10th May 2008 Roman ID's back - more unpublished finds

Thanks to Mark Lehman for ID'ing more of our unpublished Roman coins below. I have sent Tim another couple of military buttons from NH Scot's pouch I just cleaned up that are not in his books. Amazingly Scott had a CW period Indian head penny in his copper bag in great shape.

1670 Ipswich copper farthing		16th Low Countries coin weight with bust for gold ecu or Flemish crown 3.25g, 13.86mm	Interesting military button sent for ID
July 9th 1821 George IV copper medallion Coronation of George IV of England		1862 USA indian head 1 cent
1.35g, 15.66mm
'this one is easy - it's a CONSTANTIOPOLIS city-commemorative, c. 330 AD.  When Constantine made the former Byzantium his new capitol, he issued commemoratives for both Constantinople and Rome.  This coin's obverse is a helmeted, armed personification of Constantinople, but it's not easily visible on this specimen.  The companion VRBS ROMA is another common type with a helmeted personification of the city on the obverse and an anepigraphic Shewolf & twins reverse.  Funny you should call Victory, who here is shown standing left on the prow of a galley holding a pear and leaning on a shield, an "Angel" - I have heard anecdotes from collectors whose kids have piped-up asking dad about "The angel on a skateboard".  The Hellenistic deity Nike/Victory did, in fact, morph into the image of the angel in early Christian iconography - but not until about 100-150 years after this coin was current.  This specimen is from the Mint at Constantinople.'   Here's an example with a clearly visible obverse - http://www.stoa.org/gallery/album165/58_Cpls_TRE_b   Mark
16.81mm, 2.28g
'this is what is often called a "barbarous radiate" - and I'll spare you my rant on why I dislike that label for the moment. (I think I've already written it on your website, anyway)  These were usually undersized and crude contemporary copies of primarily Romano-Gallic Empire (Postumus-Tetricus I & II) types dating to the 265-275 AD era. With little or no legend - and what legends may be present tending towards illiterate gibberish - the reverses, in particular, became very stylized using just a few, spare lines to indicate the familiar Roman personifications who populated the reverses of 3rd century antoniniani.  The obverse is too crude to be sure who was intended, but Tetricus I and his coins were the protoype for many of these contemporary copies.  If I'm correctly seeing a bearded profile on the obverse, either Tetricus I or Victorinus would be the likely prototype. The reverse appears to be the stylized representation of Spes (Hope) who walks left holding a flower in outstretched hand while hitching the hem of her garment with the other hand. It is uncertain (and there are many theories as to) why these were produced and used in such quantities at this time, but they are quite often found in British and Northern Gallic sites contemporaneous with the official prototypes with which they are found side-by-side.  They obviously weren't made as counterfeits to deceive anyone, but circulated and were accepted widely so far as can be determined'. Mark
Military button with crown and Essex sent for ID		1664 William Munt of Clacton Essex,hammered copper trade farthing MVCH CLAFTON (IN) ESEX
George II copper half penny		1782 George III copper Irish half penny
1830 William IIII copper farthing		Nice pottery fragment

Lots of nice blue and white pottery shards out there

8th May 2008 More land and unpublished finds

Yet more new land has been offered to us today for a Sept start around an old 1140 AD Cistercian abbey. More details published on the members forum. More full find lists and photo's just posted on the forum.

This lead face piece below is very interesting and could be any period, from a site with occupation from Celtic through to medieval. One for the museum to take a closer look at. Idaho Gerry also eyeballed the early 170 million year old fossil on the same site !!

Early lead face 10.52g, 34.12mm H x 28.38mm W

170 million BC fossil - Clypeus Ploti or sea urchin.
Age: Inferior Oolite

1843 Victorian milled silver Maundy one pence		French Napoleonic artillery button - one piece	Interesting square Georgian button
Little and large, 1940 George V half crown and Victorian 1 pence for size comparison		Capt / Commander - 1774-1787	Early pewter military button

I retook this shot of Gerry's medieval hanger to show the detail of the blue enamelled cross better.

