On the way home I called in at another beach and gave it a go despite the half a dozen other detectorists milling about. There was very little on the wet sand but on the way back to the car I detected along the shingle slopes which had obviously been bashed about by the recent storms. Judging by the holes at least 2 people had already been through but they hadn't done much of a job. I still managed to pull out a very respectable number of coins from between the holes despite using the 17 inch coil, which is hardly suited to sniping coins out from masses of heavily corroded scrap brass, copper and lead fragments. My final winkle of the day produced a very strange looking dull orange ring. When I first saw it down the hole it looked like junk but I already knew that it couldn't be because it didn't have any corrosion on it.
I had a closer inspection when I got home and the cause of the strange colour was hundreds of small scratches all over it so it had obviously been in the shingle for years. There are no hallmarks at all but it tests as 21 or 22 carat and weighs a very respectable 12.5 grams. Another half decent day then, dead easy this detecting lark!
besides, it’ll look much nicer on me than in your drawer. Please. 