What Have You Ever Found WITHOUT the Detector, While Metal Detecting?

AusTexDude

Sr. Member
Aug 12, 2013
308
468
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Garrett AT MAX
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All Treasure Hunting
While metal detecting I have found various sight find items not found by the detector.

I guess the most valuable would be a broken swiss watch that I got $50 for parts on Ebay.

I have also found some nice goggles, sunglasses, and about 2 dozen fossils, mostly giant clam fossils, some fairly large about as big as a softball.

Also found a couple of cool pieces of driftwood and some holy limestone pieces that would fetch a few dollars.
 

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Sandancer

Full Member
Jul 18, 2014
133
140
Seems like once I got into metal detecting I became a lot more aware of what was on the ground and under my feet. I have found many coins, a watch at the beach. a silver ring under a seat at the airport, a wallet with money and credit cards on the sidewalk outside a supermarket, which was returned to the loser, and best of all a twenty dollar bill in a rain soaked parking lot which of course I used to buy replacement batteries for my AT Pro 🤑
 

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AusTexDude

AusTexDude

Sr. Member
Aug 12, 2013
308
468
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT MAX
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Seems like once I got into metal detecting I became a lot more aware of what was on the ground and under my feet. I have found many coins, a watch at the beach. a silver ring under a seat at the airport, a wallet with money and credit cards on the sidewalk outside a supermarket, which was returned to the loser, and best of all a twenty dollar bill in a rain soaked parking lot which of course I used to buy replacement batteries for my AT Pro 🤑

Check this out. About a year ago I was walking out of a store and looked down and there was a $10 bill. I picked it up, and when I got gas 2 mins later I bought 2 $5 scratch off tickets.

One ticket was a loser, but the other I won $20 on.

The next morning when I went for coffee I took that $20 and bought 2 $10 tickets. Went home scratched them off.

1 ticket won me $100 and the other one won me $25. I took the night off work and went to a fancy seafood restaurant.
 

Coinboy

Sr. Member
Dec 4, 2019
346
727
Iowa
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Minelab Etrac, Nokta Makro Simplex, pulsedive, Garrett Ace 200, Nokta pinpointer, Brute Magnetics 888 pound Fishing Magnet
Predatortools
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
While metal detecting I have found various sight find items not found by the detector.

I guess the most valuable would be a broken swiss watch that I got $50 for parts on Ebay.

I have also found some nice goggles, sunglasses, and about 2 dozen fossils, mostly giant clam fossils, some fairly large about as big as a softball.

Also found a couple of cool pieces of driftwood and some holy limestone pieces that would fetch a few dollars.

I found a working top of the line Fitbit last summer. I was biking at night with my friends and saw a light on the ground, so I assumed one of us had dropped our bike lights. I pick it up and it was a Fitbit with the heart rate monitor on! I talked to the police and they said if no one called about it in a week it was mine. Nobody called, so I kept it and I still wear it.
 

Treasure_Hunter

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Jul 27, 2006
48,301
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Florida
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Found 2 gold rings in 2 different parking lots while walking because now I always look for lost items while walking, found 2 $20.00 bills roll up to gether like straw in Walmart parking lot.

Year ago I found a switch blade knife and 3 lids in kitchen cabinets of house I shared with 4 roommates after party in Lincoln Ne when police showed up to shut party down for excessive noise at 3am. Police walked in house due to front door being open and announced party was over, anyone not living there leave or be arrested. When to eat cereal next morning and found the lids and switchblade when I pulled out cereal boxes. No one ever came back to claim..
 

cudamark

Gold Member
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Mar 16, 2011
13,171
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San Diego
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14K diamond engagement ring in a parking lot, and many currency bills through the years. A $100 bill blown against a chain link fence at a truck stop out in the desert. Lots of 20's and smaller both there and in parking lots. A few in the ocean too while detecting.
 

Back-of-the-boat

Gold Member
Apr 18, 2013
6,872
8,470
California
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AT GOLD/Garrett /C.Scope cs4PI/Garrett(carrot) pro pointer/ 5x8 double d coil and sniper coil/Lesche digger/Lesche "T" handle shovel.
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Have found over $600.00 dollars in Wal -Mart parking lot, gave $502.00 back to woman and her husband that dropped it. The rest was at different times and didn't see who dropped it and found a 14k necklace loop in the expansion joint of a sidewalk at my Drs. office and have found loose bills in quite a few other spots. Have found rings quite a few times also one was a 14k signet ring with my wife's maiden name initial, that she still wears to this day. You just have to keep yours eyes open.
 

Irishgoldhound

Bronze Member
Jul 15, 2013
2,350
2,129
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Found a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses laying on the shoreline when I first walked onto the beach early morn before anyone arrived here are the exact pair I found.. ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1611520375.147377.jpg
 

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AusTexDude

AusTexDude

Sr. Member
Aug 12, 2013
308
468
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Well I was mainly talking about other things you find while actually metal detecting but I'll run with it. Throughout my life I have always been an outside kind of guy so I have found a plethora of stuff from $680 in a wad laying on the ground, to about $1,200 worth of snow in a bag at a phone booth. Being an avid fisherman I have found so much stuff in my life I forgot 3/4s of it. Just last year I was fishing and saw this branch loaded with lures so I swam out to it, climbed the tree, and scored a half a dozen good lures. Lots of jewelry on sight finds throughout my life, especially in parking lots.

