Ever since I found a coin as a kid I’ve been infected with the treasure hunting bug. And once it bites, it never relents. I bought my first metal detector when I was 22. Since then I have amassed a boatload of coins and jewelry, not to mention a mass of relics. You may never get rich as some individuals have, but you will make a lot of money finding coins, gold jewelry and ancient relics.
Guaranteed. Ah, but there is a caveat! You really need to learn how to use your metal detector.
I started out with a White’s Coinmaster. It cost me about $299 at the time. My wife thought it was a waste of money. The very first thing I found was an antique toy from the 1930s. My ex likely still has it, but I digress. I also found several coins that day, a couple of them silver (1964 minted coins and below all contain silver, except the penny and the nickel).
I set up a practice garden in my back yard. There I buried coins at various depths. When the detector went over a coin, I remembered the sound each coin made. In no time I knew what to dig for and what trash was and not worth digging for. You’d be amazed at how many bottle caps are under the ground! And junk!
After a few years I was really good at finding coins. My best day I found over 500 coins and got a sunburn. The community had drained a shallow pond where kids went swimming. They likely drained it because of the drownings that occurred every summer.
The ex and I spent 6 hours in the driest part of the pond and could barely move before we had to dig. Watches (a few still working!), gold and silver rings by the handful, necklaces, wristbands, bracelets, toys, trinkets and more came alive from under the still moist soil. I made about $3,000 that day alone, returned the next day and made the same.
On the third day water was back in the pond! The city had received so many complaints from the public that they caved to the pressure and made the pond open for swimming again. My darn luck, as I had only covered perhaps one percent of the pond. There’s still a load of treasure there.
My wife became convinced that first day and so I bought her a metal detector. We also bought season tickets to the Cleveland Indians pro baseball team, a couple of cars, guns, a camper, truck, race cars, and a host of other niceties.
Treasure hunting was paying off quite well for us. I scoured the local library for news articles about the Civil War, old fairground sites and more. Researching paid well. We also subscribed to a few treasure hunting magazines to stay up with new tech and related gear. My $300 investment paid off handsomely over the course of a few years. And one time I found a gallon of coins that some unfortunate kid lost. I picked up over $700 and went home!
Then one day we saw an advertisement that looked promising. Professional Treasure Hunt, the banner read. I ate it up like a starving vagrant. But was I good enough? I questioned by skills despite by experience, then decided, yes, I’ll go pro. And I did.
We drove the truck and camper rig to an extremely large patch of land. Hundreds of campers showed up for the weekend. Some had their finds on display for sale. I never thought about that! Okay, strike one on me.
The first hunt was 30 minutes. Buried were Lincoln head pennies, silver dollars, and prize tokens. I was excited. The flare gun went off and we were off, about 80 of us. I’d say. I found only a handful of pennies and no silver dollars, but I did find one token. I went to claim my prize; it was a 0ne-year membership to the Civil War Hunter’s Club in Nashville, Tennessee. Strike two on me.
Six hunts and a weekend later, I had a respectable haul. My $75 entry fee returned about $300. It basically made me break even. But what a blast! I learned some great tips from real pros, which I admitted I was not among them. Strike three.
Racing cars got in the way of my treasure hunting and it dropped off dramatically as I travelled around a couple of states to race on dirt tracks, then there was the divorce because of racing costs and a couple of bad crashes.
To this day I still find coins, jewelry and relics. If you ever get the chance, start looking at the ground where you walk. It will make you more aware of your surroundings, and your eyes will pick up valuable things most people walk over on a daily basis. Trust me, you don’t have to be a pro.
