A complete reference for the treasure hunter: how to find, how to read the ground and the machine, what the law allows, and what your finds are worth. Compiled from public records and field practice.
The first season, codified: what to buy, what to carry, where to start, how to conduct yourself, and how competence is actually built.
Starting out · The first machine · What it costs · The pinpointer · The field kit · The learning curve · When nothing turns up · The code, and the plug · Conditions and timing · For families · Clubs
The machine, demystified. Settings, target identification, depth, the metals it reads, the two technologies, and the cure for constant falsing.
Operating the machine · The three settings · Target identification · Falsing and chatter · Detection depth · What it can sense · VLF and pulse induction · Weather and water resistance
Finds follow people. The discipline of research, permission, and reading ground, from old home lots to riverbeds, wrecks, and privies.
Where finds are · Research · Permission · Your own ground · Water · Shipwrecks · Bottles and privies
Where real gold and gems are, how to recover them, and what they are worth, from panning and nugget shooting to fee-dig grounds and meteorites.
Nugget shooting · Panning · Reading a river · Claims · Gold and its imitators · What gold is worth · Fee-dig gem grounds · Meteorites
The accessible end of the hunt, where erosion does the digging. Fossils, megalodon teeth, arrowheads, and sea glass, with the rules that govern each.
Fossils and shark teeth · Identifying a fossil · Megalodon · Arrowheads · Sea glass · Beach detecting
Hunting the water's edge. What is permitted, what comes up, the gear and the hazards, and the firearm protocol every magnet fisher must know.
Magnet fishing · Recovered firearms · Mudlarking
The law of the search, in plain language. Ownership, age thresholds, permits, protected ground, wrecks, the Treasure Act, and the protocol for a major find.
Ownership of finds · Age thresholds · Permits and licenses · After dark · Parks · Cemeteries · Battlefields · Meteorite ownership · Wrecks and salvage · The Treasure Act · Protocol for a major find
What it is, what it is worth, and where it sells. Coins, silver, bottles, relics, and rings, with the conservation and identification a find deserves.
Reading a coin · Cleaning coins · Coin value · Coins worth chasing · Junk silver · Bottle value · Arrowhead value · Relic value · Conservation · Getting a find identified · Selling · Ring recovery
The questions every hunter is asked, answered straight: what remains, the greatest finds, the Fenn chest, the buried-chest myth, the economics, and the maps.
What is left · The greatest finds · The Fenn chest · The buried-chest myth · The economics · Maps and dowsing
The best of the map every week, the newest case files and the legends worth chasing. Free.