7 months Hunting the Gold Coast in 2024

 

 2024 Beach Treasure Roundup

I didn't treasure hunt a beach for 7 months, November 2023 through May 2024. (I was chasing birds to add to my Life List up to the end of spring migration ).

                          I switched from birding to treasure hunting beaches                          from May 30th to Dec 19, 2024. 

This is a compilation of notable finds for those 7 months in 2024


***


I returned to the beach only after being called to do a recovery of a gold wedding band Brian lost at a beach I shall call Sam's Beach. 



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While I was recovering Brian's ring, I discovered that erosion of the sea bottom along this popular tourist beach could made accessible to someone with a waterproof metal detector the gold and silver jewelry lost by bathers in the water here over the last few years. I committed to a campaign of at least several hours over each of several days to discover what, if anything, I could find. My first water hunt was on 5/30/2024. Here is a list of the gold, silver and other valuable items I found at this beach, and other beaches, in the remainder of 2024. 


5/30/2024

A pair of RB3636 New Caravan Ray Bans, minty. 



5/31/2024
David Yurman 925 thick, wide cable wedding band

A fat David Yurman 925 man's wedding band. 
My first Designer ring in 2024. Very encouraging

6/04/2024 

First gold of 2024!

It's a gold chain that beach hunters dream about.

             Alloy: 14KP gold (XRF assay: 13.99K)

Weight: 110.14g or 3.88 oz.




    see the faint yellow letters above the blue ones

          


    6/7/2024 
    A small silver moonstone ring



    6/10/2024 Monday
    Silver Mermaid Pendant

    The moment I laid eyes on this silver 925 Mermaid, I felt it was she that had gifted me the chain I found on the 4th. I remembered the Greek's had a sea goddess of sand that was a Nereid sister named "Psamathe". So I named the mermaid "Sam," after the Greek sand goddess, and I began calling this beach the Mermaid Beach.                                   




    I also found another pair of ray bans in Exc condition.


     6/14/2024
    I found three gold rings in One Hunt.
    I love days like this!
    1. Red Gold 14k  
    2. Frederick Goldman 18k/950 Platinum  
    3. Benchmark 14k  



    6/21/2024
    925 silver ring with 3 spinners; 2 are gold.

    6/23/2024

    TISSOT PRC200 Swiss watch 

    The only valuable find I had this summer from the dry sand.
    Minty condition, my daily wear

    6/27/2024

    925 Amethyst Ring

      


         Water Recovery for young couple, gold wedding band
    6/30/2024(?)
    925 Celtic band
    Peter Stone Company Limited sells gold and silver jewelry with a focus on Celtic, Viking and nature themes. The company began in 1992, and manufacturing is based in Thailand.


    7/11/2024

    Marked sterling; could be  from the 1970s or earlier. 

    7/28/2024  
    Wedding band, 14k 6.0g. 
    Only ring I found this summer not from Mermaid beach.
    7/30/2024

    Silver ring with a solid gold spinner 

    7/31/2024

    Silver and moonstone ring
    8/4/2024 
    India 925 anklet 
    8/11/2024
    925 Tous Bear

    8/12/2024

       I found 4 Golds in one day. 
    Woohoo! I could get used to this!
    Three rings;14k,10k,18k, plus a 14k Dental bridge.
    The black items are a tarnished 925 Tous bear and  tarnished 925 ring 
                                
    8/13/2024 
    Cartier 8 diamond 18k Love Band

    I found a genuine Cartier 8 diamond Love Band Au 750. 
    These are more than $4k new. Needs some careful polishing. 


           
      
    I also found a Pandora bead and 925 ring


    8/18/2024
    Silver ring with a thistle mark
    A silver ring with rims and a thistle hallmark is a characteristic piece of Scottish jewelry, typically crafted from .925 sterling silver and featuring the national thistle emblem to symbolize courage and resilience. These rings often feature detailed, engraved, or embossed thistle patterns, sometimes complemented by Celtic knotwork or Celtic interlace designs. Simple slashes on this ring. There is a crack in the rim, pretty crudely made I think. 
     
    David Yurman 925 cable wedding band
    Before and after a light first cleaning.
    8/19/2024

     
         
      8/19/2024
    David Yurman 18k Swirl ring, 
    and a 925 Pandora ring.
     


            8/21/2024 Tiffany ring
    Tiffany 925 band. 
    Before and After cleaning
    8/21/2024
    18k, 4.92g Italian Bracelet

    8/21/2024
    Several silver items totaling 31g
    8/25/2024
                   6 hour hunt yields 3 Gold rings, 1 gold pendant and 1 vermeil ring  
     ***
    Ring at the top is vermeil, i.e. gold-plated silver.
    Next one is 18k+emerald; 2.43g 
    3rd is 14k all white gold, 7.97g 
    Fourth is an 18k     band; 4.81g  
    Last is an Italian14k Taurus pendant 


    8/26/2024 
     a weird little silver ring



    5/31/2024---8/31/2024     
    Mermaid Beach Summer Roundup :
    Here is all the gold + Tiffany and Yurman silver Designer rings
    (Only the gold band farthest right is from another beach)
             
    9/3/2024 
    10k 17g. ring. 
    Still working Mermaid Beach.
     

