Metal Detecting in Maryland: Beaches, Assateague & the Law (2026)

Quick Answer: Maryland allows metal detecting on most designated state swimming beaches without a permit under COMAR 08.07.06.18, but only in-season (roughly May 30–Labor Day) and only for modern coins, jewelry, and other recently lost items — with Point Lookout and Calvert Cliffs state parks specifically excluded from that exception. Everywhere else on Department-controlled land needs a Maryland Historical Trust archaeology permit, generally reserved for qualified professionals. Assateague Island splits the difference further: the federal National Seashore bans detectors outright, while the adjacent Maryland state park section allows it only in the opposite, off-season window — and the nearby town of Ocean City runs its own separate paid permit system on top of both.

Verified September 19, 2026: Confirmed the exact permit and exception language of COMAR 08.07.06.18 via the Cornell Legal Information Institute’s regulation mirror, cross-checked the Maryland Historical Trust’s own metal-detecting guidance page, and verified Assateague Island’s split federal/state rules and Ocean City’s municipal permit terms across the National Park Service, Maryland DNR, and Ocean City sources.

Maryland is the 27th entry in this state-by-state series — Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Alabama, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Minnesota, New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts. It’s the first state in the series where a single ~30-mile stretch of coastline is governed by three completely separate rulebooks — federal, state, and municipal — each with its own season, permit, and boundary.

COMAR 08.07.06.18: a beach exception with two carve-outs

Maryland’s core rule is short: without a permit from the Office of Archeology, Maryland Historical Trust, you can’t dig for buried relics or treasure, remove prehistoric or historic artifacts, or use a metal detector on land, beaches, or waters controlled by the Department of Natural Resources. Those permits go to archaeologists and other qualified individuals presenting a plan for scientific investigation under the Maryland Archeological and Submerged Archaeological Historic Properties Acts — not a general-purpose hobbyist license.

The regulation then carves out an exception for designated swimming beaches, allowing detector use there specifically to search for modern coins, jewelry, and other recently lost items, generally during 9 a.m.–dusk hours between May 30 and Labor Day, with further restrictions possible at the park manager’s discretion. That’s a genuinely open rule by this series’ standards — most states require a permit or written permission even on popular beaches.

But the exception itself has an exception: Point Lookout State Park and Calvert Cliffs State Park are named exclusions, meaning their beaches still require the full archaeology permit like any other DNR land. Point Lookout was a Civil War prisoner-of-war camp site with recognized historical significance, and Calvert Cliffs is one of the mid-Atlantic’s best-known Miocene fossil beds — plausible reasons for the carve-out, though the regulation itself doesn’t spell out the justification.

Assateague Island: two jurisdictions, opposite seasons

Assateague splits into two managements that sit right next to each other and treat detecting almost oppositely. Assateague Island National Seashore, the much larger federal portion managed by the National Park Service, bans metal detectors outright — the same possession ban this series has already confirmed at Acadia in Maine and Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts. You can’t carry an assembled detector onto NPS land there regardless of intent.

Assateague State Park, the smaller Maryland-run section at the island’s north end, is more open — but only in the off-season. Detecting is allowed from the day after Labor Day through May 30, and only on the ocean side of the primary dune. Any exception to those terms needs the park manager’s written permission, and any hole dug can only be as deep as a small child’s knees and has to be filled back in before you leave. That’s the opposite calendar window from the statewide COMAR beach exception (May 30–Labor Day), which means Assateague’s own state-park section and the rest of Maryland’s exempted beaches are almost never open to detecting at the same time.

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Ocean City: a third, separate rulebook

Ocean City sits just south of Assateague and runs entirely its own system, unconnected to either the state park or the federal seashore. The town requires its own permit — $20 for a single day or $50 for a season — and restricts detecting to November 1 through March 30, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., from 27th Street south to the Inlet jetty. That’s a third agency, a third season, and a third fee structure layered onto the same short stretch of coastline as Assateague’s two jurisdictions — meaning a detectorist working this part of Maryland’s shore genuinely needs to track three separate calendars and three separate permission systems depending on exactly which stretch of sand they’re standing on.

Getting started

The most reliable starting point statewide is a designated state swimming beach outside the Point Lookout and Calvert Cliffs exclusions, during the May 30–Labor Day window, where COMAR 08.07.06.18 needs no permit at all for modern coins, jewelry, and lost items. If you’re drawn to the Ocean City/Assateague area specifically, plan around the off-season instead: Assateague State Park’s ocean-side dune line from the day after Labor Day through May 30, or Ocean City’s paid permit window from November through March. As with every state in this series, private land with the owner’s clear permission remains the most dependable option year-round. Check our beginner buying guide before your first outing.

The bottom line

Maryland’s designated state swimming beaches are open to detecting without a permit under COMAR 08.07.06.18, but Point Lookout and Calvert Cliffs are named exceptions that still require a Maryland Historical Trust permit, and every other DNR property off the beach needs one too. Assateague Island adds a federal/state split — banned on the National Seashore, seasonal on the state-park section — and Ocean City layers a third, entirely separate municipal permit system on top of both, each running its own calendar. See the complete field in our overall pillar rankings or the metal detecting legality guide for how other states compare.

Sources: COMAR 08.07.06.18 — Relics, Treasures, and Metal Detectors (Cornell LII), Metal Detecting in Maryland (Maryland Historical Trust), Assateague State Park — Frequently Asked Questions (Maryland DNR), Can You Use a Metal Detector in Ocean City or Assateague? (OceanCity.com), MDHTALK — Maryland Metal Detecting Law & Regulations.