Nearly every time I hunt North Florida's springs I come up with interesting bangles of every sort, like pieces of jewelry, bells, whistles, and everything in between. It is those gold rings that make hunting the springs worthwhile, like this wide wedding band pictured. Alas, it is only 10k gold but I will take it anyway.

There are more spring finds to come from this summer's hunting, so again, stay tuned. I'll have them posted soon.

No, I have not been posting my finds lately. Yes, I have been busy metal detecting though. Okay, so I will get busy and start posting my finds for the summer real soon. Here's three of them for starters. They came from one of the local springs here in North Central Florida, but I'm not saying which one. Do you think I'm crazy? Gold and diamonds: Gosh, I love them! Stay Tuned.

Had a little time before work this morning, so I stopped off at a wayside park on the main highway for a little diversion. In addition to the usual American coins, I found this unidentified coin. Seems I am finding more and more International coins lately. Anyone have any idea what it is, or where it came from?

Just before getting ready to leave the park I found this 14k gold earing. Total time spent hunting: thirty minutes . . . Remember, clicking on the image will give you a clearer, larger virsion!

While hunting a local elementary school yard I came upon this unusual looking coin about half the size of an American dime. And, though it is the same silver-looking type of coin, it came in as a nickel on my metal detector. I think the coin is from Norway but perhaps someone will let me know.

I always ponder at why I find so many foriegn coins in school yards, mostly from elementary school yards. You don't suppose the coin is another of those funny little keepsakes boys so often carry around? Remember, "snails and puppy-dog tails?"

With all that has been going on with my work I have not been able to work on this web site nor do much metal detecting lately. That will change, though, because my hectic schedule is now back to normal - that is - it is still hectic but at least now I can get out and swing the metal detector once in a while.

Of course I also found the usual domestic coins - roughly five dollars but not worth showing.

Finally got out for a little while. Did some hunting in an elementary school yard. Thought this was a bullet at first but it turned out to be a pendant. The token is another to add to my varied collection.

It is amazing what kids bring to school. I wonder what the teachers thought about that bullet hanging around his or her neck? Click on the image for an enlargement.

On the way home from work yesterday I decided to swing the thing for a little while. The park was just a mini-corner-neighborhood-park with one slide and one swing, and a very large garbage can. I hesitated to hunt there because of the potential for trash but thought, "Oh, what the heck!"

Look what popped up: a very nice bronz, art carved ring. First bronz ring ever. Yup, I also found a gazillion pull tabs, too.

It has been a couple weeks and I have been so busy that I have hardly been able to work on this web site until today. Those who are regular viewers, I apologize.

Anyway, while hunting a beach on the west coast of Florida several weeks ago, I came upon this Rolex watch. It is not every day that you find an $1,100 Rolex watch and I could not believe my eyes when unearthing it from several inches of sand. Of course, it was not working when I found it until realizing Rolex watches are kinetic (self winding). It did not work start working until I had handled it for a while. Obviously the watch had been buried for some time. Rolex watches are truly amazing because the minute hand has no ticks like most watches and is smooth in its rotation.

Along with the watch I also found this ten Peso Columbian coin with a handful of modern clad. So, you see, you can never tell what you are going to find. What a pleasant afternoon and I was only going to hunt for a few minutes while waiting for a luncheon date!

While puttering around in a school yard this afternoon I found this coin. It is about the size of an American quarter with about the same silver look. Anyone know where it came from?

Over the years I have found quite a few foreign coins in school yards. The kids must carry them like trophies and lose them with their other coins. I have some that to this day I do not know what country they came from.

Yesterday morning I felt the urge to visit with my eldest son so I cranked up my `ole Cessna and flew down to Miami where he lives. While there I decided to do a little metal detecting at one of the local kiddy parks. Amazing what you find in them. These sterling silver bracelets were all in different locations, and though four of them were alike, I do not think they all came from the same person. Found several dollars in modern coinage, too.

Today I finally got out and swung the metal detector at the local springs and again came up with another gold wedding band. Seems they are dominant ring finds in cold water. You know, El Shrinko with the fingers and off they come . . . Geez it felt good. It has been a while.

Along with the gold ring I also found this sterling silver cross pendant. The ring and the pendant were only a few feet apart, though, I doubt the same person lost them both. The rest of the swimming area only produced modern coins - enough to pay for the entry fee into the park.

Finally got out after a long haul of work. Didn't think I'd ever get out between the chores at home and the extra time put in on the job.

Shown are the two, uncleaned wedding bands I found at one of the local springs. The place was really crowded being it was Mother's Day.