7th May 2008 Amazing buttons and unpublished finds

I am working through the export pouches and trying to get ID's on outstanding unknowns. I have sent several 18thC Conder tokens off to an expert to see if they can ID them. I have posted more complete find lists and photo's on members forum.

Tim has come back with an ID on a couple of the buttons not listed in his books and they are superb finds. That early Navy is a major find and in good shape. The 4th Regiment of foot apparently lost in the American revolution !

4th Regiment of Foot- Lt Infantry ( The King's Own ) Officer - 1751-1790	RN Captain - 1757 ( Dress ) In Æ Gilt or Silver Gilt In use 1757 - 1774 'There is no wreath with the rose, (so it's not a Flag rank officer)'.  Tim	Interesting solid cast Georgian pendant	Blank medieval lead vessica seal with sword decoration on back
5th Dragoon guards button V D G Officer - 1788-1804	19thC monogrammed hunting button	Better shot of a medieval annular brooch	Annular brooch tongue

5th May 2008 Exporting and unpublished finds.

I have started processing the export pouches from the second half of the season and there are already some great missed finds while the hunts were in full swing. I have been playing around with grid layouts and camera settings to try and get better detailed shots for the advisors at export duty. Every man made object over 50 years old has to be individually photo 'd and itemised to get approval. I have been practicing on Idaho Gene's pouch who had his first hunt in England with Idaho Gerry's 'Barn' group. Man he kicked butt and found that really impressive silver medieval Vessica seal now with the British Museum going through the treasure process. The hammered 1356-61 Edward III gold 1/4 Noble coin he found is currently with the gold smith being restored. I have posted one of his find sheets below as an example of what goes to make up part of the export paperwork. Full find lists with photo's posted on members forum.

Solid silver medieval vessica seal 62.1g, 21.96mm L x 18.81mm x 5.51mm W (excluding hanger)

He also has this really neat 4th regiment button, which is not a type in the reference books, and a medieval lead bust mount in his pouch. The style is fairly early as the head dress and chain mail clearly seen on the back of the head could be as early as Richard 1st, C 12thC

Unrecorded 4th Regiment of foot one piece (Kings own infantry) sent to Tim for further info

Circa 12thC lead bust mount, 71.61g, 31.35mm H x 21.62mm W

1– Roman silver Siliqua - VIRTVS ROMANORVM type - Gratian (370's AD) Trier'.

2. -1399 - 1413 Henry IV hammered silver penny - Rare double struck crown Quatrefoil with pellet on reverse Rev CIVI/TAS/EBO/RACI - York mint

3. - 1413- 22 Henry V hammered silver half penny - Pierced cross initial mark - 0.925 FINE - Type 3, Small whole annulet either side of crown +HENRIC :REX :ANGL Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - LONDON MINT  0.46g, 12.67mm

4. 15th C lead token

5. - 1344 -1351 Edward III Third 'Florin' coinage hammered silver penny Obv EDWAR ANGLE DNS HYB  Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

6. - 1714 George 1st trade weight - Crown G mark - London

7.- 1413- 22 Henry V hammered silver half penny - Pierced cross initial mark - 0.925 FINE - Type 3, Small whole annulet either side of crown +HENRIC :REX :ANGL Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - LONDON MINT  0.46g, 12.67mm

8.1st/2ndC roman bronze - illegible

9.Georgian plain silver button with Lion hallmark

10.- Roman bronze antoninianus of Claudius II, c. 270 AD

11. - 1427-30 Henry VI hammered silver penny

12 – 1649 Commonwealth hammered silver penny

13 - 19thC Russian lead bale seal

14 - Medieval lead trade weight

15 - 1344 -1351 Edward III Third 'Florin’ coinage hammered silver penny Obv EDWAR ANGL DNS HYB Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON London mint

16 -Medieval barrel lock fragment

17.- 1855 Victorian milled silver sixpence

18 - 1578 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver three pence

19.- 1674 Charles 1st milled copper farthing

20. - 4, 1790 pattern Royal artillery one piece buttons

4th May 2008 Earlier military button - Books page revamped

Uploaded more finds to their individual category pages

	Jettons		Military buttons named regs		Foreign Coppers & milled silver
	Silver Coins post Victorian		Military buttons numbered regs		Victorian coins 1837 to 1901
	1631-1714 Milled Coins

Tim Burton has been doing more work into ID'ing the outstanding military button finds. This button is earlier than we thought.

