Ever uncovered a hidden gem or a piece of history beneath your feet? Florida’s soil hides treasures waiting to be discovered. Curious? Let’s explore the best finds together!
During my 12-year career in metal detecting, I have been to many states and countries.
With so much traveling involved in my life, I was fortunate enough to find more and more items outside my home area.
As I’m from the mid-country state of Pennsylvania, visiting Florida was one of my dreams. I visited Florida last summer, and I was thrilled that I was going there.
From countless people I have heard and based not only on research, the beaches in Florida are a gold mine for someone interested in metal detecting.
Apart from the eye-catching beaches, the state of Florida has beautiful countryside where you can go metal detecting.
Based on my experience and after interviewing some of my friendly local detectorists in Florida, I thought to list the best treasures you can collect when metal detecting in Florida.
Here are the Best metal detecting finds in Florida,
- Old coins
- Jewelry
- Old Relics
- War memorials
- Tools and Equipment
- Camping Items
That’s just the tip of the iceberg!
So, in the rest of the article, I will talk more about these finds and specific places where you could find these amazing treasures.
And for those who wait until the end, you will also be surprised.
So, without further due, let us jump straight into the article about Florida’s best metal detecting finds.
Let’s jump in!
Best Metal Detecting Finds in Florida
As for the best metal detecting finds you can uncover in Florida or anywhere around the world will come down to several factors.
Two of the most important factors that matter are the metal detector you are using and the experience you have in handling it.
As I have discussed in my previous articles, having the best and most expensive metal detector doesn’t make you stand out.
Even if you have a low-end metal detector and know how to handle it correctly, you can get higher results than someone using a high-end metal detector without any experience.
So, be versatile and present in every situation to learn something from it if you are new.
If you are experienced with the detectors and have handled ample situations in different conditions, metal detecting for these findings will be easy in Florida.
Florida is one of those states that allow total freedom to metal-detecting enthusiasts.
As per Florida State Law, any finding you acquire of the beach could be kept by you.
In public properties, you can metal detect with permits and keep the findings with the permission of the authorities and owners.
Let’s discuss the things you can detect when metal detecting in Florida in detail.
1. Old Coins
Coins are one of the common things you can find in any state. Anywhere, from beaches to roads to campsites and old farm sheds, coins could be detected by metal detectors.
Florida has a rich history of piracy and pirate stories. The legend runs back and says that several pirates have buried their treasures on the coasts of Florida.
So, detecting coins in these areas could lead to finding coins with specific history and antique value.
There are several locations you can try out in the state of Florida to look out for coins.
- Palm Beach, Palm Beach County
- Santa Rosa Beach, Walton County
- St. Augustine Beach, St. Augustine County
- Fernandina Beach
- New Smyrna Beach
These are just some of my favourite beaches to visit to detect old coins. Florida has more than a thousand miles of beach stretching all over the state.
You can use any of the beach areas to find old coins.
As the beaches are very crowded and sociable, people tend to visit these more often, and they are bound to lose something while enjoying nature. These opportunities can be used in favor you.
Going down to these beaches for metal detecting would be very useful and informative for up-and-coming metal detectors, as there will be many metal detectors on the beach.
If you are new to the metal detecting game, you can get bits of advice and share experiences with the pros of the metal detecting game.
And if you are a pro, you can meet like-minded people at the beach detecting for old coins.
When I searched for coins in Palm Beach, apart from finding coins and stuff, I met some fellow metal detectors natives of Florida and shared my experiences with them.
Check out the Best Places to Metal Detect in Florida!
2. Jewelry
Jewelries are another one of the few common things that can be found during metal detecting in Florida.
The abundant beaches, public places, or sometimes even the alleys could have some jewelry for you to melt detect.
With the historical importance of the state, there is a higher chance for you to find pieces of jewelry with historical importance in the historical sites.
With proper permissions, you could search in these areas.
Some locations you can try out to find jewelry in the state of Florida,
- Miami Beach, Miami County
- Blue Spring State Park
- Lake Eola Park
- Venetian Waterway Park
These areas are mostly people gathering areas like parks and beaches. In these areas, you have the maximum potential to find lost jewelry, ranging from gold to stainless steel.
These are mostly state-owned parks, so getting the necessary permissions will also be easy. Other places to search for jewelry are old, abandoned medieval houses.
While in Florida, as I was moving towards the countryside, I saw a few abandoned medieval houses.
