. ** My lost Gold Ring Theory **
- Thread starter meggie
- Start date
dirtydog
Forum Supporter
What in the world are you doing hunting with all those ugly men?
If your not going to find anything at least take a pretty gal and sneak a kiss once in a while. Man your too young.
Now lets go hunting.
Gold Digger 2
Elite Member
Meggie, that's great looking stuff,,,,,,I remember that beautiful diamond ring,,,,,,as for your theory,,,,,I don't care what anyone says,,,,,hunted out or not, there are so many rings that due to tide, waves, soft sand, etc. that them babies sink beyond detecting range so quickly that the build up is and always will be there,,,,,most not all, will reappear in detecting range at some point,,,,it takes, time, effort, skill, reading a beach, etc. to know when and where the gold will be,,,,,of course, some luck helps too,,,,,,
GL HH
GL HH
Ice Scratcher
Elite Member
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- 18,347
I've found a lot of gold from that exact era, dropped by swimmers everywhere...
Merry Christmas!
<°)))>{
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gismapper
Senior Member
Location, location, location...
And to throw in another variable...
I'm convinced that the relative affluence/cultural norms of an area help determine what gets lost and how much of it.
Skippy, I work and live in an area that I'm guessing is about 1/3 the population of your area. It's somewhere around 30k people. I've hammered the most heavily used parks (even using your own methods that you've described), hunting over lunch - a good 5 hours per week when it's not raining and the ground isn't frozen. I've found exactly two gold rings - a class ring and a nugget ring...in 10 years. I've come up with a few other gold medallions and chains and such, and 4 or 5 silver items per year. Much more silver than gold.
I just don't think the people who are out and about around here are wearing enough gold rings to lose. I mean...in ten years...the mountain of pull tabs I've dug...not one wedding band. It boggles my mind when I see your totals. Are you *sure* there's nothing special about the jewelry-wearing preferences where you live? Or maybe the folks in your area are just more careless or clumsy?
The gold chains/medallions (and the nugget ring) that i have found have mostly been in areas with a higher Hispanic or Indian (as in India) population. I remember Digger27 talking about the same sort of trend. Maybe it's a regional or demographic thing?
Anyway, I'd love to have you come here sometime and see if I'm just doing something wrong or what. But then i wouldnt be able to live with myself if you start pulling gold rings out of thin air. I could be up against competition in the area, but I hunt over lunch...never saw another detector in 10 years. I really wouldn't know tho.
I've found enough silver. I keep telling myself that gold is just as easy to lose as silver. Maybe it isn't?
Sorry for the rant.
And to throw in another variable...
I'm convinced that the relative affluence/cultural norms of an area help determine what gets lost and how much of it.
Skippy, I work and live in an area that I'm guessing is about 1/3 the population of your area. It's somewhere around 30k people. I've hammered the most heavily used parks (even using your own methods that you've described), hunting over lunch - a good 5 hours per week when it's not raining and the ground isn't frozen. I've found exactly two gold rings - a class ring and a nugget ring...in 10 years. I've come up with a few other gold medallions and chains and such, and 4 or 5 silver items per year. Much more silver than gold.
I just don't think the people who are out and about around here are wearing enough gold rings to lose. I mean...in ten years...the mountain of pull tabs I've dug...not one wedding band. It boggles my mind when I see your totals. Are you *sure* there's nothing special about the jewelry-wearing preferences where you live? Or maybe the folks in your area are just more careless or clumsy?
The gold chains/medallions (and the nugget ring) that i have found have mostly been in areas with a higher Hispanic or Indian (as in India) population. I remember Digger27 talking about the same sort of trend. Maybe it's a regional or demographic thing?
Anyway, I'd love to have you come here sometime and see if I'm just doing something wrong or what. But then i wouldnt be able to live with myself if you start pulling gold rings out of thin air.
I could be up against competition in the area, but I hunt over lunch...never saw another detector in 10 years. I really wouldn't know tho. I've found enough silver. I keep telling myself that gold is just as easy to lose as silver. Maybe it isn't?
Sorry for the rant.
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schmitzplumbing
Forum Supporter
I talked to a guy at 1 of MY BEACHES he has been detecting 7 of the local MY BEACHES for 30 years. all off the beaten path. he would detect them once a year and average 30 rings per beach. 5 years ago, lucky to get 30 total. I am guessing more detectorists, not less drops. I am one of the reasons he found less.
he has been detecting 7 of the local MY BEACHES for 30 years. all off the beaten path. he would detect them once a year and average 30 rings per beach. 5 years ago, lucky to get 30 total. I am guessing more detectorists, not less drops. I am one of the reasons he found less.
I was very lucky this past year in Florida, right place - right time.
Three one-hour hunts in Naples and I found one gold ring.
This was with the Gofind in the dry sand...
Three one-hour hunts in Naples and I found one gold ring.
This was with the Gofind in the dry sand...
