised to a local company. It was a document that I had to put in 5 Word files. It was a base document and 4 appendices for a total of 15 Megabytes. They are happy, I am happy and I got back to my real love - treasure hunting.
I picked up a genuine sand scoop, retiring my deep fryer basket. It is a convertible type with a long handle that unscrews to leave a short handle. Both configurations have rubber hand holds. It puts far less stress on my arm because it slides into the dry sand with little resistance.
I headed for Laguna Beach to see what the weekend and St Patrick's day (night actually) left me. There was quite a few people on the beach which left little sand for me to hunt. I still found a couple of pocket spills for 8 quarters, 5 dimes, 3 nickels and about 8 pennies. The little bit of empty sand left me a lot of time. Along the way I found an active cell phone complete with phone list and a fully charged battery. I turned it in to the lifeguard office (which is also Laguna Beach Patrol A.K.A. Police). They said they would post it as found. I suggested they look at the phone number list and call one to let the owner know they have the phone. They seemed to think that was a good idea. I would have done it myself, but I don't use cell phones and didn't want to take the time to figure out how to call the numbers.
I had packed a picnic lunch so My wife and I had that while I regrouped. I decided to hit the grass again and clean up more of the pennies before summer. I would like to be able to hunt the grass at a good pace with few interruptions from pennies.
I started at the south end near the restroom and tot lot. I was finding a few nickels, dimes and many pennies. A couple of kids came up and asked what I was doing and I stopped and explained. Then unplugged the headphones so they could hear the tones. I located a penny that was a little deeper than I wanted to dig, but I also wanted to show the kids there was a penny where the MD said there was.
Neat surprise!!! I dug down and pulled out a 1937-D wheatie! I showed it to the kids and explained how it was different. I had to show them some memorial pennies (they were about 4-5).
I located a couple more pennies and gave each one so they could have buried treasure. One (little girl) tried to talk me out of one of my quarters. No way. The smaller kid went back to his mother, showed her the penny and came back with -- A METAL DETECTOR! This was a toy his mother had just bought for him. It looks functional and is configured something like a dust buster. You would have to use it on your hands and knees. I gave him some pointers about how to train with it.
They left and I went back to more diligent hunting. Pretty soon I found a strange signal. It turned out to be one of the ferromagnetic English pennies. These are even worse than our zinc pennies. The penny is unworn but badly defaced because of rust. Governments would do better to just do away with pennies rather than turn out something like this.
Close by I got another strange signal that turned out to be a Canadian Quarter. It also sticks to a magnet, but isn't rusty like the English penny.
Finding a wheatie, English penny and Canadian quarter made me feel pretty good. I was happy for the day.
I moved to another section of grass I haven't hunted before. It is around a sculpture that is two colorful benches with a chess table. There is another table nearby for playing chess. I have scanned the area and found more pennies than I could count. I decided to bite the bullet and start cleaning the pennies out of this area.
It wasn't long before I got the confused signal between nickel and pull-tab. I told my wife to cross her fingers. I am using my little stainless steel throwing knife as a digging tool. I part the grass, check again with the Bullseye II then start parting the dirt. This time I went to the side and made an opening in the dirt big enough to get a finger in. I felt a shape that was not a pull-tab or nickel. I worked at it as carefully as I could. Finally a gold ring popped out! It is 10k gold - the first solid gold ring of the year (I have other 18k gold, but not a ring). I definitely did the happy dance! That drew a lot of attention and several people came over and asked about metal detecting. I told them about Treasure Quest and Kellyco - I think they are belivers!
I then found the key in the attached picture. Now all I have to do is find the treasure chest it opens!
Several clad coins later I got the nickel-pull tab signal again. I had gotten the signal many times when working across the grass. Most of the time it turned out to be a nickel - only twice it was a pull-tab. This time it was the hoped for ring. I have never seen a ring of this design before - or anything even close. It is worn on the inside and there is no mark. There is a seam where the ring has been resized - my guess is smaller because there is only one seam. You can't detect the seam on the outside of the ring. This is the first ring I have found that fits my little finger.
The second ring has a more dull sound when it is dropped on a wooden table. The first ring has a ringing sound.
So the haul for the day was pretty good.
I found a toy penquin, toy truck, key for something neat, Canadian quarter, English penny, a wheatie, 21 quarters, 30 dimes, 15 nickels, 83 pennies (85 minus 2 for the kids), unknown metal ring, and 10k gold ring. To top it off I found a terra cotta figure. At first it looked like a doggie do land mine. But when I got closer I saw it was a figurine. Unfortunately it has a broken leg. That is probably why someone abandoned it. I will have to mix up some terra cotta and make a replacement leg.
So altogether, even with a late start, it was a day better than great. And I found gold in the grass - totally unexpected. I definitely worked up a sweat. I made several turns over the dry sand - I just knew that was where I was going to find gold. WRONG!
Sunset was really worth staying at the beach for.
Happy hunting to all!

[EBCIII]

Fantastic finds John!! Big congrats on the rings, even the non gold!! You really erned the gold one for sure. Great hunting, Beale.

[Gregory]

Ahhhh, Congrats John on the gold..You deserve it

[anne]

Congrats on the Gold.......that was worth a day out

[ERnurse]

Wow, very nice ring indeed. WTG John!

[prizm-pal]

Wow John I guess yesterday was good day for rings...and coins in you're case I am happy for you! And was nice to show the kids a day they will remember!

[NVRick]

Awesome finds John, WTG

Gratz on finding Gold!


Rick

[portraitartist]

I dunno, that second ring sure looks like gold to me... I'd go have it checked... sometimes 24K gold doesn't look real (very yellow), and this ring has a"foreign" feel to it that suggests 18 or 24K...

Let us know! I think ya got two!

[rip]

Sounds like a great day Congrats !

['E']

WTG on the gold John, & clad too