12/13/25 Report = An Old Post Revisited: The Transformative Power of Seeking. Information and Experience. Treasure Is Where You Find It.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

One post I wrote for treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com over fifteen years ago still receives a lot of attention.  It gets tons of views every day, so I am reposting it in tbr2020.blogspot.com today will and add some additional comments to bring it up to date with my current thinking.  First, here is the original.

Information and time are two of your most valuable and probably most under-appreciated assets.

Information is worth what you make of it and is something that keeps on giving.

Your time, like it or not, is finite on this earth. What you you do with it determines its value. Every moment is either used well or wasted. You never have a second chance to use the same moment again.

Many years ago, after having visited the Treasure Coast a few times without finding any treasure coins, I saw an ad in a treasure magazine for a map of the 1715 Fleet treasure beaches. Since I didn't find any treasure coins on my first trips to the Treasure Coast, I wondered if I was really on the right beaches.

I sent my money for the map and read it carefully when I received it. The map consisted of two photocopied pages and pointed out five of the "best" treasure beach sites.

There wasn't a great amount of new information for me on the map, but it was still just what I needed. Someone who had been successful and knew what he was talking about (Roy Volker), said these were good sites. Now I knew I wasn't way off when I made a trip to detect those places.

I had accumulated a large amount of information from a variety of books and sources on my own, but I preferred having the map. It gave the important information in a concise easy to carry form, and I didn't have to page through books filled with useless information to find the locations that I sought.

Was the information on the map information that I couldn't have found for myself if I had done a bunch of research? No, of course not. But it saved me a bunch of time and quickly gave me confidence when I visited those beaches.

I don't remember how many trips it took before I actually found my first cob, but I know I made several trips before finally finding my first. And the funny thing is, when I found it, I wasn't sure what it was until I got it home and carefully examined it. In fact, my wife was ready to throw away that worn thin black disc before I told her to keep it. I remember the exact spot and how it happened still today.

But one point that I want to emphasize is the value of information. I paid something for that information, and it was valuable even though there wasn't a lot of it and even though I might have been able to go to the library to research it by myself. I saved hours and hours of time and got confidence that I probably would not have achieved on my own. And that information was cheap - certainly not enough to compensate the originator for his time and experience.

I could have easily spent tons of hours on research without the same results. You might say that library information is free, but the hours I would have spent would have been a much greater cost than what I paid for the map. And who knows how the chain of events leading up to today might have changed.

All of the information you get from this blog is free. And the time I spend on it is very valuable - if only to me.

In my opinion, every mature adult should figure what an hour of their time is worth to them and what they would sell it for.

Time is precious, and good information in the right format can help you make the most of your time.

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That is still a good post.

The original post was written in the days before AI, and it was before many of the metal detecting and treasure hunting sites existed.  Today there is more available information to be navigated.

Since the original post I've become even more aware of the value of time and the transformative power of accumulated experience.  Information is best validated through personal experience and the combination of good information and accumulated personal experience is transformative.

It has been said that information is power, but that is true only if you use the information. Information validated by personal experience is effective and powerful. It gives the kind of confidence you need.  You have seen it work so you know it works; you how it works and you understand it in a new way.

The one big benefit of aging is the deepening of the soul.  Life becomes deeper; experiences become more meaningful; and the soul grows richer.  

One thing I emphasized in the original post is the need to value your time.  If you've ever charged for your time in a business or profession, you understand something about how that works. But when you are done with your profession or business, your personal time still has a value - an even bigger value as the amount of available time seems to be diminishing. The remaining time is at a premium.  There is no need to wait until the remaining time runs low to appreciate the value of time. 

In the early years, when time seems virtually unlimited, you can spend a lot of unproductive time, although it might not be as unproductive as it seems.  You might still be able to make use of the experience later if you are self-observant and learn from it.  Thoughtfully connsider your failures as well as your successes.  You will increase the richness of your lived experience.

Confidence is important when you metal detect.  How often have you searched and searched unproductively as your doubts grew.  You might doubt your metal detector.  You might doubt your skill, or if there is anything left to be found. You might wonder if you are at the right place.

Detectorists seem to always be looking for a better metal detector.  That is one of the first things detectorists tend to blame for failures.  There will always be a market for a "better" detector.  But remember the metal detector is only a tool.  Treasure was found before metal detectors ever existed.  Don't depend too much on your metal detector.  As I've said before, a metal detector won't find treasure for you.   You have to find treasure.  You have to put the coil over treasure before the metal detector will tell you anything.

Treasure finds, in the end, are always within.  It is about the transformation that takes place during the search.

Ask and you will receive.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and it will be opened unto you.

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

Looks like a good one-day bump in the surf coming up.

I'm really missing the Fort Pierce Jetty Beach Cam.  It has been off-line for a few days.   It provided a good view of a very vulnerable area of the beach.

I still have to conclude my How Coins Move series.  

Still have some things that I need to finish cleaning too.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net