The Suburban Treasure Hunter

Silver Coin Calculator From White's Metal Detectors

2011-06-11T00:00:00.001-04:00

With the price of silver flirting with $40 per ounce, the helpful folks at White's Electronics have created a Silver coin calculator for us. White's is the maker of metal detectors, through which many silver coins are found. With the price of silver near all-time highs, this may be the time to sell. As you know from some of my previous posts, we tried our hand at coin roll hunting, with pretty fair success. It amazes me that a 1964 half dollar we paid 50 cents for is now worth over $13.00. And yes, they do sell for that high on eBay.
You may not have found silver coins with a metal detector, but perhaps you have inherited a few that are stuck in the back of a closet in a jar. Curious about what they might be worth? This silver coin calculator is updated every 30 minutes at the spot silver price. It might be a handy reference to bookmark since you don't have to figure the amount of silver in each coin, then check today's silver price. Just enter how many coins of which denomination you have, and the calculator does the rest. I have sold a few rolls on eBay recently, and I can tell you that what you see on this silver coin calculator is pretty close to what you can get on an eBay sale. Good luck to you. This may be the time to turn that stored silver treasure into cash! Aaargh!

Silver Coin Calculator

Win An Ounce of Gold!

2011-05-19T08:58:00.001-04:00

I wanted to share this monthly sweepstakes that I recently found. This is a monthly drawing to win a 2011 Gold Eagle like the one pictured here. Wow, that would be a nice treasure to put in this year's treasure chest. With gold trading near $1,500 an ounce, this would certainly be the treasure of the year. Enter at APMEX.com. You can enter once a month per person. Good luck!

Deep Blue Marine Locates 16th Century Treasure Ship

2011-05-17T21:07:00.001-04:00

The Deep Blue Marine company recently uncovered a treasure ship from the late 1500's off the coast of the Dominican Republic. So far, the company has brought up jade statues, along with silver and gold coins dating back to 1537. That would make the find one of the oldest in the New World, less than 100 years after Christopher Columbus sailed these same waters. The company feels that a lot more is still under water, as they have not yet hit the main wreckage from the ship. The mirror in the photo above is actually a polished piece of iron pyrite that is discussed in the video below. Not bad for being over 400 years old! Watch the short video below to see the dive team in action and visit the company's website to see additional treasure photos. This is one recovery we will be watching closely to see what else emerges.
Deep Blue dive video Deep Blue Marine website

It's Shenandoah Yard Crawl Time!

2010-08-17T19:50:00.001-04:00

Yay! The annual Shenandoah County Yard Crawl is one of our "mark the calendar" events - hey, we're thrift-shopping pirates, what can I say? It is a 43 mile long yard sale through several small country towns in the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia. This year marked our 4th year in a row we have shopped the Yard Crawl. It was a lot of fun, and we did find some neat treasures. The day was overcast and in the mid-80's, which was nice. In past Augusts, it's been so hot, we were pooped by 11AM. This year we were still going by 1PM, and that's saying something, since we hit the road at 5:30 to be at northern end of the sale by 7AM.

On the hunt!

We usually make our best finds in the first hour or two since everything hasn't been picked over too much yet. This year it didn't seem like there were as many crawlers and we were still able to make some good finds later in the day. Of course, it all depends what people are looking for. There is a little of everything at the yard crawl, from furniture to antiques, clothing and every kind of toy and household item you can imagine. There are a few dealers selling, but it's more like just people who have sheds or barns along the Valley Pike pulling their stuff out alongside the road.

Got some treasures!

In our case, we collect old holiday decorations, toleware, pewter, Carnival glass, jewelry, and what have you. To be honest, we have started many collections just because we found 2 matching items. Thankfully, we've come to our senses and cleared a lot of those collections out over the years. We do have a little antique booth, so we have an outlet to keep things moving on to those who will appreciate them.

A lot of the fun of the Yard Crawl is chatting with people and moving on down the road to the next potential treasure score. It's a nice drive out in the country too, and the scenery is pretty. I have to admit, there could be a few more bathrooms! LOL. We had a lot of fun and came home with a lot of nice finds.

Vintage Christmas treasures

Here are some neat old Santas and Christmas decorations we were able to come up with. The red deer and sleigh in the middle are an old flocked set from the 50's or 60's. The santa in the box is a really nice set that looks like it may never have been used. He has a cloth outfit and beard, I don't know what the vintage of that is. The old santa in the front left may be the best find of the day at 25 cents! He is an old old cardboard Father Christmas made in Japan. His beard is cotton and he is holding a pine branch in his hand. These finds will make nice additions to our vintage Christmas display.

Assorted fun finds

Here are some other assorted goodies. For some reason I attract Whiting and Davis mesh evening bags as you know. Here is a more recent one for $2. The brass dipper is pretty old, the frame on the old picture must be from the 1800's (50 cents), the tole painted bucket is a nice old country piece for $1, and there's a silver bracelet up front that was $1 also. We liked the black cat pitcher since we have two black cats. We had to wait for someone who promised to be back by noon to get him, but she never showed, so we took him home for $1 too. The sellers helped us count down the seconds till noon. It was a good time.

All in all we didn't spend a lot, had a great day, and found some neat treasures. I'm sure we'll head back up into the Blue Ridge Mountains again next year for year 5!

Gold, Diamonds and Cash This Month

2010-08-08T13:06:00.000-04:00

July was a good month for treasure hunting as you can surmise from the title above. Gold, diamonds and cash, woo-hoo! First of all, the moneywalking continues to impress me. I was able to find 81 coins and two dollar bills on the ground or in machines as I wrote about in a post on July 16. That was good for a total of $10.32 - not too shabby! I try to walk a few miles per day, and this year I combined that with searching for coins along my walks. In 7 months I have found almost $48 in coins and bills laying on the ground or in machines. I have gotten to the point that I expect to find coins now and they continue to turn up.

I took the metal detector out seven times and was able to come up with 213 coins that way. It has been hot, hot, hot this Summer, though, and the ground is pretty well baked dry, so I've had to hunt in playgrounds for the most part, and only for short periods due to the heat. I was able to hunt along an ocean beach last week, and was lucky enough to find a 3-stone diamond necklace in the dry sand. That was a nice find and made the hunt. The Ace 250 detector is pretty limited on the beach, though, it gives a lot of false signals on the wet sand, so I had to stay up on the dry sand. I still was able to find quite a few coins and clean up a lot of pulltabs off the beach.

Of course we both continued to hit the yard sales to see what treasure is out there. I found another gold mesh Whiting and Davis evening bag, strangely enough. This one cost a dollar. I can't believe what people sell stuff for sometimes but the economy is tough and people seem to be clearing out a lot of unneeded clutter. There were some other good finds too, but I can't remember them all now.

Next week is the annual Shenandoah County 43-mile long yard sale. We will be attending for the 3rd year in a row. It's a lot of fun and great treasure hunting. I will take some pics and write a post here on our adventures. Keep hunting!

