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Jason in Enid
10-04-2010, 09:29 AM
And the weather SUCKED!! >:\

Tropical storm Nicole started over the Caymans. It actually started raining when we landed on Saturday, and rained off an on for the first 2 days. Then the weather turned bad. The wind and rain didn't really bother me, but it was driving the ocean into 10 foot seas. For those not familiar, 7 mile beach is normaly as calm as a lake and clear as a pool. Not with 10 foot surf!!! Now the first couple days (as the storm built) wasn't bad. The surf was moving at maybe 45 degree angle to the beach and you could watch it ripping the sand out. What made it even worse, was that as soon as the ripping stopped, it immediately started filling back in with fresh sand. The last couple days I found almost nothing.

I was able to find 5 rings, all those had been maybe 3 foot deep in sand until the storm (found next to the face wall of the beach). The bad part was that I couldn't get out into the heavy surf to the point where everything was being drug to. 2 of the rings are junk, 3 are sterling with one sterling pendant. My first ring put me through an emotional roller coster. When I first dug it I thought I found gold. Then I rubbed some of the crusties off and saw black so I figured it was plated junk. There was no marking inside. I almost through it away as junk. But I wanted to clean it up anyway. After getting it home yesterday I started cleaning it and found a very faint 925 stamp above the maker stamp. Maybe it was the heft of it that kept me hanging on to it. The other junkers were obvious copper or kids rings. Sorry, no pics yet, maybe tonight I will get some posted.

I was able to dig a lot of coins in my hunts. Sadly, Cayman coins have a steel core, so they don't last very long in an ocean enviroment. Besides Cayman currency I also found US, UK, Canadian, Mexican and German coins. The coins were mostly heavily corroded with a matix of black and sand. You saltwater hunters know what I'm talking about. A few were total losses, most most have cleaned up pretty well. I am running them through my tumbler with gravel and I'm down to the last ones that still need cleaning. I have 111 coins on the towel drying and maybe 20 more still in the tumbler.

I was sad that I didn't find any gold, but since I only got a couple hours of hunting each day for maybe 3 days, I think I did alright. I did a heck of a lot better than my local lake hunting, that's for sure!

RobW
10-04-2010, 10:00 AM
At least you were able to get out for a bit. I'm sure your wife wasn't complaining too bad. Kept you in the room with her on your 2nd honeymoon :kiss:... lol

Jason in Enid
10-04-2010, 10:22 AM
LOL, yeah there was plenty of room time on this trip. Even though the weather sucked, it was still a great trip!

coinnut
10-04-2010, 05:31 PM
The luck of the draw in the weather department. :ticked: Somehow I can't help wondering if the wife had something to do with the weather :thinkingabout: Let'see... let my man metal detect all vacation long, or plan on calling in some hurricane favors :devilish: lol Nice hunt considering all of the drawbacks!! Hope to see some of the foreign coins too.

Jason in Enid
10-04-2010, 08:42 PM
Hmmmmmm, never considered the wifey calling in hurrican favors. May have to check into that! lol

OK, here are the pics.
First is the large silver ring that I thought was gold plated junk initially
Second is a tiny silver ring. I am intrigued by this ring for some reason. It is soooo beat up, it must have been in the ocean a long time. How long? Who lost it? A local? A tourist? A poor woman's wedding ring? SO many questions lurking in that band of silver.
Third is a sterling toe ring. It was cracked when I dug it and broke during cleaning
Forth is a copper ring I dug. Cool ring. Don't know if it was ever plated or meant to be copper.
Fifth are the foriegn coins I dug
Sixth is an example of what many coins I dug looked like. I think most of them had been buried for quite a while.
Last is all the Cayman and American coins dug.

In total I found:
14 American cents
5 American nickels
15 American dimes
7 American quarters
39 Cayman cents
11 Cayman nickels
15 Cayman dimes
22 Cayman quarters
1 Mexican $10 Peso
1 Canadian $2 - I wish we had THOSE!!!
1 Canadian cent
1 Brit cent
1 German 50 pfenning
1 Carnival cruise ship game token

For a grand total of 134 coins not including a few that litteraly fell apart during cleaning.

coinnut
10-05-2010, 11:07 AM
Great pics!! Those coins encrusted in shells looks cool. I'd leave some of them that way. Looks like art work, with that mother of pearl look lol

SeabeeRon
10-05-2010, 07:45 PM
Sounds/looks like a great vacation! We have yet to get to the Caribbean, but it is on the list! Nice finds!! :loveit:

leslie(nova scotia)
10-12-2010, 04:49 AM
From the land of the Bluenose....bad luck for sure with the weather but a few silver must have enhanced your mood. Always next time sir.