Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| One Group of Metal Detecting Finds. |
Here is another group of metal detecting finds. As i recently mentioned, I'd take photos approximately every two to four weeks of my most recent finds before making a trip to the bank to put the gold or better items in a safe deposit box. I ran into a group of those photos a few days ago.
I clearly remember making some of the finds, but, of course, not all of them. Since the photos were made years ago, not all of them tick out in my memory, although the longer I ponder them, the more I remember.
This group of finds includes some made on a couple hunts in Minneapolis links. I recognize, for example, the round Alcoholics Anonymous medallion bearing the Serenity Prayer. It is the large round medallion near the bottom right of the photo. Not being one of the valuable finds, I still remember where it came from. It came from a Minneapolis area lake. It bears an AA and the prayer reading “May God grant me the serenity to accept what I can’t change, the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
The 1280 was far from my all-time favorite metal detector, but it was good for that time in my learning curve. It was the only metal detector I ever sold.
I always enjoyed hunting new locations when I was traveling for business. The bad thing is that I could usually only sneak in only a little hunting time because of travel, meetings, etc.
I've told before how when I was first using that detector how I thought men lost a lot more rings than women. It turned out, it just seemed that way because I was using a fair level of discrimination and was missing a lot of the smaller women's rings like those that often hold gemstones. That all changed when I quit using discrimination and found out that women lose as many rings as men.
I remember a couple fellows in the water at the lake told me of a chain they lost and asked me to look for it. That detector, although I don't remember for sure how much discrimination I might have been using at the time, was not the best for finding gold chains, and I didn't find it. At some point, I learned that using discrimination on that detector caused a lot of missed good targets. As I recall, I found very little junk in that lake - much less than I would expect.
Besides the two big round pendants, I found a lot of silver in the lake, which included both silver coins and religious pendants. You can see some of those silver religious pendants. There were some very nice ones. You can see some of them in the fourth column. There is a very nice St. Christopher medal and a nice older Mary medallion. I wondered why there were so many religious medallions in the lark.
Each site has its own type of finds, but you also have to take into account how you are hunting and what you might be missing. You might think you are doing a good job because you might never find out what you missed. I know a some people think they get it all. Not me. I usually figure there is more. It becomes a matter of return on investment. What is the cost of continuing past a particular point?
You can often make a decent estimate of what kind of finds are likely to be found at a site. At that early point in my metal detecting, my estimates probably were not always the best. In the Minneapolis lakes there was more silver than gold and a lot of pendants relative to rings. There was a fair number of older coins.
The Minneapolis lakes, unlike the Miami beaches, produced a smaller proportion of gold and a relatively small number of finger rings. There are cultural differences between Minneapolis and Miami, and also practical difference. Generally speaking, in a cold environment like Minneapolis, you aren't going to see a lot of gaudy gold. Think about it, wearing gloves during the cold weather makes wearing big rings impractical.
Another difference is the freshwater lakes of Minneapolis produced silver that is uncorroded, whereas the silver fond on saltwater beaches is quickly corroded. Silver coins from cold freshwater sources can often be easily identified by a pretty light gun metal blue patina.
But these finds are not all from Minneapolis. There are finds from some other hunts included. For example, I remember the Parthenon medallion came from a volleyball court on Miami Beach. The group of finds were probably from a period of three of four weeks.
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| Silver Clad From Minnesota Lake and Same Dime with Photo Lightened to Show Uncorroded Surface. |
That dime is pretty typical of the U.S. silver coins found in the Minneapolis lake. The bluish patina is actually pretty attractive.
I can tell that the finds were from an early period of my metal detecting also by the junkier finds included along with the better gold finds in the photo. I quit including a lot of the less precious items in my photos as my metal detecting improved. I guess these finds came from back in the 1980s if not earlier.
One thing I should have done is kept better records, including dates and locations and other relevant details. I've made that recommendation before and don't mind repeating it because I think it is so important. You might go back to old finds and see the in a different light. You'll learn how to better evaluate finds. Some can be surprisingly difficult, like depletion guided unmarked items.
You can also see five class rings in this group of finds. I don't remember where each of those came from but I am pretty sure none of those came from the lake. Maybe if I looked at them more closely, some detail would remind me. One of the class rings is an older one from the 30s or 40s. I'd have to look at it more closely.
The gold and onyx ring at the top left of the photo might be from Pensacola, but I'm not sure because that is a common type of ring and have found several similar ones. If it is the one from Pensacola, it was found in shallow water behind the Holiday Inn at Gulf Breeze and was my first gold ring from Pensaccola, also found with the Aquanaut.
To sum it up, I once again recommend keeping good records of finds, including photos. A lot of memories and stories are carried by old finds even after decades have elapsed.
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Did you hear about the monkey that was eaten because he thought the lion wanted his banana? People often make the mistake of thinking that other people think like them.
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| Source: Surfguru.com. |
There are some nice high tides today. That along with the slightly higher surf open some spots in the more vulnerable front beaches.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net