A few finds from France

[RestoringYourFinds]

Hello everybody,

I'm back to France for the summer and I have already been out a few times. Here is the result of some of my hunts :

A few buttons


A religious medal


A French Revolution button (end of 1792 to beginning of 1793)


A watch key


The "group picture" including a nice "denier tournois" from King Francois Ier (first half of 16th century). It is the little coin with the cross on it, at the bottom right. It is a billon coin.


Here are close ups of this little coin :


Another hunt result :

A 85th infantry regiment button (second half 19th century), unknown coin, Spanish coin from the 1850s, and a musket ball.


Pics from the place I was for this hunt :


And from my last hunt :
A roman coin from Emperor Claudius (1 August 10 BC – 13 October 54 AD), a nice "5 Centimes" from "Grand Duche du Luxembourg, 1870", 2 nice "double tournois" from King Louis XIII (27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643), a musket ball again, a 1 gram weight, another "denier tournois" from King Francois Ier, a flint arrowhead "draft", an unknown coin and a "double parisis" from King Philippe IV (April–June 1268 – 29 November 1314), a 15th(?)/16th/17th century and a 17th/18th century buckles.


Close ups for the double parisis (billon)


Pics from the place (vineyards) :


That's it for today ! I'm going again tomorrow.

 

[doninbrewster]

What a beautiful area you are in. Looks like you've been getting the time to go detect, but the photo attachments aren't working. I've had the same problems this week trying to upload photos and it seems others are having the same problem.

 

[RestoringYourFinds]

Thanks Don. When I edit then save, all photos are back on. Maybe refreshing the page would work too.

 

[RestoringYourFinds]

Ah, just noticed... "Invalid attachment". Will try later to put them back on.

 

[RestoringYourFinds]

Uploaded the pics back. You should be able to see them now.

 

[vpnavy]

Nice! Thanks for sharing...

 

[CRUSADER]

Nice finds, but unless you know something I don't about detecting in France, I think it a little unwise to post this. Fingers crossed the 'right' people are not watching.

 

[I-DIG-IT]

Nice digs.

 

[dirtlooter]

very nice

 

[RestoringYourFinds]

Nice finds, but unless you know something I don't about detecting in France, I think it a little unwise to post this. Fingers crossed the 'right' people are not watching.

Thanks Crusader. You are absolutely right about the fact it is getting harder and harder to go metal detecting in France. However, it is not yet banned or "officially" forbidden. I always ask for permission before I go metal detecting. On another hand, I belong to the French National Council for Metal Detecting and I would never do anything that would put metal detecting into jeopardy. Anyway, thanks for this reminder. It is a good thing that everybody remains "conscious" about their metal detecting practices.

Here in France, we are still fighting to keep metal detecting allowed and this fight seems to be a last stand ! We do not know yet the outcome but this could soon happen in any country, even those where people think the future of metal detecting is safe. Believe me, it is never safe nor are the rights to metal detect "acquired" for good. Still working on something similar to the Treasure Act in France but we are far from it, so far right now !

I do not know how much French you understand but if you understand French a little, look up the "Najac case" which is happening right now. Very VERY interesting story about metal detecting ! During a club hunt, an archeological artefact has been discovered. MDists called right away the police and archeological administration. They all came. Archeological services then went to meet the landowner and asked him permission to excavate the artefact. In the meantime, they also told him they were suing him (as the French Ministry of Culture was) for granting permission. The landowner simply said that, based on the situation, he was not granting them permission to dig anything from his field. He right away created an association with the purpose of getting the necessary funds to ask a private archeological association to excavate the artefact.

Barely one week later, archeological services wrote back... Both lawsuits were dropped and they are recognizing the artefact was found "by chance"... !! Law is still blurry. As of now, it is sometimes hard to tell whether you are MDing legally or not. As you would do anywhere, you have to follow the right path and give the right image of MDists. In France, it is not always enough...

 

[doninbrewster]

Those are great finds. It's amazing how you can find things from so many different centuries going back to Roman times. I'd love to detect there. It's a shame there is so much confusion and difficulties with the laws and metal detecting in France.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Awesome finds! Congrats

Guess it's just not in the USA that MD'ers are hated by the archeologists!
Wow that's quite a story! Good thing the land owner could stick up for himself, scary!

 

[Westfront]

Great finds there and a beautiful place to hunt! Take care!

 

[CRUSADER]

Thanks Crusader. You are absolutely right about the fact it is getting harder and harder to go metal detecting in France. However, it is not yet banned or "officially" forbidden. I always ask for permission before I go metal detecting. On another hand, I belong to the French National Council for Metal Detecting and I would never do anything that would put metal detecting into jeopardy. Anyway, thanks for this reminder. It is a good thing that everybody remains "conscious" about their metal detecting practices.

Here in France, we are still fighting to keep metal detecting allowed and this fight seems to be a last stand ! We do not know yet the outcome but this could soon happen in any country, even those where people think the future of metal detecting is safe. Believe me, it is never safe nor are the rights to metal detect "acquired" for good. Still working on something similar to the Treasure Act in France but we are far from it, so far right now !

I do not know how much French you understand but if you understand French a little, look up the "Najac case" which is happening right now. Very VERY interesting story about metal detecting ! During a club hunt, an archeological artefact has been discovered. MDists called right away the police and archeological administration. They all came. Archeological services then went to meet the landowner and asked him permission to excavate the artefact. In the meantime, they also told him they were suing him (as the French Ministry of Culture was) for granting permission. The landowner simply said that, based on the situation, he was not granting them permission to dig anything from his field. He right away created an association with the purpose of getting the necessary funds to ask a private archeological association to excavate the artefact.

Barely one week later, archeological services wrote back... Both lawsuits were dropped and they are recognizing the artefact was found "by chance"... !! Law is still blurry. As of now, it is sometimes hard to tell whether you are MDing legally or not. As you would do anywhere, you have to follow the right path and give the right image of MDists. In France, it is not always enough...

That sheds a little more light on it than I knew, interesting. I don't like grey areas, shame they can't make it black & white, maybe 1 day....