Dreams and Aspirations

[ScubaDetector]

We all have them. Maybe when you got into the hobby you were intent on finding some old silver to fill a collection or a valuable coin or two that you couldn't afford to buy. Have you fulfilled your dream yet and found another? What goals do you have as you stay in the hobby. Or do you just love the uncertainty of the next target?

I used to love finding silver and valuable coins. It was awesome to find beautiful condition barbers and SLQ's. I sold a lot of my coins when I first started. I tried to save them but life and finances got in the way. Now I have pictures and memories.

So do you have a bucket list? Are you out there looking for spots you haven't hit and might be promising? Have you gone to your local library to see if there is a section on your city, county or parish? Are you thinking outside the box?

I was detecting yesterday with a few acquaintances in a park in Detroit. Five of us were there and two of us were packing. (To me that was really outside the box!) I was talking to another water hunter and he told me people didn't swim over their heads and lose gold. I told him he was really wrong. In the old days nobody was afraid to be sued. They had swim platforms with diving boards right at state parks. People actually learned to swim in deeper water. This pile of gold represents two and a half months of gold found OVER waders heads.



Where were the old roadside parks on the older highways in your state? All states had them. What are they now? Empty fields, overgrown barren land? Can you get access to older maps and find them? How about older picnic areas in your home town. They used to picnic right OUTSIDE graveyards when they visited graves in the horse and buggy days. Any chance some ground exists where you will NOT be stepping on graves or around tombstones?

But back to my original question, what are you looking for. Gold is really easy to find. You only need 4 conditions to find it.

1. It has to have been lost where you are looking for it.
2. You have to get your coil over it.
3. You have to not have it discriminated out and your machine has to be able to get as deep as the object is.
4. You have to decide to dig the target.

The last one is very important. Gold comes in at all levels on the display. It comes in as scratchy broken signals, foil signals, nickel and even overload signals. My 10.00 gold piece was a solid zinc penny signal. How many people pass them up? Sure you might dig thousands of pennies before and if you get your coil over a gold coin. However, if you pass up the pennies, you stand a good chance of passing up a find of a lifetime.


This ring gave a bell tone. 29 grams of 14K. Who would have passed it up for a can?


A few months ago I was at an old boy scout camp. This place has been pounded. If any of you were boy scouts you can just imagine how many pieces of aluminum foil are out there. Well that and penny signals were all I was getting. So I started digging a lot of them. I got a few nickels. However my biggest surprise was a nickel signal where I cut a plug, pulled it out and right at the bottom of the hole was a walker. I was shocked actually. I ran my coil over the hole again and sure enough the nickel signal was still there. I dug about an inch deeper and a flat piece of aluminum foil was below the walker. Did I dig foil. Sure lots of it. And pull tabs. However, thinking outside the box got me a walker that I am absolutely positive was passed up numerous times by others.


So I have an 1893CC 10.00 gold coin, a 1914D penny in absolutely wonderful condition, an 1894 O dime and two 1926 S dimes also in beautiful condition in my finds. I also have found a 1922 peace dollar in a lake.

My bucket list actually has only a few coins in it. A trime, a two cent piece and a silver capped anything. My real bucket list finds are a machine gun and or a canon. I think both are possible.

You looking for silver? Do you knock on doors and ask permission. Do you hunt curb strips and not worry about what home owners think? Do you have business cards to hand out maybe getting your foot in the door when someone needs help locating something. I have handed out over 2 thousand. I have an insurance company willing to pay me 4 thousand dollars to find a gold tennis bracelet lost right off a dock when the wearer was coming up a ladder. I can't believe it will take me more than 10 minutes to find it.

So what are you doing outside the box that sets you apart from the thousands of others out there with a metal detector? I give away my services. I have been featured on the Detroit news 3 times. For two years I have had a booth in the Detroit Boat show. Unfortunately they didn't have room for me this year. Letting kids find treasures in a sandbox I labeled shell beach was a blast. They used one of my machines and were able to keep what they found.



Giving away my services has given me great opportunities to hunt in lakes I wouldn't be able to get into. One lake I went to find a set of keys. After I found them he said to play as long as I wanted. I got a couple of mercs, a working Swiss army watch, and a platinum ring that was worth over 2 grand in scrap while playing.

So back to my bucket list. I found a small camp in a lake that was used in the late 1800's. A Springfield trap door bayonet, buttons, live bullets from 45 and 45-70 guns and a few very old gold rings. Was there ever a canon on a barge or wood boat that flipped in an inland lake?