I have updated the book page with the most popular reference books we use with links to Amazon to buy direct Book Page

3rd May 2008 More updates & Global news page - next exports

I have mailed out 99 % of the last approved export pouches and am about to start processing the new ones from March. Full finds lists with photo's will be posted on the members forum and any missed finds during the hunts will be posted here.

Added another great story to the Global news page. Click here for the links to the main stories Global News

Jade Axe head stays in Britain

Updated a load more pages below with latest finds

	Buttons Dress		Keys and locks		Navy buttons
	Buttons Livery		Bells & Whistles		Toys general
	Tokens 18th/19thC		Harness pendants		Lead finds
	Mounts

2nd May 2008 Treasure updates - more finds updates - New forum competition

I have launched next years free forum competition to win a free weeks inclusive trip here. This season you have to guess the number of milled silver coins found here from Sept 2008 to April 2009. Check out the forum competition page for full details.

I have updated the Hoard and Treasure page with latest information on our finds.

Bill the finder of the locket below has sent me an update from the letter he received form the British museum and it matches the date that I thought the locket to be, great find.

"...The find appears to qualify as treasure as stipulated... Colchester and Ipswich Museum Services are interested in acquiring it, and so I would be grateful if it could go forward to inquest."

Also enclosed is a report from J. Rudoe, indicating that the locket fragment is 17th cent., is inscribed 'Prepared be to follow me', with initial CR below, and is "A common type of memorial for Charles I, made either during the Commonwealth or after the Restoration. The plaque is probably part of a locket. The same inscription occurs on memorial rings for Charles I."

Mid 17thC Mourning silver token

Obv 'Prepared be to follow me' CR T

Rev 'I live and dy m loyal ye'

19.88mm L x 19.02 mm W 1.14g

Solid silver decorated pin head 16thC Tudor

1.66g, 9.56mm dia

Chicago Ron's treasure find has been confirmed by the British museum as a Tudor 16thC pin head. The museum however have disclaimed this item and it will be returned to him.

Updated the following pages with latest finds.

	Buckles		Tokens 15thC to 17thC lead		Bale seals
	Scottish Coins		Elizabeth 1st		James 1st

1st May 2008 More new land for Sept - more updates and news

Bronze Age 'Axe' factory

9-Year-Old Boy Finds $265,000 Medieval Treasure Trove

Another new site has been added for hunting from the 6th Sept in an important Roman area alongside a river and estuary. It has never been detected before and is a new town for us, Canadian Rod our historian will be doing the research on the area prior to September, more details on the members forum. Check out the land page for an overview of our existing sites.

I have updated more pages with the latest finds below. Most pages are becoming too large with numbers of finds so I will be splitting them into smaller categories again. I have sent off all the outstanding Roman bronze coin finds that require ID to Mark Lehman for his views.

	Coin weights		Clog fasteners
	Romano British artefacts		Cleaning coins
	Charles 1st		Seal Matrix
	Weights trade		Thimbles
	Roman coins

29th April 2008 Page updates

Updated the following pages with the latest finds. I have had to split the Edward 1st to Edward III page as it has grown too large with hammered silver coins. The new page is for Edward III only coins.

	Seal Matrix		Georgian Period coins		Edward III coins
	Clothing fasteners		Tudor period coins		Edward I & II
	Scottish Coins		Richard to Henry coins		Houses of Lancaster and York

28th April 2008 Coin straightening - Irish penny - 'Modern' axe

I took Canadian Rod's flint axe head find to the museum last week and it turns out to be 'modern' as it is Neolithic at 3500 BC and not Mesolithic . I was given a good tip to differentiate the two, Neolithic axes are polished whereas Mesolithic at 11,000 BC are not. I have added it to our Early history page where you can see the timeline and pictures of all the axes we have found right up to Bronze Age.

