David Villanueva

David Villanueva was born in Birmingham, England in 1951 where he grew up. In 1972 his mother bought him Ted Fletcher's book, A Fortune Under Your Feet, which inspired him to buy a BFO metal detector. The performance was very poor by current standards but it did find coins and David became hooked. In 1985, a move to Kent, England saw David searching beaches with an old Pulse Induction detector. The machine's sensitivity to iron and zero discrimination did not suit local conditions, so he bought...See more

David Villanueva was born in Birmingham, England in 1951 where he grew up. In 1972 his mother bought him Ted Fletcher's book, A Fortune Under Your Feet, which inspired him to buy a BFO metal detector. The performance was very poor by current standards but it did find coins and David became hooked. In 1985, a move to Kent, England saw David searching beaches with an old Pulse Induction detector. The machine's sensitivity to iron and zero discrimination did not suit local conditions, so he bought a new Induction Balance detector, which worked well on the dry beaches and encouraged him to try inland sites. He joined a metal detecting club and gained permission to search a small farm, making all manner of old and interesting finds. Having a keen interest in history, David researched his locality, which led to more productive sites to search and write about in a dozen books and the two British metal detecting magazines - Treasure Hunting and The Searcher - which have published more than two dozens of David's articles. But it was a chance encounter with Britain's best treasure dowser, Jimmy Longton that supercharged David's treasure hunting. Jimmy, who had dowsed his way to a $60,000 Viking silver hoard, taught David how to dowse for treasure with remarkable results. David suddenly found himself reporting real treasures in the form of caches of ancient tools and gold coins as well as Roman, Saxon and medieval gold and silver jewelry. David has recorded over a dozen finds under the Treasure Act and maintains a shelf full of trophies won at the Swale Search and Recovery Club. See less