Metal detector discoveries

The "Boot of Cortez" is one of the most unusual nuggets in the world, and at 389.4 ounces Troy (32.4 Troy pounds), it is the largest surviving placer nugget discovered in the Western Hemisphere. The solid gold nugget was found in the Mexican Sonora Desert near the Arizona border in 1989. It was found by a local prospector using a metal detector he bought at Radio Shack. The nugget sold for $1,853,500 at auction in Dallas in 2008. An amateur prospector discovered a huge gold nugget in Australia's Victoria state in 2013. The nugget weighing 177 ounces, or 5.5 kilograms was unearthed with a metal detector just outside Ballarat.

Three-year-old James Hyatt may go down as one of the luckiest babies in history. Out for an afternoon walk with his dad in Essex, England in 2010, he was taking a turn with the detector when he discovered a one-inch pendant featuring engravings of the Virgin Mary clutching a cross along with “the five wounds of Christ,” believed to date from the 16th century. Likely worn by royalty, the rare 16th century gold reliquary pendant was used to hold religious relics.

One month after Nick Davies bought his metal detector in 2009, he found the largest collection of Roman coins, called “nummi,” in recent British history. The Shrewsbury Hoard (also known as the Shropshire Hoard) is a hoard of 9,315 bronze Roman coins. The coins date to the reign of Constantine I. The coins are all bronze and silver-washed bronze nummi, and date to the period between AD 313 and 335.

One hour into Dave Booth’s first metal detecting mission in Stirlingshire, Scotland in 2009, he made the discovery of a lifetime. Grouped together were four gold, silver and copper torcs. They date to between 300 and 100 BC and were buried deliberately at some point. The treasure was valued at $1.5m and is said to be the most significant discovery of Iron Age metalwork in Scotland.

When a neighbor showed 7-year-old Lucas Hall his collection of Civil War–era bullets that he'd found on his Virginia property using a metal detector, the boy became hooked. One week after Hall received a detector for his birthday he found a cavalry sword ... described as an 1840 or 1860 lightweight saber.