Another walk in the fields

So in my last blog I said there might be another field walk taking place in mid October, which I had been invited to attend again with my detector. Keith Fitzpatrick Matthews the Curator and Heritage Access Officer at North Herts Museums and Councillor Sam Collins scouted out the new field one October morning to see if the conditions would be conducive to inviting volunteers on another field walk. After the success of the last field walk I was hoping for another sunny day full of enthusiastic volunteers looking for evidence of the past. But alas, it was not to be.

The field in question would only be available between crops coming out and going in, so there was a very short window of opportunity. The weather hadn’t been favourable so conditions weren’t great for conducting a volunteer based field walking exercise. Keith contacted me to let me know the decision, but he also had some good news. He informed me that I had been granted special permission by the land owner to continue the detector survey that the museum wanted to include as part of the field walk.

I had two weekends in which to search a field that was incredibly muddy and which was so big I couldn’t fully see it from end to end! I was told I had the permission a day before the first weekend and luckily I had no plans. I was out bright and early the next morning, full of excitement and expectation. I decided that I would detect around the perimeter first and then work my way inwards and try and tackle the field in sections.

My first find of the day was a medieval lead token which was in pretty good nick, it certainly gave me hope that there would be some good finds to come. After that though things were pretty quiet right up until lunch. I had parked in a lay-by near the field so I went back to the car for half an hour before starting my afternoon session.

When I got back into the field I was quite surprised to see another detectorist out there getting his swing on. He approached me and was quite friendly and chatty. It turns out he had spent the morning searching the surrounding fields, he asked if I had found anything to which I replied “not much really, I only have permission for this one field!”. Having made the point that I had permission, things then became a little uncomfortable and he went on his way.

I contacted Keith to see if anyone else had permission to be there and his reply was quite telling, “That’s very concerning: the land owner has a blanket ban on detecting, which they have waived for this specific project. The other detectorist is there without permission!”. It’s worth noting at this point that it appears to be quite a privilege to be granted access by this land owner to detect on their land. Historically it’s unheard of that they grant permission and if my detecting survey hadn’t been included as part of Keith’s field walking project then I certainly wouldn’t have had this fantastic opportunity!

The fact that this guy obviously knew he was there without permission left me feeling quite angry. He had good kit and looked like a season detectorist so he must know the do’s and dont’s that the majority of detectorists abide by. Is it any wonder that it’s becoming harder and harder to secure permissions when trust is being ebbed away by the actions of people like this. I just hope that if he did find anything that he at least had the decency to record it with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, but I fear that’s very doubtful.

I carried on my afternoon with varying results. I had a few of the usual suspects, some 20th century coins, a couple of nice medieval buckles, a few musket balls and what could possibly be part of a medieval strap end. I trudged off the field just as dusk was setting in feeling a little disappointed. Like the last field walk I was hoping for some good Roman finds but unfortunately it was the same result, nothing!

The next day I was up at the crack of dawn and straight back out there! Thankfully I never saw another detectorist for the remainder of my survey, don’t get me wrong I love doing group stuff but only when the permission is in place to do so. The second day was much like the first in that I wasn’t finding anything Roman. It started to make me wonder if this field had been cleaned out by illegal detecting as well, much like the Roman bath house site appears to have been. Not deterred I carried on and I’m so glad that I did. The best find was at the end of the day, by which point a friend of mine had popped over with his dog to see how I was getting on. It was then that I unearthed the best Roman coin that I have found to date.

I had a good clear signal, the type that usually tells me I have an item with some copper content. About 5 inches down at the end of the clod that I pulled out was a little slither of green. As I pulled at this green edge it fell away to reveal a perfect bust of Trajan, and it was stunningly clear as you can see by the pictures. This is the first time that I have actually given a shout of joy at finding something whilst detecting. Even more surprising was the condition of the reverse, the detail was just breathtaking. I’m glad my friend was there to share in the moment, it’s one of those firsts that I definitely won’t forget. For those that follow my detecting journey on instagram you will have noticed that I have milked this find a little bit, but who wouldn’t. I know Roman coins are pretty common finds, but in this condition and with that beautiful green patina, not often. You can now view the specifics for this coin on the Portable Antiquities Scheme link at the bottom of this post.

