Metal Detecting in Florida

1. The rule, in full

Florida – Fla. Admin. Code r. 62D-2.013 (no detecting provision) and the Division's published policy

Read from the Florida Administrative Code at flrules.org, rule 62D-2.013 effective 19 December 1999 and rule 62D-2.014 effective 30 April 2007, both the latest versions presented there; Division of Recreation and Parks policy read from floridastateparks.org. Checked 21 Sep 2026.

There is no metal detecting provision in Florida's state park rules. Neither 62D-2.013 (Park Property and Resources) nor 62D-2.014 (Activities and Recreation) mentions a metal detector. The rule that governs is the general ban on digging and removal:

Operative text, 62D-2.013(2):

"No person shall destroy, injure, deface, mar, move, dig, harmfully disturb or remove from any park area, or the waters thereof, any buildings, structures, facilities, historic ruins, equipment, park property, soil, sand, gravel, rocks, stones, minerals, marine plants or animals, artifacts, or other materials."

Scope, 62D-2.013(1):

"State parks include all real property in the State of Florida under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Recreation and Parks, or which may come under its jurisdiction regardless of the property's designation."

Determination: Division of Recreation and Parks land only. The rule does NOT reach municipal parks.

The detecting rule is the agency's policy, and the agency says it is a rule. Florida State Parks publishes this answer to "Where can I do metal detecting within Florida's state parks?":

"Our statewide park rules, based on regulations set out by the Florida Administrative Code, state that metal detecting is prohibited on all state park lands, except for coastal parks. In these parks, metal detecting may occur within certain beach areas located between the toe of the dune and the high-water line, as designated by the park manager. Metal detecting in submerged locations is not permitted."

"Objects with historic association (anything over 50 years old) are not permitted to be kept by park visitors, even if the objects are found in the areas approved for metal detecting."

"Because these are not coastal parks, metal detecting is not allowed at these locations." (of parks whose beach is on a lake, river or spring)

On lost property: "Metal detectors may be used to recover personal items that are specifically identified by their owner as being lost in a specific area of a park", with the search arranged by the park manager and "conducted in the presence of a park staff member", and "only the item sought may be kept".

This is METHODOLOGY rule 11 exactly. The agency is authoritative about its policy – where detecting is tolerated, what may be kept – and it is the only source for the beach allowance. It is not authoritative about the citation: the Administrative Code it points to contains no metal detecting provision. The page therefore quotes the policy as policy and the rule as the rule, and never attributes the beach allowance or the 50-year line to the Code. The 50-year line appears in no Florida statute read for this entry.

Two separate state rules reach beyond this land, and they are not the same rule. One turns on designation: a state archaeological landmark can sit on city property. The other turns on the tide: on any Florida beach, the sand seaward of the mean high water line is ordinarily state sovereignty land whoever owns the dry beach, and what the state claims there is historic material rather than modern losses. Both are set out in the political-subdivision entry below, and the tidal one matters most here, because it applies to beaches nobody has designated as anything.

Sources: flrules.org 62D-2.013 and 62D-2.014 (Word files, parsed locally); floridastateparks.org/plan-your-visit/faqs, items 1.6 and 1.7. Checked 21 Sep 2026.

2. Where it reaches city and county land

Florida – F.S. 267.11 to 267.13 (designated landmarks, and the foreshore)

Read from the 2026 Florida Statutes published by the Florida Legislature (leg.state.fl.us), sections 267.021, 267.061, 267.11, 267.12, 267.115 and 267.13, and the Florida Constitution, Art. X, s. 11, from the same site. Checked 21 Sep 2026.

Operative text, 267.13(1)(a):

"Any person who by means other than excavation conducts archaeological field investigations on, or removes or attempts to remove or defaces, destroys, or otherwise alters any archaeological site or specimen located upon, land owned or controlled by the state, land owned by a water authority, or land within the boundaries of a designated state archaeological landmark or landmark zone, except in the course of activities pursued under the authority of a permit or under procedures relating to accredited institutions granted by the division, commits a misdemeanor of the first degree".

