Schranzerwald Forest, Austria – Millions are yet to be found by treasure hunters of all sorts. A fraudulent German financial advisor Augustine whose name has not been officially released, was arrested when a amateur treasure hunter found a suitcase with $185,000 and Augustine’s passport buried near Innsbruck, the capital in west of Austria.
After trials, in early 2002, Augustine was jailed for the maximum six-years and is now living in Bavaria, Germany. After publicizing this case to the public, this led many to get out their detecting gear and head out to look for the treasure for a nice reward, ten percent of the amount found and an award of $815,000.
Local treasure hunter Walter Fritz searches for buried millions in Ebbs, Austria
German police officials believe there is more to be found; more than 5 million was embezzled and hidden from investors while Augustine was working for the BDA bank.
The small town of Ebbs, Austria has benefited from the influx of treasure hunting visitors hopeful to fine a new fortune. As the story spreads, more are expected to travel to Ebbs, and join the hunt.
So after surfing the web, I stumbled across this site with metal detecting finds which had an inspiring story where treasure was found without even trying! A British farmer lost his hammer in his crop fields one day. He refused to buy another to replace it and instead just borrowed his friend’s Metal Detector. After Searching his crops for his hammer, he came up with over 15,000 coins of various metals, including gold, as well as jewelry and statues.
The government bought these coins from him for £1.75 million which he split with his friend who let him borrow his metal detector. Wow! What an amazing find!
While reading an article about metal detector stories, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of heroic, surprising, and or wacky tales are out there.
For instance, in the aforementioned above a man found his wife’s wedding ring after two years of it being lost at a beach. She was sure it was gone for good, but her husband thought otherwise. The thought and dedication it took to find the same ring, just shows you how special of an experience metal detecting can be. As I have said before, our hobby isn’t all about striking it rich. There are many cases, where metal detectorists have turned in valuable items for no reason at all, but to help others out.
The article goes on to talk about someone who does “hit the jackpot” for those of you who have a little bit more of a treasure hunter in you. This person was scanning a private beach in a cove when his metal detector hit a signal. It ended up being a very rare roman coin, that led to an entire treasure trove of roman coins. This lucky soul was able to retire much earlier than expected off of the extremely lucky and rare find.
What are some crazy or “out there” metal detector stories that you may have experienced or heard of?
An Englishman has come upon one of the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure finds ever found. The craziest part about it? The man used a decade old metal detector he purchased for a few pounds to find the treasure in a field! Pieces of the million dollar treasure were sitting above the soil, most likely caused by plowing in the field.
This is what Terry Herbert, the lucky man who struck gold (literally) had to say:
“Imagine you’re at home and somebody just keeps putting money through your letterbox. That’s what it was like.” Well we certainly can’t argue with that! He also had to put in this little tidbit about his vision, “As soon as I closed my eyes I saw gold patterns. I didn’t think it was ever going to end.” - Britain’s Press Association
Mr. Herbert found around 500 items on his own using his detector. He called it in, and before you know it another 800 additional items were later discovered on the same spot. What makes this gold find so rare is the level of craftsmanship etched into it’s pieces. Some of the treasure have religious symbols such as crosses and biblical text engraved in them, while others have strange animals laced and intertwined.
The Anglo-Saxon hoard is said to be over 1,500 pieces of gold, silver, and other jewels weighing in at several kilograms. The treasure is said to be mostly war gear, used to decorate high members of society from the 7th century. Items such as sword hilts, pieces of helmets, and buckles were only a few examples of the pieces found in the trove.
No one knows if this was the result of a noble’s secret stash, or a trophy collection that was long forgotten. Who do you think the treasure belonged to exactly and what was it’s purpose? Was it used to garnish a lavish noble home, or the hidden stash from an ancient thief? Feel free to leave your comments.
Yeah, no joke… Over 58 items were recently found in an Anglo Saxon cemetery. Some of these treasures dated back to the ninth and tenth century alone. Personal opinions aside, I wanted to get a feel of how you feel about this matter. Are we to believe that these treasure seekers are trying to act as their archaeologist counter parts? It’s one thing to document and preserve cultures, and even to retrieve treasures to be displayed in museums. Unfortunately, it seems as if some treasure seekers are claiming graves for their abundance of artifacts that are “grouped” together. Does this take the thrill out of the hunt, is a good question. How would you feel, if you knew that you were disturbing the final burial grounds of someone?