    9/7/2024
    Only 21k hallmarked gold item that I've ever found.
    A 2.47g, 21k, 87.5% gold hoop earring
    My last find from Mermaid Beach this year.

     9/8/2024--11/25/2024
    From this point, all finds come from other beaches.
    Mermaid beach had stopped producing  for me. Sam the Mermaid had shut me out, but I think only because I and Ned had cleaned her out. 
                               

    9/29/2024
    10k gold chain, and a heavy silver bracelet

       10-11-2024 
    a silver stud w/solid 14k post. 
        Maybe for people whose skin is reactive?  
    11/12/2024
    Santa Barbara pendant .97g, 14k
    Patron saint of Cuba



    11/26/2024 -- 12/19/2024
    The Elephant's Graveyard: 5 hunts
    The Good Times Roll again

        I don't usually share the location of my finds with other detectorists, but while I'd been killing it at the Mermaid, my friend Ned had been suffering a 2 month no-gold slump. So, against all my pirate precepts (foremost being, "Dead men tell no tales"), I told Ned about Mermaid beach. He hit it immediately and took out a gold ring and a Pandora bracelet full of charms.
          Gold targets became scarce for me in Oct. and Nov.; Ned was also treading water, so we went searching together for a new beach to plunder along a stretch of coast Ned was much more familiar with than I was. Seemingly on the spur of the moment he called out, "Turn here!"; this led to a tiny beach park with just a few parking spots. No big resorts or hotels adjacent, just low rise condos. Whatever; I was game.
           We got in the water, and found an elephant's graveyard; well, figuratively. Half buried in the sand in the center of a depression where the sea bottom was full of rocks, broken coral and seashells, in about 4' of water, was a marble statue of Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god, Funny thing is, same as a fabled elephant graveyard, this graveyard for Ganesh also hid a fortune. Not in ivory of course, but in gold and silver chains and rings. 
        In this cusp, as these eroded beach features are called, were actually 4 of these painted marble Hindu statues. I looked them all up and identified the gods, but now I can id only two, Krishna, which I eventually carried out of there, and Ganesh the elephant god. I'm sure Shiva was one of the other two. The weirdest thing about this, though, was that the hands of the figures were all missing; they seemed to have been surgically removed, the cuts were clean and smooth.                                                                                             We were too busy searching for and recovering gold and silver to lug all those heavy, solid marble statues back to the car. But a week or so later, when we'd cleaned out this cusp of all the treasure we could find, I picked up the statue which seemed it might be the lightest and carried it to the car, about 100 yards. I do wish I'd grabbed Ganesh, the elephant instead, but that was the largest and heaviest of the four. Below, is a record of my finds from the Elephant's Graveyard.

    Day One at the Elephant's Graveyard

    11/26/2024,
    First day:
                      A Mexican 925 chain with cross 116.2g                   (over $400 melt at today's 1/24/26 market price),
              plus .925 ring; Eisenhower dollar, and  silver stud earring.        Ned found a gold ring and a gold pendant
    Day Two  
    Elephant's Graveyard


    11/27/2034
    2nd Day
       I found a wedding band that seemed to be white gold, but it had no hallmark.                                          A jeweler checked it with an xray diffraction gun, and it is                                                     white gold, 14.28K.Plus 2 silver rings and a stud earring.                                                                                   
                                

    Day Three
    Elephant's Graveyard
    12/05/2024

    I found a diamond covered gold chain 
    with "A" and "K" pendants: 
    Total weight is 47 grams.
    So I call it the "AK-47" chain.
    It is hallmarked 10k.
                Tested with XRF gun: 9.87K.The diamonds are real.                                       The melt value alone (on 1/23/26) is roughly $3k.                      Resale value of an "iced out" Cuban curb chain can be much higher.



    Hiz Excellencies, "AK-47" and "Moby Dick"
                       

    ( read the yellow characters above the blue ones)
    Day Four
    Elephant's Graveyard


    12-11-2024
                               4th Day                                           10k diamond wedding band +          1oz .925 chain.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Day Five
    Elephant's Graveyard
     
    12/19/2024
    5th hunt 

    14k, 10.78g ring that I think could be a very worn Nugget ring. This was the last gold I found in 2024. 

    I had a great half a year in 2024, my best summer since 2018 on South Beach.

    I want to thank all the kind beach-goers who wished me luck and the deities of the sea and shore who graciously inspire, guide and protect. A special thanks to the beach donors, of course, who sacrifice their gold and silver to the gods, and thus make it available to Nature's Hidden Hand. Thank you all.

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