The next weekend I only had the Saturday on which to detect due to other commitments. In all I had a good mixture of stuff that included coins, buttons, a few medieval bits, a big but broken crotal bell and a possible medieval pin head. So on the metal front things had gone pretty well I think, but it wasn’t just metal Items that I was picking up. Had the field walk gone ahead, then the purpose of it would have been much like the last one which was to look for finds on the surface, like pottery and tile fragments, evidence of the past.

Not having a trained eye for this sort of thing I did my best to pick up the odd bit here and there and it turns out it was a good thing I did. As my detecting was part of a project for the museum everything that I found had to be handed in to Keith. When I met with Keith we went through the finds and a good portion of the pottery items I found turned out to be Roman, I even found what might be a piece of Roman mosaic tesserae.

The very last thing I found was also just lying on the ground. It looks like it could be the stem of some kind of vessel, possibly a wine cup. It looks like it should be made of glass but the problem is that it is jet black and it has no translucency, even when a high powered LED light is shone on it. I was so intrigued by it that I looked up Andy McConnell (The glass expert on BBC’s The Antiques Roadshow) on instagram and messaged him to see if he could throw any light on the matter. He was kind enough to reply and said he thought It looked like early 17th Century furnaced formed glass and that it was probably the stem of a wine vessel. He asked what colour it was and when I told him it was jet black he said there was no such thing as truly ‘black’ glass. He said it was probably a very deep green and that shining a light on the thinner edges would show this, but it didn’t. This started to make me think that it might be obsidian, but I’m sure Keith will investigate and get to the bottom of it.

So once again, now that this little project is at an end, it just leaves me to wonder about the objects that I found. As it turns out all of the Roman items were in close proximity to each other which really has my imagination firing. Is it possible that having found fragments of Roman pot, bowls and plates that this could be the site of some kind of Roman dwelling? All of this evidence along with that perfect Dupondius of Trajan would certainly suggest so. With a high status Roman bathhouse in the area I don’t think it’s unreasonable to speculate that there would have been outlying dwellings and that maybe this little hotspot that I appear to have stumbled upon could well be the site of one of them.

Left with that curious and lingering thought I have to thank Keith for this amazing opportunity to be part of his archaeological project. I never thought when I started detecting again just over a year ago that I would get the chance to take part in projects like this. I love that I get to uncover all this history, but even more so that I’m able to share it and contribute to building a picture of how life once was in my local area in times gone by.

And once again this hopefully isn’t the end. I have been told there might be more opportunities coming up in the early spring of 2022, so watch this space, more could be on the way…

A walk in the fields

So I have been back detecting again for nearly a year now and I have pretty much been on the same permission for that entire time. The two fields where I detect were kept by my family when the rest of the land which they owned for their orchard farming business was sold off in the late 1960’s. I have struggled to get other permissions locally so I feel incredibly thankful to have these two fields in which to wind away the hours listening for bleeps and beeps.

So far my finds have taken me on quite the historical journey including Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Medieval right through to Victorian times and the modern day. Nothing I have found has been of any significant value in monetary terms but these fields have proven to be rich with history. They have also proven to be plentiful with bits of old farm machinery, I reckon I’m pretty close to being able to build my own tractor!

During this time I have also become quite friendly with Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews the Curator and Heritage Access Officer at North Herts Museums. Keith has been an amazing wealth of knowledge and very patient in taking the time to help identify the things I find and also in letting me know what needs to go to the Finds Liaison Officer. It turns out that Keith has studied and written about the history and archaeology of the general area in which I’m detecting so I feel fairly confident that he is genuinely interested in seeing what finds come up.