This is what happens when you show someone how to hunt. I flew over to Panama Beach with a friend for a day of metal detecting. My friend had never hunted a beach before until today. Beginner's luck?

I didn't find anything but hotel keys and coins but I was very convincing that all the finds belonged to the person who provided the metal detectors and airplane to get there. Hah! Just kidding but I was rewarded with the rings anyway. Such friends I have!

I finally got a chance to clean up some of the coins I found in the Bahamas last weekend. Here are several that I have no idea what they are or where they came from. Any ideas?

I would suggest clicking on the images for larger viewing. The coins will show up in more detail.

The sand was so built up from the recent hurricane it was hard to find anything. The total of three days produced only twenty dollars in American coins and seven dollars in Bahamian. Usually, the Bahamas Islands give up a larger variety of coins because of their popularity among world tourists. Luckily I found a couple pieces of jewelry. Pictured to the right above, is a gold pendant and a silver wedding band.

I was going to fly over to St. Augustine this morning but the weather was so bad I changed my mind. The airport is so close to the beach you can walk there. Instead, I hunted for a short time at the local high school. I'll try for St. Augustine again tomorrow.

The high school is over a hundred years old and has been hunted to death, especially by me. Last week some workers took up a section of sidewalk to repair a pipline. Some of the sidewalks go way back. The section they pulled up must have been put down in the 1940's because every wheat penny I found under it was in the early to mid 1940's. I also found this copper looking tin with a hindge on it. The bottom half was missing. It has to be dated along with the wheat pennies. Anyone have any ideas what was in it?

The weather was terrible for flying so I drove over to the next small town and hunted the park there. I hadn't hunted it in over a year. The ring to the left was a surprise. I found it while walking across an open area in the middle of the park while simply heading to another place to hunt. You know, I think we all have walked somewhere with the detector coil close to the ground, not actually hunting. When the detector sounded off I stopped and dug the target. I'm glad I did because the ring, though not fancy, turned out to be 10k gold.

The two tokens to the right, I found near the swings in the park and are new to my collection. I especially like the Pokymon token. The Duds `n Suds token I have absolutely no clue about. Maybe someone can tell me where it came from and what it represents.

Next week if all goes well and it is warm, I will try my hand at hunting one of the many springs here in North Florida. As most of you know who follow this web site, the springs alway provide some of my best finds every year.

Got talked into flying to Cross City, Florida for breakfast this morning - ninety miles away from home. Unusual thing; the flying crowd I have been hanging out with, every Saturday morning meets at a different airport in Florida for breakfast.

The breakfast this morning was great (Western Omlet). Afterwards I went to the closest park and metal detected for a couple hours. Gosh, I love it. Came up with six dollars in change and this very nice .925 sterling silver ring with ten diamonds in it - a heafty little ring I will cherish for quite some time, or at least until the next ring find.

The weather here in North Florida is warming up good and I cannot wait to get back to the springs. This time, though, I will be able to fly to some of the further away springs that I could not make in a day's outing by car. Flying to TH'ing sites is the only way to go, believe me.

I had a little free time today so I took a run over to Cedar Key and hunted the little beach there. Lo and behold there was a ring waiting for me - not that great, but a ring never the less and hefty: .925 sterling.

Look out, because I will be covering some new territory. Flying, you see, opens up new possibilities to new places otherwise unattainable by car and I plan on spreading out.

Finally had some time to go metal detecting for a while. Most of my free time lately has been flying my airplane. Hunting a school yard for a couple hours felt good for a change.

I found these coins, all in different locations of a school yard. Two are English, one French, and one Canadian. Oh, yeah, and two tokens, too. Unusual. If I didn't know better I would have thought I was hunting the Bahamas Islands, what with all the different, international coins. I wonder where the kids got them?

Along with the imports I also found around four dollars in clads and memorial pennies--modern ones.

I was riding home from work this afternoon and thought to myself, "Self, you will never find any hidden treasure unless you swing your detector over it."

Yup, I was right. It had been a while, SO I stopped at one of my local sand boxes on the way home just before dark. I'm glad I did. Look what I found: a 10k gold filigree ring (baby). And a nifty silver wire wound butterfly. Yup, you'll never find a thing unless you go out there and swing your detetor over it.

I had just mounted a new meter on my Minelab Sovereign when I came across this unusual item. It is a homemade, lead cross pendant complete with a clear stone (possibly crystal) embedded in the center. Though not valuable, I thought I'd show this peice of jewelry anyway.

