Originally the Indian Peace medals were made for the British Kings starting in the pre-revolutionary times, then progressed to having one for each of the US presidents until the late 1860s. They come in 2 main types -- a normal, round coin shape that everyone is familiar with, and an engraved, oval type medal.

Since these medals were originally given to the various Indian tribes as a show of friendship, this is where it starts to get exciting for the treasure hunter.

The main reason is to think like this: Say you were given a nice shiny medal from a US government agent declaring their love of peace. Then, a few weeks later, sitting in your teepee minding your own business, that same government agent who gave you the medal comes in again and tells you they are relocating you and your family to the middle of nowhere. Well my first instinct would be to get rid of any thing that reminds me of the government as soon as possible.

Now most treasure hunters and metal detector users know that 90 percent of these medals that were lost or thrown away will be worthless due to where they ended up and what they were originally made of. We will concentrate on the ones that are not. Gold is really not affected by much, and did I mention the ones made of gold have sold at auction for around $100,000.00? Not bad for one swing of a detector!

So where do we start looking? Well, since the entire US was at one time inhabited by at least one Indian tribe, that covers the general question of "where do I look?" I have always concentrated in areas of Pennsylvania where arrow heads were found. Researching these places will narrow down your initial search area. Try contacting a club or a private collector in your area that will be willing to share more information. Reading everything you can about your local history will also help.

We now have a new dimension to add to our treasure hunting arsenal. As with any thing you may discover, be careful how you treat the items you've found and recovered until you know the value of your find. And it goes with out saying that you also need to be careful and considerate of the property you are hunting on.

One final thought... No matter what your treasure passion is, it all comes down to research and planning. If you fail to do these 2 things your chances of success will be slim. So do the research, have fun and good luck in all you do.