What can be found with a metal detector?

Until you work with a metal detector, it is hard to believe how numerous and varied the objects found in the ground. Here's a quick look at the main groups of objects you might encounter during your search.

Coins

These are the most common discoveries. The ancient trade used the first coins from the Arab East (6-X centuries), then Byzantine and Tatar coins appeared the first coins in the 10th century, but they were few and they apparently played the role of political action. From the mid-12th century, almost to the end of the 14th century, coins disappeared from the markets. As money was treated silver in the form of bullion.

Fig. 1. Silver coins of the 16th and 17th centuries.

New Russian coins after the monetless period began to be minted in the 80s. In Moscow under the grand prince of Moscow Dmitri Ivanovich Donskoy and in the Nizhny Novgorod principality under Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich.

From the same time in Russia began to appear in circulation and Western European coins.

The most ancient coins are found in the Krasnodar region and in Crimea. Many of them are well preserved, despite the fact that for more than 2000 years lay in the ground. Many modern coins can be found on beaches and parks.

Crosses, snakes, icons

In ancient Russia, crosses were a mandatory affiliation of every Christian. Crosses differed in their types and purpose. Most often there are crosses-calves. Western travelers who visited Russia in the 14th and 15th centuries wrote that the Russians wear the cross constantly until their death. Therefore, all over Russia you will not find a single man and not a single woman on whom there would be no cross. It is much less common to come across crosses-encolpions. These are folding bivalve breast crosses with a movable head, designed to store relics or other shrines. Such crosses were worn on top of clothes of a noble kind.

Fig. 2. The crosses of the 16th and 18th centuries.

It is known that the peasants have long worn with a cross on the chest copper icons-snakes, which were attributed to the "wonderful power to quench suffering" when imposing them on the sore spots. Occasionally you can find metal icons, which, like the encolpiones, were worn on top of clothes. They can be one-sided, two-sided, two- and three-fold (folds). Travellers of the 17th century in Russia noted that all warriors without exception certainly have on their chests a beautiful image in the form of a triple fold, with which they never part and, wherever they stop, put it in a prominent place and worship it. Often there are also pagan amulets, most of all lunar.

Buckles, buttons, clasps, belt parts

The finds of this group of objects are numerous, as they have been widely used since the Bronze Age to the present day. They were usually made of bronze, copper, iron, less often - silver and gold. A very wide variety of styles - from very simple to very refined, with enamel and intricate ornament. A variety of belt buckles and linings. Some of them served only for decoration, others played the practical role of hooks, to which various necessary items were attached.

Fig. 4. Buckles of the X-17th century.

Rare but expensive finds include Scandinavian fibulas (clasps), often very decorative. Simpler, Finn-Ugric, fibulas in some places are quite common. The buttons from the military uniforms of the 1611-XIX centuries are of great interest to collectors.

Weapons, tools, household items

From weapons most often there are arrowheads, a variety of types of which never cease to amaze. Rarely find spearheads, axes, swords and daggers. Often finds knives, cress, locks, keys. Ancient bronze products (axes, knives, daggers, arrowheads, etc.) are best preserved. Unfortunately, iron products are often heavily corrorated, especially if found in fields that were once abundantly fertilized. However, individual specimens, apparently in the fire, look like new and do not require any restoration. In addition, there are large fishing hooks, spoons, jewelry tools - drills, pins, mints, hammers, ticks, etc.

Fig. 5. Household items of the 7th and 17th century. (locks, keys, knives, needles, crese, etc.)

Jewelry

Jewelry is mostly associated with women, and in ancient times women are just as willing to wear jewelry as they are now. Rings, brooches, pendants, bracelets, various pendants, earrings, beads that can be found, date from the Bronze Age to the present. They are mostly made of copper, bronze, silver and often gilded, decorated with stones, glass, enamel or grain. There is a wide variety of styles, forms, manufacturing techniques.

Fig. 6. Jewelry of the 7th-XI2th Century

Occasionally there are ves-amulets in the form of miniature axes, spoons, knives, keys, various birds and animals. A variety of very common decorations - bells. They were used as decorative details of the costume, but could also serve as buttons.

Elements of horse harness

It is mainly a different size of buckles for tightening and regulating harnesses, as well as rods, stirrups and decorative linings on the horse harness. As a rule, they were made of bronze, but sometimes from silver with blackening. The rod, the stirrups, the horse-made iron

Tokens, badges, awards

In some places, tokens were seen as an informal means of payment, as a means of advertising and political propaganda. Within Moscow there are quite a lot of tokens. Occasionally come across so-called official signs - it's a different kind of plaques or pendants, worn on clothes while the owner of his official duties. As a rule, the official sign carried an explanatory inscription - the name of the post, for example " Senior Janitor" or "Fire Chief". Icons are another group of common finds. Military badges, as well as military and sports awards, are of interest.

Native metals

Self-native metals include metals that are found naturally. Despite the fact that a large number of different plant metals (aluminium, lead, copper, arsenic, bismuth, nickel, iron, tungsten, mercury, etc.) are known, gold, silver, platinum, copper and iron are most interesting to us. The search for precious metals man was engaged many centuries ago. But now with the advent of metal detectors, this activity is experiencing a new upswing.

