Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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Urban Prospector
Source: New York Post.
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There are many places and ways to treasure hunt. but people are usually on a very narrow track. They might try one or two or maybe three kinds of hunting, but there are many others that they never even consider.
While most of the time I metal detect on the beach,, I have done some other very different things, but there are still many others that I have never tried.
There are some types of hunting that most of us would never think of. For example, there is a fellow that hunts the cracks and pot holes in the streets in the New York diamond district ( photo above). He extracts the accumulated debris and later pans it.
You can view the video of how he works the streets by going to this old post.
https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2011/12/122611-report-one-strange-place-to-find.html
I really recommend taking a look at that video.
You might be surprised by how much you can find on the streets. Without even trying, I can remember finding, a heavy gold chain, gold bracelet, gold earrings, and Gucci and other watches on the streets, so I'm not at all surprised by the success of that fellow.
Parking lots are good too. You have a good chance if at first light of day you search in front of a glitzy but rowdy bar after a busy night. I learned that when I arrived early one morning to detect and found a heavy gold chain after getting out of the car.
I once found a gold ring that had been smashed by cars in a puddle in a parking lot. I looked for the gem stone in the puddle too, but I don't remember if I found the gem stone or not. I doubt it, or I'd probably remember it.
When I lived down south and visited the shopping malls with my wife, I'd spend a lot of time scanning the floor especially around the edges of the jewelry cabinets and under the clothes racks. You might be surprised by how often you could find an earring backing or some other little piece, like maybe a small stone that popped off. That isn't what we typically think of as treasure hunting, but for me it was.
I used to find valuable old books at thrift stores. That is not as easy now because of how the collectible book market has changed as a result of the internet. That was also a type of treasure hunting for me.
My point is, no matter what type of hunting you do, there are other types of hunting that you might not think of. People naturally fall into habits, and those habits can become constricting.
I believe that despite the amount of sharing that takes place these days, most finds are never reported or publicized. Those that are publicized usually don't reveal much of anything that is radically new . People that are onto something really new and exciting often aren't ready to publicize what they are doing. And they are too busy.
It is good to be skeptical, but a person can dismiss things too quickly because of the limited range of their own experiences and imagination. That is a real danger.
Most beach hunters have not done much cache hunting, for example, and there are a lot of different ways to do cache hunting. You can do it like they do it on the Curse of the World War II Gold TV program, which for my taste is way too much like the Oak Island show, or you can do it many other ways. Glenn Carson wrote a book on the subject, but I haven't seen a lot written on the subject. There are so many places and ways to do it, and the hits are not real frequent.
People who renovate houses have an inside track on cache hunting. There are things stuffed away in nooks and crannies that are forgotten. I know that for sure. You can occasionally stumble on a find like that, or you can intentionally hunt things like that and become skilled at it.
Abandoned houses, shacks, barns often conceal nice treasures too.
I define "treasure hunting" way more broadly than "metal detecting." Although I enjoy and have done a lot of metal detecting, I have done some other types of hunting too - some of which are less common and less written about. There are many other ways to hunt for things. I personally like what I call eye-balling, which can be practiced in more places and will result in different kinds of finds.
As we all know, beach metal detecting is a great activity. It offers so much. Being outside is nice. The exercise is good. And you never know what you might find. And in my opinion, it is a great educational activity. There is so much you can learn from it. It is also a challenge.
It is important to evaluate information and ideas, but I think creativity is as important as skepticism. Things can be too quickly accepted or too quickly dismissed.
When you see or hear something that you think is impossible, at least entertain for a minute the possibility that there might be something you haven't thought of. Ask yourself how it might be possible. You might discover brand new opportunities when you challenge your own skepticism.
For me, a lot of the fun of treasure hunting is the creative process. Don't let treasure hunting become a mindless mechanical repetition. There are always new things to learn and different ways to do things.
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Megan Green made a great find in 2017. It was a 1969-S Lincoln Double Die Obverse cent.
Megan took up coin collecting when her young daughter had a serious heart defect. Megan needed a diversion and began searching coins. She searched wrapped rolls and boxes of coins she got from the bank. After a while she gave up, but then started up again after a taking a break.
Not only did the hobby provide the diversion she need during trying times, but it also helped with medical expenses. The 1969-S double die cent find was valued by PCGS at $24,000.
That story was reported in greater length in the May 21, 2018 issue of Coin World.
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Here is an article you might want to read about how cash is being replaced by other methods of exchange. I've talked about that some in the past. I disagree with some of what is in the article, but you might find some of the ideas interesting.
It starts...
A cashless society has been a talking point for futurists for years, but for one reason or another, has never quite been within our grasp. Now, like the electric car and clean energy, it’s finally happening - and it’s about time...
https://transferwise.com/us/blog/the-disappearing-paper-why-cash-is-a-dying-payment-method
In my opinion there are some very good reasons to use cash and some real dangers to cashless systems.
But what will be the impact on detectorists? It will hurt some more than others. Many are not interested in finding modern coins anyhow.
The article mentioned that the average life of paper currency is only six years. It looks to me like the life of a zinc penny might not be much better. I've been seeing a real high percentage of 2018 and 2019 pennies lately.
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Have you ever noticed those slide show articles, like Ten Most Expensive Cars or something like that. For each and every paragraph you have to click a NEXT icon. I hate those, they are click-bait, and I just refuse to do them. If I really want to see the information, I try to find the same information somewhere else, and you usually can, because they steal the information and put it in a form that requires you to click to see each paragraph, and each paragraph come with a bunch of ads. Tyup
I don't do Facebook or some of the other things either.
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Thanks for all the kind reponses to my Mother's Day post
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The Treasure Coast surf for the next week or so will be only one or two feet.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
