Treasure Hunting

We just realized that one of our sponsors, Kellyco, hosts a couple of other services for metal detectorists. Check these out when you get a chance!

HowMetalDetectorsWork.com: Created with metal detectorists in mind, this website features articles on Electro Magnetic Field Generation, the history of metal detectors, a buyers guide and field test reports. It’s an excellent resource - bookmark it and go back often.

MetalDetectorManuals.com: This site provides manuals for anyone to download or view with Adobe Acrobat - For FREE! This is a great site to reference if you don’t want to flip through the pages of your manual; just “Ctrl+F” and search for the term you need to know about! Manuals for Garrett, Minelab, Bounty Hunter, Detector Pro, Fisher, Cobra, Lorenz, OKM, Predator, Viper, White’s and MP series are all there.

Enjoy these websites folks. Hope you find them as useful as we do.

- Shaun

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It looks like others are catching on to our favorite hobby. With the price of gold and other metals increasing to the highest levels ever recorded, it should come as no surprise. But what is a surprise is the amount of media attention metal detecting is suddenly getting.

I found an article in Smart Money Magazine Online titled “Welcome to the World of Metal Detecting.” It’s two pages long and features a quote by our sponsor Kellyco Metal Detector’s founder and CEO, Stuart Auerbach: “Stuart Auerbach, founder of Kellyco, the nation’s largest metal-detector store, with $15million in revenue, estimates a 50% increase since 2002″ [in metal detector sales].

The article goes on to describe some of the hard-core treasure hunters who “who drive to the shore in hurricanes just for the chance to hunt a beach swept clear of the top layer of sand — they tether themselves to their cars when the wind blows hard.”

It also mentions a popular hunt we’ve heard a lot about - DIV (Diggin’ in Virginia): “Relic hunters who specialize in historic sites attend national gatherings like the annual sellout “Diggin’ in Virginia” convention, where hundreds spend the weekend combing a rented field for Civil War artifacts; teams sponsored by detector manufacturers compete to uncover the most eye-popping finds and win cash prizes.”

Perhaps most interesting is that, while the author of this article is no metal detectorist, she knows of the on-going feud between archaeologists and metal detectorists.

“While most detectorists say they dig on private property only with the owner’s permission, some accuse them of messing with historic areas and pocketing materials that belong in museums; some towns have passed laws banning the use of metal detectors on public property.”

This is a common disagreement between the two groups and one I encourage us to overcome by documenting our finds and sharing them with local museums whenever possible.

Check out the entire article at SmartMoney.com and get ready to share your hobby with a lot of other folks! It looks like the rest of the world is finally catching on to ours!

- Shaun

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We’ve known about this contest for a couple of weeks now, but we just got clearance to post about it here, on TreasureHunting.com.

Kellyco is hosting a “Raves & Reviews” Contest to win up to 10 prizes! And yes, you can enter more than once!

The Grand Prize winner will receive a White’s DFX E Series Metal Detector with a White’s padded, gun-style carrying bag, a White’s Bullseye II pinpointer, and a pair of White’s E Series 900 Headphones - a package valued at $1,369.80!

The Second Prize is a $500.00 Kellyco Gift Card to use on any metal detector or accessories they carry on their website.

The Third Prize is a $250.00 Kellyco Gift Card to use, again on any metal detector or accessory that they carry on their website.

And seven other winners will receive an Automax V4 Pinpointer, valued at $139.00 each!

All you have to do is write a review about your metal detector. As they say “it’s easy to enter, open to everyone, and all it takes is writing about your favorite metal detector!”

See The Raves & Reviews Contest Page to enter this contest once for each metal detector you’ve used or owned!

We’ve already entered, but good luck and happy hunting!

- Shaun and Adam in St. Cloud

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I get a lot of emails from beginners who are searching for “the best places to use a metal detector” or “where to metal detect in (insert your town here).” The only answer I have is this: Research, research, research. Check the local census records, find out if there were any revolutionary or Civil War battles fought in your area, and look for records of old settlements, homesteads, stores and such.

Now, most people try to avoid buying books about possible hunting locations because their theory is “if someone wrote about it, chances are it’s probably hunted out already.” My answer: yes and no.

One that I whole-heartedly recommend (this is the second post I’ve included it in) is “Buried Treasures You Can Find” by Robert F. Marx. It has over 7,500 locations listed around the U.S. that are rich with history, and while it might not have all-original ideas for hunting, it is an excellent jumping off point for research.

Another great book to go hand-in-hand with “Buried Treasures You Can Find” is “Metal Detecting Previously Hunted Sites” published by Whites Electronics Inc.

Also try to snoop around online for hints. Anywhere people lived and traveled to is great for metal detecting. One interesting blog is Travel, Highways and History which focuses on U.S. History and Highway projects. It’s a great place to get ideas.

Furthermore, check out U-S-History.com, which has easy to reference information on the various eras, old maps and informative tables.

And while you’re at it, go to The History Channel Online - You wouldn’t believe how well they’ve organized and cataloged history. I recommend starting off with a search for “Metal Detector” on HistoryChannel.com, you’ll get a lesson in gold mines, civilizations, types of money, and early monetary regulations.

The internet brings millions of facts and tons of data to our fingertips, so it should come as no surprise that it’s hard to dig through. Just keep looking, learning and researching.

- Adam in St. Cloud

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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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This post is a little more on the frivolous side but I thought it was really interesting and wanted to share.

