Riverbanks – Ponds – Lakes – Swimming Holes: These locations are true treasure hunting top spots. The Riverbank is a huge area that can provide a lifetime of detecting. River banks were used as ferry crossings, and some had covered bridges with toll stations. The local old timers may be able to tell you where the local fishing and old swimming spots were. Remember many of the old fishing spots were also drinking and partying spots, and at the swimming holes a lot of people took off their outer clothes, losing change as they did. And going back even earlier in the years, folks would take their clothes to the riverbanks to wash them in the water. The same goes for old farm ponds, many were used as a favorite summer time swimming spot or picnic area. The banks and shores of rivers, ponds, streams, lakes etc, are great locations for coins, jewelry, trinkets and more.

Schools – Churches: These are also ‘HOT’ areas for metal detecting, most towns or even rural areas have a school, some have multiple ones. Schools that are currently open during school season are a great place to find modern coins and even a few clad coins, also numerous trinkets, diecast cars, and cheaper jewelry items can easily be found on modern school grounds.

If you are as lucky as I am, then you live in a rural or country area that keeps a lot of their old buildings. I know where there are two old buildings that served as one room school houses, these places were open in the late 1800’s to the early 1940’s. Just imagine the wonderful finds these old grounds may be hiding. The old one room school houses also served as churches, social halls, farm grange buildings, and as meeting places for scouts, ladies aid societys and more.

Many old Churches and one room school houses had there own treasure chests, that’s right. When these buildings were constructed, the local kids and adults would bury a chest on the grounds or under a corner stone of the building. The chest was a sort of time capsule containing coins, newspapers and other unique items from the time when the building was erected. Many of these old buildings rotted away over time, and folks forgot about the buried time capsule located near the corner stone.

Searching the land a church is on is like searching for a pirates loot, you never know what you may find. And a lot of churches are very old, even many of the modern ones are like schools, they are built on the grounds where old ones stood. Churches were often the first buildings built in many towns. Right here where I live are numerous churches, and one was built in the early 1700’s. Church buildings not only housed people on sundays but, most were wedding sites, reception halls, dance halls, dinner sites, ice cream social locations, group meeting spots and much more.

Woods – The woods can be awesome for metal detecting if one knows what to look for. Look for old paths, those are great places to detect along. Old paths in the woods served as shortcuts to open fields for farmers to get their equipment through, or for cattle to follow and more. In a wooded area not far from where I grew up as a child I know where there is an old path, now grown up with trees and bushes, most folks would overlook it or not know it’s history. My grandfather and dad built the road by blasting stumps with dynamite and by hand cutting trees. They used the path to quickly get tractors, and other farm machinery to another open field below the woods. Just imagine the number of times my own dad and grandfather probably sat along that old road, eating their lunch or sipping some cool lemonaid underneath the shade of a large tree. Any time someone sat along a road eating lunch, they would often pull an old cloth hanky from their pocket to blow their nose or even wipe their mouth, often losing some pocket change at the same time.

Another rare but great metal detecting site that can often be found in the woods is old stone foundations and old stone chimneys, each has the potential for a rare gold coin or a jar of old silver dollars. Remember at one time this old stone foundation or fireplace was part of a familys home, with kids playing, parties and numerous outdoor activites.

Some other great Metal Detecting sites are – Parks, Beaches, Old Ball Fields, Playgrounds, Fairgrounds, Camping Sites, Camps, Ghost Towns, Battlefields, Old Picnic Spots. Make sure that you have permission to search and dig in any location you are going to do your detecting at.

There is Computer Software that is made just for the hobby of Metal Detecting. The software is called: ‘Metal Detector – Treasure Hunter Professional’, and may be seen at this website address:

http://www.rb59.com/md/meal.html

By Robert W. Benjamin

Copyright © 2006

You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter on your web site as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and without modification except for formatting needs or grammar corrections.

Metal Detectors use one of three types of technology:

BFO (Beat Frequency Oscillation) – Metal Detectors using BFO technology have two coils of wire, one large coil is located in the search coil of the detector, the other small coil of wire is located within the System Control Pack. Each coil of wire is connected to an oscillator that produces pulses of current. These pulses of current pass through the coils generating radio waves. A receiver housed within the System Control Pack receives the radio waves and makes a series of tones based upon the frequencies of the radio waves. When the detector search coil passes over a coin or other metal item a magnetic field is created around the coin or metal item, this magnetic field causes interference with the frequency of the radio waves generated by the search coil. And changes the tone produced by the reciever.Metal Detectors using BFO technology are the ones your likely to get when paying under $100 for, that’s right, the cheapies. The BFO technology is the easiest and cheapest to make, thus the prices of the detectors are cheap. The only problem is, BFO technology is very limited when compared to PI and BFO detectors, and the ability to distinguish between junk metals and silver or other coins is very poor.

PI (Pulse Induction) – Metal Detectors using PI technology sometimes use a single coil or a series of coils working together as a transmitter and receiver. Short bursts of electrical current are send through a coil of wire, causing a magnetic field. When the burst of electrical current ends the magnetic field reverses polarity. A sharp electrical spike is created, then more pulses are created, the whole process repeats and works like a series of echoes, giving a different report or echo depending upon the metal it encounters. This type of metal detector is not very good for discrimination between different types of metals or coins, but it is good to use where some other types of metal detectors have trouble working, such as in salt-water, and metals can be detected much deeper with this technology than the others.

VLF (Very Low Frequency) – Metal Detectors using this technology have two search coils. One coil called the ‘transmitter coil’ transmits electricity rapidly many times per second, first in one direction around the coil, then in the other direction. The other coil called the ‘Receiver Coil’ acts just like the name implies it receives frequencies or data that come or ‘bounce’ back from the objects the transmitter coil detects in the search area. This type of Metal Detector is great for it’s ability for being able to distinguish between different types of metals.

The first metal detector my wife and I bought together cost about $69.00 it was one of them cheap ones that used the ‘BFO’ technology. This was one of them metal detectors you see in the magazines that sell other household items, etc. You can buy cheap metal detectors like these at most Radio Shack stores, and some K Marts and Wal Marts. The first day we took the metal detector outside we started finding some neet things and my wife and I were hooked. We did find our share of junk items in the yard, like aluminum foil, nails and the usual pull tabs and junk metal. But we also found 7 old diecast cars in great condition. They were all different and were ‘TOOTSIE’ diecast vehicles. I looked on eBay and the bunch was worth around $15 or more. We also found a 1961 silver Roosevelt dime in fine condition, in our yard, plus the usual pennies.

After reading about how the 3 different types of Metal Detector technologies work and differ from each other, you must decide how or what you will be mostly using your metal detector for. Will you be hunting for small objects like coins, jewelry and gold nuggets, or searching for a large cache or object. The things you may want to use your detector for, play one of the most important factors besides pricing in deciding what type of detector to buy. Most folks want a detector that is great at finding coins, gold nuggets, and jewelry on the land and in small creeks and streams, this would be a detector using ‘VLF’ technology. Almost all of the modern detectors have a waterproof search coil which make searching in shallow creeks and streams possible.

There is Computer Software that is made just for the hobby of Metal Detecting. The software is called: Metal Detector – Treasure Hunter Professional, and may be seen at this website address:

http://www.rb59.com/md/meal.html

By Robert W. Benjamin

Copyright © 2006

You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter on your web site as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and without modification except for formatting needs or grammar corrections.