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“A birdwatcher has stumbled across a hoard of 2,000-year-old Celtic gold coins worth £800,000 that date back to the time Boudicca was at war with the Romans. The keen metal detectorist, who has not been named, spotted a glint of gold while looking at a buzzard in a recently ploughed field in eastern England. Having rubbed off the mud to reveal a 2,000-year-old gold stater coin, he dashed home to pick up his metal detector and returned to carry on searching. After several hours, and to his utter disbelief, he unearthed about 1,300 coins, all dating to circa 40-50AD. Experts believe each coin could be worth up to £650, putting the value of the hoard at £845,000.” Story and photos

https://www.lovecpokladu.cz/home/fanky-depot-8203

"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

Hi everybody- another beautiful weekend in the PNW and some great relics and history uncovered. Check out our expedition!

Went back to an old poured concrete foundation in the woods which is a popular Elk hunters campsite. This is a site where I found my first seated dime a few years ago. The area is loaded with modern trash and lot's of iron nails and old tin buried near the foundation walls. I brought my Teknetics G2 with both the 5" and 11"x7" coil as I also intended to try some nugget detecting near the creek. I didn't find any nuggets but managed to pull 2 nice V nickels, 1890 and 1883. I set the detector in disc mode after ground balancing at 83. The ground here is very mineralized. I then set the tone break at 40 to separate ferrous from nonferrous and started swinging . I dug everything that hit in the ferrous range and all one-way signals that sounded good one direction but like iron the other. I also managed a few relics and a small pile of trash.

I took my wife, and two young boys to the river for a couple hours this morning. I figured I'd bring my Detector, and get a couple hours of hunting in while the kids played. I have been hunting the rivers all week long. I possibly put in close to 30 hours, with very little success. I am learning the machine with each swing though. I was hunting in Park 2, knee deep in the water, a spillway at my back, and open river in front of me, with a strong current. My settings were default, except the Iron Bias was switched to F2 giving it a value of 6 automatically. I went with 50 tones, and periodically did a ground balance, increasing the number it settled on by 2 or 3. (I had heard this was a trick) My first target was an all to familiar aluminum piece, followed by a metal flake. I thought to myself, "That's ok, one of this holes will eventually surprise me. I only have two hours so I'll just dig away, and enjoy myself" I was right, my third dig was about 2 inches down, I saw the glimmer. I knew this was no beaver tail. I pulled the ring, and lifting it thought "wow, looks like silver" I scanned the inside, seing a hallmark my eyes immediately caught 14k. I stood up, and started walking towards my wife grinning ear to ear, almost deviously. It took her a minute to notice I looked odd with a smile like that, and asked what? I showed her, and she promptly made me stow it away, convinced I'd lose it I went on to pull three more rings, my next one being a MASSIVE Palladium wedding band (I had never heard of Palladium when I dug it) Each time I would approach my wife proclaiming yet another victory, and each time she would say "no, I don't believe you" and then I would show her. The next two were one Sterling Silver, and one Stainless Steel. I also found a total of 8 fishing lures, and a commemorative medallion for a 1988 space flight. This was by far the best day I've had medal detecting, and was a reminder of why the hobby was love at first dig for me. I know a 4 ring day is not gonna be a regular thing, so I'm chewing it slowly. I couldn't be happier with my first gold experience, and wanted to thank all of you on Detector Prospector for being so kind, and answering any questions I've had. I know I'll have many more, and the experience you guys bring to the table is quintessential to my learning this fine hobby. I wish you all the best of luck in your upcoming hunts. As always HH - Luke

Is this the biggest gold find in the United States, so far in 2020? I’ve been patiently waiting for the time to share this magnificent recent discovery. It's funny because I actually had a conversation with some newer prospectors this last winter and they wondered if there was still any mammoth gold finds to be made. Once again I share some Success Pics of my customer and his 3 pound golden rock. Ron from Idaho purchased an SDC-2300 from me, but what was more important, he took the 3 days Field Training class my staff and I offer. Guess I don’t need to tell you, but I think he has it figured out. This Arizona gold discovery recently is said to be the largest piece of Au found in the United States this year with a metal detector. I can only confirm what I have heard and seen posted on other sites and so far I think it is. Here are the details. The golden rock weighs in at 3 pounds and after numerous Specific Gravity Test’s it shows over a pound of gold. It was even sent to a specialist and professionally tested again with authentication paperwork and came back at 16.973 ozt of gold. The rock was approx. 16” deep and he was about to dismiss it as huge trash, but since he’d already found a few smaller bits in the area, he decided to keep digging. Those who know the SDC-2300 realize Big Gold is not it’s specialty and most owners of the 2300 don’t dig beyond 10 to 12” at most. I wonder how most folks would react if they just dug up something like this? I’d immediately go back to the truck, change my shorts, grab a GPZ-7000 with Super Deep heavy boat anchor 19” coil and head right back there. And since I already have a bad back, I'd have to get Lunk to do the digging. So glad you did not give up Ron and I hope you do find a buyer for that beauty. Thanks for allowing me to share.

