A case of the 'right place, right time'!

[herbie]

Was out detecting some new land today, when the farmer approached me about a friend of his who has been excavating a trench for a new water pipe and had come across a pit with a huge cut stone over the top of it. To my delight he asked if I would go with him and swing the detector over it, needless to say I jumped at the chance, would have been rude not to . Rendezvous time was set for 14.00hrs, I was early , So off we went to the mystery site, got there the stone had been removed from the pit so I started swinging , unfortunately nothing in the pit, but he then asked if I'd detect the trench he'd dug, well what can I say, within about 10 mins I'd pulled 12 roman coins out , the farmers were amazed and very pleased, there was also lots of pottery (samian ware) and tessera lying around as well.
So am going to go round and have a chat with the farmer and fingers crossed I might have some very interesting new land!!
Here are 3 of the bronzes that I've cleaned up a bit.
Herbie

[Mike]

what a result very well done there mate

[nfl]

nice resulf,the field in question defo needs some quality tectin time

[Jassy]

sounds fabulous!! good luck with future visits there, be interesting to see what comes up!!

[dances with badgers]

wow herbie what a result lol

[JRD]

Lucky thing. Nice one fella, great result.

[rjm]

Well done, Herbie.


I hope all the digging didn't 'drain' you! 

[waltonbasinman]

Don,t want to know all the circumstances of your find Herbie but nice find any way. I do feel this will be classed as a hoard. Though not gold or silver I think the number of coins is the factor  and with tesserae and pottery apparantly much in evidence the ammount of anonymous viewers of this website you have to do the right thing and report this. You just do not know who is looking in. Chef will be more up to date on these things and would hopefully give you a better idea.

[wayne]

cracking result,wish i was with you.

[herbie]

Don,t want to know all the circumstances of your find Herbie but nice find any way. I do feel this will be classed as a hoard. Though not gold or silver I think the number of coins is the factor  and with tesserae and pottery apparantly much in evidence the ammount of anonymous viewers of this website you have to do the right thing and report this. You just do not know who is looking in. Chef will be more up to date on these things and would hopefully give you a better idea.

Hi Arnie
The farmer is getting in touch with the local archeologists, he is keeping all the finds, I have just offered to clean and help with ID and recording, he wanted to make sure before he contacted anyone that it was a possible Roman site. If I do get any land off to detect it probably won't be that area in particular, so will have to wait and see.

[Mungo]

well done Herbie..........

[waltonbasinman]

Good man Herbie. Some excellent coins sir.

[tyna]

Oh Herbie - I do hope you haven't been taken for granted and all turns out well  
One good turn deserves another eh  
Still - was exciting for you while it lasted.
Really hope all will be as it should be for you after all your efforts.
 

[Chef Geoff]

Excellent bit of luck with the site Herbie which Just goes to show if you do it all above board with your farmers then you can only win and well done to your skill in finding the coins. Those 3 all appear to be Constantine, are the rest from the house of Constantine era? that is going to be one of the deciding factor on whether it might be regarded as a hoard.
The ones you have posted "appear" to be official coinage and this is another factor, are there any barbarous issues amongst them?
The simple fact of having that many coins is not going to be considered a hoard although that's what it says in the treasure act. There are 4 sites over here that we detect, each of which have produced far more coins from a small area and none of these have been recorded as a hoard.
Had that many coins come up and consisted of 1st. 2nd or even 3rd century pre tetrarchy, that would be more likely to be a hoard, but this period is rich in coinage as funding is being pumped into Britain to "secure" it's allegiance with Building etc.
However if they appear to all be official coinage then they could be the "good stuff" that's been stashed away. If it is a bronze hoard then you have the job of not only finding the main spot but also finding the silver one that goes with it as 90% of bronze hoards will have a silver counterpart somewhere in the area.

[herbie]

Thanks everyone, to be honest I'm excited to be possibly involved in something really interesting, as far finds are concerned with regard this particular site i'm happy to help out and record, and its lots of 'brownie points' with both farmers
Herbie