Treasure Hunting

A 75 year old metal detecting enthusiast found the find of his lifetime while detecting with members of the “Coventry Heritage Metal Detectors Society” earlier this year.

While he can’t reveal exactly where he found it, he describes “I felt pretty excited - it is pretty rare to come across such things. It is in excellent condition and still has a sharp edge. I have been metal detecting for more than 20 years and I classify this as my best find.”

Roy Crick is retired but carries out voluntary work and took the axe to the Birmingham Museum where it was authenticated and recorded. He hopes to have it displayed in the Kenilworth Museum some day.

Birmingham Museum’s finds liason officer says “It is by far the finest Bronze-age axe that has been recorded in Warickshire. You could almost cut your finger on the edge - it’s that sharp. For it to be in such good condition suggests that it was a new or nearly new one. We normally get people coming in with things they have found that are more than 300 years old - but this is closer to 3,000. From an archaeological point of view, I can say it is very, very important.”

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We just discovered a couple of books we would like to get our hands on and we curious to see if anyone else had read these.

Author W.C. Jameson has written two books that pertain to use and many others that may pertain to our friends out in the mid west and elsewhere in the U.S.

Buried Treasures of the South: Legends of Lost, Buried and Forgotten Treasures from Tidewater Virginia and Coastal Carolina to Cajun Louisiana is the 5th volume in Jameson’s “Buried Treasure” series and contains 38 tales of the American south. Florida isn’t listed, but that doesn’t mean we can’t afford a drive to Georgia, the Carolina’s, Alabama or Louisiana, which are mentioned.

Another book that seems good to read: Lost Treasures of American History, also by Jameson, explores treasure tales from early explorers through the colonial period, the Civil War, the settling of the West and the roaring 20’s.

Amazon has a little bit to say about the author: “W.C. Jameson, an environmentalist, geographer, folklorist, and musician, grew up in west Texas and has lived in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and now Colorado. He is a prolific author, having written twelve books in his Buried Treasures series, more than 200 magazine articles, and a book about Billy the Kid. He is a past president of the Western Writers of America and has twice been awarded its prestigious Stirrup Award. He was a consultant on the film National Treasure and currently records and tours as a musician, both solo and with Ghost Town Council, an alternative country band out of Austin.”

These books may be geared for a younger crowd, but we’re certainly game. Anyone read them?

- Adam

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This is a valid question: At what point do we say “hey, I don’t know or care what those people were buried with a long time ago, I’m going to leave them at peace” or say “That was so long ago, it’s all fair game now”?

Jewelry that may have belonged to Anglo Saxon royalty has been declared a treasure trove recently. But what bothers us at TreasureHunting.com is that this archaeological dig has been caried out in a known burial ground.

Of 109 graves discovered, five graves have yielded an impressive amount of treasure.

The Northern Echo reports that a hoard of brooches, pendants and beads were uncovered in superb condition. The hoard is believed to belong to the Northumbrian royal family, and was buried with the princess.

“The quality of the jewelry was assessed by specialists at Durham University and Dr. Rob Collins who said: There is not a long of Anglo Saxon evidence in the North East,… however this site is exceptional because it would appear that it is the burial site of a member of the Northumbrian royal family.”

We’re thrilled at the prospect of buried treasure, but not so thrilled at the prospect of buried people. We would never detect around modern grave yards,… so seriously… what makes older ones any different? How old does a grave have to be before it’s considered an “archaeological dig site?” Anybody?

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We get asked pretty frequently “which forums are you guys on?” To be honest, we aren’t registered on any. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t lurker’s of a few…

For those of you who are looking for metal detecting forums and would like to be more involved in an online community, we encourage the following:

For those of you looking for a good treasure and metal detecting magazine to subscribe to (who doesn’t like getting something other than junk in the mail?) look at the following magazines:

That should keep you all busy for awhile, it certainly keeps us busy. If anyone here is a big fan of a forum or magazine not mentioned here, please share it in the comments section. There are many more forums than we could have listed (many websites break them down by state) and I’m sure there’s a magazine we’re not subscribed to. Please feel free to share folks!

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Every once in awhile our central Florida neighbor and blog sponsor, Kellyco Metal Detectors, will give us a little something to write about and today is one of those days.

It looks like they added a new feature to their website that will be of a great deal of use to any metal detector enthusiasts. You can now compare up to three metal detectors with just the click of a button.

Go to their website at: www.KellycoDetectors.com, find the metal detector of your choice and do the following:

1. Select the “Compare this detector” button. It’s located just above the main photo of every metal detector. A window will pop up with a list of your detector’s features.
2. Select the detector you would like to compare it to from the alphabetical “Add a Detector” list and its details will appear side-by-side.
3. Repeat step 2 as needed – you can compare up to three metal detectors all at the same time.

We just gave this feature a try with the Fisher F75 against the Fisher F5. Those are two new releases by Fisher that we’ve had questions about. They certainly look similar but there’s obviously quite a price difference and this comparison feature really showed us the differences between the two machines.

See the screen shot above-left of what we saw, or click on either of those detectors to go to their main page and do the “Compare this detector” yourself. We think this is a great feature and it will be put to good use come the Holidays!

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I tell ya, the stories just don’t stop pouring out from across the pond… Here’s yet another story about a hobby metal detectorist who found something truly spectacular.

The Grantham Journal reports that “A stunned metal detector user hunting near Margaret Thatcher’s birthplace found an ancient coin depicting a warrior leader that looked just like the “Iron Lady.”

David Baker is an amateur treasure hunter who lives near Grantham. Getting a signal in a muddy field, he “dug down with his trowel when his detector went off and got quite excited when he saw the coin.”

Baker says “I’d gone out detecting for the day to get away from all the gloomy news about the economy. I couldn’t believe it when I cleaned it up a bit and saw this image of Margaret Thatcher glaring up at me. It is so ironic that she was born close to where I found it and that is also from the Iron Age - and she was known as the Iron Lady.”

The coin Baker found is actually 2,000 years old, made of silver, and is said to be from the Trinovantian tribe that lived north of the Thames. Only 10 of these celtic coins from 40B.C. have ever been found, and according to an expert, this one is the finest ever unearthed.

There’s no denying that the tribal leader or goddess featured on the coin bears a resemblance to Margaret Thatcher. The reverse side has a celtic armed war horse, imagery also associated with Lady Thatcher during her 1980’s pomp.

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