What is the SD on these? How much money and jewelry can you expect to find? Are these enjoyable or do you mostly find junk? I live in Atlanta and while there are no beaches nearby there are some historical sites. Are there many places one can expect to find and keep historical items, or are most of these protected such that one can’t keep your finds?
I have a White’s Eagle Spectrum.
“Success” with a metal detector depends upon on the following:
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Effort. The more time you spend treasure hunting, the more treasure you’ll find (all else being equal).
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Skill. The more experience you have, the better you’ll be able to discriminate between treasure and junk.
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Location. You must go to the library and do historical research to find the best locations.
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Luck.
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Quality of Equipment. As with anything else, skill is more important than tools. So don’t go overboard here; a mid-line White’s or Garrett is all you need.
So to answer the OP - yes, you can find treasure. Just keep in mind the above list.
Along the lines or Crafter_Man’s location criteria;
I’ve heard of collectors searching the areas around abandoned outhouses.
It seems that people stumble out to the outhouse in the dark with their hand in their pockets. As they remove their hands to open the door things come out and aren’t noticed.
Apparently, outhouses were also moved regularly and a tree was planted in the old location so a team of horses wouldn’t be driven across the soft dirt.
Good luck!
I would say that unless you’re also interested in metal detecting in general, i.e. how it works, archeology etc., you’re going to be bored out of your mind within 2 days. Metal detecting is a hobby, an activity, not a way to make money.
Not to be totally negative, it can be a very fun hobby (for some)!
People in europe has been able to make profits by metal detectoring for ancient Roman coins buried where the old empire used to lie. Go on ebay and search for “Uncleaned coins”, these are mostly found by metal detectorists. So if you got the right location, you can indeed find many historical artifacts.
In the case of the Roman coins, there are often laws, both governmental and mafial, er, mafia-ish that prohibits just some random schmo from waltzing in a field to metal detect, but there are places where you can do it freely. You can also have a lot less trouble if you get on the good side with the local people/mafia/professional antique hunters.
Emily Yoffe wrote an article about metal detecting for Slate magazine not too long ago. It’s titled
“Full Metal Racket: The perverse thrill of metal detecting, the world’s worst hobby.”