Free Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People by Mark D Smith Page A

or
authenticating his find. It sat in his room for a year before he got
scientific proof.

    Jansen and his mother
learned that the University of New Mexico had a museum of meteorites,
but the museum was closed for months while a new security system was
being installed. It seems that someone broke into the museum and
stole a very high profile meteorite that was worth a large sum of
money. Go figure. Thieves are everywhere.

    Once the museum reopened,
Jansen and his mother were granted a private tour. Jansen brought his
space rock with him. He was eager to show it off and find out what it
was. Their tour guide was convinced Jansen was carrying around a two
pound rock. It was nothing special and it definitely was no
meteorite.

    Meteorites are very rare,
and one of this size has never been found in his home town of Rio
Rancho. It could not possibly be anything but your average New Mexico
rock, but Jansen insisted that his rock was no ordinary rock.

    Finally, the museum agreed
to test his find. It would take the museum a few hours to determine
what the rock was so Jansen and his mother went home where they
waited for the phone call.

    When the phone rang, the
house fell silent while the news was delivered. His ordinary rock was
no ordinary rock at all. It was an L6 ordinary chondrite. A rare
meteorite and it was over 10,000 years old. Jansen has agreed to put
a small sample of his two pound space treasure on display at the New
Mexico Museum.

    Jansen's story is not one
of beginner's luck, but one of hard work, determination and passion.
This is something that every single one of us can learn from.

    Can you believe he found
his monster two pound meteorite with a homemade metal detector? It
just shows that hard work and determination are well rewarded.
Awesome!

Beginner's Luck
    Jansen Lyons proved that
hard work and dedication are always rewarded, but there is such a
thing as beginner's luck, and that is exactly what three year old
James Hyatt experienced on his very first metal detecting outing with
his father. His incredible find has become the envy of many people.
Here are the details.

    Sunday, May 17 th 2009 was an epic day for young James. James and his father were
searching for adventure using an entry level metal detector when the
machine gave them a good signal. They were searching a field in
Hockley, Essex England.

    The two started to recover
the find when the dad saw a glimmer of gold in the bottom of the
hole. Their treasure was buried a measly six or eight inches down,
but it would turn out to be the find of a lifetime.

    Image courtesy of Portable Antiquities Scheme

    When they finally
recovered the treasure, they knew it was gold, but they had no idea
the age or value of the item. It would be a year before they found
out what they had uncovered.

    They had unearthed a gold
pendant from the first half of the 16 th century. The front
of the pendant was engraved with a picture of a female saint holding
a cross. This image is believed to be the Virgin Mary.

    The back of the pendant
slides open to reveal a cavity, but it was damaged and could not be
opened. It is believed the pendant was designed to hold a religious
relic.

    Curators at the British
Museum created a special probe and used a microscope to repair and
remove the damaged rear lid. It now opens and closes along the
grooves cut into the side panel.

    Inside the pendant,
researchers found matted root hairs and small outer stems of
unprocessed flax. It is believed these were pieces of locally grown
flax plants.

    Three sides of the pendant
were engraved with the names of the three wise men and the fourth
side was engraved with leaves. What a magnificent piece of history.
The estimated value of this find is: £2,500,000 or $4,100,000.

    Wouldn't it be great to
uncover something like this with your children? There is no reason
why you can't. Get out there and have some fun metal detecting with
your kids. You could find something even better.

Incredible Ring