Backyard Buried Treasure

[Revalos]

So I spent the day digging in my backyard to prep for my composite deck. Had to wait the entire fucking summer for them to fill the order on the materials. I should have just used wood and sucked up the maintenance requirements.

Anyway, while digging I found several pieces of junk back there...including:

http://www.imageduck.com/images/e58db1ud73godz2cr6k3.jpg

3 Ford Mustang keys
1 safety deposit box key #H26
1 storage key #Y149
1 nickel 1964
1 penny 1976

So I'm sure that one of the previous homeowners was a Mustang enthusiast back in the 70's but ran on some hard times with his loans and had to hide his three prize Mustangs in some mini-storage place and put all his important documents in a safety deposit box just before being killed by the loansharks. So tune in on the next Geraldo when I open the lock and find out that the mini storage went out of business and was forgotten about so nothing in it was ever sold...

Anyone ever find anything actually valuable in their back yard? I seem to remember tooling around with a metal detector when I was a kid at my grandparents place but never finding anything.

[WRoss]

I myself never found anything, but a neighbor of ours found some arrow heads and Native-American Pottery in their backyard. They got the joys of having half their yard dug up. They ended up finding some neat stuff and two burials. I couldn't tell you much else since I was a very young kid at the time. It was pretty neat back then, but I suppose as an adult I would have been pissed they were digging up my yard.

[Mana Goddess]

My husband, when he was young, lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He found a few fossils in the garden, but nothing real valuable. His neighbor, on the other hand, found a fucking mastodon.

[phantasm]

I found some fish bait.

[Xanator]

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b211/twistinside08/stolen-bike.jpg

[phantasm]

I did some forensic work to help ID the theif.

http://i34.tinypic.com/r1es6v.jpg

[Xanator]

He looks Canadian.

[Stunseed]

I guess I'm the only one who thought this was going to be about a porn flick.

[Drew]

Man with metal detector finds the the biggest ever haul of Anglo-Saxon gold in a Staffordshire field
It looks like the fabled treasure from a fairy tale. But this glittering array is just part of a vast hoard of AngloSaxon gold and silver found in a field by a man with a metal detector.

Experts say the haul of about 1,500 items is worth a seven-figure sum and is the largest cache of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found. It was discovered by unemployed Terry Herbert, 55, just below the surface of a field near Lichfield, Staffs, in July.

He and the field's owner will split the substantial reward they are likely to be awarded by the Government for the find.
Terry Herbert treasure (Pic:PA)

Dr Roger Bland of the British Museum said: "I think wealth of this kind must have belonged to a king but we cannot be certain."

The hoard was yesterday declared as treasure by South Staffordshire coroner Andrew Haigh. Its value will be estimated by experts.

The treasure includes at least two crosses, richly ornamented sword pommels, jewelled pins used to keep armour in place and intricately-carved cheek-efpieces from warriors' helmets.

It is thought the hoard may be war booty amassed by a king or military leader. He probably buried it to keep it safe, intending to one day come back and dig it up.

There are at least 650 items of gold, weighing more than 5kg (11lb) and 530 silver objects weighing more than 1kg (2.2lb).

Dr Bland said: "That's a huge quantity of precious metal. It''s bigger than any other hoard from the Anglo-Saxon era by quite a large margin."

Dr Bland said many of the items that have been identified have a military connection.

He added: "My interpretation is that they were being taken as trophies. I don't think these items were taken from people when they were alive. This was a time of great military activity, strife and struggle."

His colleague Dr Gareth Williams, an expert on Anglo-Saxon England, said: "They were dangerous times to live if you had any wealth."

The hoard is thought to date to between 675 and 725AD, when England and Wales were split into various competing AngloSaxon and Celtic kingdoms.

The treasure was buried in what was once the kingdom of Mercia.

Most of the haul was buried about 14ins below the surface of the field.

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But some items were lying on top of the soil and are believed to have been disturbed by a plough.

Terry, who has been metal detecting for 18 years, said he offered up a little prayer before he set out on the day of the find.

He added: "I have this phrase that I say, 'Spirits of yesteryear take me where the coins appear'.

But on that day I changed 'coins' to 'gold.' I don't know why I said it but I think somebody was listening.

"This is what metal detectorists dream of, finding stuff like this."

Terry and the landowner have no legal right to claim the value of the hoard. Under the law once a find is officially declared as treasure it becomes the property of the state.

But the payment of a reward that must not exceed the treasure's market value was included in the 1996 Treasure Act as an incentive to those who unearth antiquities.

WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE

The find illustrates some important aspects of life in Anglo-Saxon England. There were some very wealthy people - and no shortage of warriors on the rampage to take their valuables.

England as such did not yet exist. Kingdoms like Mercia and Wessex with tribal loyalties battled with each other in a state of semiperpetual warfare. And the warrior aristocracy would often allow neighbouring raiders to take from their own rich followers. "The Mafiosi analogy is a fair one," said expert Dr Gareth Williams.

The land was also split along religious lines.

Most people, tribes from across the North Sea, were pagans who worshipped gods and goddesses. But some Christians existed after the Roman occupation.

OTHER AMAZING FINDS

Middleham Jewel: A 15th century gold and sapphire pendant, found in Yorkshire in 1985, and bought by Yorkshire Museum for £2.5million in 1992. Dating to 1460 it is engraved with Christian Trinity and Nativity of Jesus pictures.

Sutton Hoo Ship: The remains of a 30m-long oak ship filled with weapons, helmets, gold coins and silver-mounted drinking horns now owned by National Trust. Found in Suffolk in 1938.

The Hoxne Hoard: Found near Ipswich in November 1992 it consists of more than 15,000 gold and silver coins, gold jewellery and silver tableware. It sold for £1.75m.

The Vale of York Hoard: A 10th century Viking haul of 617 silver coins and items found in January 2007 near Harrogate, North Yorks. Bought by the British and Yorkshire Museums for £1.1m.




http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/09/25/man-with-metal-detector-finds-the-the-biggest-ever-haul-of-anglo-saxon-gold-in-a-staffordshire-field-115875-21698892/

[Abyran'sa]

Nice treasure trove.

Those ford keys are 65-66 mustang (unless someone used those blanks to rekey a later ford). Two door lock/ignition and one trunk.

[Sean of the Thread]

Those are a cool find.

I found several trilobite fossils when I was creek walking catching crawdads once and found several miniball rounds metal detecting as well.


I see people like crazy on the beach here every time I go digging like crazy. On the east coast also known as the treasure coast gold and shit washes up all the time. It must be ten times worse over there especially after a storm.

[LMingrone]

My parents bought one of the oldest homes in New Haven when I was a kid. 17 rooms, a slave owners house. They renovated it it and won a ton of awards for architecture. We found a lot of old coins, Indian cards, (which I believe predate baseball cards), papers from the 1800's.

One day me and my cousin were f'n around in the basement. We pulled out a panel that was supposed to be a vent for the chimney. We find a 20' foot tunnel down under the house. So I grabbed my Radio Shack remote control monster car, attach a ghetto JVC video camera to it.

And it may seem like I'm making this shit up, but we found a whole network of tunnels. My parents sold the house right after we found them, so I never had a chance to treasure hunt. I really need to buy the house back and go all Indiana Jones.

[Sean of the Thread]

Lol awesome.

One of the houses I lived in when I did live in upstate NY had a slave hide compartment.

My grandmother's house had a cistern in the basement always full of snakes... fun to fuck with people. There was no access to the attic so one day my uncle took a saw and cut into the closet roof.

Well besides about 500 dead sparrows (got in a hole somewhere and obviously never made it out) the roof and walls were insulated with newspapers from the civil war and there was a radio flyer loaded with antique dolls amongst other stuff.

I thought it was awesome. Of course my grams sold it all.

Anyways finding shit like that in upstate isn't that rare really. Arrow heads etc. I suppose the same for finding sharks teeth here on the beaches. I still want to hit the beach east coast after the next hurricane just for the fun of it.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

When I lived in Germany my brother and I would go metal detecting around old castles, schools and homes. We always found neat things. Highlights were always old coins, though we never found a treasure trove or anything. We did find an old WWII bayonet once.

Funniest thing we found was on vacation in San Diego. We were on the beach and found a diamond engagement ring. Inside it was inscribed something like "always and forever, 1/12/2000". The best part was we found it on 1/13/2000.

[Sean of the Thread]

When I lived in Germany my brother and I would go metal detecting around old castles, schools and homes. We always found neat things. Highlights were always old coins, though we never found a treasure trove or anything. We did find an old WWII bayonet once.

Funniest thing we found was on vacation in San Diego. We were on the beach and found a diamond engagement ring. Inside it was inscribed something like "always and forever, 1/12/2000". The best part was we found it on 1/13/2000.


Lol the last part made snort my chocolate milk.

What happened to the bayonet?