Philadelphia area question

tpmrcp

Sr. Member
Dec 31, 2006
492
15
East Stroudsburg, PA
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Garrett ACE 250
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All Treasure Hunting
Hi all,

I havent posted in a while and I havent hunted in a while longer (2 yrs +). Well now I graduated college and have a great full time job so now I think it is time to get back into the swing of things. Does anyone else live close to Philadelphia? Anyone know what the laws are in the city? I know there is no detecting in the historical area and most of center city (where I live). I know Valley Forge is out of the question. I dont know where to look for permits and such. Any help would be awesome.

Thanks!
 

Tom_in_CA

Gold Member
Mar 23, 2007
13,837
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Salinas, CA
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Explorer II, Compass 77b, Tesoro shadow X2
The "laws of the city" should be readily available to the public, in some form, somewhere. A city of that size, I'm sure, has a website. And there should be a section to click on for city charter, municipal codes, park's dept, etc.... The laws of ANY municipal entity HAVE to be somewhere, for public viewing (even in the age pre-dating the internet and city websites). You know, like in binder form, on the counter at city hall or police dept, etc.....

Go through it yourself. Do key word searches for "metal detecting" and "metal detectors", and so forth. If it's silent on the issue (no prohibitions or "permits", etc...), then presto, there's your answer.

It is preferable to look it up for yourself in this fashion, rather than thinking you need to go ask desk-bound bureaucrats "can I do such & such?". The latter simply puts it in the arbitrary whims and mood of a bureaucrat, who can simply morph anything he/she thinks applies (ie.: "don't disturb the earthworms", etc...). There's been people who've gotten "no's", .... oddly .... at places that were detected all the time, and no one ever had a problem before. Ie.: the pyschology of "sometimes no one cares, till you ask" routine.

So to answer your question: look it up for yourself. If you see nothing there addressing metal detectors, then you've done your due diligence. This is not to say that .... therefore, you can just go nilly willy waltzing over people's beach blankets at an archie convention in the park though! I mean, a little discretion (avoid obvious historic monuments, pick low traffic times and busy-bodies, etc....) is in order.
 

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