Mental preparation during the off season
Some of you lucky souls can metal detect all year around, and I envy you. As for me, it's cold and dark this time of year, and everything is frozen solid. I do use this time to keep my mind in the detecting game though. Besides reading my monthly copy of Western & Eastern Treasures and scouring the various detecting boards to see what others are finding, I try to stay productive for the Spring and Summer to come.
Evaluating and recording my last year's finds. I keep a detecting journal with addresses and notes along with the finds found. I like to review those notes and store the finds. I usually store my coin finds in a binder note book with coin holders. My unusual and unique finds like rings, pendents, etc I keep in a little chest. I also like to document those finds with a photograph so I can look up where I found them if I'm revisiting a detecting site.
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DetectorBase Image Spotlight
Buildings from a long abandoned ghost town in the western USA. Photo by Sue Smith
It had been about 9 months since my mother died when my sister called. She wanted me to go over to her house and look at some of mom's belongings and to decide what I wanted for me. Shortly after I arrived she showed me mom's jewelry box with a lot of items in it.
There were some beautiful rings and a lot of other stuff, pennies, old pins, pictures etc. While browsing through the box I noticed some big coin on the bottom.
"What is that?" I asked.
It was about the size of a dollar coin, kind of a silverish color, and had weird signs on it. I could see a triangle, a star and some wiggly lines, but no date. My sister did not know what it was and neither did I. I picked it up and looked at it.
"Do you want it?" my sister asked.
"Yea I guess so, maybe I can find out what it is."
Went back to the house later and looked at the "coin" more carefully now. It had ridges like a coin but it was not a coin. Some of the signs on the coin were stars and what looked like small suns. Slowly it dawned on me what it was. I remembered seeing the commercial in Mexican TV channels. It was called "El Talisman" and it was supposed to be some kind of good luck charm and was meant to bring you riches and good fortune, a scam to get money from unsuspecting people. Mother had probably sent for it through the mail. Mom had been bedridden for years due to the effects of rheumatoid arthritis on her joints. She could hardly move but was a whiz with the remote control. Most likely when she received it, it was thrown in the box for safekeeping. I took the coin and for no particular reason put it in the cup container of my pick up.
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I noticed the small puddle of water at the edge of the patio. I ignored it hoping it was just an accumulation of drizzle from the last week. I knew that if it was a leak I would have to reroute the water line which ran under the patio. Slowly but surely the puddle started to get bigger. Rats!! I would have to reroute the line.
It wasn't till about 3 weeks later on a Sunday morning that I decided to fix the leak. Taking my time I carefully dug a trench around the perimeter of the patio for the laying of the pipe. Didn't have to dig too deep since the frost line here is only about 3" but still it was a lot of dirt to move. After I had finished digging the trench I stood there and noticed the pile of dirt that had been displaced. I remember thinking "maybe there are some old coins there". With that premise in mind I got my Garrett 250 and started to scan the loose dirt. Not to my surprise pennies started to come out of the dirt. Memorials seemed to be the coin of the day.
I carefully worked my way along the trench and when I got to the end I got a nickel tone. Low tone. Hmmm, wonder if that is a nickel. Pushing the topsoil out I checked again. Still there. Couldn't see anything yet but all of a sudden I saw the circular shape of an object. Thinking it was just a stainless steel nut I grabbed it an pushed the dirt out of the center. Lo and behold, a gold ring!!!
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When I was living and working in Avenel N.J. I hunted the beaches south of Sandy Hook every weekend for the entire summer. One day when the wind was really blowing, there were only a couple people on the beach. I was detecting near the dunes. I had a pocket full of clad coins when I noticed a very old woman with 2 little girls about 30 yards or so that seemed like they were having trouble. I worked my way closer and saw that the little girls were crying and the lady was very upset and in tears. I walked over to them and asked what was wrong. The lady acted scared of me. She thought that I was there to harm them. After I calmed her down she imparted this story to me.
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Some of you may know that I recently purchased a Minelab Explore SE and have been having good luck recovering old nickels. Lots of the 'hunted out' spots are definitely pretty cleaned out, but everyone loves to leave behind the old nickels. I started to change my strategy a bit and focus on these, since I love finding old V-Nickels and Buffalos.
