10th March 2010 More stonking finds.

Mitch Chris is on fire this trip with that stunning Roman gold ring find and now really nice condition Roman silver coin that Mark Lehman has sent his views on below. Nice to find a coin without a thick 'horn' crust to cook off. We are slowly getting around the new 66 field site and it has all the periods, Chris pulled up a mint seal matrix and the first lead Pilgrim's ampulla from this site below.

More great finds and hammered silver posted to the March 2010 hunt page

Great condition Roman silver coin - minimal cleaning 2.80g, 17.48mm

Roman silver coin send for ID	Medieval seal matrix
Medieval lead pilgrims ampulla - Salisbury type	Medieval beehive thimble

Good call by Mass Linda on a Roman tendril pendant she found last week in the Laycock book Fig A14.7

Mass Steve's 18 Roman hoard coins sent for ID

9th March 2010 More hoards coins and Roman pottery - Extending the season to end of April

The gold inscribed ring find from a couple of days ago is confirmed as Roman, the script on the inside of the ring is Roman writing, great find.

The new 66 field site is producing just amazing finds and it has just about every type of crop out there. There is freshly ploughed and rolled, wheat, leaf vegetables, stubble, pasture so there will be tons of detectable land well past our normal season finishing time on the first week in April. If there is sufficient interest them I will extend this season to the end of April. Remember we can only search this land out of animal hunting season from Feb 1st to April each season. Drop me a mail if you want to join a new team for the last 3 weeks of April.

I have been chatting to the Head guy at the British Museum that makes the decision as to whether all the recent potential Roman hoard coins will be officially declared a hoard. I have forwarded him all the other Roman artifact pictures, fibular, brooches, bracelets etc and a selection of the Roman pottery below to aid his decision whether this will be declared a hoard, votive offering site or village. I have one more bag of hoard coins to process yet and have posted Mass Linda's 19 coin finds below with some of the ID's from Mark Lehman. Special thanks to Mark for his brilliant expertise at ID'ing the finds which give us a date spread of 180 to 360 AD so far. Mass Linda also found a particularly nice Roman decorated spindle whorl looking find, first for us. I have posted a load more widgets and silver to the latest finds page March 2010 hunt page

Roman bronze decorated spindle whorl

Tenn Brad sent me a picture of a 14thC John the Baptist medallion found in the river Thames and it matches exactly the pendant found by Bil Mark on the Roman hoard field, great find.

6 inch long chunks of Roman pottery, they include rims, bowls and tiles

Working my way through the hoard coins and sending them off to Colchester museum. I have also photo 'd some of the huge chunks of Roman pottery found, Mass linda picked up a huge bag of them that will also go off to the museum for their views.

Mass Linda's Roman hoard coins

Coin 20 (Mid 3rdC)-------------------------------------------------------- Coin 21 (350-353AD)

Coin 22 (330-337 AD)

Roman coins sent off for ID

Roman coins sent off for ID

7th March 2010 Monster gold find - More hoard coins and hammered silver

Stunning 1st C decorated fibular brooch

The new team in yesterday have started really well 7 hammered silver coins and another mint fibular brooch on a new field, the only Roman coin found was beat to death.

Mitch Chris made another monster find with what I initially thought was a Roman gold ring but the legend has me baffled. The double legend on the inside of the ring is perfectly legible but makes no obvious sense, I do not recognise the type of script and is it is definitely not of medieval Lombardic script type. No idea if the Saxons made rings like this so it definatly one for the museum. I have just reported it as treasure and I will find out what the local FLO's views are hopefully on Monday.

Started a new finds page to speed up load times March 2010 hunt page, uploaded more great hammered silver and more Roman widgets

Updated this seasons gold find page

Updated the hoard and treasure page

Stunning Roman Black and white enameled gold ring - double banded with inscription on both upper and lower bands.5.83g, 25.91mm L x 8.40mm W

Top legend -LEI TRVTEE ADVANCE

Bottom legend - ECHE . FORTVNES CHAVNG

I am slowly going through last weeks Roman hoard finds and sending them off to Mark Lehman for his views. The Batch below were the ones Boston Beau found and Mark has ID's the examples with any detail showing. Beau said the Maximian bronze he found with great detail was in black clay type soil which appears to have protected it better than the other 'grots'. Date spread so far is from 138 to 360 AD. I have a couple more guys 'hoard coins' to process yet to see what the actual date spread is.

Boston Beau's Roman hoard coins

Roman bronze sent for ID 3.48g, 25.88mm

6th March 2010 Another 40 + Roman hoard coins found and a Roman gold ring

I think the guys have discovered a large Roman village on this new 66 field site as it produced another 40 + Roman bronze coins and the first Roman silver coin from this hoard. The bronze coins have a good date spread, several are 1st/2ndC examples that at our Roman expert has ID'd already . It will take me quite a while to work through the finds as the area also produced a wealth of other periods I have yet to photo. There are multiple finders of this hoard so I have to prepare the report by finder to supply this information to the museum. Mass Steve found an exciting Roman gold ring from a different area on the site and this has been reported to the museum as treasure.

Just posted a load more Roman finds and hammered silver to the latest hunt page Feb 2010 finds

Mass Gary's hoard coins

1stC Roman bronzes with detail sent off for ID

Sestertius of Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, (177-192) ---------------- As or Dupondius of Faustina II, wife of Marcus Aurelius,

Roman silver coin sent off for ID Antoninus Pius (138-161)

Boston Beau's Roman hoard coins

Roman bronze sent for ID 3.48g, 25.88mm

Romano/British Ancient gold ring - reported as treasure to the museum

1.53g, 26.17g

5th March 2010 Potential Roman hoard found - More great finds posted

I have posted more finds to the latest hunt page Feb 2010 finds.

Late in the evening the guys came across an area of a new field and found around 15 Roman bronze coins plus a bunch of Roman bronze pieces including a mint complete 1stC fibular brooch. The Roman 'Weisenau type' helmet handle was another great find from the same. Over 10 bronzes in an area constitutes a potential hoard so I have reported them to Colchester museum and the landowner. I sent them off to Mark Lehman for his views and ID's which are posted below. The date spread of the coins is 315 to 360 AD so it will be up to the British museum experts to determine is this a hoard or a village location and scattered casual loss over time. The guys only searched this huge field briefly will be returning to that area at a later date to see if there are more out there. Hopefully there are some silver examples or even gold coins lurking.

4thC Roman bronze coins

13.14g, 50.51mm

1stC AD Weisenau type helmet - they have the distinctive carrying handle on the neck guard

Roman helmet handle 14.08g, 87.42mm L

Ref Laycock Page 35 Fig AA.4.7

Roman 'face' mount	Roman lead token

I managed to get some detail on the Obv of the Roman coin found a couple of days ago, Mark Lehman's updated ID is below

Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD)

3rd March 2010 More treasures - top 10 finds

Great article link below 'Here we round up 10 of the top artifacts discovered by metal detector in Britain'.

Top 10 Metal Detector Discoveries

Great story

Man discovers treasures in wife's handbag

Stunning 16th/17thC decorated silver bodkin needle - reported as treasure to Colchester museum

2.79g, 70.64mm L

Medieval seal matrix

Anonymous: letter I early 15thC. An initial with crown above, branches at the side, was a design that became increasingly common in the 15thC and was often used on a signet ring as below. The letter suggests it stood for the owners forename. This example was used in 1424 by Edward Saddler, clerk

The guys are making more excellent finds and Mass Steve found a stunning decorated silver Bodkin needle treasure. Every field on the new 66 field site has produced Roman bronze coins so far but 99% are just 'grots' and eaten to death and illegible. However Steve found two with great detail that I am using the 'distilled water' method to soak and clean. Our Roman coin expert mark Lehman put me on to this method as distilled water does not effect the patina of the bronze in any way. They are still soaking to remove the remaining crud and I sent them off to Mark who gave his initial ID below.

.

As dug and soaking to remove crud

Great to find new 17thC trade farthings to add to our set. I have updated the hammered copper finds page

I have posted more finds to the latest hunt page Feb 2010 finds.

Updated the hoard and treasure page with our latest treasures

17thC William Moore , bays maker of Colchester Essex hammered copper trade farthing Norweb Fig 1202 Part II	17thC Joseph Wolford, Mercers of Toppesfield Essex hammered copper trade farthing Norweb Fig 1407 Part II
17thC , Elias Mootier of Colchester Essex hammered copper trade farthing Norweb Fig 1208 Part II

'There was also a dire shortage of coins of small denominations, such as a housewife needed for everyday shopping, a problem that had been increasing since James I’s day. The few copper farthings produced were all under license to various nobles, and the supply of them was not sufficient to fill the demand. Shopkeepers evolved a pragmatic solution: trade tokens. In the 1660’s there were 3,543 ‘tokeners’ in the City of London, its suburbs and Westminster.

These tokens were usually made of lead, tin or copper, although some were of leather. They were usually worth a halfpenny or farthing (only the coffee-houses found it worthwhile to issue 1 penny tokens). They were small and came in a variety of shapes – round, heart-shaped, diamond, square or hexagonal. Shopkeepers kept boxes with compartments for each issuer (usually only for those tokeners in the same area, not all 3,543!) When they had enough they returned them to the issuer, who changed them for silver or notes of hand. In March 1668, Prince Rupert and the Duke of Norfolk suggested to the King that they should make ‘current farthings’ to prevent ‘the loss and inconvenience by private tokens in case of removals etc., as appeared in the late Fire of London.’ However, it was not until 1672 the mint started issuing the first copper farthings. The following references may be of help if readers wish to pursue the interest further:'

2nd March 2010 Beau's double gold day and excellent relics - New Barn 4

More details on the New Barn IIII

Min Mindy has found another brand new 4 star self catering converted 'Barn IIII' locally for the club to use and she has been e-mailing the owner. I went and saw it yesterday and it is a huge place sleeping up to 11 guys and in immaculate condition with beautiful wood floors and all the mod con's including on suite bathrooms. It has 8 proper beds and additional sofa beds in a second galleried lounge. These converted barns are really smart as they keep the character with old beams and wood floors. Mindy is running 2 Barn events in the fall of 2010 and has now transferred her 2nd trip to this new Barn so she will be the first to trial it for the club. That now gives the members a choice of 4 'Barns' to choose from with varying locations, sizes and amenities.

Boston Beau finds double gold

16th/17thC gold ring - no hall marks 1.75g, 18.51mm dia - reported to Colchester museum as treasure

Ancient gold ingot - 0.76g, 10.76mm long

Thick chunk of ancient gold - reported to Colchester museum as treasure

The guys trialing New Barn II love the accommodation and the fact it is 3 minutes away from the new 66 field site. They have been getting on the new site by 7am and hunting well into late evening with their night lights. They have been finding the whole raft of periods again including Saxon and Boston Beau did the double gold finds from the same area. The chunk of ancient gold is interesting as the rest of what it broke off might still be out there.

Updated the gold finds so far this season page.

Very interesting gilded Roman bronze piece - one for the museum

I have started to post the finds to the latest hunt page Feb 2010 finds. This gilded Roman piece above is very interesting and ornate, no idea what it is off so one for the museum to look at.

I picked up the last batch of fixed hammered coins from the gold smith yesterday and will be posting results later.

28th Feb 2010 More fixed hams - Hunts commence again - New Barn III

I went and saw another new Barn type accommodation locally that guys can use as a self catering base. It is under a mile from our main sites and offers excellent accommodation inside and each bedroom has an on suite. It sleeps 6 max so is great for small teams with their own vehicle to roam as they please. Remember on these tours you can hunt any of the 300 fields you choose and be out there for as many hours as your arm holds up.

