DetectingWales.com

Detecting Wales Rally 90 – Denarii & Balaclavas


We have experienced a slight delay to the Detecting Wales 2016 Rally season due to the inclement weather making us wait until late January for our first outing. For our latest adventure we headed to Chepstow, and as we were approaching the area I was struck by a strange feeling of déjà vu. I put it down to having travelled far and wide with a detector in my hand and thought no more of it.

The satnav in her seductive tones informed me to turn left, taking me down a farm road to find about six cars already in the farm yard with a couple of you lot slotting wellys on or having a coffee. I rang Mike to see how far off he was and from the corner of my eye spotted a chap who I took to be the farmer. I promptly hung up and headed over to him all smiles and handshakes only to discover that he wasn’t expecting a swathe of detectorists this glorious Sunday morning because we were on the wrong farm! He wanted us gone immediately. I apologised profusely and as he waved me off toyed with returning to ask for permission for a future rally but thought that may be pushing our luck a tad too much!

The farm we wanted was literally a stones throw away, and this was a prime example of how satnavs in rural areas tend to take you to an area rather than an exact location. Anyway I put the signage up drove to the correct farm and it struck me. We had been here before, about five years ago for a successful Roman and hammered rally. I recognised the farmer and his delicious spuds that he sells dirt cheap at £3 a bag! He also recognised me which was good and I explained we may have unintentionally upset his neighbour.

The masses arrived, tons of potatoes were purchased, sign up completed, overview done and we were off into the 100 acres of pasture and stubble that was todays playground.

I had my mate Rhys with me today who was brand new to detecting and having a whale of a time having being taken under the wing of Manicdev and shown a few pointers. Thanks for that he appreciated it.

The first finds of note fell to myself in the form of a 1916 sixpence and a general service army button. Both common finds, but it was the first milled silver of the year for me and took the ‘silver monkey’ off my back for the rest of the year.

The first DW member I spoke to 'in field' was Jenks who had one of the lesser spotted King Billy 1696 sixpences that for once had not been turned into a love token. A nice find with a portrait in good condition.

Jenks was followed by Oz, our own resident look alike for the Prince of Darkness! He is on a bit of a hammered purple patch at the moment and was sporting a small Lizzy halfpenny with the lady herself in all her finery. It wasn’t to be the only one as I saw a further two of the same queen and same denomination all quite heavily clipped and all from either end of the huge pasture field.

Following lunch Rhys and I headed in the opposite direction to the morning venturing through the farm and into the stubble and pastures behind.

I find that when you wear headphones sometimes you can miss hear what people are saying. This was not one of these occasions though as I could hear Paul shouting “Roman brooch” “And its got some enamel left on it” to his mate who was over the hedge. He could have been three fields away he would have still heard it!  Intrigued I wandered over and there indeed was a lovely fibula with deep blue/purple enamelling.

This was quickly followed by the find of the day in the shape of a Denarii found by xxxx. A cracking coin in great condition, my camera work does not do it justice. Well done.

About 3pm I headed back to the car as I was under instruction from ‘She who must be obeyed’ to be home before 5pm. Detecting was so much easier pre wife and kid!

Shortly after I got home I started getting calls regarding two issues. The first was that we had strayed into a single field that belonged to another farm. In fairness to all concerned this was a genuine mistake and not something that happens regularly on DW rallies. We normally follow the rule of an open gate being a continuation of the farmers land. We have since spoken to the farmer who we had inadvertently upset and this is all resolved.

The second issue was that separately a member of the public had contacted the local police regarding balaclava wearing men in army fatigues walking around a field in deepest, darkest Chepstow. In fairness, in the current climate you can’t really blame them. The police arrived, took one look, realised what was going on and left. Word to the wise though it may be prudent in the future not to wear your balaclava down!

That’s it. Feel free to add any other finds to the report.

Keep the Faith
Neil

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great report as always Neil denarius looks like septimius severus,some great finds well done all  ;)

Cracking write up again..👍
Great finds..👍😁

Great read Neil,  fair play

Neil,

Great write up and finds....wtg.

Regards + HH

Bill

Congratulations Neil,once again a splendid account of events of the latest rally,it was nearly as good as being there without all the mud!!!
But seriously Neil,.....thanks,
Well done to all those who help in arranging these events,and a big congratulations to all those who found some great artifacts and coins 👍
Perhaps,one day it would be great to meet up with all the" CYBER" names that go to make up the great forum of Detecting Wales.com if we could get a Rally at sometime here in WEST WALES !!
AH WELL !!! Dream on ...dingdong !!👍

ACE (Paul) also found a commonwealth hammered coin maybe paul can add a picture

Great write up, some great finds and a great day out by the sound of it. Wish I as there.

I got a problem with camera at moment Justin, soon as it's sorted I'll post a picture, very worn though, not much detail at all, but thanks all for a great day out, great write up Neil  ;)