DetectingWales.com

Detectingwales.com headed to the Vale of Glamorgan yesterday for a promising site slap bang in the middle of Roman and Medieval history. Unfortunately the day didn't quite turn out as we had hoped.

The day started with a Welsh verion of Wacky Races! Two days before the rally, the farmer had to change the rally venue to another one of his fields as the original one was not ready. The directions we had were a tad off and when we arrived at 8.20am - there were cars full of detectorists headed round in all directions. Mutley and I rounded them up and added more direction signs, so hopefully everyone found it in the end.

Anyway following a bit of confusion and a bit of shock at the height of the stubble, Rob managed to negotiate a much shorter stubble field (field B) just a few minutes from the original site.

After the introduction, must people headed off to field B. I decided to stay in the original field with about 10 other members. I hadn't even got my machine out of my car when a beaming Melonhead wandered up with a hammered coin in his hand. Well done mate.

I had a brief detect around the area where the cars had parked and firstly found a sixpence dated 1940, which I quickly followed a few steps later with a Vicky "Bun Head" threepence (or Joey as Chef likes to call them! ::))dated 1875.

Heading across the field I found Mark who had a giant of a bronze pot leg in his hand. Everyone else I spoke to seemed to have found plenty of coppers, muset balls, buckles, thimbles etc, but nothing of any real age.

Shortly after Benny, Norman the Sheepdog and his good lady happened upon me puzzling over a small box I had found that rattled and seemed very familiar. Benny quickly pointed out thats a tape measure mate! And feeling a little stupid into the rubbish pocket it went!

Before I left the field I found another sixpence 1938 this time. I was having a great milled silver day. I have found nearly more milled and hammered silver this year, than the past two years combined! I have a theory on the reason why which I'll post in a later thread.



Rob and I popped off to see the farmer and secured another rally date with him on hopefully more productive fields. More news on that to follow.

On our return I focussed on field B and found nothing of interest except a sizeable piece of flint, which Debbie had also found a piece of. As we know flint is not local to this area and as Debbie said "We are touching something that was probably last touched by Neolithic man" It makes you stop and think for a moment!

Passingclod happened upon us with a lovely George III shilling, that he was rightfully pleased with.

I had a chat with No Hammies in the field - a really nice guy who is quite new to detecting but looks like he is really enjoying himself. Amongst his finds he had a Victorian name badge with the name Annie on it. He was pleasantly suprised when I pointed out it was silver and showed him the hallmarks. We'll date it for you in a mo mate.

Back near the cars Tom Tom had done pretty well with a broken Roman fibula and a hammered groat that had taken a pasting off the plough, ripping it in half. He searched in vain for the other half, but it was not to be found.

Just as I was heading off Rollingstone had found a Roman that is a tad grotty and adds to the other two that had come up earlier in the day. Photos anyone?

I also know that Alan found a lovely silver buckle ring (sorry for the earlier confusion again Al). There was also another hammered doing the rounds I never got to see, photo please.

Well it wasn't our most successful day out, but I think most people enjoyed themselves going by the amount of conversations going on everywhere. Thats the main thing I love about Detectingwales rallies is the friendships that you see being made.

Time to watch the mighty Bluebirds spank the Hammers for me now. Someone I know is flying a "We are for ever being bubbled!" flag in the Cardiff end in protest to the ludicrous Police policy of "Bubbling" Cardiff fans. Look out forit! It happens to no other team on the scale we face it and is completely unjustified and potentially a breach of human rights. But thats a whole other story - Rant over! Enjoy the game guys.

Until next time
Neil

More

Again

Again

More

 Arrr that's ok Neil,   you were gone by the time i came down with the Ring,

West Ham looked more like cooked ham by the time the boys finnished with them  ha ha

 good ole Marshall too,

http://youtu.be/GbjqBi_VwbA (http://youtu.be/GbjqBi_VwbA)

Hi All,
I stuck it out all day in the first fields with the long stubble and was rewarded with my first hammered of the season. I thought that it was a Lizzie sixpence but it is in  such a bad state thay I could not be sure but when I examined it at home I realised it is in fact a James 1st sixpence. the date is 1603 and when I examined the reverse it was obvious that it is a Scottish shield not an English one , it is such a shame that it is in such poor condition as James coins don't come up that often.
I enjoyed my day out as it is a while since I managed a DW rally and it was great to meet up with some old faces but by 3 oclock the long stubble had me beaten.

