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Treasure hunting is searching not just for sunken treasure, or coins or silver and gold, but also jewelry, guns, rare letters or books, tokens, antiques, and collectibles . . . anything that can be converted to cash value. There's more than gold in them than hills! Many people become so addicted to treasure hunting once they get involved, they think of little else, but you can hunt on a small scale as a profitable hobby in your spare time wherever you live.

The device that has made treasure hunting possible for the masses is the metal detector, which can cost anywhere from $25 to $2,500, depending on the size of its search head, the depth of its probe, and the number of accessories that come with it. A good serviceable one for a beginning treasure hunter can be had for $50 to $100. Basically, all metal detectors consist of a flat transmitter mounted at the end of a handle that is long enough to allow the head to scan the ground while the treasure hunter strolls along. When the signal sounded by the detector changes its sound, you know that metal has entered its field. When you bend down to dig, you might find five flip-top lids or a $5,000 diamond ring.

The simplest way to get started hunting for riches is to purchase a detector and bring it to a beach, a local park, or even the backyard of an abandoned mansion. Good sites for combing include coastlines (the waterline is recommended as well as the actual beach because heavy objects often become lodged there), unrestricted historic spots, and places where the terrain has recently eroded or where large groups of people have congregated. In addition to searching for coins (called "coin-shooting"), beachcombers can earn money in a secondary way. Boyd Herron of Florida collected a $2,000 reward for locating a diamond brooch on the banks of a lake near an Orlando, Florida, hotel. He had distributed "I find lost property" business cards throughout the Orlando area. He spent six hours searching for this particular client and found some other jewelry and $2.36 in coins in addition to the brooch.

This sort of hunting is really beachcombing, since the hunter does not do a great deal of advance preparation. A Mr. Merkitch, who retired to Arizona, used to do random beachcombing on New York and New Jersey lake and ocean beaches. If you can imagine two 55-gallon drums of 14-karat jewelry and other valuables, then you have an idea of his success in just five years of activity.

You can surely make a fair amount of money with this sort of scattershot hunting, but if you're interested in getting more sophisticated about it, there are a number of sources of information that can guide you to real treasure if you're dedicated enough to follow the leads. A few of them are available through the government's Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402, and they include "A Descriptive List of Treasure Maps and Charts in the Library of Congress" (Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 64—60033), price 30¢, and "Maps Showing Explorers' Routes, Trails, and Early Roads in the United States", compiled by Richard S. Ladd (Library of Congress Catalog No. 62—60066), price $1.25.

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