3 bed roomed Barn III added to our accommodation choices

The 'New Barn II ' team arrived yesterday to be the 2nd group of guys to search the new 66 field site with a totally fresh approach. Mass Linda is armed with her extensive research and old maps and there are an amazing number of historical plots from the records she sent me. She has plotted all the Roman dykes, enclosures, ring ditches, roads, villages etc on the site so it will fascinating to see what fields they pick to search and manage to uncover this week. Both Mass Linda and Can Rod our club historian come here armed with a huge history folders to determine where they search, other teams just wander aimlessly as the mood take them. With a site this massive it needs constant nibbling by different teams with different styles to try and hot spot it. This team have their own hire car and can just roam the fields as they fancy. They can spend all week on just one field or try and get around all of them. Remember if you are staying at the Barn you can also have full access to any of our other 250 fields. It could be a very interesting week as they could end up with just a musket ball and a handful of coppers or find the Viking/Saxon battlefield that happened in this area.

More finds posted to the latest finds page Feb 2010 finds.

More of our fixed coins below and I am picking up another repaired batch today. The goldsmith rang me and two of the really bent crispy hammered silver broke during the annealing phase and he has silver soldered them back together. The last short cross he repaired with the method looked excellent so it will be interesting to see the results.

1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny Obv +EDWR ANGL DNS HYB Obv EDW Rev CIVI/TAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

Fixed 1649 Commonwealth silver penny

23rd Feb 2010 More museum recordings - more fixed coins

Updated the Charles and James hammered silver pages with this seasons finds so far. Updated the Anne milled silver page. I have have a bunch more finds to upload to the latest finds page yet Feb 2010 finds.

	James 1st hammered silver coinage		Charles 1st hammered silver coinage
	Queen Anne

Fixed 1603 James 1st hammered silver sixpence - as dug, annealed, cleaned

Fixed 1573 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver sixpence - as dug, annealed, cleaned

Posted a few more of our museum recording and ID's below. Interesting that the arrow shaped relic is ID'd as a Roman buckle plate. I am still cooking the Roman silver coin finds from last week and the 'horn silver' crust is rock hard but is dissolving very slowly. On the obverse picture you can clearly see the thickness of the crust.

Roman 1st/2nd C silver coin as dug and 'cooking' to remove crust

ESSEX, England: ESS-329A40, Roman copper alloy buckle plate

Object Type:

plate BUCKLE

A cast copper alloy Roman buckle plate. A sub-triangular flat object with a decorative notch on each side at the wider end. This plate has broken off its integral buckle frame. There are no visible rivet holes to attach it to a belt strap. There is rust on both faces at the wider end which probably derives from a pin. The rust probably hides the hole for the pin. Length 34.35mm, width 29.72mm, thickness 2.45mm, weight 9.2g. No exact parallels can be found in the usual sources. The patina is mid green and much of the surface has eroded away or is pitted. One corner is missing. One edge is uneven and all edges are covered in light green corrosion product.

Dates

ROMAN (Certain), Circa 43 AD - 410 AD

ESSEX, England: ESS-324C56, Medieval or Post-Medieval copper alloy IHS mount

Object Type:

MOUNT

A cast copper alloy Medieval or Post-Medieval mount. The mount is basically square but tapers towards to the top to form a triangle with a projecting knop. In profile the knop is slightly bent back. The face of the mount is inscribed with the letters ‘IHS’ within an incised border which flanks the outside edge of the mount. The underside of the mount has three integral rivets in each corner (the fourth being missing) and its edges are upturned. The mount's patina is mid green and there is a trace of blue above the letter H. Most of the object is covered by light green corrosion product and on the reverse the patina is completely covered either by dirt or corrosion product. The mount measures 32.4mm in length, 23.18mm in width and is between 2.13mm and 3.4mm thick (including the upturned edges). It weighs 7.1g. IHS are the first three letters of Jesus. A comparable mount is illustrated in Read, B. Metal Artefacts of Antiquity, Fig 8, no. 88. This is dated to the 15th century and has a different style of lettering and separate rivets. Length 32.31mm, width 23.52mm, max thickness 2.7mm, weight 7.1g.

Dates

EARLY MEDIEVAL (Probably) to EARLY POST MEDIEVAL (Certain), Circa 1300 AD - 1600 AD

ESSEX, England: ESS-31EFF6, copper alloy Medieval / early Post-Medieval mount

Object Type:

MOUNT

An incomplete cast copper alloy Medieval / early Post-Medieval mount in the shape of a letter ‘E’. The object is flat on both faces and has a D-shaped section. It has no means of attachment. One part of the bar of the E is missing. Length 36.57mm, width 29.35mm, thickness 3.61mm and weight 11.6g. The object has a mid to dark green patina which survives better on one side than the other. Both sides are pitted and there is light green corrosion product within the pits. The object is thought to be 14th century to circa 1540. It probably was mounted onto a wall, perhaps of a religious building, and was ripped off during the Reformation.

Dates

EARLY MEDIEVAL (Probably) to EARLY POST MEDIEVAL (Certain), Circa 1300 AD - 1540 AD

22nd Feb 2010 New Celtic tribe for us - more finds and ID's

Lead trade weights- Roman to medieval

I still have a bunch of finds from last week to post yet and this group of large lead weights were all from the same area. The triangular shaped trade weight is the first medieval chevroned type we have found. It weights 1/2 pound (8 oz) and is 57.4 mm high . We have found a couple of the small medieval shield type coin weights before but not a full sized trade weight version. The other trade weights in this group are Roman and medieval so the guys have found the site of a market. There were also several of the 'steelyard' hanging type weights found in the same area. Well worth a return visit to that area.

More find posted to the latest finds page Feb 2010 finds.

Celtic gold qtr stater 13.56,1.29mm CCI record 10.2000

'Heybridge Horse' type

It is not surprising that I could not find NH Dave's Celtic gold coin find in my reference books as it is not in there. John Stills from the CCI has just recorded the coin on the National database for us and his ID makes it is a new type for us and a rare one. I did not know there is a 'Heybridge Horse' type. Excellent find from new land.

That is our 77th Celtic gold coin find since we started and they can be viewed on our searchable database at Foundintheground.com.

http://foundintheground.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=celtic+gold

'Your latest quarter is the 'Heybridge Horse' type, not in VA or any of the other catalogues as you say. There are eight others known of the standard type with a pellet below the horse plus a unique variety with a spiral below. All the known finds are from Essex so it's almost certainly a Trinovantian issue that probably circulated alongside late Whaddon Chase staters of VA 1498-1502 type to judge from the very similar horse; datewise probably struck somewhere in the 40s BC.

I've been using up the last of the 09 Index numbers so you can have the first of my 2010 numbers for this one, 10.2000.

All the best

John '

Here are a couple more from the last batch of our recorded finds now on the PAS National finds database.

ESSEX, England: ESS-2FEDC3, Post-Medieval copper alloy ?book clasp

Object Type:

Book clasp? MOUNT

A Post-Medieval cast copper alloy incomplete shield-shaped decorative mount, possibly a plate from a book clasp. The upper surface has a punched design of 6 fleur de lis in two rows. The means of attachment (to a leather strap?) was by three rivets – two at the top and one at the bottom – which are corroded and may or may not be integral. On the upper surface these rivets are at the centre of three punched circles. The reverse is plain apart from the three rivets. There are two hinges at the top which does give the object more the look of a buckle plate rather than a book clasp. Presumably there was a back plate which has been lost. If this is a book clasp the loop and bar to which it would have been attached is missing. The object has a mid brown patina with light green corrosion product on the reverse and also on the upper face within the grooves. There are book clasps illustrated in Egan ‘The Medieval Household’, 1998, page 279 although none resemble this one. In Read ‘History Beneath Our Feet’, 1988 there are several book clasps illustrated (p.91) but none are the same shape as this. However nos.1,2,4,11-14,16,17 and 19-21 do have circles around the rivet holes. Length 30.73mm, width 17.74mm, thickness 0.8mm, weight 2.2g.

Dates

POST MEDIEVAL (Probably), Circa 1500 AD - 1700 AD

ESSEX, England: ESS-3044A4, Medieval lead seal matrix

Object Type:	SEAL MATRIX
	Cast lead seal matrix dating from the Medieval period, probably 13th century. It is circular in shape with what could possibly be an eight-pointed star or eight-pettalled flower device in relief at its centre. There is no line separating the device from the inscription. The inscription around the outside reads: S’. RIC[...A]R[ ]…. At the start of the legend is a cross patée. This is a personal seal of a Richard or Ricard. It is unusually thin and has no handle or lug. The reverse is plain apart from some scored lines. The seal is no longer flat, having been bent. Many examples of circular seals exist on the PAS database and they tend to date from the 13th and 14th century. This one has a diameter of 22.79mm, thickness of maximum 2.4mm, and a weight of 7.5g.
	Inscription:	S’. RIC[...A]R[ ]….

Dates

EARLY MEDIEVAL (Probably), Circa 1200 AD - 1300 AD

ESSEX, England: ESS-31B327, Medieval copper alloy harness pendant

Object Type:

Heraldic HARNESS PENDANT

A cast copper alloy Medieval harness pendant dating to the 12th to 14th century. An oval shaped pendant with a suspension loop turned to nearly 90 degrees. The loop is formed by bending a bar over. The decoration is a shield with three chevrons. The reverse is plain and flat. The object has a mid to dark brown patina and a rather flaky surface. There is light green corrosion product on the suspension loop and around the edges. There is no trace of any gilding or enamelling. Length 36.25mm, width 20.85mm, thickness 1.64mm, diameter of loop 8.7mm and weight 4.1g.

Dates

EARLY MEDIEVAL (Certain), Circa 1100 AD - 1400 AD

21st Feb 2010 Guys go home- more museum recordings and treasures

Is this the field where Richard III lost his kingdom for a horse? Real location of Battle of Bosworth finally revealed after 500 years

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1252208/Real-location-Richard-IIIs-Battle-Bosworth-500-years.html#ixzz0g9iKyHOr

The latest batch of coins sent for fixing is ready for pick, still got to post a few of the last batch yet.

17thC Charles II silver button - reported as treasure to Colchester museum

Medieval gold finger ring - reported as treasure to Colchester museum

1.71g,15.40g

The guys have finished their hunt and what an interesting first week on the new 66 field site. The weather was great and the guys just roamed around aimlessly hoping for a hot spot and found some amazing relics and coins. It is going to take us years to get a real feel of fields this large but it is showing huge potential. Two more treasures were found, Ohio Scott found a woman's plain medieval finger ring, Ohio Gerry found the 17thC Charles II wedding commemorative silver button, both have been reported to Colchester museum and the landowner. The silver Roman coins found during the tour have an incredibly hard crust and are still 'cooking' to break it down. I still have bunch of finds to post yet to the latest finds page Feb 2010 finds.

This is our best ever season so far for gold finds since we started and I have Updated this years gold finds page

The next hunt in is the Boston Beau team on the 27th Feb who are trialing 2 of the lodges at the new Barn II accommodation. The first guys loved the accommodation but one of the beds was a bit hard.

There is one double bedded lodge free if anyone wants to join the hunt and it is only one mile from the new site. On this trip you have you own car, pick your own fields and can detect as many hours as you like with nightlight's if you fancy real hard core.

The next full board hunts start on the 6th March for a month, hopefully we can get on each of the 66 fields on the new site before the close of the season in April.

I have posted a few more of our PAS database entries below and their ID's.

