Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Biblical Coin in New England


"What a builder thought was a quarter has turned out to be a 2,000-year-old shekel, the coin used to pay Judas for the betrayal of Jesus.

The coin was found during the reconstruction of a Manchester wharf in the spring of 2006, and now the finder and property owner are trying to solve the mystery of how it got there."

Read more HERE.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Memphis, TN Suburb + Spanish Silver?


"Pirates, Spanish treasure galleons and pieces of eight seem far removed from Germantown, Piperton and Collierville, Tennessee, but Spanish silver coins have been found in each of these communities over the last 20 years.

The historic artifact highlighted for September is from the 18th century and is one of my most memorable finds with a metal detector.

The artifact described in this article broke a relic hunter/coin hunter barrier for me. The barrier broken was my first coin detected from the 18th century. This 18th century barrier is difficult anywhere in the United States but is much more achievable in areas where settlements and cities from that century were first established such as New England or Virginia. It is much more difficult to achieve this goal in West Tennessee."

Read more HERE.

Live near Germantown, TN? Are you a relic hunter and would like to see your items on display? Click here for info on supporting the soon to be Germantown Museum.

Monday, September 27, 2010

West Point Class Ring Returned


"In the early hours of the morning on Aug. 22, Scott Ewell knew that he had found something special as he was searching the sands of Hampton Beach with his metal detector.

Ewell, a 65-year-old resident of Rowley, uncovered a 1968 West Point class ring buried a foot beneath the wet sand.

Estimates have placed the value of the ring as high as $1,500; however, Ewell, a military veteran himself, knew that this was a ring that could not be resold. "

Read more HERE.

Image is not of exact ring, though is of a similar 1968 West Point USMA ring.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Great MD Pic from Cali Triathlon


Just thought I'd share this very awesome image of a beach hunter in Santa Cruz, CA taken in the whee morning hours as Triathlon competitors were gathering on the beach.

If you interested in the story it came from, click HERE.

Image Credits: Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Club Hunt: Vet Park Mt. Vernon IL


"Metal detector enthusiasts may seem like modern-day treasure hunters, but for a couple of local seekers, the best finds aren’t finders keepers.

For members of the Tri-State Metal Detecting Club, which meets once a month in Mt. Vernon, helping people find their lost keys, rings and other metallic valuables are the best-remembered forays, said Gary Easley, a club member.

'I think the best find I ever found was a one-carat diamond ring,' said the McLeansboro resident. 'It had been missing for three years, and I found it in like 45 minutes.'"

Read more HERE.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Cosmic MD'ing in TX


"I’m standing where blue sky meets the yellow sand of Texas desert and a chance encounter with the extraterrestrial changed forever the texture of this landscape.

Some 63,000 years ago, a school-bus-size mass of molten iron and nickel from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter plummeted to Earth here, leaving a hole 100 feet deep and 550 feet across. The explosion, three times the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, spewed shrapnel for a mile and a half in every direction, punching four more small craters nearby.

I had never heard of the Texas town of Odessa until, flipping through cable channels one night, I came across “Meteorite Men” on the Discovery Science cable channel. Geoffrey Notkin and Steve Arnold, the stars, stood in a barren field while a tractor pulled a Rube Goldberg-assortment of pipes and wires -- a giant metal detector of sorts."

Read more HERE.

New England Treasure Show in 4 Days!!!


"If you’re wondering why the Silver City Treasure Seekers get so excited about buried treasure, consider what they have found in their digs.

One treasure seeker dug up a rare coin on a beach “somewhere” and an old fire extinguisher “somewhere” near his Raynham home.

The thrill of the hunt is the lure for the folks who walk the beaches with metal detectors. Their favorite locations are carefully guarded.

But they will happily share their finds at the 2nd Annual New England Treasure Show."

Read more HERE.

Silver City Treasure Seekers

Sunday, September 19, 2010

We Lost Our Gold: Final Episode



This is the final episode, can you decipher the clues and find the $10k prize?

WE LOST OUR GOLD

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Joining Landowner with Hobbyist


"A new website: www.fielddetector.co.uk launched by metal detecting enthusiast Richard White is seeking landowners interested in allowing detectorists on to their land to register on the site. Landowners can provide details of the accessible land and the fees for access, if applicable. At present some landowners charge for access while some only require a strict code of conduct to be observed.

The site also offers the metal detecting community forums for information on sites and metal detecting news. Founder of www.fielddetector.co.uk, Richard White, says: “I simply want to assist fellow detectorists who experience difficulty in accessing land for their hobby. I am also a fisherman and have always expected to pay for this hobby by way of permits, licenses and so forth. So I am quite prepared to pay to access land for metal detecting as are most serious detectorists”."

