In 1986 I bought an expensive White’s metal detector. I had dreams of all the treasure I would find.
I found a fair number of coins, nearly all of them recent and mostly pennies. About the only other thing was a fairly good pocket knife which was not too badly rusted.
I would probably have been willing to kill the guy who invented those old pull tabs for drink cans.
I think if I ever went “treasure hunting”, I would try river panning/prospecting before metal detecting.
At least, if you go to the right rivers, you are pretty much guaranteed to find something. Unless you’re lucky, it won’t be enough gold to cover your time & trouble, but you still won’t end up empty handed, and who knows? There are “glory holes” out there to this day that nobody has found yet, guaranteed.