ESSEX, England: ESS-32C082, Post-Medieval combination lock

Object Type:

combination LOCK

A cast copper alloy Post-Medieval combination lock dating from 1550 to 1650. The lock has a cylindrical case. The cylindrical case is made up five discs originally movable but now corroded onto an axle, between two outer discs. The two outer discs are attached to an arched hasp or shackle which is D-shaped in section and is 15.1mm high. There are capital letters engraved or stamped on the five rotating discs rather than numbers. Only two sets of letters can be seen, the rest having worn away, along with the surface. The case has a diameter of 15.5mm and is 31.54mm long. Its size and design make it likely that it was used to lock a casket. Weight 25.8g. There are traces of dark green patina on the object and there is also a dark brown colouring as well as some patches of light green corrosion. The axle is lighter green than the rest. There is an almost identical one on the database from Lincolnshire (LIN-80D373) except with symbols instead of letters and a very similar one from Suffolk (SF8892).

Dates

EARLY POST MEDIEVAL (Certain), Circa 1550 AD - 1650 AD

ESSEX, England: ESS-2D16B4, silver Roman Republican denarius serratus of the moneyer Q. Antonius Balbus

Object Type:	COIN
	Silver Roman Republican denarius serratus of the moneyer Q. Antonius Balbus, Rome, 83-82 BC
	This coin comes from a large issue with 340 obverse dies and 378 reverse dies.

Dates

EARLY ROMAN (Certain) to EARLY ROMAN (Certain), 83 BC - 82 BC

ESSEX, England: ESS-2DFDE2, Medieval copper alloy jetton of Edward II

Object Type:	Class XI sterling bust JETTON
	A cast copper alloy jetton of Edward II (Class XI), dating to 1310-14. A sterling bust jetton showing the king’s bust. See Mitchiner, M, Vol 1, nos.117,118. The object has a mid green patina with very light green corrosion product or dirt on the lower relief areas.

Dates

EARLY MEDIEVAL (Certain), 1310 AD - 1314 AD

18th Feb 2010 Monster double gold day - museum recordings

I picked up another batch of our recorded finds from the museum yesterday and there are some very interesting ID's on finds we were not certain about. I have posted a couple below them with their National database entries and ref number. I will be posting more over the the next couple of days.

Detecting is an amazing hobby. One day pouring down with rain, boot sticking mud, cold, wet and getting totally skunked. Next day bright sunshine, perfect land conditions and monster finds. They don't get any better than NH Dave's first very unusual Celtic gold from a new site to get the blood pumping. I just sent pictures and details of to the new landowner so he will be pleased with the finds so far. I cannot find a match in the Hobbs ref book but at a guess it could be a 50BC uninscribed QC qtr stater. I have sent it off to John Stills who runs the Celtic Coin Index National database to record it and get his views and ID. Then to make a great day even better Min Mindy finds another couple of stonkers, gold mourning ring and a huge medieval key in perfect shape. The guys also dug quite a few 1st/2ndC Roman bronze coins but they were all eaten to death apart from one that might have some detail after it has soaked for a while.

Updated this years gold finds page

I have posted more finds to the new hunt page Feb 2010 finds.

Celtic gold qtr stater 13.56,1.29mm - not sure of tribe yet, sent to Celtic coin index for recording and ID

(not treasure as it is under 300 years old)

1726 gold mourning ring - Legend with black enamel reads

TIM COOKE 1726 AGE 73

2.07g, 20.34mm dia

Huge medieval key 76.34mm

ESSEX, England: ESS-32F9F1, Medieval copper alloy spur buckle

Object Type:	spur BUCKLE
	Cast copper alloy Medieval spur buckle (1250-1500) with an integral plate and missing pin. The frame is small and sub-rectangular with a sub-circular knop at the terminal and vestiges of pin rest. There would have been a small aperture for the attachment end of the pin in the plate. However the bar of the aperture has corroded away so all that remains is a notch in the plate. The other end of the plate ends in a loop. The plate itself is narrow and undecorated. The buckle is of stout construction and would have been worn on a spur. It has a mid brown patina with traces of mid green colouring. There is light green corrosion product especially concentrated around the terminals. Length 44.3mm, width of frame 18.31mm, thickness 5.95mm, weight 9.8g. See Whitehead 2003, Buckles, pages 32-35. The closest example would be no. 190 which has an oval frame, However Whitehead page 32 does state that rectangular shaped frames are known.

Dates

MEDIEVAL (Certain), Circa 1250 AD - 1500 AD

ESSEX, England: ESS-332F71, Roman copper alloy escutcheon

Object Type:

Handle Escutcheon VESSEL

Complete cast copper alloy Roman vessel escutcheon. This object takes the form of a curved bar with sub-rectangular section. The base is completely flat. Half way along the bar is an integral sub-circular loop which would have served to take a handle. The loop also curves in line with the bar. Near each end of the bar is a triangular upright knop. This decoration is mirrored on both sides of the loop where there are small projections. It would have been soldered onto the top edge of the vessel, as there is no sign of break or fixture on any edge or face. The object although very worn does not appear to be broken. It has a pitted surface and the original surface, where it survives, is dark green. Otherwise the object is light green within the pits and there is corrosion product concentrated around the loop. Length 71.63mm, thickness max 5.13mm. The width/height including the loop is 20.15mm. The weight is 19.3g. Related finds NCL-249C60 and ESS-874B53

Dates

EARLY ROMAN (Probably), Circa 100 AD - 200 AD

16th Feb 2010 More early finds

Our new 66 field site has so far produced every period of find from 11,000 BC, Romano/Celtic, Saxon, Medeival up to present day. The latest find by NH day of a 1000BC socketed axe fragment means there was also Bronze Age occupation . This is an unusual find as it is the top section of the axe with the tie loop showing. Normally with axe fragments we find are the the botton blade section where it fractured.

I have posted more finds to the new hunt page Feb 2010 finds.

1000 BC Bronze age socketed axe fragment - Mass Bruce's 850 BC axe hoard find

Interesting finds c10thC - 2 Saxon harness cheek pieces from the same field and they appear to be from the same maker

Roman 1sr/2nd C silver coin as dug and 'cooking' to remove crust

Well worn Roman BC period Republican silver coin - hopefully there is some detail under the crust after it is 'cooked'

13th Feb 2010 More great finds

Ohio Scott's Roman lead token finds sent off to Mark Lehman for his views

Another great days detecting on new land produced a hole raft of really stonking relics including Min Mindy's mint 16thC ecclesiastical seal matrix which we might be able to ID as it was near an old church. The museum might be able to gives us more info as it is being recorded. Mindy also found our first ever King John of Ireland silver find. I have posted more finds to the new hunt page Feb 2010 finds.

Mark Lehman has send up a further update on the Roman bronzes found so far.

1209- 1216 John as King of ireland hammered silver penny- Rex coinage

Obv IOHANNED(S)REX

Rev DIVE - Dublin mint Moneyer ROBERD

17.84mm, 1.29g

Stunning 16thC seal matric - R H

1688 James II milled silver 2 pence

1603 James 1st lead token

12th Feb 2010 Fantastic start to the hunts - 11,000 BC and a treasure

1413 -22 Henry V hammered silver halfpenny - broken annulets by crown - earl hair - Type 5

Obv HENRIC REX ANGL

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

0.42g, 13.57mm

What an amazing assortment of finds from all periods being discovered by the guys. The first treasure off new land found by Ark Gary is a stunning silver snake handle. It is difficult to date exactly as it came off an area where Min Mindy eye balled a 11,000 BC flint hand axe, BC "Romano-Celitberian"bronze coin, 200 AD Roman coin , Saxon and medieval finds. I have started a new hunt page Feb 2010 finds and started to upload the hammered silver and relics to it.

Possible Romano/British silver handle - reported as treasure to Colchester museum

11.84g, 33.36mm w x 41.46mm H x 7.24mm T

Large 11000 BC flint hand axe - 99mm L x 80mm W

Full size Roman stone phallic ornament, George III sixpence for size 72.5 mm L x 30.71mm W

1stC BC "Romano-Celitberian"

Several Romans with detail were found and I sent them off to Mark Lehman for ID and his views on the date spread

9th Feb 2010 More fixed hams and finally the kick off tomorrow

I received a huge wad of approved export licenses this morning and I have posted a list on the members forum.

The kick off for the 2nd half of the season is tomorrow so it will be great to fondle some new finds. The guys have a choice of over 300 fields to search but I expect they will primarily choose to search the new 2400 acre site to start with. Weather was mild and sunny today so it is looking good. This season the guys are supplied with their own cooker, pots and a kettle to take into the field to heat up soup and make coffee and tea. We have a new pop up tent and a neat gas heater so if the weather does turn chilly we can keep toasty out there.

I have posted a few more of the fixed hammered silver coins below and have a bunch more to post yet.

Taco'd, annealed, fixed 1351-2 Edward III hammered silver groat - Cross 1 - annulet between pellets in one qtr Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON London mint

As dug, cleaned, annealed and then fixed 1352- 1353 Edward III hammered silver groat (4 pence ) Series D Cross 1 - annulet stops, Pre treaty period Obv EDWARD D G REX ANGL Z oFRANC oD oHYB Rev CIVI/TAS/EBO/RACI - York mint 4.20g, 28.61mm

Taco'd and fixed 1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny Obv EDWAR ANGLDNS HYB Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON London mint

6th Feb 2010 More fixed hams - master finds map

More excellent work by our goldsmith at fixing bent hammered silver coins. I asked him to use the cold straightening method on the mint William penny as it only had a minor bend with no stress cracks showing. It you try to straighten a hammered silver that has hairline stress cracks without annealing then it will fracture.

I tested out our new 'rite in the rain' note books for finds recording out in the field and they are amazing. You can write on them in normal biro pen and then put them under water and it has no effect. I have now mounted the new master finds map onto a cork back board so we can plot the finds made with coloured pins, each colour will represent a period, Bronze Age, Romano/British, Saxon, Medieval, Tudor and Stuart. There are several different styles of pins so we can use one set for coins and one for artefacts.

William 1st hammered silver penny

1340 Edward III hammered silver groat Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint Taco'd Medieval long cross hammered silver penny Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint Now I can see the obv the coin is a 1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny - cross 3 EDWAR ANGL DNS HYB
Previously Taco'd 1247 Henry III hammered silver voided longcross penny Rev ION/ONS/EDM/VND - Bury St Edmonds mint

5th Feb 2010 More fixed hammered silver - Colchester Castle video - Exports approved

That was quick the new 'Rite in the Rain Pocket Notebooks' I ordered yesterday arrived this morning and they are a really nice size for carrying out there in the field to record finds.

I spoke to export duty today to see what stage our first batch of applications are in. They have all been approved and will be dispatched to me on Monday.

Mitch Chris posted a great video on the members forum he found this on youtube. It gives a little bit of general history of the Romans in Colchester and takes a little tour of the museum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd6xgqrLMvc

I started to clean up more of our fixed hammered silver coins just back from the goldsmith. To ensure that these fragile early hammered silver do not crack the coins are annealed sometimes 3 or 4 times which turns them a different colour. To clean off the burnt earth colour you can use the 'foil paper and water' method. It is amazing that even with a severe bend which under a microscope shows hair line cracks he achieves these brilliant results. He even managed to get the dent out of the eye on the bent early King John hammered silver short cross penny. All these coins are now perfectly flat. I have a load more to clean up and post yet.

As dug, annealed and fixed 1509-26 Henry VIII hammered silver groat - Portcullis crowned initial mark Portrait of Henry VII but name of Henry VIII
As dug, annealed and fixed 1509-26 Henry VIII hammered silver groat - Portcullis crowned initial mark Portrait of Henry VII but name of Henry VIII

As dug, annealed and fixed   1204/5 John hammered silver short cross penny -Class 5c Obv HENRICVS REX Rev RAVF .ON. WIN -Moneyer Ravf of Winchester mint

3rd Feb. 2010 Exports are finished - maps and notepads - fixed hammered coins

I picked up our latest batch of fixed hammered coin finds today from the goldsmith and has done some remarkable work again on some of the badly taco 'd silver coins. I dropped off another batch from the lastest export pouches processed to keep him busy. Our two hammered gold coin finds from the first half of the season turned out amazing and you can see by the side shots they are flat as a die now. I will get my books out later now I can ID the taco 'd 1/4 noble properly. I will posting more of the fixed before and examples later.

