On state park land
Allowed in some places
Designated swimming beaches only, for modern coins and jewellery, with Point Lookout and Calvert Cliffs excluded – and not between 9am and dusk from late May to Labor Day.
Those three narrowings are individually unremarkable and together they close most of when you would want to go.
1. The rule, in full
Maryland – COMAR 08.07.06.18
Operative text, read from the consolidated code at regs.maryland.gov (Division of State Documents):
A. "The policy of the Service is to safeguard the archeological resources under its care."
B. "Without a permit from the Office of Archeology, Maryland Historical Trust, Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Department, an individual may not dig in search of buried relics or treasures" or use metal detectors, except as provided in D.
D. The exception is "the use of metal detectors in the search for modern coins, jewelry, etc. on all designated swimming beaches operated by the Maryland Park Service, with the exception of Point Lookout State Park and Calvert Cliffs State Park." Permission must be obtained from the Park Manager, and use is barred "[f]rom 9:00 a.m. through dusk from May 30 through Labor Day."
Scope. COMAR 08.07.06 is "Use of State Parks". DNR's own page states the prohibition runs to "lands, beaches, or under waters controlled by the Maryland Park Service".
Determination: Maryland Park Service land only. Does NOT reach municipal parks.
The statute was checked separately, because Maryland's archaeological statutes do use the phrase "political subdivision" and that is exactly the shape that caught Kansas. It does not reach here:
Md. Code, State Fin. & Proc. 5A-342(a): "Without a permit, a person may not excavate, remove, destroy, injure, deface, or disturb a terrestrial archaeological site on land that the State owns or controls."
Md. Code, State Fin. & Proc. 5A-340(a): "Submerged archaeological historic property on or taken from underwater land over which the State has sovereign control is the property of the State."
"[L]and that the State owns or controls" does not reach a city park. The "political subdivision" definition in Part IV governs who may be a party to Trust agreements, not whose land the permit requirement covers. Recorded so the next person does not have to re-check it.
Exception worth carrying to the page verbatim: the designated-swimming-beach carve-out is one of the few genuinely permissive state-park provisions found so far, and it is narrowed three ways – modern coins and jewellery only, two named parks excluded, and a seasonal daytime blackout.
Sources: regs.maryland.gov COMAR 08.07.06.18; dnr.maryland.gov publiclands/Pages/MetalDetecting.aspx; mgaleg.maryland.gov statute text. Checked 19 Sep 2026.
2. Cities in Maryland 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.
3. County rules
Awaiting review. None of the city or county rows publishes until its status is set and its quotation chosen by hand.
4. 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.