Treasure Hunting

Calling all Metal Detectorist – These are some valuable tips if you are running out of places to explore for treasure.

1-Old Maps - can be found in local libraries, local history books, they show old roads, abandoned railroad stations, many times school buildings and other points of interest that either no longer exist, or people have forgotten about.

2-Old Newspapers contain a wealth of information on almost every page Stories about holiday celebration on the town square park (May no longer exists) Carnival arriving in town (where did they set up?) and much more information.

3-Old Property Tax Records show where older houses, farms, service stations, interstate bus stops, taverns etc.. once stood. Lots of old coins to be found.

4-School Records not only tell you where schools once stood. Find all the roads and paths that students took to get to school. Find out exactly where the building or buildings stood. School playground areas, where outside lunch benches were… etc.

5-Local Historical Societies are a great resource containing valuable information on dozens of older happenings of your town from it’s very beginnings up till today… A valuable resource not to be overlooked.

6-Local Museums usually have displays of historical interest as well as many books on the areas history. Spend time with anyone that works in the museum, they generally are part “Historian.” Listen to what they can tell you.

7-Senior Citizens are a walking history of your town or city. Take the time to visit the Senior Citizen Homes and events. Make friends with those folks and listen to the stories they can tell.

8-Old Police Reports can pinpoint events that can turn into a “Treasure” spot. Robberies of lake front homes many times ended with the thief throwing his loot into the lake if he was about to be captured. Police calls to businesses or homes that are empty lots right now.. etc.

9-Old Fire Department records can indicate where many building & properties once existed. Probably the best source for what once stood on now empty lots. Fire Departments also participated in many town activities such as picnics and parades. Where did the parades begin and end? Where were the picnics held?

10-Churches - church records will show where the earliest churches were established. Some no longer exist & were torn down or purchased for another business now on that spot. People spent time before and after church to picnic and join in many outdoor activities.

11-College(s) - start small and add more buildings from time to time. Lots of areas outside buildings, sports areas, student eating areas, picnic spots, etc. Colleges are also a depository of information about the towns and cities where they are located. Check the college library.

12-Library - we saved the best for last. No place has more information than the local library. .Check with the Librarian who can direct you to a wealth of information about your town. (Or any town if you want to search out sites in neighboring areas) Libraries are the main “Depository” of information of all kinds, many times having a number of items discussed above, “old maps, old books, old records, etc”. Get a library card, it will really pay off!

Let us know in the comments area if this helps out!

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I just received Kellyco Metal Detector’s latest newsletter in my inbox today that really caught my eye. Here’s the jist: Kellyco’s 4 for 4 Day Sale includes four metal detectors: The MP5 Pro, Fisher ID Edge, White’s Classic 4, and Titan 2000 at insane price cuts. For instance the Fisher ID Edge which retails for $799.95 (not to mention $369.65 in accessories) is only $349.95!

This has to be one of the best sales I have seen Kellyco push out with over 70% reduced prices. Four days is plenty of time to decide which detector is best for your needs, I suggest taking a look for yourselves as this is a “once in a blue moon” of offers.

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A man by the name of Robert Gismondi was eating at a Daytona Beach restaurant when he accidentally dropped his $370k Ring off the pier. He said he was reaching into his pocket to answer his phone when he pulled his hand out the ring slipped off, and made a splash in the water below. Gismondi is offering a reward in the THOUSANDS for finding his ring. You might have to contend with his insurance agency, but I would act quick as they are probably slow to act.

Ok, so for you treasure hunter divers out there lets go over some clues to help you find that treasure:

-Location is: Main Street Pier in Daytona Beach
-Band is said to be white gold.
-Diamond is large orange color.
-Pier worker was told where it dropped. (With a little questioning and detective work you may want to find out where on the pier it fell at to narrow your search)

As I see it the ring could either be washed out with the current, or more likely buried in the sand around the pier. Either way I would wait for calm weather as diving under piers is extremely dangerous and the water will be more clear to help find the ring. So what are you waiting for!?

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Every once in awhile our central Florida neighbor and blog sponsor, Kellyco Metal Detectors, will give us a little something to write about and today is one of those days.

It looks like they added a new feature to their website that will be of a great deal of use to any metal detector enthusiasts. You can now compare up to three metal detectors with just the click of a button.

Go to their website at: www.KellycoDetectors.com, find the metal detector of your choice and do the following:

1. Select the “Compare this detector” button. It’s located just above the main photo of every metal detector. A window will pop up with a list of your detector’s features.
2. Select the detector you would like to compare it to from the alphabetical “Add a Detector” list and its details will appear side-by-side.
3. Repeat step 2 as needed – you can compare up to three metal detectors all at the same time.

We just gave this feature a try with the Fisher F75 against the Fisher F5. Those are two new releases by Fisher that we’ve had questions about. They certainly look similar but there’s obviously quite a price difference and this comparison feature really showed us the differences between the two machines.

See the screen shot above-left of what we saw, or click on either of those detectors to go to their main page and do the “Compare this detector” yourself. We think this is a great feature and it will be put to good use come the Holidays!

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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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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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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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Finding old coins is certainly rewarding, but most metal detectorists walk away with more “clad” then anything else. Thankfully About.com has give us keepers-of-the-clad some hope and provided a list of the most valuable U.S. coins still in circulation.

The article describes 10 coins that could be jingling in anyone’s pocket right this moment, or buried just beneath the first layer of soil… waiting for a metal detectorist to come along and scoop it up. The majority of the coins are valuable due to errors in die varieties or mint marks, and they’re often overlooked by people because their distinguishing characteristics are small. The price of these mistakes range anywhere from $50.00 to $35,000.00 - so I highly recommend you take a look at this list, take a closer look at your change, and keep picking up that clad in your quest for treasure. And if I find a 1969-S Lincoln cent with a doubled-die obverse… well… you folks will be some of the first to know.

And here’s the link to the rest of the article and the complete list of top 10 most valuable U.S. coins in circulation.

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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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