Detecting Wales Rally 87 - 'The Heat Is On'

[Neil]

Detecting Wales headed for our annual visit to a productive farm in the Vale of Glamorgan. I never realised until pointed out by Proconsol on the day that this was our sixth visit to this location in six years! It never ceases to amaze me that some farms just keep on giving with every turn of the plough.

Today the masses gathered in glorious sunshine with clear views across the channel to Weston and the surrounding area to hunt on over 100 acres of stubble that was fine in most places but a  little stubborn in others.

This farm has historically had a Roman hotspot about the size of half a tennis court and as soon as we started the day a few of our intrepid swingers headed off to its location. By the time I got there a good hour had passed and I discovered both The Doc and 16.55DD had uncovered coinage of the pasta eaters. The Doc had a particularly interesting coin as it portrayed the Roman christogram symbol of Chi Rho on the obverse.

The Chi Rho is formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters chi and rho (ΧΡ) of the Greek word "ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ" =Christ in such a way to produce the monogram. Widespread in ancient Christianity, it was the symbol used by the Roman emperor Constantine I as vexillum (named Labarum).

Shortly after viewing the Roman finds I bumped into Dave Hart who had found a ring literally sitting on the surface of the stubble. Quite difficult to guess the age as it was still largely caked in mud and had a little gilding from what I could see left on it, but my gut instinct was saying 1700;s – be interesting to see it clean Dave and to see if there was still a stone in the bezel.

Next was a yomp to the fields to the far left where I found Antique Boy and Morrows. They had each found a single coin of the silver variety, although one was a tad more exciting than the other. Antique Boy had a 1918 three pence in his had which he literally found as I arrived. Morrows on the other hand had a gigantic shilling of the Virgin Queen herself that he had uncovered in the middle of the field. A great find and a heft loss the equivalent of 12 pennies in the 1550’s – her indoors certainly wouldn’t have been happy with you losing that much money!

To top it all Morrows also found a Garrett probe shortly after which he honestly returned to me and I managed to reunite it with the grateful owner shortly after.

I headed back to the car for a gallon of water as the sun was taking its toll on me to find a few more finders with hammered coins. Some of this I may have under the wrong names so please correct me,  but I saw a penny of James II found by  XXXX,   A Edward penny by the ever jolly Dryland, an Irish issue penny ( I recall us finding the same coins on a previous visit to this farm) found by xxxx and another Edward found by xxxx

An interesting find was made by Mrs Wizard who demanded a prize for unearthing one of the DW Tokens from a token hunt a couple of years ago. It was in great condition and still had our sticker on it. Her prize of a half eaten sausage roll and half a bottle of water were not particularly wanted.

Couple of other interesting finds were floating round including the receiving end of a hooked fastener, a Civil Defence button and the usual bits and bobs, but no buckles of any note.

Due to technical difficulties and my two cameras passing away this month I was using the wife’s camera which decided to pack up on me. I did however get to see another two hammered coins, so if the finders could please add them it would be appreciated.

About 3.30 I headed home as I had a date lined up watching Sir Gareth of Bale hopefully taking us to places we had not been to since ’58. Unfortunately the Israelis had failed to read the script.

Keep the Faith

Neil

[Neil]

More photos

[Neil]

More photos

[wondering]

A lot of nice finds there guys, well searched and well found

George

[dingdong]

First and foremost I want to say a massive THANKYOU for all the effort that NEIL has put in with all the running around taking a vast pletherer of BRILLIANT photographs during what was obviously a great and very successful rally.
It is indeed very much appreciated not only by me,but for all of those who for one reason or other were unable to attend.
So,on behalf of us all,MANY, THANKS ONCE AGAIN..NEIL,and all of you that got the rally organised.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍

[handyman [Alan}]

Thanks again to the DW guys n gals for making it a lovely day out.

Mrs H managed to outdo me today .. like she always does on DW rallies!   i attach a piccy of an oval shaped  coin weight, of 1.2g.   It is 1 cm across at its widest point. I think its a coin weight of a quarter farthing, but i would welcome confirmation of this as i can't find another similar parallel.

Cheers everyone and congrats to all who found something.

[Dale]

Well done to all the finders some nice items was found

Dylan I hope you removed the hammie before going home to the wife

[Neil]

Cheers Ding Dong for the kind words - much appreciated.

Feel free to add any more finds to this thread guys.

Cheers
Neil

[Chef Geoff]

Thanks again to the DW guys n gals for making it a lovely day out.

Mrs H managed to outdo me today .. like she always does on DW rallies!   i attach a piccy of an oval shaped  coin weight, of 1.2g.   It is 1 cm across at its widest point. I think its a coin weight of a quarter farthing, but i would welcome confirmation of this as i can't find another similar parallel.

Cheers everyone and congrats to all who found something.

Alan do you mean "a quarter of a farthing" ie. a sixteenth of a penny and what era do you have in mind?

[handyman [Alan}]

Hi Geoff

i based the idea of the quarter of a farthing from the "coin" weight of 1.2g.   it may suggest victorian period, but somehow the style of the weight suggests an earlier period ..... .any ideas are welcome...


cheers

[Chef Geoff]

The thing is coin weights were practically wholly restricted to gold and silver coins as copper coins were worth what they said on them rather than what they contained (within reason), the weight is about right for a quarter Angel but it has what looks like a Phoenix on the one side so if a coin weight then it's either foreign or non official

[jayhay69]

my few finds from the rally shame the stubble was high on some of the fields but had a great day weather was TOOOO hot lol, had a laff thanks for good rally from NWDD, maybe see you on the next.

[probono]

I'm amazed at the finds - I only managed green waste myself - and I saw Doc dig up his roman.

[Dryland]

Thanks once again to DW for a cracking rally.Because I had the time of my life and I've never felt this way before, I swear it's the truth and I owe it all to you. There must be a song in this somewhere  I even came away with a hammy. I'm burned to a crisp with a white band on my head where my headphones had been. Dale I'm thinking of having the hammered permanently stuck on my forehead.

[mrstonytrees]

Had a great day out at the rally - it was boiling! I didn't find anything major but had a nice George IV penny dated 1829 and got very excited over a very corroded thick little coin that a lot thought may be a Roman but after much cleaning turned out to be a post decimal one pence piece! Well it was nice while it lasted

It was lovely meeting Val, Val's hubby and 2 tired little doggies, Clare, Mark and Willy - see you at the next one hopefully.

Cheers
Helena