I've been hunting with the new SE for about 2.5 months. The ground finally became semi-thawed in late-February, so I have been doing most of my detecting in March and April. My nickel tally for this year in this short time is as follows:
1 Shield Nickel
11 V-Nickels
13 Buffalo Nickels
4 Jefferson War Nickels
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Tokens have been issued in every state in the Union and most territories before they achieved statehood. So, wherever you live, there is a specialty available in the tokens of one's own locality.
Tokens of the West were started simply due to the lack of coins. Prior to statehood, coins in the Montana Territory were scarce. With little or no protest from the federal government, private companies had tokens minted for them to be used for change. Tokens generally were not redeemable for cash, only credit for drinks, cigars, candy, and general merchandise. Additionally, tokens were used by company stores to extend credit to their employees, farmers, and ranchers. Generally, you could not spend it anywhere else but at the issuing merchant, and this guaranteed repeat customers. This was a general rule. Many businesses accepted other merchants' tokens. In many towns, local tokens were used as coins and were widely accepted.
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A few months ago I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Now after surgery to remove my kidney, I found myself laid up in bed recuperating for at least a month. This was driving me nuts! All I could do was ease my way to the bathroom and surf the web. I must have Google’d every topic I could think of and then some. Two weeks of lying there was really working on me. Too much time to think about the “what if”.
Anyway I searched for detectors one day and I was hooked. I had watched someone swing a big heavy metal cased detector many years before and it had always fascinated me. I ordered a Garret Ace 250 and figured it would come in about the time I was getting up and about. To my surprise it came within three days and I sat in bed with the ace spread out everywhere.
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Here are some tips that I've learned over the years to help with coinshooting success. Some of you will already know most of these, but I wanted to provide them as a refresher for the veterans, and a useful guide for all newcomers.
1. Purchase X-1 SunRay Probe or other pinpoint probe
This is a simple concept. Spend less time digging and recovering your target so you can devote more time finding new targets. If you add up all the time you're in a hole, you'll notice that time adds up considerably. If you could cut that time in half, and spend the time swinging your coil for new targets, would that be useful to you? I would say yes.
Besides having a firm grasp of your detector's pinpoint handling, you increase your recovery speed with a pinpoint probe. I'm currently using the X-1 inline SunRay probe, and I'd have to say this is a must for any detectorist. This tool allows you to switch from the X-1 probe to your normal coil with a flick of a switch. It can also give you 3" of depth, which is nice for finding the direction of targets within the hole.
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Some of you are like me and like to keep metal detecting logs recording finds, including coin tallies, and places to hunt. I also like to record my thoughts on the day/hunt, keeping track of a useful tip I may have learned or noticed interesting behaviour on a target. Sometimes I like to review these during the 'off' season to get excited about my new Spring hunts.
Along with logging my hunts, I take many trips to the library with my laptop for research. Many libraries now offer microfilm transfers to flash drives. This is great for storing scans of newspaper clippings, and using a flash drive makes it nice and easy to transfer those files to my laptop. Besides microfilm scans I write my research notes and save Google Map documents for future or current hunt sites. Don't forget those old maps files off of the internet too.
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Well there is nothing better than finding that elusive ring, old coin, civil war bullet or roman coin. Whatever you are after it's almost as fun to share what you have found! As the saying goes "A picture is worth a thousand words". It's true but mostly when we try to get that picture out in the real world it just doesn't come out as you would like.
There are several ways to capture your finds; one is by using a scanner (which is a great way but usually only coins or other flat objects can be displayed). This method is great but you tend to want to enlarge and sharpen your images so people will see a little bit better what your subject is really all about and for that you need some imaging software to help you out. Adobe Photoshop or Elements are two common programs to help with this Endeavour. The second method is the camera. This method is probably by far the best for grabbing images of any kind giving you the ability to show in a simple way what you have found. The third method is the video camera. This is fun because you can develop the story behind the object and also give many assorted views. Each method has its place and its strengths and weaknesses. On this subject I will focus on the camera.
Most of us have either a digital or a film camera at our disposal. They come in 1000's of flavors if you are in the market for one, simply go to
www.dcviews.com for the latest in digital photography. With film cameras although I truly believe they are far superior in reproduction of the moment (there are huge debates on this just Google film vs. digital) you'll need to wait for your photos to come back from the lab in order to see your results. Therefore I can attest that digital cameras are superior for ease of use, and true to the moment reproductions.
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