Gold coin collecting can be an exciting hobby to take up. After all, who doesn’t enjoy the lure of a shiny gold coin? Maybe you’ve watched movies where villains hunted down valuable Krugerrands, you could have a part of that too, only in your case, buying and selling old rare coins isn’t an illegal activity! Still, it is a hobby with a unique and thrilling flare.

Some of the old rare coins are the most valuable, but most legitimate rare coin dealers warn openly that dealing in the gold collection is more of a neutral investment for your money.

Don’t expect to land huge bargains or get great return on your Sovereigns or Brittanias. Dealers note that the market for gold has stabilized and won’t provide rich profits, but they also point out that gold remains a reliable commodity.

Gold coin collecting can be made even more exciting when the words “sunken treasure” appear. Common tales of pirate gold and sunken ships stir up all sorts of thoughts of riches and instant wealth for people, and some people know very well that sunken treasure and gold coin collecting can be an attractive lure.

It’s quite true that sunken treasure does exist, and rare coin dealers or collectors are always excited when treasure coins are dragged upwards from ocean depths. That doesn’t mean that every dealer claiming to have coins procured from sunken treasure has something you should invest in.

Banks are a great place to get additions for your gold collection hobby. For old rare coins, however, rare coin dealers are possibly your best option. Be careful, though. Some of the dealers also specialize in scamming customers.

While the overwhelming majority of them are honest and reputable, a handful of the dealers will give the entire industry a bad name. Be sure to do a good amount of research on the dealer you plan to use before purchasing any old rare coins.

Always look for dealers that subscribe to the Professional Numismatists Guild (commonly known as PNG) for your gold coin collecting. There are thousands of dealers all over the internet (and especially auction sites such as eBay), but these dealers do not always maintain the recognized code of ethics of the PNG.

The PNG requires many specific things for dealers to be members, making guild members a good choice to do business with. For buyers’ convenience, the PNG has a dealer directory to ensure honest business.

There is a wealth of information on the internet for gold coin collecting, sunken treasures, the commodity of gold, and rare coin dealers. If you’re planning to delve into the hobby of the gold collection, be sure to do your homework and research to know what you’re getting into.

Start small, don’t get too excited, and always be careful in what you’re investing your money into. Deal with reputable dealers or individuals that subscribe to the PNG, and avoid bargain offers that seem too good to be true or ones hyped up with tempting tales of pirate ship gold.

Mike Selvon has a passion for coin collecting, and his portal has the best information on gold coin collecting. Visit his portal for your free gift and leave a comment at his coin collecting blog.

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Whether you are a novice or experienced treasure hunter nothing is more important than that one great find of the day, but many treasure hunters miss that great find by not digging everything, or by being asked to leave a site, right before digging that last ping, because they didn’t ask permission to hunt there, well here are some ideas and tips to help you get “your” great find.

1. Can I hunt here?

First and foremost, always get permission to hunt a site, even when it is a public place like a beach or park, one way I have gotten permission for these types of places is to offer a free service, for instance, ask the caretaker if they would like you to remove all the sharp metal objects buried in the sand, like flip tops, and crushed cans, provided you can keep or properly dispose of what is found, they are more likely to allow you access if they get something useful out of it, like having their beach cleaned and unsafe items removed, and feel free to show them what hazards you have removed from their patrons harm, so they will allow you to return often, of course you don’t show the coins, jewelry, or valuables you also sifted out of the sand.