The real unusual part is that I was hunting at night when I found this cross in a local school yard. The meter is backlit on my detector and with a snake light around my neck - well, why hunt in the daytime when it is sweltering hot!

I did not plan on hunting today because there was just too much to do. On the way home from town, though, I passed one of those high school yard areas where all the students congregate around bench tables under large oak trees. The urge caused me to turn back and take out the detector. I only stayed there about forty-five minutes but that was enough to find the jingle bell bracelet. It is .925 SS but part of it is missing. I looked but could not find the other piece of chain. Oh well, I found most of it. Will this jewelry streak ever end???

Surprised myself today and found these two nice rings at one of the local springs. I only hunted for a few hours. Left to right: 10k gold with large onyx stone; .925 SS with a star saphire.

This has been an exceptional year at the local springs. Where these rings came from, produced 13 others this summer.

Today I went to one of the springs I hit two weeks ago. I thought, "What the heck? What do I have to lose?"

I'm glad I did because out came this 14k necklace and wedding band. The band was there a while by the evidence of its condition. Obviously it had been shuffled around in the sand for a few years as it looked as though it had been sand blasted, and even the gold symbol could not be seen from wear, my gold test kit confirmed it was 14k.

Today on a hunch I went back to one of the springs I hunted last week. There was a lot of people there then and I did not get to hunt a good grid pattern like I normally would. I got there first thing in the morning today before anyone had arrived and sure enough, another ring. A nice ring, too, 14k gold with two diamonds and a center garnet stone. I'm going to be depressed when this jewelry streak ends.

Every year just before school starts back, I always go to Miami to go fishing with my eldest son. This year we decided to fish Islamorada, an island in the Florida Keys.

We were only out about two miles when we spotted all the boats. They were anchored on a white sand bar. Hardly anyone was in their boats. They were all frolicking about in the two to three feet of water. Some were even sitting in lawn chairs in the water. Everyone was drinking some sort of alcoholic beverage.

I told my son we had to go back to the dock and he was puzzled until I took the detector out of the car. Yes, he knew I was going back to the people on the sand bar to hunt, especially when we had found out the gathering on the sand bar was an every weekend occurance.

Between socializing with everyone, I manage to find two chains--one small with a heart locket--and a large, heavy-duty one. I also found a silver friendship ring and one silver earring. Not a bad catch for a day of fishing.

I had only a few minutes before dark and had that `ole detector bug in me. I figured I could wash it out at the lake around the corner. In just a few minutes of swinging the detector before dark I came up with this 14k gold ankle bracelet. The jewelry just keeps right on coming. Hope the luck holds out.

Tomorrow I will be in Miami to hunt the beaches there for a couple days while visiting my eldest son. Hopefully the jewelry will still keep coming in . . . I hope!

Have you ever driven over one-hundred miles from home to a promissing beach to find hardly anything? Heck, you can always find more right at home in your own back yard. Well, that's what happened to me today. I drove almost one-hundred and twenty-five miles away to find a hunted out beach. I mean this beach was so hunted out I could not even find a pull tab. After five hours of hunting in and out of the water the only thing I came up with was this little silver earring and thirty-five cents. Hmmm.

After a while you would think one would learn, but there is always that lure of treasure. You know the booty is out there and you would drive to the ends of the earth to find it. But, not for a while for me. I think I will just stick around home for my hunting needs. Besides, summer is just about over and it is time for us teachers to head back to work. Ugh, don't remind me! Two more weeks before heading back to the salt mine. Geez, where did all the time go?

What do you do after returning from the Bahamas after hunting treasure? Well, you go to your nearest sand box and hunt for treasure again. Only, the treasure you find is not near as valuable because children's sand boxes just don't hold valuable jewelry. Never the less, the jewelry may it be cheap costume stuff, is just as exciting as the expensive jewelry from the islands.

Three silver rings, a silver necklace, and a gold reale; hey, where did that come from? Yup, fake.

I have been so busy as of late I hardly have had time to update this web site, but finally here are all the goodies up-to-date. The scene to the left is typical of the Bahamas Islands and typical of where me and my party of four hunted. Most all the jewelry was found in the water but not all.

In all, there were fourteen rings two watches three necklaces, three bracelets two pairs of sun glasses, two toe rings, 5 pendants, an assortment of toys, an assortment of foriegn coins, and two-hundred and twenty dollars in American coins. One of the necklaces, a twenty-seven inch, 14k gold chain, was appraised at $2,200.00. Not bad for six days of beach hunting.