Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People
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Image courtesy of vintagedept from Olen (London), Belgium (United Kingdom)
A true historical work of art. Could you imagine finding something like this with your metal detector?
What Was It Worth?
Are you sitting down for this one? The Vale of York Hoard has been valued at £1,082,000 or $1,797,202
When Was the Hoard Discovered?
January 6th 2007
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
It was found in an unploughed field near Harrogate, England.
Who Found It?
David Whelan and his son Andrew. What a father and son moment that must have made! They had both been metal detecting for about five years before making this incredible find.
Where Is It Now?
The hoard is sitting pretty in the British Museum or Yorkshire museum.
Interesting Facts About The Vale of York Hoard
The entire hoard was buried in some type of lead container. This outer shell helped protect the hoard. As of this writing, this is the largest Viking hoard found in Britain since 1840.
Staffordshire Hoard
The Staffordshire Hoard consists of right around 3,500 Anglo-Saxon gold and silver pieces that include weapon decorations, jewelry and crosses. The total weights are 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of gold and 1.3 kilograms (2.9 pounds) of silver.
The weapon decorations include: gold and silver sword hilt collars and sword pommels with garnets and intricate inlays.
Three crosses were found in the hoard as well. One of the crosses was folded and another was missing most of the decorative settings.
The hoard also contained an amazing gold strip inscribed in Latin. The inscription reads “SURGE DNE DISEPENTUR INIMICI TUI ET FUGENT QUI ODERUNT TE A FACIE TUA.”
The translation reads, “Rise up Lord may your enemies be scattered and those who hate you be driven from your face.” What an absolutely incredible historical find, and just think, without a metal detector these items may have never been discovered.
Here are a few items from the hoard.
Image courtesy of David Rowan, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
What Was It Worth?
£3.285 million or $5,315,200
When Was the Hoard Discovered?
July 5th 2009
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
In a recently plowed field near Lichfield, Staffordshire, England
Who Found It?
Over a period of five days, one lucky individual by the name of Terry Herbert found enough gold items to fill 244 bags. At this point he contacted the authorities and Fred Johnson, the current land owner allowed the field to be excavated.
Image courtesy of Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England
Terry Herbert looking over some of the hoard.
Two more excavations were carried out in 2010 and 2012 producing even more historical finds.
Where Is It Now?
Pieces of the hoard are now scattered across various museums all over Britain. At the time of this writing, the following museums had individual pieces of this hoard on display:
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
The British Museum
Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
Stoke-On-Trent
Interesting Facts About The Staffordshire Hoard
This hoard was so significant, that historians have had to re-examine their earlier theories of Anglo-Saxon England. The entire hoard and location were initially kept secret in order to prevent thieves from disturbing the fragile archaeological finds.
The Hallaton Hoard
This hoard was originally known as the Southeast Leicestershire Treasure, but it is now being called the Hallaton Treasure. It consists of over 5,294 silver and gold Roman coins, jewelry, a decorative mount, a silver bowl, two ingots, over 7,000 animal bone pieces, a Roman Parade helmet originally covered in silver sheeting and gold leaf. Inside the helmet were 7 cheekpieces. Check this stuff out!
Image courtesy of Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England
Coins from the hoard
The Roman Parade helmet was removed in what is known as “block format.” The archeologists removed a large square chunk of earth with the helmet still inside. This gave them the opportunity to properly conserve the piece. It took the British Museum 9 years to properly remove and conserve the entire helmet.
Image courtesy of Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England
The parade helmet
Image courtesy of Prioryman
One of the cheekpieces found with the hoard
Archeologists believe that the area was a shrine of some sort where animals were being offered. 97% of all the animal bones found were from pigs, and most of them were buried whole.
What Was It Worth?
The value of this hoard is still being determined. The helmet alone has been valued at £650,000 or $1,081,795.
When Was the Hoard Discovered?
November 19th 2000
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
Close to Hallaton in southeast Leicestershire, England
Who Found It?
