Probability of finds when beach detecting

Admittedly, this is an almost amusing topic – and certainly an unusual one. Still, our observations from water and beach detecting may be informative and perhaps even useful for some of you.

Anyone who searches in the water, along the shore or on the beach will at some point ask: “Where can I find the most, and where are my chances of good finds highest?” Well, that is exactly what we keep asking ourselves on the beach, too …

We have named the shallow area along the shore or beach the “bottle-cap zone” (just about as far as you can throw a bottle cap into the water from the shore!). Detectorists usually do not like this zone very much, because it is where most of the rubbish is. Naturally you have to dig up more rubbish in the bottle-cap zone and, in proportion, make fewer good finds.

Over the years we have noticed that in the bottle-cap zone there is roughly 1 good find for every 10 pieces of rubbish dug up (bottle caps, foil …). Even so, that one good find is usually a big one, because in our experience most rings are lost in the bottle-cap zone! And the reason is quite logical: when bathers go into the water, they usually splash themselves with some water first to cool down – and at that very moment rings slip off their fingers, because the mostly cold water makes the fingers shrink slightly. Looking back, we have found most of our silver and gold rings in the bottle-cap zone. So the effort is worthwhile – and collecting rubbish (and any broken glass) brings good detecting karma anyway. Fortune usually rewards detectorists who behave fairly and properly on the beach, too.

In the swimming zone the ratio of good finds to rubbish improves considerably, simply because there is naturally less rubbish there. At most a child might drop some foil from an inflatable boat. In our experience you find something more often in the swimming zone, mainly coins and jewellery (chains, earrings …). Here the ratio is about 5 to 1.