DetectingWales.com

Went out with my buddy today to the permission where we never find anything. We both found a few bits of lead, brass, foil; I found a 1932 penny, a 5p and a 20p. My mate found a bronze threepenny bit and a half crown, then came up with this hammered silver coin.

From a limited amount of research it looks like an Edward III groat - can anyone confirm this please?

Yeah, looks like it well done to you both :)

Thanks  ;)

Just thinking - how much would this have been worth in the 1300s (and don't say fourpence . . .  ;D) - as in what would that have been in today's terms? Some poor devil lost this (presumably . . . ) so would that have been a major disaster or just something to shrug off?

For a skilled labourer such as a carpenter it would have been a days wage for an unskilled agricultural labourer  2 days but for a servant it would be nearly a weeks wage, you can't really translate it into modern terms though as the cost of goods was completely different for instance that groat could buy you four and a half gallons of beer, a gallon of wine or 50 apples but only 2 chickens or a quarter pound of sugar ;)

Hmmm . . . that's a serious amount of money then.

Odd to think that a chicken was a day's wages for a farm labourer . . . And sugar too.

Modern production methods and more efficient transport would obviously have affected the prices now. Not a drinker myself - how much would 36 pints of beer cost nowadays? Last time I had a drink Guinness was 72p a pint . . .  ;)

nice find, well done

very nice well searched  ;)

The price in relation to wages to the chickens is roughly the same as it would have been before the 1940's as it's not until after the war and rationing that factory farming starts and chickens can be produced for their meat before this chickens were kept for their eggs and so to eat one (that was worth eating) was to deny any further eggs, so a bit like not eating the goose that laid the golden egg you didn't eat the chicken that laid any ;D
Though in this case it probably refers to live chickens but the same ratio applies ;)

Well found Cymro ;)

You're quite right, of course, Chef. I was born not too long after WW2 and when I were a lad nobody ate a chicken except at Christmas. As for turkeys - not for the likes of us . . . The Christmas chicken was quite a big deal in our house - first you had to find one!

The local fishmonger sold the chickens round our way and sometimes Mum would bring a 'boiling fowl' home - complete with feathers and innards. I think we only got them because they were cheap! We had a chicken coop at home but when the birds had passed their best in terms of laying Dad didn't have the heart to kill them; they were more like pets so they only ever died of old age . . .

Thats a lovely coin, keep searching there may be more there. I've often thought the same as you about how someone felt when they
lost those coins. I recently detected the ruins of a smallholding that my Great Grandparents used to live in with ten of their children, and back then 1910 - 1925 I know things were very tough for them. I found a few pennies and half pennies and I suspect that my
Great Grandparents must have been gutted when they lost them.

Nice coin, well found m8  ;)

Judging by the privy mark 'cross 1, unbroken' doesn't that make it a series B groat?

We're still working on that - neither of us has ever seen an Edward III groat before so it's taking some time to find the right links. I found the 'vosper4coins' site late on last night and have literally just sent the link to my buddy.

Thanks for the ID - it's the kind of information I was looking for . . .  ;)

Well found, nice coin!

I'll look in either North or Spinks tonight - I happen to have found / own quite a few groats - either book will quickly work out which series - the privy mark is the the cross type at the begining on the legend on either side.

That would be great - thanks.

It would have been easier if I had the coin in front of me - the photo is probably OK if you know what you're looking for. I had a look at the pic after your reply though and I can now see what you mean about the privy mark - and according to this page it does seem to be a Series B:

http://www.vosper4coins.co.uk/ivanbuck/buck-1.htm (http://www.vosper4coins.co.uk/ivanbuck/buck-1.htm)

So that makes it 1351?

As you can see, the coin is a bit bent. Probably not an issue, but would it be possible to gently flatten it out between two pieces of wood without damage?

It's all a learning curve . . .  ;)

I've just had the coin in my hands (but it's gone home again now . . . ) and the 'M's in the legend around the edge are a rounded (Celtic?) type 'M' with feet rather than the angular Roman 'M's - if that makes sense?

I guess that would make a difference to the series and/or the date?

well done Cymro on finding the one coin that continues to elude me!  ;D

Good going .. am i envious, NO!  .... just don;t mention that bloody word!!  ;D ;D

Wasn't me, Alan . . . ;)

We both started detecting at the same time last year and we were obviously green. Our finds are improving as we're getting to know what to dig and what to leave, but I've been through 4 machines in that time - each with its own learning curve. Since I've only had the DFX a few weeks I'm trying different settings so maybe I'm still staggering up that particular curve (but have developed a strong liking for a program from Deoleslyfox on the Whites forum . . . )

Ultimately, it's what your coil passes over that gets the finds, and yesterday my mate's coil was over that groat. Could just as easily have been mine (but wasn't . . . ) Maybe next week I'll get my first hammered? Maybe not.

I'm sure you'll find one one day, much as I singled out bass as the one species I'd never caught when I used to go fishing, then one day I was at the right place, at the right time, with the right bait. Tasted lovely . . .

I'm not jealous (just green with envy . . . )

Yes, the 'round' Ms are lombardic and the squarish ones are 'Roman' - that makes your coin series C, rather than series B.

Thank you - that narrows the date down to 1351 or 1352.

Damn, that's a long time ago . . . !

1351 .... Dunno about a long time ago, i reckon your watch is fast!

you posted 36 minutes to early!  ;D ;D ;D

Nah - 664 years late . . . ;)