You & I share the same sort of hunting preferences, so we're the same kind of people! No war starting here.
First of all, here is a link to my post on this forum detailing my experiences with the X-Terra 50 at a local park & Santa Monica Beach:
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,228371,228371#msg-228371
It is the first post on this forum, a combo piece with Joe of South Jersey, and should answer many of your questions.
In a nutshell, I found the X-Terra to be just fine for the parks here in S. CA and easier/more fun to use than either my old Sovereign or my Explorer XS II. Once I got "re-used" to a concentric coil I was very comfortable and found coins just fine. As you stated, relic hunting may be king in the south but here in LA it's coin shooting/jewelry hunting. I did experiment with the all metal mode and would agree with the other field testers that it works great since it allows the user to ID targets with audio & the display. But for me, with all of the trash targets in the parks I hunt, all metal just isn't a logical way to go. I used discrimination pattern 1 and was very satisfied with it.
So I would whole heartedly recommend the X-Terra 50 for coin shooting parks.
BTW, I know where you're coming from about the beaches. It's tough not to go even when they suck (like now out here as well); sometimes you just want to scoop some sand. If you do get an X-Terra, you may want to give it a go at the beach when things get better. I did (refer to my field test) and was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.
Hope this helps. Any other questions, post 'em & I'll do my best to answer them.
Bill (S. CA)