metal detecting before 1965

[bigticket]

What was it like? We want the truth.

 

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[bigticket]

There were a few things I couldn't part with regardless of the money- a gold coin, a beautiful 8 reale piece etc- stuff that I could never find again.

Was that the only gold coin that you found?

 

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[bakergeol]

"So the ground conditions in Ohio I felt favored deep old coins and the state wasn't settled earlier like Pa. NY or Va. which would produce much older coins."

What does the part about Ohio mean?

I always felt that overall Ohio-farmland had pretty unstable soil conditions compared to the west where I live now. Ghost town relics here in the west in my opinion generally seemed to be shallower but that is just an overall impression. In my opinion just different soil conditions, rainfall, etc played a part. As Ohio became a state in 1803 the areas which I detected further in the East in Pa. and Va(old churches) had a much longer history and hence the coin finds were better and older.

George

 

[Michigan Badger]

This is a great post that's taken on this time round. Others have tried this topic but this time it's flying...good deal.

Thanks to all who posted....GREAT stuff!

I wasn't detecting before 65 but I was a reader and I sure wish I had kept some of those old awesome stories. The one's I liked best were the first THers in Europe. Man, it was almost immoral what those dudes dug!

We're talkin buckets of ancient coins and just about everything in between.

At one time I had a pile of dug large cents that were found by early THers here in the states. Like a &^%$#%& I sold them all on ebay for about $1.50 each! This was back in the first days of ebay and I didn't know how to clean them. None had holes in them and they were all thick. I still could kick myself.

 

[bigticket]

"So the ground conditions in Ohio I felt favored deep old coins and? the state wasn't settled earlier like Pa. NY or Va. which would produce much older coins."

What does the part about Ohio mean?

I always felt that overall Ohio-farmland had pretty unstable soil conditions compared to the west where I live now. Ghost town relics here in the west in my opinion? generally seemed to be shallower but that is just an overall impression. In my opinion just different soil conditions, rainfall, etc played a part. As Ohio became a state in 1803 the areas which I detected further in the East in Pa. and Va(old churches) had a much longer history and hence the coin finds were better and older.

George

So you just meant that older coins in Ohio were deeper than older coins in other states?

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Who is that in the picture?
~~~~~
A) Hehhehe that skinny 16 year gal was my future wife. I fattened her up, had a 3 year, old formal Spanish courtship - complete with serranades, duennas etc - and she turned out ncely. It pays to be nice to the locals. snicker

Till Eulemspeigle - Jose de La Mancha

 

[bigticket]

Thanks to bakergeol, RealdeTayopa, and everyone else for their reminiscences.
However, there surely must be more members who metal detected (OR ENGAGED IN ANY OTHER FORM OF TREASURE HUNTING) before 1965.

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

They didn't believe any machine could find small single coins buried.
[/quote]
This is an interesting point. Originally, almost all metal detectors were made for finding large objects (one author wrote about a certain detector being suitable for finding smaller objects - like plastered over conduit boxes). Does anyone know when detectors were first designed for finding small objects, like coins?
[/quote]
~~~~

The Gardner small coil - 3"- was designed for finding small pin head (hmm Capt sosimoto?) sized
gold nuggets. It coud also eliminate black sand reaction. early 50's. 19, not 18.

Till Euelsmspeigle

 

[bigticket]

Another interesting point. Many of the early metal detectors (big, small, etc.) were built for gold prospectors, so even small coils was not designed for coinshooting. I wonder when the first coinshooters started coinshooting.
Did you do any kind of treasure hunting before 1955? If so, when did you start?

 

[suwannee pirate]

In 1963 my dad bought a army surplus mine detector ,no joke that thing was huge ,real heavy and long . He had a 1949 Plymouth coupe that was the work-fishing-hunting car that got us around the mountains in West Virginia. We took the mine detector to an old iron furnace up above Cheat Lake near Morgantown .We found old foundations up in the woods where the workers lived and found a lot of buckles and bits of metal around the foundations up higher on the hill behind the row of stone foundations dad found a crock that was buried down about 20 inches to the top of it the crock was broken ,maybe from the freeze thaw cycle . The crock had awooden lid that kind of fell apart ,inside it were two old metal picture with silver frames, the pictures were in bad shape though. There was revolutionary war metal in it but the ribbon was in very bad condition.also there were different buttons that had been cut off of old clothing and saved.We didn't find any money in the crock though. Down by a stream was a big rock and around it Dad found several coins and that put a grin on his face , he was really excited then . I was around 8 years old and I was foolin around in the woods chasing chipmunks till he found the crock and then the coins- I was hooked then. Christmas of 1965 there a red Ray Scope under the tree that Mom had got us ,that was a real treasure.

 

[Jeramy_Pal12]

I think it not called metal detector before 1965 but a huge magnet.
(Removed by mod, not a supporting vendor)

 

[RobRieman]

I think it not called metal detector before 1965 but a huge magnet. (Link Removed by mod as spam)

You are a pure SPAM machine.

 

[Boatlode]

 

[roaddust66]

I met a geeky ham radio type guy in the mid 1970's that told me about hunting civil relics around chattanooga. They had a little gang and they all road little honda trail mini bikes and hunted with Metrotechs. He said they dug bullets at 5 inches and found lots of stuff.

Also my brother in law attended McCallie School at the base of Missionary Ridge and he said that they would take rakes and go up in the woods and rake the leaves back and pick up minnie ball bullets everywhere ! Must of been fun !

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

This is exactly what my very first metal detector looked like except it was a dark brown color !! Got max 2 inch or so depth out here.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Jeramy_Pal, stop posting links to your websites, only supporting vendors can sell as dealers/.

 

[BC1969]

I remember the stories my pops would tell me about detecting in the 60's him and earl Taylor who owned a detector shop would detect all over Detroit, belle island you name it, I've seen the literal buckets full of silver they found with them BFOs, my turn came in the later 70's the new TR detectors were leaps and bounds ahead of the old ones, and I've got my buckets full of silver also. early 80's were outstanding! it seemed like it was raining silver, very few times after a full day swinging that we did Not come home with pockets full of silver..Now..just have to try a Lil harder.

Mike

 

[unfound]

I can remember back in the seventies a friend from school metal detecting around all the local farms and old foundations. I can still remember the pockets full of silver coins and even a few gold ones he found using a blue metal detector, two knobs, white shaft and coil. He'd put the coins in cigar boxes and just stack them up. I remember one time he took a full cigar box of old coins and walked around a corn field throwing them as far as he could by the handfulls, just so he could hunt for them all again at a later time. I got into it in the early eighties for a few years, then life and family came and i got out of it for about twenty years. Kids are grown now, just me and the wife, I have all the time in the world to hunt now around work. Occasionally I still try to find some of the silver my friend threw in that field.

 

[gleaner1]

The metal detecting before 1960 was off the chain, even better than that before 1965 by far.

 

[BC1969]

The metal detecting before 1960 was off the chain, even better than that before 1965 by far.

Those are the stories my pops would tell me, I'd love to hear/read yours!

Mike