A coin just like this one was found in France 100 years earlier, but experts claimed the coin was a hoax because there was no record of this mysterious emperor. This one coin proved that this emperor did indeed exist. His name was Domitianus, and he only ruled the land for a few days.
His short reign over the Roman empire proved that control changed hands pretty quickly. This coin has been called the single most significant coin find in all of Britain history. Just think about that for a second. This single most important historical coin find in Britain was found using a metal detector!
What Was Found?
Hoard # 1 consisted of 4145 Roman coins.
Hoard # 2 consisted of 4957 Roman coins.
Image courtesy of Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England
When Was the Hoard Discovered?
Hoard # 1 was discovered in August 1989.
Hoard # 2 was discovered 14 years later in 2003.
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
Both hoards were discovered in close proximity to each other. They were only 100 feet or 30 meters apart. They were both found on farmland in Chalgrove, England.
Who Found It?
The first hoard was found by a father and son metal detecting team, Brian and Ian Miller. The second hoard was found by Brian Miller.
The Shrewsbury Hoard
Yet another instance where a huge hoard was found by someone who just started metal detecting. Nic Davies had only been metal detecting for about a month, and this hoard was his first find. Could this have been beginner's luck?
Nic did make one huge mistake though. He found the hoard while trespassing on private land. He did not have permission to metal detect and as a result, there is a really good chance he will not receive any monetary reward for this great find.
The current treasure laws in Britain state that should a hoard be classified as treasure, a reward will be paid to the landowner and the person responsible for finding the hoard as long as the person searching was not doing so without permission.
Always get permission before you hunt private property, and make sure you have permission in writing!
What Was Found?
9315 bronze Roman coins.
Image courtesy of Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England
When Was the Hoard Discovered?
August 2009
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Who Found It?
Nic Davies.
Where Is It Now?
The British Museum is in charge of cleaning the coins, but the Shropshire County Museum is trying to acquire the hoard.
The Derrynaflan Hoard
The father and son team who found this hoard supposedly obtained permission to hunt the ancient monastic site of Derrynaflan, but they did not have permission to dig on the land. The area was protected under the National Monuments Act of 1930. This act protected the land and prohibited any type of digging.
When the father and son team made their incredible find, they kept it hidden for three weeks. The find was deemed illegal and the father and son team fought in court for over 7 years. They claimed their find was worth £5,000,000 or $8,377,500. Because they did not have any proof that they had permission to dig, they were never able to legally claim the find. OUCH! As a result of the claim lasting 7 years, the Irish laws of treasure trove were changed.
Once again, always get permission in writing before your dig on private property, and never attempt to dig on any type of national monument!
What Was Found?
A beautiful chalice
A silver paten. A paten is a small plate made from silver or gold.
A hoop
A liturgical strainer
A bronze basin
Here are a few items from this awesome find.
Image courtesy of Kglavin
The chalice from the hoard
Image courtesy of Kglavin
The paten or silver and gold plate from the hoard
When Was the Hoard Discovered?
February 17th 1980
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
This hoard was found on an island of pastureland off the coast of Ireland near Killenaule, South Tipperary.
Who Found It?
Michael Webb and his son.
Where Is It Now?
The National Museum of Ireland
The Grouville Hoard
Not all great treasures are found by first timer rookies, and this hoard is the perfect example. Reg Mead and Richard Miles were two lucky ones in this story. The two treasure hunters researched an area they thought would be perfect for metal detecting. Upon asking permission to hunt, the land owner told them a very interesting story.
A few years earlier while plowing the field, the land owner came across an earthenware pot filled with silver coins. His plow brought them to the surface and scattered them across the field. When Reg and Richard heard this story, their eyes grew wide with excitement.
The land owner granted two treasure hunters permission to hunt, but under very strict circumstances. The land owner would only let the two guys use their metal detectors once a year for about 10-15 hours after the crops had been harvested.
Obviously this didn't give the two eager treasure hunters much time to locate any amount of treasure, but they did not let that stop them. It would take them over 30 years to locate this unbelievable find.
On that fateful day in the summer of 2012, Reg and Richard eagerly followed a trail of 60 silver coins. That trail would eventually lead them to one gold coin, but those 61 coins were just the icing on the cake. They were the tip of the iceberg! They were nothing compared to what came next!
