DetectingWales.com

here's a lovely story,

http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/01/10/boy-finds-cache-greek-roman-coins/21562515/ (http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/01/10/boy-finds-cache-greek-roman-coins/21562515/)

Interesting - as you say it's a nice story.

I was going to get a bit 'well it doesn't prove the romans were in America', but it gives a reasonable explanation of why they might be there - and it was nice to (eventually at the bottom of the page) see them.

Anyway,,,, when I was at university I started collecting ancient coins - cheap ones that need cleaning and I used to clean them using blu-tack (amongst other things). I remember going to play pinball and stuck one of these coins on the side of the pinball machine, but then forgot about it.....

Quite a few months later, one of the fellows told me that the gardener had found a roman coin in the college grounds and that it had re-written the history of Oxford - they'd taken it up to the Ashmolean and had it identified and photographed and they had paid a reward to the finder......they were even going to publish it in the college Record.

I said to them that I thought it was mine, and described the coin I thought it was - of course it was the coin that I had lost - I was able to tell them all the pertinent details whilst they looked at the photo.

The moral of the story is that finding something - like a roman coin on 20 foot of medieval rubble doesn't always tell you anything (although a recent find, not by me, of a hammered coin in Pontypool park probably got there in topsoil, as the person who delivered the topsoil knew where it came from).

Anyway, I don't know where that coin is anymore - they wanted me to pay the college back for the finder's reward (about 20 times what I had paid for the coin).....it was a Ae4 of Gratian, Lyon mint

Jammy little........ now now Dylan, theres no need to be jealous. Funnily enough  I was thinking the other night  about finding things out of context and how one find can alter the history of a place.
                                                                           A couple of years ago I found a couple of pieces of flint on a farm in Colchester, If I
intentionally buried those pieces of flint or even dropped them accidentaly, on land anywhere in Wales and they were found years later, How much would that alter the history of that place. [ not that I would }
                                                                                    As Roland says it only took one coin. Did you reimburse them after Roland ??

Ah, now that's something I do find round here Dylan.  In fact I've come to the conclusion that the population in the Pre History period was higher than it is now.

Lovely story Alan. So nice to hear about a youngster taking an interest in history, especially in the U.S.A.

Val

I was sceptical at first but after hearing that Dylan had found a Roman I guess anything's possible ;D

Ah maybe you'll believe in the 'anything' if I find one Geoff. ::)

Val

Don't push it Val I'm not that gullible  :D

 ;D ;D ;D

 ;D ;D Thanks Geoff

At the time I was unemployed - if I'd been working I'd have probably paid them, although 20 years after the event, I still feel that their teaching wasn't what it should have been - and has cost me many thousands in lost opportunities (although my own inaction has a bearing on the matter too).

I have donated some money to the college since (they were on a whip-round), so it's been more than made up in the mean-time.

We have a 'winner' in this reply from Geoff..................... :)

Who says we are not gullible Geoff..Got mates that tell me that no detectorists have ever been on this site and most cases if the finds are anything to go by ,man never reached there either lol
As for people reaching areas that was thought impossible to reach at that time.Just give a thought that South American plants have been found in Egyptian Royal tombs..

Yes but Rob , those Egyptians would smoke anything :D

lol ;D

Still laughing lol ;D