Having a hobby is a fantastic way to escape the never-ending responsibilities that come with being an adult. Carving out some time to spend focused on your hobbies can be rewarding in many ways, especially if that hobby involves a metal detector.
In a recent Reddit thread, metal detector hobbyists are sharing their best finds.
Some users were able to strike literal gold on their first try, while others had to deal with a lot of trash before finding treasures. The answers include everything from a 6-pack of unopened beer and toy cars to priceless jewelry and even a cannonball.
Here are 20 of the best finds of Reddit's metal detector hobbyists.
1. Mustard gas can
Honestly the best thing I ever found was a metal mustard gas can, and now it is in a local museum.
2. 6-pack
I was at a beach in Northern California in the 80s and the guy metal detecting got a hit right near me. He started digging, went down about 40cm and came up with a 6-pack of unopened beer cans.
He seemed satisfied with that.
3. It's a hit or miss...
I got a cheap metal detector for my birthday when I was a kid. To test it out, I took some of my grandpas coins from his coin collection without him knowing and I tossed them in the yard. Never found any of them. Miss you grandpa.
4. Toy car
Back when my neighbor was into metal detecting, I was curious what he could find in my yard because I live in a house that’s over 100 years old. So I told him to have at it so long as I can tag along. He found some horseshoes, some various metal bolts and pins, and a few other metal objects that were pretty much just bits of scrap metal, but the coolest one was a little steel toy car that I lost when I was a kid. I used to play with it outside in the dirt all the time and it must have gotten buried in mud when the back of our property started to flood and get swampy. Rusted badly, but it was still recognizable!
5. $$$
Not me, but a guy I dove with in Hawaii told us he makes his living scuba diving with a metal detector just past the wave breaks in front of the fancy resorts. He said he has found 50K gold Rolexes, 4ct diamond rings, all kinds of crazy stuff. He could have been lying, but I'd believe it. Rich people, covered in sun lotion, jostled by a wave, and oops, there it goes.
6. A promise ring
I swear this to be the truth.
My dad spent his summers in NE Pennsylvania when he was younger. One of his good friends began to date a girl. Things got serious. Vietnam was going on. The guy (young man?) buys her a "promise ring" and gets it inscribed. She loses the ring in the lake soon after he gave it to her. Fast forward like 35 years...everyone has kept in touch and this boyfriend and girlfriend are now married and grandparents. Anyway, the lake had to be drained to do valve work at the dams. During the drain, one of the friends in the group takes it upon himself to search for this ring using a metal detector. At the big summer get together, after dinner and in front of everyone, he unveils the lost ring and presents it to the couple. My mom said it was one of the most amazing things she had ever witnessed.
7. Lovely locket
My fiancé found a locket with a photo of a woman in black and white. The locket has indications on it and we were able to trace it back to a little shop in Italy. Through email, they gave us the information of the owner as they loved a couple of states away from us. No phone number was on file, just a name. We found them on google! We then traveled to them and knocked on their door. It was a old man. The locket was of his wife who passed away years ago. He wore the locket everyday but lost it on their 50th anniversary trip to hocking hills, Ohio where I found it. He wept and we talked for hours. His name was Jim and his wife was Sharon.
8. Wedding band
I was metal detecting a beach just outside of Tokyo and found a platinum wedding band. I was searching a different area when a local came and mimed that he lost a ring. Within about 5 minutes I got the clearest, loudest tone I have ever heard and it happened to be the one he lost. His (new) wife was so happy and kept nudging him to give me something, he kept miming for drinks or cash but I turned him down. It was amazing to be able to actually find the owner, and I had never found anything of real value up until that point. The look of relief on their faces will stay with me until the day I die.
9. Custom bracelet
A custom white gold tennis bracelet lined with diamonds and sapphires. Literally everyone tried to rip me off for it so eventually I removed all the stones and would sell 2-3 links at a time for cash like some peasant from the bronze age.
10. Ox shoe
I found an ox shoe on a road in the woods near my parents house that is documented as having been used prior to the civil war. There are several home sites in the area as well.
11. Safe
I found a buried safe and it had an entire family's passports, money clips with ~$700 worth of money and 2 PS vitas.
