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Here's our latest newsletter story submitted by Mike K after his first trip to metal detect in the UK.
Digging in England:
Ten times the fun, Ten times the History!
by GeoDiggerMike
Most serious metal detectorists have a “bucket list” of places we’d like to hunt before we retire to the great digging fields in the sky. One such place was checked off mine this past November…
Turn back the clock four years to the fall of 2007: a unique opportunity presented itself to my digging buddy Sal, by a gentleman from Colchester, England, (an outfitter for metal detecting tours in southeast England who specifically caters to an American and Canadian clientele). He had heard about Sal and his now famous “Hatcam” and invited him over for a week-long detecting trip to film some finds being made as they happen and post the video online for all to see. Well, Sal jumped at the opportunity, and the rest as we say is history.
Since 2007, I have wanted to make the trip over to England with Sal, but whether it be work- or family-related, I could not find a way to get over to England to hunt with Sal… That is until November 2010!
It was on November 12th 2010, that I boarded a plane with full complement of detecting gear, bound for a foreign land, to search for TREASURE (and YES, I will use the word “Treasure” here!) for one full week. I joined five other eager detectorists for the hunt. We met at a car rental shop near Heathrow International Airport on the morning of the 13th, loaded up in a 12 man passenger van, and made our way to Colchester, England (about 1.5 northeast of London). The plan was to arrive in Colchester around noon, stop by the outfitter’s home, check in with him, get shovels, drop off luggage at the barn house, and then proceed immediately to the first hunt site. I liked the idea that we would be hunting so soon upon arrival, and hunting for a good seven to eight hours at that.
The first site was a nice piece of high ground, just a stone’s throw from an early Medieval Abbey. The six of us could not get out of the van and into the field fast enough. We all rushed into the field looking for a spot to hunt. Eventually everyone settled down in spots in the field and finds were being made in less than 30 minutes. At last my dream of digging in England was coming true.
Sal had told me a good goal to set was finding one hammered coin a day, and if you could match that, then that was considered a good hunt. With that in mind, I set out to at least attain that goal. About an hour into the hunt, and with few small targets in my pouch, I got a nice reading on my detector. I dug three or four inches into mucky wet soil to expose a cut piece of something silver. I called Sal to come over and look at the silver. To my excitement Sal revealed I had just dug my first piece of hammered silver (“Hammies,” as they’re called). I was ecstatic! It turned out that the cut coin was a 13th century hammered penny (1280 – 1286, Alexander III, 2nd coinage, Class 1).
Already, one hour into my first hunt in England, I had a coin in my pouch that outdated my oldest coin to date by 500 years. Simply amazing! The rest of the day would pass by much too quickly for me and the other hunters. We ended the day with four nice hammered coins as well as many other nice finds.
Day two started off bright and early on a new site we picked out for the morning hunt. With a choice of over 300 sites to pick from, it would have been a daunting task to decide which field to go to first, but with Sal’s experience and attention research of which sites had produced good finds earlier in the season and in the past, we decided on a field. Almost immediately, good finds were surfacing: a milled silver coin; a 1700’s copper coin; a Roman bronze coin; a lead token; a Russian bale seal. The finds were coming fast and furious. As the morning wore on, we all had some really nice finds in our pouch. At lunch, we made the decision to stay at there for the rest of the day, and I am especially glad we did.