1346-1361 Edward III gold half noble - Closed E at centre of cross - Cross 3 - Pre treaty

Obv EDWAR D GRA (DEI G) REX ANGL AZ FRANC

25.10mm, 3.80g

1350 Edward hammered gold 1/4 noble - Cross 3 -Needs straightening to ID exact type from rev shield.

Obv + EDWARD DEI GRA REX ANGL

Rev

18.92mm. 1.9g

Size comparison between a 1/4 &1/2 gold noble

Last of the export applications have been completed so I am now getting ready for the start of the season which is only a week away.

The final official milled copper coin count for the 1/2 season is 2143. I have updated the forum competition page

In a weeks time we start the exploration of our largest ever site we have been asked to detect so we have introduced a new structure to how we are going to search it. We have split the 66 fields on this site into 5 named sectors so we have some idea of where we have been. Each field is numbered.

I have just bought all the special markers for putting the find spots on your personal copy of the laminated maps to carry with you out there. I tried them in the shop and they work brilliantly on laminated surface of the maps. When you are ready you just wipe the map clean, real easy to do. They had some really neat little note pads which each guy will be issued with. Org Mary suggested on the forum getting some weather proof notebooks for rainy days so I ordered up anther set of 'Rite in the Rain Pocket Notebooks' that even work under water.

'These are the truly go-anywhere, anytime, in any weather notebooks. The pocket notebooks are conveniently sized (approx 13cm x 7.5cm) to take with you on your outings. With a Polydura cover and the Universal pattern, these 100 page (50 sheet) notebooks are perfect for any situation'

The format will be as you make a good find you physically mark on your map something you will remember, ie Roman fibular brooch is FB, hammered silver HS, it does not matter what shortcut you use as long as you can remember it at the end of the day. Also at the end of the day you transfer these find spots to your note pad. For example if you found a fibular brooch on the South Section field 10 then just put a line on the notepad SS 10 Fib.

At he beginning of the next days hunt you wipe your map clean and tear off that page from the notepad and give it to me the next time we meet. I will then transfer this data to the huge master map. I will use a coloured coded pin system so find trends are fairly obvious. There could be a huge number of finds on certain fields to plot.This system will really aid us with find spots of those items being recorded later on the National PAS database.

Each weekly team will also have their own copy of the huge AO sized master map they can keep in their bus. If you are in a team like Chicago Ron's who are here for 3 weeks then you can also plot your teams progress on your own map using the magic pens. I also bought a large metal framed cork wall board and hundreds of coloured map pins to plot the finds made.

The main thing is to keep on top of the finds we are making as there is no way we will remember it all without a memory jogger on 66 fields. The more we plot the better the hot spots will be found.

30th Jan 2010 More exports and finds

Ark Gary's 13 gold coin finds

More exports and finds list posted to the members forum. I still working on why the custom signatures are not showing properly, Ark Gary sent me a picture of all his gold finds he has made here for his signature but they will not display on his posts. Must be a setting somewhere I am missing or his gold is too big !!

I have just finished Boston Bud's export pouch and I missed a piece of gold and cleaned up a muddy lump that turned out to be medieval enameled harness pendant with white and red enameling remaining. They were probably found his last day when he had to rush off back home quickly due to family emergency. I have updated the gold finds page for this season and it now stands at 21, best half season on record. Gold finds page

He also found 30 coppers before he left to add to the copper comp total so far which now stands at 2058

Below are few more bonus finds out of the export pouches I did not photo, the intaglio is really neat.

Georgian intaglio pendant	Georgian buckle	1748 George II guinea token - never seen a George II token before
Medieval enameled harness pendant - white and red enamel remains		Georgian gold brooch
Capt / Commander - 1774-1787 Backmark - W.M .Hammond Portsmouth		Royal Navy Lieutenant - 1748

26th Jan 2010 Find of the year - more exports - USA hoard

Just two weeks to the kick off and I still have more exports applications to process yet before they arrive so I need to get my skates on. The first team to open the second half of the season are all really experienced Senior members with 2 of our oldest serving members returning, Alaskan Geo and Ark Gary. Geo was the first guy ever to hunt here when we had just 13 fields and now we have over 300 to pick from so he has seen a lot of changes to the club.

This is Gary's 26th trip here and he hold's the club record with 13 gold coins, 10 of which are ancient. He is the only member to have found both Celtic, Roman and Saxon gold. Geo found our rarest ever Celtic with the sun and the moon symbols so they know how to sniff out gold. It is interesting that they are both very successful gold nugget hunters over in the USA especially Geo who has literally got pots of the stuff.

With a team this strong you know if they walk over it then nothing is missed. 3 of the guys are trialing out the new Barn II accommodation for the club which is just a mile from our new 66 field site. They will be giving us a frank testimonial of how it works out with 3 guys sharing the 2 bed roomed lodge and I will post their report on the site. There are two other lodges free at the new Barn if anyone want to join and join a serious bunch of gold hunters.

I have posted more export pictures and find lists to the members forum.

Colchester members Fl Don, Mitch, Penn Denis and Christy went on a civil war hunt together in the USA last week and a guy there dug a fantastic little silver hoard in a tin which was captured on video as he opened it . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02fZZTtAHbk

Updated the forum competition page and the milled copper count now stands at 1974 so far for the half season.

I have updated the 'find of the year' page with my current favourites and fixed the menu bar pointing to the page which had a broken link . At the end of the season every guy that comes here gets to vote for his personal favourite find throughout the season (not his own finds of course) The find with the most votes gets the holder a free weeks full board detecting next season and the engraved Roman jug, not forgetting his name on the role of honor shield ! These are not the definitive list but are a few of my current favourites, members can vote for any finds that are on our site for the season 2009/2010.

Billericay Mark's 'excessively' rare Celtic gold coin find is going into a specialist auction at Sprink's in March 2010. Several dealers has shown real interest in acquiring it but this auction will realise the true market value for both the finder and landowner.

24th Jan 2010 More site updates and exports

Updated the individual find pages below with more finds from the first half of the season. We have now found sufficient coins of William IIII to create it's own page William IIII milled silver coins.

Just posted another 3 export pouches with find lists and pictures on the members forum.

I have updated the forum competition page and the milled copper count now stands at 1947

	William IIII milled silver coins		Victorian gold and milled silver coins
	Lead cloth seals		Lead bale seals
	Medallions and Badges		Post Victorian milled silver coins
	George V milled gold and silver coins

22nd Jan 2010 Joe's Sapphire ring offer- more exports

Disclaimed treasures returned to finders

I have posted more exports to the members forum. I have had a couple of e-mails from guys asking why their treasure find has been missed off their applications. Please note, no treasure or hoards you found will appear on your export license as they are currently with the British Museum being evaluated. Only if they are subsequently disclaimed can they be returned to you which can take several months. In that case I will apply for a 2nd export license for that item.

I have updated the forum competition page and the milled copper count now stands at 1899. I still have a few more export pouches to do yet so I reckon the half season total will be around 2000. It all depends how the new 66 field site for Feb 2010 pans out but we are probably looking at between 3500 and 4000 milled copper coins for the season total.

I have updated this site's menu system to include the new forum link and prepared a new Feb 2010 finds page ready for the kick off on the 10th.

A few more bonus finds out of the pouches below.

17thC decorated finger ring		17thC decorated finger ring
19thC Napoleon lead figurine	Perfect hall marks on a George 1st trade weight - Crown G London cipher	Really nice decorated 17thC lock plate

I dropped another bunch of finds today to the museum for recording and ID'ing today including one of the medieval stap ends below. We have found several so far this season and it is not known what the suspension hole was used for but I suspect is was for a pendant of some description. There appears to be several different varieties and fixing methods for the leather strap end. I have been searching the PAS database as I was told there are already several recorded on there.

Medieval Stap type and 'prong' type where two metal sheets were riveted through to secure the leather

Ill Joe's medieval sapphire gold ring find was declared treasure at the coroners inquest in Sept 2009. The ring has been through the valuation committee stage in Dec and both the farmer and finder have been offered a reward. However Joe sent me the letter from the valuation committee and they appear to comparing it's type and value to another ring that is not really a suitable example . They have compared Joe's ring to fig (407) and not the one on the right (402) which is almost an exact match but larger. I spoke to the Treasure registrar today at the British Museum and they are going to review the case. That is the real strength of the English treasure process that you have the right to appeal any offer made and present evidence to the contrary. All previous finds made together with their pictures, ID's and values are available to view on line to find a comparison.

http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/publications/5620.aspx

407. Bexhill area, East Sussex: Medieval gold finger-ring (2005 T214) Date: 13th century Discovery: Found by Mr W Piggott while metaldetecting in April 2005. Description: A Medieval finger-ring formed of a simple hoop and set with a triangular, shield-shaped stone. The stone is deep blue, heavily scratched, and may be a sapphire or glass. Diameter: 20mm. Disposition: Bexhill Museum. J P ROBINSON

402. Dunterton, Devon: Medieval gold finger-ring (2005 T206) Date: 13th century Discovery: Found by Mr C Alee while metal-detecting in April 2005. Description: A Medieval gold finger-ring set with a large irregularly shaped sapphire in a tall bezel, a single rib on either side of the bezel at the junction with the hoop. The hoop is of circular section. Surface analysis indicated a gold content of approximately 87% and confirmed the nature of the gemstone. Diameter: 24mm; weight: 5.6g. Disposition: Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery. B NENK

'I received my letter from the museum and a valuation . They are basing the valuation on figure 407 in the treasure report 2005-2006. Looking that ring up I see it as 2005 T214 from Bexhill, East Sussex. Their letter incorrectly identifies figure 407 as 2005 T274 from Bexhill, East Sussex. Also, the description of figure 407 states, "the stone is deep blue, heavily scratched, and may be a sapphire or glass." This ring also does not look at all like mine. The ring you located, figure 402, treasure2005 T206 looks identical to mine, which they also agree, but state it is larger. Any suggestions,'

Joe

Joe's Black Sapphire Medieval gold ring 21.93mmdia,2.51g

Treasure Report:   2008 T580  

A Medieval finger-ring with a simple wire hoop and a symmetrical hexagonal bezel set with a sapphire.

The finger-ring is gold, and dates from the late twelfth or the thirteenth century.

Dimensions: diameter 21 mm

Non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis of the surface of a finger ring from Tendring, Essex, indicated a gold content of approximately 60%, a silver content of approximately 20%, and a copper content of at least 19%. The dark blue stone was identified by Raman spectroscopy as corundum, which for this colour is known as sapphire. The ring weighs 2.48 grams.

16th Jan 2010 Finally back up and working - more exports and updates - forum update

Just 25 days to the start of the 2nd half of the season

Great to get my main PC back up and working properly now. Meanwhile I have continued posting more finds lists and exports to the members forum using an old standby laptop. I have not transferred the bonus do dad pics out of the pouches or sent out Export Word doc's yet from this laptop. I will try and get it done today so you get a copy sent to you.

The new members forum is amazing and members have started uploading their England finds to their own photo albums. These pictures are held on our own SQL server linked to the forum so they are searchable by any key words.

Chicago Ron has also started blogging on the forum with great detecting tips and will be doing a whole series of helpful blogs. Ron has only one slot free on the last week of his first 3 week self catering booking at the New Barn II accommodation in March to hit the new 66 field site if you want to join his team. There are still some free lodges in Feb if you fancy being the first guys ever on this new site and just a mile from the site. Remember you have your own car and can wander aimlessly, for as many hours as you like, around all of the 66 fields until your arm drops off.

