Swinging in the UK

[BioProfessor]

Well I'm back from a 2 week MD tour in the UK. Damn near killed me. We were in plowed fields for about 10 hours a day for 14 days straight. It was beep/dig/beep/dig all day long. We were hunting around Colchester, Essex UK which is the oldest town in England. It has been occupied since Roman times. Cool place to hunt.

Interesting fact about hunting the fields there is that you find more gold than pull tabs. Sounds good but there are more buttons in the fields than we have pull tabs. Just trading one for the other. They think they used to plow old clothes into the soil to help condition it. Some of the buttons are nice ones but most are just common 4 hole ones or slick pewter ones. It is tough digging a 10" hole to get a 4 hole button 50 times a day.

Here is a sample of what I was able to find. Since you can't bring anything back with you, I only have some photos of some of the stuff. Hopefully I can eventually get all of it sent to me but the museums have to grant an export license. So here is a sample of things from "across the pond." The "best" find may be the small Domino. Dominoes were not known to exist in the UK until the mid 1800's. This one seems to be much older. If it is an older one, it could get interesting.

Hope you find the items interesting.

Daryl

 

[mastereagle22]

Wow. I hope they send you back your stuff. For them most of what you found is "new" anyway. To me that is some awesome treasure you found.

 

[BioProfessor]

No. I went with COLCHESTER TREASURE HUNTING HOLIDAYS IN ENGLAND

Twinned with Midwest Historical Research Society USA.

Watch for my PM.

Daryl

 

[CRUSADER]

Larger roman coin Septimus Severus or commodus, smaller one Constantine I.

That Saxon/Viking Cheek piece terminal could also be the end of a strap distributor. Still used on the horses. I've never had one (V. rare).

Looks like you had a good 2 weeks, well done.

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Ahhh, you found that Gold Sovereign! I was wondering who the lucky dog was that found it, saw it on the website along with a few of your other finds. Chris is a great guy and has done an awesome job with setting up the dream detectors holiday, he provides everything but good %$^*, LOL! I did that tour in 2004, it was great then, better now and I would do it again when I get the time. I really enjoyed the culture and was submersed in it. Which house did you stay at? By the way, the Colchester area dates to something like 1500 BC, the Romans were the half way point. A friend pulled an Axe head from a field dating to 1200 BC when I was there. HH, Mike

 

[BioProfessor]

I'll do it again if I can find the money. Next time though, I think I will do one week, tour around for a week, and do another week. 2 weeks in a row was too much.

I stayed at Lorna's house. Really nice and the food was really good.

Daryl

 

[birdman]

High adventure with amazing finds .You can't get any better then that. Good food to.

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Hey Daryl, Lorna is a sweet lady, we had dinner at her place one night, was the fish and chips night, very good I might add! I'll bet you warmed your butt beside the fireplace in the evenings. I'll PM you when I get the chance, would enjoy chatting about the tour, I will never forget it, wish I had taken more pictures though. Just curious, what does the tour cost now in BSP? I think I paid 650 BSP in 2004. HH, Mike

 

[BioProfessor]

It was interesting. The first few days, it was dinner then right to bed. As we all got into the "swing" of things, we made it longer than 10 minutes past the meal. The second week, we were able to sit and chat by the fire for a little bit. Usually, by the time we cleaned our finds it was time to hit the sack. 9pm was about as late as we every made it. Price now is about 850 pounds. Not cheap but worth it. Chris does everything first rate. As good as it gets.

Daryl

 

[oddcoins]

WOW ~ sounds like a great time!! NICE FINDS!!! WTG!!!!

 

[davesx]

Hi daryl
Glad you had a great time, I knew you would do well.
Your finds are awesome.
well done.
Looking forward to seeing more of your pictures,

Dave.

 

[Colonial KirkPA]

That sucks you can't keep them. At least Mr. Normandi allows you to get your coins back after the process. I would be , if I couldn't keep those Romans and gold coin.

 

[BioProfessor]

You will most likely get them but they have to be covered by an export license. Surprisingly, the county coroner is in charge of granting the license. The guy that runs the tour does it all for you. All the finds have to be photographed and identified. They are then presented to the coroner's office. The museums get a chance to examine the request and if they want something, they get it. If they keep it, they pay you the appraised price for it. If they don't want anything, the export license is granted and they get shipped to you. It's really not a bad thing. If fact, I think it is a really good thing. They create a database of identified finds that is really useful when you are trying to identify other finds.

I don't know how long the process takes but I am pretty sure I will get to keep all of it except for maybe the rare Roman coin and the domino.

Daryl

 

[Ed-NH]

Excellent finds, I hear England is a great place to hunt. Good luck with your export I hope all works out well for you. It would be great to have a few of those pieces in possession

 

[dgaughan]

wow thanks for sharing about your trip i hope you get to keep it congrats and hh

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

BioProfessor,

very nice group of finds.

Nothing like a week to relax in the
U.K.

have a good un......
SHERMANVILLE

 

[ukeden]

looks like u had a good time over here i did a gogle for COLCHESTER TREASURE HUNTING HOLIDAYS IN ENGLAND i see your button irish army 4th row down


http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/sept2007finds.htm

 

[BioProfessor]

Keep scrolling down. I took all the images from the page. That's all I have access to. You can see what others in the group of 6 were finding as well.

Daryl

 

[ukeden]

i might just go on one ot these trips looks like it would be a great way to learn thanks for posting

 

[BioProfessor]

Go for it. Go on the same one I did. It is by far the best.

You WILL learn. You can't swing your detector 10 hours a day for 7 days straight, dig hundreds of holes, and see all kinds of weird stuff without learning something. And hey, no pull tabs, screw tops, or aluminum slaw.

You won't regret it.

Daryl