I have known for quite some time that there is what is thought to be a Roman Bath House not too far from where I detect so I have been quite hopeful in finding Roman items. To that end I have had 3 Roman coins so far, but I have also been told that these fields have been detected on by many others over the years so I do wonder if there is much else left to find.

I quite often walk the dog around the area where the Roman Bath House is believed to be and I always think to myself how good it would be to be able to detect around there. It’s an Ancient Scheduled Monument so no detecting directly over the bath house would be allowed, but surely the field surrounding it could be? I decided to ask Keith if he knew who the land owner was, and his reply resulted in the highlight of my detecting journey so far.

It turns out that Keith did know and that he had been planning a field walking day with local councillor Sam Collins for when the crops had been harvested. His intention was to see what evidence of Roman occupation could be found and he said that a detector survey would be a useful addition to that. Yes you heard it right, an archaeologist inviting a detectorist to be part of an archaeological field walk! You can imagine my excitement to be able to detect on known Roman occupied land which I had been longingly looking at and walking around for years.

Keith and Sam had put a call out in the local paper for volunteers to come along and take part in the field walking exercise so that more of the field could be covered in the one day that they had available. On the day around 50-60 people turned up all of varying ages, backgrounds and interests. As we all gathered around, Keith explained to everyone what it was they were looking for, how to bag it, label it and record where their finds were being found using What Three Words. People were put into groups of 3 or 4 and given a direction in which to walk scouring the ground for evidence of what might have once been there.

For the morning session I was the sole detectorist and I set off walking my line in the hope that I was going to pull up some good Roman finds. By the end of the day I had found nothing Roman, not one Roman item. I couldn’t understand it, the field walking session itself had ended very successfully with lots of evidence of Roman occupation and even a Mesolithic Tranchet Axehead was found, but for me, not a jot. Later in the afternoon another detectorist stopped by and informed Keith that the area had been extensively ‘Night Hawked’ by a group of detectorists some years ago and as you can imagine my heart sank at this news but it would also explain my lack of Roman finds.

Thats not to say I didn’t have any finds, there was the odd button, bits of farm machinery and a lead bag seal, but then there was something that actually turned out to be a little bit special. Keith and I were both unsure of what this find might be so he suggested I take a look through the Finds Identified books when I got home to see if there was anything similar, and sure enough there was! I actually think Keith knew what it was but decided to send me on my own little journey of discovery.

I have also become quite friendly over email with the editor of a certain best selling detecting magazine during my new found love for the hobby. It turns out that where I detect is part of his old hunting ground so like Keith I think there is a genuine interest in the things that come up. I emailed pics of the find to him and this was his response, “That area has been well hit over years – however that is a Celtic loop and toggle fastener, probably the best example I’ve seen”.

With that news I wanted to find out more. The find is now in the museums possession but I had taken my own photos so I sent those to Matt Fittock our Finds Liaison Officer to find out what his thoughts were on the find… “Yes, that looks to be late Iron Age to me. It’s definitely a loop fastener but that extra plate on top is unusual and it’s generally the style of similar late Iron Age mounts. Date wise I would say it’s somewhere between 50 BC to 50 AD based on this and the general chronology of loop fasteners overall.” He then went on to say, “It would be good to have crisp and perfectly focused images for something like this; it’s a pretty rare example as far as I can tell. It’s a really nice find.”

So what I thought was a bit of a disappointing day on the finds front actually turned out to be pretty successful. On the whole the day itself was a great success in that it gained the archaeological aims that Keith had set it out to do. Everyone involved seemed to enjoy themselves, but for me, to be part of this archaeological event as a detectorist was a great privilege and I can’t thank Keith enough for the opportunity. It just goes to show that detecting can be of benefit to archaeology and it has certainly given Keith food for thought as it’s possible that this find might be evidence of an Iron Age settlement in the area.