I still have to get more laminated maps made up of the new site as it is such a monster and we can get totally lost. One pass around this new site equates to a 16 mile walk so the new pocket sized maps are essential.

Make sure you read up on all the history info and study the maps on the members forum prior to your trip.

I dropped a huge batch of bent hammered gold and silver coins off to our goldsmith for fixing yesterday. I am especially excited to see how the two medieval hammered silver gold coins we found in the first half of the season turn out. Neither of them are torn or missing any chunks. I will be posting the before and after pics once they come back to the coin straightening page

I have updated the forum competition page and the milled copper count now stands at 1760.

Here are a few bonus do dads out of the export pouches I did yesterday on my repaired PC.

Rare unrecorded 1412 -13 Henry V hammered silver penny. The obv has a quatrefoil with pellet at centre which is a York mint. The annulets (circle) by crown should be on the left and one on the breast. This example has no annulet on breast and annulet to right of crown, great find Obv HENRIC DI GRA REX ANG Rev CIVI/TASx/EBO/RACI - York mint	Excellent find - WWII Rifle Brigade baton end	Unusual decorated Georgian thimble

11th Jan 2010 Main PC failure continues - Some updates

The bad weather has delayed the replacement parts for my main PC so I still have limited access to files and photo's. I am still continuing with export applications though by using my standby laptop. I have posted a load more find lists and pictures to the members new forum. http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/detecting. The old forum is now closed for posting, if you are a member and do not have a log on yet drop me a mail. This is closed members forum.

I have updated the forum competition page and the milled copper count now stands at 1628.

Hopefully my new PC kit will arrive today so I am back in full swing.

8th Jan 2010 PC failure

Unable to post any more exports and updates due to main PC failure. I am waiting for replacements parts today.

5th Jan 2010 More exports and updates - members forum

The new members forum is taking shape nicely and I have transferred over half the membership over so far. I have set up an auto RSS feed from our foundintheground.com finds database to populate a finds forum when updates are made. Clever widget.

The site has a lot of extra features where we can post articles like the one below of the 'newbies' first hunt when he found a found a £1 million treasure, great story.

http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/detecting

£1 million pound treasure dug on first outing

Uploaded more export find sheets and photo's to the members forum. I have posted more missed finds from the pouches below including some really nice buttons. The guys found a great new house site this season that produced some early numbered regimental buttons and more of the early unrecorded 5th dragoon guard buttons. That is our 16th find of these superb buttons that are unrecorded in any publication. They must have been stationed here in Colchester which has been a garrison town since the Roman times and still is.

Updated the Forum competition page. The count has now hit 1500 milled copper coins which will probably rise to over 2000 for the half season as I process more export pouches.

1821 Brazil XX Reis Obv Central cross surrounded by castles Rev Crown XX		RN Capt / Commander - 1787 RN Lieutenant - 1787   Back mark H.MEREDITH TREBLE GILT 07 Oc t1777
RN Greenwich Hospital O/R's Hospital Staff Tunic Button - In use 1800 - 1814	19thC monogrammed button	Angel holding a candle Back mark - CHARLES JENNENS LONDON 1800-1832
1869 Guernsey 4 double copper coin		Unrecorded V DG - 5th Dragoons guards buttons - Crimean war period
1800 Dutch 1/2 skilling copper coins		16th/17thC button
18thC Royal navy silver cuff buttons		Medieval book clasp

2nd Jan 2010 Happy new year to all - £18,000 offer - forum update - new land update

The Treasure valuation committee met in Dec to decide on a value for our 7 finds declared Treasure by the Essex coroner in Sept. Ten Brad has received an initial offer of £18,000 for his gold statue find but the other 6 guys have yet to get an offer. Both the landowner and finder can appeal the decision and present proof that the valuation should be higher or accept the offer and then receive a cheque in the mail for half each. The English treasure act is the fairest system in the world where the finder is rewarded with the fair market value as set by a panel of experts and dealers.

Treasure Report:   2008 T581                                                                            
Parish/County:          Tendring District, Essex

A medieval figure of John the Baptist. The saint is shown not in his usual attribute of a camel skin, but in the robes of a prophet. He gestures with his right hand to a salver, which he holds in his left. This was originally designed to carry a lamb, signifying the Lamb of God. A scroll issues from the Saint’s left hand and is inscribed with the words
: ECCE +ANGUS+DEI
(Behold, the Lamb of God)

The figure stands on a small plinth with a finished base. It is designed to be seen in the round and on its back there is a loop for attachment to an object. It would probably have been entirely enamelled, but no traces of enamel survive on the figure.

The figure is gold and dates from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.

Dimensions: height 33 mm, width 11 mm, depth 10 mm.

Consequently, in terms of age and as the object contains a minimum of 10% precious metal it qualifies as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996.

         
J P Robinson
Curator of Medieval Collections
30th March 2009

The new members forum is running well and I am sending out new log on and passwords to all the members.

http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/detecting

I have been playing with publishing articles and adding info to the various sections. If will be a couple of weeks until we close down the old forum. I have posted more export find lists and photo's to both forums and will double up postings for the next couple of weeks.

Updated the Forum competition page. The count is now 1434 milled copper coins

New 66 field site for Feb 2010 update

The scale of this new site is mind blowing so we are approaching the searching of this site is a different manner than we normally do.

I sent the landowner a new master map of his land which I had highlighted into 5 coloured parcels and he has replied approving the proposed sectors. Each parcel's fields are numbered on a master map and the 5 sectors are named. A team can pick any one of the 5 parcels for a mornings hunt and then can either stay where they are lunchtime or move to a different parcel in the afternoon. Each sector is approximately 13 fields adjoining each other. I will inform the landowner the night before which parcel we intend searching so that game keepers/workers know where we will be as a lot of shooting takes place on his land. The landowner and I have set a password so that if you are challenged by a gamekeeper while searching the password ensures you are a valid dectectorist on his land.

The sheer scale of this land also means we must approach the plotting of finds made in a very structured manner. Each guy will get a laminated map to plot finds as they go as there is no way to remember where on a 4 mile sq plot you found them. I will transfer that information each day to a huge master finds map I have had produced. Just one pass around this plot is 8 miles so it will take years to build up a picture and the spread of finds on the master map.

Each member can view the master finds map when they arrive. The first team are our pathfinders as the map is blank !!!

31st Dec 2009 More ID's More finds - Curator's report - New members forum

We have a new professional members forum so we get rid of that pesky pop up adds and virus attacks. The new forum is CMS based so it has lots of clever widgets and additional features. Check out the site below . All members will receive a new log on and password sent to them by mail.

I just received the British Museums curator's report on Mark's medieval gold ring find, very interesting report.

http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/detecting/

A few more bonus do dads out of the export pouches I cleaned up included a really nice 18thC silver button that was a black lump. There were a couple of Conder tokens that I managed to get an ID on.

Conder tokens are probably the most popular of the English token series. They were widely collected 200 years ago, and are still avidly collected today. During the 1790's there was a shortage of small change in Britain until private merchants started having their own large halfpennies and some pennies struck. Thousands of different designs were issued and the social, economic, and political lives of the people during the 1780-1800 period are mirrored on these coins. These coins are called "Conder" tokens, after James Conder, an early author on the series, though many mistakenly call them "Condor" tokens. The fact that some feature different birds adds to the confusion. Some Conder tokens found their way into circulation in the U.S. and Canada.

After the late 1790's these coins were not so much produced but started to reappear again in the 1810's.

Posted more export find lists and pictures to the members forum.

Updated the Forum competition page. The count is now 1314 milled copper coins

Gloucestershire regiment cap badge	1803 Staffordshire Stafford Penny Conder Token OBVERSE: The arms of the borough of Stafford (a castle and four lions). STAFFORD 1803. REVERSE: A cypher W H and a Staffordshire knot. PENNY. EDGE: PAYABLE BY HORTON AND COMPANY . X X .	ENGLAND, KENT---THOMAS HAYCRAFT SHIPBUILDER'S HALFPENNY TOKEN 1795 This Condor token from Kent, England bears the legend "PROSPERITY TO THE WOODEN WALLS OF OLD ENGLAND" Referring to a ship's hull. Thomas Haycraft was an 18th century shipbuilder in Kent.
Really nice 18thC silver button		Very unusual medieval Jetton looking coin - need to do some more research
WWII Fire brigade button Back mark : SOCn NATIONAL FIRE BRIGADE Reg No 67

Treasure Report:   2009 T579                                                                            
Parish/County:          ‘Tendring District’, Essex

A Medieval finger-ring of D-shaped section with inscriptions on the external and internal surface. The inscription on the outside of the hoop has seen much wear and is largely illegible. It appears to consist of the following letters:

SE  NA R  SE?L

The inscription on the inside of the ring is crisp and legible and spells

PENSETZ

This is a variation on the French word ‘pensez’, meaning ‘think’ (of me).  This single word is often deployed on rings with romantic inscriptions.

The ring’s proportions suggest that it may have been worn on the small finger of a slender woman or by a child.

The ring is gold and dates from the fifteenth century.

Dimensions: internal diameter 18 mm

Consequently, in terms of age and as the object contains a minimum of 10% precious metal it qualifies as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996.

J P Robinson
Curator of Medieval Collections
15th December 2009

28th Dec 2009 More new land research posted - updates

More updates to individual find page with finds from the 1st half of the season. There were some brilliant numbered regiment buttons finds from corps we have not found before.

	Elizabeth 1st hammered silver coins Low denominations		Military badges
	Elizabeth 1st hammered silver coins High denominations		Numbered Regiment buttons
	18th/19thC tokens		Mounts all periods

I have reset the countdown clocks to the 2nd half of the season which starts early again this year on the 10th Feb. It is amazing how quick time flies and the 2nd half of the season starts in just over a month now. More export find lists and photo's have been up loaded to the members forum.

The guys have ben doing a lot more great research on our new 66 field site for the 2nd half of the season. 2400 acres converts to 3.75 miles x 3.75 miles so there is a monster amount of land to try and cover. Can Rod just posted brilliant info on a huge Saxon/Viking battle site that could have taken place somewhere on the land. Check out the forum for the link to the history of the battle web site. Mass Linda has posted a map of all the Roman roads, dykes, ring ditches etc so check those out also. Remember we can only search this land out of animal hunting season from Feb to April so if you can get away after the new year for a hunt then you can stay at the New Barn accommodation just up the road from the site. The pound took another dive against the US and Canadian dollars over the last few days making the hunts even cheaper again.

Updated the Forum competition page. The count is now 1177 milled copper coins

Special thanks to Hendrik from Belgium for sending me a picture and ID'ing one of our unknown jetton finds below. I have updated the Jetton page

25th Dec 2009 Happy Christmas to all - more exports and updates - Treasure case numbers issued

More finds uploaded to latest finds Nov page

Happy Christmas to everyone out there, members and readers alike. Special thanks to all our farmers, experts and the museum staff for their sterling work during another great season.

I get to take a day off from processing finds to get pairs of socks and eat loads of turkey.

I posted more export find lists and pictures onto the members forum and there were some great bonus do dads in the pouches like the early bronze weaving shuttle ? There was another new 17thC token guy for our set in Can John's pouch and I have updated the 17thC token page. I have great buttons to play with yet.

Updated the Forum competition page. The count is now 1084 milled copper coins. As I process a guys pouch I update the page.

Unrecorded Navy button (left) in poor shape - Normal 3 anchor types (examples right ) do not have the rope on the two small anchors and there are 3 letters below main anchor - sent off to our button expert Tim for his views.