Tom_in_CA
Elite Member
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I too have found some exceptions. Even gold rings from relicky ghost town sites. A fat gold ring found @ a picnic site which ceased usage in 1925, etc...
But if you take the decades of, say ... .1900 to 1910, versus the decade of 1970 to 1980 (before the price of gold caused people to start switching to tungsten, etc...), I think that the beach ratio of gold rings to coins, would be better in the decade of the 1970s, versus the decade of the 1900's.
This, of course, takes out the factor of aluminum. There was no foil or tabs in the decade of the 1900's and 10's, etc... But if we're talking storm erosion, where no light stuff is left anyhow (mother nature leaves only the heavy stuff): Then you're better gold ratio would be the 1970s, IMHO.
Skippy SH13
Forum Supporter
And to throw in another variable...
I'm convinced that the relative affluence/cultural norms of an area help determine what gets lost and how much of it.
Skippy, I work and live in an area that I'm guessing is about 1/3 the population of your area. It's somewhere around 30k people. I've hammered the most heavily used parks (even using your own methods that you've described), hunting over lunch - a good 5 hours per week when it's not raining and the ground isn't frozen. I've found exactly two gold rings - a class ring and a nugget ring...in 10 years. I've come up with a few other gold medallions and chains and such, and 4 or 5 silver items per year. Much more silver than gold.
I just don't think the people who are out and about around here are wearing enough gold rings to lose. I mean...in ten years...the mountain of pull tabs I've dug...not one wedding band. It boggles my mind when I see your totals. Are you *sure* there's nothing special about the jewelry-wearing preferences where you live? Or maybe the folks in your area are just more careless or clumsy?
The gold chains/medallions (and the nugget ring) that i have found have mostly been in areas with a higher Hispanic or Indian (as in India) population. I remember Digger27 talking about the same sort of trend. Maybe it's a regional or demographic thing?
Anyway, I'd love to have you come here sometime and see if I'm just doing something wrong or what. But then i wouldnt be able to live with myself if you start pulling gold rings out of thin air.
Sorry for the rant.
Personally, I think most of the losses are at the sports parks due to one of two conditions. 1) removal for "safe-keeping" ESPECIALLY when greasing up kids with suntan lotion (this is where I find most of my women's rings). If your small town doesn't have any water fountains in the parks where kids get into their swimsuits and get wet, then you're going to have a huge drop in the number of rings that fit into this area. My city, and surrounding towns have about a half-dozen.
Second is the fact that when it get's cold here, it's often BITTER cold in the morning, but heats up quickly, or vice-versa. Low humidity does that. In the fall, there can easily be a 40-degree swing in the temps between daytime and dusk/morning. This means that when people show up for soccer practice at 6pm, it's "decent" out, and then all of a sudden the temps drop 25 degrees over the course of 2 hours. People's hands SHRINK. They lose rings from that in lots of the neighborhood parks, and schools.
You may be onto something, though, around jewelry wearing, too. I live in a high density area of "new" housing, meaning many of the people here are recently married starting off a family. We all know that weights fluctuate pretty much all the time in the first 10 years of marriage (pregnancies, bigger sizes from food, LOL). People get different rings as a result, and often I don't think they're sized to not fall off.
Another thing that makes me think that there's a large population of jewelry wearers is the high schools. One of the high schools here was only 8 years old, and I'd spoken to another detectorist, and he told me the previous week, he'd pulled FIVE gold rings out of the practice fields, there. Said he worked it pretty good, but was sure there was more rings in it. I went back and hard gridded it and found another 7. this year, I pulled a gold out of the back soccer field. That says something about what the students are wearing, I think...
class rings, though, I've only found big gold ones in the surrounding RURAL communities. They're not popular in the city at all. Demographics definitely play a part...
That being said, if your full community is 30,000 people (and it's basically a whole city unto itself), that's probably a very different demographic than a city of 80,000 people all packed into nothing more than subdivisions. The industry/work is in nearby cities... All those citizens here live, and play here, but not many work here (other than the standard service industry dentists, etc...).
Glad to hear you've pulled a few golds out...
Cheers!
Skippy
Skippy SH13
Forum Supporter
While the ratio might have been better, the VOLUME would not be. The population of the US has grown by 120 million people, additionally, it's the tourists that lose the most stuff. I would think tourism has skyrocketed in many places, compared to what it was in the 1970's, too.
romyrome
Elite Member
My wife says all rings are on the beach because they've been thrown there by jilted / jealous girlfriends, lovers, wives etc. She's not the only female to have said that to me, who am I to argue
I swear that is there mentality cause i cant tell you how many women have said those very same words to me in regards of how they got lost on the beach hahhahaha
might need to think about that 
there may be a small amount being deposited this way too 
Slimpickuns
Forum Supporter
Never tell me the odds.....
On a side note, I think we would all have more gold/silver/plat if it wasn't for those pesky junk metals, Ti, Tungsten, Stainless Steel..
