Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People (11 page)

Arthur
Brooks was the star of this find. Notice how I did not say he was the
“lucky” one here? You should also notice that I am
speaking of Arthur in the past tense because he is no longer among
the living. His death and this find have been the centerpiece of
controversy and hushed debates at many a pub over frothy mugs of ale.

Some
say he died as a direct result of this find and the pieces of the
hoard are cursed. Others say it was just coincidence. I will let you
be the judge. Here is what happened in November of 1979.

Arthur Brooks was illegally searching some land that was
scheduled to be built upon when he found the hoard. He did not have
permission to hunt and knowing that the area would no longer be
accessible, he quickly scrambled to retrieve as much of the hoard as
possible before it got too dark.

Arthur kept his find hidden for six months before
deciding to sell it on the black market. Once the pieces started
arriving on the black market, archeological investigators started to
track it down.

By the time they figured everything out, Arthur was
terminally Ill. He died in July of 1980 less than 8 months after
making the find. Of those 8 months, Arthur kept the treasure in his
possession for six.

The original dig site could no longer be accessed
because a building has been built on top of it. We will never know
the true entire contents of the hoard, but we do know Arthur
recovered the following items.

• 23 high purity gold rings
  

• 3 silver strainers
  

• 33 silver spoons
  

• 4 gold bracelets
  

• 5 gold necklaces or neck chains
  

• 4 necklace pendants
  

• 2 sets of necklace clasps
  

• 1 gold amulet filled with sulfur
  

• 5 beads – 1 emerald, 1 engraved, 3 glass
  

• 1 gold belt buckle
  

• 1 shale box
  

What's so scary about all of these great finds? It looks
like beautiful jewelry doesn't it? These are the types of things
everyone with a metal detector wants to uncover, but some people
believe these items were cursed. Here is why.

The gold amulet filled with sulfur is the first clue.
Sulfur has often been associated with demons, ghost stories and hell
itself. Why would there be a gold amulet filled with sulfur buried
with all of these seemingly harmless pieces of treasure?

Many of the rings in this hoard appear in near perfect
condition. These rings are made of a high purity gold. Some of them
are 94% gold. There is a reason why modern jewelry is not made from
pure gold like this. It has nothing to do with prices.

Gold in pure form is soft. It is so soft that rings made
from high purity gold often bend or break after being worn for a very
short time. None of the rings in this hoard appear to have ever been
worn. How could rings that are over 400 years old and made from
almost pure gold be in near perfect condition? They shouldn't be.

Many of the rings in this hoard have otherworldly
inscriptions that are said to invoke demons. One specific ring that
depicts a snake legged deity is inscribed with “a powerful
magic word” that is often associated with demons. This word
does not belong to any known human language, but instead this word is
said to be the language that only demons can understand. Creepsville!

The only person who knows the true circumstances
surrounding this hoard is Arthur, and we all know what happened to
him shortly after retrieving this hoard. He became terminally ill and
died. Is the Thetford hoard cursed? You can find out for yourself.
Parts of the hoard, including the rings with demonic inscriptions are
currently on display at the British Museum. I think I will pass on
visiting this exhibit! No thanks!

Enough of the dark
supernatural finds. Let's travel to the opposite end of the spectrum
and talk about something bright and shiny. I am not talking about
gold. I am talking about kids!

Metal detecting is a great
hobby for kids. It gets them outside and in the sun. It also teaches
them valuable history lessons. I think everyone will agree that most
children today spend far too much time indoors. Getting them outside
can be a challenge. What can we do about it? We can introduce them to
the best hobby in the world: metal detecting.

What kid doesn't love the
idea of digging up some treasure? I don't know about you, but I spent
many an afternoon as a kid day dreaming of some long lost treasure.
It wasn't until later that I actually started finding it. I have made
quite a few great memories on my own, but some of my favorites
involve hunting with my kids. The first story in this part of the
book is a personal favorite. I learned a very important lesson that
day. Here is what happened.

When my son goes metal
detecting with me, he likes to do all of the digging. He demands it
now, so I let him do all of the work.

I have been teaching him
how to use the scoop, and how to identify and find items in that
scoop of sand. You may not believe this, but sometimes it can be hard
to see your treasure in that small amount of sand. Coins like to stay
hidden, and they are harder to see to the untrained eye.

I decided to take my son
on a real adventure. He loves to explore, so I asked him if he wanted
to metal detect an old island, one that had most likely never been
detected. He only had one thing to say, “When?”

We left that day. We had
to take a boat to get to the island, and at the front of the island
was a small exposed beach. This would be the place to check first.
People frequent the island, and they are always right on this small
strip of beach.

