A school teacher by day and urban archaeologist by night, Matthew Finley is putting a modern face on the hobby of metal detecting, once considered the exclusive domain of elderly men looking for loose change on the beach. Raised in Savannah since age 9, Finley got his first metal detector the Christmas after he graduated college and moved back home in 2007. Finley studied Spanish, history and anthropology at Sewanee, University of the South. He always wanted tpo have a metal detector. Living in Savannah, a historic town, he always wondered what’s out there. It turns out there was a lot out there. Some of the artefacts Finley has found include old coins like the Liberty Head nickel, gilt brass thimbles and a Confederate button called Republican Blues worn by officers during the Civil War.
Local teacher Matthew Finley with his metal detector.
He picked up metal detecting as a hobby after moving back to Savannah,
a city rife with buried historic treasures.