John Dillinger owned a house on a lake I detect. Is there a Thompson down in the muck somewhere? Outside Selfridge ANG base I have found thousands and thousands of bullets, brass and a few buttons from WW1 pilots who practiced shooting out of biplanes. I also have a Lewis machine gun magazine that was dropped off the side of one with 6 live bullets in it still. And I have found 5 Mark 1, 100 lb practice bombs. Could they have dropped a Thompson out of a biplane or even a Lewis machine gun?



The 30 cal shells are everywhere and so are 45 cal bullet heads. Also a few 50 cal shells and bullets are found in the same area. All dated 1921 - 1926.

I guarantee if you keep looking where everyone else does your chances of finding something extraordinary are slim. I also guarantee if you rely on discrimination or numbers on your machine you are limiting yourself from some fantastic finds. Overload signals are cans. They also are Zippo lighters, guns, toys, anchors, silverware, knives, rings, watches and numerous other valuable finds.

So what is on your bucket list and what are you doing to achieve your dream?

My newest toy to my arsenal of fun. Unfortunately I won't have it in my possession till November.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

You've done good in your land's finds tallies and your water-finds tallies. All you need to do now is add prospecting nuggets to your rap-sheet, and there'll be no venue of md'ing left unturned for you !

 

[Hunter101]

I'm glad to hear your goals and aspirations. I began detecting simply to "dig up treasure and bury my stresses". I began in hopes to forget my parents who had disowned me. However, it has grown into something more. As a child, my favorite topics in any of the schools I went to were geology, archeology (including Egyptology and paleontology), colonial history, civil war history, local towns history, etc. I also saw plenty of shows that dealt with treasure hunting. However, still to this date have I yet to watch any of the Indiana jones movies lol. Little did I know these topics would come full circle.

As I grew up, I was always told to make sure I get a proper job and treasure hunting/archeology was a waste of time. For quite a while I needed a hobby. I tried keeping fish, puzzles, musician, etc. but nothing really caught on. In October I started a coin collection which I had kind of done off and on for several years. Well I went to a coin show where I met a man. He said don't get into the business to make money, it won't pay the bills. Well this kind of was a downer since it was so fun. He and I chatted for quite a while. I told him how I wanted an antique business to which his response was good luck and here are some tips. For a while now I have coin roll hunting and I am subscribed to several channels on YouTube. In the recommended section, I saw Dirt Fishin America with DrTones and I was pretty much hooked. While I flipped antiques, I would dream again about finding treasure. I would talk my wife and my parents ears off. I got two responses: wife-if you want it, if it's important, go for it, but you have to come up with the money yourself. Parents-antiquing, metal detecting, coin collecting are waste of time and money. Well... That was the last normal conversation I have had with my parents. The next would be a dumb little argument that resulted in them changing their locks and saying never come back.

About a week later, using some of the money I received from flipping, I bought an Ace 350 in hopes of proving them wrong and burying my troubles. This worked but there was still something missing. I needed purpose. I ended up getting with a gentleman who owned a museum and I'll give the museum all my clad and any relics pertaining to the town I live in in exchange for his knowledge and connections. Well now I feel like I'm useful. I get to do this treasure hunting and I have purpose. Heck, I even found a silver ring in the process which proved to ALL extended family it was worthwhile (some still have doubts).

As for goals, I would love to find the lost Mormon treasure from Utah as well as shadow an archeologist in the field. I would also love finding my first silver coin and first gold anything. I am set back though right now because the car we just bought had a leak in the oil we didn't know about and the engine seized so I have no way to get any where. I also just bought the AT Pro so I'm learning that machine in a new park. But as I talked with the wife about your post scuba, we determined it's not what we find that defines us, it's our attitude to do what we love that shows people who we really are. I guess that needs to be my signature now lol.

But in all seriousness, I haven't found anything spectacular, but every time I go out, every time I learn more history, every time I research, the happier I get. I've got my scavenger hunt from the older gentleman to occupy me all season to cover the what am I looking for but as for the why am I looking, that comes from my heart and the love of the hobby. And I can guarantee that I'll find lots of things eventually on my bucket list but I'll enjoy getting there.

 

[joee5]

The p-51 tank. You shoulda included that one as its a kool find as well

 

[kcm]

Dang SD!! Any more talk like that and you'll have ME getting a MD also!! VERY well done, sir!

I especially like the tip about looking up old rest areas that no longer exist anymore. Would like to caution, however, that it "is" possible for a rest area to be on private land. There was a small rest area near where I live, but the old man that owned the land passed away some years back. Can hardly tell anything was ever there. I doubt you'd find it on any map as the only facility there was an outhouse and, , for the last couple of years there was a covered picnic area. It was all torn out. Did the old man donate the land to the state or city? Maybe, but is now just a barren corner lot just outside of town.