We hit the beach and
started getting signals immediately. They were only 1-2 feet apart,
and some were within inches of each other. We were finding a lot of
fishing tackle, and a lot of older clad coins. We were also finding
some really interesting things that we could not identify. They were
small discs that looked like they could be really old coins.

We both glanced at these
things, threw them in our stash, and kept hunting. It had already
been a couple of hours, and we were almost done with this tiny
stretch of beach. It was hard to believe that two hours had already
gone by.

I got a big signal, and I
mean big as in size. It sounded like a can. It was too big to be
anything else. I told my son, “Hey, there is a big target here,
but I would just leave it. It is a can.”

He grabbed the scoop, and
started digging. I shook my head and started searching the beach
again. A few seconds later I hear him scream. It was a good scream. I
turn around and he yells dad, “It is a huge sniper bullet.”
In his hands was an unfired .50 caliber round. It was huge, and I
thought to myself, “Could he have possibly fired this thing if
he hit it with the scoop just right?” I suddenly did not want
him to dig any more targets.

He was holding a very old
.50 caliber bullet, and he was thrilled. He looked at me and said,
“Good thing I decided to dig up that can, huh dad?”
Smart-ass! This was one of mine, and one of his best finds. Here is a
picture of that old shell.

On
that day I learned a couple of very valuable things.

1. There
   is live ammo out there.
   

2. Never
   assume a target is garbage until you dig it up.
   

I
have since made even more great memories treasure hunting with my
son. My daughter has now caught the treasure hunting bug and she is
always eager to go out for a hunt.

There have been so many
wars and battles on our planet that many metal detecting enthusiasts
actively seek out old war relics. These types of relics can be easy
targets because they are so abundant, but these are not the types of
treasure that most kids actively search for. In fact, most kids don't
know war relics when they see them. Such is the case with these two
amazing finds!

7 Year old Sonny Carter
from King's Lynn was busy opening his morning Christmas presents. To
his surprise, one of them happened to be a metal detector. Sonny's
parents thought he would be finding some spare change here and there,
but they had no idea what he would come home with on his very first
outing.

Sonny and his older
brother Marley decided to try the metal detector in their garden. It
did not take them long to locate their first target. Eagerly, the two
boys started digging up what they thought was a treasure chest full
of gold. What they got instead was a large mud covered rusty piece of
iron.

The two boys took their
prized find inside to show their dad Jem. The excitement of the find
spread through the house like a wild brush fire. Jem started cleaning
the mud away from the find. Within a few seconds, Jem knew that what
he was holding in his bare hands was not made from gold. It was an
old World War II era bomb. Jem quickly phoned the authorities.

The authorities told Jem
to place the bomb in a bucket of water. Because of their location,
the authorities were concerned that they may have uncovered an old
German phosphorous bomb. These bombs were nasty business and they
were designed to detonate when they dried out. One phosphorous bomb
would release a white hot wall of flame. Maybe this story should have
been under the frightening section of this book?

The police and the bomb
squad showed up at the house to take care of the bomb. As it turns
out, the bomb was not armed. It was simply a practice bomb that was
used for training purposes. Needless to say, I think I would have
needed to change my pants if my son walked in the door with an old
World War II bomb.

A couple of kids in
Folkestone England had a similar experience in January of 2014. Kane
Byrne and his buddy Alex Taylor were busy exploring on their day off
from school. They were outside looking for buried treasures with a
metal detector.

They unearthed what looked
like a large metal bottle of some sort. The two boys brought their
find home and gave it a good cleaning. They still had no idea what
they had found, but they decided to go back and look for more.

To their surprise, there
was another large metal looking bottle object buried right next to
the first one. Once again the two boys brought the item home and
immediately went to work cleaning it.

Kayne was eager to show
his father what he and Alex had uncovered. Kayne's father Karl tried
not to panic when he realized that the two boys had unearthed two
World War II anti tank shells. If these shells detonated, nothing in
a 6 foot radius would remain but smoldering ashes.

This is where this
particular story differs from the first. These two World War II
shells were not practice shells. They were actual live shells that
could have exploded at any minute. Maybe this story should have been
located under the frightening section as well. Luckily no one was
hurt. The two shells were disarmed by the local police and the bomb
squad.

Seven year old Lucas Hall
from Clarke County Virginia has decided to show us all up by making
an amazing find within his first week of metal detecting. It seems
young Lucas became very interested in metal detecting after speaking
with a neighbor who was a seasoned relic hunter. His neighbor was
even nice enough to give Lucas a few choice Civil War bullets. That
was it. Lucas was hooked before he even got a chance to swing a coil.