Detectingwales Rally 44 - Romans and Rolexs!

[Neil]

Romans and Rolexs!

The Dectingwales clan gathered today on a chilly yet sun kissed morning just a tad over the bridge for rally number 44.

Quick overview and at bang on 9.30am we were off doing the thing we all love detecting!

Today we had numerous pastures and three stubble fields to choose from.

Most of the members immediately headed off to the nearest stubble, and I eventually joined them only to find that it was relatively contaminated with the dreaded bits of tin and rubbish that seem frequently present in compost these days. That said though those who were lucky did manage to winkle out a few hammereds from this area later in the day.

The first person who I saw with a find was RJM aka Spartacus who had a small coin shaped object caked in mud. For all the World it looked Roman to my untrained eyes and I think Bob was planning on leaving it untill he got home to discover its true identity.

I headed off to the raised bit of land that on a previous rally had produced a fair bit of Roman. We had done the research and as mentioned in the Rally Talk we know there was a Roman building on this site. It was dug by the local archaeologists in the 70's and not scheduled, so we were welcome to detect here.

After a few minutes I managed to pull out a Roman 3rd century coin with Romulus and Remus (the founding brothers of Roma) suckling on the she wolf. I was over the moon as of all coinage to find Roman is by favourite. I showed it to Beachboy and Herbie who were the only companions I had in this field. Beachboy had already found a Lizzy hammered penny and was busy digging to Australia as the majority of the signals in this field were beneath a ton of stones!

A few minutes later Herbie popped up with what would have been a huge Roman intaglio ring, but unfortunately it had lost its stone and about half of the band. A great find though and it hinted at what else might still be here.

Another signal from my trusty Minelab and in my hand I have a Roman bronze lock pin mechanism. Its going to clean up great and a bit of a scarcity as normally they are just the roundel and do not still have attached the bronze bar. It was beginning to stink of Roman around here!

News reached me that Nobby had found a huge part of a fibula (photo please Rob) nearby and not to be out done John Talbot was also joining the Roman theme with a fibula of his own!

Back to the Roman hump and Mungo pops over with an early Bronze Age flat axe in his hand - an absolutely beautiful find and I struggled to comprehend what it was at first. I mean its not every day you see one of these! Thats two Bronze Age axe heads two rallys running for DW!

Being a stickler for staying in the same spot if finds are turning up I spent over 3 hours constantly going back and forth in the same area about the size of a tennis court.

About 2 hours after the first Roman I was exstatic once again as only 5 inches down up popped a denari! I have only 5 found to date and remember each find crystal clear. I had a chat with a member nearby who buys and sells a few Romans as at first I don't think I fully appreciated it was denari. A little gentle rub with the finger had Constantine smiling back at me with a temple on the reverse - its going to clean up lovely. Thanks for convincing me it was a denari.

I was as pleased as Punch and rang Rob with the news, who soon appeared with a few detectorists in tow.

I headed back to the cars eventually and found YsbytyMike with a hammered sixpence of Elizabeth which was a beaut. Later on a few more hammered surfaced from Doddy10 and a member called Hammered. I think the total ran to six in the end.

Other finds included a silver complete cuff link for WMC, a lovely buckle and lead bar/suspender for Debbie, a William IV fathing for Proconsul, a William IV groat for another member and several buckles, copper coinage and musket balls for various members.

An interesting find of the Rolex variety fell to  in the shape of a ladies Rolex watch. On first inspection a few of us presumed it to be a fake. Now the fakes are generally battery run and the real ones perpetual motion. You can get perpetual motion fakes but they tend to cost a fair bit. I gave it a shake and within a few seconds much to our amazement the second hand was sweeping {not ticking as with the fakes} around its face. I have no idea if its real, but its stamped up in the right places and deserves a trip to the jewellers to find out. Its also worthy of note that Rolexs are Stainless steel and either gold plated or solid gold in parts. This had a bit of wear to some of the gold but was in pretty good nick for being in the ground with no corrosion at all! We await the outcome with baited breath.

The end of the day was approaching as at 4pm the sun was dropping into its night time cave and members were hitting the road.

Back at the car park on schedule as usual Chef announced that his dodgy Irish motor was once again flat. I have lost count how many times we have pushed and pulled this flat beast from pillar to post, but its all done in humour! Anyway YsbytyMike kindly jump started it after Chef had a walk to the nearby garage for jump leads and off he headed home. Keep them in your boot now Cheffy!

I forgot to add Mike also found a lovely intaglio as well, and the photo does it no justice at all, as by now it was close to pitch black - I am sure he can provide us with a nicer photo than mine.

Thats it - I am shattered, sipping Chardonnay and trying to convince the wife its her turn to cook, but shes not having any of it!

See you all in a field real soon.

Neil

[Neil]

More

[Neil]

Again

[Neil]

Few more

[Neil]

More

[Neil]

Some more

[Neil]

Still going . . .

[Neil]

Again

[Neil]

More

[Neil]

The denari I found fresh out of the soil.

[Neil]

The bling!

Feel free to add your own now guys!

[The Doc]

Great report and pics Neil - looks like another successful day 

I'm going to disappoint you about your Roman sorry, it's not a denarius, but it's a nice coin.

It's one of these:

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/bigpic.cgi?img=coins/./ric/constantine/_trier_RIC_vII_341.jpg&ruler=./ric/constantine/i.html

[The Doc]

John Talbot's item captioned 'what are these' is a ball for a Brunswick rifle, info here:

http://www.researchpress.co.uk/firearms/british/brunswick/brunswick.htm

[legio11augustus]

great rally ,  well done to those  with  finds,i found little of note but i think i took half the field home with me on my shoes and trousers .

[Neil]

You sure Peter - I would never normally doubt you, but I have given it a bit of a gentle clean and its certainly come up silver looking. It also seems to have the weight. Very odd.

I'll pop a picture up tomorrow in daylight.