Not long after lunch, Roman bronze coins were popping out of the ground, but I hadn’t found one yet. As I scanned the field, I saw Canada Ron digging a target and then proceeding to clean it, so off I went to see what he had just recovered. Low and behold, another large Roman bronze coin! I congratulated him, went back toward my detector about 100 yards off. Ron said feel free to come over here to find one of those Roman bronzes, for yourself. So I took him up on his offer. I decided to detect on the way over to Ron’s Roman bronze “honey hole”. Twenty yards or so on my trek to Ron, I get a nice clean (round) signal. One of those, “ya gotta dig me”, signals. Well, four inches down into the compacted loamy soil, pops out what appeared to be a nice silver button, but no shank or remnant could be found. The round silver disk had a slight convex shape to it, so coin was the last thing on my mind, since I knew coins were flat and not convex. The details were really good, but I could not decipher exactly what was on the disk. As luck would have it, a local friend of the Outfitter was out in the field hunting with us for a few hours, and who better to show this silver disk to then a local who knows more about this stuff then us Yanks. I called “Hey Mark come see this find. I need an ID on it!” As he approached I said “Mark, tell me this is Roman!” more jokingly than anything else. As I plopped the find into his hand, I could see his eyes get large and a look of “Holy $#@!!!” He said “No, it’s not Roman” to my dismay. Next he said, “It’s better than Roman, it’s Celtic and Celtic Silver at that”! I knew I had something special just by the look on Mark’s face and the sheer excitement in his voice. My oldest find just went from 1280 AD to 1st century BC, an entire 1300 years earlier. WOW - just amazing! Later that night, we would find out that this coin is much rarer than Celtic gold and that the ruler, who ruled the Celts in this area, had his or her initials on the coin “AGR”, whom very little is known of to date. Further investigation would reveal that only 5 specimens of this exact coin exist and that several are in museums throughout England. Truly a treasure, no doubt! After a find like this, my week long hunt was already a big success and only 1.5 days into the hunt. I was just cruisin’ from this point on. Little did I know more great finds were in store for me in the days to come.
As DAY TWO ended and all finds were added up, a nice pile of Roman bronzes were found, several milled silver coins and three or four medieval hammered coins, not to mention, tons of buttons and medieval relics. A good day, indeed by all.
DAY THREE would have us visiting a newly leased site, which only saw one group of hunters on the site prior to our arrival. The site was known to have given up an ancient gold necklace last year, to an elderly gentleman. So, the prospect of finding another piece of ancient gold was exciting for us all. After meeting the landowner and getting a feel for the lay of the land, off we went. Most of the group stuck together, doing a systematic site investigation looking for any metal targets in the ground to basically identify a home site, or gathering place and to determine its age. Well, after an hour of little more than a flat button, rivet and a milled silver coin found by Ron, I was ready to make my way to greener pastures. As I talked to Sal about our need to push on, he said let’s give it 15 more minutes. “Remember that ancient gold find!” That was all he had to say. Again, off I went swinging the coil faster than usual, looking for the signs of some occupation. Bam! All of a sudden, a screamer of a signal pops up. Now I was pumped. Down I dug eight inches into the mucky loamy soil, to see a large piece of copper/brass with jagged edges. I called Sal over to ID my find and to my dismay, found out it was World War II anti-aircraft shrapnel. Although an interesting find, that is not what I had hoped for. Back to detecting we went. Two more signals and two more pieces of shrapnel for me it was time to move elsewhere. As I turned to head off in another direction, I got another signal but this one being much smaller than the previous ones. So down I dug into the mucky ground, flipped the clod out and right on the top of the clod was a silver round coin-like object staring back at me. My first thought was a 1700’s era one piece button. I picked it out of the clod, and could see full details of a man’s face in profile view. It had a certain “Roman” look to it, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. Again I called Sal & Craig over for an ID. Sal turned on the “Hatcam” and made his way towards me from about 60 yards away. In the mean time, I plopped the coin into Craig’s hand, and by the look on his face I knew I had found something good. He said, “congrats Mike, you have yourself a Roman silver coin”. Talk about a jaw dropper! This was one of my big goals I set for myself to find on this hunt. So two and a half days into a week-long hunt, and I’ve already got a Celtic silver coin from the 1st century BC, and now a Roman Silver coin from the 1st century AD. WOW, it can’t possibly get better! Again, the day would end with me making a few nice finds to include a hammered Dutch coin from 1485, as well as a 15th century full groat and other hammered coins being found by others in our group.
The morning of day four, had us visiting a new site, which had given up some nice medieval finds for Sal’s team in the past. Upon arrival, we noticed that one part of the field was covered in crop, and made detecting next to impossible. This was where the bulk of the finds came from last year for Sal’s team. Much of the property was still available to detect, so off we went in search of ancient treasure. A few hours in, we had one medieval hammered silver coin and a few odds and ends to show for our efforts. Thankful for the hammered coin, we decided to move on and spend the rest of the day after lunch, at the site where the Celtic silver coin and several Roman bronzes came from earlier in the week. So we ate, loaded up our gear and made the short drive to this site.
