Wow all read about piles of coins found in England - at least two to three per year. Here in the US it is few or far between, why?
Is it we don't look for them? Folks don't talk about them here? Or are we happy with finding one or two old coins and just enjoy the hobby?
I have to admit, I read and talk about cashes or treasure but I am not a concentrated researcher. How do I become a better one?
Dunno, I can't even think about finding a cashe. Every time I have imaged it and dug it up it was a huge metal object. lol
It's mostly due to the amount of history over there. They have been around much longer as a population than over here in USA , also back in the day not having banks people protected there money ( valuables) by hiding them. So the short answer is different times.
Yup lot more history and people hiding belongings before invading armies of thousands came thru killing everyone in site. Then the army looters buried their collectings as they couldn't take it with them into battle, they had high hopes coming back that way to pick it up. Too bad many of them never made it back.
Army of thousands lose, discard a lot along the way to their objective.
3000 years of this kind of stuff going on...WOW
Now if there was a quick way to get to this side of the pond at the time by a fleet of a thousand Roman boats, the native American Indians would be better equiped to fight by wearing armour, iron swords.......crossbows, maybe even explosives.
No more sticks and stones...................... The Americas would be a totally different place right now.
Occasionally there are articles in the news or a posting on a forum about caches found on this side of the pond. Quite often it was put there by someone that did not trust the banks and unless you could talk to people who knew them or hear about some eccentric old person that used to live in the area it just needs to be dumb luck to stumble on them.
Somewhere I read a tutorial on what to look for , but I can't for the life of me remember where ( getting old sucks , but it beats the alternative).
I know they said most caches would be somewhere the owner could feel secure with , so it would be where they could easily see the location , it may have been in a building or under a post. Sometimes it would be near a tree and there would be a nail or screw in the tree as a marker for it . It may have been straight down from the marker or a set distance from it towards another landmark.
It would also have to be able to be accessed without being seen and may have been buried too deep for a detector to pick it up.
Fairly early after I started detecting I found what I call a kids cache , it had several beaten up old coins in it ,the age differences in them made me think it was their coin collection. It was under a large tree in my yard and about 6 inches down. When I dug up the small metal box I was worried it was someone's dead pet.
I will quit rambling now , I hope what I could remember of the article is helpful and I look forward to seeing a post about your first cache find....
GL & HH
Pat
I buried a couple for others to find when I was a kid for fun.
Also, used to paint rocks gold take them down to the local creek where the kids would hang out. Wasn't convincing.
All good stuff to start but we need to keep this going. We should be able to find these things. We did have wars and bank trouble here on our soil. But not like in England for sure.
My detecting partner (now gone) put down two rolls of coins, one he told me was halves but he didn't tell me what the other one was. He wanted these other two guys in the club to find them and he didn't tell me where they were hidden. I told him that was dumb because he wouldn't get the credit if they were found and that is what happened. He passed a year or so later one of these two guys comes into the club with the roll of halves, mostly silver some clad - paper was gone. So his hand written note wasn't there. Oh well, he was happy.
My favorite on this subject is Harry Glen Carson, he is also gone but his books are interesting.
Interesting post Big T. I for one believe the caches are many in the US. And the reference that Sven brought up about Europe is spot on for us too in respect to the economic history here, which wasn't all that rosy for many varied periods. I have sort of a method to blindly stumble upon them which albeit hasn't worked as yet, except in one case where I found a pile of Sacajawea's buried under a rock, and that's to dig overloads where they don't belong. If it's a can in a sea of cans, I skip it. If it's an overload out in the long forgotten woods, well, I dig it. Tractor seats, plow parts and the like are the usual. I'm hoping for "The Big One". But so far it's just a dream.
In respect to the machines, well I can follow 24" natural gas lines buried at a minimum of 48" and intercontinental phone lines at 36" all day long. That's with 75% sensitivity and an 11 inch DD Pro coil. So the machines can find the caches if they're not terribly deep. If they're a mason jar full of silver dollars at 2 feet, I could find it. The trick is where, as was brought up. Personally I believe it is a combination of knowing what your machine is telling you, the location you're at and whether or not you have the ability during the hunt to dig up a mason jar full of silver out in the woods at 2 feet down. There are some days where I am too tuckered out to even attempt such a dig, mason jar or not!!!
In any event, we all just have to keep trying. Everyone has their own ideas and methods. In mineralized ground like I have here it can become a real brain whacker when nulling is the predominant sound. The thought becomes, "Is it a big iron rock or a buried iron chest full of goodies?"
Good luck to everybody on this one aspect of detecting. It sure is a doozy!
Ed/Ohio Dirt Fisher
Ed, I understand and have those same hopes. You make some good points of overload in certain places. I have started digging them about two years ago and they do need to be checked out.
I hear you about getting tired in the hunt and then using a mental note to get back to that spot the next time to investigate.
I knew of two folks who heard of gold coins from a post hole bank or just a glass jar unearth by construction at a residence. I asked if they were given permission and they said yes but were told to wait. Several coins were found by the owner that week.
The following year they went back and got permission to hunt but the area was landscaped with added dirt. Oh well, he who hesitates is lost....
So, It does pay to keep an ear out or own a detector rental store - folks come in with good stories and rent machines. This rental store is now gone and the owners have passed. I miss those type of stories even if I am not included in the search.
I really believe caches are found frequently here. Check out any of Karl Von Mueller's books, and read about his feelings on the subject.
I suspect the reason you don't hear about them, is that the finder has wisely kept his mouth shut!. In England, you don't get to keep the hoard, but they will pay you fair market value for it...tax free!....and you then split the amount 50/50 with the landowner. It's a fair system. Therefore there is no reason not to shout out to the world about what you found, as you will get to keep your share, and get good press about finding the ancient hoard.
Over here, you blab about finding a cache, and you'll have people coming out of the woodwork claiming it, whether the claim is legit or not. The lawyers are the only ones that win.
So, If I find a jar of gold coins, or a bundle of currency,....sorry guys...no one will know about it, as I'd like to keep it.
