— Coins are something for the soul, but scrap metal is money.
That’s what my metal-digger partner always likes to repeat. He has been digging metal in our district for the third year now and, as it turned out, he has already worked out all the obvious and known places a long time ago. Although there are some nuances. I’ve been digging coins in our area for five years now, and I’ve also managed to work, explore and dig everything that could be explored and dug in our area. Although, there are also nuances.
So it turns out that today all owners of metal detectors are divided into two large camps. Those who dig in the old way and those who dig for scrap metal. It’s true that there are those who dig in the old-fashioned way, and at the same time collect scrap metal to justify gasoline. But, this is just old-fashioned coping, and ferrous metal is collected in such a way that it does not go to waste.
So, what is more interesting for a lover of instrumental search to search, dig and collect? I think what brings pleasure and emotion the most.
Now, it was spring. There are a huge number of places that I have been planning to visit for years and explore settlements or even entire unbroken villages there. And so it happened. Over the course of Maar and April, I did some very interesting and interesting digging in different locations. Many interesting finds and of course unforgettable emotions.
However, grass grew, and the plowed fields were sown everywhere. All that remains is to go into the forest or sadly wander through the boring and uninteresting plowed fields that have been left fallow for this summer. Two or three coins a day. Is this really interesting??? Such a useless waste of time. In addition, it becomes depressing to realize and understand the prices of rather rare finds. Here I found the badge of the volost judge. And what? Its price is no more than 10 thousand. Yes, I’d rather keep it as a souvenir.
And so it happened that the comrade called me to dig for metal. We collected scrap metal from a tile factory. In two hours of work it turned out to be 3 thousand net profit per person. I thought. Why, over the five years that I have been digging for coins, I have noticed many places in the fields and forests where there was an abundance of various types of scrap metal. So my comrade and I began to ride around, digging for scrap metal. On average, we have 3 thousand net profit per person per day. Sometimes we earned 7 thousand, and sometimes we earned only one thousand, but we never went at a loss.
So, I'll say this. In the spring, when there is a large choice of where to look for unbroken villages, it is interesting to dig in the old ways. In the summer, when there is little choice – either a pit or a forest, I would rather dig for scrap metal. It brings in good money and it's also interesting.
As I said above, all obvious places in the form of abandoned farms and summer field camps have long been worked out. Therefore, searching for new places using metal mining is no different from searching for unbroken villages. Also analysis of maps, work with the population, and processing of archival documents, in particular, Soviet newspapers, reports and even chronicles. For example, I came across a short video, a report about how an amateur artistic ensemble went out with concerts for tractor drivers in the field. I recognized the place by the lake where all the equipment was, my comrade and I went there and in two trips we took out more than a ton of spare parts.
It is, of course, understandable that city diggers are unlikely to travel three hundred miles in one direction on weekends to dig for scrap metal. Then, like a villager with a metal detector, he has a clear choice of what is interesting and rational for him to dig.