Read more HERE.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

UK Hobbyist Finds Bomb


"A Minchinhampton road was cordoned off and a family evacuated after a novice metal detecting enthusiast feared he had unearthed a bomb.

Part of Butt Street was shut for more than three-and-a-half hours following the discovery by Andy Croxon in The Great Park, which forms part of Minchinhampton Common, around 4pm on Sunday."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Stroud News & Journal

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Supplementing Income with Prospecting


"Armed with the tools of the trade -- a metal detector, gold pan and sluice box, a series of screens that sort gold from alluvial material like sand and gravel -- the Montana man represents the new face of a pursuit that once paved the way for settlement of the Western frontier.

The poor economy and a record price of gold have renewed interest in prospecting in Western states where public lands are rich with deposits and small-scale operators are all but free from government regulation.

What Brewer has in common with 19th century prospectors is a drive for gold equaled in intensity only by the instinct to keep quiet about its location and volume.

Read more HERE.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Viking Silver Declared Treasure


"A Viking silver ingot dating back 1,000 years which was discovered using a metal detector in the Isle of Man has been declared treasure trove.

An inquest ruled that the 20g ingot, found by John Crowe in October 2009 in a field in Andreas, is the property of the Queen, the Lord of Mann.

Mr Crowe, who may receive a reward, reported his find to the Manx Museum."

Read more HERE.

Image above is not actual silver Ingot from article.

Roman Helmet to Auction


"A stunning Roman cavalry helmet, made to awe the spectators in a procession of wealth and power rather than for practical use in combat, has been found by a metal detector user near the village of Crosby Garrett in Cumbria.

However, the artifact is not certain to end up in a local museum as single items of bronze are not covered by the Treasure Act.

Instead the helmet, the best found in Britain in more than a century, is likely to make its finder rich at auction, with a guide price at Christie's of £300,000."

Read more HERE.

More articles:
TIME Magazine
Paul Fraser Collectibles

Sunday, September 12, 2010

We Lost Our Gold Episode 7



Keep watching and decipher the clues to find that $10,000!!! Next episode on Sept 19th!


WE LOST OUR GOLD

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Aussie Fossicking


Going to be in Australia in the latter half of September and early October? If so, any hobbyist might enjoy a day at the Central Deborah Gold Mine in Victoria as they promote their "Finder's Keepers Fossicking Challenge."

"This 60 minute short course on how to become a fossicker and treasure hunter is sure to leave you hungry for more. Fossicking involves using a metal detector to unearth precious metals (such as gold), lost coins and other treasures hidden under soil, rocks and bushes.

After an introduction into the art of fossicking you will be armed with a Gold Snoop Pro metal detector and will be able to search for hidden treasure with your new-found detecting skills.

Working in pairs, the team who unearths the right treasure will walk away with great prizes that will help them on their way to becoming an expert prospector. This is an ideal activity for parents and their children."

Sep 18th 2010 through Oct 3rd 2010
MORE

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

WWII Airmen Watch Found in UK


"A watch lost by an American serviceman during the Second World War is being returned to his family after lying in a field for more than 65 years.

Metal detector enthusiast Stephen Taylor discovered the 10-carat gold timepiece while searching the site of a former US Air Force base, in Cambridgeshire, earlier this month. All the 43-year-old had to go on was its maker – the Elgin National Watch Company, Illinois – and the name Oliver Jelks inscribed on the back.

Stephen, who lives in Ellistown, near Coalville, said: 'I was walking along the side of a wood by a farmer's field when my metal detector gave off a high-pitched tone.'"

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: thisis Leicestershire

Authorities Search Belanglo W/ MD's


"INITIAL results from a post mortem examination on human remains found in the Belanglo State Forest could be released today.

A post mortem examination was carried out and DNA taken from on the remains last Wednesday, with authorities hoping the results will shed more light on the woman and how she died.

Police have been quick to quash any link between the remains and serial killer Ivan Milat, who infamously buried his victims in the forest."

Read more HERE.

Image credits: Western Advocate

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Islamic Silver Coins in Germany... Ancient Trade?


"German archeologists have discovered 1,200-year-old silver coins of Arabic origin buried in a northern German field, bearing evidence that the Slavs who inhabited the land were part of an ancient global trade route, academics said on Sunday.

