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knfmn
02-01-2011, 02:20 PM
So, like everyone else, I dreamt about pirates and treasure when I was a kid. I'm glancing through the treasure hunters forum and a pretty dumb question occurs to me. Is there actually anywhere you can go and dive and have a fair chance of finding an old coin? Maybe even like a pay dive site? Or is it a case of searching and searching on your own and then maybe you'll get lucky, but more likely you'll never find anything? Thanks for the replies in advance.

Kristopher

The Publisher
02-01-2011, 02:39 PM
You can always contact the Mel Fisher group who does that sort of thing.

acelockco
02-03-2011, 08:58 PM
Is there actually anywhere you can go and dive and have a fair chance of finding an old coin?


You can take a metal detector and dive near the shore line of any public swimming area and you will find some coins.

Other then that NO.

knfmn
02-03-2011, 09:01 PM
You can take a metal detector and dive near the shore line of any public swimming area and you will find some coins.

Other then that NO.

Ok. Fair enough. I have a (non waterproof) metal detector and usually pull a fair amount of change off the beach when I get it out. I'm a huge fan of looking around the snack bar areas. All the kids dropping mom and dads money pay for a lot of batteries...lol.

Kristopher

The Publisher
02-04-2011, 12:24 AM
I think it would be more fun to use those locators to look for gold out in the sticks.

I know that civil war era battlefields often turn up civil war coins.

acelockco
02-04-2011, 05:01 AM
A lot of the battlefield sties do not allow metal detecting for many reasons.

Anyway, if you are serious about underwater treasure hunting a good underwater metal detector is the first step for sure. There can be quite a bit more to find other then just coins!

As far as finding pirate treasure, most likely never going to happen.....but it is always fun to dream and hope.....worst case you get in a ton of diving!

Okeanos
02-04-2011, 03:37 PM
As already said you have to just keep looking. I have spent many hours looking including a couple of archaeological trips, I have found hundreds of things but no coins yet.

I have 2 more archaeological trips that I will be on, one is a repeat trip, looking for 100,000 pieces of eight. The guy who finances that trip has found 2 coins himself.

myscubastory
02-14-2011, 07:35 PM
Yes it is possible - but not the way you make it sound so simple! It take quite a bit of money to invest in the correct equipment and support team to go hunting for coins and small wrecks.

However if you go to the usual touristic dive site you can find lots of dive 'treasure'. I have found bottles of beer. Dive masks and so on !

acelockco
02-14-2011, 11:45 PM
A used mask treasure? Well if that's the case I am always finding treasure. I found a treasure on a common artificial wreck site in Florida. The mas was even useable after I scraped off two barnacles. I also found treasure in the form of a mask on the ladder at our local quarry. It didn't fit, but it looked like a brand new mask...in fact I think my wife uses that mask. I also have found some snorkeling gear on the beach while driving through the keys a few weeks ago. I ended up picking it up so it didn't get washed away and left it on a picnic table in hopes the owners came back.

Okeanos
02-18-2011, 08:06 PM
Yes it is possible - but not the way you make it sound so simple! It take quite a bit of money to invest in the correct equipment and support team to go hunting for coins and small wrecks.
I have a twin engined rib with magnetometer, a side scan is due shortly. I have 2 underwater metal detectors and also have a portable petrol engined hydrovane compressor running an airlift pump for excavating.

I have some amazing friends who have access to all sorts of information regarding last known positions, naval records, U-Boat kills, Time newspaper databases etc.

I also have some very experienced UK diver friends who will join me on any trip for fun.

The hardest bit is lifting 64kg copper ingots from a wreck 90m down, solo, by hand.

acelockco
02-19-2011, 04:14 AM
I have a twin engined rib with magnetometer, a side scan is due shortly. I have 2 underwater metal detectors and also have a portable petrol engined hydrovane compressor running an airlift pump for excavating.

I have some amazing friends who have access to all sorts of information regarding last known positions, naval records, U-Boat kills, Time newspaper databases etc.

I also have some very experienced UK diver friends who will join me on any trip for fun.

The hardest bit is lifting 64kg copper ingots from a wreck 90m down, solo, by hand.


I bet in about 10 lifetimes you could pay off about a tenth of the cost of all of that equipment with your findings. I am glad that someone has the money to burn to do these things, but for the majority of divers even an underwater metal detector is going to be a big cost.

Okeanos
02-19-2011, 06:33 PM
I bet in about 10 lifetimes you could pay off about a tenth of the cost of all of that equipment with your findings. I am glad that someone has the money to burn to do these things, but for the majority of divers even an underwater metal detector is going to be a big cost.
That comment isn't 100% accurate in several aspects.

Equipment hasn't got to be expensive, the Hydrovane was an ex-railways machine, the airlift pump I made out of plumbing bits, the magnetometer and one of the metal detectors was from a dive club, the other detector was from ebay. Sidescan isn't going to be cheap and the boat is a charter boat that generates enough income to buy it and run it.

If I exclude the boat cost, my rebreather cost more than the rest put together and I bought that 2nd hand!

If the weather was good I could recover the total cost in about 3-5 weeks.

p.s. I even built an ROV for under £200, only goes to 20m but it can save a lot of mucking about when hunting for things.

Papa Bear
01-10-2013, 03:57 AM
Along the Florida Coast you can still find Spanish treasure that still washes up on the beach from time to time! There was a large fleet that went down on the east coast during a hurricane in the early 1800th century!