About

Author and avid metal detectorist Mary A. Shafer
Author Mary Shafer

I’m Mary Shafer, a freelance writer. I got actively started in the metal detecting hobby in 2004. It would have been sooner—I received my first detector as a Christmas gift in 2001—but I was unable to figure out how to get started. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t yet available to teach me how. 

reverse KGII face

I live and work out of my RV, traveling the highways and backroads of America (and I blog about that here). I enjoy meeting and tutoring and digging with other detectorists on my travels.

But my home base is upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Some of that area has been settled since the late 1600s. This fact alone makes my area ripe for the avid metal detectorist. Indeed, some of the very old coins I have found there helped sharpen my interest in the hobby.

I don’t consider myself an expert digger by any stretch, but I’ve been digging long enough to know a few helpful things. I also remember my challenges getting started in the hobby. After 12 years swinging my machine, I still didn’t see a beginners’ guide that could be easily digested; one that could quickly help newbies get out there swinging their detectors. I decided it was time someone wrote one.

I’m a proud member of Carla Autin’s “Women Diggers” group on Facebook, where I enjoy sharing my finds and those of my fellow “dig sisters.” We all learn from each other. I also belong to several other Facebook pages related to the hobby.

I host my own Facebook digger page, “Metal Detecting and Treasure Hunting 101,” and hope you’ll join me there…along with the 4,000+ other detecting enthusiasts! In honor of reaching that milestone, I also launched the Detecting101 YouTube Channel in April of 2019.