CRUSADER
Rhodium Member
We returned close to where we had marked off & I made a judgement call on the area Cru'dad could grid in a day (enough to finish up against our previous grid), so that I could grid right at my pace & Cru'dad could grid left at his slower pace. Saves me having to turn at the end of runs & finish his grid. (wastes time going back to the start, especially on large area grids)
As luck would have it the Roman Gold was half way on my 2nd run! It's pretty heavy clay & I picked up the lump with it in & saw the rim of a gold coin. Immediately thought Gold Coin but before giving it more thought, I cracked open the lump to see a bust I immediately recognised as either Magnetius/Decentius. I think there was then a lot of '''I've done it''. I turned around to Cru'dad & shouted ''Gold'', of course Roman Gold is furthest from our minds, but then I added ''Roman Gold'' & took it to him before taking off the reverse side of the lump, so we could see it together. We found no other signs of Roman activity & our best guess is they came off the nearby main road & rested on this hillock. This actually fitted my previous prediction that we won't find one on one of a 50 Roman Sites but on one of our ''Random Fields'' (ie. not a site, with no intel) with nothing else on it. (which funny enough is what I called this field in my posts!)
It's taken us 16,569 Roman Bronze Coins & 370 Roman Silver to get this 1 & to be honest I wasn't sure we ever would. (35 years of effort)The timing is perfect as they are trying to amend the Treasure Act to include single Gold Coins of this period, but the amendment has been held up by COVID.
Otherwise I would hand it in & a local Museum would probably buy it. We phoned the landowner immediately & he saw the coin & the find-spot. (We will give him half the value to keep it)
No Silver before lunch but I then went on to get all the silver for the day, Cru'dad just getting some odds & ends...
5 Hours Gridding;
18th Light Dragoon's Officer Button (late 18th C) - First for me.
2 Unknown Pewter Buttons
Tudor Strap-end
2 small Leather Mounts - Kings Head & a 17th C type
Larger Horse Harness Mount - 18th-19th C
3 17th C Buckles
1944 Sixpence
1891 Shilling
1582 Lizzy Sixpence (Funny thing was, we got no hammered in the big grid but as soon as I started heading off the the car I got it!)
1804 John Death London Silver Spoon
Gold Solidus of Mag. AD350-51 Trier Mint
(The condition is amazing)
Hard call but I think this beats our best day of 3 Celtic Gold (I had 2, Cru'dad 1) earlier this year.
Update
As luck would have it the Roman Gold was half way on my 2nd run! It's pretty heavy clay & I picked up the lump with it in & saw the rim of a gold coin. Immediately thought Gold Coin but before giving it more thought, I cracked open the lump to see a bust I immediately recognised as either Magnetius/Decentius. I think there was then a lot of '''I've done it''. I turned around to Cru'dad & shouted ''Gold'', of course Roman Gold is furthest from our minds, but then I added ''Roman Gold'' & took it to him before taking off the reverse side of the lump, so we could see it together. We found no other signs of Roman activity & our best guess is they came off the nearby main road & rested on this hillock. This actually fitted my previous prediction that we won't find one on one of a 50 Roman Sites but on one of our ''Random Fields'' (ie. not a site, with no intel) with nothing else on it. (which funny enough is what I called this field in my posts!)
It's taken us 16,569 Roman Bronze Coins & 370 Roman Silver to get this 1 & to be honest I wasn't sure we ever would. (35 years of effort)The timing is perfect as they are trying to amend the Treasure Act to include single Gold Coins of this period, but the amendment has been held up by COVID.
Otherwise I would hand it in & a local Museum would probably buy it. We phoned the landowner immediately & he saw the coin & the find-spot. (We will give him half the value to keep it)No Silver before lunch but I then went on to get all the silver for the day, Cru'dad just getting some odds & ends...
5 Hours Gridding;
18th Light Dragoon's Officer Button (late 18th C) - First for me.
2 Unknown Pewter Buttons
Tudor Strap-end
2 small Leather Mounts - Kings Head & a 17th C type
Larger Horse Harness Mount - 18th-19th C
3 17th C Buckles
1944 Sixpence
1891 Shilling
1582 Lizzy Sixpence (Funny thing was, we got no hammered in the big grid but as soon as I started heading off the the car I got it!)
1804 John Death London Silver Spoon
Gold Solidus of Mag. AD350-51 Trier Mint
(The condition is amazing)Hard call but I think this beats our best day of 3 Celtic Gold (I had 2, Cru'dad 1) earlier this year.
Update
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote
112
Cheers everyone...
My daughter will be studying forensic archaeology/anthropology and linguistic archaeology/anthropology. She is into ancient languages and relics. She commented on your post to me, have you ever found a planchet, die or mallet/hammer for a hammered coin? She thought you must have something in your collection. I told her that must be a rare find but wondered if you have.