Treasure In The News

2010-08-02T19:20:00.003-04:00

I've run across several treasure stories here lately. Maybe stories about treasure just catch my eye, but it just goes to show that there are treasures of all types being found every day. Here are a few from the last week or two:

Bronze Cannon From 1715 Shipwreck Found - A salvage company recovered a bronze swivel gun from the 1715 Plate Fleet that sank off the east coast of Florida in a storm 300 years ago. The gun had 63 gold and silver coins inside it. The fleet took on a cargo of millions of silver coins in Veracruz, Mexico. Most of that is still waiting to be found.

Superman Comic Saves Family From Foreclosure - A family facing foreclosure found a Superman comic book in the basement as they were packing up their belongings. The comic turned out to be Action Comics Issue Number 1, from June 1938. It introduced Superman to the world, and could be worth more then $250,000.

An 1885 Pocket Spill - A man using a metal detector found 7 cents in one hole along an old trail through the woods. The coins are dated 1865 to 1885. While not enough to retire on, they still are a neat treasure to find, and make you wonder whose pocket the coins slipped out of on that spot almost 125 years ago. There's tons of it still out there, all around us.

Good Yard Sale Treasure Hunt

2010-07-21T21:36:00.002-04:00

This past weekend was a pretty good treasure hunting one in a strange way. My significant other is the antique hunter and yard sale shopper extraordinaire. I am more the coin and ring hunter, although I've developed a decent eye for antique styles, vintages, and marks over the years. Anyone who spends time pursuing the hobby of treasure hunting in all its forms has "inventory" collected up at home. So when a neighbor announced she was having an impromptu yard sale, we jumped onboard, a good opportunity to sell off some stuff and clear some space. We didn't set up a lot of stuff, and it was a girls thing, so I was dispatched off to do the yard sale hunting, while she conducted the sale. Perhaps a bit perverse, but she didn't want to miss a Saturday's worth of sales, and I was ordered out.

So off I went, and once I scored a $20 Hartstone checked mixing bowl at a moving sale for $1, the blood was flowing. If you are into antiques at all, you know you can never know everything, and you can't be an expert in all fields. At another moving sale, I pulled a porcelain doll out of a bin of junk. The person running the sale had no idea, and thought $1 sounded fair, so the doll came with me too. Dolls are one area I know nothing about, but since she was in good shape, with porcelain head and hands, I figured she's worth more than that. Things slowed down after that as the heat of the day rose. I finally met a nice lady who just wanted to move some items. I got a nice framed print and a wood dough bowl for $1 apiece, and a hanging corner cupboard for $2 (behind the blue pitcher). We kind of lean towards colonial things, so these were all good captures. Finally, as the morning wore down, at a sale with mostly household stuff and perfumes, I saw some old glassware on a table and inspected the blue carnival glass pitcher. Good shape. "Are these cups a set with the pitcher?" "Yes, $10" Hem, haw, but don't put down the pitcher, "OK". done. The blue punch cups are not actually a set with the pitcher, but they are all the same grape leaf pattern. The cups are worth $8 a piece on Replacements.com, and I knew the pitcher was worth a few dollars since we have some experience with carnival glass. Looked it up, it's worth $15-$35 on Ebay. Not bad.

Wife was happy, guess I've still got it LOL. It's all treasure.

How To Find Coins in Machines

2010-07-16T22:19:00.000-04:00

I've been keeping up with the daily walks at lunchtime, although it's been in the 90's several days this month. Since I am walking, I am also always on the lookout for stray coins. I'm still surprised that there are so many coins out there in the wild. I've been able to find $5 to $8 consistently over the last few months. I keep a jar in my desk and add coins to it that I find every day on my walks. Here is a link to a short article I wrote about strategies that I've been using successfully to find coins in machines. You won't believe it until you try. I just shake my head sometimes when coins come tumbling out of a machine.

I have to also say that I KNOW there are coins heading into my pocket if I just keep looking. I know that because it's a rare day that I don't find any. For that reason, I don't worry about it, I know they will come. Interesting, but so far I haven't been proved wrong.
Read the entire article, How To Find Coins in Machines.

Treasure Hunter Digs Up 52,000 Roman Coins Worth Over $1 Million

2010-07-14T18:47:00.000-04:00

A treasure hunter armed with a metal detector struck it rich in England recently, digging up a pot filled with over 52,000 Roman coins dated from the 3rd century AD. The pot weighed 350 pounds. The finder, Dave Crisp, dug up a few of the coins, but then called archeologists. The pot and contents have been transferred to the British Museum to be cleaned and catalogued.
Under Britain's Treasure Act, the finder and the landowner will split any proceeds of the sale of the treasure. Experts have not yet figured out why the coins were buried, or how they got there. According to Roger Bland, a coins expert at the museum, "No one individual could possibly have carried them to the field in the pot, it must have been buried first and then filled up." Not a bad day's work for that treasure hunter! Read more here.

Yard Sale Gold Treasure

2010-04-17T20:42:00.000-04:00

Well, it is finally Spring. After such a long Winter we thought it might not arrive. And with Spring comes yard sale season. Time to clean out Winter's clutter and make a few dollars. This is a great time of year for treasure hunting also. You can find all kinds of treasures being sold in driveways and front yards. My better half is the pro in this type of treasure hunting. Although the season has only just started, she came up with this great jewelry last week. The two bracelets are 14k gold, really nice, and cost $1 each. What can I say, if she paid retail for them they wouldn't be treasure, right? The necklace and earrings are unmarked and are costume from the 1940's or 50's and were the same price.

The gold mesh bag was today's find for a dollar. It is is perfect condition, and has a row of diamonds or rhinestones across the top. Very nice, maybe 1930's vintage. We are just researching it now. You just never know what is out there. As Mel Fisher used to say, "Today's the Day!"

Visit a Gold Mining Ghost Town

2010-04-01T22:49:00.000-04:00

Any treasure hunter dreams about ghost towns from time to time. Just don't get caught in one after dark! The State of California has preserved an authentic gold-mining ghost town named Bodie that you can visit today. I drove to Bodie several years ago and it is truly a neat place to visit. The state has preserved it as it was left almost 100 years ago, with bottles still on the bar in the saloon, and boxes still on the shelves in the general store. Bodie boomed in the late 1870's when gold was discovered, and went from a population of 30 to over 10,000 in less than 4 years. Then big gold strikes were reported elsewhere, and the fortune seekers rushed off to stake their claims in places like Tombstone, Arizona. Bodie's Main Street, pictured here, once had 65 saloons on it, and all the mayhem that you can imagine.

Bodie is preserved as a State Historic Site today, so there's no treasure hunting allowed, but it is rich with memories and history. Bodie is located between Yosemite and Lake Tahoe in eastern California. For additional info and Bodie Photo gallery click here. Definitely visit if you have the opportunity. Bodie is a piece of American hiistory you won't see elsewhere.

