Spanish Wreck Permission

"In 1985 aboard the Dauntless salvage boat, Jimmy Buffett sang atop a stack of silver bars while treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his crew swilled champagne to celebrate their jaw-dropping discovery.

After 16 years that included a U.S. Supreme Court victory and the death of his son, Fisher's dream had come true.

In waters 55 feet below them, divers Andy Matroci and Greg Wareham had found a virtual reef made of chests full of silver coins, silver plates, silver bars, copper ingots, stone ballast and artifacts. It was the $450 million mother lode of the 1622 shipwreck, Nuestra Senora de Atocha."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Suzanne K. Mast Lee / Miami Herald

Scuba Ring Recovery

"A professional scuba diver took to a lake in Minnesota, USA, equipped with a metal detector and managed to successfully fish out a brand new diamond engagement ring.

The story unfolded after a Minneapolis teacher witnessed her ring, worth $7,000 (£4,484), drop to the deep bottom of Lake Minnetonka. Sara Stocco, 27, had taken the ring off in order to keep it clean while she was applying suntan lotion to her newly made fiancé Adam Segar, 28."

Read more HERE.

HMS Investigator Discovery

"Parks Canada archeologists who found HMS Investigator, a British naval ship that was stranded in the Northwest Passage 155 years ago, are equally pleased to have discovered the graves of three of the ship's crew.

The wreck of Investigator was discovered this week at the bottom of Mercy Bay, just off Banks Island in the Northwest Territories. The site of the wreck is in Aulavik National Park.

Parks Canada archeologists located the wreck shortly after they started a sonar scan of Mercy Bay on Sunday, according to officials."

Read more HERE.

Image credits: University of Western Ontario

HS Ring Found After 36 Years

"It was summer 1974, and love was in the air. Judith Goode and her steady beau — they had exchanged class rings just weeks earlier - frolicked at the San Jacinto battlefield. Then, as the young man rocketed a Frisbee into the blue, Goode's Deer Park High School ring sailed off his pinky and was lost amid the grass.

For two weeks the pair, metal detector in hand, scoured the sacred turf that Sam Houston trod in search of the $45.10 white gold band with its emerald-green stone. And for all their sweat and tears they got - nothing."

Read more HERE.

Minelab A Great Acquisition

"Codan used to be a serial disappointer. So much so that in 2008-09 just about everyone gave up on it and the scrip hit 47¢.

Embedded in the company, though, was a gem of an asset that cost $70 million in early 2008. That was the Minelab business, which made metal detectors and landmine and unexploded ordnance-detecting devices. No one took any notice at the time."

Read more HERE.

Parfet Park Afternoon

The girlfriend knew I had been itching for a chance to get out with the machine. So she said, "Hey, why don't we go downtown and you can metal detect Parfet Park while I sit in the shade under a tree and read?" How could I not say no!?

Parfet park is in prime territory in historic downtown Golden. On the land that is now the park the very first building was erected. Sadly, everyone in the area knows this and the park gets pounded daily, and probably has for years.

I talked to a few people during my outting, one being a guy who missed the hobby, and seeing me made him feel like dusting off his old machine and getting back into it. Another guy told me he saw two fellas around 530 this morning hitting the park. Which makes perfect sense because the reason I was there was that Buffalo Bill Days has been going on and the park has been filled with people the past few days.

Anyhow, I ended up with a good two hours of swinging and was rewarded with $1.44 over 24 coins as well as a neat "Virgo" Zodiac charm and a Golden, Colorado button with the periodic table element symbol for "Gold".

Scottish MD Ride-A-Long

"It is late Friday morning and I am walking though a field, high up on the outskirts of Edinburgh, with the most beautiful view over the city you could ever hope to see.
There's the castle, the Salisbury Crags, and Inchmickery island in the Firth of Forth. A buzzard soars through the azure sky, while rabbits jink through the grass.