The next target was big. It was huge. It was massive! All of these phrases are understatements. The next target was a mass of coins that weighed an eye popping 1650 pounds or 750 kilograms. They quickly alerted the authorities who sent out a team of archeologists to remove the coins.
Here is what they found!
An estimated 70,000 silver and gold Roman coins and some jewelry.
If you look closely, you can see two gold torcs in the giant coin mass.
What Was It Worth?
At the time of this writing, the value was still being determined. Each coin could fetch as much as £100 - £200 or $167 - $335. That means the entire hoard would be worth more than £7,000,000 or $11,756,500.00. Holy great finds!
Where Was the Hoard Discovered?
The parish of Grouville on the east side of Jersey in the Channel Islands. No, this is not New Jersey in America.
Where Is It Now?
The hoard is currently being valued and cleaned. It is expected to be on display at the Jersey Museum sometime in the year 2014.
Never give up! Just imagine if these two had decided to call it quits.
All of these hoards are incredible finds, and the ones I have included account for a very small number of hoards that have currently been found using nothing more than a metal detector. There are plenty more out there waiting for you to dig them up.
Frightening Finds
With metal detector in hand we busily comb through parks, lakes, rivers, oceans, fields, woods or forests scanning for bits of history that we call treasure. Those lost pieces of treasure could be anywhere, and every single piece of treasure no matter how big or small comes with some sort of history attached to it. It is only a matter of time until some poor unfortunate soul manages to dig up some treasure that comes with a darker history. A history that should have stayed buried.
I have recovered a few somewhat “creepy” finds myself. A tooth here. An entire set of teeth there and even human bones. Granted these finds were nothing like the stories that follow. Although I will admit that each one of them sent a chill down my spine. There is nothing quite like seeing an entire set of teeth laying in the bottom of your beach scoop as you stand neck deep in dark murky water. Once you realize what it is, your mind starts to wander
. It leaves you with an unsettling feeling to say the least.
Let's take a trip to the darker side of metal detecting and uncover some real life finds that have made full grown men think twice about digging again. Some of these stories are a little on the dark side. Consider this your warning. If this sort of thing bothers you, then you may want to skip over these true frightening metal detecting stories.
The Beach of Death
Let's start this section off with a personal story of my own that left me feeling a little uncomfortable.
One of my favorite places to metal detect is the beach. When conditions are right, there is nothing to complain about. You have the beauty of the ocean, the warm sun, bikini clad beauties and miles of treasure producing sand. That is not what the beach conditions were like on this day.
I was hunting a small stretch of beach on the east coast of Florida. Even in the winter, you could usually wear a pair of shorts and a t-shirt while hunting, but this day would be a little different.
There was a cold front that was supposed to move through the area in a few days. As usual, the weatherman was a wee bit inaccurate. (no offense to any meteorologists who may be reading this) The cold front made a overnight surprise visit, and of course this caused the temperatures to drop quite significantly. I would not be able to hunt in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. I would need shoes, long pants and a jacket if I wanted to hunt comfortably in this cold weather.
I arrived at the beach two hours before low tide. This should give me plenty of time to comb through the wet sand. When I walked onto the beach, I could not believe my eyes. There were dead fish everywhere. They were so thick on the beach that it became difficult to walk. It was even more difficult to swing a metal detector.
Apparently the cold front caught all of the local fish by surprise as well. Normally these fish would have migrated south to much warmer waters, but this freak cold front caught them all off guard and killed them.
These were no baby fish either. There were some that were as long as my leg and as big around as my torso. Some of these dead fish would have been record breakers had they been caught on a fishing pole.
Still to this day, I have never seen anything quite like this. For miles down the beach, there were thousands of dead fish. Did that stop me from metal detecting? Of course not!
I meandered through the beach of death swinging my metal detector in between all of the fish carcasses. I noticed a few low spots on the beach and made my way towards them.
I started getting signals as soon as I got to the first low spot. I was happily digging up modern coins among all the dead fish. If there was a dead fish in the way, I would just move it with my scoop.
The next signal my metal detector gave me put a huge smile on my face. It was a solid low tone. On the particular machine I was using at the time, this solid low tone was usually a piece of gold.