2. Bad times = good times for you!

Although where to hunt is important , it’s also “when” you hunt some places that makes the most difference. When hunting beaches almost anytime is OK but how much better would your hit rate be if you went after a very hot and busy beach day? well you might think that improves your chances of finding some valuables, and it does, but what would be better is take the same scenario as before, but add the element of a mid-day, or late afternoon, thunderstorm that came with out warning, now you are adding the fact that many beach goers, caught unaware of the impending storm until the first cloudburst, are now all racing around to collect their belongings and trying to get out of the deluge, in this instance many people will find they have lost something valuable, and just a note on jewelry, anything found with engravings or inscriptions, you should always try to locate the original owner if possible, most times a reward will be offered, and you will make someone’s day great. Another great time to go to beaches or around lakes is after a huge storm, where erosion has occurred, inland lakes only require heavy downpours or snowmelt to expose items previously buried too deep to find, but on the shore hurricanes, and nor’easters are best for exposing much older, deeper items missed in the past, sometimes including gold coins from ancient shipwrecks. If you live near a northern shore where large amounts of snow accumulates over the winter, the first spring snowmelt is also likely to erode enough beach to expose older buried treasures previously missed by other detectorists.

3. History lessons!

Research your areas history. In my town we have a building that is host to housing a middle aged couple who also have the small luncheonette run by them on the ground floor, and engraved in the wooden columns is a date: built 1786, so while waiting for my sandwich I asked what this place was originally, and was told it was a stage-coach stop, so I proceeded to ask if they also owned the dirt parking area across the street, and they told me no one knows if anyone owns it, I told her why I asked, and she offered to allow me to not only search the public area across the street, but if I let her know when I am there I can search all the property around the building their family has owned for generations. Many area’s local historical societies can provide guidance as to what area’s were first developed and which roads or sites still exist today, and will offer locally written books about the settlement and development of the area, many of which will include a large old building which was a hostel/bordello in it’s day, which means allot of traffic in one place for many people to lose their belongings, even something as seemingly insignificant as a metal button can bring in a high cash value if it is old but identifiable, people have found very old coins and jewelry as well, when I picked out a silver medal of “Mary” I didn’t think much of it, it was all black and crusty, but later when going through my findings I picked it out and carefully cleaned it to reveal the rock she is standing on has the date 1839, and was found on the grounds of a building that was built in 1886, along with a few coins from the early 1800’s, by the way the building was also a bordello during the first world war, it is located near naval docks!

4. Tools of the trade!

Ok you found a good spot to hunt and got permission, you have a metal detector, what else do you need? Well for beach hunting as well as other types of hunting you will need to start with at least two zippered or Velcro pouches, like a belly bag, or you can use a builder’s pocketed apron, one will be used to hold your good or questionable findings, the other you will use for obvious trash dug up, when beach hunting you will need a sand scoop, preferably with a wire mesh basket, wire mesh scoops tend to be lighter than perforated stainless steel baskets, you want the holes small enough to prevent a half dime from slipping through, if they are bigger you might miss out on small rings as well, for other types of treasure hunting you will need a sharp serrated digging tool, many of which look like a hunting knife, but if the blade is shaped like a trowel shovel it will be easier to dig through hard rocky, packed dirt, especially if there are dense tree or shrubbery roots to cut through to get down to your prize, in this case a long metal probe is useful for narrowing down where to dig, by inserting it around the area where you got your ping, you can tell whether it is buried deep or shallow, and with numerous probings you can determine the general shape of the object before digging it out of the dirt. Always wear leather gloves when digging to protect your hands from glass, sharp metal objects, or sharp stones.

Happy Hunting To All!

Copyright 10/2006
Daniel Chiapperino
www.dans-digital-discount-emporium.com

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If you happen to be one of those lucky people who lives either near the ocean or a large body of water the chances are that you could go searching for lost treasure in the sand with a metal detector. Beachcombing is particular popular with treasure hunters because of the sands grain makeup makes it easy to dig up and find those missing treasures and valuables. During this article we will provide tips on how to find the most treasure and valuables while out metal detecting in the sand.

Unfortunately, every beach will be different and you will need to check whether they have ordinances which will allow you to carry out metal detection on them or not. It is important that you check these ordinances in order to make sure that you can metal detect on a particular beach. You may find that there are only specific times during the day when you are actually allowed to do any type of metal detecting on the beach. However, if you can do it any time the best time to begin is early in the morning (before any body arrives) or in the evening after everybody has left. Going beach combing at these times will give you the best chance of finding the most treasure.

