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

 

[pgill]

Welcome back Prof. Glad to see you had a great time over the pond. I would love to do a trip like that... I think England is the most historical country in the world.
Hope and pray that you get to keep your stuff.

God bless
Peter

 

[CRUSADER]

I guess that's one thing I don't understand about coins from across the pond. It is one of only 50 known to exist and it is only worth $1000 max. Just weird to me. I also don't understand why the museums wouldn't want the coin if it is one of only 50 known. Guess I'm just too "Americanized" to get my head around it.

Daryl

The British Museum doen't even have 1 of each kind of British 17th century Token. They were classically trained & brought up loads of Greek & Roman Coins before our own. Its something that still goes on today. Some collections are more the whims of the people running it rather than what is in our best interest.

Your right, I believe most UK antiquities are undervalued both in £££ & history. Although Saxon stuff being so rare & artistically amazing normally gets a fair price.

People used to invest in Unique/Very Rare Gold Celtic coins several years ago. They were making £3000-£4000 or more. But with so many being found by metal detectorist the supply has rocketed & their coins are now worth £800. Therefore no-one will invest in a rare Celtic as more are going to be found.

 

[Kas]

More boring gold from Bioprofessor.

Just kidding of course.

Nice finds. Hope you get it all back. I'd of stuck that gold coin in my pocket for good luck on the way home.

Ken

 

[CRUSADER]

More boring gold from Bioprofessor.

Just kidding of course.

Nice finds. Hope you get it all back. I'd of stuck that gold coin in my pocket for good luck on the way home.

Ken

British Museum can't care less about a 100 plus year old gold coin. Now in future he has the paperwork to sell any of his items at a premium.

 

[BioProfessor]

Didn't get a chance. The guy that runs the tour took the coin. He said it is illegal to have gold in your possession in the field. Don't know if he was kidding or not but we found 2 that day and he took both of them.

He's a funny guy so he may have been trying to "get our goat" by taking our gold.

Daryl

 

[staydetuned]

Hi Daryl, and CRUSADER...

I just found the info on the Celtic silver; it's CCI 06.0523. More information (a short writeup from the guy Chris sent it to) can be found on the coin (and on the Saxon pieces as well) on another Colchester link: http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/numbers/2007newsarch.htm Scroll about 1/5 of the way down.

Yeah, Chris was fairly excited about the coin (not as much as the Saxon pieces though), but it didn't seem like it was something the museums would want to keep. As I was new to all the England finds, all I could do was guess based on Chris' reactions. Like I said, the Saxon got him going. When he got the silver home he did the old spit and foil clean on it, so it must not be too impressive a find

Crusader, thanks for all of the additional information and education, it is appreciated.

Yes, I've wondered what kind of value or market there might be for that little silver coin. My dad was telling me about a coin shop in Vegas he stopped by as some Roman coins had caught his attention. He brought up Celtic gold and the owner, who appeared knowledgable, said they were hard to find, that he really wanted some. But the things do seem to be popping up all over, at least in the Colchester hunts. (' Course, I didn't get one... I want one BAAAD...)

Really looking forawrd to getting back out there...

Daryl - Yeah, Chris always likes to take the good stuff if he finds it on you in the field. You always get it back, though you tend to feel like a tool just doing the digging for him : ) And I'm sure he was joking... His sense of humor is hard to pin down at times. Did you get a bottle of scotch for the farmer? We went to the farmer's house where I got mine with a bottle of fine scotch and a big thank you (as he is officially entitled to half of its value; usually a show of good will will suffice...)

 

[savant365]

Hi Daryl, great post. Looks like you had a great vacation, good luck on getting to keep your finds but if one should end up in a museum that would be pretty neat too. My daughter and I love seeing our find in our college on display.



http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,102913.msg752006.html#msg752006

Charlie

 

[BioProfessor]

Chris has now worked out a "Pay for gold" with the farmers. I paid Mary 20 Pounds for my gold coin. The price goes up with the rareness of the gold. I didn't mind it at all. Hey I would have stuffed my pockets with 20 pound notes if I thought it would help.

Chris gave us our coins back after he photographed them. He just said not to keep them by the sink. They may grow legs.

As far as Chris doing the spit an foil clean up, that is surprisingly not a bad thing. Hey the coin has been up and down in the soil with each plowing. A little cleaning "ain't gonna hurt it none."

Daryl

 

[CRUSADER]

I spit on most of my stuff. Works well.

