The historian’s thoughts on the treasure hunt technique p. 12

When analyzing houses, you should carefully look at the bricks, not only in the presence of brands of manufacturers. But also check each brick with a pointer. Since sometimes in the bricks themselves, coins can be hidden. Inogia was done in factories as a tribute to the master. And sometimes they did it in a brick, the bookmark was gold and silver coins, precious stones.

In those days, search technologies were not as advanced as they are now. For example, cameras already exist that allow you to see through walls, iron structures, non-ferrous metal and people. True, so far their cost is about 50-100 thousand. dollars. That is, they are available for specialists from large organizations and not private owners like us. Noticed, historian. Such cameras appeared 10 years ago, probably after another 10 years they will cost a reasonable $ 1,000. In the meantime, we use metal detectors, sometimes geophysical equipment, allowing us to afforestation foundations and fields for the presence of voids beneath them. We rent equipment from geophysicists as business contract work. And they feel good, the money goes to salaries and bonuses and we feel good, we are studying history!

If there is a path in the house, as I said earlier from stone, marble, bricks, granite, do not shed a walk with a metal detector. Sometimes, there you can find coins that once fell from one of the pockets, and sometimes a cache with a treasure of coins. Usually, such caches are small. So that you can quickly get money, the main thing is under your feet, close, but on the other hand there are few who think of looking there.

As said earlier, it is worth looking under the wooden floorboards or under the brickwork of the stairs. In Europe, there were generally entrances to secret rooms, and in the East they hid treasures, as well as under the window. They made a recess in the wall, upholstered with boards, wrapped money, jewelry, manuscripts in a rag in it. Especially old-regime when the new regime destroyed the remnants of cultural heritage, be it icons or manuscripts in Latin, Arabic script.

In old houses, during their analysis, sometimes such treasures are discovered, their owners either could not return for them or considered it necessary to keep their secret. Keep ignorant of their descendants.

So, for example, one incident covered in the press, an old man of about 62, was sorting a house. He wanted to sell a plot in the center of the city, land ... on which stood an old house. It was built by his grandfather, his father lived in it, who was the foreman of the infantry battalion, he fought in World War II, reached Kineksberg, and ended the war there. He returned home in 1947.

The old man, his son, was dismantling the house to sell the bricks separately, iron separately ... when I was dismantling the wall, I found there a Walter pistol with three clips of cartridges in an oiled rag. As well as two small paintings by Dutch artists of the 17th century. Can part of the lost world collections of missing after the Second World War, are in old houses? Who knows?

The paintings were not so valuable, and time did not spare them ... but the old man handed the gun to the police, and the weapon went to the police museum. Walter was released in 1942. Such finds do not please search engines. Probably, the father of that old man didn't surrender the captured weapons in time, for some reason left him.

It turns out that cars returning from the war, with captured weapons, were not checked by the counterintelligence service and the police. Therefore, the streets of cities and villages from 1945 to 1957 were full of trophy daggers, knives, pistols, rifles, machine guns and even machine guns, grenades, and lemon. Only in 1957, the police began to collect these weapons, surrendered voluntarily. Someone threw him into rivers or lakes, but someone hid the old man like that father. Such finds are sometimes found during the demolition of old buildings built in the 30-50s of the 20th century, in the city center.

Also, the attention of search engines should be paid to bridges over rivers, usually under them, inside them old coins can be preserved in walls or wooden decks. And even small treasures. Including it is worth walking a metal detector near bridges of 10 cm and up to 10 meters. Caches were hidden near them.

In the channels of small clay city canals between houses on the street, sometimes you can also find coins. These are not treasures, apparently just lost coins. But there are silver ones, 1900 - 1920s. For which you can earn from 5 to 55 dollars per coin. It is very rare to find 10 gold rubles of the tsarist time, if these canals are located on a building street of the late 19th century. 1 such coin costs at least $ 500.

And so more new coins of Small-An, or the second empire, bottle caps, nails, tin cans, buttons, spoons, forks, penknives and other rubbish.

When searching, 60 percent is iron garbage. About 30 percent are buttons and other interesting metal gizmos, keys, some remnants of mechanisms, pocket and wrist watches, gears. The remaining 10 percent falls on coins.

But it all depends on the area of ​​search and location, sometimes the percentage ratio gives an advantage in the direction of coins or buttons.

By the way, metal buttons also cost money, from 3 cents to 300 dollars. Sometimes there are old - silver or even golden buttons, nobles of the Principality of Small-An, 18-19 centuries. But more often the iron or copper buttons of the regiments and battalions of the first and second empires. Less often, Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, Japan. Since prisoners of war, arrived in the camps from 1915 to 1927 and from 1945 to 1956. The first and second world war.

In Small-An, there were several camps for prisoners of war, first Belgians, Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Romanians, Astriaks, Germans. After the Japanese. In the old cemeteries there are even monuments dedicated to deceased prisoners of war in European and Japanese languages. Small-An was already a colony of the first and then the second empires. And in these territories there were also prisoner of war camps. Which participated in the construction of houses and agricultural work. Some of the prisoners of war never returned home. They stayed to live in Small An, and their descendants lived up to the beginning of the 70-80-90s of the last century. And then who remained alive, their grandchildren left for the homeland of their ancestors.

We even had a professor in mathematics, An Italian, and a great Boxing coach from the USA, who came to us in the 30s and died in the 70s, 20th centuries.

But we are a little off topic. So in our cities, you can meet buttons from other countries.

But in the fields, especially in small remnant mountains, near water sources, it is sometimes found to find cartridges of the beginning of the civil war of the 20-30s of the 20th century. As well as coins of the British, German and First Empires of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sometimes placers of silver rupees or Persian paise.