...Just looked back over your finds again. What a beeeeeeautiful $10 gold piece!! I certainly won't be finding that kind of gold when I get started! You have me thinking that maybe I should re-think my future plans.

Thanks for posting!!

 

[ScubaDetector]

Thanks for the input Hunter101. I actually started detecting in Utah when I first started. My parents were killed in a car wreck (not an accident) and I came back to Michigan to bury them. I went back to Utah as a cop and my brother sent me my fathers metal detector. That got me hooked. I then bought a better detector and the rest is history.

I found my 1914D penny on a curb strip in the Avenues in SLC. My gold coin was from an amusement park that is now Nibly park golf course. Over 100 barber coins came out of that park and a few seated. Lots of indians also. Don't forget about tokens in Utah. Some of the old tavern ones are worth big bucks. I sold one to Bob Campbell at All About Coins in Sugarhouse for 150.00. He said it was the only one known and he is a huge collector of tokens. Well was, I have no idea if they are still in business.

I know about being disowned. I know of hardship. We all have our trials in life. We make the best we can with what we have. The lost Mormon treasure is from what I read on a mountainside somewhere on Kennecott copper property. I don't think that is possible to find. How about a Mormon 20.00 gold piece? That would be a holy grail of a coin.

Four of my six daughters are in Utah. I visit every other year and I will be there at least for Christmas this year and maybe earlier depending on what I decide. I will be in Ogden though. I was a state cop in Sanpete county. The history around that area is fantastic to read about.

I made a mistake there. In the avenues I found a piece of iron shaped like an allen wrench wrapped with copper. I thought it was trash and discarded it. Only after reading Western & Eastern treasure a long time later, did I discover I threw away a friction canon primer. We all live and learn. I have tossed copper culture points away here thinking they were just scrap pieces till last year my friend Kevin found one and he researched it.

Anyway, Keep searching and enjoy the hunt. Nobody gets it all. There is a lot to find in the right spots in Utah.

 

[ScubaDetector]

The p-51 tank. You shoulda included that one as its a kool find as well

That Mustang drop tank was a huge surprise. It was at bullet beach. They think the ice brought it in. I just happened to stumble on it and realized it was in too shallow of water to keep there. Hundreds of boaters anchor there every weekend and it was a hazard to swimmers and my bank depositors! I am on a boating forum and mentioned it and that I would be there if anyone would help remove it. The manager of the marina came out in his work boat. He talked to me and then we went over to it. I went down with my snorkel and hooked a rope to it for him. He then pulled it to the seawall where he had one of his boat lifting forklifts take it out of the water. I let them have it. I didn't have a place for it or anything to put it in at the time.



Bullet beach is impossible to get to by land. The blue and white boat out there was mine till I gave it to a daughter for Christmas. I can't wait to see what crazy things I find out there this year. I also can't wait to survey out deeper with my drone.

kcm, For sure, I would never recommend people trespassing on private property. However, I would think MOST farmers or people that might own the land would gladly give permission. Thanks for the reminder to follow the laws. You want to hear a funny? A coin shop in SLC said it was only worth bullion. It wasn't even a coin anymore because of the flaws. Not the one mentioned earlier. I laughed as I walked out.

 

[kcm]

ScubaDetector wrote, "A coin shop in SLC said it was only worth bullion. "

Gee, I wonder why a coin shop would tell you something like that about a coin?!?!?

 

[TheRingFinder]

Lots of good information - thanks!

 

[T.C.]

ScubaDetector wrote, "A coin shop in SLC said it was only worth bullion. "

Gee, I wonder why a coin shop would tell you something like that about a coin?!?!?

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

With all that gold recovery, you make my shoulder sore just thinking about how many zincs you have dug.
Good Post.

 

[Hunter101]

All about coins is still in business! Have talked to Bob a couple of times. That is actually where I saw my first in person metal detector. And that's cool about being a state cop. My father is currently a trooper and has been for nearly twenty years. The troopers I have met are some of the best people I have met.

 

[ScubaDetector]

All about coins is still in business! Have talked to Bob a couple of times. That is actually where I saw my first in person metal detector. And that's cool about being a state cop. My father is currently a trooper and has been for nearly twenty years. The troopers I have met are some of the best people I have met.

When you see Bob again tell him Bob said hello. I haven't seen him since I moved back to Michigan in 1999. He should remember me for sure. He had my gold coin in his possession for a while and I sold him the two 1926S dimes and the 1894 0 dime along with countless other coins and tokens. He also knows exactly where I found the coins.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

My dream is to find a 1652 pine tree shilling and a 1792 half disme. Just one of each and I'll die happy...


"Having dreams is what makes life tolerable"

Quote from "Rudy"