Beach Metal Detecting – Old Encrusted Coin

I was metal detecting a section of beach the other day that had been eroded and covered back up again. The finds were few and far between. It was cold and the wind was blowing hard.

I was not finding much of anything. The beach was covered in Sargasso Weed. If your not familiar with this stuff, it is really interesting. It gets blown ashore when the wind is blowing hard from the east. If you look at the Sargasso weed very closely you will find dozens of creatures inside some of which only live in that specific weed. It is a fascinating thing to examine. I have seen fish, shrimp, crabs, seahorses, sea slugs and some creatures that I can not identify and all of them were found in a chunk of weed that fit into both of my hands. This stuff comes from the Bermuda Triangle, actually it comes from a section of sea called the Sargasso Sea.  It is one huge gathering of this weed. Ready for this? It is 700 miles wide and 2000 miles long. Read more about it by clicking here.

Whenever I find this weed on the beach, It makes it hard to metal detect and the finds are usually few and far between. With the Sargasso weed also comes the Portuguese Manowar.  I would not want to step on one of these blue jellyfish. It does hurt.

While I was combing the beach and picking through the weed, I got a good signal and dug up this encrusted coin. At first look, I was a little excited. It is bigger than a quarter and it is covered with sand and shells. It looks too round to be anything very old. I do not think that it is anything of worth but I will clean it up and see what is underneath. If you think you know what it is let me know! Also someone emailed a picture of a nice big gold ring that was found recently. I will post it soon.