Just like searching for modern gold jewelry on tourist beaches, lead targets are usually a good sign for a Spanish treasure hunter searching for treasure coins on beaches with a little history of old shipwrecks.
I always search in my Excalibur pinpoint mode or CTX 3030 Pattern 2 when searching for shipwreck artifacts.
The added depth and the fact that most old shipwreck artifacts often have a lot of ferrous objects in the surrounding area, make the extra digging worthwhile.
This photo shows a heavy discus shaped piece of lead which is a piece of lead bar shot.
Two disc shaped pieces of lead were attached by a length of iron chain or bar and fired out of a cannon to take out another ships rigging.
The long thick curved arrow head bronze ship nail is one of my favorite "ship spikes" and was attached to a clump of iron when originally found.
If you look closely you can traces of ferrous objects on several of these lead objects.
The encrusted musket balls and piece of lead in this photograph were all found on the same lower beach, the worked piece of lead was probably a sounding weight or perhaps a crude fishing weight.
If you are metal detecting on a beach known for old shipwrecks and you start to find old lead objects it is time to drop anchor and prepare to do some serious digging, do not walk away from the area.
Switch to an all metals mode and really clean the area of all metal objects, including iron.
When mother nature puts old lead objects in treasure hunting play, never walk away as it may be your best chance of finding old gold or silver coins.
Use your scoop or spade to widen the area around the initial find. If you have a big search coil, now is the time to put it on.
Learn to recognize the importance of lead objects and how they settle in levels along with metals sharing the same weight or density.
Even if you do not find any old gold, the old lead objects are cool and interesting finds.
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