Metal Detectoring

Edward III gold coin found by Norfolk detectorist sells for £174k​

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engla...PFJm9UQ-qo2SWF2QRI6bBXlpHAXnA6GYqgmVPS_LMO1V0
 
George Ridgway And The Hoard Of Claudius.

Hundreds of ancient coins unearthed by a metal detectorist could be what experts say is the largest precious metal hoard found in Britain dating from the reign of Claudius I.

Lifelong fan of fictional film archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones, George Ridgway, 31, found 748 Roman and Iron Age gold and silver coins near Ipswich in 2019. He said he was "stunned" by the find. The hoard is still being valued by the British Museum in London.

Mr Ridgway, a butcher, from Ashbocking, in Suffolk, caught the treasure-hunting bug as a toddler, and was obsessed with Harrison Ford's film character, Indiana Jones.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-61526245
 
Roman coins imported before the conquest.

A hoard of Roman gold coins hidden in the decades before the Roman invasion of Britain has been discovered.

Eleven coins have been found so far, scattered near Norwich in Iceni tribe territory. Their queen Boudica would later rebel against Roman rule.

Numismatist Adrian Marsden said the hoard is "really quite exceptional" and more coins might be unearthed.

An inquest at Norfolk Coroner's Court into the two latest finds deemed them treasure.

Six Roman gold coins, emperor heads
IMAGE SOURCE,ADRIAN MARSDEN

Image caption, They all date to the last years of the 1st Century BC and the first years of the 1st Century AD - a generation before the Roman invasion in AD 43

The first coins were found by two metal detectorists in 2017 and they have been uncovering more ever since.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-61984020
 
First proper local dig this morning (Ivinghoe, Bucks) in 6 months - ground was concrete, stubble not ploughed, 'Green' waste, aircraft wreckage, got burnt on the arms (which I'm feeling now) and didn't find much - but I learnt a lot. (Don't you just hate that).
'Clean hands for Health' badge was a Lifebuoy Soap merit award for children as part of a Lever Brothers campaign (~1926) to educate children about dirt and germs and to wash their hands ‘before breakfast, before dinner and after school'. Kids - listen to your great Grandparents.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) badge. "besides being the world's largest transport organisation, the company was also the largest commercial enterprise in the British Empire and the UK's second largest employer, after the Post Office. Nationalised in 1948 to become part of British Railways (BR)" (Wiki)
The jewel button/cufflink (?) is the first bit of bling I have ever found, not much to look at but everyone remembers their first Ratner moment.
And one to add to my spoon handle collection. Good to be back.

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Who me said:
Morning bungle not bad at all for the first outing well done mate
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Thanks mate, I was only there 5 hours because of the sun (had my Beau Geste Kepi on). Some-one was disappointed (!) they only found a couple of hammereds (Edward and a jetton) and I saw on FB that a chap I was talking to got a Charles I penny after I'd left (I know he wasn't disappointed). Also a 1893 Vicky half-sovereign turned up in the field with the green waste and the aircraft bits at the end of play - gold in the field I wouldn't detect in. It's a funny ol' game.
 
A good find.

A St Edmund memorial penny worn by a Viking to "advertise his Christianity" has been found by a metal detectorist.

The Anglo-Saxon king was killed by the Vikings in AD869 and made a saint shortly afterwards.

Numismatist Adrian Marsden said the pagan Vikings went from killing Edmund to "striking coins in his name" to wear as converts within two generations.

The AD890-915 silver coin was found at Congham, near King's Lynn. Norfolk Coroner's Court declared it treasure.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-62325754
 
I've dug a couple of times at Kingsey (lit. 'King's Island' ie a mound above the marsh) in Bucks but all I remember from the last trip was a steaming mountain of manure. This Roman intaglio was reset in a Saxon pendant mount and found two years ago - finally gone through the Coroner's Court.

"A Roman jewel engraved with a chariot and four running horses was found set in a silver Anglo-Saxon pendant by a metal detectorist". Now declared treasure.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-61764960
 
Digging at Wendover today: still hasn't rained so signals were scratchy at best. What counts for me as a good day is a coin (got a Roman grot), a button (three) and a relic (choice between one and a half lead tokens, top of a silver thimble and a horse's head). I'll put it under my pillow.

Horse_0867a.jpg Horse_0868a.jpg
 
Bad Bungle said:
Digging at Wendover today: still hasn't rained so signals were scratchy at best. What counts for me as a good day is a coin (got a Roman grot), a button (three) and a relic (choice between one and a half lead tokens, top of a silver thimble and a horse's head). I'll put it under my pillow.