Amateur archaeologist Peter Dachner, who found the first engraved coin near the town of Anklam, described it as a "masterpiece of design." He is one of a team of volunteers, working with regional authorities and the University of Greifswald.

By scouring the area with metal detectors, they discovered 82 coins and coin fragments, a silver armband and three bars of silver, in a plot of land measuring 20 by 25 metres."

The image above depicts a coin from roughly that time period of Islamic Silver, perhaps from the Umayyad Dynasty?

Read more HERE.

We Lost Our Gold Episode 6



Keep watching and decipher the clues to find that $10,000!!! Next episode on Sept 12th!


WE LOST OUR GOLD

My CladCounter Program


Yesterday, I was pinched by a muse and found myself feeling like I was back in programming class in college.

A member on one of the forums I frequent asked about a Clad Counting program that used to be available HERE, but for whatever reason, the download link is broken and it can no longer be found. So I got to thinking, after seeing screenshots of the aforementioned program, I can probably write that in C++. Sooooo I did. Granted, it doesn't have all the fancy graphics, it just runs in command line, but it does everything that program does... except save. But to make up for saving, it exports a report of your daily clad and running totals to a text file for future reference.

If you're interested, give it a go, it's 100% Freeware. You can get it by clicking HERE.

I suggest you read the "readme.txt" included in the .zip file, it explains how the program works and how I recommend you set it up.

Any questions about it? Just leave a comment!




Saturday, September 4, 2010

'Finding' in The Ohio Valley


"If you were like most kids growing up, you may have spent a summer afternoon hunting for lost treasure. You pretended to be Blackbeard and looked on some creek bank for buried plunder or hunted for bags of yellow gold in the Lost Dutchmen's gold mine.

For most of us this childhood fantasy of lost treasure faded as we grew older; after all, it was just a child's game. We have long forgotten that excitement we felt searching for treasure that we somehow knew was not to be found.

But there are people who make their living hunting for the lost treasures of the world. Long sunken treasure ships are sometimes found in coastal waters of the Atlantic. Modern, lone gold miners still occasionally find that small motherlode of precious metal hidden in the earth. But this is a life persued by only a few, and even fewer ever achieve any real success."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Provided/The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Michigan Hobbyist Returns Class Ring


"When school starts next week, Nicole Clark thought she would be sitting in her Mona Shores High School classroom while her class ring would be sitting on the bottom of Lake Michigan.

But thanks to Spring Lake Township resident John Stong, the high school junior and her Class of 2012 ring have been reunited.

Stong recently discovered the treasure while using his metal detector near the end of the Mona Lake channel. The ring was in the water, near the shore, but several inches deep in sand. "

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Grand Haven Tribune

Trailer Park Coin Hoard


"A metal-detecting historian has made an exciting discovery of rare Roman coins at a South Lakeland caravan park.

John Harrison, 60, uncovered a hoard of 30 ancient Barbarous Radiates coins, thought to date back to 250AD, while walking with his metal detector at Holgates Caravan Park, near Arn-side. Experts described the find as ‘historically significant’.

Mr Harrison, from Carnforth, also found 10 bronze Roman trumpet brooches – dating back to between 75-150AD – at what he believes to be an ancient Roman worshipping ground."

Read more HERE.

Pictured below is an example of a "radiate" coin.


Wednesday, September 1, 2010

UK Forum Peer and Roman Lantern

Yesterday, FMDF member "john_gm" posted an update with a photo regarding his son's amazing find of a Roman lantern back in September of 2009.

Well the BBC was also interested in the story and reported on Danny Mills' cool find being displayed in a museum.

"A metal detecting enthusiast has found what is believed to be the only intact Roman lantern made out of bronze ever discovered in Britain.

Danny Mills, 21, made the find in a field near Sudbury in Suffolk.

The area was dotted with plush Roman villas and country estates in the second century.

The object, described as a rare example of Roman craftsmanship, has been donated to Ipswich Museum where is it now on display."



Read more HERE.

Why Not Use MD to Find 2kt Diamond Earring?


The other day when the story originally aired online this is the exact thing I thought... now a Yahoo! Sports blogger put it out there for us all to read. Also, in the video still I took above, Dolphins players are using metal rakes to rake the field in hopes of finding the estimatedly worth $50k earring.

"If I could call a quick time out here, I'm confused about one thing -- We're in Miami, and we can't locate an old man with a metal detector? Come on now. Put an ad in the local PennySaver, see if an old guy can help you, and if his trusty metal detector finds the diamond, then you buy him as many Grand Slam breakfasts as he wants for a month. Seems like this should be an easy fix."

Read more HERE.