Treasure Hunting

Hey folks,

Check out this new group I created: Modern Day Treasure Hunters Group on BlogCatalog.com. I put it together early this morning and Rob over at DumpDiggers is my first member.

Here’s the link: Modern Day Treasure Hunters Group.

About the group: “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure! Modern-day pirates, thrift-shop junkies, estate-sale addicts, metal detector enthusiasts, history buffs, dirt diggers, treasure divers, beach combers, coin collectors and garage sale shoppers are ALL welcome here!

Modern day treasure hunters are, more often then not, metal detectorists. But treasure hunters of all kinds are welcome here! I hope to make some friends here and learn more about hobbies of all kinds while we dig life up!”

I think that all of us behind TreasureHunting.com want to bring our enthusiasm for metal detecting and treasure hunting into the new technology available today. The internet is a great place for reviews and forums, and we see our fellow treasure hunters using those every day, but there is SO much more we can do to create a sense of community.

This blog, the Modern Day Treasure Hunters Group, our Flickr Group… these are all the ways that we are trying to bring this hobby to a new generation and new technology. Please join our group, subscribe to our blog, leave us comments, and help us spread the word on this great hobby!

~ Liz ~

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A Spanish Civil War relic, believed to have dropped from a plan more than 70 years ago, has been discovered off the coast of Alicante, Spain. Measuring over 3ft long and 16 inches wide, this is not your average relic - It’s a bomb!

Spanish officials believe that it failed to detonate after being deployed from a plane during the Spanish Civil War that pitted an angry army against their government in the 1930’s. Encased in seabed growth, it may still be explosive. It was found by recreational divers and was left where it was found until Civil Guard divers are instructed on how to remove it.

So you’re probably thinking “Oh… this is in Spain… I’m safe from finding bombs in my backyard or on my beaches.”

Not so much.

Just one month ago workers in Orlando, FL discovered over 400 pounds of WWII era bombs next to a middle school. They even found an entire military tank buried underground near the campus. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that about 50 23lb bombs, several rockets, a rocket booster and a cannon were found buried near Odyssey Middle School since the initial discovery on December 27, 2007.

So what did they do with them? Amy workers came in and detonated the found explosives in pits, promising to meticulously scoop out the surrounding area and remove any other WWII relics they came across.

The more our country grows, the more schools we need and neighborhoods we build, the more we can expect to find things that were meant to be forgotten buried below us. If you’re out metal detecting and stumble upon something that looks like a bomb, please be careful. Take a cell phone on your hunts and contact the local police as soon as possible. But whatever you do, (and we know this will be hard), DON’T DIG IT UP!

But I’m curious. How many of you have stumbled upon some questionable ancient artillery? What did you do?

- Shaun

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I think that between the four of us working on this blog we’ve posted plenty of articles about the price of gold, but let’s talk about the effects this is having on America for a change.

Gold is now over $900.00 an ounce, which is the highest it’s been in decades. A drastic rise in gold’s value usually happens when the economy is slumping, as investors typically turn to gold during times of political and economic instability. The falling dollar, threat of a recession, political troubles in the Middle East and rising oil costs have raised the metal’s appeal as a safe investment. I don’t think it matters which side of the political fence you’re on - it’s clear as day that the economy ain’t what it used to be.

The result? Prospectors are heading north, and by north I mean Alaska. Right now the snow is still knee-high, but that doesn’t stop men from getting into river’s chest-deep of nearly freezing water to pan for gold.

Gold prospecting clubs have seen memberships spike, along with sales of pans, dredges, metal detectors and other small-scale mining equipment. This means that our favorite hobby has turned into more then a hobby for some - it will soon become a way to make a living.

This is a particularly sobering thought, especially for those of us that just want to get out there, have fun and enjoy the great out doors - making money just happens to be a side-effect, not a goal. In fact, most hobbyist treasure hunters keep their finds.

What are your thoughts on this news? Would you pick up and leave to start prospecting gold in the undeveloped and cold country that is Alaska? How do you feel about people taking our hobby and turning it into a career? Is finding gold for a living worth the toll it will take on your body?

Currently there are about 150 families in Alaska that live off of the gold they find - despite the unpredictable and taxing way of life this is. And while the current interest in gold prospecting hasn’t reached the level of the famous 19th-century gold rushes in California, Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory, there is still a significant amount of people trying their hand at finding gold.