Fig. 7. 2670-year-1 700 gold nugget found in Australia using a metal detector

The number of new surface deposits and deposits is small, but on spent areas of gold is more than enough and it is quite accessible for artisanal extraction. Each mine usually contains lost and unaccounted gold, the content of which can reach up to 70% of the total amount of gold in the field.

Meteorites

Sometimes you may encounter a meteorite - a stone that fell from the sky Meteorites are iron, iron stone and stone. The metal detector reacts to the first two types. It is difficult for a layman to determine whether it is a meteorite or not. Therefore, suspicious stones should be shown to the staff of the Mineralogical Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences or the Institute of GEOHI RAS.

Fig. 8. Samples of the Sihote-Ashn meteorite

However, there are many places in Russia where, having found such a stone, there is no doubt about its origin. The most interesting meteorite fell on February 12, 1947 in the Mountains of Sihote-Alin in the Far East. It was a block of iron weighing about 100 tons (the size of a minibus), which exploded several times in the air and fell in the fire rain on a huge area (5x25 km). Most of the crash site is declared a reserve, but a significant area where meteorites meet, is outside the reserve and there their collection is not prohibited by law.

Another meteor shower fell about 20 years ago in Tuva. Due to the high content of nickel (up to 16%) these meteorites have hardly oxidized during this time.

Most recently (2002) meteorites were found in the fields of the Ryazan region. About 1000 kg were collected with the help of metal detectors during the summer of 2003.

Individual specimens are found in other places. So when looking for coins and relics, it is worth paying attention to the black or rusty stones to which the metal detector reacts.

Enthusiasts go for meteorites on the Arabian Peninsula. Several hundred new and very rare meteorites have been found in the deserts of Anain in recent years, particularly from the Moon and Mars. The cost of the latter on the market is from 2000 to 10,000 U.S. dollars per gram.

Treasures

Very rarely quite by chance the lucky ones stumble upon treasures and suddenly become rich. Others, on the contrary, spend years and a lot of money on the search, but do not find anything.

With the advent of metal detectors, treasures are found more and more often. These are mainly 15th- and 18th-century coin hoards. Banks in those days were not yet, so the land was considered the best place to store money and other valuables. It happened that the owners of the treasure died and did not return for their hidden wealth, which remained in the ground. Such treasures come across anywhere - in the field, on the banks of rivers, in the forest, in cemeteries, in caves, etc.

Fig. 9. 17th century treasure trove of coins (from the collection of B. Ershov)

Recently, an important treasure was found in a field near the village of Volnino in the Vladimir region. The treasure contained 318 coins of the first quarter of the 15th century (the time of the grand prince of Moscow Vasily the Dark). The State Historical Museum purchased the treasure for $5,000. Many find hoards of copper five-penny coins of the 18th century. It was money with a compulsory rate, and very soon it depreciated. Farmers began to bury copper. Usually there are 200 to 1500 heels in the hoards. A huge treasure trove of heels containing about 30,000 coins has been found near Smolensk.

Military relics

In the places of intense fighting of the 20th century, the land is crammed with various objects of interest to collectors. First, it is military equipment - tanks, planes, vehicles. At one time they got stuck in swamps, drowned on crossings, were thrown in impenetrable forests, etc. groups of enthusiasts find such objects, dig out of the ground, pull out of the water, restore and install in museums of military glory.

Fig. 10. Buttons and other items found near Sevastopol on the battlefields of 1854-1856.

In addition, the search finds weapons, ammunition, staff safes, helmets, uniform splints, military awards, pupils, identification tokens, foams, etc.

When searching in places of battle, you should not underestimate the danger. It is not recommended to lift and neutralize the found ammunition, knock on them, saw, throw into the fire. It is necessary to report such findings to the nearest police station and expect the arrival of deminers.

Industrial non-ferrous metals

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the slowdown in the pace of work at a number of mines, the industry is experiencing an acute shortage in non-ferrous metals - copper, manganese, titanium, niobium, vanadia, chromium, lead, etc., so that their prices have increased dramatically and they have become profitable to look for in landfills with metal detectors. Thus, copper cables, lead and silver are found in the territories of abandoned military units. On landfills and old embankment roads in the Urals collect ferrochrome and ferromarganese, waste from stainless steel and brass.

Fig. 11. Typical beach finds

In addition, you can find wristwatches and pocket watches (sometimes gold), glasses, cigarette cases, lighters, locks, keys, thimbles, boxes for pills and sniffing tobacco, penknives, currency keys and screwdrivers, children's toys, bullets, casings, printing of the 1st department, whistles, bells, lead fillings, tweezers, weights, fishing sinkers and hooks, irons, cranes and handles from samovars, spoons, knives, forks, etc.

Along with the above items, you will have to dig (especially in the first two weeks of searches) a lot of unwanted finds, which include nails, casings from a small-caliber rifle, crushers, foil from candy and cigarettes, corks from bottles, tongues from cans and cans of beer and water, pieces of wire, old batteries and many other similar metal debris.

Modern metal detectors have discriminators, allowing to cut off such garbage and not to waste time and effort on its digging, however, even gaining experience, some amount of garbage still have to dig up. Otherwise you may miss out on valuable finds.