Tudor buckle	Fascinating find - Decorated bronze weaving shuttle ?? It feels Celtic but it could be earlier - one fro the museum
Medieval badges Ref Mitchiner p244 939 - 941   'A badge for a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in bronze and dating somewhere around C13/14th possibly very slightly later . This is a very scarce item and it relates to The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem being a Catholic chivalric order of Knighthood that traces its roots to Godfrey of Bouillon, principal leader of the First Crusade. According to reliable sources in the Vatican and Jerusalem, it began in historical reality as a mixed clerical and lay confraternity (association) of pilgrims which gradually grew around the most central of the Christian holy places in the Middle East, the Holy Sepulchre or the tomb of Jesus Christ.This would have been a pin for a member of the order , there is a mark on the reverse where the original pin would have been fixed '
17thC Peter Pelle, bay maker of Colchester Essex hammered copper trade farthing	Victorian silver vesta case

I just an e-mail from the treasure registrar at the British museum with the case numbers issued for our latest reported items. You should be getting letters from them shortly.

Treasure Case No: 2009 T502
Post-Medieval silver-gilt dress accessory from‘Colchester Area’, Essex.
(Receipt No: 6799)

Treasure Case No: 2009 T520
Silver fleur de lis mount from ‘Tendring District’, Essex.
(Receipt No: 6799)

Treasure Case No: 2009 T521
Post-Medieval silver mount from ‘Tendring District’, Essex.
(Receipt No: 6799)

Treasure Case No: 2009 T522
Post-Medieval silver bodkin from ‘Tendring District’, Essex.
(Receipt No: 6799)

Treasure Case No: 2009 T615
Post-Medieval silver seal matrix from ‘Tendring District’, Essex.
(Receipt No: 6799)

Treasure Case No: 2009 T616
Post-Medieval silver bodkin from ‘Tendring District’, Essex.
(Receipt No: 6799)

23rd Dec 2009 Roman silver cooked - Another Roman hoard coin - More updates and exports

Updated the Forum competition page. The count so far is now over 1000 milled copper coins.

I have finished 'cooking' the Roman silver find by Ohio Jerry and managed to get part of the legend showing. I sent it off to Mark for his final views as this is one of the rarest Roman silvers ever dug here. By his comments It appears to be on par with the very rare Emperor Galba dug several years ago by Ark Gary.

Very rare 69 AD Otho Roman silver coin- as dug to 'cooked'

There are only 2 possible obverse legends for Otho - IMP OTHO CAESAR AVG TR P and IMP M OTHO CAESAR AVG TR P - so even though I suspect there is an "M"at 7:00 or 8:00, you can see that it's going to be next to impossible to be absolutely certain - this really doesn't matter, however. Neither is any scarcer than the other.

I'm going to go out on a limb somewhat and say I believe that the reverse is SECVRITAS P R - Securitas standing left, holding out a wreath with right hand and leaning on a scepter with left - this allows her left arm to be visible at an angle between her body and the scepter. This seems to be what we have happening on the reverse of your coin, particularly if we were to rotate the reverse about 15º counter-clockwise - and if I had to hazard a guess at the "letters" semi-visible around 2:00-4:00, they seem to resemble "TAS" - so even though there are a couple other types with a standing figure, this type seems to come closest to what I can see in the photo, is the only reverse type with a legend containing "...TAS..." - and is also the most commonly encountered variety of reverse for Otho.

Here's a SECVRITAS P R from my own collection to which you can compare it http://www.stoa.org/gallery/Civil-War/20_Otho_denarius


Mark

PS - I seem to remember a Galba a couple years back - that was from a Spanish mint and probably the equal of this in overal rarity - but it is true that Otho, in general, is one of those "special names" in the roster of emperors

I have just completed Canadian Ed's export pouch and man did he dig a bucket load of finds including a whole bunch I did not photo while the hunts were underway. I have posted them to the Nov finds page It appears he was the first guy to find a coin out of the Roman bronze hoard as he had an exact match of the hoard coins in his pouch. I have reported it to Colchester museum for inclusion into the 'pot' which Mass Bruce, Mike and Scott found a week later. As you can see from Mass Bruce's example below they are identical. Mark Lehman sent us his views when the first 7 were found below

Can Ed's coin 350-353 AD Magnentius & Decentius appears to be the first coin found from the Roman bronze hoard discovered later by Mass, Mike,Scott and Bruce. This was in Ed's export pouch and has been reported to Colchester museum

Mass Bruce's example 350-353 AD Magnentius & Decentius - currently at the British museum

	Edward 1st & II silver coins		Edward III silver & gold coins
	Henry VII & VIII coins		Roman coins
	Roman artifacts		Roman jewelry

21st Dec 2009 More exports, finds & updates

Updated the individual pages below with finds from the first half of the season. There is now a new section on the members forum dedicated to guys research on the new 66 fields site for the 2nd half of the season. Check out the fascinating info on the castle and abandoned church.

	King John to Richard II early hammered silver coins		Seal matrix
			Clothing fasteners

As I process the export pouches and post them on the members forum I am updating the copper count on the Forum competition page. The count so far is just under a 1000 milled copper coins.

There have been a couple of real nice bonus do dads out of the export pouches, missed while the hunts are underway, including a real nice medieval seal matrix and another treasure.

Medieval seal matrix - appears to be an impression of a squirrel facing right	16th/17thC silver clothing fastener - missing hooked pin and top loop - reported as treasure to museum

Canadian Bill has been cleaning up his medieval seal matrix find and sent me a new wax impression of it. What a cracking job, the legend and bust of Christ is now mint.

Medieval seal matrix - ESS-26B3A7

Dates

MEDIEVAL (Certain), 1200 AD - 1400 AD

Object Type:	Seal Matrix
	Medieval (1200-1400) cast copper alloy circular seal matrix with faceted handle on reverse. The handle has six facets and a raised moulded collar before terminating in a pentagonal suspension loop. The matrix has a forward facing halo'd Christ with a cross in the halo. The surrounding legend possibly reads: MARTIN LE (or DE) (P)REVOST probably meaning Martin the provost of a religious house. It has a dark green-brown patina. It is 23.70mm long, 18.57mm in diameter and weighs 9.93 grams.
	Inscription:	MARTIN LE (or DE) (P)REVOST

17th Dec 2009 More uploads and updates

I have uploaded a load more export finds list and pictures to the members forum. I am processing the guys finds and export applications who are coming back for their 2nd trip this season first, so they have a chance to take them home with them on their next trip if they are back approved in time. I have some really interesting items to take to the museum for further analysis like Cal Jim's 2 medieval seal matrix.

There is an excellent site showing a whole series of 13thC personal lead seals with ID's - click here to view

I have updated more individual find pages below with our finds from the first half the season, you can also check out more on our foundintheground database and use the search tool.

I have updated the forum competition page with the latest total.

Medieval bronze vessica-shaped seal matrix - crow impression facing left	13thC Medieval lead seal matrix - Lombardic script

	Coinweights		Lead tokens
	Trade weights		Jettons

13th Dec 2009 Page updates

Updated the individual pages below with this seasons finds

	Watch winders		Charles 1st silver coins
	Number military regiments		Commonwealth coins
	Clog fasteners		Foreign hammered silver coins
	Scottish hammered silver coins		Foreign milled coins
	Georgian gold and silver milled coins

12th Dec 2009 More Romans ID'd - returned treasures - new kit

I dropped off more finds for recording out of the export pouches to the museum yesterday and several disclaimed treasures were ready for collection. They included Can Dan's hand made gold ring that he found next to an 850 BC axe head. In almost all cases our plain gold ring finds are disclaimed by the British museum and returned to the finder as there is no way to prove their date without an expensive gold test that they will not undertake on a ring of little significance.

For a gold or silver item to be officially declared treasure they have to able to prove that they are over 300 years old, if not they are disclaimed and returned to the finder.

I have uploaded more export finds lists and pictures to the members forum.

I am getting ready for the 2nd half of the season on the new land and took the huge AO master map of the site into Staples who have an amazing set up for copying, reducing and laminating. I got a full set made of each size from AO down to A4 so we can choose the best size for guys to use out in the field. I have split the site up into 5 colour coded manageable chunks and numbered all the fields to allow easier finds recording. There are 66 fields in total on the new site so each chunk is approximately 13 fields. Guys are in full flight on the members forum researching the site and I will add key fields like the 1066 AD medieval castle location and fair sites onto the maps. This new site is so massive that I will setting out our large pop up tent each day in case the weather turns rough. I have already bought all the extra kit so that guys have a portable tent heater and a cooker to be able to make hot drinks and warm up during breaks.

Mark Lehman has been ID'ing more of our Roman coin finds out of the export pouches below.

108 AD Tajan

13.55g, 30.30mm

9th Dec 2009 Our Rarest Roman silver find ID'd - new land contracts signed

I have a meeting this week with the museum to drop the last couple of treasures and finds for recording on the national database. Hopefully there will several of our disclaimed treasures ready for pick up icluding Chicago Ron's gold pendant.

Updated our Hoard & Treasure page with latest info

More export find lists and pictures posted to the members forum.

Updated the forum comp page with the latest copper total free forum competition page

60 + new fields

The contracts were signed yesterday for our new 2400 site from Feb and I now have the large scale OS map of the fields. I spent several hours driving around and taking pictures of the fields and have posted 58 pictures I took on the members forum. It is a real mixed bag of fields, small ones, large ones, monster ones, woods, ponds, steams. Crops are mostly wheat with the odd rape seed. A rough count puts the field numbers at 60 +.

This site has never been detected before and is right next to the most important area of Roman/Celtic Colchester. The numbers of fields I viewed is mind blowing but we have the GPR pictures of the known Roman village to use as a starting point. Continuing research by the club members has shown two abandoned medieval villages, abondoned medieval church, site of a castle and huge numbers of Roman dykes, rivers, roads etc. Because of the sheer physical size of the site I will probably break it down into 4 more manageable chunks of 600 acres each so we have some idea of what we are covering. In a morning a team can pick one of the 600 acres plots and in the afternoon decide either to stay where they are or pick another 600 acre plot. I will be getting the huge supplied poster sized field map laminated which we can use as a master plotter for finds made. A single site this large will require years of hot spotting especially as we can only search it out of animal hunting season between Feb to April. The first team on the site will be the early 'mud and slush' hunt on the 10th Feb. The New Barn II we are now using is just a mile from the site and can be used extensively as a base to search this new site. This new Barn is split into 3 seperate lodges so parties from singles to 7 can be accommodated. Drop me a mail if you can get away after Christmas and be the first guys ever on this new plot. I might even extend the season into late April if there is sufficient interest.

The two final Roman silvers I have been 'cooking' for the the last month had sufficient detail showing through now so I sent them to Mark Lehman our Roman coin expert for his views. The report that just back from him is amazing as one of them is an Otho, the rarest Roman silver coin ever found here. What a great find

As dug to latest 'cooked' 69AD Otho silver Roman coin

I still have this coin in the 'cooker' to see I can get more obverse detail

6th Dec 2009 Cooking Roman silvers and exports- 1300 BC Ring update

On display at the BM

Ron, who was on the last barn hunt of the season, went off and visited the British Museum after his tour and snapped this picture of a gold armlet on display there that is an exact match of the ring Oregon Ed found below earlier in the season. Thanks to Ron for sending it to me as it answers a question we all had as to why the ring was so small for a finger. I wonder if the rest of the armlet is still out there ? Ed's ring is currently with the experts at the BM and it will be interesting to read the final curators report.

