I sent the pictures of the brooch I found at Dinton (#215) off to the County Finds Liaison Officer (FLO), with the small dread all novices experience that the Experts reply would be to stop wasting everyone's time. The actual reply was "Thank you so much for your email, that looks to be a lovely Anglo Saxon brooch and I’d definitely like to record it". And breathe out. Just have to work out how to get the brooch to the FLO as he's working mainly at home, I'm working full time in London and neither of us trust the Post.
Next item (hopefully) of interest was a small lead token I found in a field at Ivinghoe, Bucks - near the Beacon and close to where I was born. Getting off my arse to do the research (aka moving slightly in my chair to access the internet) eventually lead to a match for a Powell type 4 'lis' token - I assume the 'lis' referred to a stylised 'fleur de lis'. Lead tokens are not uncommon (have been around since the Romans) and were used in gaming or as a ticket or tally - post-Medieval (which is when initials started appearing on the back), they were sometimes used as a substitute for low denominational coins, especially in Agriculture. So around a long time, which can make them so difficult to date - unless of course you conveniently find one with a date (1711) on it.
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