The man I am with, however, does not look up. He keeps his eyes on the ground and his mind focused on the extraordinary sounds coming through his headphones. Alastair Hacket is a metal detectorist and his concentration - like the treasure he hopes to find - is deep."

Read more HERE.

SMDAC Looking for Members

"Little gives Dean Ricker as much pleasure as hearing or seeing his metal detector signal there's something lurking beneath the surface.

"You never know what you're going to find," says Ricker, a member of the Siouxland Metal Detecting and Archeological Club. "It's exciting to get a signal. There's great anticipation while you dig something up."

The Siouxland Metal Detecting and Archeological Club (SMDAC for short) was established two years ago by Tom Burns of Sioux City. Ricker joined immediately. The group, which now boasts 15 members, meets at 6 p.m. the first Monday of each month in the Gleeson Room of the Wilbur Aalfs Public Library in downtown Sioux City."

Read more HERE.

Time Capsule Underpants

"When you're sending your child off to camp — don't forget to pack an extra pair of underwear. That way, he or she can spare a pair to sneak into a time capsule.

This is what must have happened way back in 1979 at Stonybrook Day Camp in Randolph, New Jersey. The capsule was recently unearthed and revealed the typical "kid time capsule" items like crayon drawings, a Polaroid of the campers, tie-dyed tee shirts, a softball, and, as a bit of a surprise, some tightie whities."

Read more HERE.

Houston Hotel Goodness

For the past few days I've spent my time at the Baymont Inn in Houston, TX. The g/f is having a PAM (Passive Acoustic Monitoring) course here for work and I decided to tag along.

First thing, definitely should have brought the metal detector. I was only a short walking distance from a rather large city park, known as Tom Wussow Park in the Greenspoint (aka Gunpoint) section of town. I provided an aerial of the place, and though it's newer, I wouldn't doubt the amount of clad and occasional jewelry that would show up here because the park is very well used.

Anyhow, it was a nice few days away from home. Just walking around I found $0.04 in memorials and even found this cool Lions Club dolphin motif key chain.

Newish Hobby Related Games

I did a post on MD Video Games quite awhile ago and there hasn't been much out since then. I was contacted by Ginkgoware (the makers of the acclaimed i-Detect software) some months ago to do some testing and criticism of the flash game they had in development for play on their website.

Treasure Trekker has since been released and can be played for free HERE.

Another game that is out I caught wind of from FMDF, it's a flash game where mining gold and diamonds gets you points and progresses you further in the game. Take control of the hermit-esque miner and see what level you can get to!

Click HERE to play.

MD Hold 'em Contest @ FMDF

Open to all hobbyists and members over at FMDF, a Texas Hold 'Em style contest has been started with the prize being an 1854 Seated Half Dime.

Just be a member of the site, check THIS THREAD for rules and be ready for the flop on Monday July, 26th.

Best of luck!

UPDATE: Congrats to FMDF Member BrianVickers83 with his winning hand of "Four of a Kind" running it with Jacks. Below is a pic of the prize.

Couple Gets Help with Lost Ring

"Losing things is irritating. It can also be heartbreaking when the “thing” is considered precious.

But as I recently discovered, losing something can also provide lessons, reveal what is truly valuable in life and force us to let go. Losing things often means an end to a story, but it can also mean a happy new chapter when and if that lost item is found.

My most recent lost and found story started with a phone call from my distraught husband. “I just lost my wedding ring,” he said, glumly."

Read more HERE.

Little Bighorn Historical Dig

"With increasing speed, the Little Bighorn River is eroding away an old oxbow at this world-famous battle site.

Pieces of muddy bank that were here as recently as two weeks ago have sloughed off into the historic stream that serves as the park boundary. Who knows how long it will be before the river takes the rest?"

Read more HERE.

Photo Credits: James Woodcock/Billings Gazette

Alec Soth: California Treasure Hunt

New York Times blogger Alec Soth "rents a metal detector, and sets out to find what others have lost."

