What is the neatest, or most special NON-Metallic find you have made while metal detecting?

I found a rubber coin purse with the name of a local hotel and bar printed on it. That place had been closed for 40 years. Posted a pic on our Township's Facebook page, and ended up getting in touch with a great grand child of the hotels owner. I gave her the coin purse for her collection.
 

$140 RayBan sunglasses that looked brand new 6 years ago. Someone left them in the evening on a picnic table, I found them the next morning hunting a totlot at the park. I am still wearing them.
Nice. I find Oakley's and Raybans from time to time at park I work. They hang them up on volleyball net or baseball fence and leave them
 

$140 RayBan sunglasses that looked brand new 6 years ago. Someone left them in the evening on a picnic table, I found them the next morning hunting a totlot at the park. I am still wearing them.
Years ago I met a young but wise detectorist of an East coast Florida ocean beach. He was in his low 20's. He hunted the east coast beaches of south Florida for jewelry and sunglasses. He then took the good stuff down to various Caribbean islands and sold the to local sunglasses and jewelry vendors. He was living the good life. It is not often you see a young person actually making a living metal detecting.
 

In general I like finding dumps or stove ash dumps accidentally while detecting. Usually pick up a piece of junk on detector, put in shovel and CRUNCH. Then I start digging it. They aren't usually really deep or hard packed just a lot of little roots.

Neatest find, some kids entire marble collection that dates to circa ww2 , atomic age. I think I got them all. Including the hazal atlas jar that had a marble in it as well. Jar was angled down hill and had a marble rattling around it. Safe to assume marbles were in jar and the jar and all were thrown in dump. 144 marbles and few other odds and ends including paper weight and Japanese ceramic animal.
 

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In general I like finding dumps or stove ash dumps accidentally while detecting. Usually pick up a piece of junk on detector, put in shovel and CRUNCH. Then I start digging it. They aren't usually really deep or hard packed just a lot of little roots.

Neatest find, some kids entire marble collection that dates to circa ww2 , atomic age. I think I got them all. Including the hazal atlas jar that had a marble in it as well. Jar was angled down hill and had a marble rattling around it. Safe to assume marbles were in jar and the jar and all were thrown in dump. 144 marbles and few other odds and ends including paper weight and Japanese ceramic animal.
So cool. I remember as a kid playing marbles. And of course we played for keeps. Any flat dirt area under a shade tree was perfect. Remember keeping one jeans pocket with enough marbles to stay in the game. That was when we made up our own games with other kids that were almost always played outside. As a boy, we spent most of our free time outside unlike my grandsons who are glued to the iPhones, iPads and Playstation inside. One day several years ago we had an extended power failure that lasted most of the day and low and behold, you saw lots of kids in groups walking together or riding bikes outside. All their iPhones and iPads lost their charges and could not be charged until the power was restored and few of our homes these days have landlines.
 

Civil war porcelain buttons, several (but not many) large points made from Flint Ridge Ohio material, a quartz Clovis point, a little one years ago, a Civil War ink bottle and a $50 bill, took lots of years to find these.
 

