Heres a topic we all deal with differently. (Treasured Finds)

[Dancer]

We all keep some finds that has no reason for. Some things I keep would make you laugh. Some I sell , you might not ever. Some examples. I got 3 clear gallion jugs which I toss anything worthless but interesting. (To me) Toy cars, keys, locks, trinkets, stuff found along the hunt. Turning the jugs to see different things just fascinate some people.
Now I have kept every Wheat Back cent I have ever found. Couple of Indian heads also. Sometimes I get lucky and up pops a silver coin. Starting out, I really thought I found something. Until I take them to a coin dealer. The ones I've found never got anything but boredom, and scrap price valve from these guys. So tried to sell them myself, no luck. Next epoxed some of the nicer ones on some furniture, my boat etc. The rest I'm ashamed to say , sold as scrap to be reincarnated into something else. The gold / silver rings my wife hasn't grabbed, either got sold to someone or scrapped. You and I know people, that wouldn't ever sell a coin or ring. (My brother for one) I sell mine, end up buying another detector, equipment. Now there's something I haven't sold.
What do you guys hang on to?

 

[mudpuppy]

Ha! I have a couple of those big glass jars my Wife throws all the sundry nicknacks in that I find too! I sell everything if I can find a willing buyer, I have no emotional attachment, except for the very first silver I ever found, (a merc dime) but I bet I'd sell that too if it came to it...
I sell most of my stuff at my Wifes garage sale, or the LCS...I get 25c for every hotwheel car...I sold 200 wheaties to a guy for 3c each last yr...I run all my dirty clad through the Coinstar, and spend the shiny for other things...I bet I dont hold onto a found shiny coin any longer than a week...all this said, I've only sold 2 gold rings this yr out of 7 to finance my addiction...I have a decent bag of silver coins/rings from the past few years waiting for the price to come up. My Wife has never seen so much jewelry out of me in the few years of doing this detecting thing than in our entire 35yrs together...she confiscates the 'good stuff', She even took ALL that money I got for that leather chair I found, but I dont care, I'm in it for the thrill of the hunt...

Sometimes though, I wish I had kept all the gold and silver and maybe even all the clad in one big pile someplace in a dark corner of the basement where I could go roll around in it bare naked like that dragon Smaug...I've got pails of lead, brass, copper, lures, whatnot that I may cash in someday...As I type this, I'm wearing a hat I found that somebody dropped at the boatramp, a Wisconsin Badgers shirt somebody gave me, socks from Sams Club, and a pair of 10yr old pants from goodwill..If I want to go outside to smoke, theres a pair of flipflops at the door I found on the beach...

When I leave this World, I want to travel light...I bet everything I personally own with the exception of my 15hp outboard would fit in a backpack..I seriously get charged from seeing a payday...thats really what trips my trigger, immediate gratification for my efforts, thats why I love clad so much, leaving the house with no money, and finding enough with the detector to meet my daily needs of coffee, beer, and smokes.. I understand and appreciate somebody that can hoard, and hope they bury their gold and silver loot for one of us to find after they are gone!.......When I go, I aint leaving nothing of any real value behind, except my rigs of course, and then, the Wife will sell those for pennies on the dollar no doubt!..
Mud

 

[RLOH]

I too seem to have a couple of junk baskets. I hang onto all rings(cheap or good), most all silver, all gold, all wheats, and at least 150 miniature cars. Last winter I was organizing my rings and I found a ring that was put in the junk section that was white gold. Don't go by color, but clean all jewelery and look for marks. Six or seven years ago I sold about 1000 wheat pennies. I do not spend much time checking for key dates and I sold them as unchecked. Since then, I have found 3000 more wheats and I try to separate them by date. I put 1940 and newer in one container and 1940 and older in another container. When silver reached 50 an ounce a couple of years back, I sold 800 common date roosies and mercury dimes for over 2,000.00. Since I started detecting in 1996, I have found over 1500 silver coins so I still have about 700 to keep, sell, or just store. I would be interested to find what others do with their finds. Good winter discussion.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

Great topic... i had planned to sell everything i found many years ago when i got into this game but that philosophy changed...i have sold all the gold in the past that wasnt worthy of being worn by the wife but now im finding myself hesitant to sell..i had sold my rosies and mercs that had condition issues and once a year i tumble and cash in the clad...about a year ago i took my very best coin finds to one of these coin dealer convention things just to get an idea on values. I had my 1877 indian,1793 flowing hair,1833 bust dime anyway i had about a dozen of my best and 1 dealer offered 750.00 for the entire lot and others really werent all that interested..i pondered the offer for a few seconds ..i suppose it was an ok offer but if i sold them all the great memories of when i pulled them out of the ground would go with them..no deal.i do have an emotional attachment with them as they each in thier own way are like trophies. .they represent a great accomplishment...i also keep alot of junk that has no real value but that junk i could throw away anytime..besides its cool having things to show people who question what kinda things you hunt for... hey mud,where did you get your underwear??lol... cant believe the misses took the chair cash...sounds like my old lady...happy huntin all..

