Will there be an end?

[tiburciovasquez]

Now this is something I'm quite curious about and i believe most other are too. Is it possible that someday maybe even within the near future that we stop finding historic coins/artifacts. Currently there have been a lot of really good finds but with the advent of new higher tech Metal Detectors and more competition will there be an end to it. Even from what i heard on here is that sites 30 years ago have almost been pounded to death. I myself do not know but i am interested to hear what others have to say about this.

 

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[1320]

Today's trash, tomorrow's treasure.....

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I started nearly 40 yrs. ago as a teenager, and can think of parks we routinely got choice silver coins out of, that I shudder to think of detecting now. Not only did we thin them out ages ago, but in the ensuing decades, they became blighted zinc and wino-cap ridden parks. So not only were all the easy gimmee harvested back then, but ..... even if it WERE possible to go deeper and find something else, you'd have to strip-mine all the caps/tabs/foil out of there first. An exercise in insanity.

Or the stage stops and country picnic sites we found when they were virgin, pity the poor fellow who researches via the same ways we found them, and tries now.

So the guys getting into it now can always harvest new stuff (like the beaches for jewelry which continually get replenished), but will have a harder time in finding old coins, than we did back in the 1970s & '80s. At the present time not impossible though. Even today I continually find virgin sites.

Sort of depends on your location too. It never ceases to amaze me, when I travel, that there are portions of the USA where md'rs didn't do their homework. Thus leaving seemingly obvious spots virgin still.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

I don't believe so, like 1320 said it is being lost as we speak. Also the old stuff is still out there just not as easy to find as it used to be. With every building, road or sidewalk, that is ripped out to be replaced exposes treasure that has been hiding under there. Then there's the land slides that have covered and uncover things. Then our oceans that have untold treasures hiding in them, the ocean levels have risen and covered things. There's also swamps, etc. and do you think all of us with a metal detector could cover every square inch of earth? It wold take a very long time.

Now go ask permission to search those places you long to search!

 

[Terry Soloman]

As long as you are the one-in-ten that actually does research, or is willing to hike farther than 100-yards, there will always be treasure to find.

 

[CincinnatiKid]

Yea, the majority of "detectorists" are lazy. Won't leave the park or beach. Thus leaving long forgotten sites in the hills, woods, desert, etc., for the more adventurous.
But, if those sites eventually dry up, aluminum will surely be $1000 per oz., and the cycle begins again.
Peace ✌

 

[tiburciovasquez]

Thanks to all who have replied, I myself was just curious because now it seems that even the remotest of spots have been found and I wonder if future detectorists will even get a single wheatie

 

[CincinnatiKid]

Agreed.
With mding seemingly becoming more mainstream in the past decade and the amount of new detectors produced/sold annually, lotsa folks are diggin'.
You may be right.
Peace ✌

 

[OWK]

At least a couple of times a week, I use the internet, old topographic maps, old aerial photos, Google maps, and local history books, to find what were once buildings, that are now woods, or fields.

I have identified more of these sites, than I could ever possibly hunt in a lifetime.

Every time I look... I find more.

 

[tiburciovasquez]

At least a couple of times a week, I use the internet, old topographic maps, old aerial photos, Google maps, and local history books, to find what were once buildings, that are now woods, or fields.

I have identified more of these sites, than I could ever possibly hunt in a lifetime.

Every time I look... I find more.

This is a possibility as well I suppose but there were only so many settlers with so many coins/buckles but I do hope like as you just said that there are enough structures and settlements to keep us detectorists busy for some time

 

[Tom_in_CA]

...... . With every building, road or sidewalk, that is ripped out to be replaced exposes treasure that has been hiding under there. ....

Ah yes, ms-beep-beep brings up a never-ending frontier: Old town urban demolition sites. Especially fun is when they tear into old parks, like to make way for artificial turf (the *perfect* scrape job depth ) Or old-town sidewalk demolition replacements. And the magic of google news searches makes this stuff possible to find out where it's gonna happen sometime. Key word searches on google news, while-honed down to just your state's news results: "historic" + "demolish", or "street-scape" + "oldtown", and so forth.

