Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People (3 page)

The unique
shape of this huge nugget is how it got its name. It was recovered in
a vertical position, and it appeared as if a huge golden hand was
reaching up out of the ground to meet Kevin Hiller. Of course, Kevin
eagerly reached down to shake this massive golden hand.

What Kind of
Metal Detector Was Kevin Using?

Only
one metal detector manufacturer can claim their machine was used to
uncover one of the largest gold nuggets in the world. Kevin was
swinging a Garrett metal detector when he made this discovery. The
exact model is not known.

What
Happened to the Hand of Faith?

Kevin
sold his massive find not long after it was announced during a press
conference. The nugget did not stay in its homeland of Australia. It
was sold to the Golden Nugget Casino for a cool million dollars where
it remains on display in their lobby.

You
can feast your eyes on this massive hunk of gold if you happen to be
in the Las Vegas area. Here are the details.

Golden
Nugget Casino

129
East Fremont St

Las
Vegas, NV 89101

Telephone:
702-385-7111

Is There a
Metal Detecting Moral to This Story?

If
you have spent any amount of time metal detecting, then you may have
been told that a particular location has been “hunted out.”
This phrase implies that all of the treasure has already been found.
That wasn't the case in the little town of Kingower.

The
largest nugget was found almost 120 years after everyone left the
town for what they thought was a more prosperous gold bearing area.
Don't ever let anyone tell you an area has been hunted out. There is
always a possibility that someone missed the single best piece of
treasure in the area.

You would think that three
massive gold nugget metal detecting finds would be enough, but people
are unearthing these massive nuggets all the time. Like the amazing
story before this one, this massive nugget was uncovered in Australia
where a new type of gold rush has begun. Would be prospectors are
busy swinging metal detectors looking for their slice of the golden
pie and a prospector by the name of Bill was the lucky one this time.

This story takes place in
Ballarat, Australia an area of our planet that is no stranger to
large amounts of gold. This area was discovered by a couple of
shepherds back in 1837. The shepherds were looking for an area where
water was plentiful.
A horrible
drought was crippling their current pastures. They found what they
were looking for in what would later become Ballarat.

For
13 years, shepherds enjoyed the water rich area. Days were spent
watching over their flocks and nights were spent counting sheep in
their sleep. Things were serene and peaceful. The shepherds found
what they considered to be Nirvana! All of that was about to change.

In
August of 1851, gold was discovered in the area. This created a gold
rush that caused the area to swell like a puppy's belly after a large
meal. Thousands of miners descended upon the area like a locust horde
of biblical proportions.

In
one year alone, over 1000 miners were busy seeking that funny yellow
metal. Within three years, the population of miners grew to over
20,000 and they were mining over 20,000 pounds (9000 kilos) of gold
in just the first year alone. This is the gold that was legally put
onto the books. There was easily just as much gold slipping through
the cracks and making its way to the black market.

Care
to guess how much gold was discovered here in just the first four
years? Over 170,000 pounds or 77,000 kilos. Among this massive load
of gold were several very large nuggets.

By
1868, the town was huge. There were over 64,000 miners working for
over 300 mining companies. The last mine closed down in 1918 and the
busy little mining city slowly diminished down to practically
nothing. According to the Ballarat Historical Society, over
20,000,000 troy ounces of gold were mined and recovered from this
area.

Like
many great treasure stories, a lot of the details of this incredible
find are secret. The prospector is simply known as “Bill”
and the exact location of the find is only known by a few lucky
people.

Bill
made his lucky find in some really dense foliage. Trees and large
clumps of bushes are always difficult to detect. How are you
supposed to get your coil up under all the branches and leaves?
Because of this, most people choose to ignore these areas. Bill did
not, and he was well rewarded for his efforts because deep under a
gnarly mess of thick brush is where he discovered what he would call
“Destiny.”

Destiny
weighs in at 8 pounds or 3.66 kilos. That is one big nugget! You can
see the Destiny nugget for yourself at the following web address:

http://www.piecesofvictoria.com/international/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/The-Destiny-Nugget.jpg

What Kind of Metal
Detector Was Used?

While
a lot of the details surrounding the discovery of Destiny are closely
guarded secrets, there is one very important detail that is right out
in the open. Bill was using a Minelab GPX-5000 metal detector when he
found his monster nugget. Good on ya mate!

What Happened to the
Destiny Nugget?

As of
this writing, the Destiny nugget is on loan to Sovereign Hill where
it is proudly being displayed. Here are the details.

Sovereign
Hill

39
Magpie Street

Ballarat,
Victoria

3350
Australia

Website:
http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/

Telephone:
03 5337 1199

What Can We Learn From
This Amazing Find?

Once
again it seems that persistence pays! Ballarat was a huge mining city
that produced tons of gold, but when those veins ran dry, people
vanished. There is always treasure to be found no matter how hard an
area has been previously hunted. Bill also did something no one else
did. He hunted for gold in a place that everyone else ignored.
Destiny was found in some dense, thick brush.