Gotta love those chunks.. Only 500 meters deep... a bigger search coil just isn't going to cut it. '

Four inches under the surface, three feet from a paved walking/biking trail and four feet from the base of some support cables for a power pole, not far from one of the main entrances to the county fairgrounds in town. The fairgrounds have been used for that purpose since at least 1895 according to historic maps, and maybe longer based on this coin. It's pretty well worn, with a lot of the detail gone. But, I knew I had a lifetime event on my hands as soon as it popped loose from the dirt. I saw the edge and a little bit of one side, saw the shine, and knew it was silver. I about soiled myself and passed out. Not only because of the silver, but partly because it was 91 degrees F, humid, no breeze, the sun was pounding me like a professional boxer, and sweat was dripping off my nose. Yes, I scratched it, right next to the date. Somehow I always knew I would scratch my first silver, and I came to accept that in a dream some time back. But that's okay, it makes it mine. And it wouldn't have been for sale at any price, so it doesn't matter. Well, if it was mint condition and worth $3000, maybe I would have thought about selling it for a minute or two, but I really don't think so. Found 11 other coins today, all clad and pennies, along with a copper token from Grand Slam Sports, which is a laser tag and "family entertainment" place in Burnsville, Minnesota, about 45 minutes from here. The token rang up like an old penny or a dime. I didn't scratch the damn token. Oh no, of course not, not the token, that looks as good as the day it was struck. 😭 I have probably 20 hours into hunting this fairgrounds and I've found about 40 coins, but this one is the king (queen?). Just by chance, the head groundskeeper came by right after I found it, was pretty interested, took a picture of the coin, and told me that other people detect here from time to time, and drove off on his golf cart. Bad news about other people detecting there (which I suspected because of what I was finding and not finding), but they missed this one, the dumbasses. 🙂 I bought an AT Max to give some variety from using my Equinox. I found this with the AT Max. It rang up at 87-90 in the ground and 89-90 on the surface. I wish I had found it with the Equinox because it really has a hold on my heart more than the AT Max does, but I made the decision to use the Garrett today, and now I have to live with it. I think I'll be okay. My life felt complete for about 15 minutes afterward and I was walking on air, but then I realized that that fairgrounds is old, and even though other sad schlubs have been detecting there, there is still more old silver to be found, there has to be. I've only covered about five percent of the total ground available there, and I will keep at it. I have no choice now.

Who has seen it? I'm sure someone on the forum has. This is an article about the Armstrong Nugget which is 80.33 ozt. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-armstrong-nugget

https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=282170

Does anyone have information on these silver boulders that were found in Arizona? They were on display at the Tucson Show this past February.

"INDIAN RIVER SHORES, Fla. – They don't call it the Treasure Coast for nothing. Jonah Martinez, 43, a treasure hunter from Port St. Lucie, was scanning the sand with his metal detector at Turtle Trail Beach Access on Feb. 21 when his device picked up a signal. Buried beneath him was more than three centuries of history: Martinez pulled 22 Spanish silver coins from the surf, each dating back to a shipwreck 305 years ago, he said." https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/28/spanish-coins-1715-shipwreck-unearthed-florida-beach/4902578002/

I found this nice tesoro compadre at the local goodwill today for less than $20. I couldn't resist buying it. Took it home and put in a new battery and it works great. it must be an older one because it has a metal coil screw.

It had been a year since I had a chance to hunt with my friend Strick. We finally were able to get together for 4 days of relic/coin/ring detecting. On day 1 we went to an old standby location (ghost town) we had visited many times in the past. Strick found 2 silver coins, an 1876 and 1877 Seated Liberty dimes in the space of 1 hour. I found a few buttons. Day 2 we took his boat up the Delta to a party beach where I hunted in the water for the first time ever. I had a blast using my CTX 3030 just wading up to my waist. I found 2 silver rings which beat the costume jewelry Strick got so I was the king that day. On day 3 of my visit with him, we were off to a private property in the low Sierra foothills of California to meet up with Strick's friend, the ranch owner, and detect an early gold camp. We have been hunting this area for a few years when our schedules will allow. The last time I was here with Strick he had found a Quarter Eagle and some seated coins while I had only found buttons. On this day things were not looking so great for me as I had only found one nice button and the usual assortment of period trash while Strick had scored a nice cast buckle wreath. We had just taken a break and had compared finds with the ranch owner, discussing the "whatizits" we had found. It was getting later in the day so we went back to detecting. I had earlier got into an area with quite a bit of scattered iron which developed into a nail bed which was obviously the remains of an old structure. So I returned to the heaviest area of nails which was about 250' away from the location of Strick's gold coin, and was carefully searching through the machine gun iron signals when I hear a definite signal but scratchy signal on my Deus. It was jumping around depending on which direction I swung but was repeatable. Just another bullet or cartridge I think as I pop the plug. Then I see about a quarter of a gold coin sticking out of the plug as it crumbles. I didn't stop to savor the moment or reflect on my find like you hear so many times. I started screaming like a 14 year old Valley Girl, " I found a gold coin" and waving my arms at my friends who were a short distance away. The coin was an 1849 Half Eagle. It has been my fondest detecting desire to find a gold coin and now I had realized it. On the journey back to Stricks I looked up the value of the coin as people always ask. I didn't much care as I did not plan to sell it but that is usually the first question from family and friends. I had not cleaned it well or looked at it too closely but I knew it had some wear so I figured a ball park figure of $500? It wasn't until we returned to Strick's place that he was looking at it through a low power microscope and he says" Her headband doesn't say liberty it says Moffat". I had never in a million years ever dreamed I may find a Territorial coin but I knew in an instant that I had just scored the find of my life. On Day 4 we went to a location of an old military base. Strick has taken buckets of military paraphernalia from there and he scored again. I found 2 pieces but they were severely corroded. I would say this has been the best detecting trip I have ever been on due to finding the Territorial Half Eagle. All the thanks go to my buddy, Strick and the ranch owner for getting me on that location. I will ask Strick to post his pics of his finds.

