You 'hit the nail on the head' for me, too, John.
I have studied the Outer Banks beaches (NC) for many years, as part of
my metal detecting hobby and can say, without a doubt, that I don't fully
understand what makes certain movements of the sands, materials (including
coins/jewelry) occur at the time and manner in which they often do.
I will debate with anyone....that beach metal detecting
is one of the most difficult of the hunts connected with the hobby.
Unlike highland hunting, where the targets lay, generally undisturbed
from the time they are lost and later recovered.....beach targets are,
most often,constantly on the move..
I have reached the point, after many years of beach hunting, where I
categorize our beaches, pretty much by the four seasons...
with a much broader description being a 'summer beach' and a 'winter beach'..
Both are as different as 'sweet' and 'semi-sweet' chocolate!!..
However, I will say that I am predominantly a 'winter beach' hunter..
..due to several reasons...the main one being the higher degree of
erosion and greater probability of discovering the 'older/true artifacts'..
Silver coins and older jewelry are nearly impossible to find on NC
beaches during the summer months....Recently dropped clad coins and new
jewelry...are the only sure bets.....and even they, in my opinion, are
not as easily found until the late fall and winter months..Water hunting
(wading over knee deep) on our beaches is difficult, if not impossible during
90% of the summer days...due to constant onshore waves, the sudden drop-off of
the beaches and bad rip-tides, which often result in closing of the beaches for
swimming. However, these same elements add greatly to the 'erosion factor' during
the winter months.. of course, as they occur with much greater force.
I am positively convinced that it would be impossible to write a
comprehensive article on beach metal detecting, with facts and/or pointers
that can hold true for every beach around the country and world...
I've tried it.....and each time I find myself making statements which
I know to be true for 'my beach'.....but find to be unreliable for other
beaches I have hunted or read about..
Obviously, we will agree that 95+% of all lost coins (excluding shipwrecks).
..were first dropped on dry land (sand)...But, we also know that many of
these coins were washed into the sea..and returned to land, often many times
before they were recovered.....It is what happens during that in-between time
....that may be difficult to understand.
Here is my 'take' on the NC beaches.....and you may find it interesting..and
certainly may not agree with some of it.....It is however, a conclusion, that
I have reached...after many, many years of beach hunting....
MOVEMENT OF BEACH COINS/JEWELRY ON THE NC (OUTER BANKS) BEACHES
95+% of all coins/jewelry lost.....are dropped during the summer months of June
through September....98+% of these coins are lost on the high dry beach sand.
A large amountof these coins/jewelry is picked up by summer metal detectorists..
..with the largest amounts foot-trodden deep into the sands.....or picked up and
pulled to sea by an ensuing tide. (I will add here that I feel that only a
minute percentage of the unfound summer coins find their way into the ocean
during the summer months. And these are the ones which are lost at that point
between the high tide line and the ocean, or those lost by someone trouncing
around in the shallow waters near the shoreline.
There are practically no coins washed onto the beaches during the summer months..
...while there may be a few coins found in the wet sand (that sand between
high and low tide)..during summer months...those coins are predominatly newly
lost coins which have endured very little movement.....and for all practical
purposes have not 'been to sea'....
The prevailing summer winds on NC beaches are out of the 'southwest'..these
winds do not 'blow the ocean level' back, as offshore winds may do...on say
..Gulf Shore or shallow-water beaches...instead, they result in a very direct
onshore wave action...which will take the 'outer bars' created by winter weather
and push them gently onto the beaches....bringing 'new sand'....with them...
and little else in the way of other materials.....Summer sand on the NC beaches
is very clean and usually void of many shells and other materials..
It is not until fall (late Sept.)...that more prevalent northeasterly winds
begin to blow.....resulting in higher tides...which begin to 'strip' the beach
of its 'summer sands'.....uncovering many of the deeper foot-trodden coins lost
during the summer..... sweeping many more of them out into the waters..
(how do they return?...we'll see later, below)
As a regular beach hunter....it is very easy to determine when the above
is occuring.....almost to the point where I can tell when the 'current
summer season's coins have disappeared.....and coins several 'seasons old'..
..begin to make their appearance!!.....aside from the obvious appearance/condition
of the coins themselves!!......It is when the summer beach
sand disappears that beach metal detecting is at its finest!!!!!!
You recall that I said above that I believe that very few coins either
'go to sea' or are 'returned from the sea'...during the summer months..
Of this factor......I am postively sure (in my mind, at least)....after
20+ years of trekking NC's beaches....
Now, using the two broader terms of describing beaches.... that being
'summer beaches'..and 'winter beaches'......what is occuring on NC's beaches
during the winter months?
Beginning in late September and running through mid to late April...NC's
beaches are going through a constant (sometimes almost daily)...stripping,
eroding, rebuilding......stripping, eroding, rebuilding...process....until
....around Jan. or Feb. the erosion process...has gained on the rebuilding...
which usually follows.....to the point where the beaches have reached their
lowest point of erosion. During March and April, the rebuilding cycles will
outgain the erosion cycles..until early May....when the summer beaches will
begin to rebuild. OK!!!!!...the trick to winter beach metal detecting....
simply is to catch the beach...during those prime winter months (Sept./April)
...when the erosion cycle is occuring!!...Simple enough.....watch the weather,
the wind direction, the times of the tides, the time of full moon (important!!),
WATCH THE BEACH!!