                                               Pat. ;) ;)

Great day out as usual guys - thank you  :). Icing on the cake was my cwtch with DW Casanova Raymondoooooo   8)

Well Done Pat - I think that brings it to four hammereds on the day.

Any chance of a photo or you can e-mail it to me if you like to post up?

Thanks for the Portable Antiquites Report as well - loads of finds I recognise in it. Some from current and former DW members. Very much appreciated mate.

Cheers
Neil

yes really enjoyed thanks

enjoyed myself at yesterdays ralley as always.not alot myself just a modern 2p to come home with.. but hey there.ll be plenty more in the next coming weeks lets all look forward to them. and shake yesterdays off.lol..welldone to the little couple who did find.also great to talk to a few newbies.
heres 2 pictures i took at the ralley.
cheers all.
raymondo.

forgot the second one.lol.

found nothing to note , mainly as i couldnt remember how to set up my f75(thanks to seasider for the set up help ). but enjoyed the day none the less ,looking forward to the next.

Hi Neil,

Glad the report was okay, Rob took some pictures yesterday so I don't know if he can post them for me but as I said in my report it is in very poor condition and because the reverse was readable I was able to identify it as I thought in the field it was a Lizzie sixpence. If you can't get the pictures from Rob let me know and I will take some myself.
             Cheers,

                                    Pat. ;) ;)

Thanks for another fun day out  :)

I didn't have a great day for finds unfortunately, but late in the afternoon did manage a small piece of flint, a coin weight which is not very photogenic, and this nice buckle, which dates 1620-1680.

Well I s'pose I'd better add my 2p worth.  ;D
We enjoyed the race around, great fun. :o  Found you all in the end though.
It was great to finally get to one of the Rallies. My thanks to WelshJohn and Jon 1987 for putting up with me.
Lovelly to see so many people in person that I have 'spoken'  to on-line and my apologies, again, to PeterH for not recognising him. :-[
The weather was mainly kind to us and I set to with great expectations. I wasn't lucky enough to find anything of great interest, this time, but have added my little bit of supposed pewter spoon just to boost the numbers.
Thanks to all involved in organising the day and to Neil for another good report.

Val

 Nice to speak to you as well Val,  and your freinds from Pembroke,   and quite a few other nice people i had the pleasure of meeting, all nice people

Al.

Of course we are nice Alan. Though at least one of us is a bit thick. ::) lol

There weren't 4 rings. There were only 3 and the one I saw was yours and you showed it to me, in a little tobbaco tin with an awkward lid. Looks like I've got to apologise AGAIN. I didn't realise that was you. It was the Vicci 3d that gave you away. I remembered it was in the tin with the ring.

Ah well, you have to make allowances for age. Lovelly to meet you. ;D

Val

p.s.I can't find that makers mark either. Is it unusual to have the anchor and the lion ??

  HI Val,  no its not unusual for them to be together, its the usual sign of the Birmingham Mark,
 Iv'e just come off the bus,  i guy on there thought he's sure its me in the artical in the August Searcher, and showed me his copy,  ha ha,.    i had to sign it for him then lol,

 may see you at another rally one day Val
 All the best for now
 Alan

Will I have to curtsy. ;D

Val

No wonder the general population think we're all a bunch of anoraks, one detectorist wanting the autograph of another now that's just sad. ;D

Val the lion is or was (pre 99) on all sterling silver hallmarks regardless of city.

any body got a date for that silver brooch with annie on it. just for curiosity!!!

Most name brooches (sweetheart) are referred to as Victorian but if you have a better pic of the hallmarks it could be dated to an actual year.

will do that then chef thanks

Also found this its made of lead i have put it next to a 2 pence piece, also found on sat any body got any ideas? Asked Taff laff but he wasn't sure??

Oh no not another one ;D here we go again. :-\

funny that taff said the same thing so you have no idea??   ;D

i got 1 on saturday as well tafflaff took a photo of it , mine was all scrunchedup though but with longer legs/ arms / thingys   ;D ;D on it

did he have a clue what it was. i've looked on net found nothing like it? don't even no what to call it.!

