coins in the sand

Yarns either are factual or "made up" and because there are many detectorists going to the beaches I thought my experience which happened in the 1950's might make a good,truthful yarn..
I was a member of a council gang working at building the sea walls at Redcliffe (Qld) which were concrete structures with steps and were based on piles.. Because the piles were to be encased in a concrete pipe that went down into solid clay an excavator dug a huge trench along the beach and piled the great heap of sand on the seaward side of the trench.
Of course when the tide came in it lapped that sand and leached it seaward.. During lunch break one member of the gang took a stroll along the beach and came back excited by the handful of coins he'd picked up..Now we all became prospectors and even used the council pump to further leach the heap when the tide was not so high . Lunch time was a ton o fun thereafter.
All this activity had us thinking to where in the sand was the most profitable spot.. Well it didn't take long to see that in the wall of the trench which we were trimming was a perhaps 1/4 or less rusty horizontal line which persistently ran about 18 inches below the surface of the beach. As we trimmed, great care was taken to get the coins and other objects from that line...
Besides coins there were hairpins, the odd bullet but no firearm and other small metal bric a bat..During the early twenties and the depression years those near city beaches were popular resulting in a real treasure trove. We all had pickle bottles full of coins of early vintage.. And detectors hadn't come on the scene at that time.. Whoopie was had by one and all...... noyungan

Great story noyungan! And what happened to your share of the loot these many years past?

As a tacker in the 60s I used to jump off that wall trying to fly.

Thanks for posting.

Noyangun,
Your story reminds me of earlier years but this time using a metal detector - Whites V'Sat.
Myself & two mates who worked on the same shift decided we would spend an hour or two after N/S testing out our then new detectors.
A small beach lined with lime stone near our work place was adjacent to a squatters holiday place from early 1900's, old shacks/caravans are still used to this day.
Well we hit the narrow beach after a storm had eroded it, not only did we detect, like you we specked numerous pre-decimal coins and other junk.
Also found what looked like a very valuable gold diamond studded ring, wrong. :-(
Somewhere in my shed there is a 300g coffee jar crammed with coins.

Hello detectist and nightjar,, great to read your posts.. The 'wag' of the gang who was the first to find a bullet was always on the lookout for a revolver which never came to light.. One of the richest spots was where a wooden boat ramp had been positioned from the landform down to on the sand which meant that a sheltered area existed under the ramp. Of course the excavator swept that out of the way for the works. Why did it appear coin rich moreso than other spots??? The general
consenses was that lovers would shelter there below the boat ramp and in the struggles(??) money etc would be lost...

Being young and with a growing family and unlike today's wages there came a need for a few extra bob,, so the pickle bottles were raided.. Cleaning the coins was a job at times especially the copper ones.. Tried various cleansers even brasso (is it still manufactured??) and coke cola...We eventually had eight kids and over the years they helped themselves to the bounty and cos we moved around a lot the coins are gone.. But they were fun...

A number of years ago a detectorist wrote an article in the G&T mag telling his exploits with his detector on the town beach at Redcliffe and recovered quite a few coins but he was at a loss to explain why it was so poor at Suttons beach where we built the sea wall... At the time I didn't have the heart to reveal our gang's prospecting foray in the 1950's..What a cad:lol: Good luck... noyungan

To add to my post I am now wondering if I should go to some popular beaches with a unobtrusive shovel and pretend to be building a sand castle and go deep to see if other beaches have that thin rusty line where all the goodies should be. After all,, neap and high tides have been washing for centuries the areas where people gather and that wave action puts the coins further down until a sort of equilibrium is met and consequently that thin rusty line is created.. Food for thought....All the best,,, noyungan