There is a literal ton of gold on land, it's reserved for blind squirrels, lucky dogs, and in numbers for the extremely tenacious hardcore dialed in hunters...
I have found all of my gold in the wetsand at the low tide line...but I dont go in the water enough...something that is going to change very soon. I have found silver all over the place and junk rings all over the place. But you can find stuff anywhere. I found a working iphone in the dry sand just last week.
Wet sand from low tide to about 2 ft above the high tide line. Also on the wet sand where there is a fair amount of rocks and stones thrown up on the beach.
One beach I hunt I have found a number of rings in a particular 100ft. stretch of beach, could not figure out why. One day after a fairly strong wave action I noticed that stretch of beach was littered with small stones which the wave action threw up on the beach. I believe the rings are thrown up there as well and my finds would proof that to be the case.
Just my thoughts.