13 Most Valuable Metal Detector Finds
13. Rio Rancho Meteorite
The Rio Rancho Meteorite was unearthed in 2012 by the unlikeliest of candidates; a 13-year-old boy with a DIY metal detector.
Jansen Lyons found the fabulous space treasure near Albuquerque, New Mexico, propelling him straight into the history books.
Lyons and his mother immediately brought their find to Carl Agee at the University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteoritics. Agee sees hunks of ordinary rock from space enthusiasts who think they’re meteorites all the time, but Lyons was different.
The boy had stumbled across a serious piece of out-of-the-world matter, weighing 2 pounds. It’s estimated that Lyon’s stellar find is 10,000 years old, and the kid opted to keep the majority of it, giving a small piece to the institute to study.
12. Loch Lomond Ring
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Treasure enthusiast Michelle Vall hit the jackpot in 2019 when she came across the Loch Lomond Ring in Balloch, Loch Lomond, Scotland. This breathtaking bit of 17th-century jewelry is thought to have belonged to Edward Coleman, a nobleman with connections to James II.
Coleman converted to Catholocism, a big no-no back in the day, and was eventually tried and hung for treason, but he left a little piece of himself behind in the form of this astonishing bit of bling. Vall sold the ring at an auction, where it fetched over 18,000 dollars. Incredibly, this might not be the end of the tale for Vall, as she has a history of lucky finds.
Vall uncovered more of the rich stuff in 2017 in the form of a gold coin that sold for a whopping $52,800.
11. Caratacus Coin
When a treasure hunting hobbyist from Newbury, England, found an ancient coin buried in the dirt, they surely had no idea that it would turn out to be one of the most significant discoveries in modern British history.
The Caratacus Coin is a uniquely important Iron Age relic, emblazoned with the face of Caratacus, a local chieftain who fiercely fought the advancing Roman empire in 43 CE. This 2,000-year-old coin is an unmistakable homage to the chieftain and contains the inscription “CARAT,”; as an abbreviation of the famous ruler’s name.
The single coin fetched $94,000 at Chris Rudd’s Auctions in 2020, with bidders outdoing themselves to get their mitts on the fabulous find.
10. Escrick Ring
This stately stunner was found near Escrick, England, in 2009, and the only thing grander than its beautiful gold and gemstone design is its mysterious date of origin. Although historians can trace this epic ring to between the 5th and 6th centuries, they can’t drill down any further than that.
The ring itself is pure gold, with a massive sapphire set in the center and red glass cloisonné decorations on the sides. There’s also the question of whether or not the ring is British at all. It might have French roots and could have once been donned by a king.
9. The Mojave Nugget
In 1977 Ty Paulson stumbled across the biggest gold nugget ever unearthed in the United States, and he did it with the humblest of tools; a metal detector. The Mojave Nugget is 156 ounces of pure, unadulterated gold worth 400,000 dollars.
Paulson sold the nugget to the National History Museum in Los Angeles County, where you can check it out today. Incredibly, this beautiful behemoth of the rich stuff wasn’t discovered during the California Gold Rush, which ended over a hundred years before.
Instead, the greatest golden treasure ever pulled from California’s ground was unearthed by an amateur treasure hunter with a metal detector. Wild!
8. Leekfrith Torcs
The Leekfrith Torcs are Celtic-relics that date back to the Iron Age, so it may seem utterly improbable that newbie treasure hunters would discover them… but that’s exactly what happened.
Mark Hambelton and Joe Kania had just picked up treasure hunting as a casual hobby, but we’re willing to bet that their interest in the quest for rich stuff ramped up after a lucky find of four gold and silver torcs that dated back to 250 BCE.
The Leekfrith Torcs are valued at 450,000 dollars. They might just be the oldest examples of Iron Age jewelry ever to be discovered in the country, making them both historically and monetarily priceless.
7. Ringlemere Cup
This Bronze Age cup might look a little worse for the wear, but don’t let its initial appearance fool you. The Ringlemere Cup is a phenomenal treasure worth $520,000! The cup was uncovered by metal detector enthusiasts and overall lucky fellow Cliff Bradshaw, who found it near Sandwich, England.