I would hope that these treasures could at least be donated to museums, and that professionals were called upon to help preserve or protect the remains. If you think about it this is nothing really new, as people have been grave robbing for some time… Heck most of the ancient pyramids were designed in ways to keep robbers out or by installing ingenious “boobytrap’s” to permanently trap thieves. Now I’m not calling the two people mentioned in the story grave robbers, but one could have troubles distinguishing the two separately. Please feel free to leave your comments.
This review covers those highly advertised “Metal Detector Sandals” you may have seen online. As the name suggests these sandals actually have a coil in one of the soles which can detect faint traces of metal (0.6m.) So as you swing around your one leg as if it were a metal detector, you can rest assured that you might get a few stares on the beach. I’m sure the electronic base that is attached to your leg doesn’t do any better, as it will appear as if you are trying to escape your house arrest sentence.
Enough about appearances though, if we were to look at the actual performance of this detector it would rate pretty low. Sure, the sandals can rumble and emit tones when you put a metal object an inch under the coil, but anything over that and its a dud. As the review suggests, stay away and purchase a real detector for a little bit more dough.
Okay, that’s bit of an exaggeration. But I think that someone who is willing to help fight crime in such an unusual way deserves some credit. The who: a man by the name of Yves St. Brice (quite the bad guy name right there) led Police on a high speed chase, endangering several drivers while trying to escape. The where: Worcester, Massachusetts. The why: apparently, Yves robbed a Zale’s jewelry store by snatching a ring, when he was arrested the ring was gone…
So what makes this story so different you might be asking? A man who witnessed the chase, grabbed his metal detector where he saw St. Brice speeding and actually found the missing ring! This unknown “crime fighter” went out of his way to help out and did the impossible by locating a needle in the haystack so to speak. Even if he saw where the ring was tossed (which I doubt he did.) Think about the bounce that ring must have taken at such high speeds; and not only that, but the amount of area he must have had to cover with his metal detector! There has been no word of a reward or what metal detector the man used. As for St. Brice, well he is being charged with felony theft now that the evidence has been found.
I just received Kellyco Metal Detector’s latest newsletter in my inbox today that really caught my eye. Here’s the jist: Kellyco’s 4 for 4 Day Sale includes four metal detectors: The MP5 Pro, Fisher ID Edge, White’s Classic 4, and Titan 2000 at insane price cuts. For instance the Fisher ID Edge which retails for $799.95 (not to mention $369.65 in accessories) is only $349.95!
This has to be one of the best sales I have seen Kellyco push out with over 70% reduced prices. Four days is plenty of time to decide which detector is best for your needs, I suggest taking a look for yourselves as this is a “once in a blue moon” of offers.
This is yet another story from the UK, where a metal detector hobbyist stumbled upon a treasure of a lifetime. Keith Bennett was using his metal detector on a Stratford farm owner’s field when his metal detector suddenly alerted him of a strong signal. This strong signal turned out to be over 1,400 Roman coins (or Denarii as they were called back in the day) dating back between 2006 BC to 195 BC! The coins have already been deemed “authentic treasure” which is good in case someone was trying to play a big practical joke on Mr. Bennett.
Apparently, the silver Roman coins were stashed in a large pot (4 feet deep) that was broken on the top half. It seems that the pot had been struck when the field was being plowed, causing a few coins to be scattered around the pot. Since this was a rather large collection of coins, it is possible that they could be tied to a wealthy land owner back in Emperor Augustus (or perhaps earlier) reign.
Even though this treasure is expected to bring in tens and thousands of pounds, and Mr. Bennett supposedly allowed to keep half; I can only imagine the sensation of coming across such a historic find. As you can imagine he was quite stunned as you can reflect from his words:
“I just had an incredible feeling of history and going back in time. I felt a sense of connection with the person who buried these coins all those years ago. I wondered who they were and why they didn’t come back for it. It was brilliant – an experience everyone should have.”
Congratulations Mr. Bennett on such a stellar find, we hope that you find much more to come in your days of treasure hunting! Below are photographs of the Roman coins, check them out to get a feel for how old they are.
Ironically this gold pendant (the size of a stamp) was found by a amateur metal detectorist only a few inches below the soil. This pendant is estimated to be dated from around the 15th century. It depicts the Holy Trinity and is in remarkable condition. What truly amazes me is that the pendant survived the weather and erosion for so long un-preserved.
Because this piece remains in such good shape, it is estimated to be worth up to $250,000. It is funny to think that the detectorist had no idea of the value of the find. Imagine if they sold this piece to a local pawnshop. This just goes to show that you don’t need fancy metal detectors that can detect 6 meters deep to find truly astonishing treasure.