A beautifully eroded beach can be totally ruined by just one 'high tide'..
on a beautiful winter day!!.....one or two inches of new sand may be all it
takes to turn a 200+ coin day.....into total ZILCH HUNTING!!..."You should have
been here yesterday!"...applies to beach metal detecting, just like it does
to fishing!!
Enough rambling.....but one last point I want to make which very may well
intrigue a lessor student of beach metal detecting...and may
bring forth argument from some of the more serious ones.
I have dug coins on the beach during the winter months which, I know have
been to sea and back to the beach many, many times...before they
were finally recovered....modern coins which were worn, almost to the point
of being unidentifible.....yet vintage coins (1600's)...which looked as good
as the day they were lost!!!!!.......Why?......How do shipwreck coins find
their way to the beaches?......When do modern coins wash ashore?
Last first.....
Remember, I believe coins leave the beach and wash ashore, mainly during
winter months (in NC)....they leave the beach, obviously, when the storms
and heavy surf strip the beach of more than minute layers of sand...
More importanly, when do they come back????
I believe that (during winter months)...coins are being washed upon the
beaches at times WHEN THE BEACHES ARE ACTUALLY ERODING.....NOT REBUILDING..
...does this seem strange??....not really.....yes, the beach does go
through a small amount of rebuilding during winter months.. but while is
throwing new sand up on the beach...it IS NOT THROWING UP COINS...this
can be proven by the fact that, as I said earlier, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN
HERE YESTERDAY, REMEMBER??....after heavy erosion, during the winter,
when things settle down...the beach usually rebuilds, slowly until the
next storm...I never, I REPEAT, NEVER,....hunt the beach during this phase..
....because the coins simply are not there!!
How can coins be washed upon the beach when the beach is eroding?
Simple...These coins have been pushed into the deep trough which lays
close to shore during the winter months....they lay there for days, months.
...being tossed about and aggitated ....as if being in a washing machine..
At times when the ocean currents (and thats another story..because its
ocean currents more than wave action that erodes the beach)...are eroding
the beaches.....these coins are pushed to the very edge of the beach
drop offs....where they will be 'flipped up on the beach' AT THE CHANGING
OF THE TIDES, LOW TIDE TO HIGH TIDE,.....at times when erosion is actually
occuring.....It is at this time, on low tide,......when the the greatest
concentration of coins can be found washed ashore on the beach!!
I have hunted the beaches at these times when....it was tempting to just
lay the detector aside....and eyeball and pick up coins!!!!!....I am sure
others have, also. TO REPEAT AGAIN, DETECTABLE COINS ARE WASHED ASHORE ON
NC BEACHES, DURING THE WINTER MONTHS, IN EXTREMELY GREATER NUMBERS THAN
SUMMER MONTHS, AND ARE PUT THERE DURING PERIODS OF BEACH EROSI0N...NOT
BEACH REBUILDING!!...
OLDER, VINTAGE COINS, SHIPWRECK COINS.....
I am not an ocean salvor, scuba diver....or treasure hunter....in the
"Mel Fisher" sense of the word.....I have, however, found my fair share
of older, shipwreck coins along NC's Outer Banks....
I have noticed, of late, a newer theory emerging among some of the
Florida beach hunters....that many of the 'treasure coins' yet to be
found on Florida's Gold Coast....are not, yet to be washed ashore....but
are already there!!!!!!!.....laying beneath the high dunes....and below
the very sands which are trampled on, every day of the year!!!
I say, 'welcome to the club'!!
My hunting colleagues and myself..have determined some time ago...that
there are very, very few, if any,......ancient shipwreck coins 'washing
ashore' along NC's shorelines today...There may be, and no doubt are, many
ancient shipwreck coins laying beneath NC's oceans...But, if they have
found their way onto the beaches during these modern times.....I am not
aware of it...
We do, however, find a good number of 1600/1700/1800 coins on NC's Outer
Banks beaches......but, we find them after many, many hours of winter beach
hunting ...when we are able to find the areas where, obviously....shipwrecks
landed ON THE BEACH...in years gone by...
We have shipwrecks marked on the beaches....many of them to become uncovered..
..only every few years...and for only a day or two at a time....or perhaps just
a 'plank' or 'ship's spike'...popping up.....but they are there...you just have
to be there at the right time!!!!
To close that topic....I believe that 99% of all shipwreck or ancient coins
to be found on NC's beaches are already there.....and have been there for
hundreds of years...waiting for the right person to find them.....at the
appropriate time.....when the eroding beach...will let them appear...
In closing, I wouldn't trade NC's Outer Banks beaches for any that I am
aware of....even Florida's wonderful Treasure Coast!!!.....
Seaweed(Ray Midgett)Copyright
© 1997 obxsaltydog@charter.net