Ken Wallace found the first 130 coins with his metal detector. He reported the find to the authorities and the rest of the hoard was found by the Hallaton Fieldwork Group.
Where Is It Now?
At the time of this writing, portions of this hoard were on display at the Harborough Museum.
The Salisbury Hoard
This particular hoard has a very interesting story. Apparently this is one hoard that was uncovered by two metal detectorists secretly and illegally. The discovery began in the year 1988 when an archaeologist by the name of Dr. Ian Stead came across a few pieces of the hoard. He was fascinated by these pieces, but he had no idea where they had come from.
He started doing some investigating because he saw the importance of the pieces. He knew they were Iron Age bronze artifacts. His investigations led him to several rumors that there were hundreds of pieces floating around the black market. It took Dr. Ian several years and several secret pub meetings to uncover the full story.
All of his hard investigative work paid off. All of the items that have been recovered date back over 2000 years. It is believed that some of the items were already 2000 years old when they were first buried. That means that some of the artifacts are over 4000 years old!
Most of the items were found in a huge pit. It is believed that these miniature items were offerings to ancient gods.
It is unfortunate that these items were all recovered illegally. Had they been properly recovered, there may have been even more interesting information regarding the find.
What Was Found?
Over 600 prehistoric bronze metal objects. All of the pieces in this hoard are miniature versions of full sized weapons and shields.
Where Is It Now?
The British Museum
St. Albans Hoard
Wesley Carrington's story is the perfect example of beginner's luck. Wesley knew he wanted to try hunting for treasure, but he did not want to spend a lot of money on a metal detector. He purchased the cheapest entry level machine he could find. His purchase would prove to be a worthwhile investment because just 20 minutes into his very first hunt, Wesley made the find of a lifetime: a hoard of gold roman coins.
When he found the initial batch of 40 coins, he brought them back to the shop where he originally purchased his metal detector. He was not sure what he should do with them. The shop owner knew that this was indeed a rare and incredible find, and he contacted the local authorities. Another search of the area unearthed another 119 coins.
What Was Found?
159 gold solidi Roman coins that are more than 1600 years old!
What Was It Worth?
The value of this hoard is still being determined, but single gold solidis have sold for as much as £1000 or $1663.80 at auction. That could put the total value at £159,000 or $264,544
When Was the Hoard Discovered?<
br />
2012
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
The hoard was found near St Albans Hertfordshire.
Where Is It Now?
St. Albans' Verulamium Museum
The Stirling Hoard
David Booth's story is yet another excellent example of beginner's luck. His amazing find also proves that you don't always need an expensive metal detector to locate buried treasure. The model he used to make this incredible find was an entry level machine with a relatively small price tag.
David set out treasure hunting the right way. He spent some time investigating an area he thought may have potential for treasure. The area he was interested in was a field located in Scotland.
The next step for David was to contact the owner of the land and obtain permission to hunt and that is exactly what David did.
When he arrived at the location, he parked right outside of the field. The area looked perfect for treasure hunting and David was eager to try out his new metal detector.
Being his first time using his new machine, David thought it would be a good idea to try it out on an area of flat ground right behind his car. He took about 7 steps, turned on his metal detector and this is what he found.
Image courtesy of Johnbod
One of four Torcs found
Could you imagine finding something like this the very first time you took your metal detector out for a hunt or any time for that matter? This is the stuff dreams are made of.
What Was Found?
Four gold Iron Age torcs.
What Was It Worth?
£462,000 or $768,167. I think David more than paid for his entry level metal detector with this find. He might as well retire from the hobby of metal detecting and let me or you grab the next great piece of treasure.
When Was the Hoard Discovered?
September 29th 2009
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
Blair Drummond, Stirlingshire, Scotland
Where Is It Now?
National Museums Scotland
Wickham Market Hoard
Not every amazing treasure find happens when a first timer fires up their metal detector. Some people metal detect for years before they make that huge life altering find. This is the case with Michael Dark and the Wickham Market Hoard.
