Research lead, not find probability
The Ohio beta combines historical activity, terrain, recreation, and source signals into a prioritization heuristic. It has not been field-calibrated and does not predict valuables or guarantee a result.
Ohio beta methodology
Show your work.
Respect the ground.
RelicPlot is an evidence and access layer for detectorists. This page explains what the current Ohio catalog means, what it does not mean, and how the product earns the right to charge.
How a lead earns attention
We start with a place where people historically gathered or left activity traces, add landscape and surface context, then apply a source-backed access check. The output is a ranked research queue—not a claim that an object is waiting underground.
Locality before ranking
ZIP search is tied to the documented coverage profile. A coverage-only area is labeled as such; the system does not silently substitute a statewide fallback for a local recommendation.
Provenance on every record
Records are classified as reviewed leads, automated candidates, or coverage placeholders. Placeholders are not actionable and cannot be saved or navigated to.
Access is a separate gate
Public ownership is never treated as permission. Generic open-map parks, playgrounds, sports grounds, picnic areas, and trailheads are excluded because those map labels do not establish detecting or digging permission. Each actionable record carries an access category, restrictions, managing authority, source URL, and verification date; users must confirm current rules before entering or detecting.
Statewide first, confidence always visible
Every Ohio-intersecting historical USGS map cell is screened against current Overture building footprints. Nearby historical labels identify possible schools, churches, depots, mills, commercial buildings, and other uses. Unlabeled symbols stay explicitly unidentified and are described only as likely dwellings or farm buildings. Individually checked NAIP comparisons carry Medium confidence; statewide automated comparisons remain Preliminary until aerial and field review.
Archive breadth without false precision
Sanborn maps, county atlases, historic newspapers, railroad valuation indexes, canal maps, Ohio Memory collections, USGS maps, and Ohio historical markers are linked as supporting research. City-, county-, and topic-level archive metadata never creates a pin by itself; a site still needs footprint-level corroboration.
Paid Ohio coverage gate
Statewide records are not statewide paid coverage.
Research desk-review coverage and paid-qualified coverage are measured separately. A paid-qualified lead requires human review, a rule or permission source checked within 90 days, a canonical scope-review artifact signed by an allow-listed reviewer and independently timestamp-anchored, meaningful allowed and excluded surface categories, a reviewed geometry or sufficient textual-scope decision, a managing authority or verified owner path, and an explicit conflict state of none or resolved.
The locked launch cohort is all 1,233 Ohio-intersecting 2020 Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas. Before RelicPlot markets paid Ohio coverage, at least 80% must contain three or more paid-qualified leads and authority or verified-owner-path completeness must reach 95%. Current Ohio coverage is 22/1,233 research desk-reviewed ZIPs (1.8%), 0/1,233 ZIPs with any paid-qualified lead, and 0/1,233 service-ready ZIPs. Seven human desk-reviewed rule records remain research leads because trusted reviewer and timestamp-authority keys have not been provisioned and the production trust policy is not externally rooted; a self-hash, rewritten allow-list, or repository declaration does not qualify them. Automated ODNR beach comparisons also combine an archived official beach point, a current park-authority match, and the current statewide rule, but remain unqualified until physical sand surface, closures, and exact usable boundaries receive location-specific review. Qualified-lead density is therefore median 0 and low-decile 0, and authority-path completeness has no paid-qualified cohort yet (0/0). The field-pilot and commercial gates must pass separately, so the beta remains free.