Surprise Sweepstakes Win

2010-03-15T19:46:00.000-04:00

Well, the treasure is coming in but kind of slowly. No matter, it's still coming in stea1dily. I dug up a 1945 silver quarter at an old house site that was under construction. I have to get back there with the Ace 250 but it's been raining for 4 days straight so I need to let the mud settle a bit. CRH has been slow but steady. After the big snowmelt, the street finds have slowed a bit, but still coming in as well. I was surprised to receive a sweepstakes win in the mail today from a sweepstakes I entered several months back. It was a Dollar General sweep and one I considered very winnable. Only open 30 days, many prizes from $100,000 grand prize down to 400 4th place prizes of a $50 DG gift card. Lo and behold, as you see in the photo, I won 6th prize of a $10 DG gift card. Ha ha, that wasn't even listed in the rules! Oh well, I'll take it. Treasure comes in all forms.

Melting Snow Gives Up Treasure!

2010-02-28T16:20:00.000-05:00

Well, one of the silver linings of the snowy Winter of 2009-2010 is that the ice and snow has been piled around vending machines and parking meters for several weeks. I've heard conjecture in the past that piles of snow would reveal coins when they melt, but I hadn't had the opportunity to test that theory until now. The big thaw isn't here yet, but the snow has been receding enough that I was able to start checking. I'm happy to say that it's true! There were coins everywhere as the snow melted. It was a lot of fun to walk down a row of parking meters and find a coin or two under every other one. I didn't realize people drop so many coins at them, but on the other hand, their fingers are cold or they may be wearing gloves. Once the coin goes into a snowbank, it's pretty much gone.

After being surprised to find 69 coins during my walks in January, I was amazed to come up with 90 in February, including the 20 I found in airports, which I talked about in an earlier post. That's the equivalent of a couple of times out with the metal detector. Since it's been so snowy and frozen, I wasn't able to get out with the detector at all in February, so I'm happy that moneywalking finds have picked up. I got a big surprise in a vending machine when I pushed the return button and a silver 1964

quarter fell out. I knew the sound said silver but didn't believe it even after I had the quarter in my hand. You just never know what's going to appear while treasure hunting. As Mel Fisher used to say, "Today's the Day!"

Indian Head Coins

2010-02-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

I used to collect coins when I was younger. It's still fun to go to a coin show now and then to see some coins you never get to see. I was looking at a $10 gold coin a while ago and got to wondering how many Native American US coins there are. It turns out there are quite a few. I think they are some of the most attractive designs on any US coins. It's not a coincidence that they were designed in the early part of the 20th century during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods, when a lot of utilitarian items were designed more attractively.

I collected up pictures of all the Indian coins and posted them in an article Native American Coins of the US. The stories behind some of these coins are pretty interesting. The Buffalo nickel came through the efforts of President Teddy Roosevelt, who was an outdoorsman and had traveled in the west. He thought the previous nickels were too plain, and had an engraver study portraits of Indian chiefs to come up with a realistic face on the obverse side. Other coins like the Indian head penny and the $10 gold Eagle pictured here actually portray Lady Liberty wearing an Indian headdress.

Anyway, take a look, there are some pretty neat-looking coins in the collection. Also, I looked up Canadian coins online and I didn't see one that had an Indian design. I think one had a Haida totem pole, but thats it. I wonder why that is. Tied closer to the crown until just a few decades ago I think. Interesting.

Airport Money

2010-02-15T15:27:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite moneywalking places is in an airport. I don't go out of my way to go moneywalking there, but if I am there, I do go out of my way to hunt for stray coins, because I know they are there. Airports have several things going for them, they are noisy, many surfaces are carpeted, people are spending money there in food courts, people are in a hurry and carrying bags, and people are lounging around for extended periods. That all adds up to lost coins.

Here is a handful of coins I found last week on a trip. All except one were found in airports. 19 coins plus a Philadelphia transit token that has a copper strip through the middle. If you are interested in foreign coins, airports are also a good place to do some coin hunting if the opportunity presents itself. Back home now, waiting for these piles of snow to melt and see whats been dropped in them. Looks like that might take a month or so, though. Oy.

Visiting the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum

2010-02-12T21:01:00.000-05:00

Well, since the snows continue to pile up in my prime treasure-hunting grounds, I needed a way to stay motivated. What better place to keep my treasure fire stoked than at Mel Fisher's Treasure Museum in Sebastian, Florida? Mel Fisher made some amazing discoveries right off the beach not far from here, where the 1715 Plate Fleet went down in a storm. The 1715 Plate Fleet wrecks continue to produce treasure since being discovered over 40 years ago.

Mel Fisher, as you know, is most famous for recovering the treasure of the Atocha near the Marquesas Islands off the Florida Keys. The Atocha and it's sister ship, the Santa Margarita, also continue to give up their treasures to Mel Fisher's treasure hunters.

The Treasure Museum in Sebastian gives a great history of Mel's treasure hunting exploits in Florida. He sold his dive shop in California to spend a year salvaging the 1715 Plate Fleet without promise of pay. His year paid off handsomely as he at one point found "a carpet of gold coins" in a small ravine on the ocean floor. He moved on to hunting for the 1622 fleet which included the Atocha.

The museum has a short film, then you can tour the fantastic finds that Fisher and his treasure hunting team have found from both fleets, which are pictured here. There is a gift shop with authentic gold and silver treasure items for sale. You can also get replica coins and jewelry molded from the originals.

The Mel Fisher Treasure Museum is a great stop if you are in the Sebastian area. You can see some of the most amazing treasure ever found, and just drool at divers on the film bringing up fistfuls of gold escudos and buckets of Spanish silver coins.

Mel Fisher also has a treasure musem in Key West, Florida where you can see similar Spanish treasure. Also check Melfisher.com for further info. Oh, I don't have the detector with me on this trip but I did find a penny washed up in the wet sands while walking on a beach just up the road. The treasure beaches continue to produce.

Finding Coins on the Street

2010-01-31T13:00:00.001-05:00

Well it looks like we're having a real Winter this year! After our 16 inch snow on December 19th, the temperature stayed pretty much below freezing for the next month. In mid-January we had a bit of a thaw, but here on the last weekend of the month, we got another 6 inch snowfall last night. In all that, I got out with the metal detector twice and found about $5.00 in change, no jewelry.

As always, when one treasure source isn't producing, I can turn to another. This month was a bit of a surprise, we'll get to that in a minute. As I've talked about previously, coin roll hunting is a great way to treasure hunt. I did go through a few boxes of halves but they were very bleak. I think out of 3 boxes, I found one silver half. I did find a 1980 Panama half dollar (in the same box) which was a neat surprise. Does that count as Spanish treasure?

This month I also went through a couple thousand pennies, just to see what's out there. I do look for the error coins, but haven't come up with a penny error yet. I have to admit that's a bit tedious. They can be worth some money though, so I'll probably keep looking for errors and see if it's worth my time. Every type of treasure-hunting isn't for everybody. It's easier to just collect wheat pennies because you can't miss them. You could easily start a coin book for wheats just found through coin roll hunting. I did have more luck with the wheats. They are fun to find.

