GhostLands

"A Dream Come True" European treasure hunter unearths hoard of 400-700 year-old hammered coins Chicago, IL (September 1, 2020) - From the time one picks up his or her first metal detector, detectorists dream of making “the big find”. Big means different things to different people. Some aspire to find a huge gold nugget in a dry creek bed. Others hope to discover an unhunted Civil War battlefield full of bullets, buttons, and buckles. For some, a recovered diamond ring would make them happy. Others dream of finding a posthole bank containing a can of gold and silver coins. Who knows exactly what sort of “big find” tops one particular European detectorist’s list. For this man, who wishes to be referred to in this article simply as Fabio, one of his recent discoveries must certainly come close. The European countryside is a special place where thousands of years’ of historical items have been lost, just waiting to be found. Some people – like Fabio – are fortunate to be able to search there on a daily basis. In February of 2020, Fabio and one of his friends were detecting one of the many large farm areas on which they have permission to hunt. They had been searching all day. “It was raining like crazy. We were very exhausted from walking many miles with no good signals,” recalls Fabio, who had decided to return to the car to escape a downpour when his friend suddenly began frantically yelling that he had just found several billon (a silver/copper alloy) hammered coins. “I rushed back and turned on my Minelab VANQUISH detector equipped with the 12” coil and started swinging,” says Fabio. “The area had many pottery fragments and the soil was dark and heavily mineralized, but the VANQUISH easily overcame the difficult conditions.” Fabio began getting good signals. “One coin, two coins, three coins… 11 coins! Coins all over the place!” he recalls. Imagine his excitement. The coins the two men were finding were hammered coins, mostly from the 14th century. For those who may be unfamiliar with hammered coins, Fabio explains: “The dies for both sides of a coin were made from hard metal, then a softer coin blank was centered between them and then struck with a hammer to leave the coin impression on both sides.” A half-hour later, the detectors were still sounding off, but both men were cold, wet, and exhausted from digging through 6-to-8 inches of muddy topsoil. They marked the spot and made plans to return the next day under better hunting conditions. The next day found Fabio and his friend back in the field, full of renewed energy and excitement. They had brought along an additional friend to share in the fun. Fabio started the day with the eight-inch coil on his Minelab VANQUISH and planned to change to the 12-inch coil later in the day to reach the deeper coins. He began detecting over an area previously covered by his friend the day before, and quickly began getting signals which had been missed. The machine his friend was using was not as sensitive or able to detect the deeper coins Fabio was finding with his VANQUISH – even with the eight-inch coil. A short time later, Fabio heard one of his friends shouting. He had uncovered a rare hammered coin with a King Ferdinand bust, and all three men rushed to celebrate the find. Soon, Fabio had a signal reading higher than what he had been getting with the small, thin hammered coins. It was a beautiful coin similar to the one his detecting friend had just found. In his excitement, however, Fabio failed to recheck his hole. When his second friend went over that area again a short time later, he detected and uncovered another rare hammered coin Fabio had missed. But Fabio didn’t mind. “At the end of the day, we were completely exhausted but also extremely happy!” he says. “Without a doubt, it was one of the happiest days of our lives!” Fabio and his two friends returned the following weekend to resume their hunt. This time, he took his Minelab EQUINOX 800 to see how it would perform on the site. It did great, as he continued to discover new coins. “I found 66 coins with the VANQUISH, and 43 more when I went back with the EQUINOX and its stock coil,” he says. “As the finds started slowing down, I switched to the EQUINOX with the 15-inch coil and found 14 more!” Fabio continued changing coils and his Minelab machines and hunted for a total of five days. All told, his extraordinary discovery totaled an astonishing 128 coins. The area the men were hunting was a farm field close to a river. The total area they had permission to hunt on was about one square mile, and the specific area where the coins were found was around five acres. But why were they there? The trio had discovered a lot of pottery pieces in the ground, so perhaps a large pot – or several pots – had been filled with coins and buried. Agricultural activity could have easily scattered the coins. And while that may be the most logical explanation, Fabio has other theories as well. “It could have been from a shipwreck since the nearby river flooded into this area on occasion,” he says. “Or it might have been from a military encampment from that period.” Later in their search, the men also found some 16th and 17th century coins, further complicating the mystery surrounding this fabulous hoard. While Fabio, 31, is a passionate detectorist, he hasn’t been treasure hunting for very long. When he was young, he enjoyed going to the beach and searching for fossils. Three years ago, he was invited to a metal-detecting group event and looked at all the exciting finds people were discovering. Shortly thereafter, he bought his first detector. Amazingly, he found a Spanish reale on just his second day detecting. The excitement took over, and he has been at the game ever since. Fabio has experience with several different makes and models of detectors, but chooses to hunt today with Minelab’s CTX 3030, EQUINOX and VANQUISH models, citing Minelab’s Multi-IQ simultaneous frequency technology as a game-changer for both beginning and experienced detectorists. “Multi-IQ means you can search with multiple frequencies at the same time and find any metal in any soil conditions,” he says. “It’s a great feature that helps people make more finds.” Fabio is still researching the value of the coins and doesn’t yet know what he will ultimately do with this find of a lifetime. “The value of this find in monetary terms is unknown at this time,” he says. “But in terms of personal satisfaction in obtaining a find of this age and quantity, it is priceless!” And that’s what this story is all about – the fun, the excitement, and the dreams that come with detecting – along with showing beginning or would-be detectorists what they can do with a well-chosen and well-engineered metal detector like the Minelab VANQUISH. It’s an inexpensive, easy-to-use-and-understand machine that can make dreams come true. http://www.icontact-archive.com/archive?c=321494&f=96178&s=102669&m=860447&t=90b4cabee533b419eaf03e6b61c7e438407efa9c7bbadf30b31791b66b8173b7

