Metal Detecting Redux - Looking Back

Only a few days left of 2018 before we inexorably move into 2019 as we quickly approach the end of the second decade of the 21st Century. As I look back over the last 50 or so years of being in the metal detecting hobby, I realize the real riches I uncovered were not gold and silver, cash and relics, but friendships and comradeship with people from all walks of life. I've met many people I would never have met otherwise thru the articles I'd written, the events I attended and the clubs I'd belonged to. I've seen the good the bad and the ugly of this hobby from top to bottom, the newbies, the know-it-alls, the boasters, and the wannabes. One thing I've learned, though, is everyone has a dream, and treasure hunting fulfills that dream. And believe it or not, some are successful in finding that chest of gold, and while some are not, many finally realize that what they were really searching for was always theirs to begin with...good friends, a sense of adventure, and a grasp on the past.  Because in the end, all the amazing relics, artifacts, and numismatic specimens have one thing in common; they were touched by another human being at some point in the past, who lived a different and perhaps unimaginable life in a another time and place. When you examine a fresh-dug find in your hand, you erase all the miles and centuries and touch the hand of someone in the past. We humans are a despicable, good, horrible, caring, indifferent, friendly, idiotic, knowledgeable, warm, creative and trouble-making lot. But we are all in this together throughout time through our humanity and the touch of an ancient work of humanity is what links us all together and makes us remember. And that is the covalent bond that holds us all together in this hobby. Happy 2019!

Happy 2019 from Jim & Patti

Metal Detecting - Please No Looting & Pillaging PR!

I'm trying to figure this out, and I'm not putting anyone or organization down, but looking for a reason. I'm trying to understand a practice that is pretty much rife throughout the metal detecting community; clubs, metal detecting distributors and the like. Given that metal detecting, in general, is looked upon by the general public as a negative activity, and even more so day by day, and frowned upon by many cities, counties and states here in the U.S., you'd think a bit of thought might be given to improving our hobbies image. And the first place I'd always thought a good first impression would go a long way to promoting our hobby would be the logo, symbol, or club patch of a metal detecting organization, and as we all know, you never get to make another first impression; one is all you get! And with that, as Rod Serling of the Twilight Zone used to say, "...for your consideration...the Jolly Roger!"

Now, there is a bit of history associated with this symbol, and it's fairly involved, but the point of it was to strike terror in the hearts of all that saw it. It basically means, pillage, plunder, murder and death...mostly. Now, pirates were actually more democratic than most navies of the world in the 18th and early 19th Centuries, but not to their victims. So why would you use the skull and crossbones in a logo or design to represent your metal detecting club, organization or product??? Especially given the general negative feeling of the public and authorities on the hobby???

Well, I think it began as a simple segue from the search for "treasure," which was usually the end product of piracy; gold and silver buried in the ground, or sea, waiting to be found by a treasure hunter. Somewhere along the line, treasure hunters and their ilk got sidetracked into confusing the line between treasure hunting and pillaging and plundering. Not a good thing when you need all the good PR you can get. 

Here in Florida, the Spanish fleet was returning to Spain in 1715 when a hurricane literally tore it apart off the central coast, spraying silver and gold coins all up and down the treasure beaches over three centuries ago. As a matter of fact, the Spanish built a few make-shift warehouses, just to the north of the Cape Canaveral  bight, to store the salvaged specie off the wrecked fleet before returning to Spain. Several pirates actually showed up off the Florida coast, and looted the recovered treasure and made off with a large portion of it...their skull and crossbones merrily flying from the mainmast. Do we really want to associate our hobby with THAT?

Poor PR don't end there...social media has done a lot to promote making us detectorists look bad...I recently located a YouTube channel with the word "...Loot" in it, which embodies some of today's problems with the metal detecting image.  What exactly DOES loot mean?

 loot

/lo͞ot/

noun

1. 1.

   goods, especially private property, taken from an enemy in war.

   • 
     

     
     
   • 
     

verb

1. 1.

   steal goods from (a place), typically during a war or riot.

   
   

   
   

So putting this word in the name of your metal detecting social media channel is probably not doing the hobby any favors. Additionally, there are many metal-detecting social media channels and metal detecting Facebook pages plastered with pirate images, with the name "...Pirates" in there somewhere. My point is, the pirate characters, skulls, and the piles of sparkling loot plastered all over the metal detecting world in logos, patches and whatnot is a sure sign we are headed for the detecting exit real soon. 

These images and names are the sort of things that makes the general public much easier to convince we are all bad...and must be regulated out of existence or outlawed everywhere here in the U.S.? Archaeologists just love metal detecting operators, organizations, clubs and individuals that shoot themselves, and the rest of us, in the foot with this sort of thing. I've mentioned this to a few acquaintances who thought the subject was pretty funny in itself, and was convinced I was splitting hairs. They may be right, but I've sadly watched this hobby, over the last half-century go from a quiet and interesting low-key hobby, to a rapacious free-for all with some practitioners who could care less about honesty, integrity, or the hobby itself anymore...literally becoming modern pirates themselves. And it is NOT everyone in the hobby...far from it! But I think despite the sometimes-shady underbelly of this pastime, there are more of us that care and want to see our beloved pastime grow and prosper. I think making a good impression is important in our word, deeds and image. And most of us try everyday to do just that. I'm off my soapbox now. Hope ya'll had a Merry Christmas, and will have a fantastically prosperous upcoming New Year!