Here’s the link to Gold Prospectors Association of America’s website which as a lot of useful information on it for gold prospectors. I also dug up the Wikipedia page on Gold Mining in Alaska, which is a great history lesson.

Happy Hunting Everyone,

Adam in St. Cloud, Florida

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You can imagine my surprise as I’m cruising the internet this weekend, looking for something good to share with you folks, when I stumble upon a story about a 200 pound gold coin. First of all, gold prices are outrageous so who has the wherewithal to make a 200 pound coin out of the stuff? Second, imagine the sound that would make in your headphones! And third, can you imagine digging that thing up? It would probably take an entire team!

Thankfully (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) no one will be digging this coin up any time soon. The Times of India is reporting that this is the largest gold coin in the world, and I certainly won’t argue with them! It weighs in at 200 pounds and is approximately 50cm in diameter. It has a maple leaf on one side and an image of Queen Elizabeth II on the other. The Canadian mint is reporting a limited number of these coins will be available on special order while this one is on display in Abu Dhabi.

So how much is it worth? Well the face value of it is about $1 million - Good luck trying to cash that in at the gas station. As for actually purchasing the coin, it will cost about $2.4 million because of the current market value of gold. So all in all, it’s not a bad investment.

Let’s just hope that some rich millionaire invests in 20 of them and drops one on the way home.

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Well folks, this isn’t just a rumor any more. Fisher is going to release the F5 and F70 sometime in March. More importantly: JUST in time for Spring. I dug up some spec sheets on them and they look well-planned and thought out, as most of Fisher’s products do. But it appears that the F70 will be a less-pricey answer to their F75. Either way, we can’t wait until these come out.

Kellyco Metal Detectors is taking pre-orders for both of them now. Check out the F70 here for $649.00 and the F5 here for $499.00.

Enjoy these spec sheets - Just click to enlarge!

Shaun

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. . .you need this one. Hopefully you folks will find this video as hilarious as I did. It’s amazing the things that turn up when you search for “metal detectors” on YouTube.com! Enjoy!

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I heard about this book earlier this week and thought it might be fun to share with you folks. “Black Man Under the Deep Blue Sea…” is a memoir written by Tony Wells, a commercial diver who’s traveled the world looking for sunken treasure.

During his career, Wells survived plenty of dangerous excitement, including two near-drownings, a deadly diving disease, illegal imprisonment and several treasure hunts for sunken gold. His memoir is written in a friendly, unassuming tone in which he happily recounts deep sea adventures and the wisdom they granted him across 19 countries.

“My message is that no matter what race or gender you are, don’t let ignorant or jealous people put you down or tell you what you ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ do,” Wells says. “Anything is possible, so if you want to do something, just go out and do it.”

Tony Wells resides in Saint Petersburg, Florida. He is also the author of “Shipwrecks & Sunken Treasure in Southeast Asia.” He has participated in several treasure hunts, most notably a two-year search for a 500-year-old Portuguese ship. It was during another treasure hunt that Wells and a friend found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and were illegally detained by some corrupt policemen in Indonesia until a hefty bribe freed them from jail.

For an authentic read, full of truly exotic adventure, plenty of nail-biting suspense and honest humor, look no farther than “Black Man under the Deep Blue Sea” to take you into incredible excitement, far beyond the realms of ordinary life.

Check out “Black Man Under the Deep Blue Sea: Memoirs of a Black Commercial Diver in Southeast Asia” on Amazon for only $19.99 - ISBN# 9781424174225.

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That’s right. I said it. A gold, U.S. coin worth up to $15 million has been discovered by an Egyptian couple as they cleaned out their apartment.

It’s okay. Jealousy is a perfectly natural emotion and nobody will judge you here.

So what coin was it, you ask? Well it’s a rare double eagle gold coin. First minted in 1850 and used to settle accounts between banks and other financial institutions, it is almost unheard of for one of these coins to be unearthed now-a-days. But alas, the Egyptian couple was cleaning out their apartment and discovered an old box that had once belonged to the husbands grandfather. Mohamed Ismail and his wife Fatima were throwing out old clothes and broken furniture that had been stored in a closet when they stumbled upon the box.

The first thing Ismail did was send the coin to experts, hoping that he would get a few dollars for it. He’s a simple tailor and the extra cash would have really helped the family. You can imagine his shock when the experts told him that his grandfather had left him a “unique coin of American historical value.”

