How Homegrown Archaeologists Are Making Money in Gold, Silver and Platinum Scrap Today
If you’ve watched “Raiders of the Lost Arc” recently, you know that in the movies, archaeologists seem to live dangerous and exciting lives. They lower themselves on ropes down into vast underground tombs. They pry up huge stones and squeeze into ancient burial chambers that are full of treasures.
That’s all the stuff of some exciting and very romantic movies. But at the same time, a lot of hometown archaeologists, who look a lot like you and me, are quietly finding gold scrap, silver scrap, and platinum scrap not in Egypt or the jungles of South America, but right in their own hometowns.
Who are these people, and how can you join them in a fascinating and profitable activity? Let’s find out.
You Could Start Using a Metal Detector
You’ve seen metal detector enthusiasts using their nifty machines on beaches, in parks, and maybe even in tracts of government-owned land near you. These people aren’t only doing it because metal detectors are fun, they are making money! They are modern archaeologists, and you could become one of them with an investment of only a few hundred dollars in a detector.
You Could Start Using a Drone to Prospect for Locations
Drones are powerful new tools that allow treasure-hunters to explore large tracts of land, looking for sites that they can later visit and examine using metal detectors – or sometimes just a shovel. Those people are looking for the sites of old buildings, wells, graves, and graveyards.
Another way to search large quantities of land is to view them on Google maps. To learn more, read our recent post about Google maps on this blog.
You Could Look at Old Maps in Your Local Library
Chances are good that you will find a collection of local maps – both old and new - at the reference desk in your local public library. When a member of our staff recently visited the library in the town where he grew up in suburban New Jersey, for example, he found century-old maps that showed the locations of factories, fabric mills, and even a church that once stood in town before it burned down. “Those are all promising locations for some treasure hunting,” he tells us.
You Can Head to California or Alaska and Start Panning for Gold
Strictly speaking, if you do this, you will not be an archaeologist, because archaeologists spend time looking for discoveries in locations that were occupied by people in earlier times. Prospectors who pan for gold aren’t doing that. They are looking to reclaim gold directly from natural sources – streams where gold has precipitated into the sand and silt that has accumulated on the bottoms of streams.
But even so, we are mentioning panners in today’s post because they are people who head out and find gold for themselves, often on a small scale. Incidentally, a lot of new equipment is now available that helps gold panners look for bits of gold in stream beds. You could continue to use nothing more than a pan – but with so much interesting new equipment to help you, why?
You Can Explore Your Own House and Property
Whether you live in an older house – or in a newer residence that is built on the site of an old farm, factory, or other historical property – your archaeological explorations can begin right at home.
Older homes often contain items that were either hidden or lost by previous occupants. A loose brick in a basement wall, or a false panel in the back of a closet, could be concealing a hiding place for coins or other valuable items. The site of an old well in your back yard could have been a place where previous occupants hid valuables (just use extra caution when investigating). And in years past, gold coins and other small valuables could have fallen under floorboards, rolled behind walls, or gotten lost in other ways.
So the message is, you don’t necessarily have to travel to Cairo – or even to the next town – to start thinking like Indiana Jones. You can get started close to home, and you can start today.
Call Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners and Send You Treasures to Us
We are here to test and process all your precious metal discoveries. Why not call us at 800-426-2344 to learn more!
Being a hometown archaeologist is a hobby that can repay you as a hobby and as a source of income too.