I have to thank the World Metal Detector Community for the inspiration for this post. In their membership application they ask what seems like a simple question:

Most Significant Find?

Well that got me to thinking. I’m not one of these detector guys that go out for a few hours and return with a handful of wheaties and a few silver coins (though I’d like to be). In my detecting world I’m lucky to get a wheatie and a handful of clad coins. Silver is another matter all together. But I digress…

When I bring up detecting to my non-detecting acquaintances, I’m asked the same general question: “What’s your best find?” I realized that a good find is usually one of the following:

• Historic Value

Yep, Oldies. In my book this is the best kind of find. I’m a little envious of you folks in the New England area with cellar holes and colonial home sites to search. Colonial coppers, Largies, buttons, buckles. Civil war relic lovers fit in this niche, I’d say. And we can’t mention oldies without bringing up you folks on the other side of the pond. Hammered coins and centuries old jewelry – oh my! Just the thought of who owned it, why was it lost, and all that has happened in the world while the treasure rested just below the surface of the ground.

What detecting dreams are made of!

• Metallic Value

This section almost needs a few subsections, but I’ll try to condense a little bit.

A large portion of the metal detecting community are gold hunters in some form or another, whether it be for jewelry or nuggets. I’ll admit this isn’t an area of detecting in which I have much experience, but I gotta tell ya, the idea of pulling some of the gold stuff out of the ground is very appealing. I’d love to hear from some of you nugget shooters out there. You guys usually have dedicated gold machines and have to deal with some pretty tough conditions to get those pretty rocks out of the ground. Like wise if you enjoy sweeping the beaches for the bling.

• Sentimental Value

Last year my daughter lost a locket that her grandmother had given her. She pretty much knew the exact spot at the school playground where she noticed it was missing. I grabbed my detector and had the locket in hand in no time. The look on her face was priceless. Now THIS was one of my best finds ever. Nothing old, no real monetary value. You folks that have had the awesome pleasure of returning a lost item to the owner know what I’m talking about.

• The “weird” factor

I once found a coin labeled “Palestine” from the early 1900s at an old school in rural west Alabama. How’d that coin get there? I know of MD’ers finding old foreign coins at new schools and parks, interesting “whats-its”, and various other goodies. These finds have no real value but the uniqueness of the find, location, or combination of both makes the find that much more interesting.

I’d love to get your input on this. What would you consider your best find? Does it fit into one of these categories? Is there another category you would suggest?

As always, thanks for visiting!