Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People
Page 2
I personally believe there is a moral to every story. There is always some sort of knowledge that can be extracted from something like this. In this case, there are two glaring examples that are practically slapping you in the face.
One is the fact that this monster nugget was found with a simple entry level metal detector. The other very important lesson is that slow and steady wins the race. This prospector did not ignore a single target and he took his time making sure every single grain of sand was searched by his metal detector. Incredible and it could happen to you.
Hand of Faith
For this amazing story, we have to travel to the other side of the globe. We have to go “down under” as they say, to the great continent of Australia where food is cooked on the “barbie” and swimming suits are called “budgy smugglers.”
This great land just happens to be where the largest gold nugget in the world was found using nothing more than a metal detector by crickey! Okay, I promise not to insert any more Australian slang in the rest of the story mate.
This story takes place in Kingower, Victoria, Australia. This town is no stranger to gold. At one time, the town was quite large during the Victorian Gold Rush. It was the discovery of the Kingower goldfield that brought over 4000 people to the area in a record amount of time.
The area quickly became known for large gold nuggets, and everyone was happily digging them up. That all changed a few years later when the nearby Inglewood goldfield was discovered in 1859.
Everyone pulled up stakes and headed for Inglewood, but a few lucky prospectors stayed behind. They were rewarded with several large nuggets, but the largest of them would not be found until over 120 years later.
Kevin Hiller is the lucky man who goes down in the history books for finding the largest gold nugget in the world with a metal detector, and he did it in the Spring of 1980.
Kevin was searching a small area of land behind the old Kingower school house when his metal detector started acting weird. He had been digging all sorts of trash, and he was almost positive that his metal detector was not working properly when he got this signal. It was too erratic and odd. It was as if his machine was falsing.
Frustrated with his detector, Kevin decided to call it a day and ignore that odd signal that made his metal detector act so weird, but he just couldn't get it out of his head. He decided this would be the last thing he dug up that day.
Waiting for him under only six inches of earth was the largest gold nugget ever recovered with a metal detector. Kevin called it, “The Hand of Faith.”
Hand of Faith image courtesy of FF23-fr
This monster sized nugget tips the scales at 45 troy ounces. That is just over 60 pounds or 27.21 kilograms of gold. As they say down under, “What a beauty!”
The unique shape of this huge nugget is how it got its name. It was recovered in a vertical position, and it appeared as if a huge golden hand was reaching up out of the ground to meet Kevin Hiller. Of course, Kevin eagerly reached down to shake this massive golden hand.
What Kind of Metal Detector Was Kevin Using?
Only one metal detector manufacturer can claim their machine was used to uncover one of the largest gold nuggets in the world. Kevin was swinging a Garrett metal detector when he made this discovery. The exact model is not known.
What Happened to the Hand of Faith?
Kevin sold his massive find not long after it was announced during a press conference. The nugget did not stay in its homeland of Australia. It was sold to the Golden Nugget Casino for a cool million dollars where it remains on display in their lobby.
You can feast your eyes on this massive hunk of gold if you happen to be in the Las Vegas area. Here are the details.
Golden Nugget Casino
129 East Fremont St
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Telephone: 702-385-7111
Is There a Metal Detecting Moral to This Story?
If you have spent any amount of time metal detecting, then you may have been told that a particular location has been “hunted out.” This phrase implies that all of the treasure has already been found. That wasn't the case in the little town of Kingower.
The largest nugget was found almost 120 years after everyone left the town for what they thought was a more prosperous gold bearing area. Don't ever let anyone tell you an area has been hunted out. There is always a possibility that someone missed the single best piece of treasure in the area.
Destiny
You would think that three massive gold nugget metal detecting finds would be enough, but people are unearthing these massive nuggets all the time. Like the amazing story before this one, this massive nugget was uncovered in Australia where a new type of gold rush has begun. Would be prospectors are busy swinging metal detectors looking for their slice of the golden pie and a prospector by the name of Bill was the lucky one this time.
This story takes place in Ballarat, Australia an area of our planet that is no stranger to large amounts of gold. This area was discovered by a couple of shepherds back in 1837. The shepherds were looking for an area where water was plentiful. A horrible drought was crippling their current pastures. They found what they were looking for in what would later become Ballarat.
For 13 years, shepherds enjoyed the water rich area. Days were spent watching over their flocks and nights were spent counting sheep in their sleep. Things were serene and peaceful. The shepherds found what they considered to be Nirvana! All of that was about to change.
In August of 1851, gold was discovered in the area. This created a gold rush that caused the area to swell like a puppy's belly after a large meal. Thousands of miners descended upon the area like a locust horde of biblical proportions.