Monster find -Ed's Circa 1300BC Bronze age gold open backed triple banded gold ring

3.48g, 13.73mm dia x 6.74mm H

Reported to Colchester museum as treasure

Just posted more export finds lists and photo's onto the members forum. Chicago Ron had a curious Roman bronze coin in his pouch with an unusual obverse that I have sent off to Mark Lehman for his views. I have just about finished cooking the last 2 Roman silvers the Ohio boys found several weeks ago with mixed results.The 1st Roman silver is in very poor shape and is laminating badly from it's as dug condition. The crust on this coin was an 1/8 inch thick and there is sufficient detail showing through to send it again to Mark Lehman for his views. The 2nd Roman is a lot earlier and thicker and I have sent that off to him as well for his views. If you are 'cooking' Roman silvers yourself it can take months to complete the process as 'horn' silver growth is like concrete.

600 AD Saxon silver sceat 1.20g, 12.12mm

Updated the Saxon page with the latest finds

Updated the forum comp page with the latest copper total free forum competition page

As dug

Cooking

Almost cooked now- 17.34mm ,1.86g

As dug - latest 'cooking' pictures

Still 'cooking the 117AD Hadrian silver Roman 3.22g, 18.81mm

Curious Roman bronze with female bust and castle on obverse ?

28.43mm, 14.72g Sent to Mark for ID

5th Dec 2009 Paperwork and export time - Saxon gold hoard

Watch the latest video on the amazing gold treasures found

Amateur’s treasure trove valued at $5.5 million

Largest Anglo-Saxon gold haul ever was found in farmer's field

Finally got the 'painful' yearly paperwork done and can now get on with the export preparations. All guys export finds lists and photo's are posted on the members forum in full. This is such a value add exercise as every piece of metal found here during the first half of the season is closely re examined again, photographed and listed as part of the export applications into a Word document. There are always nice do dads missed while the hunts are in full swing. Last season I found a crusty Roman silver in with a guy's 'copper coin' bag that 'cooked up' to be our oldest ever coin find, 136BC silver Roman. As I do the pouches I will update the free forum competition page with the total of 'milled copper coin' finds so far. I have completed a couple of the export applications and cleaned up what looked like a crusty plain lead disc out of Atlanta Mike's pouch and discovered the impression of a 13thC personal lead seal matrix, great find. I have attached the Word document page so you can see what kind of finds a guy makes during his trip. Every find over 50 years old must be photographed and itemised to form part of the export application. That includes pottery and any item man made.

Circa 1260 AD lead personal seal , 4 have been found attached to pasture rights. The design is typical of mid 13thC non heraldic seals

Yesterday I went and met the new 'Barn II' owner again to and they have been really busy getting things ready for us for our Feb trip. The big Barn next door to the lodges has been completely cleared out for storing our gear, places to hang cloths, change our boots on a muddy day and they even put tables and chairs in there for us to sit down. You can arrive at the Barn II on your first day as early as you like and change here to go out detecting and not wait for the rooms to be ready, great idea.

Oregon Ed sent me a really nice testimonial of his trip when he got that stonking 1300 BC gold ring, posted it to the testimonial page

Atlanta Mike - 'coin hunter' of the year 2008/9

Atlanta Mike's 2009 complete export pouch - click on pictures to enlarge

Mike is one of our top Senior members and last year won the clubs 'coin hunter' of the year award and again this season has set another impressive total to beat with 93 coins dug in a week. The pictures below show what a seriously skilled and dedicated detectorist can unearth.

The export process is straight forward. This Word document is attached to an export application form and fired off to export duty. Important pieces are take to the local FLO at the museum for recording with find spots on the national PAS database. Those unknown or specific items, like the Roman votive offering or bust finial , are further examined by experts and can be sent to the British museum specialists to determine their exact ID and date. Export duty advisors looking at the application can request further details on any items prior to granting an export license. This ensures that no nationally important pieces or treasures are missed.

1. 1361-69 Edward III hammered silver penny - Treaty period - York Type 2 with quatrefoil on the breast - quatrefoil with pellet at centre of reverse cross 2. 1485 Henry VII hammered silver half penny - 'brush' hair bust , Reverse cross fourchee 3. 19thC Danish 2 skilling silver coin 4.1696 William III milled silver sixpence - love token 5. 1553 Mary hammered silver groat 6. 1603 James 1st hammered silver sixpence 7. 1561 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver 6 pence 8. 1817 George III milled silver sixpence 9. 1567 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver 6 pence 10.19thC Victorian milled silver sixpence - worn date 11. Post medieval hammered silver half groat 12.1562 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver 2 pence 13. 1483 Richard III hammered silver penny 14. 1609 James 1st hammered silver half goat 15. 1279 -Edward 1st hammered silver penny 16. Victorian model crown coin mdcccxlviii (=1848) 17. 1310-14 Sterling bust English Jetton Edward II Class XI Rev - Long cross patonce 6 pellet clusters in angles, border pellets 18. 1340 AD French Jetton 19. 1694 William and Mary copper half penny 20. George III guinea gaming token	1. 17thC William Greeveson of Durham hammered copper trade farthing 2. 1587 Rose Ryal coin weight 3. C13/14th Medieval badge Ref Mitchiner p244 939 - 941 4. 1603 James 1st coin weight - Britain crown, 2nd coinage 5. 15th/16thC 'Ship with 2 lions' type coin weight for the gold noble 6. 1586 Hans Krauwincel II Rose orb Jeton 7. Roman baldric mount 8. Roman bust figurine finial - 42.39mm L , 22.07g 9. Roman votive figurine 48.34mm L, 14.68g 10. 19thC token with rider 11.15thC copper alloy thimble 12. decorated medieval book clasp 15. Medieval lead hanging weight 16.20thC Wix token 17. 17thC mount with 2 integral lugs 18. 19thC Conder token - elephant 19. 17thC spur fragment 20. 1634 Charles 1st hammered copper Rose farthing - Type 2
1. Medieval book clasp 3. . Medieval book clasp 4. Georgian buckle 5. Georgian scissors 6. Georgian spur fragments 8. Post medieval lead alnage cloth seal 9. 1819 George III milled silver sixpence 10. Medieval pot leg 11. Georgian watch winder 12.18thC crotal bell 13.17thC hinge 14. 1582-3 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver penny - Bell mint mark 16. 19thc lead Russian bale seal 17. Medieval Edward hammered silver penny 18.18thC silver button 19. Victorian pressed copper brooch	24 - 18th to 20thC copper coins
27 - 18th to 20thC copper coins	24 - 18th to 20thC copper coins
210 - Post Tudor buttons
1. 17thC button 2. Georgian chest key 3. Medieval gilded buckle with integral chape 4. 16thC Tudor button 5. 1770's 3 shilling and 6 pence coin weight - SD 36 6. 17thC mount with 2 integral lugs 7. 1553 Hans Schultes I 'Ship penny' jetton 8. 3rd Roman coin - illegible 9. 17thC lead token 10. 1670's Charles 1st milled copper farthing 11. Georgian barrel key 13.17thC crotal bell 14. Georgian thimble 15.17thC lead token - anchor type 16. 20thC Army badge 17.15thC lead token 18. 3rd Roman coin - illegible 19. Georgian thimble 20.Victorian jewelry clasp	1. 20thC harness buckle 2. 19thC buckle 3. Post medieval harness ring 4. 20thC harness buckle 5. 19thC buckle 6. 20thC harness buckle 7. 20thC harness buckle 8. 19thC buckle 9. 19thC buckle 10. 19thC buckle 11. 20thC harness buckle 12. 20thC harness buckle 13. 20thC harness buckle 14. Cav, Stables plate 17. 19thC buckle 18. Georgian buckle fragment 19. Post medieval harness ring 20. Victorian clip
1. 25 Clay pipe fragments 11.14 Post Tudor pottery shards	1. 12 -18th to 20thC copper coins 10. Georgian lead tobacco jar lid handle 11. Post medieval hanging lead weight 12. 18thC 65th Regiment of foot button 13. Post medieval lead alnage cloth seal 14. Post medieval lead cloth seal 15. 17thC hammered copper trade farthing - illegible 16. Post medieval trade weight - no markings 17. Post medieval trade weight - no markings 18. Post medieval trade weight - no markings 19. 2 Georgian watch winders 20. Medieval lead spindle whorl
1. Georgian harness name plate 3. 13thC lead personal seal 4. Post medieval lead standing weight 5. 17thc crotal bell 8. Post medieval square weight 9. Post medieval trade weight - no markings 11.20thC lead bale seal 12. 20thC lead bale seal 13. Georgian draw pull 14. 20thC harness buckle 16. Padlock back plate 17. Post medieval lead bale seal 18. Post medieval lead standing weight 19. 20thC lead bale seal	1. 4 copper nails 4. Post medieval lead alnage cloth seal 5. 20thC Toy pistol handle 6. . Post medieval lead bale seal 7. Victorian Pendant fragment 9.Victorian clasp 11.Medieval pot fragment 13. Georgian clock key 15.Lead musket ball 16. Glass stem fragment
1. 84 Post Tudor pottery shards

I am still 'cooking' the last two Roman silver coins found and the detail is coming through very slowly especially on the obverse.

As dug - latest 'cooking' pictures

Still 'cooking the 117AD Hadrian silver Roman

29th Nov 2009 Huge hoard in Sweden - final finds uploaded - half season summation

A huge medieval hoard of 9000 silver coins has been found in Sweden and it really highlights how fortunate we are in England to have a robust Treasure Act in place to reward the finder with the true market value. The British system is the envy of the world as it actively encourages finders to report all treasures and hoards found. Dedicated local FLO's (Finds liaison officers) are in place to specifically handle these type of finds with defined processes and laws in place to ensure fair play to finders and landowners.

9000 Medieval Silver coins found in Sweden

Here is the english translation by Mass Bruce

LUND. Ten year old Alexander Granhof from Karlshamn and his grandfather Jens from Landskrona receive 40 000 SEK in reward for the last spring found the biggest discovery in southern Sweden of medieval silver coins.

The National Heritage Board has decided, reports SVT Sydnytt.
The two were out walking on a newly plowed field north of Nöbbelöv when Alexander saw some objects in the field who then turned out to be coins. Excavations showed that about 9 000 silver coins from around the year 1300 were two ceramic containers.

The coins were taken over by the Historical Museum in Lund.
The history fans Jens was out walking on the field to show their grandchildren the site of the Battle of Lund.

Just uploaded the last of the guys finds from last week to the latest finds page Nov 2009 finds page. Those 'Barn' guys had a great hunt and found the first Braintree 17thC trade farthing type to add to our collection. These are such a great relic as they are mid 17thC Circa 1650 and have the guys name, profession and where he was from on them generally. I have updated the 17thC token page

17th C William Osborne, baker of Braintree Essex hammered copper trade farthing	17thC George Nicholson, grocers of Thorpe Le Soken Essex hammered copper trade farthing

I have finished 'cooking' the 82 BC Roman silver find by Ohio Tom and it turned out superbly. The obverse legend is different from the example pictures Mark Lehman sent me so I have sent him the now clearer obverse pictures for his comments.

The other two Roman silver finds are 'cooking' along slowly.

As dug and nearly cooked - 3.40g, 18.81mm

Finished 'cooking' the 82BC silver Roman - Mark's example from his collection on right

End of the half season summation - thanks to all

That's it, we are closed now for detecting until early Feb when the 2nd half of the season kicks off again . It has been another bumper start to the season and our best ever gold find rate with 20 pieces being found. They range from our earliest ever gold find, 1300 BC gold ring, to a beautiful George IV full sovereign coin. The last Celtic gold coin found was off a new field, poughed for the first time, it is probably the rarest example ever found here and there could be more out there. To find two English medieval hammered gold coin finds in a whole season would be staggeringly rare, the guys got 2 in the first half which is without precedence. What is even more astonishing is even with 300 fields now for the guys to pick from these finds came from all over the place, old land, new land and what we had previously considered 'crap' land.

