Metal detecting Rivers

[Waterdog]

Looking to hear from other on metal detecting Rivers. Are Rivers productive out past the 6 foot area ? I would like to hear what other have to say If Rivers Bury the loot faster than lakes due to the movement of water?
HH

 

[ashmonkey]

i have spent over 30 years digging rivers in the uk and europe, and even now your questions are not easy to answer. every river is different, a lot depends on if your chosen river is a large tidal river maybe a quarter mile across or a fast flowing river thats only 20 foot wide. every river has altered in the last 500 years, for example some rivers have got wider over time meaning large areas of dry land are now foreshore or under water, in other areas the water table has dropped to the point my local river that in 1910 had barges being loaded with goods from the victorian warehouses is now dried up or 6 inches deep. as far as silt or debris build up, and it,s effect on the depth of finds . on a single 100 metre section of the thames foreshore in london , in some areas you would need to dig 5 foot deep to reach 16c finds, in other areas you could dig inches and reach the same level. on fast flowing rivers often we can hit natural bedrock or clay only 2-3 foot deep. in the 1990,s i took several american diggers for a dig on the thames in london , where they recovered plenty of 17-18 century coinage, the rewards make it worth the hard work and effort. i will put on a few pics so you can see the superb condition of river found metals

 

[ashmonkey]

few pictures of english river finds , iron, brass and pewter, the last 2 pics are river found medieval pilgrims badges

 

[David]

ashmonkey, that's very interesting. What underwater metal detector(s) are your most favorite??

Did you ever try a gold DREDGE with an artifact recovery basket attachment??

http://www.dahlkedredge.com/4microb.htm
(Artifact basket for sieving dredge material at stern of dredge -- $75.00)

http://www.keeneeng.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=3ICR

 

[ashmonkey]

i was only looking at the forum as i am trying to import a dredge at the moment, dredging is unheard of in the uk, most of our river digging is done if possible on the foreshore when the tide is out, on shallow rivers we put on wetsuits and after locating hotspots , try and throw the spoil into a pile where we can use a plastic pallet or wooden board. industrial rivers are the worse sites for iron contaminated soil. for years if we could use a land machine it would be a compass 77b, but we found the old silver turtle was good, up till a few months ago , most of the detectors were hand built buy a chap in london england who could build whatever we wanted into a underwater housing, most of his machines were based on tesoros or the troy x2, but sadly he passed away this year. also like the whites surfmaster pi, but the new whites dual field and the surfmaster id have just got to the uk so will be buying a new detector soon.

 

[yannick the french]

in france the river are iron infested the best is open your eyes .ride the boock reading the tidal rivers by edward fleher s.
nice find ashmonkey.

 

[David]

THANK YOU ASHMONKEY. Try these underwater machines: Minelab Exclubur II for salt water and the Tesoro Tiger Shark (VLF) for fresh water, for good iron discrimination units.

So many, many different PI underwater units on the market to chose from but NO GOOD DISCRIMINATION on ALL PI's. They are iron magnets but VERY DEEP. Contact a guy in the England named .... Eric Foster that makes the Goldscan 5C and an underwater PI. These are suppose to be the very best. Also look art the Garrett Infinium LS.

My mother has a UK of GB and NI (E. Union) passport. Would like to detect on the British Isles someday maybe with JW Fishers units? http://www.jwfishers.com/

Good luck.

 

[ashmonkey]

few more pics of medieval artifacts dug from english rivers,
pic 1 is one of the best medieval keys in the world iron with brass ribbing, dug a couple of foot deep



superb silver gilt medieval crucifix, found just below the surface



thomas beckett staff top, found thames london, sold for over $3000 in 1986
and a few gold iron age celtic coins



the most important factor to remember when working old water sites is there will be a lot of iron contamination, the more the better. on one muddy foreshore it felt like you were walking on cobble stones and the detector just would not work, when we started turning the top foot over with our spades, it turned out the foreshore was covered in cannon balls , they were very easy to dig the hard part was geting them back to the car!

 

[ashmonkey]

another good reason to dig rivers with clay bottoms, look at the condition of this sword. top pic, the second pic was a sword dug by a friend in europe, , pic 3 shows a early medieval sword sadly only the blade was found.