Vintage Masonic Pendant, Chinese Coin Found by MT Treasure Hunter
When I was a kid, I really, really wanted a metal detector.
Like many children, I was enthralled by tales of lost treasure, buried gold, and historic artifacts. Considering my childhood was in Iowa, my odds of finding buried pirate treasure or secret stashes of Civil War gold bars in the cornfields of the Midwest were pretty slim.
My parents didn't cave on my requests for an expensive metal detector.
They didn't have a lot of money and my interests bounced around quite a bit. One year I wanted to play guitar. Then it was computers, followed by photography. Metal detecting was another whim that I wouldn't pursue, my folks surely thought. Years later, I'm still enthralled with the idea of metal detecting. One of these days I'm going to buy one.
Montana metal detector enthusiast shares his finds.
A Montana YouTuber with the Dirty Money Metal Detecting channel recently shared a new video from an early spring metal detecting session in northwest Montana and he found some really interesting stuff. Check it out.
He likes to hit swimming holes in the low-water season.
Spring runoff hasn't really started in Montana in mid-April and this treasure hunter likes to take advantage of popular swimming holes when the lakewater levels are low.
He finds lots of coins.
Some are new money, like the quarter seen above.
Bonus find, a marble!
While digging out the quarter at this spot, he also found a marble in the lakebed gravel.
Old money.
A 1944 Wheat Penny was also discovered on his outing.
Jewelry of all kinds.
Most of his finds in this episode were various pieces of costume jewelry, including some tungsten or stainless steel men's rings, as seen above.
Real silver too.
This interesting horse earring contains silver.
Easter egg!
Perhaps the most humorous find on his treasure-hunting excursion was this Reese's Easter Egg, found still in the wrapper inside the plastic egg, half-buried in the lakeshore sand.
Interesting old Chinese coin.
In 1870, it's said that a quarter of the population in Butte was Chinese. Their coinage ended up all over the state, including the bottom of the lake where Dirty Money Metal Detecting was searching for finds.
Knights Templar piece!
In his video, he says this piece has an inscription on the back that reads, "Montana Commanders, organized May 13th, 1889. Butte. August 1916."
A Templar Cross through the crown.
Not medieval, but probably a pin from an early Masonic Lodge.
Lots of trash. Occasionally treasures.
On this outing, the YouTuber found a bunch of coins (new and old, including an Indianhead penny) some real jewelry and lots of costume jewelry, old Matchbox cars, and other oddities in these swimming holes on the shores of a Montana lake. I assume his metal detector pinged on a fair amount of metal scraps, fishing lures, and other miscellanea too. Unlike other, obviously fake, metal detector videos that you may have seen pop up in your feed, this guy seems like the real deal. Check out his channel.