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The horse head is a bit odd/unusual - any idea as to what it’s original use/purpose could be? Broken off a statue maybe..
 
Rained (finally) this morning and I got wet - then the chalk soil at Wendover got wet and I got chalky. Hat, gloves waterproofs, over-trousers, finds pouch are all in the wash (rinse cycle). Treasure was very elusive but I did find a scallop (about 2 cms across - medieval ?).
I love fossils and shells, especially when made of metal.
Shell_0882a.jpgShell_0884a.jpg
 
Bad Bungle said:
Thanks mate, I was only there 5 hours because of the sun (had my Beau Geste Kepi on). Some-one was disappointed (!) they only found a couple of hammereds (Edward and a jetton) and I saw on FB that a chap I was talking to got a Charles I penny after I'd left (I know he wasn't disappointed). Also a 1893 Vicky half-sovereign turned up in the field with the green waste and the aircraft bits at the end of play - gold in the field I wouldn't detect in. It's a funny ol' game.
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Fascinating stuff! Any idea what the aircraft wreckage was? I know there were RAF/USAAF airfields at Cheddington and Wing which aren't too far away.
 
Giant R said:
Fascinating stuff! Any idea what the aircraft wreckage was? I know there were RAF/USAAF airfields at Cheddington and Wing which aren't too far away.
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I believe it was a light aircraft (possibly two) from nearby Dunstable Downs (where the gliders still fly) that crashed about 50 years ago. Ploughing since then has turned the wreckage into half centimetre pieces of aluminium and lead and spread them across nearly the entire field. Nightmare ! (and yet a half-sovereign and hammereds were still recovered).
 
This morning went to Noke in Oxfordshire for first dig there since Sept 2020. On that occasion we had a 30 strong socially-distanced Conga line over the Wheatley road and through the woods - the field then being rough-ploughed in places (found my 1st hammered coin) and smooth drilled in others (Pilgrim Ampulla). This time the field was unploughed rape-seed stubble, rock hard, erratic signals and a real pain. St. Giles Church is still pretty though (13C, repaired 16C and 19C).

Noke_0918a.jpg

Gave up around 1 pm and 15 feet from the car got a decent signal - found a better camera than the one I took these pics on.
Took an hour to extract the warped battery so I could get at the sim card. Last picture on that was dated Feb 2018 but I don't expect anyone is interested in those.

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Bad Bungle said:
This morning went to Noke in Oxfordshire for first dig there since Sept 2020. On that occasion we had a 30 strong socially-distanced Conga line over the Wheatley road and through the woods - the field then being rough-ploughed in places (found my 1st hammered coin) and smooth drilled in others (Pilgrim Ampulla). This time the field was unploughed rape-seed stubble, rock hard, erratic signals and a real pain. St. Giles Church is still pretty though (13C, repaired 16C and 19C).

View attachment 58526

Gave up around 1 pm and 15 feet from the car got a decent signal - found a better camera than the one I took these pics on.
Took an hour to extract the warped battery so I could get at the sim card. Last picture on that was dated Feb 2018 but I don't expect anyone is interested in those.

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Let me know if you find any spindle whorls. I collect em! ( Also currently gathering data about certain ones).
 
Bad Bungle said:
Treasure was very elusive but I did find a scallop (about 2 cms across - medieval ?).
I love fossils and shells, especially when made of metal.
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could well be a pilgrim badge :) which would probably make it pre-Reformation. Although it was still being used as a symbol later -

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44940/the-passionate-mans-pilgrimage

Raleigh's Passionate Man's Pilgrimage

Give me my scallop shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope’s true gage,
And thus I’ll take my pilgrimage.

Blood must be my body’s balmer,
No other balm will there be given,
Whilst my soul, like a white palmer,
Travels to the land of heaven;
Over the silver mountains,
Where spring the nectar fountains;
And there I’ll kiss
The bowl of bliss,
And drink my eternal fill
On every milken hill.
My soul will be a-dry before,
But after it will ne’er thirst more;
And by the happy blissful way
More peaceful pilgrims I shall see,
That have shook off their gowns of clay,
And go apparelled fresh like me.
I’ll bring them first
To slake their thirst,
And then to taste those nectar suckets,
At the clear wells
Where sweetness dwells,
Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets.

And when our bottles and all we
Are fill’d with immortality,
Then the holy paths we’ll travel,
Strew’d with rubies thick as gravel,
Ceilings of diamonds, sapphire floors,
High walls of coral, and pearl bowers.

