Newer Isn't Always Better

[Texas Jay]

While I was at our Brownwood Public Library today, I decided to check out their computer card catalog for books about "treasure". I was surprised to find several on the subject that are decades old. I read most of them many years ago. I checked out 3 of them for old time's sake - "Let's Talk Treasure Hunting" (1994) by Charles Garrett, "The Complete Guide to Treasure Hunting" (1973) by Norman Carlisle and David Michelsohn, and "Treasure Hunting Around the World" (1960) by Thomas Helm.
Long before the Internet came along, these old books, treasure and old western magazines, and treasure hunting newsletters got me hooked on this amazing hobby. The Internet was a revolutionary marvel but when it comes to treasure hunting, it's really a pitiful failure. Sure, it's packed with videos and forums about modern metal detecting but it mostly dwells on smaller treasures like individual pieces of jewelry, old relics and coins, and, of course, who has the latest, most complicated, and most expensive metal detector and other modern and bothersome accessories. Don't get me wrong, I love hunting for these smaller treasures too. In fact, I go out seeking them almost every day when the weather is nice but there's nothing that gets my blood pumping faster than to read about searches for legendary lost treasures or the recovery of a post hole bank or buried and lost cache of gold and/or silver coins. The Internet is sorely lacking in these types of stories and it's almost useless for researching them.
I feel a bit sorry for younger treasure hunters or those who have just gotten into this hobby, in the last 20 or 30 years, who have never been exposed to the people and the treasures that gave rise to metal detecting and "modern" treasure hunting in the first place. The best I can do for the younger th'ers (as we used to call ourselves) and late arrivals is to regularly tell them about or post about the good ole days of treasure hunting and encourage them to take time to look back and study the beginnings of this healthy and fun pastime. I guarantee that you'll benefit greatly from doing so. Also, visit your local library and see what books they have available on old school treasure hunting. You may be amazed at what you find and what you learn.
~Texas Jay

http://centraltexastreasureclub.webs.com

 

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[Red James Cash]

I've been telling people here for quite a while to invest in books.LOL

 

[coinman123]

Great thread. As a new arrival to the hobby in 2013, I wasn't able to live through the golden era of metal detecting, alongside the names of treasure hunters that most of us still know today. I did end up buying a few books though, about great metal detecting treasures found, and I enjoy reading magazines such as Western and Eastern Treasures (and writing for them sometimes). I also highly recommend getting the book "A Guide To Artifacts Of Colonial America", a classic book for any relic hunter, that has helped me identify finds on many occasions. You can never have enough material about the hobby, and books are probably the best way to immerse yourself in metal detecting. I find that the library normally has a bunch of metal detecting books from the golden era of the hobby, I checked out a good amount of them over the years. Reading about amazing caches and hoards found always gave me the urge to go metal detecting.

While there are still some great new metal detecting books made today, there are hardly as many and they don't seem to contain the same amount of excitement as the old ones do. Still, I would say that the greatest improvement to the hobby in the past 20 years, besides new metal detector technology, would have to be the invention of internet forums, particularly TreasureNet. I know that TreasureNet helped get me, and probably countless others into the hobby. Much like those books did for new metal detectorists before the internet, seeing all the great stuff posted on here made me want to go out and try to find some treasure for myself and kept me from giving up when I found nothing.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

IMHO: There are a lot of good books on Metal Detecting, Colonial coins, Cobs, Relics...etc. They are all a treasure trove of knowledge!

 

[A2coins]

I have many many copies of treasure lost and treasure found and some books from Charles Garret very motivating to say the least!!!!Great post

 

[bravobob]

When bought my last detector the guy gave me three old Treasure Hunter magazines. A 1976 ,1986 and 1988. I love reading them over and over. Reading the advertisements its AMAZING how far technology has come !

 

[Loco-Digger]

My town library does not have any books regarding treasure hunting, but they do have many on the history of the town and region which give me insight as to where I might want to detect for particular artifacts. I am not originally from this area, but believe I know more about it's history than most lifelong residents.

 

[Red James Cash]

People are usually ignorant of there own home town,city,history.One hard to find fact of where I grew up was first blood of the revolution was drawn there,not in Lexington or concord.

 

[against the wind]

Spent a lot of time in the Vault in the Flagship Branch of the NYC Public Library. It is located at 42nd street and 5th Ave. It is called the Vault because most of the books kept in this climate controlled section of the library were very rare and were kept under lock and key. They could not be signed out and no tracing was allowed. We didn't have cell phones back then and even if we did, picture taking was frowned upon. Slowly but surely, the information in those books were being fed into the computer. That was back in the 70's and 80's. I must have over a hundred treasure related books in my personal library plus loose leaf books full of my own research. Yep, I'm happy that I was able to get my hands on this information but I am also happy that it is easier to gather information today with the use of a personal computer.

 

[Texas Jay]

Spent a lot of time in the Vault in the Flagship Branch of the NYC Public Library. It is located at 42nd street and 5th Ave. It is called the Vault because most of the books kept in this climate controlled section of the library were very rare and were kept under lock and key. They could not be signed out and no tracing was allowed. We didn't have cell phones back then and even if we did, picture taking was frowned upon. Slowly but surely, the information in those books were being fed into the computer. That was back in the 70's and 80's. I must have over a hundred treasure related books in my personal library plus loose leaf books full of my own research. Yep, I'm happy that I was able to get my hands on this information but I am also happy that it is easier to gather information today with the use of a personal computer.

The problem is that very little of what I've learned from reading old history-related books can be found online but it does significantly help in finding the books I want to read.
~Texas Jay