So that just leaves me to wonder about this Celtic Loop fastener, and this is the part of the hobby that I really love. It’s one thing feeling the buzz of unearthing a good find, but it’s quite another to imagine it’s place in a person’s life over 2000 years ago. This is an item that had a purpose and regularity in the day to day living of our Celtic ancestors. It’s a connection between them and us, a reminder of what we once were and it really does go a long way to painting a picture in my imagination of what life could have been like back then. I wonder if someone will feel the same awe and excitement in another 2000 years when they unearth a Levis zip!

But this isn’t the end, Keith has extended an invitation to another field walk in mid October so the story will hopefully continue… P.S. Since writing this blog the Loop and Toggle Fastener has now been recorded on the PAS database. It has been listed as a find of note and has been designated: Potential for inclusion in Britannia. Click on the Portable Antiquities Scheme link to view the record.

Favourite find so far

I don’t know why I have waited until now, but I think its time to blog about my favourite find so far, an Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) small-long brooch. I found this little beauty on a pretty cold Sunday afternoon at the beginning of January. To be honest it almost didn’t make it home as I initially mistook it as part of the fastening from a belt buckle, I have been finding quite a lot of fairly modern buckles probably lost by farm workers over the years.

Still not thinking much of it I put it in my finds pouch and carried on detecting. It’s only when I got home and cleaned it up a little that I thought it maybe something a bit more special. A lovely green patina was revealed and some very rudimentary decoration on the front.

As I do with a lot of my finds I sent some images to the curator of my local museum. I feel very lucky that I have enough of a friendship with him to be able to do this and I’m always in awe of his incredible knowledge. He told me it was an early Anglo-Saxon small-long brooch and that it should be reported to our local Finds Liason Officer for confirmation. I reported it as he suggested and it is now recorded on the PAS register and can be seen on the link at the end of this blog.

Having confirmation on the brooch left me thinking about who would have owned and worn it. So I took to doing a little research, it turns out that Hertfordshire formed part of the Kingdom of Mercia and the Saxon peoples living in and around the Hitchin area after the Roman Occupation were known as the Hicce.

It would seem that these types of brooches were mainly worn by women as a way of fastening items of clothing together. It is suggested that the small-long brooch is a cheaper substitute for the bigger cruciform brooch, so this particular specimen could have belonged to someone from a less wealthy part of Saxon society.

The foot of the brooch is missing which would have held part of the clasp mechanism, the fact that it is missing could possibly explain why this brooch was lost. It’s generally thought that Saxon women were involved in jobs that didn’t require much physical labour such as dairy maids, cheese makers and bakers. So maybe this brooch was lost by a Saxon woman whilst milking the cows?

Again, it’s such a great part of the hobby to build a picture in your head of who these things belonged to and how they lost them, if indeed this brooch was lost. There is no way of knowing if what I am thinking is actually the reason for how I came to find this brooch, but it is certainly one possibility which I think is quite plausible.

So another little piece of Hitchin history has been found, identified and recorded. I really do hope that there will be a lot more finds like this to come as I continue on my detecting journey!

Treasure hunting

So as you will know from my blog, I got back into detecting in September 2020. Since then it’s become a hobby which I am now addicted too and one that I love everything about. I have only been detecting in two fields so far but finding out about the history connected to the things that I find is starting to paint a good picture of the people who have been there in the past.

This Is why I started blogging, because I now have a real interest in the history behind what I find. This is part of the reason why I decided to contact Treasure Hunting Magazine as the news and views section seemed to be full of people who were as enthused about the hobby as me.

So I wrote to them explaining that I had got back into detecting and started blogging about it. They replied and were very friendly and enthusiastic about my new found love for detecting and suggested I should write a piece about it for the magazine. I have to say I was quite surprised when they suggested it, but I wrote it and a few months later my article was printed in the May edition.