Saturday we started out at 9AM, when i got home it was almost 5AM!🤣 Was fun!😄 We went to the Salt River to see if we could pull some gold, well, we both found a gold ring!😁 I'm not the type of beach hunter, but to me, it's not a big challenge... it's like hunting on very mineralized areas.🤷‍♂️ When we got there, I tuned my Nox: Beach 1 5 Tones ( so that my brother-in-law could hear the low tones). F2 at 8 23 Sens ( to run it stable, he doesn't have experience). Discrimination from 14 to 40 ( all the -numbers ferrous opened) Recovery Speed at 7. I then explained: Bro, you probably won't dig coins and you will certainly miss some gold, but generally, most gold will fall at very low numbers, so if you get a signal with jumping numbers falling at -numbers (ferrous) and low numbers such as 1 to 9, dig it! Could be deep gold. This is very mineralized due to salt. Most of cases the mineralization will subtract some of the original ID. (I also explained about the stuff on edge that can affect the signal). Well, his second signal was a gold ring 🤣 Lucky bastard!🤣🤣 Funny thing, few days ago while talking with my mates, I told them that I was going to find gold on the beach!😊 Most of people who runs these rivers don't have Minelabs (machines that can handle mineralization) and generally people ignore the very low IDs... At the end, i went for a swing on dry sand (we hunted wet for many hours), i pulled almost 10€ and gave all my coins to him, so that he can start saving for his own machine!😃 THESE SETTINGS WERE TWEAKED ACCORDING TO THE AREA WE BEEN HUNTING AND FOR OUR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES! This river has been used at least since Medieval times, there is lots of pottery fragments and some parts have lots of iron from old fishermen boats. The other finds are mostly Roman and were retrieved somewhere else with my GPX 5000. Hope y'all had a great weekend!😄 Best regards Ps: I was using the Vanquish 540 at the beach.

Hi everyone! Hope y'all doing great! Today i received a message from someone that i gave formation! He had the Makro Multi Kruzer and never had tried Minelab machines before... So i suggested the Vanquish 540! Gave him some lessons... These are his results in less than 1 month! Beach, wet sand! I'm proud!!! Have a great day! Best regards

Well, we thought about a treasure chest! Hahahah Thank you mate! This is the type of finds that im going to keep posting here! Cheers

Before anything else, let me apologize myself for not responding to some comments in my previous threads! Been very busy!! But sooner or later I'm going to respond! Another great Session with my GPX 5000! Started out with the Commander 11 Mono for 2h and then switched to the Commander 15x12 Double-D for 7h! (Lots of iron and the soil was quite mineralized on the hot area).😄 16th - 17th Century!😁 My brother-in-law found that massive key while using my Equinox 800!!! Looks like a 18th Century Relic! He just started metal detecting! Love my GPX 5000!!!🥰 Hope y'all had a great weekend!😄 Be lucky!😃 Cheers!👍😁

Hi mate! So sorry for the late reply! I'm still learning the Gpx! Good luck for you to! Thank you!

Copy/paste from my Facebook group post. Took my GPX 5000 for a walk today! 5 Roman coins, 1 coin dated 1874, 1 Hammered coin from the 16th Century, 1 half of a buckle (D shape) 15 - 16th Century if I'm correct, 1 big D Buckle from the 14th Century if im correct, 1 round copper objet that appears to be related to a lock (14 - 16th Century if I'm correct) and a little 🐕! Looks like silver but I'm not sure. Another hot day (34°C). These were all very deep targets! The round thingy was at +-50cm! (Really hard soil) The landowner's son saw that i was pulling these from crazy depths, so i told him to bring a backhoe someday... He likes the idea!😎 Can't wait to see what we going to find there!😁 Once again proving the GPX 5000 is a must have for coins and relics! (Something that Gordon Heritage has been doing for ages)😎 Now a little tip for all the coin ans relic hunters around the globe: Instead of buying lot's of machines, just save some cash to get one of these beasts! Just in case you don't know yet, this machine will see trough them Iron Slags or any other mineralization like if "they" weren't there! Roman areas and Medieval areas for example. I'm out!😊 Be lucky!😄 Cheers😁