Getting permission to search these houses is difficult, so I saved these for try later. But if you are from Florida, you could get the necessary permission and should try out these locations.
3. Old Relics
Old relics are mostly found in abandoned places.
These could be old farm sheds, abandoned houses, ghost towns, or even people gathering places.
- Gainsville, Alachua County
- Ocala National Forest
- Ormond Beach, Volusia County
- Key West, Monroe County
- Cedar Key, Levy County
In these areas, you could find old antique equipment from old civilisation to more recent metal items from the early 1900s.
Gainsville is one of the areas where native Americans used to live. So the rich history could be depicted by the old buildings and sites.
Be careful to look for items, as these might be so important and have an antique value.
If the item is so important in the historical aspect, you may have to return it to the state, but they will offer you some reward.
Ocala National Forest is also one such location. With these civilizations expanding through these areas, you could find some historically important metal items.
Ormond Beach is one of the locations that is very famous among the locals for hidden treasures.
Even though no one has ever found treasure in Ormond Beach, multiple metal founding has been recorded over the years.
If you are near these areas, try it out. And most importantly, look in the shallow water areas, too.
Key West and Cedar Key are two beach towns in Florida. These also could yield some old items lost a few decades back.
4. War Memorials
War memorials like buttons, badges, bullets, ammunition like war relics from World War eras, and much older weapon arts, ammunition, knives, and swords from older eras could be found during metal detecting in Florida.
Here are some locations where you can try out to find war relics in the state of Florida,
- Olusytee Battle Field, Lake City
- Fort Pickens, Santa Rosa Island
- Fort Foster State Historic Site, Thonotasassa
- Fort De Soto Park, St. Petersburg
- Key West Naval Station, Key West
Olustyee battlefield is a historical war site and the home of the largest battlefield during the Civil War.
Searching in these areas, you could find some war-related old metal findings, especially bullets and ammunition.
Fort Pickens and Forst Foster are sites of Seminole wars in the state. These were forts during the war, which carried out executive decisions.
You could find some ar memorial in searching in these parts.
Fort De Soto is a famous World War II. In the Second World War, this was a specifically important place during the First World War and the Spanish-American wars.
This served as a fort for so many battles and is bound to have some WR memorial buried in it.
Key West Naval Station is also a place that played a strategic role in World War II.
You could find metal objects near the naval station and surrounding area, like badges, buttons, weapon parts, bullets and ammunition.
These findings have a rich historical value when uncovering these organizations must be alerted, and permission has to be taken. With proper permission, you can detect any place in this list.
5. Tools and Equipment
Tools and pieces of equipment could be from different areas. Ranging from more modern equipment to somewhat old equipment like hammers, shovels, cogwheels, watches, and more.
If you intend to find more recent types of equipment, you should visit beaches and parks.
If you plan to find some old antique equipment and tools, you might have to visit old farm sheds and abandoned ghost towns to find these items.
I am an avid antique metal item collector, so during my trip to Florida, I was more focused on finding items with antique value rather than not.
Here are some of the locations I visited,
- Micanopy, Alachua County
- Oviedo, Seminole County
- Monticello, Jefferson County
- Brewster, Polk County
- Kissimmee Prairie Reserve, Okeechobee County
Micanopy is an old agricultural area in Florida. With its rich history, it has abundant abandoned farms and sheds for you to search for.
You can have a nice metal detecting session with proper permission from the owners.
Oviedo and Monticello are also agricultural-rich areas. Some parts of these areas have passed the better days of farming.
So there are abundant sheds in such areas.
Brewster and Kissimmee are two from Florida’s long list of ghost towns.
You can search anywhere and everywhere until you feel exhausted. Because these are ghost towns, you need not to have permission.
6. Camping Items
In camping sites, like on the beaches and parks, people often lose stuff by accident.
These could vary from large plastic sleeping bags to small metal pegs that hold the camps.
Here are some of the camping locations where you can search for metal in Florida,
- Big Cypress National Preserve, South Florida
- Myakka River State Park, Sarasota
- Fort De Soto Park, Pinellas County
- Blue Spring State Park, Orange County
- Paynes Prarie Preserve, Alachua County
As I love camping as well as I love metal detecting, these kinds of locations excite me.
These locations have so much potential to uncover some of the most interesting things during metal detecting.
While in Florida, I found multiple types of coins, camping pegs, beer cans, jewelry and many more.