On a side note, I think we would all have more gold/silver/plat if it wasn't for those pesky junk metals, Ti, Tungsten, Stainless Steel..
never tell me the odds.....
Agree!!!
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Tom_in_CA
Elite Member
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Skippy, great post. You're right about the ladies who take off their rings for "safe-keeping", before applying suntan lotion. They don't want to get their ring "slimed". I just did a posse-search for a lady, who'd lost her diamond wedding ring this way: She went to put lotion on her 4 and 5 yr. old kids. But took the ring off first to do so. Put the ring on their beach chair. Then forgot . When their beach day was over, they picked up their beach blanket and chairs and left. Drove an hour, before realizing her loss. They drove the hour BACK to the beach and frantically combed the sand with their fingers, where they'd been sitting. To no avail (dry sand "swallows" a dense metal small item like that).
Your post made me realize this isn't an isolated story. Ironically people take jewelry off "for safe keeping" before playing sports, or going in the water for a swim, etc... When in fact , that makes it NOT "safe", eh ? haha
SirFrancesDrake
Forum Supporter
"Say 12 gold rings are lost at a single beach each year (conservative estimate)that would amount to 1200 rings over the past 100 years.
Multiply that by say 10 beaches ,that's jumped now to 12000 rings .. What if it was double that amount or even more?"
Pretty hard to say. Over the last hundred years the availability and attainability of gold has changed quite a bit. The population has changed quite a bit and the number of beach goers has changed quite a bit. I expect the amount of gold deposited on any beach is less linear than you propose, and more exponential looking. So that bodes well for us.
If you just want to find gold, regardless of age/historical significance - I think the best places would be a small-in-area beaches that are frequently visited by many people and have a multi-year sustained popularity.
Multiply that by say 10 beaches ,that's jumped now to 12000 rings .. What if it was double that amount or even more?"
Pretty hard to say. Over the last hundred years the availability and attainability of gold has changed quite a bit. The population has changed quite a bit and the number of beach goers has changed quite a bit. I expect the amount of gold deposited on any beach is less linear than you propose, and more exponential looking. So that bodes well for us.
If you just want to find gold, regardless of age/historical significance - I think the best places would be a small-in-area beaches that are frequently visited by many people and have a multi-year sustained popularity.
Cherry Picker
Forum Supporter
A biggie for me. We now have two beef packing plants which has caused out Hispanic population to explode. Hispanic is now the majority in our city by far. Hispanics tend to wear much more gold and thus lose a lot more than average. The population of our city is around 28,000 and I've got one single grade school I have myself pulled over 80 rings from. My hunting buddy has probably pulled close to the same. Our weekend hunt of the local tot lots will almost 100% of the time yield at least 1-2 rings or gold pendants. that is out of 7 tot lots we hunt every Sunday.
Tom_in_CA
Elite Member
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Detector, your post hit home with me. Where I'm at, on the central coast CA, is heavily agriculture (leaf vegetables). And ever since WWII , when all the locals went off to fight the war (so the plea went out for emigrant labor): We too became the melting pot for Hispanic emigrants.
And yes: That same cultural statistic rumors through-out the md'ing rumor-mill. That they (culturally) tend to wear more gold. You know, like to give the quinceañera recipient a gold ring. Or for the men to wear the gold chain with the saint dangling, etc..... And yes: I know some persons who hunt those demographic areas/beaches FOR JUST THAT REASON.
But conversely (if we're talking cultural demographics here): There is a noticeable trend that they love to use aluminum foil. Doh! So whereas we wrap our sandwiches in plastic sandwich baggies, they wrap in foil. I've even see how they wrap a soda can (like a wife packing the work lunch for the husband) with aluminum foil ! (as if that will insulate and keep it cold ?)
So I guess cultural habits can be a double edged sword
Skippy SH13
Forum Supporter
Oh, I totally agree. I also hear lots of people who lose rings (they tell me stories, when they see I have a detector), who have lost them because they put them their THUMB, for safekeeping, thinking that the extra pressure of the thicker finger would help keep it on. Then when they go to the water, or start playing, it pops off. Lots of ladies do this with their husbands rings... It's amazing how common that story is.
Safest place for jewelry is in the jockey box of your car, or at home, when you go somewhere. If not, then the odds just go up for detectorists.
Skippy
metaladdict
Elite Member
Depends on how many people went to a beach over the years and temp of the water and how many wear gold plus blahblah
FBAImder
New Member
I've thought about this before and still believe there are more in the sand than we'll ever find. I get calls almost weekly from a local resort property about someone losing a ring and would I drive over to help. I've recovered several within hours of being lost. I'm sure some were picked up by sight find from other beach goers. When I'm just walking the beach with the Infinium, I'm always finding missed targets from other md'ers I see that are on the beach. Not all are bling but I know their disc isn't that good.
