For any of you old-timers who've tried it all, which type of hunting provides the biggest payoff for the time invested - relic hunting, nugget hunting or coin hunting. Of course I know that ultimately, it's a matter of personal preference and the answer is dependent in large part on the skill of the hunter in each case. My guess would be relic and nugget hunting would run a close one, two with coin hunting coming in third.
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Best Payoff for the Time Invested - Relics, Nuggets or Coins?
- Thread starter berryman
- Start date
If you are getting into this hobby with numbers and dollar signs and profitability determining what style of detecting you plan to do then you will likely be disappointed. It is very much a personal preference and success mostly depends on a combination of luck and skills that improve your odds such as research and mastering a detector. The right questions are what would you enjoy finding and would you still enjoy searching for it even if it ended up costing you more money to find than the items, nuggets, coins are worth? Those who stick with this hobby do so because they enjoy the thrill of the hunt. You would most likely make more money working a second job than viewing this hobby as a moneymaker.
If I misread your thought process then please forgive me and welcome to a fun hobby. For me personally, I like finding gold in any form, then silver, and coins just come along with those two pursuits. Nugget hunting is fun but hard. I personally don't have a huge interest in relics so financial value or no value I don't spend my time looking for relics.
If I misread your thought process then please forgive me and welcome to a fun hobby. For me personally, I like finding gold in any form, then silver, and coins just come along with those two pursuits. Nugget hunting is fun but hard. I personally don't have a huge interest in relics so financial value or no value I don't spend my time looking for relics.
Larry (IL)
Well-known member
There are exceptions for the specialists but for all the rest of us, I think jewelry hunting has the best payback per hour of hunting. But even then, if you are hunting for profit, you would be far better off getting a minimum pay job.
Larry (IL)
Well-known member
I never thought about the TV shows repercussion, now that is funny. I think it took 8 days to shoot a one hour show...... and then you have expenses, shelter, food, equipment, gas, and the list goes on and on..................It wasn't a "getting into the hobby" type question. It was curiosity, plan and simple. I've been MD'ing in SoCal for 12 - 15 years (mostly beach hunting). In my location, there's very little opportunity to relic or nugget hunt, so I've never done either of these. The most profitable part of hunting the beach has to do with the occasional gold and silver jewelry one finds. I guess I was really curious about whether the folks who relic and nugget hunt can make enough from their finds to pay for their hobby. And yes I know that it's mostly about the thrill of the hunt.
Ok. Thanks for the clarification. With nugget hunting, relic hunting, and old coin hunting you are searching for items that do not replenish well in the short term. There are still a lot of things to be found for sure but the days of hitting big undiscovered nugget patches or finding 10 silver coins in a day are becoming less common and require more research and or time spent carefully working to unmask around trash. Jewelry is different in that like newer coins they are being lost more regularly especially at active places like the beach. I do not have many beaches to detect in the desert so I search for inland gold be it jewelry or sometimes nuggets. If I could choose between my hunting locations and yours, I would be at the beach no doubt about it. The odds of finding a $10,000 diamond ring at the beach versus a nugget worth that much are heavily in favor of the ring hunter. Hope this helps. Sorry for the assumptions on your first post.
There are a few specialists, as Larry mentioned, that target jewelry in the water at tony resorts in europe and asia. I guess if I was not married and wanted adventure, I'd head to the receeding glaciers in the summer, and the far flung resorts of the south pacific or carib, or med in the winter. Of course a person would have to be a jack-of-all trades, excellent health, willing and capable to rough it, have a back up source with lawyers. guns, and money.
I stab clad and hunt jewelry, If I lived under a bridge, and had some cheap mode of transportation, I'd give it a go, just to say I did!
Mud
I stab clad and hunt jewelry, If I lived under a bridge, and had some cheap mode of transportation, I'd give it a go, just to say I did!
Mud
You mentioned specialists. Are there any relic hunters from the southern states who frequent this forum? I'd be interested to know if there's an active market for any the Civil War items they find (e.g., buttons, buckles, etc.). I would think that there would be and that there might be a few collectors out there who would be anxious to acquire some of these objects.
Larry (IL)
Well-known member
Check the Civil War forum, there are some hard core relic hunters there who do sell their finds, or some of them anyway.