What do you do with your finds? Keep them?

[mtdoramike]

I get rid of everything that I find one way or another, if it's valuable, I sell it, if it's not, I give it away or throw it away. If it's identifiable, I try to locate the original owner. I've never really been a superstitious person, but once I found a really nice man's ring and it was just my size, so I started wearing the found ring. From the moment I put the ring on my finger, I started having bad luck and it seemed to run for close to a month so I finally decided to take off the ring to see if my luck would change. Well, me and my wife were no longer fighting, my pet parrot stopped biting and trying to attack me every time I got around it's cage, I won some money on the lottery, a friend stopped by and brought back a tool I had loaned him two years prior, I went for my 6 month physical and the doctor said I was his star pupil. So it started coming up roses for me especially after I gave the ring away with full disclosure about the bad luck it brought me. But the new owner said they haven't had any issues. so all is good with them. So was it just me or the ring? either way I leave nothing to chance anymore.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!

[mtdoramike]

I guess I must have struck a nerve, no replies? I'm not asking you to share your fines, or for a kidney and I'm not working with the government looking for taxes. Just curious. I used to have a big bowl I would pile everything in and then once a month or so, I would go through everything and decide what's worth keeping and what's junk. All the change, I would put in a tumbler if it needed cleaning before rolling them to take to the bank. Once I had given a check for $150.00 to my local school who gave me permission to hunt there. Once I totaled up all the change it totaled well over $150.00, so I kept a small portion and gave the rest to the school so the administration to do a pizza party. 61 views and nothing.

 

[Tpmetal]

I guess I must have struck a nerve, no replies? I'm not asking you to share your fines, or for a kidney and I'm not working with the government looking for taxes. Just curious. I used to have a big bowl I would pile everything in and then once a month or so, I would go through everything and decide what's worth keeping and what's junk. All the change, I would put in a tumbler if it needed cleaning before rolling them to take to the bank. Once I had given a check for $150.00 to my local school who gave me permission to hunt there. Once I totaled up all the change it totaled well over $150.00, so I kept a small portion and gave the rest to the school so the administration to do a pizza party. 61 views and nothing.

Don't take it personally, your thread may have simply got buried under others before it got seen by many. Or people simply didn't feel compelled to respond.
Personally with my finds I keep most of the interesting stuff like old coins, buttons, jewelry, or anything else that catches my eye; and I plan on putting them in a display table I built if I ever get the time and motivation. Other rusty junk or scrap gets thrown in a bucket to be recycled at the scrap yard.

 

[robertk]

I've never found anything particularly valuable, so that doesn't play into it for me. I keep most things that aren't just trash. Though I do have a big tub of old rusty iron that I could recycle at some point.

 

[treasureguy56]

My wife and I are a team , we put everything of significance to us in a display case or cabinet . This includes all the cleaned up old " Privy and Dump " dug bottles along with all the metal detecting relics . Many of our good coin finds are in a safe , the rest are in a drawer just waiting .......

 

[Limitool]

The old dug coins I keep. For what I don't have a clue. They aren't worth diddly. Most old iron just hits the dump and the metal trash.... well it's trash. Never found a ring worth keeping.

As far as your found bad luck ring.... Not a bad luck ring I believe.... just YOU going through a rough period and/or paying more attention to "bad luck" since putting ring on. Just my thoughts on that...

 

[RickDDE]

I haven't really found the "bling" yet. I did keep the old ship spikes because they are old. My daughter kept the AVON Skeleton Key ring and the old bottles. I still have the sinkers and a lure that my neighbor wants because he shore fishes. Everything else goes out in the trash mainly.

 

[pepperj]

There's the have, and the had.
I've had lots of items, and still have lots of items.
Ask me where the $$$ was spent on the hads, and I'll give you an honest .

Now I have the assortment of haves.
The gold coins, silver coins,(a few that are over 2000 yrs old) bronze/copper coins, relics, bit and pieces of history.

But when I look a something that's in the display case, I smile, a memory of digging it comes alive once again.
Sure the hads might bring a memory but I have dig deep for those ones.

It has never been about getting any return on the investment, as that's not why I dig.
I forget the world totally when I detect, and nothing can replace that feeling.

 

[Oscar Goldman]

I take the clad coins I find for the year to the coinstar. Then I take that money along with the scrap silver/silver coins to a shop to convert it to Silver ingots.

I'll probably end up gifting these to my kids at some point.

 

[mtdoramike]

My wife and I are a team , we put everything of significance to us in a display case or cabinet . This includes all the cleaned up old " Privy and Dump " dug bottles along with all the metal detecting relics . Many of our good coin finds are in a safe , the rest are in a drawer just waiting .......

