[masraum]

I suspect you could buy 100 acres and never find anything worth more than a couple of bucks after spending a LOOONG time scanning the whole thing. You could also scan 100 acres and discover several thousand nails, screws, pop tabs, etc....

I've thought about using a metal detector at my place. But then I think a house has only been on the property since either 1920 or 1924. So I'm unlikely to find anything really cool. But what I am likely to do is spend a crazy amount of time digging up nails, screws, washers, pop tabs, and assorted other junk. I cringe to think about how much digging I'd do to only discover a little change.

I totally get why folks in the UK run metal detectors though. THey find some amazing stuff there (although I'm sure we hear about the 0.01% of stuff that's dug up that ends up being interesting. But at least they have the possibility of finding Roman artifacts, as well as stuff all of the way back to the bronze age.

WHen I was 12, we lived in Pensacola, FL. I had a metal detector. It's slow, boring work for a 12 yo, so I never found anything. But I did have guys using metal detectors in the exact same area that I'd done it that found civil war uniform buttons and musket balls. I just wasn't methodical enough, or patient enough to find anything interesting.