kregh,
Most people find less jewlery on dry land than they do on beaches, but there is a simple reason for that: they use too much discrimination on land.
Let's face it, unless you are in the surf, beach hunting is easy. With a long handled sand scoop you can go all day bringing up most targets with ease. Most will discriminate out iron if they are not using a PI machine, and dig everything else.
Thats one of the reason beach hunts are more productive: detectorists dig more. The more you dig, the more you find, plain and simple.
If people applied the same theory to land hunting, the quality of their finds would increase dramatically, as would the amount of trash they dig. It goes hand in hand.
But retrieving targets on land tends to be tougher, with grass and tree roots and detecting restrictions and everything else getting in the way.
Most people choose to cherry pick on land, and that's fine, but they also have to accept the fact that they are leaving a lot of good targets, along with a lot of trash, in the ground.
The day someone can make a detector that can tell the difference between gold and foil and pulltabs, that day will be a game changer.
Until then, urban prospecting is going to be chore and you have to be dedicated to the quest to have any real success.
Or you can cherry pick and make a few good finds a year, if you're lucky.
Either way, choose your sites carefully and realistically.
Good luck to ya!