Click HERE to see his video.

Sherrelwood Elementary Hunt

I had plans this morning, plans to finally get out on a real hunt here in CO. The g/f had an early tee-time playing golf with her mother, so I got up at the same time and drove off to the g/f's old elementary school. We had driven past it a few times, noticed it had a nice huge sandy tot lot and a great view of Denver.

I spent a little over an hour at the spot with my XLT. Getting used to this Colorado soil is still a challenge. Targets in the ground really seem to hit higher than I'm used to. For example, pennies seem to hit in the low 70's, dimes in the high 80's and quarters right about 90. Comparatively, in the Virginia soil I learned and loved, pennies generally were in the mid 60's, dimes 80-81 range, and quarters regularly hitting at about 86. But with this high mineralization soil, and the high hitting VDI's, a deep silver program might work as an everyday hunt program for coins.

Take for the day was $1.79 over 32 coins.

The Hunt in Martha's Vineyard

"Bit by bit, Michael Travers is learning about Martha's Vineyard history. For several hours every day, Mr. Travers, armed with a high-tech metal detector, slowly and carefully sweeps small pieces of ground in the woods and along the beaches around the Island."

Read more HERE.

Photo credits: Ralph Stewart/Martha's Vineyard Times

RTD Token on Lookout Mountain

Today the g/f and I decided to hit up some local places of historical significance. The first place we stopped was the Colorado Railroad Museum. A cheap entrance fee was all it took to spend a few hours viewing their indoor exhibits and then outside to all of the coolness. Even better that you can get in quite a few of their displays.

After that we headed up to Buffalo Bill's Grave at the top of Lookout Mtn. here in Golden. Not much going up there, but on the way down we stopped at a little pull-off that has access to some rocks that stick off the mountain. On the way back to the truck I noticed the token pictured above, an RTD token from the public transportation here in Denver.

Girlfriend's Intro to The Hobby

After a morning spent picking up our brand new 2-piece sectional couch and then lunch with her Grandpa, we didn't have much else to do for the day. And since the little miss wants to try metal detecting with me here in the near future, I figured it was time to start letting her learn to use my X-Terra 30.

She didn't want to be seen by all the neighbors in the front yard, so we hunted one part of our side yard. The ground was good for digging, but sadly, the good targets were pretty nonexistent. She is now the self-proclaimed "Nail Queen" as probably 90% of her finds were nails. I still don't understand this Colorado soil... even on the X-Terra, which I learned and found a bunch of silver with in VA, I just couldn't predict it here. All the penny hits were nails, hell, even a few dime and quarter hits were nails. Granted, most of them were non-repeating, broken signals, ut to learn, I had her dig 'em all so she could get a feel.

As you can see from the pic, $0.12 with a dime and two pennies, and then a load of nails.

2nd Annual Mo-Kan Hot Treasure Hunt

The Missouri and Kansas Hunters groups from FMDF are holding their 2nd Annual Hot Treasure this year on July 31st, 2010. For the occasion, a T-Shirt design contest was put in place with lots of really great entries to consider.

Luckily, one of my entries has made it into the final three to be voted on. Show your support for the Mo-Kan hunters, and for my blog by choosing entry "C" in the thread HERE at FMDF. Voting ends this Saturday, July 10th, at 10am.

Here are my entries, the one with the Arch and Wheat ear is the one in the vote, the bottom two are a front/back combo.

New to the hobby? Looking for loads of like minded folks to share your finds and stories with? Be sure to join for FREE over at Friendly Metal Detecting Forum, see ya there!

UPDATE: I finished second and lost by 1 vote, thanks for your votes everyone!

Iron Age Grave Found with MD

"A treasure hunter has unearthed the ‘find of his life’ – a grave containing a 2,300-year-old skeleton and his possessions.

Carl Walmsley, who has been using a metal detector for 25 years, came across the find in a farmer’s field just outside Weymouth.

