Metal Detecting Stories

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David Booth reveals how he found £1m treasure - 5 days after he bought his metal detector
David Booth recalls his fabulous 1 million pounds discovery on his first ever try with a metal detector. The safari park keeper spotted 4 gold necklaces just 7 paces from where he'd parked his car as he set out with his new metal detector. The 2000-year-old jewellery he dug up from a Stirlingshire field is now Treasure Trove and David will get a huge reward based on its market value. "I drove my car to a field, parked in it, took my metal detector out... I just had a feeling about where to park the car. It flashed to indicate that I had found gold 7 paces away from the car... 6-8 inches down, I saw a glimpse of one of them... I was completely stunned - there was total disbelief." | by dailyrecord.co.uk :: 2009-11-28 |

Metal detector fans find two priceless artefacts: 16th century gold ring, 13th century silver dagge
Two metal detectorists have unearthed priceless items dating back centuries, an inquest in Welshpool revealed. A gold ring dating back to the late 16th/early 17th century, inscribed with the italic words, "forget-me-not" was discovered a few inches under soil by Simon Chiles in farmland at Sarn. And a remnant of a very rare silver dagger dating back to the 13th or 14th century was discovered on farmland at Brecon by Stephen Williams. "The chape is the lower end of a silver dagger ... which is at least 10% silver. Such examples from this Anglo-Norman period are virtually unknown, they were latterly made of sheet metal," explained Mark Redknapp, curator of the National Museum of Wales. | by walesonline.co.uk :: 2009-11-28 |

Treasure hunter unearths a collection of silver items from English Civil War -era
Treasure hunter Arthur Haig was metal detecting on a farm when he was called over by a woman, who asked him if he could look in her garden to find a gold charm bracelet she'd lost. "In the course of looking for it, I came across the silver hoard in a broken ceramic pot." The find included 4 silver spoons, a goblet in two parts and a bell salt - engraved with the letters CGA - dating from 1603-1630. The items most likely belonged to Angel and Catherine Grey, the owners of Stowey Court at that time. The silver hoard was probably not hidden by the Greys, as they survived the Civil War and would have recovered it. | by somersetcountygazette.co.uk :: 2009-11-28 |

South African shipwreck treasure hunter has to wait a decade to excavate treasure
Bureaucracy has kept treasure hunter Charlie Shapiro away from the 224-year-old wreck of the Brederode, loaded with porcelain, tin and gold from Indonesia and China. One of Shapiro's richest finds lies waiting in the ocean a decade after its discovery, at risk from ransackers. Shapiro found the 224-year-old shipwreck of the Dutch Brederode 11 years ago, but a series of mishaps has left him still waiting for government to grant him a permit to recover its 10.1 M pounds cargo. From combing archives in Europe and South Africa, to a 16-year search and against-the-odds discovery of an amazingly well-preserved ship, his tale is literally of a treasure hunt. | by telegraph.co.uk :: 2009-10-07 |

Largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure in UK discovered, includes 1,500 gold and silver pieces
The UK's boggest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been discovered in a field in Staffordshire. Experts say the collection of 1,500 gold and silver pieces is unique in size and worth "a 7-figure sum". It has been declared treasure by coroner Andrew Haigh, meaning it belongs to the Crown. Terry Herbert, who found it using a metal detector, said it "was what metal detectorists dream of". The Staffordshire hoard contains 5kg of gold and 2.5kg of silver, making it far bigger than the Sutton Hoo discovery in 1939 when 1.5kg of Anglo-Saxon gold was found near Woodbridge in Suffolk. Herbert has been metal detecting for 18 years. | by bbc.co.uk :: 2009-10-07 |

Father and son metal-detector team spot 1 million pound Viking hoard
The "largest and most important" Viking hoard found in UK since 1840 could shed new light on the historical period - and it will go on display in London and in York after preservation work. The treasure, most likely buried by a wealthy Viking in Northumbria after the Anglo-Saxons had invaded the region, is valued at 1,082,000 pounds. The hoard includes a silver cup worth 200,000 pounds, as well as 617 coins and various silver fragments, ingots and rings. David Whelan, and his son Andrew, discovered the buried treasure with their metal detectors after reluctantly covering a field as a "last resort" because they had only ever discovered buttons there. | by independent.co.uk :: 2009-09-23 |

10,000 Roman coins unearthed by metal detector enthusiast - on his first treasure hunt
A huge haul of over 10,000 Roman coins has been discovered by an amateur metal detecting enthusiast - on his first treasure hunt. The silver and bronze 'nummi' coins, dating 240AD-320AD, were discovered in a field near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire. Nick Davies was on his first treasure hunt when he discovered the coins, mostly inside a buried 70lb clay pot. The stunning collection of coins was uncovered by Nick only a month after he took up the hobby of metal detecting. He said he never expected to find anything on his first treasure hunt - especially anything of any value - depicting the discovery as "fantastically exciting". | by dailymail.co.uk :: 2009-09-23 |

How does Odyssey Marine Exploration find all that sunken treasure?
Discovering $500 million worth of sunken gold coins might be just the beginning for Odyssey Marine Exploration. Tampa's treasure-hunting company may have a lead on far more wrecks and far richer finds on the ocean floor, thanks to some skilful legal work and new high-tech gear. "There are billions of dollars worth of valuable and interesting things laying on the ocean floor waiting for us to find. That's our business plan in a nutshell," said Odyssey President Mark Gordon. There are 3 million shipwrecks worldwide: The hard part is finding them. There are no treasure maps with "X" marking the spot. Odyssey doesn't start by exploring into the ocean, it goes to the library. | by tbo.com :: 2009-09-23 |

Metal Detecting Stories -- Delivering hand-picked articles about treasure hunting, metal detectors and detectorists

Metal Detecting Stories is an edited review of metal detecting, treasure hunting and metal detectors related articles.