Find Treasure

Treasure hunting can take place in exotic locations, at the flea market, in your town or even in your backyard. Knowing how to find treasure, though, depends on what type of adventure you are seeking and how far you are willing to go. Treasure hunting is a fun event to do on your own or to participate in with family or friends. Optimize your efforts, though, before you get started in order to give yourself the best results.

Steps

1. Determine what type of treasure you are looking for and what type of tools you need to find it.
   • If you are searching for gold or other precious metals, consider purchasing a metal detector.
   • If you plan to find collectibles or antiquities, study up on their valuation and how to recognize them. This can include purchasing books on the subject or doing research online.
   • Brush up on your history if you are looking for historic treasures like old ships, valuable documents or other historical items.
2. Choose a location where you want to start your treasure hunt. Make sure that you understand the rules of the location so that you aren't stealing from another individual, a country or an organization.
   • Feel free to roam public beaches with your metal detector looking for coins and other treasure. Because you are on public land, what you find is yours. You should also consider going to a more secluded beach in order to increase your likelihood of a good find.
   • Scour antique stores, garage sales and flea markets to look for that hidden find that has been overlooked by sellers and other shoppers. By studying up on the features of what you are looking for and being able to discern fakes will help you with easier identification the item you are seeking.
   • For historical items such as arrowheads, old documents and other antiquities, make sure that you have the proper credentials or permission to be seeking them out.
   • Look for old homesteads, and with permission, seek out vintage items such as coins, watches, old silver spoons and more. Before there were banks, or before people trusted them, many people hid their valuables on their property. What you find could be their old trash or their old valuables, and this would be applicable at places like old rail stations, mining locations or lumber camps.
3. Seek areas that indicate treasure has been found in the past. Popular treasure beaches sometimes have additional items wash up in the same or similar spots when strong storms come through.
4. Use a GPS unit to track the locations that you have visited and to avoid hitting the same place twice.

Tips

• When treasure hunting at garage sales, thrift stores, or flea markets, never show interest in a particular item(s). This may cause the owner to raise the price, or keep the item.
• Make sure your metal detector will be triggered by the material you want to find.
• Bring along a friend or family member to help you split up the area and provide another set of eyes.
• Make sure you have permission from your parents if you are planning to dig holes in the garden and search for buried treasure.

Warnings

• Make sure you are not digging in a public or private place without permission. National Parks and Historic Sites are off limits. You can get your finds confiscated.

Things You'll Need

• Metal detector (Optional)
• Shovel (Optional)
• Friends to help (Optional)

Sources and Citations

• http://gometaldetecting.com/tips-beach.htm
• http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~jesse/treasure/underwater/beach.html
• http://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-Homesteading/1972-11-01/How-To-Find-Treasure-On-Your-Homestead.aspx

What links here

• Complete All the Treasure Rumors on Endless Ocean Blue World