Metal Detecting – Find Free Money

Metal Detecting is one way to find free money. If the girl scouts knocked on your door and you really wanted the Thin Mints but didn’t have any cash in your purse or wallet, where you go looking for spare change? There might be some in the couch cushions or the laundry room. That’s because these are common places where change falls out of pants pockets. But that’s just in the home. Money is accidentally discarded in parks, beaches, buses and anywhere that people roam. That’s free money for anyone who can claim it.

I remember watching Star Trek with my dad as a kid. I remember thinking how awesome it would be to have their technology with sensors that helped with virtually any situation that called for it. Wouldn’t it be equally as awesome if there was a modern device that allowed us to detect metals so that we could find discarded coins and metals that we could get paid to recycle? There is a device! It’s called a metal detector.

Can I Get Free Money With A Metal Detector?

The money that you find is free. One could argue that since you have to pay for the metal detector, the money you find with it is not actually free. A metal detector is about $200 – $800. A compromise is that once you’ve recovered the money you used to pay for the metal detector, then anything beyond that is free.

For most people metal detecting is a fun hobby. You should not expect to get rich with metal detecting, although there are some people who get very, very lucky. In fact there are some who take metal detecting seriously enough to be called modern day treasure hunters.

Metal Detecting Success Stories:

Tim Saylor and George Wyant are professional treasure hunters who have created a video series. Find them at AnacondaTreasure.com.

A man in England found a treasure trove of hundreds of historical items. Many of them were made of gold. See Englishman’s Metal Detector Finds Treasure Trove.

A man in Burntwood, Staffordshire found “largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found” (up to 2009) worth about $5 million. See Jobless Man Uncovers Gold Hoard with Metal Detector.

See more Metal Detecting Finds.

Metal Detecting Tips

Find the best metal detectors by doing research on sites like MetalDetectors.com and MetalDetectorJudge.com.

Go where a lot of people go, or go where they have been. This includes city streets, parks, beaches, concert sites the morning after a concert, security checkpoints at the airport, college campuses, mall parking lots, and other places where people go. If you’re out in the country (on public land), then look for trees in the middle of open fields. If it’s single tree then it may be a place where someone thought to bury something. If it’s a cluster of trees then it may be an old homestead where treasures can be buried.

Know The Law! Do not go metal detecting on protected archaeological sites. Find state, city and local laws at Metal Detecting Hobby Talk. Multiple public lands are specifically protected from digging. If the land is privately owned then the owner has claim to anything you find, plus you can get charged with trespassing and stealing.

Do I have to use a metal detector?

If you’ve ever spotted a coin on the ground in plain site and bent over to pick it up, then you know that a metal detector is not required to find free money. One family recorded that they simply stayed on the lookout in the parking lot every time they left the grocery store, and in 5 years they found over $1,200. They kept a blog on it for a while (last entry was in 2012). The main point of their blog is that people do not have to be so proud that they won’t bend over to pick up loose change.

ABC news reported on a “street miner” named Raffi Stephanian who would go to the diamond district on 47th street in New York City and look for diamonds that had fallen on the sidewalk into cracks. He has found diamonds, pearls, emeralds, gold and other precious metals worth thousands of dollars.