I have improved the findsindex page to make it easier to navigate and included links to all the individual finds pages. I have also updated the hunt pages index with this seasons individual month pages.

I have added the 'before' pictures to the coin straightening page with the next batch I am taking into the goldsmith today. The badly rolled Edward III 1/4 nobel find is the hardest challenge we have ever given him, I will post after shots when they have been 'fixed'. A museum sent me this hammered silver coin below to straightened. This is a fascinating find as it is either a contemporary forgery or continental imitation. I will be able to ID it better once I can see the legend on the inside. Many coins have badly blundered legends which are contemporary forgeries while those with legible legends are continental imitations. Due to their high silver content and correct weight these were popular throughout England and Europe where they were readily accepted by merchants.

1272 - 1301 Irish Edward 1st hammered silver penny 1.32g,19.35mm

CIVI/TAS/DVBL/INIE - Dublin mint - possible contemporary forgery or continental imitation

I took a couple of snapshots from the 'New land sucks' video I uploaded yesterday which does not show how cold and festering the day was. We got to the new site and the wind was howling and it was biting cold, I sat in the bus with the heater running as it was truly horrible out there !!. There were half a dozen fields in wheat but the rain made it a total boot sticker. Guys were just finding greenies and trash and were ready to have an early lunch at 11am. NH Dave, one of our most dedicated hunters, even came back to the truck and asked me to hand him a rope as it just sucked his brains out. We were all munching the chow when Oregon Clarence, who was the last to come in, walked up and said I found a hammered silver coin. Expecting an Elizabeth or Charles, Clarence opened up his little plastic finds box, ***** hell Saxon !! The farmer was with us and he said is that good ? Is that good, find of a lifetime and although black you could see the full detail showing through. After sending it off to the Fitzwilliam museum it turns out to be a rare Saxon 1050 AD Edward the Confessor penny that won 3rd place in our find of the year vote. Just goes to show that one swing of the coin makes all the difference to how we view a site.

Check out the 'New land sucks' video

27th April 2008 Sal wins find of the year - 'New land sucks' video uploaded

Voting by the members has now closed and Louisiana Sal has won the 'Find of the year' with 55% of the vote with his stunningly rare England Saxon gold coin. Congrats to Sal who wins the free trip next season, Silver Urn and his name etched on the role of honour.

English Saxon Thrysmas gold coin - 'Witmen type' c620 -650 AD - Recorded on Fitzwilliam museum Corpus database as EMC 2007.0302. 1.26g, 11.46mm

Val was wearing his 'hat vid cam' when he dug it so watch the video here

2nd place was this beautiful medieval gold ring found by Idaho Travis which is currently with the British museum going through the treasure process - 1.23g, 19.50mm dia

3rd place was this was this rare Saxon silver coin found by Oregon Clarence

1050- 1053 Saxon - Edward the Confessor hammered silver penny - expanding cross type - heavy coinage ?

Obv EDWERD REX : +

Rev (Wulfsige) ON GIPESWIC (Short cross voided with expanding limbs) - IPSWICH MINT (GIPESWIC)

EMC 2008.0136.

1.63g, 19.87mm

'I have recorded it as EMC 2008.0136.

The portrait with two toggles on the mantle certainly differs from the types illustrated in North, but these illustrations were drawn in the the early 1960s to show the main types only. There are many variants, and the three other coins of this type, mint (Ipswich) and moneyer
(Wulfsige) in EMC/SCBI also have this portrait variant. I can send images of the coin to Gareth Williams, who is compiling a die study of the Expanding Cross type, and pass on his comments.'

'This is extremely interesting. It is very promising.

