10 Top Tips for Metal Detecting

Are you new to metal detecting? Perhaps you are looking to brush up on your metal detecting skills? If so, Regton has provided tips to help you get the most out of your hobby.

1. Do your research before you buy a metal detector. There are many different types and models on the market, and choosing one that suits your specific needs is essential. Regton stocks a wide range of metal detectors for professional use.

2. Get a decent metal detector if you’re serious about finding valuable items. While some good-quality consumer-grade detectors are available, they won’t have all the features or attributes of a more expensive model.

3. Make sure you have a waterproof control box on your new metal detector if you plan on using your detector in anything deeper than 6 inches. Some models’ control boxes are only weather-resistant, so they won’t be able to withstand being submerged in water. You can view our range of underwater metal detectors here

XP Deus II Metal Detector

4. Brush up your knowledge of local laws and regulations in case of finding treasure. Research the Treasure Act 1999, and remember that you must report all finds of treasure to a coroner for the district in which they are found within 14 days after the day you made the discovery.

5. Practice using your metal detector in different terrain and soil. Open countryside & beaches are very different detecting experiences. This will help you get a feel for how it works and what kinds of objects it can detect.

6. Be patient, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different settings on your metal detector. It takes time and practice to get good at metal detecting, and you may need to adjust the sensitivity or ground balance depending on the conditions you’re detecting.

7. Keep an eye on the weather forecast before you go out metal detecting. If there’s a chance of rain, it’s best to take precautions, so take a sandwich bag that could be placed over a non-waterproof control box if you get caught out.

8. Wear comfortable clothing and footwear when you go metal detecting. You’ll be doing a lot of walking, so it’s essential to be comfortable. Remember, no steel toe caps. Have you ever seen a dog chase its tail?

9. Bring along a small shovel or trowel to help you dig up objects you find. Make sure you fill any holes you make, so the area is left in its natural state. This is equally important on farmland despite it sometimes being a rough terrain; it’s all about etiquette, making good your holes & remove any rubbish, and helping the farmer.

10. Have fun and enjoy the outdoors! Metal detecting is an excellent hobby for people of all ages. 

For more information, you can look at Regton’s beginner guide here

Be sure to check out our range of professional metal detectors and waterproof metal detectors at https://regton.com

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Rare gold coin found by a metal detectorist

Rare gold coin worth £15,000 is found by an amateur treasure hunter who thought it was a bottle top.

A rare gold coin dating back to the 15th century has been unearthed by an amateur treasure hunter –  who thought it was a bottle top. The prized coin was struck during the brief 86-day reign of King Edward V who was murdered in the Tower of London. Brian Biddle, 64, found the Angel coin using a metal detector in a farmer’s field where it had laid undisturbed for 533 years.

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The land in Tolpuddle, Dorset, had been repeatedly searched over the years by members of the Stour Valley Search and Recovery Club before Brian turned up with his detector. He realised he was getting warmer in his hunt for a piece of treasure when his device sounded the alarm. Mr Biddle said: ‘At first I thought it was a bottle top as we find a lot of things like that. But once I got it out of the ground I realised it was a gold coin.’

Mr Biddle, from Bournemouth, took his lucky find to the Dorchester Museum. Experts identified it as an Angel coin with an image of Archangel Saint Michael slaying a dragon and the legend ‘Edward Di Gra’ which shows it was minted during the reign of Edward V.

It will be sold at auction in London and has been valued at £15,000.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

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2,500 years old gold artefacts unearthed in Staffordshire

Two metal detectorists unearthed artefacts which could be the oldest Iron Age gold discovered in Britain. Mark Hambleton made the find with Joe Kania on Staffordshire Moorlands farmland. The three necklaces and bracelet, named the Leekfrith Iron Age Torcs, are believed to be about 2,500 years old. Julia Farley of the British Museum said that this unique find is of international importance.

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Dr Farley, the museum’s curator of British and European Iron Age collections, said: “It dates to around 400-250 BC and is probably the earliest Iron Age gold work ever discovered in Britain. The torcs were probably worn by wealthy and powerful women, perhaps people from the Continent who had married into the local community. Piecing together how these objects came to be carefully buried in a Staffordshire field will give us an invaluable insight into life in Iron Age Britain.”

The four torcs were found separately, about 1m apart, buried near the surface in Leekfrith last December. The artefacts have been handed to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which is part of Birmingham Museums. An inquest will decide whether the pieces are treasure and they will then be provisionally valued. The friends said they would share any proceeds with the family living where the finds were made.

 

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/

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Metal detectorist unearthed XVII century treasure

Part of a silver cufflink dating back to the 17th century has been unearthed by a metal detector enthusiast on farmland in Messingham. North Lincolnshire coroner Paul Kelly – at a treasure trove hearing in Scunthorpe – declared the rare find was treasure. The silver disc decorated with a pair of hearts beneath a crown was found by Andrew Mitchell, from Rotherham, at Lowmoor Farm on September 20 last year.