I was chuffed to bits when the magazine came through the letterbox. To see that I had a full page article printed on page 10 felt amazing, I am now a man in print, lol! I have commented before on how this hobby has been a tonic for my mental health during the lockdowns, but I can’t advocate enough how much of a benefit it really has been.

Being passionate about a hobby, something you can really loose yourself in and forget everything else for a while has been an immeasurable help. I understand that detecting may not be for everyone, but it has definitely made a big difference in my life to have a pastime that I really look forward to doing, and may that long continue. Blogging about it is a further extension of this and something I intend to keep up as I build a small picture of the past for myself and others to see.

So that just leaves me to thank Jules and the team at Treasure Hunting Magazine for taking an interest and printing my article, you made this newbie a very happy chappy!

Detect-Ed shaft review

Being a keen mountain biker I’m forever pimping my ride with the odd upgrade here and there. Mostly it’s stuff I don’t need to upgrade but I’m addicted to shiny new techy stuff! I thought I would be safe from this addiction with metal detecting as I really didn’t think there would be much scope for pimping a detector… turns out I was wrong!

There is a world of extras and add ons for detectorists to get addicted too, a whole range of must have gadgets and upgrades. So it hasn’t taken long for me to make a change to my Equinox 600, a new shaft to be precise and a carbon fibre one no less.

You may ask what’s the point in changing the shaft, the stock one is reasonably user friendly and it’s not particularly heavy? These things are true, but I have a couple of niggles with the stock one and I also have a tech addiction to please. My main gripe with the stock shaft is that it’s musical! It has a row of holes most of it’s length which are used as anchor points for the locking mechanism to extend or retract and secure the shaft in place. It’s not a bad system, it works, but on a windy field these holes have a tendency to whistle, much like the sound you get from blowing over the top of a bottle. The OCD in me finds this incredibly annoying so the search for a new shaft began!

After reading quite a few reviews on shafts I opted for the Detect-Ed two piece carbon shaft. Other companies do make three piece options but most reviews said they weren’t sturdy enough and that it didn’t make for a comfortable swinging action.

Detect-Ed is an Australian company and I ordered the new shaft direct from them at a cost of $130 (£88) including postage and packaging. From order to doorstep it took about two weeks to arrive, not too bad considering we are in the middle of a pandemic. It arrived in a heavy duty cardboard tube which was fairly untarnished by it’s travels around the world. After removing it from the packaging it was fairly easy to swap the shafts over, it took about 10 minutes in all and I have to say it looks absolutely fantastic!

My first outing with the new shaft was on a fairly rugged and stubble ridden permission so it was ideal for seeing how tough and sturdy this shaft is. Throughout the day it performed really well, the swinging action felt stronger and more assured than the stock shaft. Hitting clumps of dirt and sifting it’s way through the stubble was no trouble at all and the coil attachment feels very sturdy, well made and well connected to the shaft. Weighing in at 180g it’s nearly 100g lighter than the stock shaft (274g) which does make a difference when you are out on a permission for hours.

It’s strange to say but thankfully it was a windy day and it was a joy not hearing any whistling from my new shaft, this was after all my main reason for buying and my ears love it.

My only issue with this shaft is the locking mechanism. It’s works like a mountain bike quick release which I love, the only problem is that the lower part of the shaft does not stay in a straight line position when you extend and retract. This means that you have to be a little precise lining things up before you secure the lock which I can live with but it would be an easy thing for Detect-Ed to sort out. A groove on the lower shaft and a notch to feed it through on the locking cuff would solve this problem and give it a little more stability too.

When the lower shaft is fully retracted it’s about an inch shorter than the stock shaft, it doesn’t sound like much but loosing the extra inch made it much easier to store it in the boot of the car, bonus!

There are a couple of price options on the Detect-Ed carbon shaft, I have the black version but for a little more money there is a red belly version. Both of these have the further option of an aluminium arm cuff at an additional cost. You can also buy coil washers for the lower shaft which could be quite handy to keep as spares.

