Every year or so another story appears in the press with a fantastic story of how some lucky fellow with a metal detector has unearthed a hoard of treasure of ancient provenance. In some cases, these buried troves of treasure are valued in the millions and the chap with the metal detector ends up pocketing half the proceeds. Of course, these stories make the news because they happen rarely, and for every person who strikes gold, there are a 1,000 more trudging wearily through fields with nothing but bottle tops to show for it more info. But as any metal detector enthusiast will tell you, there are ways of maximising your chances of a find, and a few top locations that improve the likelihood of you turning up something of value.
1. Beaches
Crowds flock to beaches and people tend to be careless with their possessions when on a beach all day. Jewellery and money often falls to the sand and once that happens, it can become easily buried, so a beach at dusk is a potential cashpot for the dedicated metal detectorist. Buried pirate treasure is also an outside bet.
2. Festival sites
Another place where crowds gather en masse and are rather careless with their belongings are festival sites. Imagine being the first metal detectorist to scour the Glastonbury site after hundreds of thousands of people in more or less inebriated states have wandered through it over the course of five days. Potential for coming up trumps? Good to high.
3. Circus or fairgrounds
Many fairgrounds and circuses roll into fields and stay for a week or more before moving on. In that time, thousands of people would have wandered through, the majority of them handling money. You might not discover any treasure, but you might well find enough coins lying around to get a decent return on your investment in hiring the metal detector.
4. City parks
As with the above locations, a city park on a summer afternoon is a magnet for hot and bothered city dwellers keen on a bit of greenery. At day's end, there are bound to be choice items of jewellery lying about, not to mention a lot of one pound coins that have fallen from pockets and been lost in the undergrowth. Get detecting!
5. Ancient fields and woodlands
If it's genuine treasure you're after, there are no better spots to metal detect than ancient fields and woodlands. Consult ancient maps of the area in local libraries to try and determine which fields have remained unchanged for centuries and which woodland paths may have been used in former times as thoroughfares by ancient armies. Locations near royal sites and ancient battles are the best bet, as hoards of gold were often buried in the heat of battle, either by royals or victorious armies.
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