17 Comments

We'd find a lot of live ones in Florida. You'd feel them with your feet.

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Neat. I think I never saw a live one when I was little, but then again, memory holes are a thing.

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Being from the middle of the country, far from any ocean, the only place I would see a sand dollar was in a gift store, next to the geodes and conch shells.

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I take for granted how close I was to the ocean sometimes.

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Yep, we saw them on the West coast too. Usually broken, so it was a Big Deal to find a whole one. Never saw one that was alive.

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It was a big deal to find a whole one on the East coast too! A pristine sand dollar was a true treasure.

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Nice background on a common item I never thought about too much.

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That's my favorite sort of thing!

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That's why I like photography.

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I figured this was a metaphorical "earning money by selling sand" take. It's actually the first time I hear about "sand dollars" as animals. Pretty curious!

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They're called Sand Krone where you are. 😀👊🏼

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That would explain a lot!

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Every now and then I like to go deep, but sometimes I just wonder what a sand dollar is. Now I'm really into the way they move around down there! It's creepy and really neat.

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SoCal beaches had lots of treasures and for a time we would collect the shells but then we noticed they'd stink once we got them home so we'd leave them out in the sun to dry out before bringing them inside into our collections. Pismo Beach is famous for clams and my dad would see the bubbles and dig them up with his toes. My dad collected Abalone shells those are huge with alabaster and mother of pearl and a pattern of big holes. My mom would use them as ashtrays. Thanks for the inside scoop in the life of Sand Dollars, I always wondered and was similarly fascinated with them. Earlier this year we went to Drakes beach (named for Sir Francis Drake) and I collected a bunch of sand dollars and took pics. I don't take them home anymore.

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I wonder how different the shells on the west coast are vs east coast, US wise. I'm sure there are different species on each side, if nothing else!

Good trick about leaving the shells out in the Sun to get rid of odors. We slowly learned little bits of science as we were exploring!

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From my 1 stroll down a South Carolina beach they are pretty different. I brought some shells back for my kids on that trip because I'd never seen them before

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Sharing wonder with your kids keeps you young!

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