Spotlight Magazines Spotlight on West Bridgford Nottingham August 2015 | Page 8

Spotlight Magazine The Bounty Hunters Modern day metal-detecting I have happy memories of my dad, wearing comical over-size headphones, wandering up and down various beaches with his metal detector, pausing periodically to dig up yet another ring pull or bottle top. We kids hoped for treasure; instead dad found foreign coins, old pennies, and once, an engraved wedding ring, which we handed in to the local police station. Dad’s metal-detecting was a harmless and somewhat seasonal hobby, but recently I was surprised to learn that modern-day metal detecting is a subject which provokes controversy among archaeologists, the police and landowners. Most metal detectors admit that becoming rich or finding something of immense value is about the same as winning the lottery. But it does happen. In 2009 Terry Herbert, who had been metaldetecting for 18 years unearthed what has become known