Since yard sale season is still a month or two away, there is always thrift store hunting. That's good in any season. If you have a few stores in a reasonable distance from you, they are worth checking out. My better half trolls through them on a regular basis and sometimes turns up a gem or two. Last week, she found a neat old Carnival glass vase. They are called that because they were given out as prizes at carnivals during the Depression. They were also used for cheap giveaways at grocery stores to entice shoppers to come in. Nowadays they can be worth a pretty penny for nice pieces. The vase she turned up is from the 1920's based on the Imperial Glass cross mark on the base. We haven't been able to figure out what it's worth yet, but certainly exponentially more than the $1.90 she paid for it. We have a small collection of Carnival glass, and it really looks good when it's all displayed together. At this point, what it's worth doesn't matter, since it's not going anywhere but into the collection as a piece of found treasure.

So the final type of treasure-hunting I was able to do in January is moneywalking. I've picked up 5 or 10 coins a month off the street when they appear in the path of my daily walks. But I've not had what you could call steady success with moneywalking. I've been reading some other blogs for tips on what other treasure hunters have done to increase their coin finds, and I wanted to test out that theory of finding change in melting snowpiles. I put more emphasis on it this month and did the best I ever have. In January, I was able to find 69 coins. That's like 6 months tallies from 2009. I was amazed, but it truly does work. I only came up with 2 or 3 coins out of snowpiles, so the jury's still out on that. I have concentrated on the ground under parking meters, and that continues to produce pretty well. I expanded my walking range to different streets and that has helped a lot. In my city, though, they are taking out the parking meters one by one and replacing them with 2 or 3 parking machines per block. I thought that would be the death knell for moneywalking in that area. However, last week I decided to start checking them and I've been pleasantly surprised to find coins in the reject slots, and not just grubby pennies. Here's a picture of January's returns just from moneywalking, over $2.00, including an angel token and a wheat penny. That's great, I'm encouraged that this avenue of treasure hunting will be a producer as well, and I haven't even hit my first car wash or drive-through window yet! Ha-ha!

Quick January Treasure Hunt

2010-01-24T17:29:00.001-05:00

Rain Friday, rain Sunday but was able to get out Saturday for a bit. We finally had enough warm air that the ground has thawed, although there are some dirty piles of snow still around. Hit a couple of local schools with the Ace 250 metal detector. Came up with about $3 in change, not bad, was pleased to find a necklace and my first gold dollar of the year, always nice to find...certainly more efficient than digging 100 pennies!

Here's a quarter coming up from a few inches deep in a woodchip playground. Keep hunting, it's out there!

Hunting the Copper Mine

2010-01-18T14:41:00.004-05:00

If you have winter cabin fever like I do, here is an easy way to do some treasure hunting at your kitchen table. Take $5 to the bank and ask for pennies. All banks have rolls of pennies. This is an easy and inexpensive way to get your family or kids into coin collecting or treasure hunting.

There are several ways to approach the hunt. You can buy a penny book at Walmart and see how many slots you can fill. Or you can look for rare coins. Yes, there are still some pretty valuable pennies out there, and some recent ones too. Go to the Professional Coin Grading Service website, click on Price Guide, and then scroll down to Lincoln cents. You can see what the prices are for coins by grade. There are several error varieties out there. The 1999 with wide AM on the reverse is worth a couple hundred, and there are doubled dies listed from the 90's, 80's, 70's and 60's that are worth quite a bit in excellent condition. The 1969-S is worth about $60,000. That would certainly make my day! I keep a list of the potential valuable pennies and put them aside while hunting, then come back with a magnifying glass and check closely at the end. The rest I toss into a bowl.

You can also just collect up wheat-back pennies. You probably haven't seen any in circulation in a while (they changed to Memorial backs in 1959). However, they are still out there. Hey, there's one right now, see?

I only found the one wheat, a 1958-D, out of this lot of 500 pennies. But I was able to come up with three of the new 2009 Abe Lincoln pennies pictured below. You may not have seen any of these yet, but the Memorial back pennies that have been the design for most of our lifetimes are now also a thing of the past. The 2009's have four different reverse sides with scenes from Lincoln's life, since 2009 is the 200th anniversary of his birth in 1809. (The Lincoln cent was introduced in 1909 for his 100th birthday).

The US Mint will introduce a new reverse design on the 2010 pennies that will have a union shield. The first of these pennies was released on February 11, 2010, Lincoln's birthday. Some people also collect pre-1982 cents since they were made of pure copper back then, making each copper penny worth more than 1 cent based on just the copper content. (Now they are made of zinc plated with copper). So you can see there are lots of treasure hunting options. I wonder if we'll be hunting for Memorial-back pennies in ten years? Somehow I doubt it, but you never know!

Seasonal Treasure Hunting

2010-01-08T10:58:00.004-05:00

Here's what it looked like outside my house 3 weeks ago. Since then the temperature has pretty much stayed below freezing. And then we got an inch of snow last night. Suffice it to say that the ground is frozen solid. So the metal detector stands quietly propped up in a corner, awaiting fairer weather. But that doesn't mean that treasure hunting has to take a season off. As I've discussed in previous missives, there are multiple ways to reap the bounty of treasure that the earth provides for us.
The post-holiday time is a good time to start roaming through the thrift stores, as people clear out the holiday clutter in their houses. There are a lot of donations made between New Years (resolutions to clean out) and the Spring thaw when people open the windows and do Spring cleaning.
Another option is moneywalking. When snow is on the ground, dropped coins disappear silently. Match that with cold fingers and people fumbling with gloves on, and you can find dropped coins on the ground as the snow and ice start to melt. As the piles of snow started diminishing last week, I walked through town and found 5 coins on the sidewalk under parking meters. They wouldn't be there on a sunny Summer day, as they were dropped in snow and the person who lost them wasn't about to fish through a snowpile for a nearly invisible silvery dime. For the same reason, there can be coins in parking lots as people drop them when getting car keys out of a pocket.
Coin roll hunting is another good snowy-day activity that can feed your treasure jones if you don't care to traipse through icy parking lots and city streets.
Oh, and don't forget to check those Coinstar reject trays when you go in and out of stores. You may think they will never have anything in them, and usually you will be correct, but occasionally you'll hit some that have several coins in there and you'll be able to enjoy that little adrenalin surge of finding treasure. Aarghh.

2009 Treasure Hunting Wrapup

2010-01-02T17:22:00.009-05:00

It is snowy and frozen here this New years weekend, so I went through the 2009 treasure chest and took some pictures. Last year I managed to dig up over 2500 coins with a metal detector, not bad. Added up to almost $200. Also managed to dig 21 rings from parks, sports fields and playgrounds, several pretty nice ones. When it was too cold or wet, I did some coin roll hunting for silver. Aarghh. The pictures are 336 quarters, 2 gold dollars, 2 half dollars and a military token, all dug. The pile of half dollars are all silver from the 1960s when they were made of either 90% silver (1964 and before) or 40% silver (1965-69). I picked out the four gold rings I dug, my first mate has already claimed them, as she has the silver dolphin ring. Other stuff is in previous posts. Little by little it all adds up to a full treasure chest.

