🥇 BANNER A Saxon Site - Day 6 - But started on 4 new fields - VERY RARE GALBA !!!

CRUSADER · Oct 19, 2015

Yesterday Land-Mag kindly took me out for a 2 hour scout of 4 new fields (never tried). Our research had 1 of the 4 fields as a possible Roman Site. We called this field the No.1 Site, as it was the first we tried & I found a No.1 Shooting position Peg. There was quite a bit of Roman Pottery but no metal finds. :icon_scratch:

We moved next door & found another site covered in pottery but I only had 1 Roman Coin. Finished the 2 hours with picture 1 (1 coin, 1 button, 1 thimble).
Cru'Dad & I returned this morning & after 40 minutes crossed off another of the fields with Cru'Dads Will III love token being the only find.
We then tried the biggest field & we soon realised this was a bust. So in desperation I jumped the ditch back into the No.1 field & was going to give it one last try before we left for Lunch. I was guided to this area, because of the curving ditch, & within 40 paces I got a Roman Silver (Sept Sev). 'Great' I thought, saved the day. Cru'Dad & I then gridded this area & before you know it, another silver popped up but this time we could tell it was special. :thumbsup:

Only 1 other scrappy came out before we left for lunch.
We then moved to the Saxon Site & did another 2 hours with 2 hammered! (5 hour total day)

Livery Button
Medieval Lead Button
Barrel Tap Key
1 Scrappy yesterday & 1 today
Jetton
2 Roman Iron Lock pieces + a nail
17th-18th C Leather Mount
Tudor Book Clasp
Small bit of Medieval Annular Brooch
Tudor Clothes Fastener - St John
Will III Sixpence - Love Token
Charles I Halfgroat 1634-35
Henry III Cut Farthing
Sept Sev Denarius
Very Rare (R2 rated with 15 known at time of publish) Denarius of Galba AD68, minted in Tarraco, modern day Tarragona in Spain. For travelling that far its in specimen condition. :icon_thumright:

This is my best coin find this year! :headbang:

UPDATE:
(Dads research)
Galba’s first “Imp” coins started early Apr 68 during his joining the revolt against Nero and he came fully to power after Nero’s suicide on 9 Jun 68. However, he only lasted to15 Jan 69 when he was assassinated. So his coins with IMP were only minted for 9 months (not a couple of years) with your type being the first in a non-roman style due to using a Spanish regional mint with no portraiture available. These came later when the Rome mint crafted and used his features on coins minted after his acceptance as Emperor by the Senate

FURTHER UPDATE:
British Museum response:This is a rare coin. We have 53 denarii of Galba recorded on the PAS database but none of that type. We have two similar specimens in the BM collection.

Dr.Tones · Nov 6, 2015

Super finds!

Rick (Nova Scotia) · Dec 17, 2015

Bill D. (VA) said:
What a great day for silver Cru, especially the Roman. And I don't recall seeing you dig a cut coin like the one shown above. I'm sure I may have missed some, but the point is that the practice of cutting coins seems to be much more prevalent in the colonies than in the Mother Country, although ours are "modern" pistareens and yours are medieval hammereds.

They surely did do it in England, and long before spanish coins were in the americas.

In fact that is where the word farthing came from, the cutting up, or "forthing" of a penny. I just came across that tidbit while looking up the recently posted irish farthing. They produced the first farthings about 1280 to stop the cutting of pennies, and the resulting uneven weighted coins that process made.