Gareth Williams has commented that the Ipswich coin 'seems to be from the same dies as one of our [British Museum] coins (1950,6-5, 1) and the same variation in the design is also found on two different obverses of Bruninc of Ipswich. However, it isn't a purely local variation, as the same bust appears on selected coins of Colchester, Gloucester and London, and a related variation at Dover, although these represent the minority of dies from the mint in each
case.'

Martin

Voting was very difficult this season as there were just so many finds to choose and was spread across 13 finds. Another find of note was Penn Christies 11,000 BC Mesolithic axe head.

I just downloaded some old video from my camera of the day we hit some new land. The wind was howling and it was cold and wet. Guys were ready for an early lunch at 11 am as we were finding dick

New land sucks video

If the streaming server is busy you can download it and play it from your hard drive.

25th April 2008 Last day to vote - More new land and Rare buttons

A excellent turnout by members so far voting for find of the year has produced interesting results. This is the last day you have to vote as the winner will be announced tomorrow. More details on members forum

Unrecorded Military buttons

Unknown maker - Jackson

30 Gracechurch St London

I got an e-mail in from Howard Ripley about a couple of military buttons we found this season. I thought Hmm 'I know that name' and asked him if he is the guy that has written all those military button books I use. I had already sent these to Tim Burton our button expert and he was unable to ID them and I thought it was horse above a horn. Howard points out it is a lamb ( if your don't cut the tail off a lamb apparently it grows long ). I have asked Howard for his help to ID some more of our unrecorded military buttons posted on our Foundintheground site. If you can ID any you win a free finds tray.

'I think I may be able to help with the identification of a button in your named military buttons section.
Is has a lamb over a hunting horn.  Actually, you have two pictures of this design posted.  Does this mean you have more than one example?  If you do, I'd been keen to buy one'.
Howard Ripley

'I've now written about half a dozen books on military and police buttons so I guess I am that person!No, the lamb and hunting horn button isn't in any of my books as I haven't seen it before.  Is it likely to have been found in East Anglia?

Kind regards

Howard

I have been out and about dropping off picture portfolios of their finds and treasures to our landowners and getting a feel of next years cropping schedules. We are starting detecting slightly later next season from the 6th Sept and it appears that a lot more of the 200 + fields we currently have will be ploughed earlier next season. The bulk of the crops will be cereal again but some of the key Celtic and Saxon sites also have an existing potato crop on them. This is great news as they were ploughed very deeply and we will get two bites at the cherry, firstly when they take off the potato crop and them when they replough and put wheat in. One of our farmers has offered us another new site that a friend owns and I will going to take a look at it during the summer. It is in another new area for us so Canadian Rod our historian will be busy researching it's history. I am also after another site that boarders an amazing new site we started detecting this season that has a medieval village on it. More details posted on members forum.

I am still busy posting out all the finds to the guys that got an export license and will be starting on the new export applications shortly.

22nd April 2008 Finds.org - database of finds

The National database where all finds are recorded is finds.org and contains over 300,000 objects. It is superb reference library if you are looking for other examples to help ID any find. If you click on the link below you can see Cal Jeff's Roman 'chicken' find (ESS-CEAA98) now logged by the local Finds Liaison Officer. Each item is entered with as much detail as available. If you already have the ESS number of your recorded find then type it in the grey filter box here link. Here are few example links to the entries of the guys finds.

Roman strap fitting

Roman mount

Iron Age terret

Medieval buckle

Object Type: Strap Fitting Roman (1st to 4th century) cast copper alloy strap junction. The main body is lozengeform, with two rectangular attachment loops. The centre of the main body has a circular rivet hole. The upper surface is decorated with an incised line around the edge, and containing several ring-and-dot motifs. There are two ring-and-dots located between the central rivet hole and one attachment loop, a further ring-and-dot above and below the rivet hole, and the decoration towards the other attachment loop is obscured. The reverse is slightly hollow. The fitting has a mid-green patina. The strap loops are slightly worn, and the upper and lower surfaces are damaged. The strap junction is 26.7mm long, 11.88mm wide across the body and 12.86mm wide across the attachment loops. It is 3.95mm thick and weighs 4.23 grams.  Findspot North of Colchester Dates ROMAN (Certain), 40 AD - 400 AD