And I was lucky to find some gold nuggets in the Ble Spring National Park area.
But as it was state property, I could not carry that home with me. Either way, there are many locations in Florida to find metal items.
Tips For Metal Detecting in Florida
Florida is a dry state. The soil conditions in most locations in Florida are ideal for metal detecting.
This makes it easy for a beginner to detect metal in Florida successfully.
Here are some of the tips that I found quite useful in metal detecting in Florida,
- As you now know, researching locations in Florida is done. If you want to know more about a specific location, the best thing to do is ask a local. No one knows better about their areas than locals.
- Then you have to have the right metal detector. The right metal detector is not the most expensive; the metal detector you are most comfortable with and knows the settings inside out is perfect.
- Take your time in finding the things. Metal detecting is a time-consuming process. You need to have patience to be successful in metal detecting.
Congrats folks! Now you have a clear knowledge about the best metal detecting finds in Florida with locations they could find based on expert local detectorists in Florida including myself.
I’ve collected some of the above information from the experts who are active in metal detecting clubs in Florida.
Some of the most valuable treasures found in Florida include artifacts from the 1715 Spanish fleet shipwreck, which yielded over $450 million in coins, jewelry, and precious stones.
www.cbsnews.com
Now, Let’s answer some frequently asked questions.
FAQs
What types of items can I expect to find while metal detecting in Florida?
In Florida, metal detecting enthusiasts commonly uncover items such as old coins, jewelry, war memorials, tools, equipment, and camping items, each bearing a piece of the state’s rich and diverse history.
Is it legal to keep the items found during metal detecting in Florida?
Yes, in Florida, finds acquired off the beach can be kept, and with proper permits and permissions, items found on public properties can also be retained, adhering to state laws and regulations.
Where are the best places for metal detecting in Florida?
Top spots include Palm Beach, Miami Beach, and various historical sites and parks across the state, known for yielding valuable and historically significant items.
Do I need a permit for metal detecting in Florida?
While beaches and certain public lands in Florida are open for metal detecting, some specific areas, especially historical sites, require permissions and permits to ensure legal and ethical treasure hunting.
Can I find historically significant items while metal detecting in Florida?
Absolutely, given Florida’s rich history, including Native American civilizations, piracy, and significant wartime events, metal detectorists often uncover artifacts of historical importance.
Is experience necessary for successful metal detecting in Florida?
While experience can be beneficial, even beginners can have successful finds, especially when they take the time to learn their equipment and understand the diverse terrains and historical contexts of different areas in Florida.
Are there any metal detecting clubs in Florida I can join?
Yes, joining metal detecting clubs in Florida can provide valuable insights, tips, and shared experiences, enhancing your treasure hunting journeys and helping you explore the state’s hidden gems effectively.
What should I do if I find something of significant historical value?
If an item of significant historical value is uncovered, it’s essential to alert the authorities to ensure the artifact is handled and preserved appropriately, sometimes leading to rewards for the finders.
What types of metal detectors work best in Florida’s terrain?
The choice of metal detector isn’t as crucial as knowing how to use it effectively; both high-end and low-end detectors can yield excellent results when operated with skill and knowledge.
Can I metal detect in Florida’s state parks?
Metal detecting is allowed in specific areas of some state parks, though it’s always best to check the regulations of each park and obtain necessary permissions to ensure a lawful and respectful treasure hunting experience.
Did I cover all you wanted to know about: Best Metal Detecting Finds in Florida
In this article, I’ve deeply discussed the best metal detecting finds in Florida with the locations they could find.
Plus, I’ve included expert tips and techniques collected by interweaving local detectorists that make your treasure-hunting project a lot easier in Florida.
Florida’s metal detecting yields old coins, jewelry, war memorials, tools, and camping items. Top spots include beaches like Palm Beach and historical sites, with finds often reflecting the state’s rich history of piracy, wartime events, and Native American civilizations. Ensure to follow state laws and obtain necessary permissions.
Furthermore, I’ve answered some frequently asked questions as well.
Hope you’ve learned all you wanted to know about the best metal detecting finds in Florida in detail from someone who love treasure hunting and already practiced that over a decade.
You can learn more info about Florida metal detecting by engaging in Metal Detecting Forums in Florida.
Now it’s time to take your companion metal detector and book your next trip to treasure hunt in beautiful Florida. Happy treasure hunting!