Buried with the Iron Age man were glass beads, a mirror, a bronze amulet, a coin, tweezers and a thistle brooch."

Read more HERE.

This find, along with others by the local MD Society near Weymouth will be on display until Sept. 30th, 2010 at the Weymouth Museum.

Image Credits Dorset Echo

Huge Roman Coin Cache Unearthed

"The hoard of more than 52,000 coins dating from the third century AD was found buried in a field near Frome in Somerset.

The coins were found in a huge jar just over a foot (0.3m) below the surface by Dave Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire."

Read more HERE.

Better pics HERE.

Image Credits Sommerset County Council/Finds.org.uk

Holographic Radar the Future for MD?

This is kind of a third hand report, but one you might not otherwise read. On Martin Rundkvist's blog, Aardvarchaeology, he describes how Holographic Radar would be an archaelogists best tool. It is (and has been) currently being developed to sniff out land mines, but the impact it could have on our hobby would be substantial!

Think of GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) but with a 3D visualization of the subsurface.

Click HERE to see what Martin has to say.

Click HERE to see an article from The Royal Society regarding it's use.

Cali Summer Vacationers = Good Beach Diggin'

"Clint DeFields hears the constant buzz coming through his headphones as he waves a wand over the sand – back and forth, back and forth.

Big waves crash nearby, but DeFields isn't listening to Mother Nature – he wants to hear the high-pitched sound that blares from his metal detector, letting him know something is buried below that is worth digging up.

DeFields was just one of a dozen or so prospectors clutching metal detectors under overcast skies in Huntington Beach on Monday morning, a day after hundreds of thousands of people..."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits Josh Sudock/The Orange County Register

Mystery Coin Reproduction

A friend in the Navigation on my boat from Malaysia saw me looking at some coin finds at American Detectorist and said he found a coin on his plane coming to the states at the beginning of June.

He brought it down and I started the search. The text on the coin reads:

MONETA DOMINORVM PRVSSIE
HONOR MAGRI IVDICIVM DILIGIT

Latin sure, but I can't translate it and no luck online. I found references to some deutch coinage from the 1300s with the same text and same coin design, you can see them in these pics.



This coin is gold in color, and 28.18mm in diameter according to my electronic calipers, and 1mm thick. It has a smooth edge.

I told him moneta is money, prvssie is sweet, and dominorvm is like a dominating lady, haha... so it's a hooker token from Germany... he thought it was funny I know that's not what it is... maybe someone can find some better info?

It's definitely a reproduction, and new'ish.

UPDATE: Perhaps a modern token for the German Order of The Teutonic Knights?

UPDATE #2: Dan, a buddy of mine from the MD circles things maybe the inscription translates as follows:

MONETA DOMINORVM PRVSSIE = MASTER OF PRUSSIA
HONOR MAGRI IVDICIVM DILIGIT = HE ADVISES TO BE LORD

UPDATE #3: Possibly a better translation from a German source of the text?

MONETA DOMINORVM PRVSSIE = Money of Prussian Lords
HONOR MAGRI IVDICIVM DILIGIT = The honour of the master loves justice

Buckeye Gold Hunt

Mike Shelby and his crew use metal detectors and other tools to sniff out gold.

"They were big boys playing in the mud. Some used machines to sort through the dirt, rocks and water. Others just panned for the precious metal. Believe it or not, there's gold in that thar Clearfork River, near Bellville. Ohio, that is.

...

The gold that is found in Ohio is not native to the area. It arrived here via glaciers that originated in Canada. And because of the constant moving of the waters and flooding, which deposits gold from the land into the river, there's a new supply each year."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal

Jesse James' Treasure Story

So today a buddy on the boat comes into my office to chat, bored as usual. He asks what I've been up to all night and I tell him about some ghost towns I'm researching and thinking about hitting up with my metal detector.