Michael is no newcomer to the world of metal detecting. In fact, it took him 25 years of searching to locate his first gold coin. He knew there had to be more gold coins buried in the ground nearby.
Determined to find more of the coins, Michael returned to the spot where he recovered the first. The hunting conditions were horrible, but gold fever had already taken hold of Michael.
It was cold, windy and sleet was pelting him. Like any metal detecting enthusiast who is on the hunt, Michael ignored the weather conditions and continued his search. As luck would have it, his search produced eight more gold coins. These eight additional gold coins were not enough. The gold had made its way into Michael's heart. One look in his eyes and it was easy to see Michael had developed a mild case of gold fever.
Michael's metal detector suddenly went nuts. From the sound of it, there was something really big buried right beneath his feet. Could it be even more of the gold coins? His mild case of gold fever was now escalated to the point of no return. He knew he was standing on a huge pile of gold coins. Here is where the story takes an odd turn.
Instead of recovering his find, Michael decided he would have to leave it over night. That's right. Michael decided that it was in his best interest to return and uncover his find after a good night's rest. He used rocks to mark the location on the ground and went home, cleaned up and went to sleep. Wait a minute? WHAT?????
I don't know about you, but there is simply no way I could have done this, but to each their own I suppose.
When he returned, he uncovered another 774 gold coins bringing the total amount of gold coins to 840! And just think, Michael let those additional 774 gold coins lay in the ground one more night. What harm could come from letting them stay buried for one more night?
Image courtesy of Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England
What Was It Worth?
£316,000 or $525,413
When Was the Hoard Discovered?
March 2008
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
Dallinghoo near Wickham Market, Suffolk, England
Where Is It Now?
Ipswich Museum
The Bredon Hill Hoard
Jethro Carpenter and Mark Gilmour are no strangers to metal detecting and this is no case of beginner's luck either. The two treasure hunters were hunting an area of private farm land where they made some interesting finds in the past. The farm land would prove fruitful yet again when their machine gave them a good strong signal.
Excited to locate their newly found piece of treasure, the two treasure hunters started to unearth their find. Wouldn't you know it. There was no real treasure waiting for them in that hole they just excavated. The piece of treasure was nothing more than a old rusty nail.
In my book entitled: “Metal Detecting: A Beginner's Guide to Mastering the Greatest Hobby In the World,” I talk about the importance of always scanning your holes twice. This story drives this fact straight home.
After removing the nail, Jethro and Mark scanned the hole again. There were still more targets in the hole. As they kept digging, they started noticing pottery shards. It wasn't long until they started finding coins, lots of coins. They knew they had just found a huge hoard and thought it would be best to report it to the authorities.
The coins in this particular hoard are very interesting because each coin is made from a very small amount of silver. It is estimated that most of the coins are only about 1% silver. This was done intentionally to devalue the coins when they were created.
What Was Found?
3784 silver Roman coins
Image courtesy of portableantiquities
Image courtesy of portableantiquities
Jethro Carpenter and Mark Gilmour along with Richard Henry from the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
What Was It Worth?
At the time of this writing, the value of this hoard was still being investigated.
When Was the Hoard Discovered?
June 18th 2011
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
On a farm in Bredon Hill Worcestershire, England
Where Is It Now?
At the time of this writing, the Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum was trying to purchase the hoard.
The Chalgrove Hoards
That is not a typo. The word hoards in this particular find is supposed to be plural, and would you believe that both of these hoards were found by the same person 14 years apart?
Some people believe that locating a huge hoard of coins is a once in a lifetime achievement. Brian Miller has proved them otherwise by locating both of these incredible hoards with a metal detector. While both hoards are quite spectacular, the second hoard held an ancient clue that would have historians scratching their heads in wonder.
Brian brought all of the coins to the Ashmolean Museum fused in a giant ball still in the original container. Brian knew he had another fantastic find on his hands, but he had no idea what was hiding inside that old ball of Roman coins.
The British Museum was in charge of cleaning the coins, and in February of 2004 they found one coin inside the hoard that would change history. On the face of this mysterious coin was an unknown emperor.