EDDE
Gold Member
- Dec 7, 2004
- 7,129
- 65
- Detector(s) used
- Troy X5
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
'Finding old stuff is COOL'
‘Finding the old stuff is really cool.' | No comments posted.
Treasure hunter no longer hates history
By Dana Herra - Staff Writer
hated history so much in high school he had to take the same class four times.
Today, he pores over books on local history, looking for the best sites to take his metal detector and dig for buried treasures.
“Ninety percent of people who metal detect used to hate history,” the DeKalb resident said as he sifted through piles of metal artifacts he's unearthed. “Now, I'm always boring my girlfriend, saying, ‘Listen to what I found out today.'”
, 35, took up metal detecting about three years ago. He said his girlfriend was initially incensed when she found out he spent more than $800 on a metal detector, but said he found enough usable or salable money and jewelry to make the money back within the first two years.
“I wanted to get into a hobby,” he said. “I wasn't into sports. I don't have the money for a race car or anything. This is one of the few hobbies where you can actually make money doing it.”
Treasure hunters beware, though: warned that few people get rich metal detecting. Though his finds cover a coffee table and spill over into boxes, few of them have any monetary value, he said.
“There's not really a market. This is all really common stuff,” he said, gesturing at a collection that includes rusty or tarnished silverware, coins, jewelry and keys. “If I put it on eBay, and someone pays $50 for it, it's worth $50. But it's worth more to me because I found it and I remember the thrill I got.”
Some days, will find several interesting items, while on other days he'll search for hours and find nothing but garbage. Some of his favorite finds are coins and personal items, like a monogrammed pocket watch or a silver compact, that are more than 100 years old.
“It's not incredibly valuable, but it's valuable to me because I'm the first person to touch it in 130 years,” he said as he picked up a button that he said came from a Civil War uniform. “That's what's so cool about it.”
collection also contains nonmetal items like pottery shards, marbles and glass bottles. They are the things he finds while he's digging for a piece of metal.
“When I was a kid, we would go ride our bikes around the forest preserve, and you'd poke around and find old bottles and scrap iron,” he said. “You get older and you forget about how much fun it is to find stuff.”
The deepest has ever dug to get at an item was about 20 inches to retrieve an iron ax-head, he said. The best places to search are areas that are being dug up for construction, roadwork or sidewalk replacement, according to
“You can't go by (a roadwork site) and say, ‘Oh, I'm tired, I'll go back there tomorrow and look,' because by the time you go back, they could have it graveled and your chance is gone,” he said. “Most places that are 150 years old have been built over so many times, it's hard to find anything until they dig it up.”
favorite find, a tiny leather coin purse with 14 Indian head pennies, was found at a subdivision construction site. He's so fond of the location, he refused to say where it is, other than “somewhere in DeKalb County.”
“I'm not going to give away all my secrets,” he said, laughing. “I found four centuries' worth of coins at that one place.”
Some metal detecting hobbyists focus on finding lost jewelry in parks and playgrounds, said, but he finds that kind of detecting less fulfilling.
“I found a gold ring at a ‘tot lot,' and I was actually discouraged,” he said. “I didn't get the charge I was used to.”
Still, given the option to choose between a valuable new item and an old item with a lot of history but little valuek said he would go with the more valuable item - but just barely.
“That's a hard choice,” he admitted. “Finding the old stuff is really cool.”
Dana Herra
‘Finding the old stuff is really cool.' | No comments posted.
Treasure hunter no longer hates history
By Dana Herra - Staff Writer
hated history so much in high school he had to take the same class four times.
Today, he pores over books on local history, looking for the best sites to take his metal detector and dig for buried treasures.
“Ninety percent of people who metal detect used to hate history,” the DeKalb resident said as he sifted through piles of metal artifacts he's unearthed. “Now, I'm always boring my girlfriend, saying, ‘Listen to what I found out today.'”
, 35, took up metal detecting about three years ago. He said his girlfriend was initially incensed when she found out he spent more than $800 on a metal detector, but said he found enough usable or salable money and jewelry to make the money back within the first two years.
“I wanted to get into a hobby,” he said. “I wasn't into sports. I don't have the money for a race car or anything. This is one of the few hobbies where you can actually make money doing it.”
Treasure hunters beware, though: warned that few people get rich metal detecting. Though his finds cover a coffee table and spill over into boxes, few of them have any monetary value, he said.
“There's not really a market. This is all really common stuff,” he said, gesturing at a collection that includes rusty or tarnished silverware, coins, jewelry and keys. “If I put it on eBay, and someone pays $50 for it, it's worth $50. But it's worth more to me because I found it and I remember the thrill I got.”
Some days, will find several interesting items, while on other days he'll search for hours and find nothing but garbage. Some of his favorite finds are coins and personal items, like a monogrammed pocket watch or a silver compact, that are more than 100 years old.
“It's not incredibly valuable, but it's valuable to me because I'm the first person to touch it in 130 years,” he said as he picked up a button that he said came from a Civil War uniform. “That's what's so cool about it.”
collection also contains nonmetal items like pottery shards, marbles and glass bottles. They are the things he finds while he's digging for a piece of metal.
“When I was a kid, we would go ride our bikes around the forest preserve, and you'd poke around and find old bottles and scrap iron,” he said. “You get older and you forget about how much fun it is to find stuff.”
The deepest has ever dug to get at an item was about 20 inches to retrieve an iron ax-head, he said. The best places to search are areas that are being dug up for construction, roadwork or sidewalk replacement, according to
“You can't go by (a roadwork site) and say, ‘Oh, I'm tired, I'll go back there tomorrow and look,' because by the time you go back, they could have it graveled and your chance is gone,” he said. “Most places that are 150 years old have been built over so many times, it's hard to find anything until they dig it up.”
favorite find, a tiny leather coin purse with 14 Indian head pennies, was found at a subdivision construction site. He's so fond of the location, he refused to say where it is, other than “somewhere in DeKalb County.”
“I'm not going to give away all my secrets,” he said, laughing. “I found four centuries' worth of coins at that one place.”
Some metal detecting hobbyists focus on finding lost jewelry in parks and playgrounds, said, but he finds that kind of detecting less fulfilling.
“I found a gold ring at a ‘tot lot,' and I was actually discouraged,” he said. “I didn't get the charge I was used to.”
Still, given the option to choose between a valuable new item and an old item with a lot of history but little valuek said he would go with the more valuable item - but just barely.
“That's a hard choice,” he admitted. “Finding the old stuff is really cool.”
Dana Herra
RR
![:-\](https://www.treasurenet.com/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
...............btw nice article 