Australia seems to be
leading the way when it comes to big gold nuggets being found with a
metal detector. This last gold nugget find proves that point. This
story takes place just outside of the townsite known as Ora Banda.
The name roughly translates to, “Band of Gold.”

Gold
was discovered in this area way back in 1893. The area grew and by
the year 1910 there were just over 2000 mining families living in the
area. Life was not easy for the miners. It was not like they had five
star accommodations.

The
Ora Banda Hotel which was constructed in 1911 would become the
centerpiece for the town. If the walls of this hotel could talk,
there would be countless stories worth listening to.

For
just over 40 years, the entire area boomed with the discovery of
gold, but by the late 1950s things came to a standstill and the
centerpiece hotel closed its doors. In 1981, the hotel was restored
and reopened. Now it is a popular tourist attraction and a great
place to grab a nice cold beer and some authentic local eats.

Today,
there are still several gold mining companies working in the area.
They are still locating gold, but the mining companies would not be
the ones to locate an impressive monster nugget that tipped the
scales at over 62 troy pounds. That is just over 51 pounds or 23
kilograms. Three local prospectors using metal detectors would be the
lucky ones to make this find. Take a look at the Ausrox Nugget.

Photo
courtesy the Houston Museum of Natural Science

What Happened to This
Impressive Nugget?

Much
of this incredible find is being kept secret. The three lucky
prospectors quickly contacted a local nugget buyer and gave him one
week to sell off their incredible find. It only took a couple of days
to sell the nugget. The final selling price is also being kept
secret.

The
nugget was tested and it was confirmed to be 92% pure gold. It's melt
value alone would have been worth more than $850,000 or £506,283.
Nuggets of this size always sell for two to three times more than
their melt value! This nugget is the bloody big one!

Where Is the Ausrox
Nugget?

The
nugget was sold to an anonymous buyer in the United States. Many
people in Australia have expressed outrage over the sale. They want
the nugget to remain in Australia. The nugget is currently traveling
the world and will be on display in several museums.

These
are just a few of the great pieces of gold that have been found using
nothing more than a metal detector. There are plenty more that go
unreported.

Are
there more monster nuggets out there waiting to be found? You can bet
there are. Will you be the next person to find one of the monster
nuggets using your metal detector? Not if I can beat you to it!

At one point or another
every person who has ever held a metal detector in their hands has
dreamed about unearthing hoards of treasure. Some of us lie awake at
night thinking about it. Some of us drift off to that magical
treasure place while we are at work. (Don't worry, I won't tell the
boss!)

Some of us manage to find
their chest full of silver and gold in their dreams, but along the
famed Treasure Coast of Florida there are people who are really
finding old pieces of Spanish treasure every single day! This is one
treasure story that keeps on giving.

Right now as you read
these words there are people metal detecting along a very specific
stretch of beach along the east coast of Florida.

One of these people may
even be me. I was born and raised in Florida, and I have spent many
hours scouring the Treasure Coast in search of old Spanish coins.
Have I ever found any lost Spanish coins? Why do you think I keep
going back? Finding one old Spanish coin only fuels the desire to
uncover more. If there is one, there has to be more and along this
stretch of beach there are hundreds of thousands of them. The
Treasure Coast of Florida has created dozens of fascinating treasure
stories, but why? It all has to do with the 1715 Fleet.

This treasure story starts
a very long time ago. In fact, it started over 300 years ago. This
was the time in our history when pirates roamed the seas and the
Spanish Conquistadors explored, traded and dominated just about every
piece of land they came into contact with.

A small fleet of Spanish
ships was in route to Mexico. Their cargo consisted of mostly
mercury. The mercury was used to refine silver cobs (silver Spanish
coins) in Mexico. History books say the name of this fleet was Nueva
Espana. This translates to, “New Spain.”

This fleet of ships was in
Mexico to sell their cargo and pick up Mexican minted silver bars and
cobs. The fleet was supposed to depart Mexico, but problem after
problem kept the fleet in Mexico for over two years.

The fleet finally managed
to leave Mexico where it met with another fleet in Havana. This
second fleet was known as Tierra Firme. This second fleet was weighed
down with enough treasure to make you wet your pants. Gold and silver
from Panama and Cartegena filled the cargo holds of this fleet.

These two fleets combined
to make a convoy of 12-13 ships. No one alive seems to know exactly
how many ships there were. Several accounts say there were 12 ships,
and several others say there were 13 ships. Either way these ships
were all loaded with massive amounts of treasure. So much in fact,
that the loss of these ships would go down as one of the largest
Spanish treasure losses in history.

Records indicate that
these ships were carrying only gold and silver. Recent discoveries
have proven otherwise. People have been finding exquisite Chinese
porcelain, huge gold and silver ingots, beautiful unrefined emeralds,
jewel encrusted jewelry, gold coins, silver coins, silverware and
more!

More delays would prevent
this convoy of heavy ships from leaving Havana in a timely manner.
When they did finally depart for Spain it was the month of July.
Their route would take them along the east coast of the United States
where they followed the Gulf Stream until it turned east and brought
them home.