I love old bottles your lucky to have good dump sites to dig. Most around me have either or about to be turned into subdivisions. One of the curses of living in Florida especially the central part of the state. Once the last remaining orange groves got froze out in the late 70's to early 80's, it's been a land grab to see how many houses you can fit on an acre of land and so far I think th count is up to 8.

 

[mtdoramike]

I haven't really found the "bling" yet. I did keep the old ship spikes because they are old. My daughter kept the AVON Skeleton Key ring and the old bottles. I still have the sinkers and a lure that my neighbor wants because he shore fishes. Everything else goes out in the trash mainly.

Keep digging, you will hit it one day and even if you don't, do like Pepper and just get lost in the feeling, which is what I do and there's not a lot that can replace that.

 

[Loco-Digger]

I keep way to much, sold one coin to a relative and attempted to return a class ring but was told to keep it. I display some of the cool stuff via hung printers drawers, small framed displays for CW finds and have plenty stored in plastic containers in the garage. The clad gets rolled and deposited in to my hobby account. Pennies go through the Coinstar and then get deposited. I may sell the gold rings to the local buyer. I collect older coins that I've dug, those that are gifted, and the ones get back in change. There are three 5 gallon buckets in the shed for lead, brass, & copper.

 

[xr7ator]

I got into tectin' when just a boy. My father was cheap (and also thought that this was a fad) and bought me a radio shack kit to build. It would find a pop can several feet away. A coin? You had to be right over it and if you were going to fast.....
I have always been a coin nut and that's what got me interested. I gave up with the kit machine I built in grade school and didn't try again until I was an adult and had a job and money to spend. Several days after a purchase of a used machine from a man named Hunter Pritchard, (famous TH'er) I found a 1954D dime. SILVER COIN! I was hooked.
Being a material person (guilty!) I keep my finds, especially old or collectible coins.
Constantly hunting for new land to search as well as cool old finds I'd recovered got me more into history. Especially local history, obviously.
To sum up, I hadn't seen this post before now and I have a ton of stuff. I recycle scrap metal dug, I take the clad to the bank, but most of it is laying around the house in bags, buckets and jars. I have returned found jewelry and that is a good feeling, for sure. Boxes of relics. Windowsills full of old glass bottles.
I've held onto stuff I didn't know what was and later found out and some from this site.
Anyway, maybe think of better things to do with what is headed for the landfill. Local history buffs/activities/museum's. If you are throwing away the tokens, why not go clean the car at the car wash with them or give them to the guy that helps you work on your car so he can........etc.
HH ALL!

 

[treasureguy56]

I love old bottles your lucky to have good dump sites to dig. Most around me have either or about to be turned into subdivisions. One of the curses of living in Florida especially the central part of the state. Once the last remaining orange groves got froze out in the late 70's to early 80's, it's been a land grab to see how many houses you can fit on an acre of land and so far I think th count is up to 8.

that is too bad about all the housing - Teresa and I like country living .
Privies and older dump sites are our favorite dig sites - Usually you have to do some looking reading and searching to find the sites but its worth the hunt . Love metal detecting too ! We have our share of fun ...

 

[hogge]

Look at my signature........

 

[Blackfoot58]

I give scrap iron to some fellas who rely on the extra money that scrapping brings.
I keep special buttons, coins, tokens and jewelry in a wooden box.
My harness iron is stored in a large cabinet, by type: rein guides, buckles, etc.
I’m currently looking at donating some items to our local County Historical Museum.
I have a 1/2 gallon pickle jar that’s nearly full of square nails.

 

[Older The Better]

I keep nearly everything. Not just metal detecting but arrowhead hunting and rock hounding too… I just came home with a few good fossils and some bone from a gravel bar. Saw a 5 gallon bucket in good shape so put my finds in that and brought it home too.
I detect for the history and the fun of the hunt. Each signal is a bit like opening a present, and sometimes the package is misleading for good or for bad.

About the only things I toss are wire, aluminum cans, wire nails, and scraps of metal that are so far gone it’s impossible to identify. The less exciting iron goes into the barn, the horse tack and such has an area, as do bullets and casings, coins, silverware, tools, buttons… and the good stuff I have various places displayed.
I can’t imagine ever selling any of it but I hunt family land and so much of it feels like a piece of personal history. Sometimes I wonder if I’d feel differently hunting a place with no personal ties… i guess I did hunt an 1870’s schoolhouse that was being restored once, i gave it all back to the owner that way he could display whatever he wanted

 

[Flashinon]

Normally I find cool coins, neat rocks, and the occasional arrowhead/spear tip. I recently just got into gold prospecting after finding I enjoyed that much but I just like collect shiny stuff. I am superstitious about the power of stones and gold just feels better than money and it's not like I'm in a desperate situation nor do I have enough to save me from much anything save for a time I over indulged a bit on more food than I should have. It's not gonna pay anything much more than the months phone bill once or twice.

