Treasure Hunters Code of Ethics!!

Treasure Hunters Code of Ethics :

I will respect private property and will not treasure hunt without the owners permission.
I will leave the land and vegetation as it was. I WILL FILL ALL HOLES!!
I will appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife and private property.
I will use thoughtfulness, consideration and courtesy at all times.
I will remove all trash and properly dispose of it.
I will not destroy any property whether buildings , signs or equipment.
I will never destroy historical or archaeological artifacts.

If you are metal detecting, we ask that the code of ethics are followed to ensure that we are allowed to enjoy the hobby for many years to come.

Thoughts on Detecting

My husband and I were talking about some of the fun things that we have done over the years, involving our treasure hunting adventures. We can laugh about the mistakes that we have made and the knowledge that we have gained. When we first started, we threw away a lot of things that we considered trash then, and now know that we have thrown away some of our colonial history.
One story is of my first walking liberty half dollar. I had an excellent signal at the beach but when I dug all I had was something round that looked like cement on it. By that time we had enough knowledge to know not throw anything away until we took a look at it at home. When we got home the item had dried out and fell apart in Mike's hand. When we looked, we seen the design on both halves and I was excited when I realized that I had two walking liberties that had been stuck together, imagine my surprise when one of them crumbled in Mike's hand. We both realized that the half that crumbled was just the outer crust of the coin with the impression of the coin and the other side was the actual coin. The liberty was not in the best of shape but was my first! If I had seen it laying on the beach I would not have picked it up.
Another time we were at the beach and we kept getting good signals on these shiny black rocks. Of course we left them there, until Mike decided we had better take one home. When he took a hammer to the rock it broke and a penny was in the center. Again surprise, and upset thinking about the rest of them that we left. When we went back no black rocks.
We've learned that all those buckles we have found are colonial shoe buckles and when hunting home sites you can find just about anything.
If you are a beach hunter you are guaranteed to be loaded down with fishing weights, in fact you may have so many that you start handing them to the local fisherman, just to get all that weight out of your pouch.
We learned to always have fresh batteries and be ready for anything. One trip to the beach and we were finding a lot of coins and jewelry when my arm strap broke. Mike tied the detector to my arm so we could continue. I have had my scoop break, we have forgotten a scoop, we have left one on the beach and had to go all the way back. Keys have been locked in the car, and cell phone stolen or lost, caught in briar's, and sunburned.
In all we have had some fun times and are looking forward to many more.

Happy Digging...:)

Our Neighbors Yard..

Mike and I were outside last spring cleaning the back area of our yard. We cut out a lot of shrubbery and made an area to sit outside and relax. Our neighbor came out and started telling us about the area years ago. He told us that our yard was a field when he moved there, and came right up to the back of his yard. He has a large tree in his yard and he remembers when he planted the tree! He gave us permission to hunt his yard and so we grabbed our detector and did a quick sweep. Mike had a really good signal under that big tree but also under a very big root. The rain started coming down and Mike had to leave that target in the ground. A couple of months went by before he could get back over to the hit under the root. He dug and dug and out popped an old coin! An 1845 one cent... Mike was happy that he had gone back and with the condition of the coin, although it did have a small hole at the top.

My Greatest Beach Find!!

Mike and I decided to do a quick trip to the beach to see what we could find. I went to the right and Mike went to the left. I started finding a lot of big pieces of metal junk and was starting to get frustrated. All of a sudden my detector started screaming in my ear... an excellent sound but when I looked at the ID screen it read 93 and said fifty cent... but a lot of the big metal items I have been digging had been reading 93 or 95. I still dug and on the first scoop nothing, still in the ground, on the second scoop out popped a round object. I picked it up out of my scoop and saw that it was a coin. Oh my God, my first Barber half, what a beautiful silver coin! The coin was in excellent shape and the date said 1906(0). I was so excited and started jumping around!! I yelled down the beach to Mike and I thought that he did not hear me, so I yelled louder! ( I found out later that he was ignoring me!) He didn't answer so I called him on the cell phone... he ignored it, did not even pull the phone out of his pocket... At this point I knew he knew that I had found something good and he was ignoring me... So with the blood pumping in my veins I took off up the beach.... Of course he was as excited as I and he asked if I had detected around the spot and as I looked at him blankly it dawned on me what he was asking. He wanted to find one too.. I showed him where I found it and he started detecting. The only problem is he is very slow because of his back and I was going on adrenalin! I must have made circles around him 10 times before he finally stood up and made me look at my footprints in the sand, and asked me where I would like him to detect? The tracks looked like a drawing of the tracks from the cartoon "Family Circus". They were everywhere! I would say that we definitely covered every part of that beach (or at least I did)... I was so excited....

Wedding Band...

Mike was driving to a doctors appointment one day. As he was driving through a wooded area, there was a man on the side of the road raking the leaves. He rode by, but wondered what he was looking for. He went to the Dr and on his way back he saw the same man still searching. He stopped the truck and asked him what he was looking for? The man replied that he had been on his ATV and as he was turning he waved his hand and heard his wedding band go flying off and hitting the road. He said he heard it hit and figured it bounced on the side of the road. Mike had his detector because he never seems to go anywhere without it. He detected on the side of the road with no luck. He got the man's info and told him that he was coming to pick me up and we would go back to search. When we got back to the site, Mike said he was going to search the other side of the road and I would concentrate on the side he thought it bounced to. Well, Mike had not walked more than 15 steps when he yelled that he had it. We called the man on the phone and met him down the road to return it. He was very happy and we felt good to be able to return a lost and valuable item!!