Cool Commemorative Half Dollar

2009-12-18T15:25:00.003-05:00

My significant other found this 1989-S Proof half dollar in a roll that she picked up from the bank yesterday. I had never seen one before. It is legal tender and was only sold in sets from the US Mint. It was kind of dirty. I didn't even realize it is a Proof until I started cleaning the grunge off it. Pretty neat for a find in circulation, eh?

Four Ringie-Dingies

2009-10-05T20:00:00.005-04:00

Ahhh. Probably my favorite types of treasure to find is a nice ring. Last year I found 45 of them, the year before I think 32. This weekend was cool and sunny out, so it was a good weekend to get the old metal detector back in action. Over the course of 3 hunts, I was blessed to find 4 nice rings. Aarghh! I started at a small lake beach nearby that produced 5 rings last year. This time I found the copper ring and a silver toe ring buried in the sand. I'm sure there are more there, I have to go back and check again. On Saturday, I went to a woodchip playground for about a half hour and found the green stone ring with diamonds. Alas, it is costume, but still gave my heart a little start when I found it! Lastly, the silver band was buried about 4 inches down on a softball field. It came up nice and shiny, in a big clod of dirt. Now that's a good treasure weekend! The piles of coins in the other picture were found while ring-hunting. It all adds up to a full treasure chest after a while.

Multiple Streams of Treasure

2009-09-21T21:13:00.007-04:00

Well I found treasure this weekend through several means. It's all found, it just keeps flowing in as long as you believe it's out there. And yes, we are surrounded by it. OK, here's how the treasure you see here arrived in my treasure chest. The silver half dollar came through coin roll hunting. I got a few rolls of half dollars from the bank. Since they hardly circulate at all, there are some old ones in there if you look through them. I was lucky and found this 1968 half that is 40% silver. Worth a few dollars. Check my article 'How to Find Silver Coins in Circulation' for more info on coin roll hunting.

Next, moneywalking is another way to find treasure consistently. Just look around on your travels. On a trip to Walmart, I took a quick look in the Coinstar reject tray, and it was filled with coins! There were 3 Euro coins and 9 pennies. Treasure! I found a dollar bill on the ground earlier this week, but forgot to include it in the pic. So there's some nice treasure rolling in.

Next, I took my metal detector out to an area that is being cleared for development, and found this large military coat button. It's from the 20th century, but it's almost as big as the half dollar. That's a nice old relic. The rest of the coins were found with the detector in a schoolyard on the way home. Not bad!

Oh, and one more stream of treasure came via my 1st mate, who loves thrift store and yard sale shopping. She found this hand-painted tole can, a nice numbered and signed rustic print, and a pair of signed Tiffany crystal candlesticks for $10 total. Can't beat that with a stick!

There you go, 4 ways to find treasure. Aarghh!

Meow Like a Pirate Day is Coming

2009-09-17T09:38:00.004-04:00

In the interests of all things pirate, my interests in pirating has crossed with my care of 4 cats in the house (plus visitors). So I want to remind all that Talk Like a Pirate Day, or in this case, Meow like a Pirate day is coming. Every year this special day falls on September 19. In 2009, that falls on Caturday.

Enter your favorite kitty dressed in his or her favorite pirate garb in this MLAPD contest:
The Cat's Meow, Catster.com's cats and kittens blog

Spanish Treasure and Silver

2009-09-15T20:21:00.005-04:00

It has been very dry here but we got a nice overnight rain, so I wanted to get the metal detector out for a spin. I just bought a Garrett pro-pointer on my Florida trip, so wanted to try that out as well. I went to a local school and found 20 or so coins on the playground, then tried another schoolyard in an older part of the county. Started off slow, the ground was still quite dry below an inch. Dug a few pulltabs down 4-6" deep. This particular school has not given up a ring yet. I'm convinced that there is at least one at every school. Since this school is from the late 1950's I'm sure there are a few. Anyway, I like the pinpointer, it reaches a good 2" or so through the soil. Got a good repeatable signal at 6" and out popped a shiny silver dime, dated 1964. Ahhh, that was nice, its the first one this year, and boded well for the hunt. A few other coins started popping up. I have to go back there and work slowly when the ground is wet this Winter. After a bit, I got another strong signal at 2 to 3 inches, and out popped this big copper coin. It is a Spanish 10 centimos, dated 1878. Wow, Spanish treasure! That's the oldest coin I've found in this area. Great treasure day. Aarghh.

Florida Treasure Hunting

2009-09-10T17:33:00.006-04:00

OK, I promised I would come back with some news after my trip to Florida. On this trip, I was with family, doing the obligatory parks and such. It was fun....but tiring. And though I couldn't dedicate time to moneywalking, I was still able to come up with 7 coins over the course of the weekend. I've found that airports are a good place to look since people are lounging around while waiting, spending money at food and souvenir stores, and on carpeted surfaces a lot, which deadens the sound of a dropped coin. So that was OK, something new learned.

I was able to get out for a spin through some thrift stores also. I like the Florida stores. They have a different class of clothing, more Summer stuff of course. And since the population is older, a lot of people donate stuff when they are downsizing or moving. And there is some older stuff. There is always different stuff in thrift stores in other parts of the country, or in other countries. That makes thrift store treasure hunting a lot of fun. You just have to go in with the mindset that there will be something good in there, you just have to sift through until you find it.

So, here is a selection of some cool treasures found. The black candleholders are handpainted tin, old and really nice for $3 the pair. I have a collection of old pewter so at $1, the Reed and Barton candleholder was a steal. The old jewelry box I think was $1 also, and the McCoy vase was $2. Nice! In the other pics, the clay pitcher is new but goes with other colonial stuff I have, $3. Finally, the yellow planter is a 1941 Nelson McCoy piece, nice find. I had to leave a big McCoy vase, since I was traveling by plane. Picked up a couple other items too, a lot of neat treasure finds! My other half has a little antique booth and this gives us a legitimate reason to treasure hunt, and keeps the treasure moving on its journey to someone who will be thrilled to find it. So I feel we are just middlemen in these items' trip from treasured at one time, to hidden junk, to found treasure, and finally back to treasured. The treasure cycle continues. Aarghh!

What Motivates me to be a Treasure Hunter?

2009-09-02T18:52:00.005-04:00

The pursuit of treasure can take many forms, as you see from title on top of my page. When I get tired of one, whether it be moneywalking, sweepstakes, metal detecting, or whatever, I just go on to the next one. I've found that I can get remotivated for treasure hunting by checking what other people are finding at Treasurenet.com. This is mostly a metal detecting site, but they have a little bit of everything. What's motivating about it is that the treasure hunters there post pictures of their finds, and the site is very active. That means that there is a lot of treasure being found on a daily basis. Some of it will blow you away. Either click on any of the pictures in the banner across the top, or go to Today's Finds. Amazing.