Object Type: Mount Roman (1st to 4th century) cast copper alloy animal mount. The figurine is in the form of a chicken. It has a downwardly curving beak, a comb with vertical incised lines. The incised circular eyes have a curved line above them. There is a horizontal line below the head. The wings are moulded, and have four incised lines to emulate feathers. The plume is downwardly curving, with four incised curved lines for feathers. Looking face on, there are two curved incised lines, almost forming an elongated 'W' located on the neck, presumably emulating the wattle. There is a circular rivet hole on the chickens back, located just behind the head. The underside sub-oval and hollow. The surface is pitted and starting to corrode. It is mid to light green in colouration. The figurine measures: Total length: 54.68mm Beak to back of head: 19.56 thickness (head): 10.21mm thickness (body): 15.52mm Body to tail: 46.54mm base to back: 13.75mm weight 38.23 grams.  Findspot East of Colchester Dates ROMAN (Certain), 40 AD - 410 AD

21st April 2008 Coin straightening and free download of 'Art of Cleaning Roman Coins' book

I am getting a large batch of finds from this season together to take to the goldsmiths for repair that include the hammered gold and silver. If you want your find taken in at the same time then drop me a mail or add it to the post on the members forum. We are trying some fairly complex repairs on broken hammered silver coins to see what results we can achieve.

1344 Edward III gold qtr noble - 3.89g

Fourth coinage 1356-61 Edward III hammered gold 1/4 Noble Type C Annulet stops 1.96g, 20.36mm

Obv shield quartered with the arms of England and France within a treassure of eight arches - EDWARD GRA REX :ANG. . HY Cross 3(4 )

Rev EXALTABITAR IN GLORIA

Theodosius I- solidus - 388-392 AD 4.40g, 20.26mm

I just got an amazing mail in from the guys at the URF on how to clean Roman bronzes effectively. This is an 'art of cleaning Romans' .pdf document and is 4 Meg in size. It has full coloured photo's with pictures of all the tools needed, techniques with before and after shots of coins. This is a must have document and free.

Art of cleaning roman coins download

20th April 2008 Great end to the hunts - Awards and forum competition

1592-5 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver shilling (12 pence) 6th issue - Tun mint mark

Celtic gold eluded Val in the end but he managed to pull up a hammered Elizabeth 1st shilling on his last days hunt as a bonus , great find . I will be posting the last of the finds on the latest hunt page. That's it now until Sept when the hunts restart and the all the fields are re ploughed and we are back to square one again.

I will now be preparing all the export papers and posting the missed do dads here as I go through them. The win a 'free weeks holiday' forum comp was won by Idaho Ken with a guess of 334 hammered silver coins found, actually number in the end was 335 which is an amazing total. Keep an eye on the site as I will be launching next years competition shortly. It will be to guess the number of milled silver coin found in the season 2008/2009 and the prize will be a free weeks inclusive holiday again.

The voting for 'find of the year' has started and the results so far are very interesting with 4 finds splitting the votes equally. The winner gets the silver urn and a free weeks holiday next season. Make sure you get your vote in by 28th April to have your say please. Please select any find from this season hunt pages

Sept 2007 finds page 1

Sept 2007 finds page 2

Oct 2007 finds page 3

Nov 2007 finds page 4

March 2008 Finds

March 2008 finds page 2

Billericay Mark has been awarded the 'Wayne Otto Memorial cup' for the detectorist with the best attributes during the season. A very popular vote for a guy that cannot do enough for the other members with help, advice and the patience of a saint, congrats mate.

The 'prolific coin hunter' award will be announced after all the export contents have been processed and counted.

