“Boot of Cortez”
One summer in 1989, a Mexican local was out in the Sonora Desert with his newly purchased metal detector that he had bought from Radio Shack earlier that day. The man was out only for a few hours when he came across something that would blow his mind. Not only did his cheap metal detector end up getting a good signal , but to his surprise when he unearthed the spot he found something he definitely wasn't expecting. At first sight it appeared to be just a little nugget of gold not really uncommon in the area, but after clearing the earth from the nugget, the sheer size amazed the local man.
After an hour of digging the nugget had finally been brought up from the ground and it was an amazing sight. The gold nugget was about 24 pounds in weight and now is the largest surviving gold nugget ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere. It's not exactly known what the nugget originally sold for, but it is on current display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
“Viking Treasure”
On one Sunday morning, David Whelan and his son were enjoying the beautiful morning, doing what they did every Sunday - which was going metal detecting. They had taken this hobby up the year before and although they had found many interesting things, they had no idea what they where about to stumble onto.
It was about mid morning in a farmer's field in Yorkshire, England when David got a good signal on his metal detector. His son's face lit up with enjoyment, but in the back of David's mind he was thinking that it was probably an old nail or some leftover building scrap from the barns that surrounded the field. David and his son bent over and started to dig a hole where the signal was coming from. Within minutes the father and son team had started to unearth old coins and jewelery dating back as far as 1,000 years ago. After the treasure had been all recovered, the historians stepped in and started to trace the origins of the coins and jewelery. It was said that this discovery was the most significant find of its kind in England in the last 150 years.
The overall value of the treasure was valued at about 750,000 to 1,000,000 pounds and David and his son received half the value of the treasure which they split equally with the owner of the land.
These stories just go to show you that fancy top of the line equipment is not always necessary for finding big treasures. Instead what you need are time and patience - and hey who knows what the reward might be!
In Europe, the potential treasure could honestly be thousands of years old. In my opinion, metal detecting isn't so much a treasure hunt, but more of a history adventure. Time-capsules buried, hidden until its time for history to repeat itself.
Have A Blessed Day,
Nelson Doyle