So to conclude, I love this shaft. It looks great, it performs well and it doesn’t sing me a tune when it’s windy! It’s gets a solid 8/10 from me and if detect-Ed can sort the locking mechanism then it would be 10/10!

The humble, boring, button…

“…so if you think about how many buttons our predecessors had on their clothes compared to the number of coins they would have had in their pockets is it any wonder that we find many more buttons in our day to day detecting than we do coins?”

Terry Seymour – Detectorists

Never a truer word said! So far my button collection is much bigger than my coin collection and up to this point all of my finds have come from the same field. It’s a field which I know has been worked by my family for well over 100 years and before that who knows? But the fact it has been worked, stands to reason that workers will loose buttons!

On the whole most of the buttons I find are in fact quite boring, faceless and small. But as you can see from my collection, I have also found some buttons with quite detailed designs and variations in sizes. I do find it quite strange that I should find quite so many military buttons as I’m pretty sure the land I’m detecting on doesn’t have any military history. So what are they doing there?

One possible answer to this was provided by an old passer by that stopped to have chat. On this particular day I had found a Royal Engineers button which I showed to the elderly gentleman I was chatting to. He asked If I had found any other military buttons which I had and he proceeded to tell me this reason why.

He said that after the two World Wars there would have been a lot of surplus uniforms that were no longer needed. To dispose of them they would have been scattered over the farmer’s fields and ploughed into the land as they were made from biodegradable materials. Over time as the uniform material wasted away the buttons would be left behind for detectorists like me to find.

As yet I have not found any written accounts to back this up, but it certainly would explain why I’m finding so many military buttons!

There is one particular military button in my collection that did not come from a war fought overseas. This pewter pimple button dates back to the 1640’s and would have been part of a uniform worn during the english civil war. Again it’s left to the imagination as to how this button ended up in the field. Was it lost in a fight? Had it pinged off in the throws of passion with a local maid? Maybe his uniform became too tight after a large lunch? Whatever the reason, these buttons really do have a very real and personal connection to the people in the past that would have worn them.

I’m still trying to find out information on many of the buttons I have, so if you see something that you recognise then please do get in contact to let me know any information that you may have.

I have to say that finding buttons doesn’t quite give me the same feeling as finding coins, but looking at my collection of buttons altogether like this does give me a sense of the variety of people that have worked, lived and socialised on this land over the years.

As Terry Seymour said “…and so the humble, ‘boring’ button is a very real piece of social history.”

What have the Romans…

So having found my first silver hammered coin I didn’t think it could get much better. Even though it’s a coin that’s fairly common in the world of hammered’s, it was still a thrill to find my first. But my continued desire to find objects from further back in time has once again been rewarded, and this time it was Roman!

It was another cold and wet day but I was getting some pretty good signals. A lot of it turned out to be trash, but you keep going because you know at some point it will be something good. The field I’m detecting on has thrown up all sorts in the short time I have been searching it, and from a wide range of periods in time. I have always been confident that I would find something Roman at some point due to the close proximity of the known site of a Roman villa. Finally it’s happened, I’ve found my first Roman coin!

When I first pulled it out of the ground I thought it might be a toasted George III penny, it was about the same size and because of the mud it looked like it would be faceless. But after rubbing away some of the mud a figure slowly appeared, a figure that looked positively roman. I could also just about make out the word ROMANI, that was it, no question that I had my first roman coin!

I immediately sent a photo on messenger to the curator of my local museum and he came back fairly quickly to confirm it was indeed my first Roman coin. I was over the moon! When I got back home I was straight on to google to try and research my new find. The first thing I found out is that the word ROMANI belongs to the phrase ‘GENIO POPULI ROMANI’. The use of the dative (Genio) shows the inscription to be dedicatory and means “To the guardian spirit of the people of Rome”. The standing figure represents this Genius, and holds a cornucopiae, from which all riches flow, and a patera, a small circular dish used when making sacrifices.