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Experts from the British Museum reported to Mr Kelly that the disc dated to between 1662 and 1700 when the fashion for cufflinks to fasten sleeves developed. The crown-and-hearts motif might have celebrated the marriage of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza in 1662. It was also thought the Messingham treasure had royalist and/or Catholic associations.

Under the Treasure Act 1996, finders of objects which constitute a legally defined term of treasure are obliged to report their find to their local coroner within 14 days. If it is declared to be treasure, then the finder must offer the item for sale to a museum at a price set by an independent board of antiquities experts known as the Treasure Valuation Committee. Only if a museum expresses no interest in the item, or is unable to purchase it, can the finder retain it.

Read more: http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/

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Cheshire metal detectorist unearthed rare Roman pendant

A treasure hunter has found a rare 2,000-year-old Roman pendant in a field in a Cheshire village. Luke Sansom was searching with a metal detector in Farndon, near Chester, when he stumbled across the silver piece. Made with carnelian gemstone, it features a fallen soldier or gladiator holding a shield towards what appears to be a large cat or panther. Cheshire assistant coroner Dr Janet Napier declared the find to be treasure at an inquest at Warrington Town Hall. The pendant will now be valued by the British Museum.

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The Grosvenor Museum in Chester has expressed an interest in buying it and Mr Sansom, of Saltney near Chester, would stand to receive half the money, with the rest going to the owner of the field. Elizabeth Montgomery, the museum’s collections officer, said that It is a rare find especially with the image of the soldier fighting with the large cat or panther.

Roman-pendant-treasure

The gemstone certainly dates back to the Roman era around the first century BC but the pendant is a bit older.  It is late Roman or early Anglo-Saxon and would have belonged to someone wealthy. Chester had a big Roman military garrison but this was found outside the city walls.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk

roman coin hoard

Roman hoard unearthed in a field in Peover Superior

METAL detecting enthusiast Ronald Lees unearthed the find of a lifetime in a field at Peover Superior. The 62-year-old initially found dozens of Roman coins, which became a hoard of almost 7,800 after archaeologists helped reveal the full extent of the amazing discovery. The bronze coins were produced in the third century, and the majority were found in a pot a few inches under the ground.

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Mr Lees, from Altrincham, discovered the coins when he and friend Rick Parker made their fifth trawl of a field on a cold, wet winter’s day in January 2015. At an inquest into the find at Macclesfield Town Hall on Wednesday, Alan Moore, deputy coroner for Cheshire, declared the coin hoard to be treasure. Museums can express an interest in a find if it’s treasure, and if a museum wants the treasure the Treasure Valuation Committee will decide how much it is worth and how much will go to anyone entitled to a share of the find.

roman coin hoard

Mr Moore told Mr Lees at the inquest that It is an absolutely amazing find. Mr Moore read out a report by Richard Abdy from the British Museum. In his report Mr Abdy said the coins date from AD 251 to 274, and are similar to the many Romano-British coin hoards buried in the aftermath of the breakaway Gallic Empire. The empire was established in AD 260, he said, had held dominion over Britain and was reconquered by the legitimate ‘central’ Empire under Aurelian in AD 274. The coins include ones from the earliest years of Aurelian’s reign, and the latest are those of Tetricus I, AD 271-4 and his young son Tetricus II, the last of the Gallic Emperors. The greatest number, 1,902, are from the reign of Tetricus I, with 745 from his son’s reign. There are 1,670 coins from the reign of Victorinus, AD 269-71, 899 from Gallienus’ reign, AD 260-8, 599 from the reign of Claudius II, AD 268-70, and 354 from Posthumus’ reign, AD 260-9.

Speaking after the inquest, Mr Lees said he took up metal detecting again three years ago after being interested in it in his 20s.

Read more: http://www.knutsfordguardian.co.uk/

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Metal detectorist finds 700 year old gold ring in farmer’s field

Metal detecting enthusiast Patricia Richmond finds 700-year-old gold ring in farmer’s field.

A metal detectoris unearthed a 700-year-old gold ring during an early morning hunt in a farmer’s field in Houghton Green. Patricia Richmond found the medieval ring during a hunt in land near Peel Hall Farm in October.

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A treasure trove inquest at Warrington Coroner’s Court concluded that the ring probably dated back to the 14th century.

The 59-year-old and her metal detecting partner Stuart Bibby arrived at the farmer’s field at around 6am on October 20 and after less than an hour Ms Richmond had made the astonishing find.

After Ms Richmond unearthed the ring it was sent to Stuart Noon, finds liaison officer at the Museum of Lancashire, who estimated that the ring dated back to between 1,300-1,400AD.

Its primary material is gold with an inset oval stone that could potentially be a sapphire.

The ring, which measures 15x20mm and weighs 3.26g, has seven convex settings in its bezel to hold the stone and a decorated flower inscribed into an integral square plate on either side of the hoop.

old gold ring-treasure

No makers mark was discovered on the ring.