No I don't I'm afraid, these things come up quite regularly from all over Britain so whatever they were used for or a bi-product from must of been relatively common. I'm surprised that none are recorded on the Finds database but this could be because the FLO's are running scared on this one ;D
There are many theories a lot of which I'm sure will follow in no time but most, when scrutinised all fail for one reason or another.

such things turn up often on here so he said no one seems to know what they are / where / want to be , will ask him to put up picture of it

its from the game jacks before they went plastic

very interesting thou chef, someone some where must no what it is surely?

is its lead  might be off the mold from musket ball

I found one of those years and years ago - still got it in the kitchen - definitely a jack ! lol

Had a lovely day and thank you to Wayne who brought the sarnies, they were lovely.

Found two buttons.   Would have loved the Field A to have been like field B!.   Couldnt cope with the height of the straw with my huge coil.

Shattered though, as walking on the soft earth - just not used to that !!

Thanks to all for organising it and look forward to the next one.

H

An enjoyable day out.

I had a few old pennies and a thimble. I collect thimbles so it was a nice consolation price.  :)

Like Chef said, I don't think there is a definitive answer on these.

 'Jacks' are a possibility and some think they are waste from casting musket balls. I was told a few years ago by someone very knowledgeable that they were the lead core used to add weight to a wooden ball used in a game like boules, but I've not seen any actual evidence of this either.

Oh that's right Peter didn't Neil put up a post about them being weights for the inside of balls?
I think the idea of them being casting sprues for musket balls has been basically written of as the mould would of needed to be far to complex and the Jacks game was for children, the idea being to pick up as many as you could before the ball lands. The children would have needed to have hands the size of shovels to pick up more than one or two of these :D

Look what you've started No Hammies! ;D ;D ;D

My understanding from an old Searcher edition is that they were weighted pieces of lead that were encassed in small wooden balls - similar to Petanque or Boules. How this was made I have no idea.

Not sure if this is right, but I do know for certain that when I find one, I tend to find a few of them - got about ten to date with varying arms attached to them.

Its an item of mystery and caused almost as much banter on here as the infamous "Stair Rod Holder Debate of 2009"!

I write off the musket ball theory as to date I have never seen one with a musket ball attached and it would be a waste of lead to make. The other option I have heard of is as a blunderbus projectile - it would certainly do a fair bit of damage if it hit you or your steed at speed!

Nice find - love to know for sure what they are though.


Neil

heres a similar one i found a while back.allways wondered what it was  ???

sorry neil lol but great explanation?

a rally find, not sure what it is, brittania on one side, bust facing left and i can make out the word "shire" RUNNING DOWN RIGHT of the bust....any ideas????

Looks like it says "Warwickshire"

Here ya go jassy. Just to give you an idea

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WARWICKSHIRE-1791-HALFPENNY-TOKEN-NICE-RARE-COIN-/180706629500?pt=UK_Coins_Tokens_RL&hash=item2a12f4577c#ht_1076wt_922 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WARWICKSHIRE-1791-HALFPENNY-TOKEN-NICE-RARE-COIN-/180706629500?pt=UK_Coins_Tokens_RL&hash=item2a12f4577c#ht_1076wt_922)

That's interesting Jan - a Warwickshire Halfpenny Token, with bust of Shakespeara and Copia, goddess of plenty, on the reverse.

Like this:

http://www.coinsandstamps.com/foreigncoins/Condor%20Tokens/13%20Warwickshire/bct485.htm (http://www.coinsandstamps.com/foreigncoins/Condor%20Tokens/13%20Warwickshire/bct485.htm)

The man is an enigma - How he does it no one knows! :o

Well Done Peter - superb ID mate

Neil

Lol I I'd it aswell  :'( lol

Very true you were first Jon and a big well done for doing so. I was still trying to find "Shire" ;D 8)

thank you peter!! chuffed about that, another one for my collection i havent got!! yay!!

here it is chef

Nice one Jon - sorry I stole your thunder  ;)

thank you Jon, only now seen your reply!!!! cheers matey!

Nice one Al
It's from the Chester assay office and the maker was Edward Durban & Co, Frederick Street, Birmingham. in 1896.

topman cheffy thanks

Definately looks like a piece from the 'Jacks' game, Romans played this too, I wonder if it could be that old?