Where have you found Gold?

[Todd S]

Heh all,

With the stock market plummeting, retirement funds evaporating, and the beginning recession or depression, I thought I would start a new thread for discussion. I expect gold will soon start a huge climb, and us being metal detectors and all, why not start an intensive search (like we all haven't been trying to find those gold rings anyway!). The more gold rings I can find the better! At least that will be a guaranteed retirement fund that shouldn't evaporate!

So, let's start this thread with a description of where you have had the best luck finding gold rings/jewelry. My guess from reading other forums is that beaches-in the water is probably by far the best place, so let's just all assume that is number one. Let's stay focused as much as possible out of the water.

I started detecting about 7 months ago, and have found two 14 k gold rings, and one diamond 18 k gold pendant with my M 6. One I found by the baseball diamond of an old school; one I found near the picnic area of an old city park; and I found the diamond pendant ring at an old park as well near a picnic area with some old trees.

 

[dahut]

Gold, being a commodity, has its value in our ability to actually pay for it. When the markets, and money in general, DEVALUE as happens in a depression, people can not pay for such things (as we have been with credit spending) and they go down in value. The artificially high prices we've seen in gold in the past decade or so wont last, just as they won't for the other things that have been value skewed due to debt/credit spending. Gold will always settle at its natural value, as long as we value it and continue to base our monetary worth on it... and that value will likely be lower than it is now.

So, I would be cautious about relying too heavily on the value of gold to increase dramatically and make you a New Age Midas. I might suggest other commodities be part of your plan, like the kinds that people can eat, wear and drink as value stores. In fact, last time we had a genuine depression hit, private ownership of gold was restricted to governments, so they could back their currencies. Hope that doesn't happen.

Where to find gold ashore? Well, any one thing can be any one place, be it pulltab or gold. But you stand the best chance of recovering gold jewelry where the greatest number of people have gathered and been the most active. This means parks, athletic fields, arenas, etc. Keep in mind that there are a thousand or more pulltabs for every ring, and each gold ring is a rarity compared to the costume jewelry that is so common. Perseverence and a serious plan will be needed if you are to get rich finding gold jewelry in the dirt.

 

[dahut]

Part Two

If you are really serious about finding gold, then you have to look for it specifically. There was a guy on the Garrett forum, whom we'll call Ralph, who was quite good at it. He used a little Ace 250, believe it or not, as his main tool. His reasons were the light weight, the fact that his quarry wasnt deep and the Ace has notching DISC. SO how did Ralph do it, with such basic equipment? He simply notched out all targets but those in the midrange, i.e., he accepted only foil through screw cap targets.

He reckoned clad coins were relatively worthless when compared to gold, and hardly worth the effort to retrieve them. Even silver coins, unless melted and redeemed for bullion value, had little value in and of themselves. Besides, they are few and far between these days. The rare and valued collectible coin was a different matter, of course, should he have the luck to stumble onto one... which I dont recall ever happening.
In the event of an economic collapse, such speculative investments dry up for the most part, anyway. It's not wise to pin your financial hopes on them.
After all we've seen where rampant speculation has gotten us in our current state of affairs.

So he spent his time where he got the most bang for his buck, as it were - hunting exclusively for gold jewelry.

The first thing most people say at that point is,

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

Ralph sound like an urban MYTH..
I've found 3 gold rings in one school combination soccer yard this summer plus one more in a soccer field.
Unlike Ralph I also hunt for those useless pennies and other coin denominations.
I figure better in my pocket than someones Else's.
Should have enough (clad) in the short hunting season up here to buy a MXT or M6 and maybe the new prizm.

 

[dahut]

Again its a choice to make - trinket coins or valued gold. I assure you, Ralph was real. I took a little literary license in telling the story, that's all. Me, I listened to his story as I said in the post - but like you, I've never been able to pass up a coin, either! And while we dont have those whopper coins you Canucks have, I'm gonna snag a quarter or dime when they appear. SO, I understand wheres he's coming from, I don't go there.

More than anything, I'd hoped to show the original poster that gold jewelry, while it exists, is hardly common place. Finding enough of it to secure financial means in chaotic economic might be more challenging than imagined. Ditto with prospecting for it - there is far more to it than our own dreams or the ad hype would indicate.

Yet, it IS out there. People do lose it and they are not always successful in the search to recover it. When added to the total gleanings from a season, the jewelry found can add many hundreds of dollars in bonus money from this hobby. Finding it is a matter of dogged effort and stackng the odds on your favor... while you pursue what is great hobby.