There is no doubt about it that most people who are looking to pick up a metal detector are thinking about the riches that they could potentially uncover when searching around the countryside and coastline. The hours spent getting some exercise and walking around some really beautiful parts of the country are made much more fun by the thrill of the chase and hoping that you will eventually come home with a life changing piece of metal!
These things happen pretty frequently and have made people very wealthy from a quick bleep of their metal detector turning into finding many gold coins. Across the UK amateur treasure hunters that read this news follow in the foot steps of these metal detector legends trying to get there hands on the next big find.
There are so many ways of finding things of value with the metal detector from combing the beaches for coins and jewellery to scouring over ploughed fields to find some hidden treasure that have been in the ground for hundreds of years and have just been brought nearer to the surface. Many old coins can be worth £20 to £50 so a lot of detectorists have built up considerable value collections by putting in the hours not just by hitting the jackpot in one find.
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High Value Metal Detector Finds
Below we are going to run through a number of huge metal detecting finds that have changed the fortune of the people that have found them. They have come across another object which could be a roman coin or and old brooch only to find they have a massive horde on their hands.
Roman Coin Collection: Frome, Somerset 2010
On just a normal days detecting around a site that Roman coins had been found before Dave Crisp was out detecting as usual. After going through the fields he came across something with his detector and started digging. What he found was not one Roman coin but many and soon thought he had a hoard on his hands. Great he thought, and the area soon got dug up and over 50,000 Roman coins were found. The value of these coins found in 2010 was an astonishing £500,000 which was great news for Dave. The unfortunate thing is that the hoard was taken by the crown and Dave didn’t get any of the money! These coins could well have been buried in this remote location for safe keeping from potential thieves in years gone by. This was a common practice by many of the owners of large amounts of coins thousands of years ago.
Roman Coins: Seaton, Devon 1996
Whilst out detecting in has local spot Laurence Egerton stumbled across a huge hoard of Roman coins that were worth a large sum of money. The find which started as a few coins soon became a lot of coins and the archaeologists were called in. The number of coins grew and grew with the excavation of the site to a total of around 20,000 coins from the period around AD300. A staggering amount of them with a high value. Luckily for Mr Egerton he had got permission to detect on the land and split the proceeds of the find with the land owner. A great day’s detecting!
Silver: Jersey 2012
Whilst out detecting on the beautiful island of Jersey two detecting partners came across a couple of metal coin varieties in the ground. Great, that is what we are all looking for! On closer inspection there seemed to be a few of these coins and then as they dug there were more and more. The coins were Celtic silver coins that were very rare indeed and dated back to 2,000 years ago around 50BC. The actual value of is unknown but it has been estimated that the hoard could be worth as much as £10 million pounds. Reg Mead and his detecting partner Richard Miles found the hoard a couple of feet under the surface. What a great day’s work!
Gold Necklaces: Stirling, Scotland 2009
A relative newcomer to the metal detecting world stumbled across some gold iron age necklaces near the surface of the ground. What may have looked like just another bit of old jewellery on close inspection was actually a hugely rare and valuable item that is very sought after. The value of the necklaces was put at around £1 million pounds. As always the full amount of money didn’t go to the finder but it was split with the land owner. Still a very good find at fifty percent of the value! Often things like this that are deep beneath the surface can be brought nearer to the surface with digging and ploughing of the fields. It may have sat there undiscovered for thousands of years only to be found a few inches from the surface!
Iron Age Gold Coin Hoard, Dallinghoo, Suffolk 2008
This was a bit more of a modest find but still an absolute corker for the average man with his metal detector. Whilst cruising around a local spot a pair of detectorists came across a small but very valuable hoard of gold coins indeed. The eventual total tally was over 800 gold iron age coins that had a staggering value of £300,000. This value was split with the land owner but is still a very nice amount of money for the finders. As you read through the finds it is of absolute importance that the correct permission is obtained from the land owner to ensure that you have the right to claim half of the value of the items found. Be warned if you don’t it could mean you lose out on it all!
Gold And Silver Coin Collection: Wrexham, North Wales
An 86 year old veteran of the metal detecting game literally hit gold when he stumbled across a hoard of gold and silver coins that dated back some 500 years. The coins were found whilst out in the fields just enjoying the hobby of metal detecting without a care in the world. This is a find that happens once in a lifetime and although we don’t know the exact value it will have been a very lucrative day for the land owner and detector!
Get Permission From The Land Owner
As you can see from these real life finds there is a lot of money to made from coming across valuable items with your metal detector. The key thing is to make sure that you have obtained the correct permissions from the land owner to search on their fields. If a hoard is found the archaeologists will be called and you need to have the permission to make sure you are entitled to a share of the money from the find. Don’t end up disappointing by not bothering and losing all of the valuables you have collected from your hard work.