Though I did at first have a second guess on what appears to be an unfinished or simply broken quartz spear tip I found very recently. As I actually did when I was making a video of it cleaning up since I wanted to show someone one of the wildest EVP's I have ever recorded a got a couple mind blowing one's before. Someone was breathing right into the microphone (it sounded like someone had there face right up to it and on it) and it wasn't me as my face was more than a foot away from it and I wasn't breathing hard. Like a huge labored sighing breath in and out with a voice under it way too deep to have been mine too. It's private but you can dig around and find it's a pretty typical EVP thing to catch. It's still sitting here in my room though, I didn't experience after the fact anything bad.

 

[TORRERO]

I get rid of everything that I find one way or another, if it's valuable, I sell it, if it's not, I give it away or throw it away. If it's identifiable, I try to locate the original owner. I've never really been a superstitious person, but once I found a really nice man's ring and it was just my size, so I started wearing the found ring. From the moment I put the ring on my finger, I started having bad luck and it seemed to run for close to a month so I finally decided to take off the ring to see if my luck would change. Well, me and my wife were no longer fighting, my pet parrot stopped biting and trying to attack me every time I got around it's cage, I won some money on the lottery, a friend stopped by and brought back a tool I had loaned him two years prior, I went for my 6 month physical and the doctor said I was his star pupil. So it started coming up roses for me especially after I gave the ring away with full disclosure about the bad luck it brought me. But the new owner said they haven't had any issues. so all is good with them. So was it just me or the ring? either way I leave nothing to chance anymore.

Was it Gold or Silver ? Do you sell your gold or silver items ? I generally don't wear jewelry but I have a lot that I've found over the years..
But I have also sold a lot..
Have you ever found something that you think is a lot of money but you don't know how to estimate the value and you don't want to Fleabay because you might get less than value and then have to pay commision ? So what did you do ? (like a CW Confederate button etc)

 

[TORRERO]

I guess I must have struck a nerve, no replies? I'm not asking you to share your fines, or for a kidney and I'm not working with the government looking for taxes. Just curious. I used to have a big bowl I would pile everything in and then once a month or so, I would go through everything and decide what's worth keeping and what's junk. All the change, I would put in a tumbler if it needed cleaning before rolling them to take to the bank. Once I had given a check for $150.00 to my local school who gave me permission to hunt there. Once I totaled up all the change it totaled well over $150.00, so I kept a small portion and gave the rest to the school so the administration to do a pizza party. 61 views and nothing.

I'll reply, though I'm just seeing this post for the first time...
Some things I have sold and wish I had not, some things I have now but at 61 I'm considering selling because I won't live forever and think I would prefer cash now than have stuff go to someone I don't know..
That being said, I have been hunting for 35 years, with several years in Spain where I dug Roman and Spanish and Arabic coins and relics..
How do you determine a value of some of this stuff to sell ?
I've sold a lot of my Gold Jewelry fines but not all, and considering the market, I'm still waiting for $4,000 an ounce.. 🤣
I've started taking my coins to an Auction House local and for the silver coins I'm getting normally double silver scrap value.. people there have basically been paying me $10 for a silver quarter, and $15-$35 for a silver half, I check the values on Fleabay before to try to determine if its just scrap silver coins or something more, but I have tons of Mercury and Roosevelt Dimes... so what should I do ? Sell them at auction for $5 and pay the auctioneer $1 for selling them and keep $4 which is $2 more than silver scrap.
I have also made "bags of trinkets" each having a silver dime but also scrap tokens (think chuck e cheese etc) and scrap buttons or other stuff that I know isn't worth anything, (but I kept because it wasn't "trash") And I make little baggies and these have been a BOON at the auction, first time some lady bought all three baggies for $10 each, the second time those baggies brought $17 each, and I thought I would have been happy with $5 each...
Just trinkets... crap I can't get rid of on eBay etc..

Over the years things I have sold or traded that I wish I had not... (so I no longer have these things)
1. Slave tags from Charleston SC, (3)
2. A flintlock mechanism from a Brown Bess Rifle with the flint still in the lock from a Napoleonic war site..
3. Gold coins (2) that I dug in Spain but traded out
4. Several other things that I have traded off over the years, thinking I would find another one but never have..