Metal Detecting - Treasure
Discussion
After a little googling & a chat with a metal detector user today, Im left with the impression that it would be impossible to spend an afternoon scanning without finding some pre decimal coins, and if you put in the hours its likely that you'd find gold rings too (eventually). Not question of if you'll find a gold ring on a beach, but when, depending on how much time is spent looking, which goes against the believe that 'you'll never find anything of value, just old buckles' belief Ive heard echoed (without mentioning any names, diddyman 
)
The chap I spoke to once found 22 gold rings in one day
That was 30 years ago though. An impossible task in todays world.
Thinking of getting one as I live a few mintues walk from the beach. Has anyone else owned one, and scanned beaches?
>> Edited by UKbob on Monday 18th July 17:34
) The chap I spoke to once found 22 gold rings in one day
That was 30 years ago though. An impossible task in todays world. Thinking of getting one as I live a few mintues walk from the beach. Has anyone else owned one, and scanned beaches?
>> Edited by UKbob on Monday 18th July 17:34
Your best bet is to scan fields and areas that have ancient villages in them, places that haven't been excavated. You'll find all kinds of stuff.
Aerial photographs of your area are a good clue, you can often spot signs of previous habitation by the parch marks that are left. Just make sure you get the farmer's permission
Aerial photographs of your area are a good clue, you can often spot signs of previous habitation by the parch marks that are left. Just make sure you get the farmer's permission
ofcorsa said:Of corsa do
do you have time for another hobby bob?
(he says) parrot of doom said:What are the rules on finding objects? I read tonight that, if the item was buried it belongs to the government (no suprise there then!) if it was on the surface, its yours. If the item is buried on private land, then with permission from the farmer to keep your finds, nothing needs to be handed over to the government, even if it is of historic or monetary value?
Your best bet is to scan fields and areas that have ancient villages in them, places that haven't been excavated. You'll find all kinds of stuff.
Aerial photographs of your area are a good clue, you can often spot signs of previous habitation by the parch marks that are left. Just make sure you get the farmer's permission
re: jewlery found on the beach, once handed in to the bib, the cooling period is still one month, right?
Balmoral Green said:
When I was a teenager I used to be into this, found all sorts of stuff, nothing big, but enough for me to make more money than the usual kids part time job like a paper round
Ohhh, do tell! What was yer most valuable find? And gold, or diamond encrusted rings per chance? What percentage of finds tends to be bottle tops etc, vs coins?
There is definitely a very strong 'goldfeverish' "What if!" inspiration which makes you want to try it out.
BeachComberBob doesnt quite have the right ring to it though
planetdave said:Thanks Dave!
Basic rules here
www.channel4.com/history/timeteam/faqs_2.html
Check this out Some bloke said:
BEACHCOMBING TIPS
It’s unbelievable! Those words were repeated over and over again – a recent trip to the Queensland Gold Coast beaches proved this just after some stormy weather. After a quick inspection of the damage done by the rough seas I found that the sand dunes had been undercut at a point where literally thousands of people had previously been.
Returning to the car to collect my metal detector, I went back to the spot and adjusted it to the ground conditions, as there was a fair bit of black sand deposited on the beach. Within 15 seconds, I had found my first coin, and then another and another – the detector just went crazy!
An amazing thing happened – there was no junk to be found. Every signal was either a coin or a valuable jewellery item all of them giving a short, loud and positive response. It was realized that the force of the waves pulled all the lighter junk items such as aluminium pull tabs from this part of the beach into the ocean leaving all the coins within eight feet of the sand bank. The area close to the water was checked, but the results were negative in this instance. After ten minutes of detecting, the first jewellery item was found - a gold zodiac pendant.
A pattern started to emerge with coins being found in ‘channels’ of up to 20 coins in one spot. I could even hear more coins ‘down under’ but I was finding enough to cope with without going deeper. I will recover these later at a time when more sand is washed away. On many occasions I found coins up to 20 inches deep plus – I know that because my whole arm was in the hole! In just over 2 hours I had only detected an area of approximately 12 feet x 8 feet.
With the tide starting to change, I continued to detect along the bank and after about another 4 hours, I called it a day. In total I had found just over 700 coins including a few foreign ones. The condition ranged from near new to extremely ‘grotty’ as well as 18 rings, 4 pendants, 1 gold ingot which had broken off a chain plus other miscellaneous ‘bits and pieces’."
Some bloke said: BEACHCOMBING TIPS
It’s unbelievable! Those words were repeated over and over again – a recent trip to the Queensland Gold Coast beaches proved this just after some stormy weather. After a quick inspection of the damage done by the rough seas I found that the sand dunes had been undercut at a point where literally thousands of people had previously been.
Returning to the car to collect my metal detector, I went back to the spot and adjusted it to the ground conditions, as there was a fair bit of black sand deposited on the beach. Within 15 seconds, I had found my first coin, and then another and another – the detector just went crazy!
An amazing thing happened – there was no junk to be found. Every signal was either a coin or a valuable jewellery item all of them giving a short, loud and positive response. It was realized that the force of the waves pulled all the lighter junk items such as aluminium pull tabs from this part of the beach into the ocean leaving all the coins within eight feet of the sand bank. The area close to the water was checked, but the results were negative in this instance. After ten minutes of detecting, the first jewellery item was found - a gold zodiac pendant.
A pattern started to emerge with coins being found in ‘channels’ of up to 20 coins in one spot. I could even hear more coins ‘down under’ but I was finding enough to cope with without going deeper. I will recover these later at a time when more sand is washed away. On many occasions I found coins up to 20 inches deep plus – I know that because my whole arm was in the hole! In just over 2 hours I had only detected an area of approximately 12 feet x 8 feet.
With the tide starting to change, I continued to detect along the bank and after about another 4 hours, I called it a day. In total I had found just over 700 coins including a few foreign ones. The condition ranged from near new to extremely ‘grotty’ as well as 18 rings, 4 pendants, 1 gold ingot which had broken off a chain plus other miscellaneous ‘bits and pieces’."
Krusty said:Well done that man
A Brother of a work colleague scanned the homelands festival field immediately after the weekend concert and found 3K in 2 days
Where you search is probably the most important aspect of the hobby/sport. I assume he handed it all over at the local police station and got most if not all of it back after a while?Here's my view of metal detectors:
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=164872&f=141&h=0&hw=metal+detectors
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=164872&f=141&h=0&hw=metal+detectors
srebbe64 said:Without reading your entire post (something Ill do in a minute) how can you for a minute assume that detectors dont hand everything into the police?? I for sure would, and will. I'll likely get most of it back, but handing things in is an understanding and practise that is shared by "nearly all" MD's.
Here's my view of metal detectors:
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=164872&f=141&h=0&hw=metal+detectors
Dunno mate, the treasure hunting aspect is great, but there are plenty of stories of happy reunions of people and their posessions out there too. And Ive not yet stumbled upon anyone who doesnt hand their finds over to the bib, who (it seems) nearly always hand it back after a period of time.
UKbob said:
A Brother of a work colleague scanned the homelands festival field immediately after the weekend concert and found 3K in 2 days
Well done that man
If he just found coins that were on the surface would he still have to hand it in to the police
Cotty said:£3k of what was found, modern coins and rings?
Krusty said:
A Brother of a work colleague scanned the homelands festival field immediately after the weekend concert and found 3K in 2 days
Well done that man
If he just found coins that were on the surface would he still have to hand it in to the police
Rings Id hand in, coins Id keep. No one reports 5 pound coins missing to the bib?
When you hand something over to the bib though, they *have* to give it back, unless the owner is found, correct?
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