 

[BioProfessor]

Bad habit there mate. Tends to tick off friends and family.

 

[CRUSADER]

Hi Daryl, and CRUSADER...

I just found the info on the Celtic silver; it's CCI 06.0523. More information (a short writeup from the guy Chris sent it to) can be found on the coin (and on the Saxon pieces as well) on another Colchester link: http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/numbers/2007newsarch.htm Scroll about 1/5 of the way down.

Yeah, Chris was fairly excited about the coin (not as much as the Saxon pieces though), but it didn't seem like it was something the museums would want to keep. As I was new to all the England finds, all I could do was guess based on Chris' reactions. Like I said, the Saxon got him going. When he got the silver home he did the old spit and foil clean on it, so it must not be too impressive a find

Crusader, thanks for all of the additional information and education, it is appreciated.

Yes, I've wondered what kind of value or market there might be for that little silver coin. My dad was telling me about a coin shop in Vegas he stopped by as some Roman coins had caught his attention. He brought up Celtic gold and the owner, who appeared knowledgable, said they were hard to find, that he really wanted some. But the things do seem to be popping up all over, at least in the Colchester hunts. (' Course, I didn't get one... I want one BAAAD...)

Really looking forawrd to getting back out there...

Daryl - Yeah, Chris always likes to take the good stuff if he finds it on you in the field. You always get it back, though you tend to feel like a tool just doing the digging for him : ) And I'm sure he was joking... His sense of humor is hard to pin down at times. Did you get a bottle of scotch for the farmer? We went to the farmer's house where I got mine with a bottle of fine scotch and a big thank you (as he is officially entitled to half of its value; usually a show of good will will suffice...)

In my 2005 coin book its valued at £375($750) in VF. Yours isn't in VA or BMC but is in Spinks 2005. The one I found (Tasciovanus) - was the 7th recorded & its yet to be published. No gold yet.

REALLY NICE FIND - HOLD ON TO IT, IT WILL TAKE SOME BEATING


He probably got excited about the Saxon stuff (which is our rarest of periods, I have hardly any), as it may lead to rarer saxon stuff being found, like Sceats etc.

 

[staydetuned]

Yeah, he gets pretty pumped for any Saxon coinage, understandably... Some of his guys have found some good stuff...

BTW, it's gotta be nice to trot on over to your local field and dig coins and doodads thousands of years old... :P

 

[BioProfessor]

But when you get home after 2 weeks of that kind of hunting, it is REALLY HARD to go to a tot lot.

Daryl

 

[DJ_Quinn]

Glad you had such a succesfull hunt Daryl. I'm curious about the top pic, the Irish button, or is that the front of a bell? It looks like a military button from an Irish regiment

 

[BioProfessor]

It was a BLAST. Damn near killed me but it was great. It is a button. I'm not up on buttons but it could very well be a military button as one of the sites we had access to had served for many years as a prisoner of war camp. That's all I know. Sorry I can't be of more help but the buttons I found there (hundreds of them - most holed or slick) were the first ones I've found. Maybe there is a person here who has a book or has more info than me.

Daryl

 

[DJ_Quinn]

I'm in Ireland Daryl and I've seen similar buttons. i'll try to get a an ID for you, but I do know it's for an Irish regiment, probably mid 1800's. That's a great haul, the fields are always the best places to detect. I have a few fields eyed to hunt after their plowed this fall. they were army camps, and I found some relics last year, musket balls mostly. I'm not trying to suggest that you skirt the law, but ebay members send relics and Roman coins all the time from the UK to the States via parcel post.

 

[BioProfessor]

Yeah, I know a lot of people sort of ignore/skirt the law. I agree with the law and wish we had something in the US that would help is preserve/catalog some of the stuff we find. Maybe not give the government first crack at stuff or "impound" it until you get a license to sell/send out of the country but just a database of photographs and locations of finds. Not only would it help preserve what we have but it could really help ID stuff.

Before I could go on the trip, I had to agree to follow the Treasure Guidelines. It's an inconvenience but all-in-all a good system.

Thanks for the offer to help with an ID. I can use all the help I can get.

Daryl

 

[Kas]

Daryl, Did you bring your detector home, or sell it again?

 

[BioProfessor]

Brought it home. Dang it. But this trip I only took one.

Daryl

 

[piggman1]

Glad to see you posted the finds you were telling me about. They are some really AWSOME relics! Can't wait to see all you get back. Again, welcome home, it's good to have you back.