DetectingWales.com

The third Annual Detectingwales.com Two Day Rally was held over the weekend in the glorious Vale of Glamorgan. Members old and new attend both days en-mass, with about 30 or so camping over night on a high class camp site with all mod cons.

Early on the Saturday the farmers field became a tented village with numerous types and sizes of tents, mobile homes, mattresses in the back of vans, and home made van conversions. Along with this we had the generous loan of BigHoni's pavillion for want of a better word. A big thanks to you John for bringing it along and your expertise in erecting it. Thanks also go to Tom Tom as well for helping us raise the temporary building.

After the normal DW welcome we were into the fields and following a few pot legs, 2 Bristol tokens dated 1600's, buckles and buttons. A beaming Melonhead aka Mark was striding towards me with intent. In his hand was a stunning Half Crown of Charles II in outstanding condition and dated 1679 - a rare and valuable coin. Well done Mark!

Next up came news of a hammered fathing coin, but for the life of me I can't recall who found the first one. After that the hammered started trickling in at a steady rate with a total of 10 being made by the time the BBQ was cooking away.

A couple of lovely georgian and late Medieval buckles arrived courtesy of two different members - the one was particularly ornate and would grace any buckle collection!

It wasn't just about hammered's though as a denari turned up found by John who later went on to win a GPS kindly donated by Nomad in the raffle. He was having a good day.

Not to be out done Mark turned up at the end with Roman Denari of his own - that looks Neroish to my untrained eye and will need a bit of TLC to return it to its former glory.

Steven King kept the Roman theme going with a lovely trumpet Brooch and this was soon joined by a Roman coin found by Willowtree. Another 4 or so Roman grots surfaced apart from the Denari - we were certainly in a Roman area - although we knew that before we arrived!

Another Steven had the stem of what would have been a lovely silver spoon - the engraving on it looks pretty early. Paul was also into the silver area with two silver cufflinks that both need a bit of a clean.

Willowtree found a silver Baby brooch with a silver chain and silver ended pacifier attached. The coral the teething bit was made out of though has sadly rotted away - but it was certainly an unusual find. Nobby was also in a finding mood and turned out a short cross that has a perfect profile, but is sadly torn, along with another hammered particoin.

At 4pm we had the annual raffle prizes for those who had found tokens during the day. Some had found more than others, and a big thank you goes to all the members who donated gifts. There was a wide selection with the star prize a GPS system donated by Nomad being won by John. A great prize to win!

This rally we also had a SCRAP bucket organised by Mike The Fob for a Cancer charity and it was good to see it filling up throughout the day. A few of the coins from the bucket were given to the three young men who had attened and they were over the moon with them.

One young lad in particular made a beauty of a find during the few minutes his dad was showing him how to use it in the shape of a silver bodkin dating to the 1700's! It was a lovely find and really nice to see three generations of Bobs family detecting together. I don't think he'll forget that moment in a hurry!

Back at base camp I FIND NOTHING was having an interesting day of his own, as thanks to his cars central locking system he managed to lock his car keys in the boot! The next half an hour witnessed 10 or more expert DW car crackers attempting to break into Mark's car with everything from tent poles to coat hanges to tennis balls, but to no avail - I can safely say that Renault make a DW proof car! At the end we gained access due to the artful Treorchy Boy himself - Rob - who having fashioned a metal implement manged to wind down the window which was by now prised open by numerous pieces of wood. A huge cheer went up and we all returned to the plan of eating barbecued food and sipping the odd sherry or two!

We had enough food to feed about 200 people and a big thanks goes to everyone who brought some food. Next time I think we need to curb Kev's Aunty Annes enthusiasm who made 40 lamb burgers - all of which were delicious - I know I had 3 of them! Thanks Aunty anne - they were lovely.

As the night wore on and the sherry flowed - 3 intrepid DW members ventured into the dusk to try a bit of authorised night detecting. This was at about 8.30pm. We could see their lights in the distance and expected a quick return. they finally strolled into the tent shattered at 12.30am!

I headed to my luxurious 1 man tent with attached outdoor privy shortly after, but I am assured by those camping nearby that the partying went on till about 4am!

Day Two
I awoke at 7am to find that every Snail In The Vale had decided to cling to my tent over night and bleary eyed surveyed the minor carnage from the previous nights and listened to the sound of a pack of Walruses sleeping like babies! Loud snoring babies that is!

The next rally site was only a short distance up the road and following a decamp - we all headed to the new location.

Lots of Day 2 faces arrived and swelled the numbers. The first field I went into looked promising as it was littered with pottery and it turned out to be predominantly RAF china.

The first find of note was once again Willowtree who had not only a Denari (number 3 for the weekend) but also a great condition toy cannon in his hand.

As with the other site, buttons, coppers and thimbles became the order of the day until we had a glut of military cap badges - a Royal Artillary one to Tom, A ATS one to Richard and another that slips my mind!

The hammered started popping up once again with a cracking short cross, an Edward III, a few others and then a star find on the hammered front - a Norman Period coin! I never got to find the chap who discovered it. Photo please anyone.

Zorro found an unusaul item that has two heads facing either way - which reminded us of the Roman God Janus. Speculation was rife as to its purpose ranging from a roman artefact to a poker handle to a cork screw. I personally think "Its got an age to it". Its one for the FLo's to decide.

Tyna added to the milled silver over the two days with a George III sixpence, only for Nobby to find an earlier sixpence from the rign of William III. I also managed to find a piece of hallmarked silver from the corner of a book or purse.

At 3.30pm I was done in from two days detecting, organising and eating  headed home to eat some more

A huge thanks to all the members and particularly Mike the Fob(bucket collecting and cooker), Bob(Barbecue), Big Honi (Marquee), Fay, Janet, Bobs wife and others for the cooking. Also anyone else I have forgotten it was memorable weekend for all involved.

A major thanks also to the Day 1 farmer who couldn't do more to help and was a lovely guy to boot - thank you all for the whip round for the camping - he appreciated it. We'd like to go back to this venue and he seems more than happy to facilitate this, so well done everyone on the cleaning up and leaving the site as we found it.

Finally the last Thank You goes to TaffLaff for arranging all of this - its a lot of work and he did us proud.

Cheers everyone - I am off to bed in an hour

Neil

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great report Neil and well done everyone on making it a huge success.

denarii number 3 looks like that of emperor nerva 94 to 96AD

Almost there! ::)

Still going . . .

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brilliant write up as always, sounds like you all had a fantastic time, shame i was stuck in the hospital with the poorly wifey

will we get to go back there once its ploughed do you think??

theres some loverly looking finds, with some nice early hammies

The last photo is a member in the depth of the night swinging the coil - with permission I add!

Excellent write up as ever Neil and it just makes me more envious that I wasn't there. Some brilliant finds and interesting how they fall into certain periods and may point to land use regarding enclosure for the wool trade.

A great two dayer and my first hammered for a long time, then the added bonus of my grandson finding the bodkin, couldn't ask for more. Thanks to everyone for making it such a fun two days.
Here's the best of what we found (Bob, Steve78 and Joe, my grandson) form the top left: Large piece of lead, possibly a plumb weight for getting depth? Lead cap off something? Large buckle. Part of pewter goblet? Lead tube, silver-plated spoon with initials, 3 coins, only identifiable is a Vicky penny, two buttons with a RAF cap badge below, buckle, spectacle buckle, another lead thingy (jacks?) possible locket? silver bodkin, long cross hammered, horse brass?

LOL Alan your not getting a coconut for that id it's got his name on it ;D

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 Glad u all had a good rally, some nice finds,maybe someday I'll make the long trek south,well done :)

Thanks team for another great time. Haven't got round to getting any pics yet, but will get some done tomorrow. For the weekend had one and a third hammies, a very worn William III sixpence, a blank love token, a couple of pieces of flint and the usual assortment of buttons and bits and pieces. One of the buttons has the Prince of Wales feathers with GY below, which I think is Glamorgan Yeomanry, and I was quite pleased with that.

Was great to see Mark's Charles II halfcrown, and Ian's penny of Stephen. Hard to choose which was the coin of the rally for me, and I hope someone does get a pic on here of Ian's coin.

great 2 day rally thanks, i was the lucky guy who found a henry 3rd short cross penny in great condition ,  also had a bristol token dated 1652.  thanks again for a exellent 2 days.

just a quick one before i go to bed, loved the weekend,thanks all you people that made this happen.more to follow.

great rally...well done  all for making it happen......it was nice too chat to a lot of new faces ...talking to ray allthe time is hard work..lol....some cracking finds came out too.....marks (melonheads) crown was fabulous...anyway work calls ...

ROFL at that Geoff .. its amazing how many people see the NER and think NERO ;D ;D  As you know, Nerva was only in power for 2 years, when he died of natural causes. [he was well in his 60's when he came into power!] ... what will be interesting to see, when the coin is cleaned up, is whether it has COS I  or COS II on it ... that will indicate whether it was minted in either his 1st or 2nd year of his short reign

keep up the good work ... and c u at the rally on the 4th!

Thanks for a great weekend guys.

Thank you Nomad for donating the GPS that I won in the Token Hunt Raffle & I was chuffed
with Denarius of Faustina Snr. that I found, also had a Jubilee head shilling of Victoria.

At the end of the second day, we cleared up the pile of leftover food which had been left on
site in case it's owner returned to collect it.. Amongst it were two large tupperware type containers
containing spuds in foil. One with blue lid, one without. if owner would like repatriation with these items
please pm me.
Dave.

I forgot to pick up the tupperware containers with the spuds in them. Headed to another farm after the rally to check on my chances of getting onto my roman site and forgot all about them

Dont worry about it if they get chucked. I will get some more when I next visit tesco.

One doesny have a lid anyway so will be no great loss.

Eric

Thank you for a really great rally.I enjoyed reading the write-up and seeing the pics of finds I missed on the day.Have attached photos of one of my  finds-any ideas as to what it may be? There's a pretty scrolly pattern on both sides,measuring 5cm high by 5cm at the widest point. Could it be a clasp of some kind?
 Looking forward to the next rally.
                                                     Mrs.S.

Well done DW  ;) Looks like a great get together with some really nice finds.Great report as usual Neil,cheers  :)

Great report Neil great finds,well done to Taff for organising a great rally hopefully I will get on one soon  ;)

faymous and  jassy finds:

thanks dw for a fab rally, and thanks to all the members for making it such good fun!!!

that is a great write neil..thank you for all your hard work at the ralleys. and all these great write ups you keep giving us mate.keep up the good work neil my friend.
ok.
yet again another great detectingwales 2 dayer.welldone to all who found..myself i had a wonderfull time yet again.thank you all and see you all at the next ralley.
raymondo.

Sry i had to leave early but kids was playing up but managed to clean up that coin i found and it is showing to be a George the 3rd coin will get a pic up to see if anyone can see any differant

Hey Jassy, looks like you got a rolled up hammered coin and a roman brooch there.

Well done kid, I knew you would find something good eventually.

Fay did really well too, the spur is a cracker.

Eric

brilliant weekend, well done to all the organisers who put in a lot of hard work to make it happen

Really enjoyed myself on Sunday as usual guys - I really appreciate all your hard work behind the scenes  :)

I'd like to thank all that made a DW rally weekend a weekend to remember.
great company, great organisation, great finds and some lovely weather...what more can you ask?
nice to have caught up with so many friends, old and new. seeing the look on Mark (Melonhead's ) face with that Charles II....priceless ( though i will say that it's too often now. can we send him and casa the wrong directions for the next one  ;) )
my knowledge of Formula 1 has been greatly increased thanks to Byron.
and my admiration for the real hero's of DW, the organisers, is as big as ever.
thank you all
Z

Hello
Thanks to everyone that made it a weekend to remember.
Cheers Andrew

Hi just wanted to say thanks for a brilliant rally I had a great couple of days, I stayed at Acorn camp site with the family and they went into Barry on the train on the Saturday and the Beach on the Sunday so a great weekend was had by all.

Once again thanks for all your hard work.  :D :D :D :D

Great 2 days detecting down by th sea - thanks to Rob, Neil and Jeff for all the hard work organising - it's very much appreciated.

Did no find much to shout about personally - a nice buckle circa 1400's and few vicky and Georgian coins but still no hammies or roman for me  ???

Enjoyed myself though and just seeing Rob struggling around on day 2 was very funny  ;D

Cheers guys.

Mrs steptoes thingy is a sword carrier, like a belt hanger. Possibly medieval.

Eric

Neal, another great write up on the rally and some great finds and thanks again to rob, Neal & Geoff for another brilliantly organized rally,it was nice meeting old and new friends and look forward to see you all on the next one.viv

A great write up and some terrific pictures of all the great finds, looks like you all had a fantastic time and mother nature smiled on you with the weather. Well done guys & girls to all of you that found goodies, and for those of you that didn't better luck next time.  ;)

Big thanks to rob and the rest of the guys for a great weekend.look forward to the next. :

Popped the silver bodkin and my hammered into Glamorgan & Gwent Archaeology Dept in Swansea yesterday and they were very interested in the bodkin. They gave me a receipt for it and are sending it to Cardiff Museum. They identified the hammered as a long cross Edward 1st penny.

enjoyed the Saturday rally and the camping and BBQ, and thanks to the ladies for sorting the BBQ ,and Rob & Neil for sorting out the rally for us. the Sunday i only detected for a hour as i was a bit under the weather  and my foot was not on form. ;)

Just to say had a great rally, really enjoyed the view and picked up 2 hammered, sadly both a little worn, but fab finds, and loads and loads of "bits" lol.

thanks to wayne for the food - superb as normal :) and thanks to the guys behind the scenes that made it all happen. 

Here are my two - I think one is a james maybe, no idea on the other.

great couple of days :) looking forward to the next one

H

Nice finds. The little one looks like Charles I to me - what's the other side like? Other one is Edward I or II penny.

hi pete,

the other side is totally gone as pictured.  Im still pleased with them and meeting everyone on here, missed jassy ! and still searching for Val. lol, but found roman ray !  lol

Taking them into the museum on Friday.

Thanks for the help

Take care

H

Is that why Rob has left the Rally Lostline on the home page. Is he still searching for me as well. :o

Might  see you at the next one. Fingers crossed.

Val  :-*

yes heather missed you!! i spoke to farmer steve and was hoping to bump into you!! well done on the hammies!

i had a great time, found the usual buttons/buckles etc but made my weekend by finding a worn hammered on sunday... ;D....many thanks to the team for all their hard work.........byron

Its a Vespasian 69-79 AD.my mistake denari 2 was the vespasian.