On August 31st 2022 I had made a plan to have a bit of me time away from Erin and our son for a few hours to head off to a beach I havnt hit yet. Originally I wanted fo go to Toronto and check out the beaches area. I figure with so many people on the beaches in the big city there is bound to be bounty and buried treasures.

However as life usually ends up taking all kinds of twists and turns, this day was no different. I had made plans with my partner that I would like to take Wednesday August 31 to get away from the everyday family life grind and she could have Thursday. Then Friday we would do the shopping for Caspian’s birthday party which is on Saturday the 3rd of September.

So we were in agreement of this plan. So first things first. It was discussed that before I left for the day, the back yard garbage needed to be cleaned up. (No big deal) and then, the garbage needed to be taken to the dump. Ok well that was cutting into my plan to get away for the day, but nothing I couldn’t handle lol. So off to the dump around noon and back at 1pm.

As I filled my car with #metal detecting equipment I went back into the house to get the car keys when my phone rang. Against my better judgement, I answered the phone to find Erin was now telling me that she thinks. Caspian needed to go to the hospital to find out why he had a slight temperature a rash. Ok, well, back into the house I went, unloaded my gear, re-packed the car with Caspian’s belongings and all 3 of us set out for the Kingston hospital.

When we arrived we were told only 1 parent was allowed to enter and I was sent out of the building to await the consensus on what was happening with our son. I was getting a bit pissy with the situation, as if only 1 parent was allowed in?.

I could have been at Toronto, beach combing already lol. Anyway about 2 hours and both Erin,& Caspian came out of the front door . I now figured, “if I made it back home for 3” re-pack the car with gear, and tried to leave by 3:30, then there still may be some time for my 2 hour drive into the city to do a bit of dirt fishing? (Fingers crossed)

4pm rolled around and I was just leaving my house lol, to head out for my day away, & for a bit of ( ME ) time. Lol

Since it was so late in the day, I decided maybe Toronto beaches were a bit too far, so I decided on Cobourg Beach instead. It was about 45 minutes closer and would save me approximately 1.5 hours of driving for the day.

I arrived at Cobourg beach around 6pm (just in time to catch the day star (or Sun) starting to set) , it was lightly raining, people were just starting to leave the beach for the evening and I was able to scope out where the busy areas were just before prime hunting time.

Well almost immediately my nerves got the better of me, I still don’t like metal detecting around lots of people. So I drove to the other end of the beach (the quiet end) to start my hunt there.

Being that the east end didn’t have many people at all I got my gear and started the hunt. Before long the entire beach had emptied out and I had the place to myself.

After about an hour of searching, digging, and coming up with nothing more than a few metal scraps, and a few odds and ends The sun was just about gone. I needed to have a quick break and some water. I set my gear beside a lifeguard hut and took a 5-er.

As the sun disappeared, I was happy to have the new Minelab 540 if for no other reason but to have the option of a backlit screen in the dark. I didn’t know how much this option would come in handy especially because I tend to have a bit of stage fright when digging infront of people during the day.

Speaking of digging in front of people, I did have an audience eventually as I slowly crept westward towards the opposite end of the beach to where I began. I ended up directly infront of this trailer park which backs right onto the beach itself. Many of the occupants were sitting outside having a fire watching me swing my coil and slowly moving along the beach. Every once in a while I would stop, turn my headlamp on, dig for a minut or 2 , bend down, grab my item, fill my hole back up and turn my headlamp off again. To all the people watching from theirs trailers all they would see of me is when I turned my headlamp on. Then I would disappear again into the darkness until a few minutes later I would reappear in another location for a minute or 2 lol it would have been fun to watch if I were them.

During my search I came across several kids beach toys. Each of the items were strewn all over the beach. As I went along I gathered up the items and when I had enough I would leave a cash of sand toys for another child to find the next day. I found about 3 cashes of sand toys just like the one in the pic and I left them in 3 different spots on the beach.

It was getting late, about 9:45pm and I hadn’t really found anything of value yet, 3.5 hours of digging, so I started to make my way back towards the car. I knew it would take me a while so I let Erin know I was going to be later than expected. After I got off the phone I found 2 quarters and a Dime, it sure beat the trash I was finding, not that the beach was dirty by any means.

(“ Infact, to see my review of beach cleanliness, go to my blog at the following link)

https://swingingcoils.family.blog/2022/08/29/clean-vs-dirty-beaches/

Once I got back to the east end of the beach it was then 11:45pm and a person with a flashlight was walking in my direction. It was a local police officer coming to say hi and see if I had found anything good?

I informed the officer the night dig was pretty much a bust, he also explained to me that this beach is heavily detected, & it’s usually the same 4 guys that come and swath the beach weekly, which is why this beach is probably so clean.

The officer said he also enjoys swinging a coil once in a while and gave me some very helpful tips for the area. We chatted for a good 15-20 minutes and he informed me he was supposed to kick me off the beach after 11pm, apparently no one is allowed on the beach after 11pm, but if I wanted to stay he didn’t see the harm and he left me to continue doing what I wanted.

As it were, after 6 hours, it was now midnight, my arms were starting to hurt, it had been a long day and I still had about and hour and a half drive to get home. So I packed up my things went back to the car and headed home

The items I did find for the nights dig are as follows

So other than my $0.85 in coins, I ended with a lot of junk. Well, Take a closer look at this pile of junk.

There is something pretty interesting in this pile. Give up? ??? Ok it’s the Canadian Dime.

This Dime is a 1953 Dime. So this makes this specific dime my second oldest coin to date, but what, wait, there’s more. Canadian mint only started putting Queen Elizabeth on currency starting in 1953, “ no wait, there’s still more,” Dimes made from 1953-1967 weigh 23.33 grams with a diameter of 36 mm and have a composition of . 800 silver, and . 200 copper. Making this my first ever genuine silver find not to mention this dime was the first year the silver dimes were made.

This dime made my trip go from what I thought was a complete bust to a VERY successful outing indeed. It is also A very worthy item to be going into the treasure chest.

If you enjoyed this blog please comment in the comments section below cheers and happy hunting.