SherpaJones
Junior Member
I decided to go on a beach hunt for the better part of the afternoon, and had some interesting finds. The ring made my heart skip for a moment, but I could tell right away by the lack of significant weight and the way the stones were set that it wasn't the real deal. Probably brass or copper.
The coins are interesting. The '68 dime was my first target of the hunt, ringing up loud and solid at about 5cm. It's the right year for silver, but unfortunately it's nickel. It's been down there for a while, by the look of the sandblasting it's endured. The quarter came up a little later on, after digging much trash, bottle caps, and some aluminum globs (I assume from beer cans melted in a fire.) They were all over the place. The quarter rang up nice and clear, and was nice to see the edge in the scoop. It is a '74, and has even more sandblasting and pitting than the dime.
The next coin I pulled was the '95. It surprisingly is the most beat up of all of them. I wonder what punched the holes in it? Does salt water eat away at nickel? And the last pull was the '72 nickel. It has some moderate pitting, but not as bad as the previous two. I'm glad to see some old coins coming out of this beach. You don't see these years in circulation much any more, so to find them, and evidence they have been there for a while, is a good sign IMO.
The other quarter and dime are more recent drops, I would say they probably haven't been there long. These are modern plated steel coins, so once the sand abrasion gets through the plating, they would be balls of rust in no time.
I dug lots of rusty nails, rusty wire, a few bottle caps, a pull tab, and like I said, a bunch of those aluminum globs. I was also thinking that the '95 dime and the nickel might have been melted in a fire. The '95 dime makes a noticeably different sound than the '68, and they are the same metal content.
The coins are interesting. The '68 dime was my first target of the hunt, ringing up loud and solid at about 5cm. It's the right year for silver, but unfortunately it's nickel. It's been down there for a while, by the look of the sandblasting it's endured. The quarter came up a little later on, after digging much trash, bottle caps, and some aluminum globs (I assume from beer cans melted in a fire.) They were all over the place. The quarter rang up nice and clear, and was nice to see the edge in the scoop. It is a '74, and has even more sandblasting and pitting than the dime.
The next coin I pulled was the '95. It surprisingly is the most beat up of all of them. I wonder what punched the holes in it? Does salt water eat away at nickel? And the last pull was the '72 nickel. It has some moderate pitting, but not as bad as the previous two. I'm glad to see some old coins coming out of this beach. You don't see these years in circulation much any more, so to find them, and evidence they have been there for a while, is a good sign IMO.
The other quarter and dime are more recent drops, I would say they probably haven't been there long. These are modern plated steel coins, so once the sand abrasion gets through the plating, they would be balls of rust in no time.
I dug lots of rusty nails, rusty wire, a few bottle caps, a pull tab, and like I said, a bunch of those aluminum globs. I was also thinking that the '95 dime and the nickel might have been melted in a fire. The '95 dime makes a noticeably different sound than the '68, and they are the same metal content.
