Several years ago my father had a cheap detector and let me play with it around the yard. I spent hours finding pennies and small change which I immediately took to the store and got penny candy. Now that I am an adult I have had to retire early due to a disability. I can't get around too well and needed something, some hobby to get me out and busy and to get a little exercise that isn't too strenuous. I decided detecting is something I could do so I thought I would give it a try. My wife bought me a detector for Christmas. In the few weeks I have been doing it I have become fascinated at what finds I have seen posted on the various treasure hunters web sites. I have found a few coins in my limited experience and have got into researching historic sites for possible future detecting. So far I have located a Civil War battle site that was pretty much forgotten over the years and I am going to try to get permission to search it. It is on private property now but was Indian Territory when the battle took place in 1861. I don't expect to find much if anything, but even one expended bullet would be a treasure to me. I felt a deep sense of satisfaction from locating this site and just knowing I was standing on "hallowed ground" as Lincoln said. It's a fascinating and interesting hobby especially if you go into researching the origin of some of the things you might recover. My imagination would run wild if I were to discover an old coin, wondering who might have lost it and when and what the circumstances were. I am not in it to get rich but for the purely aesthetic values and sheer satisfaction of bringing these images to mind. If I do find a significant artifact I will most likely photograph it and donate it to one of the local museaums for others to enjoy.
Any stories,anybody?H.H.