Because the bust on the other side has been so badly worn its difficult to know who to attribute it to, but it’s most probably from the Maximian period. He was Roman emperor from 286 to 305 which would mean this coin is over 1700 years old. That’s the bit that sends shivers down my spine, the fact that the last time a person held this coin was over 1700 years ago!

I don’t think I’m ever going to tire of this hobby. Even though a lot of the time I’m pulling up rusty nails, ring pulls, screws and bits of old farm machinery, the fact that every now and then you will find things like a Roman coin make it all worth while. I know this particular coin is in bad condition, and in monetary terms isn’t worth very much. But again, it’s about the history this coin holds, that connection to someone in the past, 1700 years in the past!

The most rewarding part is that I found this little piece of history. I went out in search of it and I found it, which leaves me with one thought, what else is left out there for me to find? What ever it is, keep following my blog and we will find out!

Update…

A quick update to this blog as I have just found my second Roman coin! This one was found in the second field that I have permission on which is just a few hundred yards from the first. This time it’s silver and like the first Roman coin is pretty beaten up! You can just about see the bust and surprisingly that seems to be enough to identify it. The coin is now registered on the PAS database as a denarius, possibly of Elagabalus, the bust does look to have similarities!

Doing a little research I have found out that Elagabalus officially known as Antoninus, was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. Yet again the finds keep going back further in time and hopefully at some point I will find a roman coin in much better condition!

Another update…

So it would seem I’m not done with my journey back in time. This weekend the fields are taking me back to the iron age as I have just discovered my first celtic coin. Again like both of the roman coins I have found its pretty beaten up, but on one side you can just about make out the outline of a horse. This coin can most likely be attributed to King Tasciovanus, who ruled from 20BC to 9AD before the Roman occupation of Britain. King Tasciovanus ruled out of Verlamion (the site of modern-day St Albans) which is not that far from where I am detecting in Hitchin.

I have been told this coin is either a copper core or bronze unit but I’m not sure which. What I am sure of is that being over 2000 years old it is the oldest coin I have found to date. I keep saying it but the coins really do keep going back further in time. I wonder just how much more history is in this little patch of land that I am learning my detecting skills on? What ever history is still there to be discovered you can rest assured I will be doing my best to find it, all I can say is watch this space!

Yet another update…

This time the Romans are back in town. Like all finds of this type I have sent it through to my local Finds Liason Officer and he came back to me with this reply “It looks like a copper-alloy Dupondius of Claudius I, contemporary copy, dating to the period c.AD 41-54, probably with Ceres on the reverse”.

So this would place it right at the beginning of the Roman occupation of Britain which began in AD 43 during the reign of Claudius. I wonder who lost this coin, maybe a Roman soldier of some description? Obviously I will never know, but it’s great to imagine these things and that’s what I love about this hobby. Imagining the people and times that these objects came from and belonged too, I wonder how much more history this field will give up?

First silver hammy…

Since the latest lockdown and what seems to be a never ending list of restrictions, it’s been really tough not being able to go out detecting. For the most part, I find detecting is a pastime that enriches my soul and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking it’s a great tonic for mental health too, something a lot of people are struggling with during this pandemic.

Thankfully the government has changed it’s guidance on detecting so for those of us that have local permissions it means we are able to get back out. I will often take the dog with me giving both her and myself some much needed exercise. It’s great to have her company although it is frustrating at times when she decides to dig up the holes I’ve just filled!

In my last detecting blog I wrote about the coins that I have been finding, in particular a trade token that dated back to 1664. I also expressed my confidence in hopefully finding coins that will predate that trade token, but I really didn’t expect it to happen on my first time back out!

It was a very cold, wet day so I didn’t stay out for that long, just over an hour. I didn’t have any finds to speak of either, there is usually a button or two, the odd modern coin and such like but this time nothing. It was only after deciding to call it a day and walking back to the entrance of the field that I happened to walk over the right spot.