The chalice dates back to as far as 2300 BCE, although estimates of its date of origin vary. The Ringlemere Cup’s current, the crumpled state is most likely the result of a plowing accident, but you can still admire the craftsmanship of the chalice, even though it’s a little worse for the wear.
6. Santa Margarita Gold Chalice
In 2008, Michael DeMar swam straight into the history books when he uncovered the Santa Margarita Gold Chalice buried in the wreckage of the Santa Margarita off the coast of the Florida Keys.
The ill-fated ship floundered in 1622, and until DeMar’s lucky break, nobody knew that it was hiding some serious sunken treasure. What DeMar first thought was a beer can, was quickly revealed to be a golden chalice worth a hefty 1 million dollars.
This two-handed chalice was buried in less than a foot of sand, making it easy for DeMar’s metal detector to locate and bring to the surface.
5. Crosby Garrett Helmet
In 2010, a treasure hunter unearthed the Crosby Garrett Helmet, a relic of the Roman invasion of England and a fascinating slice of history. The helmet is… off-putting, to say the least, and it was found in several pieces scattered across the Crosby Garrett Cumbria countryside, where the piece gets its namesake.
Putting the literal and figurative pieces together, historians deduced that there must have been a Roman fort near modern-day Cumbria and that this striking bit of battle gear belonged to a higher-up general.
The helmet itself is pure bronze and eventually sold for more than 3 million dollars, over 8 times its estimated worth. The Crosby Garrett Helmet fetched a huge price because it’s unique, historical, and frankly pretty darn badass.
4. Viking Crucifix
In 2016 Danish metal detectorist Dennis Fabricius Holm found a treasure that changed the way we understand history. At an inch and a half long, the golden Viking Crucifix, found in Aunslev, Denmark, is one of the largest specimens of its kind ever discovered.
The crucifix was part of a necklace and likely worn by a wealthy Viking woman who lived between 900 and 950 CE. Here’s where the story starts to get a little more interesting; before Holm’s incredible discovery, historians believed that Vikings only took to Christianity after 1050 CE.
Holm’s finding establishes that the Vikings discovered and embraced Christianity far earlier.
3. The Boot of Cortez
In 1989, an amateur treasure hunter stumbled across the Boot of Cortez in the Mexican Sonoran Desert with just a cheap metal detector from Radio Shack and a whole heck of a lot of luck. Although there are many shoes buried in the sands of the desert, there’s none quite like this gorgeous golden boot-shaped nugget that just happens to be the largest of its kind found in the Western Hemisphere.
It weighs 389 ounces, or just shy of 25 pounds. For reference, that’s the weight of your average toddler. The Boot of Cortez is a truly unique treasure because of its sheer size, purity, and the fact that there’s no other nugget like it in that part of the world.
It was auctioned off in 2008, fetching a cool 1.5 million dollars.
2. Bronze Hadrian
Statue In 1975, Morton Leventhal was vacationing in Israel and uncovered one of the region’s most priceless treasures, using only his metal detector. Leventhal was wandering through Tel Shalem looking for old coins when he stumbled across something far more spectacular; a bronze statue of Hadrian, an ancient Roman military commander from 135 CE.
The figure is full of mesmerizing details, which is remarkable because most bronze statues deteriorate over time. Some of our most famous sculptures are marble, which is much more weather-resistant.
The bronze Hadrian statue was found next to a similar artifact, a decapitated head, which begs the question of whether or not the ruthless Roman ruler was originally depicted holding the severed head of one of his enemies.
Of course, it could be a coincidence, but you never know how blood-soaked and gristly the ancient past was!
1. The Hand of Faith
In 1980, a full 120 years after the end of the Victorian Gold Rush, an amateur treasure hunter named Kevin Hillier uncovered a fabulous find buried right underneath the surface.
The Hand of Faith is the single biggest gold nugget ever unearthed by a metal detector in the world. It weighs a gargantuan 876 ounces and is nearly 5,000 times heavier than your average quarter, and worth roughly 2 million dollars.
The fortunate Hillier sold the Hand of Faith to the Gold Nugget Casino in Las Vegas and is most likely living out the rest of his days smack dab in the lap of luxury. Good on him!
Thanks for Reading! Would you rather get your hands on the fabulous Boot of Cortez or stumble across a historical relic as extraordinary as the bronze Hadrian statue? Let us know in the comments section below.