In one year alone, over 1000 miners were busy seeking that funny yellow metal. Within three years, the population of miners grew to over 20,000 and they were mining over 20,000 pounds (9000 kilos) of gold in just the first year alone. This is the gold that was legally put onto the books. There was easily just as much gold slipping through the cracks and making its way to the black market.
Care to guess how much gold was discovered here in just the first four years? Over 170,000 pounds or 77,000 kilos. Among this massive load of gold were several very large nuggets.
By 1868, the town was huge. There were over 64,000 miners working for over 300 mining companies. The last mine closed down in 1918 and the busy little mining city slowly diminished down to practically nothing. According to the Ballarat Historical Society, over 20,000,000 troy ounces of gold were mined and recovered from this area.
Like many great treasure stories, a lot of the details of this incredible find are secret. The prospector is simply known as “Bill” and the exact location of the find is only known by a few lucky people.
Bill made his lucky find in some really dense foliage. Trees and large clumps of bushes are always difficult to detect. How are you supposed to get your coil up under all the branches and leaves? Because of this, most people choose to ignore these areas. Bill did not, and he was well rewarded for his efforts because deep under a gnarly mess of thick brush is where he discovered what he would call “Destiny.”
Destiny weighs in at 8 pounds or 3.66 kilos. That is one big nugget! You can see the Destiny nugget for yourself at the following web address:
http://www.piecesofvictoria.com/international/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/The-Destiny-Nugget.jpg
What Kind of Metal Detector Was Used?
While a lot of the details surrounding the discovery of Destiny are closely guarded secrets, there is one very important detail that is right out in the open. Bill was using a Minelab GPX-5000 metal detector when he found his monster nugget. Good on ya mate!
What Happened to the Destiny Nugget?
As of this writing, the Destiny nugget is on loan to Sovereign Hill where it is proudly being displayed. Here are the details.
Sovereign Hill
39 Magpie Street
Ballarat, Victoria
3350 Aus
tralia
Website: http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/
Telephone: 03 5337 1199
What Can We Learn From This Amazing Find?
Once again it seems that persistence pays! Ballarat was a huge mining city that produced tons of gold, but when those veins ran dry, people vanished. There is always treasure to be found no matter how hard an area has been previously hunted. Bill also did something no one else did. He hunted for gold in a place that everyone else ignored. Destiny was found in some dense, thick brush.
The Ausrox Nugget
Australia seems to be leading the way when it comes to big gold nuggets being found with a metal detector. This last gold nugget find proves that point. This story takes place just outside of the townsite known as Ora Banda. The name roughly translates to, “Band of Gold.”
Gold was discovered in this area way back in 1893. The area grew and by the year 1910 there were just over 2000 mining families living in the area. Life was not easy for the miners. It was not like they had five star accommodations.
The Ora Banda Hotel which was constructed in 1911 would become the centerpiece for the town. If the walls of this hotel could talk, there would be countless stories worth listening to.
For just over 40 years, the entire area boomed with the discovery of gold, but by the late 1950s things came to a standstill and the centerpiece hotel closed its doors. In 1981, the hotel was restored and reopened. Now it is a popular tourist attraction and a great place to grab a nice cold beer and some authentic local eats.
Today, there are still several gold mining companies working in the area. They are still locating gold, but the mining companies would not be the ones to locate an impressive monster nugget that tipped the scales at over 62 troy pounds. That is just over 51 pounds or 23 kilograms. Three local prospectors using metal detectors would be the lucky ones to make this find. Take a look at the Ausrox Nugget.
Photo courtesy the Houston Museum of Natural Science
What Happened to This Impressive Nugget?
Much of this incredible find is being kept secret. The three lucky prospectors quickly contacted a local nugget buyer and gave him one week to sell off their incredible find. It only took a couple of days to sell the nugget. The final selling price is also being kept secret.
The nugget was tested and it was confirmed to be 92% pure gold. It's melt value alone would have been worth more than $850,000 or £506,283. Nuggets of this size always sell for two to three times more than their melt value! This nugget is the bloody big one!
Where Is the Ausrox Nugget?
The nugget was sold to an anonymous buyer in the United States. Many people in Australia have expressed outrage over the sale. They want the nugget to remain in Australia. The nugget is currently traveling the world and will be on display in several museums.
These are just a few of the great pieces of gold that have been found using nothing more than a metal detector. There are plenty more that go unreported.
Are there more monster nuggets out there waiting to be found? You can bet there are. Will you be the next person to find one of the monster nuggets using your metal detector? Not if I can beat you to it!