Thank you mate! Yes! She never gets tired of going on a hunt with me! Cheers mate

Hi mate! There's only 2 photos from that hoard in this thread, the one with the Vanquish rain cover as display and one without it (same photo from different angles). Haha my Jackie Danielle! Thank you Cheers

Some finds from area that i tracked some months ago! We were having a very boring day... after several hours walking near a river bank hoping for a Medieval dock, I started to see few fragments of pottery and Equinox 800 started to grunt alot... 1 musket ball... 2... 3... We had just found a new hot spot! Lots of goodies from the 18th Century. When we started to get short on signals, I loaded my sea level simulator for a quick inspect... ( the more you go back in history, the more higher was the sea level), i saw an interesting elevation and went there for a inspection. Managed to extract 9 Medieval coppers on a small patch at the top! Hope y'all don't mind that I post old hunts... Be lucky! Cheers

Hi mate! Thank you for the welcoming! Yes, very nasty soil haha! I have been detecting for 3 years and 4 months, and just got the GPX! So imagine what I've been through!😁 I do +9 hours sessions every time i go out! Them Medieval areas although mostly don't have a darker soil, it's full of pottery fragments that are mineralized. Never met Gordon personally... hope that i will someday! Yes I remember that trick! But personally, since i detect for many hours, i prefer to inspect my targets by removing some soil ( but the paint trick is very smart for short hunts). I'm going to follow you, because you actually make me feel like I'm at home and you know where I'm coming from! I have a long way to learn about the GPX, i already can predict some heavy stuff in the future when i master this beast of machine! Thank you so much mate, you too! Be lucky! Cheers

Thank you mate! Well, you can always travel!😀 My pleasure! Cheers

Hey wassup guys!👍😀 So, before you get your rotten tomatoes (get some popcorn), let me say a few things... I messed up a little in this video...😅 I forgot to try the GB at 4khz! But please understand, it was a very hot day ( was already tired from a few hours hunting with the Gpx 5000), I forgot my D coils so I dug lot's of iron (found some nice Medieval coins and relics, I have a thread here with some pictures of this day), had plague of mosquitos and my mobile was draining fast, so I had to be very fast! I hope this video can give some folks any help combined with Calabash Digger new video! It was so hot that i emptied 4.5 liters of water!! A little contribution from the European lands!😃 Hope you like this one and that you can enjoy the beauty of live videos! Haha Be lucky! Cheers Calabash Digger new video: https://youtu.be/wT7mluxzJHI

Or, use the User Button to go back to a custom mode running the same settings with a different frequency. Something like Todepole & Ghost programs on the CTX3030. This, on a area where hoards were found! (Silver coinage). Recently the Joan Allen team found one! On the third day, they went back with the Nox new update and Gordon Heritage went with his GPX 5000 and a Coiltek 14" Mono Elite Coil! Both units worked like a charm! On the first day when they started to find those coins scattered, I was somewhere deep in the forest hunting my Gpx 5000 on a old site where I found a scattered hoard from the 14th century, I also spared some minutes to go live on Facebook to simulate a Medieval hoard with couple of stacked small silver hammereds! Impressive! Did notice the difference! Oh and I didn't have so much EMI on 4khz comparing with the 5khz and Multi! (I have a Samsung galaxy s9 plus, generally I have to put the flight mode on, and if I go live, its the madness! I assume its the Ghz? Cheers

Thank you mate! Glad you like! Yes it has! I know a couple of old-schools... I remember hearing then talking about their hunts 30+ years ago, back when they were swinging Fishers and Cscopes!😃 There are always people interested to collect. About museums, well, I donate all the very important relics (I don't get paid), relics such as Axes, spear heads, daggers and some other cool stuff (mostly from the Chalcolithic or Bronze Age). I also collect some stuff. Most of the history I know, I learned from what I've found!😁

Thank you mate! I found one gold coin in Mars, another in April, another in May and another in August or September ( not sure, need to recheck my photos details). I had a silver one with the Templars cross, but when i found this one, i decided to change! I had to go back to the Jeweler to be able to switch! Cheers mate

Thank you mate! My pleasure! Good luck on your next hunts too! Cheers

Good morning everyone! Just passing by to drop some of my Vanquish finds! Really great machine! Its my Mini Nox haha. No complaints from here! Already managed to find a scattered hoard from the 14th century with it! Have great day! Cheers

Haha! I forgot to mention that I forgot my pick at the area! Only noticed 2 days later 🤣 Naaaah... I forgot alot of things because I'm always very busy with alot of stuff!! Facebook groups, metal detect tests and alot of day dreaming!🤣 Thank you mate

