From the Gauls and Romans to the Merovingians.

Aureus

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Sep 5, 2016
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Hey everyone,
Just came back from a family visit to Europe and wanted to share with you some of the discoveries I've made during the 3 weeks trip abroad.

I was lucky enough to meet a few farmers over there who gave me the permission to explore some of their fields not far from the area I was staying in.
The results were better than I expected, with the relics and coins ranging from the antiquity to the industrial age.
I will make two posts of my finds. One for the antiquity and late antiquity and the other one for the medieval and modern period.

The Gauls

Found a few coins of a Celtic Gallic tribe called Senones - circa 55 B.C. They were famously conquered by Julius Caesar in 51 B.C.
Three of the coins were made of ''potin'' and one of bronze. On this one you can see a Senones warrior on the obverse with the tribe's stallion on the reverse.
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A different warrior and the bird on the reverse of the bronze coin.
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The Romans

Had way less success with Roman finds. Although I have found quiet a few Roman coins, non were in a decent shape. One find worth mentioning was actually on my bucket list and I was really happy to discover it.

A partial Roman bronze key. Looking at this relic, it's hard to believe the complexity of the lock mechanisms they had almost 2000 years ago.
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The Merovingians

''The Merovingians were a Salian Frankish dynasty that ruled the Franks for three centuries in a region known as Francia, beginning in the middle of the 5th century. Their territory largely corresponded to ancient Gaul as well as the Roman provinces of Raetia, Germania Superior and the southern part of Germania. The semi legendary Merovech was supposed to have founded the Merovingian dynasty, but it was his famous grandson Clovis I (ruled c. 481–511) who united all of Gaul under Merovingian rule.''

I was extremely privileged to discover some beautiful relics of this period, I find them particularly unique.

A large bronze zoomorphic belt plate in shape of the horse's head. Circa 6th-7th century A.D.
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An other zoomorphic plate (in shape of an owl?)
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An other beautiful bronze plate. I'm wondering if it had an enamel decoration.
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One of two Merovingian bronze fibulas I have found. This one has a cross engraved on both sides.
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A silver plated ''scutiform'' (in the shape of a shield) belt decoration.
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The oldest button I've ever found. Again 6-7th century A.D. (Still can't believe I got the second half as well).
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And a few buckles of the same period
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Thanks for the comments. I will try to make an other post with medieval and later period finds in a few days.
 

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Whoa man those are some incredible recoveries!!!! That key is amazing and those bronze plates are amazing as well. Fantastic post! You really one upped our friend Steverino lol
 

Merowingian is rare and a pleasure to find. You got a whole bunch of these stuff. Big congrats! Oh, the celtic coins are great too! :icon_thumleft:
 

Whoa man those are some incredible recoveries!!!! That key is amazing and those bronze plates are amazing as well. Fantastic post! You really one upped our friend Steverino lol

Thanks man. I was really lucky to make those finds. All of the Merovingian relics were dug in 2 days, so I had a busy week end.
P.S. I believe our friend Steverino did great. I would be super excited finding his coins in relics in Canada.
 

Merowingian is rare and a pleasure to find. You got a whole bunch of these stuff. Big congrats! Oh, the celtic coins are great too! :icon_thumleft:

Thanks Westfront.
Never though I would manage to discover a Merovingian relic as I knew finds from that period were rare. To find so many of them was simply amazing.
 

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You had many blessings bestowed upon you from the relic gods. That, and you have quite a talent for sniffing out good spots. What I really appreciate about your posts is the care you take cleaning, researching, and presenting. Not only do we all end up more educated, I rest well knowing those relics are in good hands. Congrats again bud!!
 

Outstanding old relic recoveries! :notworthy:
 

Very nice supper old relics!! Congrats.
 

Yeap, all really great finds. Kent was the only place that produced Potin's and none of the ones I have found had such great images as yours - NICE!
 

Outstanding!!!! Thank you so much for the background on the finds as well ! I learned something today
 

You had many blessings bestowed upon you from the relic gods. That, and you have quite a talent for sniffing out good spots. What I really appreciate about your posts is the care you take cleaning, researching, and presenting. Not only do we all end up more educated, I rest well knowing those relics are in good hands. Congrats again bud!!

Thanks man. I really feel privileged to discover all these early finds on a such a short trip. The Merovingians weren't even on my list, finding a few nice relics of that period was a huge surprise.
 

If you're lucky enough to go to Europe for 3 weeks to detect some, your lucky enough. Very nice finds Aureus. Congrats!
 

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Yeap, all really great finds. Kent was the only place that produced Potin's and none of the ones I have found had such great images as yours - NICE!


Was thinking the same, never seen potin coins in that condition.
 

I dunno, they kind of look banner type stuff to me
 

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