I haven't gotten the detector out since a beach trip in August, which was pretty good. One silver toe ring and about 225 coins. I was surprised when a half dollar came up from about 9" down. Not an old one, but still definitely treasure.

Here are a couple of other pieces I was able to score this Summer through sweepstaking. The bracelet was won in a department store giveaway. The minor league baseball championship ring is a replica that was given away in a sweepstakes in the local paper. Can't argue with that bling. The stories behind them are in an article I posted below on August 26, How to Win Local Sweepstakes and Giveaways. I just hadn't gotten the pictures posted.

I'm off to Florida this weekend, not sure what form of treasure hunting I'll be doing there, but I'll let you know in a few days.

Small Moneywalking pickups

2009-08-30T21:45:00.004-04:00

I was away over the weekend but kept an eye out for treasure opportunities...Because treasure is everywhere, as I've often said. Sure enough, the first item I spotted was a sterling silver chain necklace in a parking lot. The clasp is broken, which is probably why it was laying there. Nice. I also came up with 2 dimes, one in a parking lot and one under a parking meter. It's something.

The Street Gives up a Chance at Stardom

2009-08-27T20:59:00.004-04:00

...In the form of a Mega-Millions ticket I found on the sidewalk yesterday. If I hit the $252 Million jackpot on a ticket found money-walking, I'd have to be crowned King of the Scroungers, right? Oh, the waiting was agonizing! Ah, but it was not to be, not worth a sawbuck, a fin, or even one slim samoleon. So today, back I go to the office, and out for a walk at lunch, where I found a shiny penny under a parking meter. And so it goes...

Back from the Black!

2009-08-26T20:12:00.005-04:00

Wow, its been a long time since I have been here, got offline for a couple of months, but now I have returned, just like General Black Jack Pershing. When he led the American Expeditionary Force to France in WW1, he said "Lafayette, we are here." That was a reference to the Marquis de LaFayette having provided French support to the US during the American Revolution. It helped that we were fighting the British...but I digress. Anyway, I've returned and will try to actually hang around this time. I may make a few changes to make this blog more sustainable, but we'll see how that works. It'll still follow the same general theme of sweepstaking, treasure and passive income.

OK, here are 2 new Sweepstaking articles I wrote that I want to share:

--How to Find Sweepstakes With the Best Chance of Winning - 5 Ways

--How to Win Local Sweepstakes and Giveaways

Good luck and let me know when you win something!
Twincapes

Addicting Sweeps Game

2009-06-04T17:26:00.002-04:00

Chiquita Smoothie Sweepstakes - This is a sweepstakes for a tropical vacation to Jamaica. It is one entry per person, but once you are registered, you can get additional entries by playing an ADDICTIVE matching game. It is fun but hard to quit. There are backup prizes like blenders and smoothie mix. Have fun!

Weekend Gold and Silver

2009-05-31T19:44:00.002-04:00

Found some nice treasure over the weekend. I had ordered a box of half dollars from the bank last week and they turned out pretty good. I found fifteen 40% silvers (1965-1969). That was a nice surprise, the coin roll hunting has been pretty slow of late.

On Sunday, stopped off at a school to wave the metal detector around for a few minutes while on a trip to Lowe's. The wood chips were pretty bleak, 2 dimes and 4 pennies. So I went across the baseball field for a few minutes. We have had so much rain lately, that the conductivity is good, and the digging is easy. I was lucky enough to dig out a nice little 10k ring from 2" deep! Woo-hoo! I knew it was gold as soon as I saw it, and it has a heart-shaped diamond that wouldn't quit sparkling in the sunlight. Unfortunately it is marked CZ after the 10k mark. Oh well, still a keeper and a nice addition to the collection. Aarghh!

Memorial Day Sweepstakes

2009-05-22T11:40:00.005-04:00

Here are a few new Summer - oriented sweepstakes with some good prizes.

--McCormick Grill Mates - Daily entry until July 6. One grand prize of a grill, 120 daily prizes of a box of grilling spices.
--McDonald's McCafe Your Day - Daily entry till August 2, Ten winners each week receive a $1000 Visa Gift Card and a $50 McDonald's arch card.
--Land's End Barbados Getaway - Daily entry till May 31. One winner of a week in Barbados, including air. Wait for the plane to fly over the island for the entry form. Nice prize. Make sure you always read contest rules. In this case, retail value is $20,000, depending where you are flying from, which to me is kind of high. Taxes on that would be several thousand. In this case though, the rules say that they are throwing in $5,000 cash, so you could cover the taxes with that. Since it's structured that way, I'd say to go for it. Oh, and you can buy a swimsuit right on the website for your trip. Convenient!

Good luck!
Twincapes

Woodland Things, My Other New Baby

2009-05-15T12:07:00.002-04:00

I decided to start a new blog that talks about my efforts at creating a Japanese-style woodland garden. I've been working on it for a few years, bit by bit using scrounged materials and inspiration I've found on the web. I've started trying to take some better nature photos and figured they would fit well there, so voila! its a new blog.
Woodland Things - Feel free to stop by.

Street Silver

2009-05-15T09:39:00.004-04:00

I've always said that treasure is where you find it. And so it is. Yesterday I was passing through a bus stop and saw a chain link caught between the slats of a bench. I managed to pull it up with a pen and was rewarded with a broken silver heart chain bracelet. It's marked .925, which means 92.5% pure silver. Treasure!

I also was searching through a few rolls of half dollars that I picked up at the bank, and was rewarded with a 1993-S proof coin. Nice. The only way that could get there is that someone broke open a Proof set from the US Mint and spent it. I'm sure there's a story there. It hasn't been out in circulation long because its in almost perfect condition. Proofs are special coins that are struck on a polished blank so that the surface is like a mirror, with the head kept in a frosted finish. They are really pretty, but hard to photograph. If you ever find one, you'll know it.

Wednesday Winner!

2009-05-13T14:00:00.004-04:00

Woo-hoo, I received an email yesterday afternoon that I won a re-usable eHow shopping bag from the eHow "Going Green" contest that they ran during April. 100 winners were selected from thoses that submitted green articles. I think that's win number 10 for the year, thats more than one every 2 weeks. Can't complain about that.

Are Sweepstakers Just Incredibly Lucky?

2009-05-11T19:35:00.005-04:00

I was told recently that I am just so lucky, because I've been able to win many things through sweepstaking over the years. As a matter of fact, I've been told that quite a lot. But I'm not, I just work at something that most people think is out of their reach, that is, winning sweepstakes.

It's really quite a thrill to have the Fedex truck stop at your house and deliver a big envelope from a judging agency that you have to sign for. You never know what it could be! I've signed for trips, electronics, cash, and even had to sign for a T-shirt win once (why?). Or you come home from work and find a box waiting on the front step from Arrowhead Lake, Young America, MN or Melville NY. That's where some of the big sweepstakes judging agencies are located. It's like Christmas any day of the year.