The inquest was held to determine whether the item should be classified as treasure.

the assistant coroner for Cheshire Alan Moore concluded that the ring represented treasure as it was more than 300 years old and had a precious metal content exceeding 10 per cent.

As yet it is unknown what will happen next to the ring, but Warrington Museum has expressed an interest in housing it.

Read more: http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/

The mining site concerned was actually located in the surf zone, where the violent action of the waves theoretically made mining impossible,” archaeologist Dr. Dieter Noli told FoxNews.com. “So what the chaps do is push up a huge sea-wall with bulldozers parallel to the beach, with the ends running back to the beach. The result is a large man-made lagoon, with the surf pounding on the outside. Then they pump the sea-water out of the lagoon.” It was in this drained lagoon that the wreck was discovered. Noli, who is chief archaeologist of the Southern Africa Institute of Maritime Archaeological Research, wasn’t too surprised– with the abundance of shipwrecks on the coast (Portuguese sailors once called it “The Gates of Hell”), he knew the geologists would turn up something sooner or later.

500 year-old shipwreck full of gold found in a desert

500 year-old shipwreck loaded with gold found in Namibian desert.

Diamond miners recently discovered a ship that went down 500 years ago after draining a man-made lagoon on Namibia’s coast. While shipwrecks are often found along Africa’s Skeleton Coast, this one just so happened to be loaded with $13,000,000 worth of gold coins.

The mining site concerned was actually located in the surf zone, where the violent action of the waves theoretically made mining impossible,” archaeologist Dr. Dieter Noli told FoxNews.com. “So what the chaps do is push up a huge sea-wall with bulldozers parallel to the beach, with the ends running back to the beach. The result is a large man-made lagoon, with the surf pounding on the outside. Then they pump the sea-water out of the lagoon.” It was in this drained lagoon that the wreck was discovered. Noli, who is chief archaeologist of the Southern Africa Institute of Maritime Archaeological Research, wasn’t too surprised– with the abundance of shipwrecks on the coast (Portuguese sailors once called it “The Gates of Hell”), he knew the geologists would turn up something sooner or later.
One of the gold coins discovered in the Namibian shipwreck (Dieter Noli)

It also answers a centuries–old mystery and is what some archaeologists are calling one of the most significant shipwrecks ever found. The wreck was first discovered along the coast near Oranjemund by geologists from the mining company De Beers in April 2008. One reason it took centuries to find is because it was underneath the ocean floor.

The mining site concerned was actually located in the surf zone, where the violent action of the waves theoretically made mining impossible,” archaeologist Dr. Dieter Noli told FoxNews.com. “So what the chaps do is push up a huge sea-wall with bulldozers parallel to the beach, with the ends running back to the beach.  The result is a large man-made lagoon, with the surf pounding on the outside.  Then they pump the sea-water out of the lagoon.”

It was in this drained lagoon that the wreck was discovered. Noli, who is chief archaeologist of the Southern Africa Institute of Maritime Archaeological Research, wasn’t too surprised– with the abundance of shipwrecks on the coast (Portuguese sailors once called it “The Gates of Hell”), he knew the geologists would turn up something sooner or later.

Read more

lengborough Anglo-Saxon coins hoard

Lenborough coin hoard valued at £1.35m

A metal detectorist is to get a share of £1.35m after finding a hoard of 5,251 Anglo Saxon silver coins. Paul Coleman found the coins in Lenborough, Buckinghamshire in 2014. The Treasure Valuation Committee has ruled on their worth and Mr Coleman will split the money with the land owner. The Buckinghamshire County Museum had already launched a fundraising campaign ahead of the valuation, with the aim of buying the hoard.

lengborough Anglo-Saxon coins hoard
Some of the 5,251 silver coins after they had been cleaned by the British Museum

The coins, which were found buried and wrapped in a sheet, depict the heads of King Ethelred the Unready and King Canute and came from 40 different mints around England. Mr Coleman, who lives in Southampton and is a member of the Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club, said he was accepting the valuation and wanted the hoard to go to the Buckinghamshire County Museum. He said that It’s open to wild speculation and it has been suggested by some experts that was worth £2-3m.

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gold treasure posy ring

350 year old ring found by metal detectorist

A rare 350 year old gold ring found by a metal detector user in a field in the Forest of Dean in 2015 has been classed as treasure.

gold treasure posy ring

The post-medieval, gold posy ring, with the inscription ‘In trust be just’ and the maker’s mark, was found by a Mr H Jones two to three inches under the ground in a field on 3 October 2015. Posy rings are gold finger rings with a short inscription on their surface. They were popular during the 15th through the 17th centuries as lover’s gift.

posy ring gold treasure

Ring, dates around 1675 AD to 1725 AD, qualifies as Treasure and it has been passed to the Dean Heritage Centre. A similar ring was found in the past with similar inscriptions and was lodged with the British Museum. The ring qualified as treasure because it is more than 300 years old and at least 10% precious metal. The exact location of the find is being kept secret.

Source: http://www.itv.com/news/