I just copy/past the description from my Facebook post! Hi guys!😄 My yesterday's finds!👍😃 First time out with the GPX 5000! I think that I did a good job! Was planning to hunt all day... But i had to leave way sooner... saw that a Dry Thunderstorm was coming my way!😬 So I didn't want to take any risks. Manage to pull 6 roman coins from crazy depths!😶 3 Big Iron roman nails, few bits of lead, 1 Silver coin from the 20th century and a musket ball! Holysh*t!!! This machine is insane!!🤯🤯🤯 I'm used to great depths with my Equinox 800 with the 15" coil, but not stupid depths on places like this!😶 The soil is quite mineralized, due to the crazy amounts of roman tiles and bricks under the soil! I also took the Commander 15x12 with me, but didn't use it! I was really enjoying this coil!😃 Can't wait to go out again with this combo!😁 This roman coin: Emperor Maxentius. Year: 306-312! Edit: Want to dedicate this one to Gordon Heritage!😀 He helped me alot explaining important things! I completely forgot to mention... Got carried away with all the writing!😅 Thank you Gordon!👍😄🏆 Have a great day! Be lucky! Cheers!😄

I just copy/paste the description from my Facebook post! Hey wassup guys!😁 Very busy and hard day today! I went back to a area where my brother and I found a scattered hoard from the 14th century!😃 Had to take my Nox 800 with me too, to check the out the new 3.0 update and simulate a hoard with silver hammereds. Was a very hot day, and if went under the trees to get some shadow, them mosquitos wouldn't leave me alone... The soil was nasty on most parts, lots of stones, Medieval tiles and pottery! My palms are actually full of "bubbles" because I forgot my gloves... and I also forgot the harness!😅 Had to use my trash bag to carry the GPX battery!🤣 All these finds (except one of them short crosses) were found with the Gpx, I also found a half cut after taking this photo! All crazy deep signals! I've dug alot of iron too (forgot the DD)... At the end of the day, I had to return to the area... I forgot my finds there🤦‍♂️ All these finds are Medieval ( I'm guessing that tooth too)🤣 Might phone call my wife's uncle and ask him if he wants it, he is missing one front tooth!🤣🤣🤣 Gpx 5000 + Coiltek 14" Mono Elite!👊😎 I'm out guys! Hope y'all had a great weekend! Be lucky! Stay safe! Cheers!👊😄

I just copy/past the description from my Facebook post. Done!👊😄 Had a great day with my wife and our little Jackie!🥰 Great and not perfect due to them bloody Mosquitos!!😂 She started with the Nox 800 with the stock coil and i took the GPX 5000 with the Commander 11" Double-D Coil!😃 (I really enjoyed this coil discrimination!! Didn't dig iron!!!)👍😎 She only found 1 Hammered coin (but the oldest of them all, 1385-1433)😁 She couldn't continue digging because she couldn't stop scratching her leg due to Mosquito bites😅 (can't blame them, she is tasty)😂 I also used the Nox for a bit... It was a very hot day again, and I was feeling a bit uncomfortable with harness and the cables. Probably I'm going to end up by buying Doc's Kit for the GPX 5000. ( recommended by Gordon Heritage)😀 Well, enough blablabla. What do we have here? 20 Hammered coins (14th - 16th Century) 3 Massive Coins ( Early 19th Century) 2 Coins from the 18th Century 1 big Relic (dunno what it is, but definitely Medival) 1 rolled Lead (Perhaps a Medieval fishing weight) 1 Big button 1 Buckle 1 Strapend Be lucky!👍😁 Cheers!

Hey wassup guys!😃 These are all my golds, found last year with my trusty Equinox 800! ( except the scorpion medallion, was found with 9HF) Staring from the top: 2 Escudos from Philippe II - 1556-1598 400 Reis from Ioannes V - 1722 Barbarian Tremiss 3 - 6th Century if I'm correct 1/4 Dinar aka Fraction - 12- 13th Century if I'm correct Roman Earing Hollow Earing 18-19th if I'm correct Scorpion medallion. I turned one of those coins into a ring. I never tried hunting for native gold and never tried learning how to track it, but I got sort of specialized on tracking Ancient/Medieval areas. Best of luck to you all! Cheers

Thank you mate! Well, you would need to have some contacts there... permissions is a must in the UK. Or, you can always go to their rallies! Just avoid Detectival, not many finds haha, unless they organize a new one on new lands! I will! Yes, I've noticed that haha.

Hi Mitchel! Thank you so much! No! Let's just say that I'm quite known outside here, I'm mostly on Facebook!😄 I'm from the Iberian Peninsula! Well you should go there, lots of history! I was planning to go there... but don't want to take risks with this virus...