When I was about 8 years old I found this place in the woods and there was a few corrugated steel sheets laying on the ground. I was looking for lizards and stuff and when I lifted one up there was a hole under it with WW2 machine guns in it, the kind that lay on the ground. I told my friend and she told her dad and they were gone a few days later.
 

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Treasure_Hunter

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Jul 27, 2006
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Primary Interest:
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Well I was mainly talking about other things you find while actually metal detecting but I'll run with it. Throughout my life I have always been an outside kind of so I have found a plethora of stuff from $680 in a wad laying on the ground, to about $1,200 worth of snow in a bag at a phone booth. Being an avid fisherman I have found so much stuff in my life I forgot 3/4s of it. Just last year I was fishing and saw this branch loaded with lures so I swam out to it, climbed the tree, and scored a half a dozen good lures. Lots of jewelry on sight finds throughout my life, especially in parking lots.

When I was about 8 years old I found this place in the woods and there was a few corrugated steel sheets laying on the ground. I was looking for lizards and stuff and when I lifted one up there was a hole under it with WW2 machine guns in it, the kind that lay on the ground. I told my friend and she told her dad and they were gone a few days later.

Sorry, I misread your title. In Okinawa I found a lot of WWII stuff on beaches, 30, cal and 50 cal spent shells, bayonet, other items. Unfortunately all were stolen out of my room one night on base while I was in the city bar hopping and chasing girls..
 

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GB1

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Jul 12, 2017
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Teknectics eurotek pro
bounty hunter time ranger
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used a teroso compadre.
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a small 22k gold band , $20 bill, loose change.
 

smokeythecat

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Nov 22, 2012
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Maryland
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While detecting, a 1774 Gold British full guinea coin, I spotted it a millisecond before the detector did. It was on top of the beach sand. Several late 19th century bottles while looking for a CW site and three British halfpennies from the 18th century right in front of the detector swing on top of the beach sand.
 

Xraywolf

Silver Member
Feb 28, 2005
3,576
4,360
MI USA
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Ace 400, AT Pro, equinox 800, Simplex,Vanquish 540
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Found some pretty hot babes ended up hooking up with while detecting, great conversation starter.
Too many eyeball finds to list or remember, last gold bracelet I found a couple months ago was an eyeball find, would have found it either way but I saw the glint of gold before I swept over it [at the beach].
 

TooManyHobbies

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Dec 24, 2007
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$20 bill, dewalt 18v cordless drill, coins of course, a lady's purse on the road with $300, CC's, ss#, etc (returned). Assorted tools on road.
 

gunsil

Silver Member
Dec 27, 2012
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lower hudson valley, N.Y.
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safari, ATPro, infinium, old Garrett BFO, Excal, Nox 800
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I started in 1970 with a Garrett BFO detector, got my girlfriend one an the next year a couple of friends got them. We always called coins and jewelry found by eyeball while detecting "insult coins or jewelry". It was like an insult to find valuables by eye when running around with a detector that cost a week's pay or more when the object could have easily found if one merely looked harder at the ground. A bunch of us old hunters still call them insult coins and funny thing, our detectors still cost the better part of a week's pay or more. Like all folks above, I was always a ground watcher having grown up looking for arrowheads and fossils at an early age. 73 now, couldn't mention all the cool stuff found on the ground from fields to shopping center parking lots. Detecting? Coins and jewelry mostly among many bottle caps. Even silver coins on the surface back in the day. I think most people who detect probably have always been interested in dropped, lost items.
 

1637

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May 26, 2011
1,766
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tujunga ca
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xlt mxt gmz and now a gmt whites
i think this is what you are looking for.i left this can in the desert.i thought about it for months.one day i wake up and said todays the day.drove 2 hours,if it could talk.the glass ball are railroad balls.use to move fright around.
brad Resized_20210124_164949.jpeg Resized_20210124_165046.jpeg Resized_20210124_165058.jpeg
 

misplacedrednek

Sr. Member
Aug 20, 2006
303
268
Temple, GA
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AT Pro, Tesoro Cibola
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All Treasure Hunting
Spied a 10k rope necklace a second before my machine swung over it. Got a 14k bracelet once with my daughters name on it and a brand new pair of costa sunglasses. safe to say most all of us are constantly scanning the ground.
 

birdman

Gold Member
Jan 28, 2005
7,458
2,393
Choctaw Beach Florida
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1
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1
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Equinox 800 and ORX, tesoro Cibola with garret,whites and minelab pinpointers
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All Treasure Hunting
Found a tomahawk in a field while hunting cw relics,gold chain on the beach once that the detector would not even pick up.
 

watercolor

Silver Member
Feb 3, 2007
4,112
1,351
Arlington Heights, IL
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V3i, MXT-All Pro and Equinox 800
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While detecting in the woods near a large 3' rock, I saw the pointed end of a smooth stone. When I pulled it out of the ground, it was a woodland-period celt.

Then, while looking for an 1850's homestead in a cut cornfield, I saw what I thought was a clad dime on the ground. When I picked it up it was a nickel 1865 3-cent piece.
 

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