For us islanders, metal detecting is just one part of the bigger picture....which is "BEACH COMBING" !! Beach combing is a way of life in the islands, and it's basically walking the beaches and finding whatever has washed up. "Wrecking" is a bit more involved, but basically it's advanced level beach combing which involves the salvaging of shipwrecks that wash up on the shorelines. Stripping all the stainless and bronze hard ware off abandoned and wreck boats would be just some of the activities of a wrecker, or beach comber. Finding old bottles, and reselling fishing floats and bouys has always been part of a beachcombers activities, and often times when I'm metal detecting it's also an opportunity to beachcomb for other treasures such as bouys, bottles, shells, etcetera...and then there's the dark trade....the secret underworld of cocaine, Marijuana, and large shipments of cash....the so called "square groupers" that often wash ashore in my neck of the beaches !! An entire underworld of hunters exists solely dedicated to this elicit trade...the modern mangrove mafia pirates ☠️ there are also other natural treasures that are rarely discussed and kept on the down low by us beachcombers, and they would include things like coral, ambergris, sponges, sea fans, even bones and teeth from any number of dead animals, old pottery frags, and seaglass both have a value, and active trade amongst collectors and artists. There is also a cult following of collectors of drift seeds, or "sea beans" so they are always picked up and traded and sold. I myself hunt in the water alot, and so I will set the .metal detector aside at the opportunity to dive up specimen grade sea shells, and can make incredible money very quickly if I happen to swim into a rich shell area, and certain shells demand high prices. They can range from a few bucks each to hundreds of dollars apiece !! So for us in the islands there is often more value, or better opportunity in the nonmetallic finds than the tedious work of finding a single gold ring for 8 hours of work....I might be able to find 10 shells in an hour that are worth 60 $ each !! At that point in a dive, I've abandoned my metal detector on the bottom, and have 3 helmet conch under each arm at 100$+ each !! I can always detect later after loading my limit of shells !!
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Getting ready to sell shells...this is by far the most secret, and profitable activity for an islander to undertake !! When you know where and how to find, collect, and clean these shells....you will definitely contemplate quitting your day job !! Add a gold ring into your day, and you really are making good money, and more than most jobs pay !! Now is shell season for me, and my friend who can't dive (ear problems) will drive the boat, and tow me along in the shallows. The shallows are anything from 3 feet, to 30 feet for me. Once a shell is spotted we dive down and retrieve it...my driver is the shell "caddy" and packs shells in ice, and makes decisions on which ones to keep, and which ones to discard depending on size, color, and quality!! Once we have a few days worth, and there clean and ready for sale we call our buyer who will set up a date to come and make a deal...we will drink beers and haggle and argue over prices, and eventually strike a deal for our shell treasure !! So yeah there are many natural treasures to profit from in the islands, and many are found at the same time I'm detecting!!
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An old fishing float like this is a true treasure, it's valuable, beautiful, collectable, and rare !! A non metallic prize for sure !!
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Shipwreck porcelain and pottery are another non metallic prize, and I love to make art with it that can be sold ... a way to up value what many consider trash.
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Bottles are prized when they are old and another sought after nonmetallic treasure in my area...always on the look out for them.
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I'll stop here, as I could go on and on...the point is treasure hunting and metal detecting are 2 completely different mind sets...the metal detectorist would pass over many things in the interest of finding only metal objects, and is very concerned with the technology and performance of the machines involved....a true treasure hunter uses the metal detector as a tool, and only part of the time. Treasure hunters will throw the detector down in the sand when other nonmetallic treasures present themselves and care not for the technical aspects of the machine. There are far more non metallic treasures to be had, and a true treasure hunter pursues all opportunities for profitable gain, or up valuing a collection, or pursuing the non metallic "treasures" so to speak !!
Let's see some other non metallic treasures !!
 

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My favourite is this little handmade pottery ink pot.
I was digging a target out on an old gold lead worked in the 1850s to 1860s.
This came out whilst doing it. Reason I like it so much is that it has the makers fingerprint on it. Just adds another level to its value in my opinion, not monetary value but historical wise to me.
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My favourite is this little handmade pottery ink pot.
I was digging a target out on an old gold lead worked in the 1850s to 1860s.
This came out whilst doing it. Reason I like it so much is that it has the makers fingerprint on it. Just adds another level to its value in my opinion, not monetary value but historical wise to me.View attachment 2158945
View attachment 2158946
Very cool! You sometimes see finger prints in the glaze of old ceramic insulators made in the USA in the late 1800’s early 1900s. Imagine it happened in other countries too.
 

My favourite is this little handmade pottery ink pot.
I was digging a target out on an old gold lead worked in the 1850s to 1860s.
This came out whilst doing it. Reason I like it so much is that it has the makers fingerprint on it. Just adds another level to its value in my opinion, not monetary value but historical wise to me.View attachment 2158945
View attachment 2158946
Absolutely awesome find. Congratulations.
 

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