But like anything else, it takes work. There are many, many prizes awarded in sweepstakes each year and someone has to win. I research prize structures, closing dates, and entry limits and pick those that are the most winnable. If they are one -entry per person, I enter them also, because I have the same odds of winning as everyone else.

All sweepstakes are longshots, but not as long as the lottery by far. Sweeps are definitely winnable. I keep a binder with all my winning notices in it to keep me going when dry spells come along. Actually, I am on my second binder now, I filled the first one. The prize list includes a truck (won online), a trip to Cancun, a cruise to the Bahamas, VIP trip to the X games in LA, VIP trip to Champions on Ice in Las Vegas, and a couple of smaller trips. Let me tell you that a VIP pass is definitely the way to travel. You are backstage, mingling with the athletes, open bars, free food and transportation, it's fantastic. Something you'd probably never experience except for sweepstaking. Here are 2 articles on the subject to help you get started.

How to Find Winnable Online Sweepstakes - 5 Easy Ways

How to Win Mail in Sweepstakes

So far 2009's been on the slow side, but you never know when the big win is about to arrive. Keep the faith and keep entering.

Twincapes

1000 Coins

2009-05-10T11:56:00.001-04:00

Well, I found my 1000th coin of 2009 yesterday and it was a 1964 Canadian penny, oddly enough. I have slowed down a bit this year from last year when I found 4100 coins. I guess i am on pace for about 3000, which is what I found in 2007. So far this year I have found 2 nice gold rings and 2 silver. 34 of the coins were found when just walking around, the rest came via metal detector. That adds up to around $70 so far. It's fun, you never know when a nice piece of jewelry or a ring will pop out of the ground. And the coins add up. I am convinced that there is more money lost or sitting in drawers than is in circulation. Make money by picking up what has been dropped. An interesting concept.

New Sweepstakes for May

2009-05-03T12:41:00.002-04:00

Here are some new sweepstakes that offer a good chance to win.

LeCreuset - 100 prizes of a $100 cooking pan. Enter daily until August 4.

The Amazing Avocado - Win a trip to Acapulco or 10 first prizes of $100 worth of avocados or 15 second prizes of an avocado slicer. Daily entry until June 1. Maybe nobody will enter due to the flu, who knows?

New Sweepstakes

2009-04-28T09:34:00.006-04:00

2 Sweepstakes wins here so far this week! I won a $10 gift card in the Century 21 online sweeps and a $50 gift card in the cash for cat care sweeps below. With 4 cats, that is a great prize! This is a photo of Zippy, he's about 7 months old. He is a Turkish Van and is very playful.

OK, here's a good sweepstakes. If you are a cat lover, you can win one of 150 gift cards in this sweepstakes and instant win game.

Cashforcatcare.com - Daily entry for sweepstakes and instant win game until July 31. 100 Grand prizes of $100 Gift card, 50 first prizes of $50 Gift card.

Sweepstakes Tip - Check the coupon inserts in your Sunday paper, there are always national sweepstakes advertised in there.

This week's Sweepstakes

2009-04-20T20:56:00.003-04:00

It's rainy and bloomin gloomy here! But that means the flowers will be blooming by the weekend when it's supposed to be warm and sunny. Happy Spring...OK on to this week's sweepstakes:

-Pot Of Gold - Enter up to 5x a day till April 30 for $100 instant win or a chance at $50,000.

-Rachel Ray Green Spring Cleaning - Enter daily till April 29. Ten winners of $100 green cleaning package.

-Sweepstakes Tip - Check your favorite magazines at the beginning of each month to see if they have new giveaways.

Twincapes

New Weekly Sweepstakes

2009-04-14T21:25:00.004-04:00

I've been away for a few days but am back with some sweepstakes that offer good odds to win.

Family Dollar - Open until April 30, daily entry. 20 prizes of free diapers for a year.

Betty Crocker - Open until April 30, daily entry. 1 Grand Prize of a Big barrel grill. Daily prizes of a $65 table top grill and grilling utensils. (Enter via the alternate entry box above where you type in your name).

Good Housekeeping - Good Deals and Smart Steals. Open until April 30, 1 entry per household. 30 winners of this book on frugal living.

Sweepstakes Tip - Bookmark daily entries in a folder named Sweepstakes so you can easily submit all your entries from one place each day. Good luck and happy sweeping!

Twincapes

Received a Sweepstakes Win today

2009-04-07T20:25:00.004-04:00

Part of the fun of doing sweepstakes is that you never know when a win will show up at your door. You fill out your entries, visualize your prize, then send the entries out into the universe and hope for the best. Today the big brown truck stopped by with a $50 Gift card I won about a month ago from a Tropicana-Purina sweepstakes. Yay! That's a couple tanks of gas (last year it was one tank)!

I feel like there should be more coming soon.

Weekend Sweepstakes

2009-04-05T10:10:00.004-04:00

Here are some good sweepstakes for this week.
Luxaholics - This is a great prize collection. Each one is one entry per person/family/household.
Loralie.com - offers the last chance to win a prom dress before Prom season in May. 1 entry, and you can pick what color and style you want. Hurry!
Kellogg's - is giving away 499 $10 Itunes gift cards. This is winnable! But it is only open until April12. It's a daily entry. Go to Music Giveaway link on the bottom of the storefront. Give it a try and tell me when you win.
CastrolGTX - Oh you can still race Ashley Force in the sweepstakes I won below. It's a daily entry till April 30.

Good luck to all! Let's prove to people that sweepstakes can be won!
Twincapes

Sweepstakes win and Treasure

2009-04-05T09:53:00.004-04:00

Yay! It looks and finally feels like Spring has finally arrived. March acted like it didn't want to end. I received the T-shirt in the mail yesterday that I won in the Castrol sweepstakes a few weeks back. After piddling around the house for a while and finishing up a metal detector article, I took the detector out to a local schoolyard that has been pretty good to me. Was able to dig about $4.00 in change, always good. To top the day, I received a nice low round tone as I was making my way back to the car and out popped this beautiful 14K gold ring from about 2" down! Woo hoo! It's got Madonna on both sides and a pretty blue stone. Nice treasure. Aarghh!
How to Use a Metal Detector at the Beach
Twincapes

Small Sweepstakes win

2009-04-03T09:21:00.004-04:00

Hey! I won a 2 oz. Vitamin D sample on my first try at the Wellesse sweepstakes. Go to www.Wellesse.com to give it a try. This is a daily that goes through April 30. I can always use vitamins. Give it a try, you can win a one-year supply of vitamin D.

I also found a couple of pennies laying in the street, they go into the treasure chest as well. On to the weekend!

Twincapes

Weekly Sweepstakes

2009-03-28T21:44:00.005-04:00

Here are this week's sweepstakes to enter:

Madberries.com - Daily Entry -A lot of great prizes.
WomansDay - Daily. Good prizes here as well. Check if airfare is included, it is on some, not on others.
PaceFoods - Daily. Win a jar of Salsa. Lots of winners here.

