The Detectorists
 

This is a fun, quirky show about metal detector fanatics in England. Stara Toby Jones, who I think is a great actor. I highly recommend it. I've been watching it on Tubi.

Gotta be a LOT of metal history in Europe to dig up. Sounds interesting. I've thought of buying a detector. But then I thought of the many disappointments of finding things like old bottle caps..

I used to read BBC News, so I got a lot of stories about amazing finds, some guy in a field finding a hord of Roman coins or viking gold or whatever. There's been some REALLY remarkable finds. And in the UK, if you find something, you report it, then some group checks it and if it's determined to be "treasure" then they pay you a "fair value" but I think it usually goes to a museum. If it's not treasure, then you get to keep it.

And much of the time, the folks are on someone else's property so presumably, they've worked out a deal with the property owner as well.

When I was 12/13, I lived in Pensacola. On 3-4 occasions guys would come out and detect in my "neighborhood" (lots of open land around it some townhouses). I know that they showed me musket balls and civil war buttons that they dug up while I was standing there.

I had a metal detector when I was about that age, but it took more patience than I had at the time, and it helped to be very methodical.

I'd love to get back into it, but I'm sure I'd find 10000 assorted nails, screws, nuts, washers, bits of barbed wire and pop-tabs for every interesting item that I found. I suspect that if you were in the right spots your ratio would be better although you'd find a lot less stuff.

Haven't seen it, but some time back there was a program about two guys who looked for meteorites. They used metal detectors also. It was interesting to learn how much a meteorite was worth.

They are worth quite a bit. I'm pretty sure that I'd keep them unless I found something super valuable. I'm guessing that I'd keep it unless it was worth north of $10k, but that's just a guess.

My wife watched it. I listened in casually, pretty good actually.

I do some surveying for my civil engineering job and use a metal detector to locate the iron pipes that mark property corners. I often find nails and barbed wire before I find the pipe. There's not much to be found of value in California. The truly ancient stuff around here would be left behind by people who didn't have metal.

I'd love to find the REAL plate left by Sir Francis Drake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake%27s_Plate_of_Brass

I've got an AT Garret Gold that I practice with.

Australian coins from the late 1700's to the early 1800's are worth a lot of money. I'm going to research where my early settler ancestors lived in the area, and search for lost coins. I think it would be "right" if I found the lost coins.

My friend Henry is always pranking people and wants to learn about looking for coins/gold with the metal detector. So I've got a fake $15,000 diamond ring I'll plant in a certain location on the beach for him to find LOL

Remembering from school days history lessons... He was the guy who circumcised the globe back in the 1500's.

I watched it on Net flix, would watch it again.

Serious?

Why not go out in the outback and find some big nuggets in the desert? Ever watch Aussie Gold Hunters?

I watch Aussie Gold Hunters all the time. I really like it.

I'm thinking about looking for gold in the rivers. I did a week panning for gold and got nothing so I thought I'd try with the Garret.

A friend of mine's dad in the UK found some valuable Roman artifacts the first time he went out.

I guess that is why it is quicker to get around these days. He took a short cut. ;)

Best
Les

I watched the complete Dectorists series a few years ago. Sorry there were not more episodes to watch. There are/were tour groups that went over to the UK from the USA to detect.

Quite a few videos on YouTube of people in the USA detecting on the beach.

My wife and I discovered this a few years ago. It's such a remarkably pleasant show to watch. AndI have to say that the music is fantastic too.

The Simon and Garfunkel rivals always cracked me up