Whats more lucrative Old Coins or Jewelry?

MUD(S.W.A.T)

Gold Member
Apr 15, 2005
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Location: Undisclosed
Detector(s) used
I use, Whites MXT and Garrett AT Pro.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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In my experience old coins and relics seem to be worth far more than modern jewelry, plus theres alot more old relics and coins than there is modern jewelry ;)
 

My vote would be for the beach water hunters. Folks who get into the surf looking for lost jewelry. They have less competition and they are searching in an area where people lose jewelry every day. When these folks exhibit their gold and diamond finds they are always impressive.

George
 

My specialty is old pieces of foil, pulltabs and rusty nails. ?Once in awhile I happen on a clad coin, but I toss those away. ?I don't think my Ace 250 signals on jewelry or old coins.
 

I use to think coins until I saw what some of them sold for. You have to find a really scarce coin to realize much $$$ whereas one ring can be worth several thousand dollars. JIM
 

I agree with Jim, I know a guy local last year that at one beach found 59 rings out in the water, this is a well hunted beach, the story is similar for other beaches in the area as well. It doesn't take too many rings before you start accumlating a fair amount of value.

-Mke
 

Yes, but mostly you can find more less value coins. I have yet to find I piece of jewelry of a significant value. My net/value is higher in coins than it is in jewelry.

More welcome,
Keep @ it and HH!!
 

MUD(S.W.A.T) said:
Yes, but mostly you can find more less value coins. I have yet to find I piece of jewelry of a significant value. My net/value is higher in coins than it is in jewelry.

More welcome,
Keep @ it and HH!!
Mud, I would think that where you hunt makes a big difference. People that hunt the water are more apt to find jewelry than people hunting woods, farms, ect.

HH 8) surfrat
 

Okie-Colin said:
My specialty is old pieces of foil, pulltabs and rusty nails. ?Once in awhile I happen on a clad coin, but I toss those away. ?I don't think my Ace 250 signals on jewelry or old coins.

HAHAHAHA!! good one! :D
 

You have to find a lot of clad to make up for a decent ring. The difference in time is pretty dramatic if you are hunting the right spots. Like Surfrat mentioned. So is it really more lucrative if you have to do that much more work to find enough clad?

-Mike
 

This one's a "no brainier"

but,

no matter what you're hunting for,

detector/s cost, gas, batteries, coils, wear & tear on the vehicle, etc. etc.

and when you factor in these cost, and weigh them against your over-all liquidable value of all your finds,

you'll soon realize that you're lucky to recover these cost no matter what you're hunting for/finding.

Think about it,

say every sat. morning for 5 yrs in a row you fill up the car with gas ($20.00 for an avg.) and hunt every Sat. for most of the day ea and every Sat. all yr long,

xs that by 52 Saturdays per yr = $1040.00 xs 5 yrs = $5200.00 in gas alone,

travel X amount of miles ea yr, and pay for oil changes due to your travels (1 per yr due to detecting) at $35 per xs 5 yrs = $175.00

batteries 5 xs per yr at an avg. of 10.00 = 50.00 per yr xs 5 yrs = 250.00

2 detectors bought in 5 yrs for a total of say $1200.00

2 extra coils over the 5 yrs = another $250

probe, diggers, etc. over 5 yrs = $300.00 easy

Grand total for 1 day of hunting per week xs 5 yrs = $7375.00

divided by 5 yrs = $1475.00 per yr

start going detecting more than once per week, and start adding extra gas cost, battery cost, etc. to the equation, and soon you'll see that it's costing most of us probably on avg. $2000.00 or more per year,

anyone here finding $2000.00 per yr in finds??

(and remember- that's only breaking even on invested cost MINUS your actual hunting time invested) and not counting any other cost associated with detecting.

so

to profit from it in any form (whether finding coins or jewelry)??

you'd have to triple your finds per yr (in the same amount of hunting time) to make it even close to worth while monetarily!

Do some people get lucky once in a while and find a nice ring/etc. worth a $1000 or more?? Sure, but,

not usually, and not often! It's hard to sell a piece of jewelry to anyone for any decent money too because,

jewelers, etc. will only pay 10 to 20% on avg. of what it's actually worth/retails for. You may find a ring valued at 2000.00 but, the jeweler will only give you 200.00 to 400.00 for it (or a pawn shop, or antique shop, etc.).

I detect for the fun, adventure, thrill, history lessons, exercise, etc. (and the occasional good find)!
 

Lonewolf hit the nail on the head. It's possible with a lot of sweat, research, and such to find something lucrative (a cache perhaps or a rare artifact) but most of the time it's a little bit at a time over time. If your in this to get rich quick, then it's time to step back and take an overall perspective of it all.
It's like the 49ers, there were more people that got rich selling digging tools, gold pans, rockers, etc. than there were people making a real living digging for gold. If you find something valuable whether it's a ring or a rare coin, more power to you. I'll just plod along enjoying the chance to get out, exercise, and have fun lookng for whatever graces my coil at any given time.
HH
 

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