The Squirting cucumber cache or Lots and lots of crusty coins!

[yaxthri]

Hi fellow TNeters.
Today is the first day of my Summer vacation. I decided to rise early and take a walk on the seashore cliffs at my hometown in Attica, Greece.
As I may have written before there was a huge devastating wildfire last year so almost all of the coastal vegetation, trees, shrubs, bushes were burnt to the ground, it's a real sad sight, everything black and charred.
There's one ''positive'' aspect to this sad story though, lots of relics and trash got washed out during last Winter and are now waiting for someone to find them. I have been finding coins from time to time, really crusty ones, that have been lying under the bushes for some time before the fire came and baked them black.
Today after finding a couple of coins I sat down where I was at that moment and I took a better look around.
There were lots of broken glass, bottles, old porcelain fuses lying around and at one particular spot, under a squirting cucumber bush*, I started finding one coin after the other. I got my pocketknife out and started digging in the burnt earth, not deep, about an inch or so and found even more coins.
Some time later the sun got higher and I decided to leave, I will go back tomorrow I think and definitely after the next rain...
My ''haul'', 101 crusty (or very crusty) coins, 2 very damaged ones, 2 telephone tokens and 4 more coins that I found in the vicinity, not part of the ''cache''.





The square handle could be associated, the coins were surrounded by parts of rusted metal (maybe the remains of a box?), the cross like thingy was there, too, I have no idea what this is...
I have them now immersed in olive oil, I'll leave them soack in it over night before trying to clean them a little in the morning.
A couple ones I checked have dates from 1909 to 1969, I'm still hoping some coins -I'm betting my money on the really small ones- will be silver or some of them could be old and rare ones, who knows?...
I'm very excited, even if this turns out to just be a kids coin collection that was thrown out during some renovation work and not my first semi-dug cache I thought (all my finds are surface/eyeball finds), but I'll keep posting fresh info and pics as I start cleaning them up.
Wish me luck and happy hunting to you all!



*A ''squirting cucmber'' or ''bitter cucumber'' is a wild poisonous but fun plant (Ecballium elaterium) that grows wild in these parts of the world, google it up if you like...

[TomW244]

My goodness, what a cache! Please keep us updated once you know more about the coin dates and types!

[huntsman53]

Awesome haul and I bet there are many more coins and other finds! I hope no one was hurt or worse in the wildfires!

[GaRebel1861]

Hopefully, there’s some good ones in the pile that you found. You may want to consider building yourself a sifter and see what else might turn up from that same area. Good luck!

[Blak bart]

Wow....that's incredible !! Awsome find, congrats !!

[Professor of Engineering]

Great job, keep up the good work!

[cudamark]

You need to get yourself a metal detector!

[washingtonian]

Cool stuff! Excited to hear what it all turns out to be.

[marion moore]

Please don't leave us hanging. Thanks for posting.

[RVRoamer66]

A awesome discovery you have found. Like to hear and see more as you continue. Thanks for sharing.

[islamoradamark]

HOT spot for sure

[Reanm8er]

Fabulous yaxthri, nice haul!

If not a detector then get yourself a good pinpointer like the Garrett Carrot! The cross
could be a holiday ornament, maybe silver!

Poisonous but fun?

Many happy returns!

[BillA]

it used to be that detectors were illegal in Greece, done that
don't know about today's laws

nice find

[xcopperstax]

Congrats on the coins. I feel like ancient Greek coins must be all over the place. I have also heard metal detectors were illegal there, but it might be as simple as you can't metal detect on public land. Permissions may be the way to get around that.

[BillA]

Congrats on the coins. I feel like ancient Greek coins must be all over the place. I have also heard metal detectors were illegal there, but it might be as simple as you can't metal detect on public land. Permissions may be the way to get around that.

took me 3 days to clear customs, and I had a ton of documentation and references (who appeared !)
do not mess with Cultural Patrimony, you will not win

yes, there are artifacts all over (cannot imagine Tom-from-CA living there)

edit: for the benefit of those who may not be familiar with foreign countries (wrt the US), most countries have defined cultural patrimony laws protecting sites and (some ?) artifacts (Swiss Collectors provide the bogus documentation). Invariably prior cultures/civilizations are protected, the exception in some cases being colonial remnants. The US is quite different due to the definition of property and a general lack of respect for those who we displaced. There is no such thing as a "permission" to violate cultural patrimony laws.