You may think the lone treasure seeker scanning the sand with a metal detector at the beach seems a bit dorky — no offense to “detectorists,” of course — but that only makes this revenge of the nerds all the sweeter.
With recent news that a retired businessman unearthed the mother lode of Viking gold and silver artifacts dating back more than 1,000 years in Scotland, the fine art of metal detecting just got a whole lot sexier. Derek McLennan’s find, hailed as the country’s most significant, is comprised of 100 items including a 9th-century solid silver cross, a silver pot, gold objects, a rare silver cup engraved with animals that dates from the Holy Roman Empire, and a gold bird pin. The value of the find is expected to be in the six-figure range; and it’s not McLennan’s first big find. Last year, he found about 300 medieval coins in the same area.
You just never know what these modern-day prospectors might discover. With that in mind, we rounded up some of the more significant finds that have us thinking that maybe it’s time to get a metal detector after all — name-calling be damned.
October 2015
Adam Dowdall, founder of Adam Dowdall’s Metal Detecting Group in the Carleton Place area came to see what he could find in my yard last week. I warned him that most of the people that lived in this home did not have that much money and were simple people. In fact one family even had to burn their furniture in the fireplace to stay warm one winter a zillion years ago. During the year long renovation after the 1995 fire, the only thing found in the walls was a playing card and a small note from a child to his mother. So, I had no idea what he would find.
After a few hours Adam found the following things: a King Edward 10 cent piece from 1906, a WW2 Canada button, an old amulet I had in the 80s that I bought from the back of a magazine, and a ‘play” gumball machine type ring that probably fell from where the trampoline once was. No amulets or Viking gold in my yard, but thanks Adam– it was a lot of fun!
lindaseccaspina 