Having spent a day on the site already, we all had our spots in the field we wanted to re-visit since targets were still popping out of the ground when we ended the hunt two days earlier. I made my way to a spot that was giving up medieval era relics and coins and Ron, Craig and Sal went back to their Roman bronze coin find spots. It didn’t take long before a few more Roman bronzes appeared, as well as a nice Queen Elizabeth 16th Century hammered silver coin, a King Charles I hammered silver coin, and a few 1700’s-1800’s copper coins. As the day wore on and night time fell, we all found ourselves stretched out over the 100’s of acres of fields. An occasional flicker of a headlamp was all that one could see to let you know you were not the only one out there on this vast expanse of farm land. It was dark, cold and lonely for hours at a time, but knowing that that next signal could be a “stonker” of a find kept us going. The nine O’clock hour was quickly approaching and I made a point to find Sal and a few others to see what was being found and to get ready for the hike back to the van. After locating Sal, we talked a bit, ate a quick snack to re-charge the batteries, and decided to walk a spot we had some luck earlier in the day and on the previous day. Minutes before I walked up Sal had found another Roman bronze and hammered silver coin nearby. We had about 30 minutes left before it was time to leave. We both lined up a few paces apart and walked a line toward the tree line at the opposing end of the field. About 100 yds down, we both had several targets in our pouch. I made the decision to do an about face to trek back the direction I had just come from after pacing off one coils sweep length to my left. I slowly (only way I know how to hunt) made by way down this row knowing this would be it for the night. Sal soon caught up with me and was on line with me just 10 paces to my right. We both made a few more recoveries in the next few minutes, 9PM just being five minutes or so away. I knew that if I were to make a good find for the day, it would have to be in the next flip of the shovel. Well, as luck would have it, a shotgun shell reared its ugly head about 3 minutes til 9PM. I thought this can’t be my last signal of the day and hollered at Sal and said “One more target!” He said okay, let’s do it. So off I swung and not more than 10 feet in front of the last target, I get a nice sweet round signal. I said, “Sal I got a nice signal and this’ll be it for me for the night”. He nodded and went back to swinging his coil. A quick cut and flip of the plug removed the target from the hole. I knelt down, took out my pinpointer and started poking around in the clod until the target was found. I grabbed for the target with a fistful of mucky soil, in tow. After not so careful removal of the muck, I could see what appeared to be a gold plated button, as several had been dug by me earlier that day and night. So haphazardly, I swiped my gloved finger over the disk to reveal a chunky, hefty, semi-circular, golden colored disk. I knew at this point, this WAS NOT a button. Maybe just maybe, I have something special here. At that point, the headphones went flying, as did the pinpointer. I jumped up to a prone position and yelled out, “Sal, come take a look!! I think I might have gold!!” I think he knew by the sound of my voice that I wasn’t BS’ing him (as I sometimes have in past hunts, although unintentionally). He flipped on his “Hatcam” and made his way over to see what it was I had just dug. As he approached, I cleaned the bulk of the caked on dirt from the golden disk with some water from my water bottle. As the water washed the golden disk clean, I could see a horse standing proudly, revealing his statuesque equine posture for the first time in two millennia. It was then and there that I realized I had just found my first gold coin in almost 30 years of metal detecting. At that point, my feelings and emotions took over, and to be honest, I couldn’t tell ya what I did or said after that point for a good five or ten minutes. I was in auto-pilot! I just know it was a feeling I had never felt before. It literally brought tears to my eyes. Unless you have experienced finding a gold coin, you can’t begin to imagine the feelings that went through me at that moment, once I knew I had just uncovered a 2000 year old gold coin. I still get chills just thinking about it. To share that moment with my close detecting buddies made it even more special. If it weren’t for a combined group effort, none of my finds would have been possible. Thanks, Sal’s Hard Core team 2010.