From thence to heaven’s bribeless hall
Where no corrupted voices brawl,
No conscience molten into gold,
Nor forg’d accusers bought and sold,
No cause deferr’d, nor vain-spent journey,
For there Christ is the king’s attorney,
Who pleads for all without degrees,
And he hath angels, but no fees.
When the grand twelve million jury
Of our sins and sinful fury,
’Gainst our souls black verdicts give,
Christ pleads his death, and then we live.
Be thou my speaker, taintless pleader,
Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder,
Thou movest salvation even for alms,
Not with a bribed lawyer’s palms.
And this is my eternal plea
To him that made heaven, earth, and sea,
Seeing my flesh must die so soon,
And want a head to dine next noon,
Just at the stroke when my veins start and spread,
Set on my soul an everlasting head.
Then am I ready, like a palmer fit,
To tread those blest paths which before I writ.
 
hunck said:
The horse head is a bit odd/unusual - any idea as to what it’s original use/purpose could be? Broken off a statue maybe..
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Some-one up North on my Metal Detecting Forum posted a similar horse head yesterday. That with the two from Wendover makes it an unlikely coincidence the lead horse models/toys would all be broken off in the same position. Suggestion is now that the head is the complete item - they were for putting on top of Victorian school children's pencils (one found with some of the original paint surviving). Very suckable.
 
Erinaceus said:
Wasn't a scallop shell associated with pilgrimage to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela?
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"The pilgrim also carried a scallop shell with him, and would present himself at churches, castles, abbeys etc., where he could expect to be given as much sustenance as he could pick up with one scoop" (Wiki). Not much in the way of rich pickings with my shell.
 
Bad Bungle said:
Some-one up North on my Metal Detecting Forum posted a similar horse head yesterday. That with the two from Wendover makes it an unlikely coincidence the lead horse models/toys would all be broken off in the same position. Suggestion is now that the head is the complete item - they were for putting on top of Victorian school children's pencils (one found with some of the original paint surviving). Very suckable.
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Wouldn’t that make the pencils horribly unbalanced, with a lead weight on the end? Was it a thing in Victorian schools? Sounds unlikely to me..
 
Has anyone seen the new program on C5 (thats UK) called Digging For Treasure? Absolute train wreck of a program and doing the hobby no favours at all. In the first episode they show a piece on a bloke trying to find the wreck of a Lancaster bomber. No mention of getting MOD approval!
Im not a detectorist but I do run a local archaeological society and was surprised to see that Raksha Dave is co presenting this trash and she is President of the Council for British Archaeology!
 
eziofan said:
Has anyone seen the new program on C5 (thats UK) called Digging For Treasure? Absolute train wreck of a program and doing the hobby no favours at all. In the first episode they show a piece on a bloke trying to find the wreck of a Lancaster bomber. No mention of getting MOD approval!
Im not a detectorist but I do run a local archaeological society and was surprised to see that Raksha Dave is co presenting this trash and she is President of the Council for British Archaeology!
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Totally agree, banal rubbish. People in the tent cheering and applauding every time one of the presenters walks in. Even the name of the programme is implying a fortune is to be made with a detector and a spade and this is backed up by the programme when finds are not explained or shown in context and all they are really wowed by is gold or precious metal.
It is annoying that Time team can't get a series on terrestrial TV and yet this does.
 
Haven’t seen the program yet they might have an archaeologist there to promote the two branches of it working together.Sorry haven’t explained that very well
 
Haven't got my strength back from Covid three weeks ago and finding 6 hours of walking on ploughed fields a bit of a bind. Finds have been slim, I only got one of note today, but don't want to appear ungrateful for being allowed access to some truly wonderful parts of the local countryside. Charles (Carolvs) II shilling: date worn off but 1660-85. Sniff it, that's the smell of wild (Goddards) Siver (polish cloth)

Shilling_0947.jpg Shilling_0948.jpg
 
Bad Bungle said:
Haven't got my strength back from Covid three weeks ago and finding 6 hours of walking on ploughed fields a bit of a bind. Finds have been slim, I only got one of note today, but don't want to appear ungrateful for being allowed access to some truly wonderful parts of the local countryside. Charles (Carolvs) II shilling: date worn off but 1660-85. Sniff it, that's the smell of wild (Goddards) Siver (polish cloth)

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At least you found silver! I'd call that a reasonable find!
 
Giant R said:
Totally agree, banal rubbish. People in the tent cheering and applauding every time one of the presenters walks in. Even the name of the programme is implying a fortune is to be made with a detector and a spade and this is backed up by the programme when finds are not explained or shown in context and all they are really wowed by is gold or precious metal.
It is annoying that Time team can't get a series on terrestrial TV and yet this does.
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There's some good stuff on YouTube - I like shows by mudlarkers, some of whom use metal detectors, some eyes only. They find some really great stuff.
 
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