History Search: 5 Amazing Discoveries Made with Affordable Metal Detectors

Metal detectors, those long-handled instruments equipped with circular sensors such as oversized lollipops, are often associated with beachgoers or hobbyists hoping to find lost coins or jewelry.

However, beyond everyday discoveries, these devices are capable of revealing treasures of great historical and monetary value.

The discoveries of "Boot of Cortez" and "Ringlemere Gold Cup" are prime examples of how a simple tool can rewrite history and bring in wealth.

1. Cortez

In 1989, a treasure hunter in Mexico bought a metal detector for beginners at local Radio Shack and ventured out into the banned Sonoran desert. Gold and silver mines are scattered across northern Mexico, but the odds of finding a solid block of gold (also known as "alluvial gold") in the middle of the desert are very low.

The man honed his skills in detecting coins buried in his backyard, and began scanning the Gran Desierto de Altar (Great Altar Desert) area rumored to contain gold nuggets. After hundreds of hours in the scorching sun, his metal detector sounded a thrilling "whistle"!

The sun shone from a small, exposed spot of gold on the surface. The man sitting on his hands and knees carefully drilled the solid block, but the more he dug, the larger the gold block became. When he finally excavated the huge solid block of solid gold, it was 103/4 inches high and 71/4 inches wide. He held it in his hands, and the shoe-shaped jewel weighed more than 26 pounds.

Known as the "Cortez shoe", this piece remains the largest solid block of gold ever found in the Western Hemisphere. The original discoverer is said to have sold it to his boss for $30,000 and has been traded several times since. In 2008, Cortez's shoes sold at auction for $1,553,500.

2. Staffordshire Treasure

More than 1,500 years ago, six Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fought for dominance of medieval England. One of the largest and most powerful kingdoms was Mercia, whose territory extended over the area known as the Midlands.

In 2009, a British metal detector made a stunning discovery in Staffordshire, once the heart of the Kingdom of Mercia. Earlier Anglo-Saxon archaeological excavations had uncovered small caches of jewellery and everyday objects, but this was something completely different. The Staffordshire Treasure, as it is now known, contains more than 4,000 pieces, the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon silver and gold metalwork in the world.

Anglo-Saxon metalworkers were talented craftsmen, and the Staffordshire treasure was dominated by tools of war including swords and helmets. One of the most notable finds is an ornate helmet made of gold and silver that suits the king. No one knows why the treasure was buried sometime in the seventh century, but things may have been battle trophies or even offerings to the gods.

3. Derinaflaan Cup

In County Tipperary in Ireland, a team of amateur metal detectors father and son named Michael Webb and Michael Jr. made a discovery that made headlines in 1980. The site was the ruins of an ancient monastery and church dating back to the well-known eighth century AD known as Derinavlan.

Examining the grounds northeast of the church's dilapidated stone walls, Al Web's metal detectors lit up. There was something big and metallic just below the roof. The Webb family was thrilled to find a shallow pit containing a treasure trove of metal objects, the most striking of which is the medieval cup with a wide, shallow bowl made of forged silver.

The discovery of the Derrynaflan Cup and other treasures led to sweeping changes to Irish antiquities laws. It is now illegal to search for antiquities in Ireland using metal detectors, and any artifacts discovered by the public automatically become the property of the state.

4. The Spanish Cup for one million dollars

In 1622, a Spanish sailing ship named Santa Margherita was torn to shreds by a hurricane off the coast of Key West, modern Florida. More than 140 passengers and crew disembarked on board, and it also carried boxes filled with gold and silver bars, fine jewellery and other New World treasures.

For nearly 400 years, the Santa Margarita's wreck and spoils were buried in the mud and sand of the Florida Strait.

Then, in 1980, the search and rescue team discovered a section of Santa Margarita 40 miles off the coast of Florida, including $25 million of the sunken treasure. However, they knew there was more below. It is likely that the ship's remains were scattered due to centuries of tidal activity and storms.

In 2008, metal scout and treasure diver Mike DeMar, 20, was surveying the ocean floor near the wreck of the Santa Margherita when he found what he thought was an old beer that could have been buried under a foot of white sand. But when DeMar swept away the wreckage, he saw what he really was: a glass of pure gold big enough to hold a soft ball. It was valued at more than one million dollars.

5. 3600-year-old gold trophy

Back in England, where each farmer's field is a potential archaeological site. In 2001, a retired electrician named Cliff Bradshaw was surveying a wheat field in East Kent when his metal detector alerted him to something big just below the surface.

When Bradshaw snatched the piece of soil, he immediately saw it as "old" and "golden", he told the Guardian. It was a kind of gold cup crushed by a farmer's plow, and it looked familiar. When Bradshaw returned home, he searched his archaeological books and found a match, a Bronze Age artifact known as the Relaton Cup.

Archaeologists from the British Museum soon confirmed that the Gold Grail from Kent was indeed from the Bronze Age, and was struck and cast from a single piece of gold between 1700 and 1500 BC. It was one of five known Bronze Age golden vessels found in Europe.

Bradshaw's discovery is now known as the Ringlemere Gold Cup, and is said to have split a $520,000 reward with the landowner. "It's not a bad working day," the hobbyist said.