Finding Old Loot in PA

"Red Craft and Harry Niemeyer don’t have to dig deep to find out what makes them happy, but they will.

It’s money — not making it, finding it.

The retirees spend countless hours searching for silver and gold coins, copper pennies or a valued piece of jewelry someone lost yesterday, decades or centuries ago. Mostly, they find bottle cups, pull tabs from cans, copper clad pennies, junk."

Read mroe HERE.

Image Credits: Lucy Shaly / Beaver County Times

"Claiming" Australia

"Gold prospectors, Marco Nero explains, have always been 'a secretive, tight-lipped lot', wary of whom they speak to, careful of what they say, guarded about where they go. But these days they're ultra-protective.

For with world prices sky-rocketing - from $US600 an ounce to almost $1600 in five years - the stakes are high. The rush is on. And the talk is not just of getting rich quick, but of skulduggery, claim-jumping, even suburban 'bushwhacking'.

That may sound like paranoia; like something out of a Wild West movie, or the Herald's coverage of the rip-roaring, 1851 NSW gold rush. Mr Nero, though, insists such possibilities must be taken seriously."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Peter Rae / Sydney Morning Herald

Wisconsin Hobbyists Get Together

"With headphones covering their ears, Tom Welch of Lake Wissota and Ken Briggs of Chippewa Falls would listen until a persistent beep would sound. Honing in on an area, they would look at the screen and see a drawing of a coin.

Then they would drop to their knees, spread out a cloth and take out a knife. The ground they would dig up would be carefully scooped into the cloth while they searched for the coin. When they found it, they would carefully replace the soil and start the process again.

On Thursday afternoon, Welch and Briggs were among six people belonging to three metal detecting clubs carefully combing through the grounds of the Cook-Rutledge Mansion, 505 W. Grand Ave., looking for bits of buried history."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Rod Stetzer / The Herald

Ohio Hunting Buddies

"On any given day, one might find neighbors Ron Swisher and Jim Kenney roaming through Marietta or another local community with metal detectors in their hands and ear phones on their heads, bound and determined to find a treasure buried deep in the soil.

'I got started in this about the late 60s, early 70s when metal detectors first came out,' said Swisher, 57, of Marietta. 'I started out coin collecting - it's less expensive to find them than it is to buy them.'

Swisher and his neighbor, Jim Kenney, 67, hunt for treasure for a few hours just about every day, so long as the weather cooperates."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Michael Dickenson

Stylized Silver Button

"A rare button which was found near Storrington has been formally declared treasure by the county coroner.

The 16th century silver button was discovered in a field by metal detector user Anthony Gill in February this year.

In a treasure trove inquest held in Chichester on Tuesday, coroner Penelope Schofield heard the intricate button featured a number of circles of metal which were attached to a main loop which was attached to clothing."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: West Sussex County Times

Lost Purple Heart - Ralph Perry

"Irma Garcia of Kennewick is on a mission to find the veteran who lost the Purple Heart medal she found last weekend.

All she has to go on is the name engraved on the medal's back -- Ralph E. Perry.

Garcia said she found the medal Sunday in the park adjacent to Horse Heaven Hills Middle School in Kennewick."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Bob Brawdy / Herald

Rallygoers Recover Ring

"A holidaymaking family have hailed two men at a Huttoft metal detecting rally after they came to their rescue when an engagement ring went missing on a local beach.

Sarah Lawrence, who hails from Cambridgeshire, was left distraught after she lost her treasured ring when her family were playing a game of volleyball on the beach in Sandilands on Saturday.

Sarah’s husband Chris, said: 'She obviously began to panic as anyone with an engagement or wedding ring would understand.'"

Read more HERE.

St. Ursula Badge is Treasure

"A scrap of twisted silver found a few weeks ago by a metal detector in Lancashire will take its place among masterpieces of medieval art at the British Museum, in an exhibition opening this week of the bejewelled shrines made to hold the relics of saints and martyrs.

The badge made of silver found by Paul King, a retired logistics expert, is a humble object to earn a place in an exhibition called Treasures of Heaven, but it is unique. It will sit among gold and silver reliquaries studded with gems the size of thumbnails – or the sockets from which they were wrenched by thieves – once owned by emperors, popes and princes."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: The Guardian

Beach Hobbyists and Their 'Treasure'

"Most people heading to the seashore bring along sunscreen, colorful towels and a big umbrella. For others, the ultimate beach accessory is a metal detector.

You've probably seen them during your trips to any coast -- sweeping the gadget back and forth along the water, ears covered by big headphones, eyes scanning the sand -- and wondered what exactly they're looking for.

Meet the detectorists, as the community of hobbyists is known."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Tim Higginbotham via CNN.com

Hey Tim, if you view the site, leave a message!

Upstate New York Town BANS Hobby in Parks

A very brief article from the Watertown Daily Times in upstate New York shows where an unskilled, or just lazy hobbyist has now ruined it for everyone else in the area. Shame!

"Holes found in Village Green Park caused collective concern and a new local law at the Town Council meeting June 6.

"We found someone was up there with a metal detector and was digging around," Councilman Thomas E. Stewart said. "It just wasn't right."