This was the day I found my first silver hammered coin! I’ve been longing to find a hammered coin since I started detecting again last year and because of that it feels like a real achievement. There was no silver dance upon finding the coin though, that felt a little too excessive. Instead there was an air grab with a fairly elated YES, that response felt a little more Andy Stone.

The coin I found is an Edward I Silver Penny, although in truth it could be one of 3 Edwards as they followed in succession and all used Edward I’s portrait on their coinage. The inscription CIVI TAS LON DON can just be seen which means its London minted but it’s difficult to see who the Moneyer is and because of that it’s hard to attribute it to a specific Edward. This means the the coin is dated between 1272 – 1377, the combined reign of the 3 Edwards.

Again there is the thought of connecting with history, something detecting has a unique way of bringing. The possibility that the last person to touch this coin before me was nearly 700 years ago. Then the questions, who did this coin belong to, what were the circumstances that led them to loose it, and was it missed? These questions I know will never be answered but that fact it makes me think and fills my head with images of what the past might have been like is an added bonus that makes detecting the wonderful hobby it is.

All that aside, it’s my first hammered coin which for me feels like a landmark find. I’m sure there will be more to come as I continue my detecting journey, but for now i’m basking in the joyous feeling that finding my first silver hammered has brought.

Half a denari…

Unfortunately no denaris, but I couldn’t resist a little python nod! This blog is about the coins I have found on my metal detecting journey so far. I haven’t found anything that would be considered valuable, but I have managed to find out the history behind some of them which is treasure in itself.

As most detectorists know, it’s a great feeling when you find something good, but for me it’s even better when you are able to research the history, and sometimes even find out who made and held what you found.

Towards the end of last year I found what I thought was a halfpenny from the 1970’s, it was about the same size but too muddy to be sure. I put it in my finds bag and carried on detecting. When I got home I cleaned up all my finds but left the halfpenny until last thinking it wasn’t anything special.

Giving it a light rub between my fingers under a running tap it soon became clear it wasn’t a halfpenny. The markings were quite faint and unclear but I had a feeling there was some age to it. When I have trouble identifying finds my first port of call is a metal detecting social media group that I’m a member of. Nine times out of ten someone will know something and sure enough people started suggesting that it might be a trade token, the unraveling of history began.

For those who don’t know about trade tokens which included me before this find, they were used after the abolition of the monarchy in 1649. Merchants and municipalities issued farthing and halfpenny tokens as well as some penny tokens which were usually depicted with a symbol of their trade. With no law against the use of tokens they remained in circulation until 1672 after which they were suppressed and replaced by royal copper halfpennies and farthings issued by Charles II.

So, if it was a trade token, that meant it would have been made between 1649 and 1672 so I was right in thinking it had some age to it, but at this point I still couldn’t make out the markings. This is when someone on the social media group suggested rubbing a bit of wax on it as this can sometimes better reveal the detail. To my amazement it worked, now I could just about make out a name… Henry Warner.

I quickly started a google search on the name Henry Warner and on the first page of results there it was. The token I had found was listed and photographed in the British Museums online archive, I was over the moon! This little token that I almost discarded was made and held by Henry Warner, a candle maker from my local area, dated 1664.

This is what I love about my hobby, the connection it gives me to people from the past. I would never have known about the candle maker Henry Warner if it wasn’t for searching the field with my detector and unearthing his little lost trade token, I think that’s just brilliant!

I have found various other coins on the one permission I have which are shown in the images below. Nothing dating back further than the trade token as yet but I’m confident there will be. Not far from where I’m detecting there is the site of a Roman villa and I have also found part of an early Anglo Saxon cruciform brooch. The fact that there is a history of activity here, through my finds and the proximity of the Roman villa, gives me hope that there is more to come!

If you are interested in my detecting journey then please do keep following the blog, who knows what will be unearthed next!

Below is a link to the British Museum website which reference the Henry Warner trade token.