πŸ† HONORABLE MENTION Found large ancient Greek coin, returned to Owner same day

Sir Gala Clad

Bronze Member
Jul 9, 2012
1,330
511
πŸ† Honorable Mentions:
1
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
.Found large ancient Greek coin while detecting in waist deep water parallel to shore.:wav:
I could tell by the mellow multivariable tone on the Excalibur II 1000 that the target was an alloy with possibly some gold as it was lower in pitch than pure copper or sliver but higher than gold. From its clean sharp yet mellow tone I suspected that it might be a large medallion. As the sand was soft, I carefully pinpointed the target while in the discrimination mode and positioned myself and timed it so that the incoming current would push the target into the scoop while retrieving. The glint from gold around the dark mustard yellow coin (most likely bronze) was heart stopping.

While searching for the chain, I learned from a search team that it had been lost the day before by a school teacher, who showed it to all of his students to inspire them. This coin was especially important to him as it had been given to him by his mother who had recently passed away.
I had the lifeguard who personally was taught by that teacher and who had seen the coin medallion many times call the teacher to pick it up.

I know I should feel great for doing the right thing ::award_star_gold_1:but I felt absolutely awful retuning:unhappysmiley:. It is amazing on how quickly you can become attached to an item of antiquity once you hold it in your hands. I wish all of you could touch it, but that is not possible. It is about the size of a silver dollar and is dark mustard in color. There is a bust of Caesar on the front and a horse which has sprung into the air on the rear. It is worn, but you can still read the markings. I do not know enough about history as why they refer to it as a Greek Coin (maybe Greece was part of the Roman Empire at that time).

I was emailed copies of the coin, which I requested, by members of the search team as I did not have a camera. I will post them later to this thread as soon as I figure out how.

Pictures are posted in later thread " Pictures of Ancient Greek or Roman Coin"
Any information on ruler, date of coin, orgin would be highly appreciated.:icon_scratch:
 

Last edited by a moderator:

U.K. Brian

Bronze Member
Oct 11, 2005
1,629
153
Detector(s) used
XLT, Whites D.F., Treasure Baron, Deepstar, Goldquest, Beachscan, T.D.I., Sovereign, 2x Nautilus, various Arado's, Ixcus Diver, Altek Quadtone, T2, Beach Hunter I.D, GS 5 pulse, Searchman 2 ,V3i
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I suggest you run a masterclass on identifying alloys and medallions for the good of all Excaliber/Sovereign owners.
 

birdman

Gold Member
Jan 28, 2005
7,458
2,393
Choctaw Beach Florida
πŸ₯‡ Banner finds
1
πŸ† Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Equinox 800 and ORX, tesoro Cibola with garret,whites and minelab pinpointers
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Fantastic thing you did. Well worth being able to sleep at night vs knowing who the owner was and keeping it. :headbang:
 

OP
OP
S

Sir Gala Clad

Bronze Member
Jul 9, 2012
1,330
511
πŸ† Honorable Mentions:
1
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I suggest you run a masterclass on identifying alloys and medallions for the good of all Excaliber/Sovereign owners.[/QUOTE]

I will leave that to you and other more capable detectorists than myself Brian.:notworthy:

Somedays, I am able to clearly hear and indentify with the multivariable tones of the Excalibur on the beach I hunt.
other days I am not even on the same section of the beach. This was one of the days, I got it right.
Ulnlike where you hunt, it is rare to find old coins where I hunt.
I just wanted to share the excitement of that one day, I got it right - nothing else.

I did not mention for brevity, but identification of targets is a process.
When I have sufficient time, and do not have to worry about competition, I sweep the coil over areas where there is a high probability of targets at a faster sweep speed usually walking South to North parallel to the beach with the Excalibur set at maximum discrimination, minimum sensitivity, medium to comfortable volume to detect shallow coins that are highly conductive such as copper, copper clad, and silver as the blaring return from these coins when shallow hurts my ears. If I get a lot of targests or the discriminator nulls as it cannot lock on the target I will slow down. I later return, especially where I have found heavy old targets with the volume set as as loud as my hearing will endure (I use wet sponges in the head set to baffle the return) and slowly sweep the area with the coil with minimum discrimination, maximum sensitivity usually in a tight West to East Pattern (perpendicular to the beach) as long as there are targets. If I have found deep targets I go back over the area parallel to the beach in the pin point metal mode (no discrimination) for maximum depth. If there still are targets I will switch to a tight diagonal search pattern and return with the opposite diagonal pattern.

If I find an old coin/heavy object between the high and low tide areas while using a loose W search pattern, I will slowly spiral out so that the angle of the search coil is always changing to find the target line.

I do carry coins and alloys with me so that I know what they sound like when targets are shallow on dry or wet sand
by dropping them close to the target for comparison. Of course the sound will differ with depth and difference in the ground matrix.


I have only used the Sovereign once, which has a wider tonal range, as it constantly rains where I detect.

As a rule of thumb, I dig if it beeps.
when targets are few or deep I dig if it chirps, changes tone, or does anything other than null when sweeping the coil from different directions.
This concludes my input to the master course, you suggested
 

Last edited:

borntohunt460

Sr. Member
Jul 30, 2013
253
416
πŸ₯‡ Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro, Tesoro Silver uMax
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
and why exactly was this teacher playing around with an ancient Grecian coin in the water? Sounds to me like he was trying to lose it lol
 

OP
OP
S

Sir Gala Clad

Bronze Member
Jul 9, 2012
1,330
511
πŸ† Honorable Mentions:
1
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
and why exactly was this teacher playing around with an ancient Grecian coin in the water? Sounds to me like he was trying to lose it lol
The life guard, who was one of his students, said that the teacher wore it everywhere and never was without it.
 

Sand Gnat

Full Member
Jul 25, 2012
239
115
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II 1000, Tesoro Sand Shark, Garrett A/T Pro, Garrett Pro Pointer, Stealth Classic
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Good job Sir Gala Clad!
 

Captain PopTop

Sr. Member
May 3, 2012
435
265
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II & Garret. AT PRO
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Great Job on the return !
 

SusanMN

Silver Member
Jun 1, 2007
4,534
4,098
Minnesota
Detector(s) used
Tiger Shark, Xterra 705, Makro Legend
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You did the right thing. Had you kept it you would always be thinking of the person who lost it, and feeling guilty.
 

Les West Central Fl

Bronze Member
Jun 14, 2009
2,334
1,305
Bradenton, Fl
πŸ† Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
Aquasound, Excal 2, Excal (NY), Infinium
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Some people return and some don't. I believe you did the right thing by returning an heirloom back to it's owner. I congratulate you on your honesty!
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top