Why not carry out a search close to where people are walking from their cars to the water or the beach leading up to the ocean. This is an area that is often overlooked by beachcombers and is typically chock full of finds as a lot of people have their hands full or completely unaware of what they have dropped into the sand.

Also when looking for a metal detector to use for beachcombing there are a couple of things which you will need to consider to ensure that you get the best one for your money.

1. Find a metal detector that fits within your budget but at the same time provides you with a quality system so that you do not end up wasting your time while out metal detecting.

2. If you happen to know what type of environment it is you will be doing your metal detecting in then you may well want to consider some of the features of different individual metal detectors.

3. It is important that you take into consideration the company from whom you will be purchasing your metal detector. Look at what type of warranty they provide as well as their reputation in regard to customer service. Also it is important that you know if any thing goes wrong with the metal detector they will stand up to their promise with regard to repairing, replacing or exchanging the machine.

Metal detecting can be great fun on a beach and may provide you with a lot of results and hopefully the tips on finding treasure will help you to achieve this.

J C Christian is an avid follower of metal detectors and how they work. He runs an informational site that follows Garret Metal Detectors, Fisher Metal Detectors, Tesoro Metal Detectors, and Kellyco Metal Detectors just to name a few. Go to http://www.metal-detector-guides.com
to find information to help with everything metal detecting.

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If you are like me, you never get enough of the hunt, whether on the search for rocks and gems, fossils, or treasure. Now that the cold, wet weather is putting a damper on outside searches for those in the north, it is prime time for indoor searches. After all, while you can, every once in a while, stumble upon a great place to hunt for treasure while just hoofing around in the wilderness, most productive treasure searches start inside.

The first task in treasure hunting is to figure out where exactly it is that you want
to hunt. It’s best to be realistic. You may have a dream to hunt in the South Sea
Islands, but if you have no means to get there you have much better ways to
spend hours and hours of research. Productive searching close to home may
just help you fund some of your dream searches. So to start, keep it close — somewhere you will actually be able to spend some time searching. Once you
have your target area pinpointed, it’s time to hit the history books and old
newspapers.

The information you are seeking is about old boom towns, mining areas, battle
areas or routes, ghost towns (whether structures still stand or not), town areas
leveled by natural disasters and never rebuilt, pilgrim migration routes, and
anything else that can lead you to spots that were once inhabited or attacked,
and are now deserted. If you are on shorelines, you might also be interested in
information about pirate localities, sea battles, landing areas, old settelments,
and anything else that might point you to buried artifacts along a coastline, or
even in the water if you are into underwater search.

Once you pinpoint the areas that look good to search you want to find out what is
on public land, and what is privately owned. The last thing anyone needs is
people roaming around private land without permission. Not only can this cause
trouble for you personally, but it can hinder all who want to search as mass
trespassing can lead to complaints that in turn lead to laws limiting searching for
everyone. City halls or a local branch of USGS will be able to provide you the
information about public and private lands, and will be likely to appreciate your
efforts to be respectful about searching. Chatting with people who have been
employed for long periods in these places can sometimes get you some bonus
leads, too, especially in less populated areas where people are more likely to
know in depth histories and legends from their areas.

When you find information of interest, you will want to dig up any old pictures
you can find so you can get an idea of what was located where. Some
landmarks may still exist even if the town itself doesn’t. County offices
sometimes have records of town layouts that will actually give you coordinants of
old buildings and other useful information.
Now that you have all the hard information resources you can dig up on battle
routes, massacre areas, stage coach robberies, settler camps, towns leveled in
natural disasters, and so on, it’s time to start using your imagination.

This
exercise just goes like this:

Hmmm. They never located the relatives when the old guy that lived there died
- I wonder what he may have hid or lost around his place.