Local Law No. 2 includes restrictions other than digging the park grounds, taking artifacts and using a metal detector.

Included in the 11 activities prohibited in the park are operating or parking an all-terrain vehicle, horseback riding in areas not designated as driveways and using glass containers."

Rediscovering a UK Cemetery

An interesting story that involves a largely taboo and unethical practive in the US. However, under the correct authority, a lot of good can come from it.

"...

As the project nears completion, council's Health and Regulation Committee chair Andrew Antoniolli said the volunteers had made many interesting discoveries along the way.

Some of the finds include forgotten graves at the Ipswich General Cemetery, the second oldest cemetery in Queensland, with evidence of burials from the 1840s.

'Grave locations previously unknown to Council have now been found as volunteers using metal detectors located a number of metal grave pegs buried just below the surface,' Cr Antoniolli said."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Sarah Harvey / The Queensland Times

Last Battle of The Indian Territory

"The Battle of Turkey Springs was the final battle between Cheyenne Indians and the U.S. Cavalry in Oklahoma Territory, when a group of northern Cheyenne led by Chief Dull Knife, left their reservation. It is believed to be the last battle between Cheyenne Indians and the Army fought in Indian Territory.

The foes battled for two days on Sept. 13 and 14, 1878, as the Cheyenne fled north attempting to return to their home. The site has been marked with a monument that will be blessed June 24 by a group of Cheyenne-Arapaho, at the site of a monument to the engagement southeast of Freedom, in Woods County.

Bud Martin, owner of the property where the site is located, put the marker up about two years ago. Martin had never heard of the battle, but saw a newspaper from 1904 with the story of the battle and the location. The story mentioned several points of interest where the Indians traveled through, one of which was the property of S.D. Ferbraches, which Martin now owns."

Read more HERE.

King Arthur... Found!

This article is a Spoof/Satire, don't take it too serisouly... it's a fun read though.

"Deeply patriotic, anti foreigner, anti-immigration, anti Welsh, German detesting, pigeon loving, unemployed London taxi driver, Alfred Boulder, achieved his lifetime ambition yesterday when he finally tracked down King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

They were all alive and well. Sleeping in a deep hole near Blackburn, Lancashire.

Unmarried 53 year year old Boulder from Plaistow, has been meticulously criss-crossing Britain for over 30 years. Using a metal detector to discover the elusive resting place of Arthur and his Knights."

Read more HERE.

"Mog" FFXIII-2 Character Can MD

Any gaming fans such as myself into the MD hobby? Well if youre a follower of the Final Fantasy series which has been around since the days of the original Nintendo in one form or another... here's a neat tidbit.

In the new FFXIII-2, "...make the game more appealing to old-time fans there’s now a moogle named Mog who follows Serah and Noel around. He functions as a hidden treasure detector,..."
:)

Uncovering the 55th Mass.

I had seen this video quite some time ago as a member of FMDF was involved with this find. It's an incredible story and I emplore you to take a look.

"Robert Bohrn had his 15 minutes of fame in the 1990s when CNN, “Good Morning America,” and PBS’s “The Collectors” reported on his Charleston, SC restaurant Moultrie Tavern, decorated with Bohm’s trove of Civil War artifacts and featuring Civil War period fare like game pie. But ironically, Bohrn’s stand-out achievement is as unknown as the black Civil War soldiers he and his friend Eric Croen raised from the Folly Beach earth in 1989.

“I became a Civil War relic hunter when I was 10. I bought my first metal detector when I was fourteen,” says the Charleston, SC native.

“If I had 10 lifetimes I would never find anything better then the 19 soldiers of the 55th Massachusetts,” Bohrn says."

Read more and see the video HERE.

Ticonderoga to Ban Hobby?

"It's been 12 years since Ticonderoga tried to restrict use of personal metal detectors.

Now, concerned that treasure-hunters may flock to the community rich in 18th-century history, town officials are going to try again.

The town has scheduled a public hearing for 6 p.m. Thursday in the Ticonderoga Community Building on a proposed local law to ban the use of metal detectors on public property in the town."

JUNE 20th UPDATE: It was voted NOT to ban the use of metal detectors. They may still be used for surface finds, and NO digging is allowed.

Read more HERE.
Another article HERE.

Image Credits: Town of Ticonderoga

Cherished Memories Returned

"It took John Polcyn 15 years, but a recent trip to Maumee Bay State Park to search the area with his metal detector yielded his most cherished find ever.

When he dug a few inches into the dirt and found a memory card from a camera, it seemed like a relatively routine thing. He planned to use the card in his own camera when he went on vacation.

Then he plugged it into his computer, looked more closely, and realized he had something far more precious -- at least to one local family."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: The Toledo Blade

There's Dynamite in the Desert

"A 26-year-old treasure hunter thought he hit the motherlode when he found a 30- to 40-year-old briefcase in the East Valley desert Wednesday and took it home.

'He takes it home and opens it up and finds papers in there and dynamite,' said Chris Hegstrom, a Maricopa County Sheriff's spokesman. 'It appears to have been from the late 70s and 80s.'"

Read more HERE.