Crap. I haven’t lived near a beach for years. Now that I do, I’ve rediscovered my childhood obsession with collecting sand dollars.
I’ve gone so far as to look up the tide predictions and go out in the wee hours with a flashlight when no people are around to collect them before I can.
Is this normal? Do I need help?
I’ve not heard the term *sand dollar * before. Is it an American term? What are they?
Not if you’re going to the Outer Banks . Hardy har har.
Yes. No.
Only if you don’t share. I’ll trade a conch shell.
Silly? That depends on the exchange rate.
I like sand dollars. They’re really interesting. How are they made? Are they different all over the world? I’ve only ever been to the Atlantic side of the ocean, and the sand dollars were really nifty.
They are probably stronger against the Euro than the US Dollar
Where I live it’s illegal to remove sand dollars from the beach - SO many people do it, tourists, etc - they don’t realize that the creatures inside are still alive.
So you may want to check - I think one is cool but any more than that is unnecessary and perhaps illegal in your area too!?!
It should be pretty easy to tell the living ones from the white, dead, exoskeletons.
My google-fu is weak. I could find no reference to this practice being illegal. I did find the Monterey County Nude Beach Guide (link may be NSFW), but I don’t think it is related. 
If anyone has come across rules prohibiting my new favorite past-time, please let me know.
Thanks for that. I see what they are now. Why collect them though? What do you do with them once you’ve got them?
Have a… big bucket of sand dollars…
:dubious:
Frame them, give them to friends, whatever.
They are interesting to put in little displays and such, if you have really nice ones.
All right! And here I was wondering what I was going to be doing next weekend!
Maybe I could go to the nude beach and put sand dollars in the g-strings of sand-strippers?
Damn sand strippers. They are really gulls, the harlots of the beach.
As far as collections go, sand dollars are relatively harmless. You’re not bankrupting yourself to get 'em.
So, it might be silly, but it’s normal, and you don’t need help. (Unless you want help finding more sand dollars. 5 year olds do that kind of work real well.)
I think a big glass jar full of sand dollars would be pretty neat, actually. Why would it be silly?
They’re not all white. The ones around here are usually medium to light gray, I think depending on how long they’ve dried out in the sun. But the living ones are purple and have tiny little spines on them (which feel very weird when you pick them up to put them back in the water) so people who have even the slightest clue what they’re looking for should be able to tell the difference between living or dead. Or at least not associate a living one with a dead one if they have no idea what the living one is.
Collecting them isn’t crazy, but it might be futile. They’re extremely fragile, and I’ve yet to hit on a way to preserve them that doesn’t alter the color or texture. But maybe someone’s come up with a better way since I last hunted for them.
Another one here who doesn’t think it’s silly. Collecting things is fun!