Hmmm. There was a saloon located right there – I wonder where the outhouse
was. (A place where a lot of drunk men were taking their pants off might turn up
some quantity of nice pocket artifacts – especially old coins.)

Hmmm. Look at that rock right behind that train wreck in this picture – I know
where that rock is.

Hmmm. The Northern armies passed right through here in the civil war. I
wonder how many people buried money and valuables to hide them. I wonder
which of them never made it back to them.

Now you get to draw yourself a few of your own maps to take with you when the
nice weather comes back around. These maps can be valuable all on their own.

When your hunting season is over, you can add your stories about what you
found in the areas you have mapped and searched. By compiling these maps
and stories, you have created an archive which may be sold to other hunters, or
saved for future generations.

©2005 Sally Taylor: Sal is an avid gem and treasure hunter, explorer, writer, and is the owner of http://www.rockhoundstation1.com

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If you’ve lived near a beach, you’ve probably been enchanted by the idea of buried pirate’s treasure, of gold coins and mouldy chests filled to bursting with pearls and rubies. You probably even spent some time searching. More than likely, the most you ever found were a couple of quarters and maybe some random junk jewellery, but you probably remember the excitement when your detector started beeping frantically. While you may not be able to get rich searching for pirate’s gold, there may be at least one other way to cash in on your metal detector.

Metal detectors are fun toys, which you can probably attest to if you used one, but perhaps a little bit disappointing in their actuality. People often forget that metal detectors can only sense metals that are buried a foot or less in the ground, usually in a strata that has been recently turned for one reason or another. Whether they know this or not, people can still be charmed into renting a metal detector for a few hours and that’s where you come in!

Perhaps you were an avid beach comber once upon a time, or perhaps you acquired your metal detector on a whim and become discouraged by how many soda cans you turned up. Maybe you inherited it from a moving friend and have no idea how to use it. Regardless, you have a metal detector and very little use for it. If you live near a touristy area, you can rent out your metal detector to people who are interested in playing treasure hunter for an afternoon. People are often tickled by the novelty and will enjoy the time spent treasure hunting.

When renting out your metal detector, consider a rental rate of ten dollars for two hours, with a discount of fifteen dollars for four hours. You may also want to provide them with a bucket and small plastic shovel, something they can carry around easily. With enough interest and given the fact that tourists are a lot that turn over literally every day, you’ll be able to keep your audience fresh and delighted by the service you offer. Even if they don’t turn up anything besides a few nickels and maybe some lost jewellery, you are still selling an experience that they can talk about at home, and isn’t that one of the fun parts about a vacation?

If you live in a resort area, and local laws allow it, renting beach-combing equipment like metal detectors can make you quite a bit of cash. As good metal detectors tend to run under 200 dollars on Ebay, you can make back your investment within a few days, so what are you waiting for? There’s a whole generation of treasure hunters waiting for you!

Join the opportunity that is taking the world by storm and learn to make real money from the internet. Visit InstantWealthSecret.comto sign up for free.

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Where can you find hidden treasure? Almost anywhere. How can you find it? Here are some new ideas on that.

I was once involved in tearing down an old house. In the attic, hidden underneath the insulation, I found a glass piggy bank of old pennies. I also found a rare old magazine and a few other minor treasures.

Treasure is not always things of obvious value, though. Hidden in the walls of that house was a treasure that at the time never occurred to me: copper tubing. I later discovered that the water lines we paid to have hauled away were sold as valuable scrap by the junk man. It made me wonder what else could be “treasure,” and where else I might find it.

New Ideas On Hidden Treasure

Hidden in a warehouse in the small town where I used to live, was a mountain of old boxes. It was the leftover inventory of a wooden clock factory that had gone out of business. The owner of the clocks had let them sit there for at least ten years. Finally someone explained to him how he could sell them on Ebay, and he realized the treasure he was sitting on.

