A great day at Daytona beach... or Silver in the Sand!!
One day in February of 2005, one of my hunting partners, Frankie Hansen, his dad and myself left Sebastian around 5am for the 2 hour trip to Daytona. I had heard a little silver coinage had been coming up. After a few donuts, we got parked and down to the beach about 8am. At that time I could only see 2 others detecting, that would soon change. It was cold and very windy. But we started finding clad as soon as we began swinging. I was using my Minelab Sovereign with a 10 inch coil. After about 15 min I had my 1st piece of silver, a 1952 silver Rosie. This was followed my a Mercury dime and a few wheat back pennies. I knew I was in a good spot. I was not working as close the water as everyone else. By 10am there was at least 10 hunters in the area. Everyone was finding silver. Then came the 1st big hit of the day.... 1934 Walking Liberty half. Well I had found my big silver for the day, I should just leave (kidding). But I kept finding coins, clad and silver for the next few minutes. The BOOM, out pooped another Walker...1935! Wow 2 silver halves in one day! That tied my record set back in 1998 while working an old school in Fort Pierce, Fl . I walked over to Frankie to show him my 2 silver Halves. He had just found a 1994 class ring up near the sea wall. He also had a white gold wedding band. You know I did not find any gold that entire day. After awhile, a few others wandered into the area we were hunting. They had found a few silver coins too. I showed them my 2 silver halves. He asked "where"? I said right in this general location. I walked away and down about 20 yards when BANG....yep you guessed it, another silver half dollar. This time a 1951 Franklin. Now I was really floating on air. Then I saw Frankie hold up a silver half too. If there was 4 halves between us, how many was being found that day? We continued to hunt all afternoon without a break, not even lunch. A total of 7 hours non-stop. I would go one to find 3 more silver halves that day for a total of 6! A record I'm sure I wont beat in this lifetime. We only left when the incoming tide was chasing us off the beach. Frankie’s dad also had 2 Walking Liberty halves. We ran into another club member who also had found 2 halves at another location. That was 11 known silver halves found in one day. No telling how many other were found by the dozen or so detectorist that had wandered into "our" area. I wanted to go back the next day, but they could not return. That night I called a few others, but still could not find anyone to go. I set my alarm to get up again at 5 am to go by myself. 5am came, the alarm went off, I said the heck with it, I'm staying home. I was tired. Around 8am I jumped out of bed thinking "what am I doing here?" There is silver to be found. If I left now I could still make low tide. I grabbed everything (so I thought) and hit the road. I was there in the parking lot at the beach by 10:30am. I stated to get ready and "oh no" where in my Sunray battery pack? I looked everywhere but could not find it. Crap, I must have left it still plugged into the charger back home. Luckily I had the AA battery pack and new package of batteries in the car. Whew! So I hit the beach, walking back to the same area I was before. I only worked about 4 hours. It was another cold and windy day. I was feeling a little worn down. I probably should have stayed home. Well I found more silver but no more halves or any gold jewelry. But I added to my silver totals. And I did find a cool skeleton key to add to my collection.
The best coin of the day??? A big
unknown silver coin about size of a US silver dollar. I had never found a silver
dollar before and I was hopping this was my 1st! But on the way home I could see
it was not. It did not have any reading on its edge like US silver dollars do.
Only some kind of letters. So I figured it must be a slot token.
Well my totals for the weekend? Well how about 6 silver haves, 4 walkers and 2
Franklins. 15 silver Washington quarters, 31 silver dimes, about a 50/50 mix of
Mercury and Roosevelt’s. Also a 1910 Barber dime, 4 Buffalo nickels, 3 silver
"war" nickels and a ton of clad and wheat back pennies
The bad part was I came down with
the flu on Sunday night and spent 3 days with 101 deg temperature.. 
So was it worth it? Well the 1st day sure was. Maybe I should not been so greedy and stayed home on Sunday (yea right).
Oh yes, that big silver coin you ask? Well after a little rinsing in water I could see what is was. A French 5 Francs silver coin. Date?? How about 1867 !!!!
How in the world did that get there? Oh well I hope you enjoyed the story and a few pictures. Happy hunting to all.
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