12. A pendant
I tried out my metal detector a few years ago on our last day in a national forest. The best we could find is a pendant that said “I’m a Catholic. If in an emergency, call a priest.”
13. Gold Spanish coin
A couple of years ago, my brother and I were with our family visiting our grandparents in Florida. We were on the beach at St. Augustine and my brother had his metal detector. Up to this point, nothing fancy. A couple of quarters/nickles and I think some nails or screws or something. However, when he stopped to dig up another piece of metal, he actually found an old gold Spanish coin!
Apparently, what my brother had found was a 'Gold with King's Bust'. Bust gold coins date as far back as Philip V and span through Ferdinand VII (1700 to 1833). I think this one was somewhere in the middle of those dates.
The guy went on and on about how we needed to go back there and charter a ship and go out further into the ocean. He was sure there was a wreck someplace because this was one of the good ones to find - valuable no matter how you look at them. Even small 1 escudo coins from Ferdinand sell near $400 US dollars in well preserved condition. (Unfortunately ours was not haha). Large 8 escudos can easily reach past $1000, and rare dates and early dates can hit $10,000 or higher. For instance, a 1764 8 escudos from Mexico with assayers MF catalogs at $11,500 in well preserved condition. Ironic, since the guy offered my brother like $35. Oh well shrugs
We decided to keep it, but we have a nice story to tell and since then my brother has been collecting coins from all over. Glad I got to share this story :)
14. A dollar bill?
So my brothers had just purchased these super cool metal detectors and my son, who was 6 at the time, begged and begged to use it. "Please Uncle Dave please please can I use it" and they got so fed up they handed it to him and told him to be careful with it. Like 12 seconds in he exclaims that "there's a dollar right here!" and starts digging. About a foot and a half later he runs up to us with a soggy, muddy, wet, dirty dollar bill. We lost our minds laughing at that for a while. Still have no clue how it happened!
15. Gold lock
This wasn’t my find, but my brothers.
Some important context is that my family and I used to live in a small town in Pennsylvania (where my Dad grew up), but a few years ago we moved all the way to Oregon (where my Mom grew up). Anyways, one day my brother went metal detecting on our family’s property and he came across a golden colored lock. When he later got it cleaned off he noticed that it had a manufacturing date and said where it was made… well, it turned out that it was made during the 1800s and that it was made in that SAME EXACT town we used to live in. It felt like it was fate that my Dad grew up in that same exact town, then married a woman from Oregon, then they both raised their kids in that same town, then moved back to Oregon where we would find that lock.
16. Machete
I have a machete that we pulled out of a green belt when I was like 6? My grandpa and I found it, and he showed me to to remove the rust, steel wool and grind it all off. Then he showed me how to sharpen it and care for it. He’s been gone for 17 years and I’m past 30, but that machete is still hung up on my wall.
17. Another gold ring
A buddy and I went out drunk mental detecting after a New Years Eve rager a few years back and found a 14k gold ring that weighed in at ~9 grams. It was in bad shape but gold nonetheless. I ended up taking the ring to a jeweler to melt down to forge it into my wedding band which I'm currently wearing. It also has bits of gold from my wife engagement ring, from when it was resized, and my mothers old gold earrings. It's a pretty special piece and a memory I'll hold onto forever.
18. Cannonball
I found that if you equip a group of five children with a metal detector, you have about 2 hours of free "Drink a beer" time. Works at the beach, and in the back yard. Evil bonus: put the occasional metal coin at random intervals, and the time can expand to almost an entire afternoon.
19. Silver ring
Found a small silver ring. I only detected for about a month before giving up the hobby. Figured out that the best ways to be successful is to either find a place with some history that's remained undisturbed or dig every hit. I didn't have access to the former and there's just too much trash out there for the latter to be any fun. Just wasn't for me.
20. Bronze spearpoint
I found a bronze spearpoint that the museum I gave it to estimated was 4k -5k years old. That was really pretty thrilling. Just imagining what the world looked like when it landed there, and who was the last person to touch it before me. I've also found many coins from the 16th - 19th centuries. I'm detecting in NW Spain. Anything of interest that I find I run past the museum.
The post 20 Incredible Things People Found With Metal Detectors appeared first on The Mother of All Nerds.
20 Incredible Things People Found With Metal Detectors
Source: Pinoy Inquirer News
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