 

[GeorgeinSC]

I am relatively new to this fascinating Hobby. Started in July 2012. I tumble all the clad that I dig and run it thru the coin counter at the Credit Union (no charge for members) and convert it into Green Back Dollars. My first year and a half's worth of clad finds paid for lodging for a two week vacation back in June.

I have a box full of Junk jewelry, Toys, tokens and other assorted finds. I have quite a few pounds of Brass and copper parts and pieces.

I have every Silver Coin, piece of silver jewelry, Gold Jewelry and some other nice items in my Treasure Chest. I enjoy taking the items out and looking at them from time to time and think about how and where I found them.

So far I have not Sold any of my finds. I did sell Three Custom Made Knives from a Highly Respected Gentleman (Now Deceased) to finance the purchase of my Excalibur II and T-Rex Scoop With some dollars left over.

 

[mudpuppy]

This is great!

My Wife did bring home some of those little cardboard coin holders from Hobbylobby last week, she figures I should take some time this Winter to go through all the stuff in my treasure box and check dates and perhaps sleeve some of the good ones..that could be fun, a group effort on a cold Winter day for us to do together?...Maybe theres something in there of real value? Tokens or whatnot perhaps...Thinking back, I used to have some things I would NOT ever consider parting with, Family heirlooms etc..but, one at a time, the need for cash in emergency situations made me part with them...

The one big hard choice was an original 1847 .54 cal black powder pistol that has been in my Family since the Civil war...it was passed down to the eldest son all the way through the years...I actually shot it quite a bit when I was into black powder...then, the Wifes dad got sick and she needed money to get home...it was the last thing of any value I had hung onto...we were really poor...I seriously struggled with the decision for a little bit but there was no other immediate fast cash outside of knocking over the QuickiMart, well, I sold it and gave her the money...good thing too, for she got home just in time to spend the last few days he had on this earth with him...Had I not done it, and she was deprived of this, I dont think I could ever look at that gun again..(although her dad never liked me, and it was his last way of getting even I figure)....after that, it got real easy to sell anything if a need arose, or even if it didnt, it was a 'freedom experience' actually, to not have anything of value.....as far as underwear, I make my own out of those plastic bags from the grocery store and some crumpled up newspaper, what do you think I am? Rich? I still wonder from time to time where that gun wound up? Somewhere, theres a CW re-enacter toting it around and having a good time I hope...
Mud

 

[ironsight]

I kept just about everything except'n corroded nails, pull tabs, can slaw and other misc. junk.
The silver coins and rings are not worth dumping at the current market spot values....looking back it never is! lol
What little gold is there for the duration.

What to do about the dozens of thousands of clads accumulated including crusty 'n likely worthless zincolns? Dump em? Naah! Maybe someday!
Then theirs the dozens and dozens of badges? medals? tokens? rusty pocket knives? toys? etc. etc. etc. Dump them too? Naah!
Kept some corroded square nails too that i know are over a hundred years old, why i keep em, hell i don't know.

Worse yet, i never look at my finds once they're stowed away in shoe boxes by year along with that year's log in dark spidery places. Places i sometimes forget where i put em!

Yep, i'm a self proclaimed pack rat!

 

[ken ward]

I sell when I need mad money. I have 5 gallon buckets that I seperate my junk. I might sell that too someday. I even tried to sell my wife. I could sell her. I found her... KEN

 

[Grunter]

..One of these days when its too miserable to hunt I'm going to seperate the metal in this can into the different kinds of metal and smelt it down into cannon ball size ingots.

 

[Dancer]

n/t

 

[togg77]

Grunter that can is a Trophy unto it's self. Keep diggin'.

 

[Walknstik]

A while back they were doing some construction work along the banks of a bayou here in SE Texas where an old settlement was located in the 1800's. During some excavation work they actually located some of the old dump sites. A lot of nice old bottles were found along with other items we were finding with metal detectors. Unfortunately a lot of the bottles and fragile items were broken and I was thinking wow what a shame. I started picking up some broken bottle necks of different colors, clay pipe-stems, porcelain doll pieces, marbles and old buttons of all sizes made of shell and bone. After getting these pieces all cleaned up I arranged them in a large clear glass container I picked up from a craft store and it now sits on my desk next to a window. I have to admit it looks really nice when the sun starts to shine through it in the afternoon with all the different colors...a true window to the past!

 

[Minas man]

Here in Canada the penny was discontinued in 2012 so up until that time I gave all non significant pennies to my youngest son who would take them to school as they would have penny drives and donate the money to charity. Now I keep all pennies and they are a guide to know if a location has been hunted.
As far as the other stuff, I would sort in a time line, I had 3 years worth in a time line until I came home one day and my youngest son took all my finds and put them together and sorted them not knowing that I had a my own way of sorting. After that I just started putting it all in one container for the year and then roll it up for vacation money. I have not sold anything but I would sell and I have returned rings to there owners when possible.
This year I have kept bags of the real junkie stuff to sort this winter.

Minas man