Suzanne Donegan, owner and founder of Mannin Studio’s was an avid collector of rare artifacts and objects. Apparently she scours the world to unearth items of historical significance and she incorporates those items into jewelry. “The pieces in the Mannin collection are an unexpected mixture of museum studies and haute design, a clever blend of history and the present.”
“The meticulously curated designs include distinctive cultural legacies from the past such as rock crystal carved intaglios, rose gold and jet Albert chains, monogrammed seal fobs and gold sovereign cases that are juxtaposed into innovative and thought-provoking pieces of art. Donegan views herself as a cultural anthropologist, rediscovering forgotten craftsmanship from decades past.”

Her website has some excellent examples of how she’s incorporated rare antiques into her jewelry designs. One of my favorites is the “Quin Collection / No. LXVIII. Not one piece of the necklace was created after 1900. It includes a rolled gold book chain from 1880, a gold and quartz intaglio seal from 1860 and a collection of links and clasps from early 1900.

The Mannin website is a great place for inspiration. It shows us that while things we find certainly do impress people from outside their glass cases, those things were created to be appreciated and there’s more than one way to show ‘em off!

Check out the Mannin Studio to kill some time and get inspired!

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As usual I spend the majority of the Winter browsing the internet; researching and educating myself about our hobby. Of course the purpose of this blog is to share what I “dig up” online with other people as into treasure hunting as me and today I wanted to revisit one of my favorite sites.

Sergei, an avid treasure hunter and metal detectorist from upstate NY, has his own webpage at MetalDetectingWorld.com and he has packed his site with useful tips; my favorite of which is Halo Effect & Test Garden Construction. I’ve featured his discussion of the Halo Effect in an earlier blog post and I think the steps to making a Test Garden are important enough share also.

If you’re asking yourself “Why would I need a Test Garden? There’s plenty out there to find!”
Sergei has an excellent answer: “Construct a Test Garden to help you learn the capabilities of your detector and educate yourself about what you intend to find. It can help you better understand the effects of ground minerals, moisture content, target angle, oxidation/rust, trash proximity, target defects, surface textures and provide practice in target pinpointing.”

Here are some steps recommended by Sergei to help you create a Test Garden:
1. Create a test plot as soon as you purchase your detector (Remember: You want the Halo Effect to happen. So the sooner, the better!)
2. Select an area for your Test Garden and detect it with no discrimination to remove all the metal that may already be there.
3. Pick targets to bury. Include various coins, a bottlecap, a pulltab, other objects of different metals and a few nails. Also select a pint jar filled with scrap copper and a gallon can.
4. Bury all these objects in rows about three feet apart and make a map showing where and at what depth each item is buried. Coins should be buried at varying depths - 2 inches deep for the most shallow, 10 inches down for the deepest. Be sure to bury a coin on its edge about 2 inches down. As for the jar - bury it at 12 inches down, to the top of its lid. The gallon can with the lid should be buried about 2 feet below the surface.
5. Mark the target locations with colored, nonmetallic objects. A golf tee works great! And be sure to map it out (no need to get fancy, just a sketch is fine) so you know where you buried what object!
6. Wait for a little while (gotta let that Halo grow!) and then start going over your garden! Reference your map and listen to the sounds.

A Test Garden can help you learn a lot and improve your chances of making better finds. But believe this - a Test Garden is well worth the effort!

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I just stumbled onto a new website that is managed by the folks over at TreasureQuestXLT, - one of the many metal detecting forums online.

It’s called MetalDetectorResource.com and is a brand new website, certainly worth your attention.

It looks like they’ve put together an online resource for metal detectorists that provides reviews, tips, and techniques for specific machines. Users write reviews for metal detectors they have experience with and rate them on a five star scale.

My favorite part of this website is the organization and ease-of-use. With a blog style not too dissimilar from TreasureHunting.com you can easily write a review, search reviews by a brand or name, find information and background on any manufacturer, or hop over to the forum to chat.

I’ll happily track this websites progress as it grows and gets more content. But I do believe MetalDetectorResource.com is mandatory reading for first time metal detectorists as well as those of us that have been swingin’ the coil for awhile now.

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Lately I’ve dug up quite a few articles about ancient finds and consequently I’ve seen some pretty amazing pictures of coins and jewelry. It seems everyone has a great story to share about how they found something, who they first showed it to, and even how much the piece sold for. But no one addresses whether or not they cleaned the piece and if they did clean it, what they used to get it done.

So I started poking around some of my favorite websites and came up with a few pages that focus on the controversial topic of cleaning really old and really dirty coins. Take a look at these pages before you start cleaning or just file these away for when you’ll need to know!

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Yesterday I found the article about a Czech man who died and left behind a ton of great artifacts with no documentation and I really understood the importance of keeping records of what I’ve found and where I’ve found it.

Today I stumbled onto this website for all you U.K. metal detectorists - Portable Antiquities Scheme. I figured anything with the word “finds” in the web address can’t be too bad and their “search” feature is excellent - the “visual search” is pretty much the most amazing thing ever and their images are mind blowing! I figured anyone could use this to help identify finds or even just kill some time - lord knows I just did!

The coin featured left was silver, hammered shilling found in Hampshire. It was made during the rein of Elizabeth I (Post medieval: 1558-1603) and features her bust on the obverse side, and the royal shield as seen here. I can’t imagine what it must be like to hold something that old and with that much history.

Here’s some quotes from their website:

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