Lucky for me, Sal was there to capture that special moment on film. This hunt will forever leave an indelible mark in my memory, as I’m sure it will for the five hard core hunters that were there with me on this hunt.
The next two days would reveal many more ancient, medieval and modern finds for the group. I would keep my streak of one hammered coin a day or better intact, and managed a few nice military buttons along the way, as well, which is one on my passions in this hobby. It was a hunt I will never forget!
So to close, I’ll just say this… If you are as passionate about this great hobby and the history behind the finds, as I am, you really need to consider making a detecting trip to England. There is nothing like it in this hobby that quite compares. Why don’t you find out for yourself? Give Sal a shout at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
; he’ll make your dream become a reality. Cheers, brotha!!
Below are pics with descriptions of Mike's great finds.
Gold Celtic coin:
1stC BC Uninscribed 'L' 'Waddon Chase type' Celtic gold full stater - sent to CCI for recording
5,86g, 1.6mm
'These coins are probably not very much earlier than the Addedomaros staters - it all depends really on when one dates the Addedomaros issue. It seems fairly certain that the Whaddon Chase staters could be from the later stages of the Gallic War, say about 54 BC at the earliest; they could be a little bit later, but are unlikely to be after say 40 BC at the very latest.'
Dr Philip de Jersey
Silver Celtic Coin:
South Eastern Celtic silver unit of Amminus circa 1stC - sent to CCI for recording
1.33g,1.5mm
Adminius was probably the eldest son of Cunobelin, who was given the administration of Cantium by his father c.AD30. Inscribed coinage has been found throughout the canton, bearing the name AMM INVS, and a mint mark DVN, probably indicating an administrative centre at Durovernon
Dvrovernvm Cantiacorvm (Canterbury, Kent)
Native pre-Roman settlement on the Stour in East Kent, later cantonal capital served by a port three miles down the Stour at Fordwich. Amminus (Adminius) minted coin bearing a mint-mark of DVN, which is thought to be an abbreviation of Durovernon, with the implication that he had a mint here.
Contemporary Roman silver forgery - 1.99g, 17mm
A"fourree" of a Tiberius denarius of the so-called "Tribute Penny" type. The forgeries from this era generally were the result of a higher level of more specialized work than are the contemporary copies of other eras. Beginning in the Republican era and up through at least the end of the 2nd century, these copies were created with copper cores with a heavy silver-foil wrapping soldered to the copper surface by the use of a eutectic flux layer and heating pre-strike. In the 3rd century, the lower fineness of "silver" led to copying by surface enrichiment techniques - then, when the Roman Empire itself had to resort to these same surface enrichment techniques, you tend to find the copies which make no effort to appear as anything but bronze or copper. -M. Lehman
Here is just one of Mike's many pages contained in his export filing paperwork.
1. 138-161AD Dupondius of Faustina II, wife of Marcus Aurelius bronze coin
2. 1475 Dutch -Karel de Stoute -hammered silver DOUBLE STUIVER>>
3. 1883 Victoria milled silver 3 pence>>
4.15thC lead token>>
5.17thC William and Mary copper penny>>
6. 1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny - Cross 3>>
7. South Eastern Celtic silver unit of Amminus circa 1stC - sent to CCI for recording>>
1.33g,1.5mm>>
8. 1stC BC Uninscribed 'L' 'Waddon Chase type' Celtic gold full stater - sent to CCI for recording 5,86g, 1.6mm >>
9. Roman silver "fourree" of a Tiberius denarius of the so-called "Tribute Penny" type>>
10. 1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny - Cross 3>>
11. 1817 George III milled silver sixpence>>
12. 1633-4 Charles 1st hammered silver penny- Portcullis mint mark>>
13. 1280 - 1286 Alexander III 2nd coinage Class 1>>
14. Georgian silver thimble>>
15. 1867 Repub. Peruana Lima 9 D Fino Y.B" and a crest milled silver coin >>
16. 16thC Elizabeth 1st hammered silver sixpence fragment.>>
17. 1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny - Cross 3>>
18. 1670's Charles II milled silver penny>>
19. Medieval spur rowel>>
WHAT A HUNT THAT BOY HAD. Way to go Mikey! - slim
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