Also a never-ending constantly replenishing: beach storms that erode down to old stratas. Unfortunately the type storms that erode down to appreciable amounts of easy silver, are rare. Like where I'm at in CA, the times when we've been finding silver coins (more than just occasional flukes) only happen every 5 yrs. or so. And then, go figure, silver & copper is "kissed" by saltwater. Still fun though

 

[Chadeaux]

Ah ... 10 more years and even college graduates won't be able to read the cryptic documents they need to decipher in order to find those places --- you know, cursive writing.

Who cares about the kids of today when they are so determined that we were screwing up the planet with our daily recycling (we cleaned pop and milk bottles and reused them), our wasteful handling of resources (instead of throw away diapers, we had cloth diapers that were cleaned and reused) and our wasteful way of making things that would last more than a year (sure, an old style TV or washing machine would last 10 - 25 years but only making one is a waste of resources when we could make 5 - 7 new ones in that time period instead).

 

[RGINN]

As long as you are the one-in-ten that actually does research, or is willing to hike farther than 100-yards, there will always be treasure to find.

Amen, Terry Soloman.

 

[masterjedi]

Where I live this county must have at least 1000 houses that have never been detected built from 1850 - 1970. You need to ask for permission to hunt each one. I don't think we will ever run out of places to dig in our life time...

 

[bigfoot1]

anyone who thinks they are gonna run out of places to hunt has one of two maladys.....no gas money or no imagination.

aint happenin gang...the game may someday change but we will be all over it.If the attention level and perserverance I see in many youth....dang...its gonna get easier

 

[RustyGold]

As long as there are front and backyards and people who are willing to let you detect them you will have a possible source of great finds.

 

[USMC Reaper]

I have just gotten in to this outstanding hobby so take my opinion with a grain of salt. First I think that there is a perception that multitudes of MDers getting great finds all day every day because we are somewhat immersed in this culture. There really aren't that many of us out in the World, most people have no clue about our pastime as evidenced by the blank stares given to us when we tell people about our hobby. I can honestly say that I have never in my life seen a single person swinging a coil anywhere other than a suspected minefield/IED area or on television and I have been all over the place.

In the military I knew everything I could possibly know about a "target area" before I stepped on the landing craft or helicopter, or started walking there for that matter. When I got to the landing zone I just needed to get oriented and off we went. Intel, Intel intel! I have been listening and talking to all sorts of people even more so now than ever before. I am pumping people for relevant information and meeting great people in the process. I have also been conducting map reconnaissance until my eyeballs bleed. I don't care what is at my target area now, well only with how it relates to obtaining permission where needed, I care about what was there yesterday or a thousand years ago. Hit the Internet and read all you can about your home town and the surrounding area, follow every written rabbit trail. The amount of information available at our fingertips is overwhelming.

Get off of the beaten path. I know I've been working it hard when I need a moment to figure out how to get back to my car. If I can grab a Starbucks when I'm taking a break I am probably in the wrong area for my part of the country. I know about physical limitations, I am banged up pretty bad, my Medical Doctor has given me the green light to exercise so I will swing my coil and dig signals in the middle of nowhere whenever I can.

Just a few thoughts from me, once I learn my machine I hope to be too busy to write so much.

Semper Fi

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

We'll fly out over remote areas with our detecting drones and extract coins with non-invasive vibro-soil-disruption methods that bring the coins and items to the surface to be lifted and carried back to our homes.

They are still finding Roman coins in England. I think it will be a long time before we have everything precious in the soil accounted for.

 

[ARC]

The general key to a "hit" these days is the three... RPP...

Research...
Plan...
Permission...

In that order.

 

[Slingshot]

Henry Ellsworth the Patent Office Commissioner of the US in a report to Congress in 1843 said - "The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end." That was 172 years ago, and several "new" inventions have made an appearance in that time. Works the same way with our hobby, and there will really never be an end to it or the amazing finds like those reported here on a daily basis.
When I started detecting I felt like I needed to hurry up, as everything good was being found and there would be nothing left for me to find. Now over 50 years after my start, I feel the surface has only been scratched. DIG BABY DIG!!!!