Check the ads that pop up down below too, sometimes there are some good sweeps, no coercion to click on anything unless it interests you. :-)

Good luck and remember to follow my tips for winning online sweepstakes -

How to Find Winnable Online Sweepstakes - 5 Easy Ways

How to Get Organized to Win Online Sweepstakes

Good luck, I'll post new ones each weekend.
It's all Treasure.
Twincapes

More Treasure, this time Silver!

2009-03-27T21:04:00.002-04:00

I wrote a new article on EHow about coin roll hunting. I can't believe what people have posted recently on Treasurenet.com that they've found doing CRH. Barber coins, Indian head pennies. crazy. I did find a 1967 silver half yesterday and a 1977 proof half today, the proof unfortunately had a bad scratch across the front, so I threw it back. How to Find Silver Coins in Circulation . This is another very fun form of treasure hunting. The pic below is a pile of silver I found in 2008, the story has a Walking livberty half and Proof half I also found. It's fun. Aarghh!

Finding Rare Coins in Circulation

2009-03-25T23:41:00.002-04:00

Here's a different twist on Treasure hunting. I just published an article on eHow about finding rare coins in circulation How to Find Rare Coins in Circulation . Interesting research, even I didn't know about what some of these recent coins are worth. Hundreds or thousands of dollars. Of course, the catch is that they are rare, thus hard to find. But the new ones should be easier to come across. I'll have to give it more of a try. Here is a pile of silver I found in circulation last year, so yes it can be done.

Aarghh

More Treasure This Weekend

2009-03-22T18:57:00.004-04:00

It was pretty nice out this weekend, I was able to get out a couple of times with the metal detector. I dug about $4.00 in treasure and a big military coin. Also a couple of earrings and a pendant. No gold or silver but still good. After finding 8 rings in January and February, I expected that to slow down and it did. I have to start visualizing rings again and and see if they come back.

2009 Sweepstakes update

2009-03-09T10:24:00.003-04:00

Well, I thought it was time to give a little further info on one of my other treasure-gathering hobbies and that is sweepstaking. So far in 2009 I've gotten 7 sweepstakes wins:

2- $5 coupon for Pace salsas --Online instant win
2- $15 in Kraft/Nabisco coupons --Online instant win
1- $195 pair of Cinzia sunglasses --online blog win
1- $10 Castrol t-shirt -- online instant win
1- $50 Gas card --mail-in Purina

I also wrote 2 more sweeps-related articles on eHow, that makes a total of 5 so far. Hoping sweeps wins pick up soon, last big win was $1200 last Summer from Colgate.
How to Win Mail in Sweepstakes
How to Get Organized to Win Mail in Sweepstakes

Although I've won a lot online over the years, including a pick-up truck and a trip to Cancun, I think the mail-ins will pay off more as postage continues to increase. Time will tell.

Twincapes

Treasure Hunting again

2009-03-08T09:43:00.004-04:00

We finally hit the 60s yesterday. I expect the last mounds of snow to melt today as it will be even warmer. I was able to get the metal detector out and scrounge up some treasure from the depths of a couple of local schoolyards. I know there are 20 quarters, total over $8.00. Thats pretty good, all hunts don't turn out that prosperous. Got a few nice pieces of treasue as well for the treasure chest: a .925 silver chain bracelet, a French 10 Francs and a little marcasite heart pendant. Aarghh.

Soccer season is coming

2009-02-28T06:43:00.002-05:00

Wow, almost March already. Although we still have a few weeks left, the Winter in Virginia has been mild overall. Everything went north of us this year or didnt make it over the Appalachian mountains. Soon it will be nice enough to go on some treasure-hunting expeditions. I will be posting those results here before long. Oh, and it's almost time for Spring sports. There is a new Women's Professional Soccer league that will start at the end of March. Thats should be interesting, it's the first time they've played since the WUSA's demise in 2003. Doesn't seem that long ago.

How to Find Information on the Women's Professional Soccer League

Sweepstakes Articles

2009-02-26T21:24:00.004-05:00

OK hey. I have written three sweepstakes articles that I want to share. The links are below. Yes anyone can win, it just takes persistence and patience. And for mail-ins, postage. They call that the 3 P's. So far in 2009, it's been a bit slow, but I've won two jars of salsa from Pace.com, six $4 coupons from Nabisco, and a $195 pair of Cinzia sunglasses from shopaholic.com. Just keep at it, and the prizes will come in.

How to find Winnable online Sweepstakes - 5 Easy Ways

How to Read Sweepstakes Rules to Increase Your Chances of Winning

How to Get Organized to Win Online Sweepstakes

The Animal Rescue Site

2009-02-21T11:09:00.001-05:00

I am a cat lover. We have 4 at home, our oldest cat, Owl, recently passed over. He was 19. Oh, I was sad to see that President Clinton's cat, Socks left us this week also. He was also 19. Thats a pretty good old age.

I usually start my internet day by clicking on the Animal Rescue Site. The Animal Rescue Site They have a neat animal hero story each day, and when you click on the site, you help feed rescued animals through sponsor donations. All it costs you is the time to visit and click each day. This is a worthy cause.

Foreign coins from 2008

2009-02-19T19:33:00.000-05:00

Here are the foreign coins I found last year, some dug up, some found laying about. Many different countries, you just never know what's out there.

The New Successful Coin Hunting

Save Money on Books

2009-02-18T20:55:00.000-05:00

I finally posted a Frugal article on EHow tonight. Yay!
How to - 10 Tips to Save Money on Books

I never, OK, seldom pay retail for books, my kids will back me up, they are not allowed to go to Borders without a coupon! Crazy Pirate!

EHow

2009-02-18T08:27:00.000-05:00

G'day all. I just posted my 10th article on Ehow. I've been a member for a week now. Not making much, still learning how the system works. I plan to work on getting affiliate programs set up soon. Hoping for the best! At this point I'm going on hope, I see that it does work for people, so all I can do is hope it works for me as well. So just keep priming the pump and see what happens. Aarghh.

How to Carpool to Washington DC from Virginia by Slugging

Metal detecting Monday

2009-02-17T18:56:00.000-05:00

I went out yesterday for an hour or so. About 38 degrees, but I was pretty bundled up. Searched a local school field and found 33 coins worth $2.27. OK not bad. 79 cents of it was a spill about an inch or 2 deep. I found 2 quarters, 2 dimes, a nickel and 4 pennies within about 8" of each other.

So far in 2009, I've found 286 coins worth about $20. Last year I was way ahead of that by now, but we had no Winter last year. This year the ground actually froze for a few weeks. But my favorite treasure is finding rings, and I've found 7 so far this year, that's way ahead of my pace the last 2 years when I found 32 and 45 rings, respectively. Aargh.

Starting Off

2009-02-17T18:53:00.000-05:00

I live this frugal pirate lifestyle, and have for some time. For whatever reason, I'm now doin a bit o' bloggin, so if you care to follow along, just jump in the stream and we'll see where it takes us.