Several months ago friends and I went to look for some lost Civil War valuables. Since we all had signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement I am unable to say where it was at except that the state is Tennessee. We were using a new type of metal detector that I put together and had a friend from John Deere software division do some programming for the unit. This system uses 3 separate frequencies for 3 separate coils and builds a 3D image of the metal in the ground. The images show a depth of over 5 feet and we expect to find the item close to that depth. Since we are looking for something rather large this works very well to keep us from digging the smaller items. We use a standard metal detector for finds closer to the surface as well, and yes we have found more than we expected. We arrived on a rainy day and set up camp for the next 10 days and settled in. The rain ended about midnight and we knew that the ground would be wet. We had early breakfast and proceeded to gain the land owners permission to hunt on their land. That took some negotiation to get everyone’s permission but we had written permission in hand. We then unloaded the 4 wheelers and equipment and set forth to locate what we were after. After digging up almost 2,100 pounds of trash and a couple of small relics we called it a night. The next several days proved to be just as bad as our first day on the hunt, finding only small stuff and very few relics, but we still had a pile of trash left to dig. On the 7th day we had a very good target that looked like we had found what we were after. We were able to dig it up and pull it from a 6 foot hole and we knew we had found something important. We had uncovered a chest that belonged to a 2nd Lieutenant of the Union Army. Inside were several of his items including a Remington Model 1861 Army Revolver of a 22 caliber. Also there were numerous other items including 8 $1.00 gold pieces. He had some silver tableware, razor, and many other items. The chest had shown wear from being in the ground and the inside material had all but rotted. Surprising as it was the chest was In good condition as someone had put bees wax on it and it was wrapped in a trap of some type. The heavy iron straps that held the chest together was all intact and just slightly rusted. One of the locks was mostly gone, but the second one was in much better shape. Most of the chest has been cleaned and redone and looks almost new, and the other items have also been cleaned properly. Some of what we had found will be placed in a museum near the location of which it was found, while the gun and the coins have been shared between the people who went. Everyone had an equal share in this hunt and 2 of the people were brothers who wanted the pistol. I was given 4 of the gold pieces and now I have them hanging on my wall. We are planning another trip back because we know that the treasure we are looking for is there. Since we have the area narrowed down we should find it within a few days. The land owners have given us the permission again and we have plenty of equipment this time to make it go much faster. Below is a picture of my coins as I am still waiting on pictures of the chest and other items.

I found this strange looking rock near a river in East Tennessee and I was wondering if anyone could help me identify it.

Very cool ring that was found 2016: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7691793/Amateur-metal-detectorist-finds-gold-Medieval-ring-tipped-fetch-50-000-auction.html

The SS Central America had lots of coins and lots of treasure to say the least. We has a presentation (with coins and gold nuggets) at a PCSC meeting in Downey, California last year. The author said this book was coming. I don't see much of a preview online but it may be a reference book that will show up in your local library! https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/new-reference-details-gold-silver-recovered-in-2014-from-ss-central-america

This has been picked up in the news lately by several outlets. Great story. Silver is great and all but I am more interested in the fact that the one of the detectorist is rocking the Equinox mounted on an "S" shaft and it looks pretty cool. So, just thought I would start up the ol' S-Shaft/Straight Shaft debate again. Apparently, the only conclusion you can come to is that the S shaft is better for finding silver hordes. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7413021/Seven-detectorists-stumbled-5m-ancient-coins-Somerset-field-JILL-FOSTER-joins-them.html

Buddy mine found these turtles last Dec frozen in a farm field. They were smaller than a quarter. They were hibernating but the farm is active and they would have turned it over before they could make it out of there. Don't know what number they showed up as ? Will be releasing them in june.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jun/28/apollo-11-tapes-moon-landing-sale-value-nearly-lost ...valuable treasure found, and certainly appropriate for today's date!

Hi all, just wanna show u this find ,was in a breccia pipe, its not gold but its beautiful too ,cuprite crystal with native copper thanks to the gold monster, regards ?