I had the day off work today, as did Jaydog and Mark and following a quick chat and an invitation off them we were heading to the outskirts of Newport to one of their recently acquired sites.
They have had really good results here on several new farms they have secured, so the car was full of talk of what was waiting for us to prise from the soil, and of course general Detectingwales chat.
We hit the pastures by about 11am and the first find of the day fell to me in the shape of what we think is a Charles 1st hammered coin that was close to the hedge line. Its an unusual shape but hammered is hammered in my book.
Following a long held practice I grided the area and was rewarded with a few copper coins, buttons and musket balls. Then a nice low tone produced a lovely condition Edward hammered penny. Thats a great start as all of this was all in the first half hour! Two hammereds already - what will the rest of the day bring?
Jaydogg joined the
"Silver Morning" by promptly producing a silver Air Raid Precaution badge that because of the size I think may be a ladies lapel one. A great find and he was rightfully pleased with it. Mark found one last year, so they got the set now.
The site has a Roman pedigree as well as Medieval, and we had chatted about whether any would want to appear. It didn't take long until Jaydogg had a huge Sestertious in his hand with a beautiful patina covering it. He was over the moon and so he should be - it would grace any detecting finds collection!
After a quick break for lunch we moved into another field, and I promptly joined the "Roman Gang" with a Dupondus of my own that had gone jet black with age. It needs a damn good clean, but so would you after 1800 years under ground! It was only about 5 inches deep and hinted at more Roman coinage being around.
It didn't take long for my find of the day to appear in the shape of the much wanted, much hunted for, much coverted: Roman Denari!
I saw it in the soil at less than 4 inches down and thought:
"That looks like a denari looking back at me, but I don't find denari as a rule!"
Its been two years since my last one and I have only had 4 to date. To say I was pleased would be an understatement!
Other finds included the end of a Medieval spur for Jaydogg, George III coins for Mark, and numerous every day finds.
Rain stopped play as it unvariably does in these parts, but we'll be back in the near future.
Right, I am off to notch my lucky spade and research the coins with a glass of Rioja to wash it down.
Until next time
Neil