That is the beauty of the way our club runs the hunts, guys picking their own sites to search each day from the maps and research. The site where the Edward hammered gold and Cunobelin Celtic were found is an 800 acre site we had for several years , in the middle of nowhere, where you could not have dragged me by my finger nails to search it. Canadian Rod discovered an old house site on it by research and Ron's team were looking for hammered silver around it when the gold coins were discovered.

Other brand new site for this season that initially looked like it 'sucked' went on to produce a wealth of finds including two of the rarest silver coins you can find, Saxon penny's. Then another new site produced a 3rd Saxon penny making 3 for the half season. You have to bear in mind how rare these are to find, in 6 years of searching we have only ever found 4 so this is a staggering result. This effectively is how the season went on week by week and I was surprised as much as the guys that found them.

A new 800 acre site from last season that produced the medieval gold statue, just a few hammered silver coins but mostly Georgian finds suddenly with more effort from the members produced two 850BC axe heads, the 1300 BC gold ring and then our first ever Roman bronze coin hoard. The field the hoard came from is enormous and we could not have got them all yet. It will takes years of the plough turning that spot over to see the total number buried. We are hoping that there are some silver Roman coins buried within this hoard.

All of these finds are due to the high degree of skill and dedication by the members who are out there for long hours in all weathers. The level of tiny hammered silver finds like, cut qtr's, half pennies and farthings is at an all time high proving that the guys are seriously on their game. I would like to thank all the members for continuing to make these hunts such a great success with great humour even when out there getting skunked and rained on. Special thanks to all the museum staff that handle all our treasures and finds and especially to the landowners that allow our to search their properties.

The 2nd half of the season will be very exciting as we will be spending a huge amount of our resource on the two new sites we have been asked to search. The largest one is 2400 acres, around 60 fields and could be our best ever site. Members have been researching the site and 'goggle earthing' it to discover a huge known Roman village at it's centre, dykes, Roman roads, two abandoned medieval villages, disused churches etc. Unfortunately we only have a small window of opportunity to search this site from Feb to April (out of hunting season) so we will only get to scratch the surface of this site.

So with all the new land coming and if we can manage to find the hot spots, this could end up as out best ever season on record.

26th Nov 2009 Curators report - more finds uploaded - Sal's vid

I have knocked up quick video of Sal's 2009 hunt but there are just too many clips to include them all and too many finds to add to it. Even reducing it to a small streaming video size it is still 36Meg. Click here to view.

I have taken the remaining pics of the finds from last weeks hunt and uploaded a few more to the latest finds page Nov 2009 finds page. Hopefully I can complete all the uploads tomorrow.

I just received the curator's report below from the British museum on one of our previous finds reported as treasure, very interesting 15thC silver knight figure.

Updated the hoard and treasure page with the latest update from the British museum.

1594-6 Elizabeth hammered silver half groat - Wool pack mintmark

Treasure Report:   2009/T218                                                                   
Parish/County:          Tendring District, Essex

A small Medieval figure of a knight, missing his arms and the bottom part of his legs. The sinuous pose suggests that the figure is meant to represent St George spearing the dragon. The dragon ought to have been positioned beneath his feet, but this part of the composition is missing. In this respect and in terms of its dimensions, the figure resembles mass produced pilgrim souvenirs generated by the cult of St George at Windsor Castle. What distinguishes this figure is that it is cast in the round unlike pilgrim badges of the same period.

On the reverse are the remains of a loop, used either for stitching on to a garment (most likely) or for suspension.

The figure is silver and dates from the fifteenth century.

Dimensions: length 18 mm, width 9 mm.

J P Robinson
Curator of Medieval Collections
 26th November 2009

I did more work today on the 82 BC Roman republican silver find with a tooth pick as the 'cooking' is really softening up the crust. The detail is really showing though now so back in the 'cooker' for a final time possibly. Mark Lehman sent me a picture of a similar example from his collection

As dug and nearly cooked - 3.40g, 18.81mm

AR Denarius Serratus, 82 B.C.
Q. Antonius Balbus
18mm, 3.69gm, axis: 4:00
Obv: Laureate head of Jupiter right, SC behind.
Rx: Victory in quadriga right, holding wreath and palm; beneath: T / Q ANTO BALB (ligate) / PR.
Coinage of the faction opposed to Sulla – along with the Senate who, unusually, approved this issue.
Syd-CRR 742, RSC-Bab Antonia 1, SR 279.

25th Nov 2009 Paperwork time - more uploads - 82 BC Roman silver 'cooked'

Louisiana Sal took hundreds of video clips with his hat cam that he left me during his visit that I am making into a 'movie' at the moment - will upload tomorrow

I have been busy doing paperwork for the last couple of days and will be making a start on the export applications shortly for the first half of the season. I have just uploaded more of last weeks finds to the latest finds page Nov 2009 finds page. I still have more to photo yet from the guys last day on Sunday. Sal's first 'hard core' Barn hunt was a great success and everyone went away with some great finds.

I am still 'cooking' the 3 Roman silver coins finds and the detail shows that one of them is an early BC Republican silver with a chariot on the back. I have enough detail now to send them to Mark Lehman for his initial views and ID. I put them straight back into the 'cooker' as there is more detail to be revealed. This process requires patience as the 'crust' on these early Romans can be an 1/8 inch thick and can take months of cooking in some cases.

As dug

First 'cook'

Latest 'cooking'

82 BC Roman republican silver 3.40g, 18.81mm - Chariot on rev

AR Denarius Serratus, 82 B.C.
Q. Antonius Balbus
18mm, 3.69gm, axis: 4:00
Obv: Laureate head of Jupiter right, SC behind.
Rx: Victory in quadriga right, holding wreath and palm; beneath: T / Q ANTO BALB (ligate) / PR.
Coinage of the faction opposed to Sulla – along with the Senate who, unusually, approved this issue.
Syd-CRR 742, RSC-Bab Antonia 1, SR 279.

2ndC Roman silver 3.29g, 19.01mm - Hadrian 117AD

2ndC Roman silver 2.17g 17.83mm - Trajan 53 to 117AD

22nd Nov 2009 More finds uploaded - more accommodation choice - last day of the season

Thanks to the guys on the Italian forum for ID'ing this Venetian hammered silver coin find from yesterday . Several of our other Venetian coin finds on the Foreign hammered page were also attributed to the wrong 'Doge' so I have updated that page.

These coins circulated (illegally) in England from the late 14th to the 16th century and were known as ’Galley Halfpence’. I have found two really good sites with pictures and legends to early Italian gold and silver coins for reference.

Venetian coin site

Italian coin site

1247 Henry III hammered silver voided long cross cut half penny - Class 5e Rev WIL/LEM/ONL/VND - Moneyer Willem of London	1247 Henry III hammered silver voided long cross cut 1/4 penny (farthing) Obv HENRICVS REX III Rev RIC/ARD/ONC/CANT Moneyer Richard of Canterbury	1377-1399 Richard II hammered silver halfpenny Obv + RICHARD REX ANGL Rev - CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint 0.36g, 14.36mm

I have uploaded a load more silver finds to the latest finds page Nov 2009 finds page.

Updated the find of the year page with a couple more of my favourites of the season so far.

Updated the Saxon page with the last 3 hammered silver penny's

Louisiana Sal's 'Barn' guys have just one more days left to the end of the first half of the season for the club. This is Sal's first barn hunt he has run and his new team have done consistently well every day at picking the sites to search. This type of event is where you have your own self catering accommodation, own mini bus and can come and go as you please on all of the 300 fields available. The hard core guys on his team have been out hunting from 7am to 9pm so in a week you can get 90 hours of detecting out there. My role is to take all the finds away, report treasures, ID, photograph and at the end of their tour record all the relevant finds with the museum and then prepare the export license applications.

During the half season break I will be adding another 2 self catering accommodations so the guys have plenty of choice of type and location as to where they want to stay.

I have found another really nice newly converted 3 bedrooms one below just a mile from our main sites. I will be popping along to see it during the half season break.

3 bedroom Barn conversion - 2 twin and one double bedroom

20th Nov 2009 More neat finds uploaded - Excessively rare find ID'd

Ohio Jerry found what I thought was a hanging weight last week and Can Bill has just ID'd for us below. It turns out to be an exact match of one recorded on PAS and is an 'excessively' rare 16thC Tudor combination lock, great find. Just posted more hammered silver and finds to the latest finds page Nov 2009 finds page

X Ray of 16thC 'Five-Ring Combination' Lock

Symbols on lock barrels

April–June 1268 – 29 November 1314 - Philippe IV gold coin weight for masse d'or

King on throne seated facing, holding a sceptre

Legend POIS A MASE

Masse de Philippe le Bel, 10 January 1296, gold, 7.04g. Obv: "PhILIPPVS:DEI:GRA(cia):FRANChORVM:REX" "Philip, by the Grace of God, King of the French".

16thC Tudor clothing fastener with religious inscription

IHS: dating from the 8th c., this is an abbreviation for "IHESUS," the way Christ's Name was spelled in the Middle Ages (despite popular belief, the monogram stands neither for "Iesus Hominum Salvator" --"Jesus Saviour of Men" -- nor for "In His Service.") Popularized by St. Bernardine of Siena, the monogram was later used by St. Ignatius of Loyola as a symbol for the Jesuit Order.

The IHS monogram is an abbreviation or shortening of Jesus' name in Greek to the first three letters. Thus ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, ιησυς (iēsus, "Jesus"), is shortened to ΙΗΣ (iota-eta-sigma), sometimes transliterated into Latin or English characters as IHS or ΙΗC.

The symbol is said to appear rarely in the catacombs, only in the catacomb of Priscilla and the atrium of the Capella Gr�ca (Greek Chapel).1 It was popularized in the fifteenth century, however, by Franciscan disciple Bernadine of Sienna as a symbol of peace. In 1541 St. Ignatius Loyola adopted the symbol with three nails below and surrounded by the sun as the seal of the Jesuit order.

Contrary to some authors, the monogram originally stood for neither for Iesus Hominum Salvator ("Jesus Savior of Men") nor for "In His Service." Some attribute its origin to Constantine's vision, where he saw a cross with the inscription "In hoc signo vinces" ("in this sign you shall conquer,"2 which is abbreviated, according to them, as IHS. However, this seems to require a stretch, as do claims that it is really a pagan symbol. The simplest explanation, as an abbreviation of Jesus' name, is best.

More extended news click here

Archived news pages below

Feb 2009 to March 2009

Nov 2008 to Feb 2009

Sept 2008 to Nov 2008

Brad's gold medieval gold statue

June 2008 to Sept 2008

March 2008 to June 2008

Oct 2007 to March2008

Sept 1st 2007 to Oct 2007

English Saxon gold coin found

NEWS June 2007 to Sept 2007

NEWS March 2007 to June2007

Double Cunobelin Celtic gold

NEWS March 2007 to April2007

Chicago Reid's Roman gold ring

NS Andy's Saxon strap end

NEWS Nov 2006 to March 2007

NEWS Sept 2006 to Nov 2006

Medieval Iconic gold ring find

NEWS May 2006 to Sept 2006

First Celtic gold of the season

NEWS March to May 2006

Celtic Woad cosmetic grinder and Jeff Roman Pecker find

NEWS Oct 2005 to March 2006

Viking silver strap end- Rare Roman silver coin finds

NEWS Sept 2005 to Oct 2005

Great Saxon silver finds Offa Rex - Coenwulf - Hammered gold

NEWS March 2005 toSept 2005

Villa Dig - Roman gold - Celtic gold hoard found

NEWS Sept 2004 to March 2005

Can Majos and Mass Bills gold rings - Texas Dave's hammered gold

NEWS March 2004 to Sept 2004

Roman gold coin - Mass Bruce's axe hoard

NEWS Jan 2004 to March 2004

2000BC Axe - Boston Buds Saxon gold

More Archived News Pre 2004

michelle@colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk