DetectingWales.com

Its took a fair bit of planning for a few weeks and Saturday 5th September 2009 finally saw the inaugrial Detectingwales.com Two Day Summer Rally.

The Satruday started bright and early with the campers raising their tents in a section pretty much dedicated to the detectorists. I think Rob had by the far the biggest tent - it was more like a mansion and I probably came at the opposite end of the scale with my tiny dome tent which I had to sleep in an angle in! ;D

As usual the day started with the standard "where to go and not to go" sort of talk and a brief history of the surrounding area and what was likely to be found. We mentioned Bronze Age, Roman and Medieval and all those eras produced artefacts just as we predicted they might do. Please note this the chap from RARE {definately not Altinkum - it was someone else} who commented to a mate of mine that I talked a loads of rubbish and basically lied about what might be found there! We can do without that - if you want to say things like that, then say it to our faces. Anyway enough said about all that - We Were Off to The Fields!

About 70 members were in attendance, with 100 acres to share and it was good to see some Newbies present. A special welcome goes to Gazza who flew all the way over from Spain at some considerable cost and not only proved to be a master chef, but also live cabaret with his never ending supply of jokes - more on that later.

The first find of note came from Phil Ynysboeth with a cut half hammered and a silver Joey. He was particularly pleased as he was using a new machine and I believe it was only his third hammered coin - well done mate.

Next I ran into a chap whos name escapes me who was the proud owner of a silver Vicky florin 1898 and a copper penny that had been turned into a ring. Once again a strange coincidence as I had only 10 minutes earlier been looking at one Millsy had just made - how odd!

The next find was an absolute stunner and went to my long standing Detecting partner Mark. It took the shape of a Young Head Victoria Gold Half Sovereign dated 1846I couldn't have been more pleased if I had found it myself. Mark is a really dedicated detectorist and deserved to find his first gold. Well done mate - really happy for you!

The finds started raining in thick and fast now with Casa Dos having a lovely medieval bee hive thimble and short cross hammered.

Back at the tent for a quick refreshment I find Saxon and Viking - (I always get you two mixed up) had had between them a nice early Medieval buckle and yet another hammy.

Into the fields again and I find an exstatic and then devastated TaffLaff who though he had found a Roman coin, only for it to turn out tb a Art Deco button. Your time will come Rob - have patience mate. shortly after Casa Dos was up to his old tricks again with a Tudor hammered sixpence that needs straightening. He then had another Tudor penny - what a day for Kev - well done matey. Not to be outdone Kevs detecting partner Adie had some nice buckles and then into the early evening his own hammered sixpence. Kev won the day though.

Back at the car park, the finds were steaming in left right and centre. Beepy had one of the finds of the day with a silver Republican Denarius which is about 2100 years old. An absolute stunner and the first denari to date on a Detectingwales rally. To complement it, he also had a bronze Roman finger ring.

Steven King (of the Detecting fame and nothing to do with The Shining) suprised us all with the oldest find so far in the form of a Bronze Age socketed Gouge. I would love to find one of these even more so than an axe as they are pretty rare items - well done Steven! Just to prove it wasn't a fluke he also produced an 1817 silver bull head sixpence.

Standing next to Steven was The Doc who had a James sixpence and someone else (my memoriess gone now - far too many finds to remember - could be Richy) who had yet another hammie. Not far away was Digga with his first Roman - a radiate of some kind and a silver ring. Well done on losing your Roman virginity mate.

They still kept coming with a James 1st folded sixpence and another large tudor hammered dated 1558.

Almost at the end of the first days finds, when late into the evening a lead seal matrix and another hammered coin appeared. that was two seal matrixs found on the first day - the other one was bronze.

I was nackered by now and relaxed with my good friend Stella and talked detecting long into the eveing with Steve Mcgrory and others. there was also at least an hour of joke telling - which in my opinion was won by Gazza with his £1.70 joke - his actions to the joke had us all crying with laughter! A special welcome to two newbies Ewansdad and Cadzy who stayed up and drank the night away with us. Nice to meet you both - be warned the detecting bug will bite you hard.

After many more ales were drunk and a stunning barbecue was munched - I retired around midnight and woke fresh for another day, but I'll be telling the story of the Sunday tomorrow as I am struggling to keep awake here.

Right - be patient and enjoy trawling through the mass of photos. I think the sum total for Day One was 11 hammies, 1 gold half sov, 1 republican deanrius, a fibula, a Roman ring, a silver ring, about 10 milled silvers, a silver watch case {Mellonhead}, numerous other finds, oh and a Bronze Age Gouge. Not a bad day for Wales, eh?

cheers
Neil

More

More again

Again

Still coming!

Not over yet!

Near the end for now!

Well done to you all nice finds................................ ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Well done to all of you, there are some fantastic finds come up and it looks like you all had a very good time.

It's nice to see such an amazing array of finds  ;)

The weather gods were obviously on your side too, well done all

Burp

PS: I love the Penny Ring  ;)

WONDERFUL FINDS CONGRATS TO EVERYONE , i wish i could have been there.

Great report Neil ... Phil Ynysir ???? lol im from the Rhondda but im in Ynysboeth now  lol
want me to edit it ??

All the best
Phil ynysir lol

Hi Mike (crazy)

It was good un Mate ;0)
Pity you couldnt have joined us maybe next time  !

all the best
Phil Ynysir lol

Phil, i gonna do my darnest to be at the next one, unfortunately i had other thing planned this weekend, hoping to get out somewhere next weekend ,don't know where , any ideas, cheers Mike

WELL DONE NEIL  ANOTHER GOOD REPORT THERE  ,,,,,,,,,  GETTING TIRED  ARE YA BUD  ??? ???   THAT WILL BE ALL THAT BEER  CATCHING UP FROM LAST NIGHT MATE   ;D ;D ;D  ,,,,, WELL DONE TO EVERYONE ON THEIR FINDS ;D ;D :D :D

Nice report and Great pictures Neil.

hi all fantastic rally loads of fantastic finds came out weather was great ... i had a lovely hangover sunday what more could a man want cheers guys and gals ....p s neil it was me who found the florin and penny ring wait till you see the spoon i found in the first field will put photos on when all cleaned up cheers  ;)

Great report and pics Neil. I think the half hammered is broken rather than cut and looks like an Edward III Durham penny. The other Eddy hammered is an Edward II penny, Class 11a.

Hi Mike (crazy)

Im not going out now untill after the Weekend wanderers rally on Sept 20.

Me Des Ray and maybe Byron (vice chairman) are going to the beach or Down the vale, your very welcome to join us

all the best
phil

Great report Neil, can't wait to see Sunday's report and finds.

hi,to everybody, top class as usual geoff and neil. well done to mark on his half sovereign, kev on his three hammy s, great try adi. with two hammy beepy with his lovely denarius, digga with his nice silver ring and first roman,  and all the other nice finds, i think the best finds where the people that turned up,  they where the stars, i didn t get much dect done, due to that problem of talking, sorry on your loss phil, but great hammy, i m sure you ll bounce back your a great guy, thanks to melonhead des phil dad in law  and beepy, for helping me i was on a deep target, and was naffed, melonhead helped me dig it out it was packed stone all the way down they spent half a hour with me, the vac beat me on the day but i still say my three million fossil won the day he has a slight lead of 24-8 on me ::) ::), to the evening and hotel rob, chef in attendence  what a meal ,cooked by the mitchelon star rated gazza, fantastic, then the beer flowed, and jokes began , i have never seen so many cans drunk by so few,i wont name but kev adie two bros, gazza and phil the vac, ritchy, terry, and a few i cant remember oh neil he was drinking at 9-45am tut tut neil, what a great night , so much laughter, everybody a star, their was so many hangovers what a state i had to wake up to they where a picture, have i missed anybody oh yes rob taff laff, words cant express what a great guy he is, he is the find of the year as far as i am concerned, nothing to much trouble  regards john regards john

Thanks to everybody who took the time to make this another great DW rally. It was lovely to meet some new people including Geoff, Neil, Taff, Digga and Millsy. (Thanks for the Garrett Millsy, I had great fun with it on Sunday).
Biggest thanks go to my mate willow tree for all his help and for keeping a smile on my tired face all weekend. Well done to him also for finding his beautiful commemorative spoon, one of the best finds of the rally in my opinion. (Jammy Git). Get those pics up Chris.
I won't be putting pics up of my finds which included half a tea-spoon, bullets and bullet cases. shotgun cartridges, a beautifully preserved lager can, bits of lead, tin, foil and machinery parts because all you people who only managed to find coins would just be jealous.
I did find a lovely fossil while I was crawling under a gate though, which was nice. Well done to everyone else on their finds and see you all at the next rally. I can't wait.

Thanks to all for making a great couple of days out and even the met office for getting yesterdays forecast competely wrong! Stacks of signals but unfortunately vast majority were lead,cartridges and tiny buttons. Did however get a nice late 17th C buckle and a couple of engraved buttons. Nice to see all the good finds - must still be a lot more there considering the size of the fields and the number of signals even after 2 days searching.

rob aka crashland no probs mate come out for a bit of beach or field detecting sometime with your new machine bit of competition now eh mate  ;)

I enjoyed the two day detectingwales.com rally, as for the Saturday as i did find a nice beehive thimble a first for me as well,that was a great start to the day then withing 3 to 4 minutes and about 12 feet away found the short cross hammy, later on in another field found the 2nd hammy (lizzy),decided to come back to where i found the thimble and the short cross and went and found the 3rd hammy(lizzy) i was really pleased think Saturday was my best ever detecting ,i know luck is a lot to do with it ,so it was a lucky day for me .stayed the night camping shared a tent with MELONHEAD(mark) & and my good detecting m8 DIG IT(ade) got to say MELONHEAD looked after ADE and i thanks for that MELONHEAD M8 ;)went to the BBQ  that was a great night everyone brought food and drink,and boy didn't we drink ;) and would like to say GAZZA well done for doing the BBQ  for all of us who attended , it was like rogues gallery that night BORDERFOX,COLEGGWENT,NEIL,ADMIN(Geoff) GAZZA,RITCHY & his better half ;D ,DIG IT,TAFF,CASA-DOS,VIKING,SAXON,TERRY,and the two new guys sorry cant remember your names,and anyone else iv left out.we had a great time jokes were great and so funny,GAZZA & COLEGGWENT............ great jokes guys ;D those who never camped out and did not go to the BBQ you really did miss a brill evening,cant wait for the next BBQ  ;) ;D..............PS thanks ADMIN,NEIL,TAFF for another well organized rally . ;) ;D

my coins cleaned up. and the thimble ;)............

Well done kev on your 3 hammies lovely short cross mate  !  I will have you next time mate :D :D :D :DSeriously great time had by all .WELL DONE  ;)

Was a great location Rob, Neil and Geoff and thanks for the day out. Here are a few pics that I took.

The CO and his General Staff contemplate manoeuvres.  Quite what the pole growing out of your head is though Geoff. anyone's guess.

here are DIG IT'S finds from sunday,vicky sixpence,cut half, well done m8.we did keep each other going didn't we. ;) ;D

Has a great day out myself although I found nowt to shout about.  Thanks to the organisers and everyone who helped put this together.  Well done to those who made some nice finds. 

Once again another successful DW rally I enjoyed it so well done Rob, admin and everyone who contributed towards making it a pleasant experience.   :)  8)

some really nice finds there well done everyone

but that really dosnt look like a roman to me, it looks cast and the head and writing is all wrong, theres not enough letters around the edge

here are my finds from thr llantwit major rally hopefully rob will sort my pics out for me i will post a comment later telling you about the hope they were worth the wait   :)

...................and there's me thinking he found nothing!!

tafflaff has  been sent the pics he is going to resize them and post them for me coz i know nothing about computers   ???

I thought you were sending them to me??

Cheers all - another successful day and a great bunch of people - what more could we ask for! an edited report will be gracing Treasure Hunting magazine in the near future.

Neil

Looks like you all had a decent rally with interesting finds.

Well done to the organisers.

WOW !!!  some awesome finds there and sounds like it was great fun too.....would love to attend one of your rallies one day but i cant drive. Does any of your bus trips ever pass through Maesteg ? I bet i could learn more in one day with you guys and gals than i could in a month on my own  :) :) :)

HI Again Love Doc.  yeah its a shame  there isn't any members passing your way,  it sure would be a big experience for you these rallies mate,   and you'd sure  to learn a lot from them too,

Had another  good day down at the ole beach again yesterday,  may see you back there one day,
 Cheers now
 Alan