Today heralded the arrival of our tenth Detectingwales.com Rally! An amazing amount when you consider we have only been going for less than a year. To celebrate it we probably had our worst day of finds ever! Who am I kidding? No one![
] Its was our greatest rally to date!The day started bright and early in Llantwit on a farm kindly donated by 1MoreCoin - Thanks Steve it was really appreciated mate! Only about 25 members and 2 dogs made it and we are all treated to another day of glorious sunshine in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The fields consisted of stubble and we had another site a short drive away if people wanted to go. I never made it there so I have no idea how everyone got on there, as I also managed to leave my phone at home.
After a quick intro by Geoff we were off. The first finds of note came in the form of a really tiny hammie, a Edwardian Sixpence, a Vicky Joey and a little silver ball from a babys rattle - all I believe courtesy of Crashland - I think.
Next I bumped into Collegwent who was busy sweeping up the finds in his usual manner, having found a little cross, a medieval buckle
{of which I was highly jealous} and to top it off a hammered coin of Charles. He also had a bronze Roman pin with him that had seen better days - still a nice find though.
The finds were coming in thick and fast now with TaffLaff having amassed 12 coins in one small area including 3 silver sixpences.
Mike - a newish member of DW had found a 1697 love token that for once was in good condition. He was well chuffed with it as his oldest coin to date and rightfully so!
Benny who had travelled all the way down from Hereford with his good lady, and Norman the Dog had a small hammered as well. Nice to speak to you again mate - hope you hada safe journey home.
Casa Dos managed to find a spindle whorl, a cracking button and a nice buckle with its pin still intact - which he commented was a first for him - well done Kev.
Byron found a pair of badges using Robs machine - one belonging to the British Legion and the other a very odd item - we speculated over it being police or fire service - no idea either of us really!
Jeff Stock had a curious hamster that the verdict is out on for the moment - looked like a Johnny Foreigner - but who knows - we could make out a Roman numerals VI - a fleur de lys and other bits of regalia - nice coin all the same and I am sure he will be able to figure it out.
Another chap had another strange coin as well that looks gilded - not sure what it is.
1MoreCoin was rewarded for providing the land for the rally with a lovely little lead seal matrix. I think it will clean up nice - if you need some proper seal wax Steve I have some at home you can use! It will be interesting to see what the legend reads.
A couple of more hammies and a Roman sestertious appeared from various sources - I forget everyone who had one, but I think the total for the day ended up as 8 or 9
That was it for the day, we all packed up to go home!
What am I talking about I have left out the most important part of the day! After about 1pm the farmer decided to help out by discing the field in various directions, scattering us all over the place. Not long after this I saw Admin jogging up the field - {well walking quickly} shouting to me
"Axe head!" What - an axe head? I quickly dug my own signal out and in my hand I had a huge lump of bronze - verdicts out on what it is. Anyway back to the axe head. I followed Geoff to a part of the field where a few people had gathered to find a very happy Steven King
{the Bronze Age Axe finding person and not the writer of Kujo I hasten to add! You must be getting bored of these puns by now!} 
In Stevens hand was a Bronze Age palstave looped axe head in absolute pristeen condition after 3000 years in the soil. After much congratulating and back slapping, we decided to widen the hole a little, actually a Hell of a lot and what do you know we found a nother one! With the help of TaffLaff [who is at his happiest digging in a hole] we quickly produced another axe head - slightly different design and considerably larger. What a find! The hole then got bigger and bigger as we were all dreaming of a major axe hoard, but alas it was not to be. All of this was recorded for posterity by Mark, aka Melonhead and will be coming to a Detectingwales.com website near you very soon! Thanks for recording it Mark.
A cracking pair of Bronze Age axe heads - a days detecting does not get much better than this! Steven also had a Bronze Age gouge at our last rally - its becoming a bit of a theme for him. Congratulations mate - really pleased for you!
I headed home at about 5 pm with hammies still coming out of the ground. Rob had one as I was on my way to the car, and he just rang me and said Gadget also had one. I realised TaffLaff had found a hamster when
I saw him running around the field t-shirt over his head and his belly blowing in the wind! Well done mate - your best hammie to date - looks like an Edy - couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
A great day out and a very apt way to celebrate our tenth rally. Well done everyone on the finds. Theres more rallies planned in the near future, so keep logging in and we'll let you know as soon as they are confirmed.
Get comfy because here come the photos.
Cheers
Neil