267.13(1)(b) is the same offence "by means of excavation", and it is a felony of the third degree, with forfeiture of "any vehicle or equipment of any person used in connection with the violation".

Scope: state land, water authority land, and designated landmarks – which can be on city land. 267.11:

"The division may publicly designate an archaeological site of significance … as a 'state archaeological landmark.' … However, no site or grouping of sites shall be so designated without the express written consent of the private owner thereof. … Once so designated, no person may conduct field investigation activities without first securing a permit from the division."

Only a private owner's consent is required. A site on city land can be designated, and once it is, 267.13 applies there. Same shape as Texas and Rhode Island: subject to designation. A city park that is not a designated landmark or inside a landmark zone is not reached.

Permits are institutional, 267.12(2): issued only where "such activity is undertaken by reputable museums, universities, colleges, or other historical, scientific, or educational institutions or societies", and specimens so collected "shall belong to the state", 267.12(4).

The tidal boundary: a separate rule, and the first of its kind here

This is not part of the landmark point and must never be folded into it. The landmark rule turns on designation; this one turns on where the tide reaches, and it applies with no designation at all. It is the first tidal-boundary rule in this project, and it lands on the single most-detected surface in Florida: an ocean beach.

The foreshore is state land. Florida Constitution, Art. X, s. 11:

"The title to lands under navigable waters, within the boundaries of the state, which have not been alienated, including beaches below mean high water lines, is held by the state, by virtue of its sovereignty, in trust for all the people."

and F.S. 267.061(1)(b):

"all treasure trove, artifacts, and such objects having intrinsic or historical and archaeological value which have been abandoned on state-owned lands or state-owned sovereignty submerged lands shall belong to the state with the title thereto vested in the Division of Historical Resources".

267.13(2)(a) lets the division fine "not more than $500 a day" anyone who, without written permission, "explores for, salvages, or excavates treasure trove, artifacts, sunken or abandoned ships, or other objects having historical or archaeological value located upon land owned or controlled by the state, including state sovereignty submerged land".

Our reading: on a beach a city owns, the sand seaward of mean high water is ordinarily still state sovereignty land unless it has been alienated, so 267 can reach the wet sand even where it does not reach the city's dry beach. One beach can therefore sit under two regimes, with the boundary moving twice a day and marked by nothing a detectorist can see.

Both limits must travel with that reading. The constitutional title covers lands "which have not been alienated", and some parcels have been; and both 267.061(1)(b) and 267.13(2)(a) are framed around "treasure trove, artifacts" and objects "having intrinsic or historical and archaeological value". Neither text addresses a modern coin or a dropped ring. So the honest statement is that the wet sand is state land where title was never alienated, and that what the state claims there is historic material, not everything metallic.

What it does NOT prohibit: detecting as such, anywhere. Chapter 267 does not mention metal detectors, on the dry sand or the wet.

Directory entry should read, as two separate points:

• Designated landmarks. Disturbing or removing an archaeological site or

specimen is a crime on state land, on water authority land, and inside a designated state archaeological landmark or zone – and a landmark can be designated on city land without the city's consent, since only a private owner's consent is required.

• Below mean high water. On Florida beaches the wet sand seaward of the

mean high water line is ordinarily state sovereignty land, whoever owns the dry beach above it, and treasure trove and objects of historical or archaeological value abandoned there belong to the state. Exploring for or salvaging those without written permission carries an administrative fine of up to $500 a day.

It should NOT read that metal detecting is prohibited on Florida city beaches or in city parks, and it should NOT suggest the state claims ordinary modern losses on the wet sand.

3. Cities in Florida that publish a rule

Awaiting review. None of the city or county rows publishes until its status is set and its quotation chosen by hand.

4. County rules

Awaiting review. None of the city or county rows publishes until its status is set and its quotation chosen by hand.

5. Cities checked — no published rule

Awaiting review. None of the city or county rows publishes until its status is set and its quotation chosen by hand.