The Treasure Coast
At one point or another every person who has ever held a metal detector in their hands has dreamed about unearthing hoards of treasure. Some of us lie awake at night thinking about it. Some of us drift off to that magical treasure place while we are at work. (Don't worry, I won't tell the boss!)
Some of us manage to find their chest full of silver and gold in their dreams, but along the famed Treasure Coast of Florida there are people who are really finding old pieces of Spanish treasure every single day! This is one treasure story that keeps on giving.
Right now as you read these words there are people metal detecting along a very specific stretch of beach along the east coast of Florida.
One of these people may even be me. I was born and raised in Florida, and I have spent many hours scouring the Treasure Coast in search of old Spanish coins. Have I ever found any lost Spanish coins? Why do you think I keep going back? Finding one old Spanish coin only fuels the desire to uncover more. If there is one, there has to be more and along this stretch of beach there are hundreds of thousands of them. The Treasure Coast of Florida has created dozens of fascinating treasure stories, but why? It all has to do with the 1715 Fleet.
This treasure story starts a very long time ago. In fact, it started over 300 years ago. This was the time in our history when pirates roamed the seas and the Spanish Conquistadors explored, traded and dominated just about every piece of land they came into contact with.
A small fleet of Spanish ships was in route to Mexico. Their cargo consisted of mostly mercury. The mercury was used to refine silver cobs (silver Spanish coins) in Mexico. History books say the name of this fleet was Nueva Espana. This translates to, “New Spain.”
This fleet of ships was in Mexico to sell their cargo and pick up Mexican minted silver bars and cobs. The fleet was supposed to depart Mexico, but problem after problem kept the fleet in Mexico for over two years.
The fleet finally managed to leave Mexico where it met with another fleet in Havana. This second fleet was known as Tierra Firme. This second fleet was weighed down with enough treasure to make you wet your pants. Gold and silver from Panama and Cartegena filled the cargo holds of this fleet.
These two fleets combined to make a convoy of 12-13 ships. No one alive seems to know exactly how many ships there were. Several accounts say there were 12 ships, and several others say there were 13 ships. Either way these ships were all loaded with massive amounts of treasure. So much in fact, that the loss of these ships would go down as one of the largest Spanish treasure losses in history.
Records indicate that these ships were carrying only gold and silver. Recent discoveries have proven otherwise. People have been finding exquisite Chinese porcelain, huge gold and silver ingots, beautiful unrefined emeralds, jewel encrusted jewelry, gold coins, silver coins, silverware and more!
More delays would prevent this convoy of heavy ships from leaving Havana in a timely manner. When they did finally depart for Spain it was the month of July. Their route would take them along the east coast of the United States where they followed the Gulf Stream until it turned east and brought them home.
Sailing through the Caribbean and along the east coast of Florida is a great experience during the warmer summer months. The days are long so there is plenty of time under the sun for easy navigating. The waters are cool and inviting and the ocean breeze is soothing enough to lull you right to sleep.
Yes, sailing in the summer is great except for one thing, one very big and very dangerous thing. The summer months belong to hurricane season and these Spanish sailors did not have the convenience of a smartphone in their pocket to warn them about approaching bad weather.
On July 30th, the fleet came head to head with a massive hurricane. Just imagine for a moment what that must have been like. Being born and raised in Florida makes it very easy for me to imagine just how scary those moments must have been for these Spanish sailors. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of living through a hurricane, let me give you some food for thought.
Your average hurricane will create constant winds well over 130 miles per hour or 241 kilometers per hour. These are not gusts of wind. These are constant destructive winds. These powerful winds can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Powerful winds like these are down right frightening to experience on land. They are powerful enough to move vehicles, snap giant trees like toothpicks, blow the roof clean off a house and create all types of deadly high speed projectiles. You don't want to be outside in this type of wind let alone on the deck of a ship in the Atlantic ocean.
The wind is not the only problem either. Hurricanes create torrential amounts of rain. The rain mixed with the powerful wind can not only make it difficult to see, but it can be very painful!
Let's not forget the occasional ligh
tning strike. Lightning is attracted to tall objects like trees and ship masts! This all sounds pretty bad doesn't it? Well it gets worse, much worse.
Hurricanes can also spawn tornadoes. Notice that word is plural? Not only do you have to deal with the dangerous winds, torrential downpours and deadly lightning, but you also have to deal with the possibility of multiple tornadoes all at the same time! Living through this type of experience on land is difficult. Surviving it on a ship is next to impossible.