An old Mayan Indian we met at a hot spring in Arizona showed us how to find arrowheads and metates (used for grinding corn or mesquite beans) in the desert. They’re hundreds of years old. He sold one of his metates for $200 during a yard sale, but this may be illegal now. Check with authorities on this one.

I have hidden money several times in my life. Many people do. What happens when people die unexpectedly? The money and valuables they hid remain where they are until discovered. There is an estimated several billion dollars in hidden currency alone in this country, and who knows how much in silver, gold, jewelry and other things. Here are some of the places people have discovered these hidden treasures.

- Under sinks (money).

- Hidden inside the pages of books (bills).

- Buried in crawl-spaces (all sorts of treasure).

- Above ceiling tiles.

- Buried under the edges of cement patios.

- In walls behind outlet plates.

- In pump houses.

- Under floors in sheds.

- In old heating oil tanks (coins).

- Under rocks in highway rest areas.

That last one is a favorite hiding place for drug dealers and other criminals who need to hide cash fast. If they never get out of prison, or die, the money waits for a treasure hunter to find it. Sometimes you just have to look to find hidden treasure.

Steve Gillman has been hunting down obscure knowledge and useful secrets for years. Learn more and get a free gift at: The Secret Information Site (http://www.TheSecretInformationSite.com)

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An example of buried treasure? As a young man I buried 100 ounces of silver under my parents house. There was a crawl space that could be accessed from the basement. I pulled the plastic back that covered the dirt, and roughly five feet out from the west and south walls dug a hole. I put my plastic container with it’s ten ten-ounce bars of silver into it, covered it up and left it there for years.

Did I tell anyone where it was, or even that I had buried it? Of course not! The point of hiding things is so nobody knows where they are, right? By the way, I have long since dug the silver up and sold it, and keep my money in the bank now instead of the ground. However, what if I had died while I still had this buried treasure under my parents house?

My guess is that it would be at least a couple hundred years before anyone found the silver. there was no reason for anyone to be digging under that part of the house. There was also no way for anyone to know they should be looking. The obvious question arises: How many people have died and how many die every year without ever telling a soul about their hidden money or buried treasures?

Many. The treasury department estimates that billions in currency alone has “disappeared” in recent years. Where is it all? Here are some of the places to start looking.

Places To Find Buried Treasure

- Under rocks in highway rest areas. There are many reports of criminals and drug dealers to burying large amounts of cash under rocks in the woods at highway rest areas. Hide the evidence, get sent to jail, and what if he never comes out? Treasure hunting time!

- Under the edge of cement slabs. Look for sagging or cracked cement where the ground might have been loosened up.

- In old pump houses. People used to hide things in the pump houses, in the ground underneath, and even inside of pipes that connect to nothing.

- Caches buried near signs. The point was to have a way to remember where the treasure was buried.

- In hotel rooms. Hotel owners report that cheating spouses on business trips hide their rings before going out for the evening, and then forget them. Look under mattresses, on top of light fixtures, and behind pictures.

- In rivers, especially next to bridges. Criminals and kids throw things off bridges to hide them quickly. I have seen several bicycles laying in the bottoms of rivers, and I hear that guns are a common find.

- Inside old books. This has been a common place to hide money for years.

- Inside walls, usually by outlet covers. An outlet cover usually has just one screw to remove, and you might se something by shining a flashlight inside the wall.

- Buried under rocks in backyards. The rock is for remembering where the buried treasure is, and backyards are more common because the person is less likely to be seen burying something here.

Have you ever hidden anything? Do you have anything hidden now? If you wanted to hide money or other valuables, where would you put it? You can understand how things get buried and forgotten. Now start to think like the person who hides things, and you’re ready to search for buried treasure.

Steve Gillman has studied unusual ways to make money for thirty years. To learn more, including more places to find hidden treasure, visit his website, Unusual Ways To Make Money: http://www.UnusualWaysToMakeMoney.com

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