This sets off a chain reaction that leads to a brief mention of the History Channel show near the end of 2009 about Jesse James' hidden treasure. So he goes on to tell me a story of his from back in the mid 1980's.

"Grandma calls me up one day, she was 88 then, so you do the math, and tells me to come over because she knows the location of where Jesse James hid some of his treasure. She lives 80 miles away, but I went anyway.

So I show up there and deal with the normal visiting Grandma pleasantries when she finally get around to it. She points off in the distance at a table top plateu and asks me if I know of a certain landmark near the base of the plateu. I told her that yes I did. She says go to it, then look due east. About a quarter mile down the hill you'll see a small pond. When you get to the pond, look to the north... then turn around."

At this point my friend says he wondered why she didn't just say look to the south, but anyhow...

"She says I would see a small outcropping of rocks and a cave, sure as shit she was right. I go over to the cave and crawl in, it's not very big at all. There are no markings on the walls or even on the outside on the rocks. I left feeling a little defeated. Up to this point Grandma's dream was spot on. On the way back to town I thought to myself, I should pick up a metal detector and head back there. About five days later I did, metal detector in hand. I fire it up and all over the place the thing is beeping like crazy... so I start digging.

Effing horseshoes. I found a cache of horseshoes! Probably more than fifty, but not many more than that.

I get back to Grandma's and tell her what I find and her only reaction is that JJ must of let that story leak somehow to protect the real location... and then proceeded to call him a bastard."

I don't doubt one bit his story is true, he's an Okie... they don't lie HAHA!

Sanborn Blues Got You Down?

Everyone's favorite historical map source is getting harder and harder to access these days for free. Many frequently visited online forums have removed any references to Sanborn login credentials and I'm sure if you're like me... that was your primary source for arguably some of the best old time maps in your MD goodie bag.

But not to fret!

I've found reference to a link of a fellow blogspot member who has a list of online resources that are FREE to use and have FREE access to a number of Sanborn maps from a variety of states. It's not the complete library, but hey, in a pinch it works. So if you don't have a local library with access to the maps, and don't know a working username/password combo for the Sanborn site (http://sanborn.umi.com/), then go ahead and visit THIS LINK and just click your state to access the maps :)

As always, you're welcome. And a note to some of my readers... if you do know any current Sanborn login combinations that work for the full library, shoot me a message. Thanks.

For ones not listed, try a Google search of "Sanborn" + "your state or city" and see if any library or college sites have free access to the maps.

Happy Bday USA \ Oh How I've Missed You MD

Another 4th of July spent offshore :( We're still floating around in all the muck from the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster... for all of you out there interested in the pics I took when we responded to US Coast Guard calls click HERE.

But anyhow, winter is now many months past and it's time for me to get back in the saddle and put some time in swingin' the coil of my XLT and trying to find some goodies. I've got lot's planned, so I hope I can uncover a few keepers to make sure 2010 is not a total loss in the MD category... 'cuz I mean, I think in the two "hunts" I've done in 2010 in my front yard, I might have been able to scramble together about $1 in clad, woo, exciting!

Thanks for all my readers, and sorry it's been forever since I had something for you to read. Please make it back as often as you can :)

Coney Island Beach Digging

"Sizzling temperatures are sparking a gold rush this summer. Sunbathers escaping to city beaches to beat the heat drop coins, watches and jewelry every day. This free-for-all draws treasure hunters, like Philip Ocasio, who comb the sands with state-of-the-art metal detectors as well as sand shovels to scoop up the loot that gets left behind."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits Maisel/NY Daily News

Austrian Treasure Hunt

"Treasure hunters armed with shovels and metal detectors have descended on a sleepy Austrian town in search of up to €5 million ($6.18 million) said to have been buried there by a fraudulent German financial advisor, says ORF, the Austrian broadcasting corporation.

The fortune is believed to have been buried in aluminium cases by Augustine G. in wooded mountainous areas surrounding the small town of Ebbs near the German border, say police."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits AFP/GETTY