ScubaDetector
Silver Member
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.
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.
Last edited:
VERY well done, sir!
