Pismo Beach Peddling

"As tens of thousands of people left local beaches after fireworks shows Monday night, a whole new crowd headed the opposite direction.

Metal-detector enthusiasts moved in, ready to find what was left behind.

As the fireworks ended in Pismo Beach, treasure-hunter Gil Rivera was armed and ready.

The 76-year-old LAPD retiree landed with a team around midnight and sifted the sands until three in the morning."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: KSBY

Afghan IED Mentoring

"The explosive hazard reduction course at Joint Sustainment Academy Southwest, here, allows coalition forces instructors teach members of the Afghan National Security Forces the fundamentals of identifying and countering improvised explosive devices.

The course prepares members of the Afghan National Army, uniformed police and border police to operate in a partnership role with coalition forces when IEDs are encountered, the basics of insurgent IED tactics and how to handle and eliminate unexploded ordnance and munitions."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Petty Officer 1st Class Gino Flores

NC Man Finds What Folks Lose

"Using a metal detector, Ray Cox finds coins, cell phones, keys and rings on the beaches of New Hanover County. He also finds a lot of less obvious things, from cooking equipment to brass knuckles.

Last year, the Wilmington resident became a beach discovery himself.

In May 2010, a physics professor in Canada found a message in a bottle Cox threw into the sea in 1961. The message said: 'IF FOUND PLEASE WRITE TO: Jesse Ray Cox, 106 Lake Shore Dr. Wilmington, North Carolina. May 21, 1961 2044.' (The 2044 refers to 8:44 p.m. in military time.)

During a visit to Nova Scotia in September, seeing the message again was an emotional experience for Cox, a normally unemotional person."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Jeff Janowksi / StarNews

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.