I am always saying to learn anything you have to read a book, metal detecting is no different, no matter where, why or when you embark on this wonderful journey, by purchasing a metal detector to search beaches, parks, fields or a combination of every conceivable piece of land you could possibly come across, you will without doubt find something metal… As we all know books are an essential part of any hobby, and Treasure Hunting with a Metal Detector is no exception, as a matter of fact books are an essential tool to establish the era or date for an artefact, with most metal detecting finds being either broke in antiquity & then discarded or lost due to the failure whilst being worn, whilst modern farming methods do not help some of these quite fragile artefacts, as they are churned up by either rotovators, ploughs or giant discs of steel to get the optimum growing medium, which leaves a lot of these artefacts broken, it is this, where the books come into there own, many years ago these were referred to as part-a-facts, and for a good reason, but trying to identify these broken objects can be a nightmare, but once you start to build up a library of books, with a casual flick through every now and then,  the brain soon picks out things and next time something is found your mind will tell you, and then the new hunt begins, this requires nothing heavy, just a casual flick through and your brain scans do the rest…