18th April 2008 Interesting ring and Beehive

The guys have just one day to go to the end of the season and are still on a Celtic gold mission. If they get one then they will have thoroughly deserved it for showing such dedication with their consistent gridding. They have picked up a few nice do dads along the way which I have just posted onto the latest hunt page but so far the gold is still eluding them. Val picked up real nice bonus find on a Celtic village site, 14thC bronze Beehive thimble. I have just sent several of their button finds off to Tim the button expert for his ID and views as they are not in his reference books. I picked up some of the disclaimed treasures from the museum yesterday and also deposited another dozen treasures with them. Full details posted on members forum.

Unrecorded 62nd Regiment of foot - LXII Wiltshire Regiment - Officers button	18thC Navy button ?	12th Regiment of Foot ( East Suffolk ) Officer - 1782-1881

17thC base metal ring with glass stones

15th April 2008 The boys get well skunked

Val took a great picture of his son after he got his brains sucked out completely on a new field. This hill is covered with crop marks in a great Celtic area but they got completely skunked apart from one nice military button. That's detecting

The two Cal boys just have a few more days to alter the current leader board for this years free competition. The current hammered silver total stands at 334 which puts 'dirtgrubr' in the lead. Toronto Boris's guess is 342 so it is gonna be close if the boys can bang a few more hammered silver in before the close of the season this Friday.

14th April 2008Debased silver and more gold

This early Roman silver is proving to be fascinating as it 'cooks'. It is badly debased silver and laminating badly, almost like different layers of silver hammered together. I have sent it off to our Roman expert and here is his views.

There is still some more 'cooking' to be done on the back but some of the layers peel off as the crud is removed.

Debased Roman silver - laminating badly

Cal Val continues to hunt for Celtic gold as he is on a mission for one this trip. He came running over and I thought he had done it, it was still a great find, gold Georgian cufflink half. What is more amazing is Min Mindy got the other half of that gold cufflink in the same general area last year so we have the pair !!

Solid gold Georgian cufflink

12th April 2008 Final hunt of the season - Another crusty Roman silver - Fantastic tudor fastener

Just a couple of Cal guys here for the last hunt of the season with the 200 fields to themselves. Cal Jason pulled up another Roman silver with the thick 'horn silver' growing on it. Early Roman silver suffer badly from this growth. Check out the cleaning tip page on how to 'cook' this crust off to reveal a perfect Roman coin underneath. Other great finds included a stunning enameled Medieval harness mount, some great lead tokens from 15th to 17thC and hammered silver. I have posted more finds to the latest hunt page.

A beautiful 16thC Tudor rectangular headed fastener with a raised central box section . Complete and undamaged with much of the original gilding 2.24g, 25.02mm L

Roman silver 'cooking' to remove crust

Medieval heraldic enameled mount

11th April 2008 More exports, Celtic gold feedback - Finds ID'd

I have posted some more finds including a real nice Henry VIII hammered silver groat onto the latest finds page.

March 2008 finds page 2

3 more export licenses arrived today and the names are posted on the members forum. I picked up a host of finds from the museum that have been ID'd and entered onto the National data base, I will post a few of the interesting ones tomorrow. Great feedback on the Celtic gold stater found a couple of days ago from Dr Philip at the CCI.

'Thanks for this, a fine Cunobelin linear stater indeed. There are a few with the pellet over the M within the group listed as VA 1925.05 in the online CCI, at
http://www.finds.org.uk/CCI/images-lister.php?&VA_type=1925.05

Among these coins such as
http://www.finds.org.uk/CCI/details.php?coin_num=0.1532 appear to be from the same pair of dies as yours. I'll record it as CCI 08.9151.'

Got the 132BC Roman silver finally 'cooked' to reveal the helmeted bust, coin is simply stunning.

I managed to 'cook' the second Roman silver and found it also mint underneath. Mark has just sent me some fascinating info and ID on the coin which 14-37AD Tiberius.

1.46g, 17.40mm

9th April 2008 Stunning gold ring and Liberty 3 cents - More exports back

Another large batch of export licenses arrived today and the names are posted on the members forum.

Striking gold ring find by Cal Val, looks like pure ancient gold but I have not seen a ring with this construction, could be Celtic, Saxon or Medieval. I have reported it as treasure to the museum and it will go on to the British Museum for further tests and dating. 26.97mm, 4.77g.