I moved a few fish carcasses aside and put the point of my scoop into the beach sand. I stood on the back of my scoop and watched it sink. I removed a giant scoop of sand and scanned the hole with my metal detector. The target was still in the hole.
A foul odor filled the air. It was difficult to describe, but it made me feel uneasy. The foul odor was coming from the hole I had just made. This didn't make me feel any better. I contemplated covering the hole and moving on, but the thought of a gold ring (my precious) kept me digging.
I pushed my scoop down into the hole and retrieved yet another pile of beach sand. I scanned the hole again. There was no signal from the hole. I had my target in my scoop.
I dumped the sand and lightly kicked it across the beach. I ran my detector over the sand and pinpointed the signal. It was still buried under a few inches of sand. I lightly spread the sand across the beach with my foot. In the middle of the sand was a small black disc about the size of an American quarter.
This was no gold. It did not look familiar at all. I reached down and picked it up. It was still covered in sand. With a quick puff, I blew the sand away. It was at that precise moment that I realized exactly what I held in my hand. It was a crematory tag. A chill went down my spine. These are the tags that are used to identify human ashes when a person is cremated. It had been tossed into the ocean along with a person's ashes.
Here I was standing on the beach surrounded by thousands of dead fish holding a crematory tag in my hand. I reached back and threw the crematory tag as far as I could into the ocean. It skipped across the ocean like a rock until it finally sank back to the bottom. At this point, I decided to call it quits and head back home.
On the way back to my car, I came across this weird dead fish. It is a Mora Mora or a sunfish. What a perfect ending for such an odd day of detecting on the beach.
The Dark Treasure of Little Bighorn
On June 25th and 26th close to the Little Bighorn River in Montana, a brutal battle took place. This battle would be known as “Custer's Last Stand,” and it went down in the history books as the single most devastating conflict of the Great Sioux War of 1876.
George Armstrong Custer would lead over 700 men into a battlefield that was massively underestimated. Over 260 of his men were killed and Custer himself would succumb to this horrible error in judgment.
An artists rendition of the horrific battlefield
A lot has been written about this conflict, and a lot of people believe the truth has been covered up by the American government. Since there were so many high ranking casualties, much of the battle remains a mystery.
After the battle ended, army officials tried to examine the battle site. What they found baffled them. There were no dead Indians to be found anywhere, but there were plenty of American soldier bodies to be found.
Dead horses were piled high in makeshift walls. This was a last ditch effort to offer protection from the Indian tribes. Many of the American soldier's bodies could not be identified. Their bodies were stripped of all their clothing and ritually mutilated. The army scouts were forced to bury the bodies where they were found.
Custer's body was recovered with two gunshot wounds. One shot wound was in his left chest and the other was in his left temple. Some sources say he died as a direct result of the chest wound, while others say he shot himself to prevent capture.
The entire battle was said to only last 30 minutes to an hour. Native Indian accounts of the battle state that the Cheyenne and Sioux warriors simply overwhelmed the troops in one huge charge.
Today, the entire site of the battlefield is a National Monument. It is protected and of course metal detecting the battlefield is out of the question, but in May of 1984 an archaeological group armed with metal detectors set out to discover what really happened during this bloody battle. I don't know about you, but I don't know if I would want to dig up anything at a site like this.
Image courtesy of 1025wil
Here is what Last Stand Hill looks like today
The dig proved to be very helpful. Over 600 artifacts were discovered during the initial searches. Most of the artifacts were bullets, shells and slugs, but one woman found something a little on the creepy side.
Her metal detector made a promising signal. The signal meant there was a piece of gold directly under her coil. She quickly recovered the object. It was a ring, but there was something inside the ring. In the middle of the ring was a finger bone that belonged to the ring's owner.
Once the bloody battle was over, squaws from the main Indian camp were sent to the battlefield where they hunted down the mortally wounded soldiers. The remaining soldiers suffered greatly at the hands of the squaws. The Indian squaws were known to slowly torture the survivors. One of their preferred methods of torture was cutting off a soldier's fingers one at a time.
Yes, I can easily say that I would not want to be the person who recovered that ring with the finger bone still attached!
Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People Page 5