Specialists believe that the double eagle coin found in Egypt could be part of Theodore Roosevelt’s 1933 collection of coins redesigned by famed American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and given to King Farouk of Egypt as a present.

How his grandfather got it, nobody knows. But one thing is for sure - I’ll be cleaning out my closets tonight!

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A new movie staring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey is coming out this Friday (2/8/08) and it’s about one of my favorite things in the world - TREASURE HUNTING!

This movie looks like a hybrid of romantic-comedy meets treasure-adventure, and actually seems pretty good. Director Andy Tennant says “It’s an adventure comedy. It’s like ‘Romancing the Stone’ or even ‘North by Northwest.’ When I started witting I felt that, yes, this was about a married couple on the brink of divorce who go on one last adventure, which ultimately leads to them rekindling their marriage. But what I also took from it was that financial pressure can ruin a marriage. And that it didn’t matter whether you were treasure hunters or an accountant.”

The treasure hunt starts out as a search for legendary Spanish treasure lost in the Florida Keys (Who hasn’t dreamed of beautiful Spanish gold?). When the couple teams up with a millionaire and his daughter they hash out their treasure search in yachts, bars, underwater, in a cemetery, on an airplane and at gunpoint. Sounds like the kind of treasure hunt I’d rather watch than participate in, so count me in for a movie on Friday night!

Let me know if you guys end up going to see it and whether or not you like it!

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In case you haven’t noticed, the price of gold is skyrocketing. There are many reasons for this, all of which are too long to discuss in this blog, but there’s no denying it - Gold is going up, up, up! And the more us detectorists find, well, the sooner our machines are paid for!

So it’s no surprise that a question I’ve gotten a lot lately is: “Do I need a detector specifically made to find gold?”

The answer: “Yes, if you’re looking for gold nuggets. Not necessarily if you’re just looking for gold jewelry.”

First, you’ve got to understand the difference between your regular metal detector and one that’s made to search for gold - Don’t worry, it’s easy.

You see, gold detectors like the Garrett Scorpion Gold Stinger, the Minelab Eureka Gold or the Fisher Gold Bug II are made specifically to find natural gold - That is, gold nuggets, completely untouched or changed by man. They’re optimized to be more sensitive to natural gold and traditionally have much higher frequencies.

For example, the Minelab Eureka Gold metal detector features three frequencies for you to work on. The 6.4 kHz frequency is for locating targets at their maximum depth, it goes deeper to find the larger nuggets. The 20 kHz frequency is more sensitive, perfect for finding small nuggets and general detecting. Finally there is a 60 kHz frequency which detects the smallest gold flake with super sensitivity.

In addition to higher frequencies, gold-specific detectors also have better ground balancing circuits and special coils that are optimized for the highly-mineralized soil that is predominate where gold nuggets lie (think of ‘black sand’). For example: The Garrett Scorpion Gold Stinger features 15kHz ‘Groundhog’ circuitry which gives you the power to detect treasure within heavily mineralized soil and sample ore as well as those dreaded ‘hot rocks.’ And when you’re looking for pure gold nuggets, a more sophisticated circuitry is crucial.

So what about your regular, all-purpose metal detector? Well, there’s good news!

Coin detectors can pick up gold jewelry because it has a much greater mass then gold nuggets. Gold jewelry is also easy for all-purpose metal detectors to pick up because of the other metals that are used to make a specific piece. And while just about any machine will pick up gold jewelry, some of the higher priced models will have twice the sensitivity for gold jewelry - the Minelab X-Terra series, Explorer series and Fisher’s F-75 and F-4 are just a few off the top of my head that are excellent for finding gold jewelry. The Garrett GTI 2500 and GTP 1350 are also well-known for their gold jewelry capabilities.

Meanwhile, if you have a submersible machine like the Minelab Excalibur series, Garrett’s Sea Hunter Mark II or Infinium LS, you’re even better off. These machines are made to balance through salt water and highly mineralized ground, so they’re highly effective at finding gold jewelry.

So the moral of this story: Gold prices are going up and chances are your all-purpose metal detector will find all the gold jewelry you could want! But your best bet is getting an all-purpose machine that costs around $350.00 or up. Check out our sponsors for more information on specific metal detectors and get ready to cash in your gold!

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