Reported as treasure to the museum and will go on to the British museum for tests and dating. 26.97mm, 4.77g

Great find by an old church 1830 USA Liberty 5c coin

8th April 2008 Exports approved - Roman silver find ID'd as 132BC - uploaded more finds

A large group of approved export licence's arrive this morning, full details on members forum. A series of items that the British Museum wishes to look at further, that are potential treasures, are also posted on the members forum. I will be dropping those in to the museum next week and picking up our last batch of 350 finds which have just been recorded by them.

Viking coin Hoard found in Sweden

Before and after of the 'cooked' 132BC Roman silver

Finally managed to get the back of the silver Roman clean enough to send it off to Mark Lehman to get an ID. It is till 'cooking to reveal the bust properly. What a stunning coin. I still have another one 'cooking' but it is slow going to get the crust off.

Posted more finds to the March 2008 finds page 2

6th April 2008 Find of the year - forum competition

What a great find by Cal Dan, stunning 10 to 40 AD Cunoblein Celtic gold full stater. It has a very interesting die type as it has the cross below the CA and a dot also above MV which is not in the die types of the R Hobbs reference book. I have just sent it of to Dr Philip at the CCI for his views and recording on the Celtic Coin Index.

Cunobelin Celtic gold stater 5.44g, 17.89mm - Northern Gold 'Linear type'

Obv corn ear,to 1 CA, to r.MV, below CA cross

Rev horse r ., pellet, leaf q & pellet, below CVN, pellet boarder va 1925 Ref Hobbs

Updated the find of the year page. 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 detecting next season and the engrave Roman jug, not forgetting his name on the role of honor shield !

Those on the page are not the definitive list but are a few of my current favourites, guys can vote for any finds that are on my site for the season 2007/2008.

Sept 2007 finds page 1

Sept 2007 finds page 2

Oct 2007 finds page 3

Nov 2007 finds page 4

March 2008 Find page 1

March 2008 finds page 2

Updated the forum competition page with the latest hammered silver count, 319. 'Rodbuster' is winning at the moment

Updated the Saxon page

Updated medieval page

5th April 2008 Roman silver feedback - Continental silver ID'd

This button is a stunning early 1776 pattern 20th Regiment of foot button and is listed in the Don Troiani 'Buttons of the Revolution' book Ref B20e, Saratoga battlefield NY and Georgia. Great find by Tenn brad.

I am still 'cooking' the 100 BC Roman silver find and finally after 4 days the horse detail is showing through, the coin looks to be mint under the 'crust'.

C100BC Roman Republican silver coin

Just got an ID back from one of our members on the silver coin with the King who had a seriously bad hair do ! This coin had a thick green crust on it because it was made of such poor silver. The olive oil and lemon juice mix worked eventually on the green crud after several days of 'cooking'

1763 Continental silver coin - 22.30mm, 16.7g

6 Groszy from Danzig (Gdansk) under Polish rule and the King August III.
Obv: Bust of King August III, "D G AVGVSTVS III REX POL M D L R P D S & E L"
Rev: Value VI over shield, "MON ARGNET CIVITAT GEDANENSIS"
Mintmaster is Rudolph Ernst Oeckermann (REOE), metal is billon (very low silver content).

Mark Lehman has sent us this great feedback on the 32 BC Mark Antony, Legionary silver Denarius find. Another Roman silver coin was found yesterday again badly encrusted with 'horn silver' so it was straight into the 'cooker'.

4th April 2008 'Cooked' Roman ID'd - more great finds

The coin below is very slowly 'cooking' to reveal the detail and is a 32 BC Mark Antony, Legionary silver Denarius.There were three legions named as follows: Legio XII Antiqua, Legio XVII Classica and Legio XVIII Libyca. Can Bill found another Roman silver which is now in the cooker.

32 BC Mark Antony, Legionary silver Denarius. ANT.AVG.III.VIR.R.P.C Galley, Legionary Eagle between two standards