12th Sept 2004 Freaky weather - need some rain now !! more finds posted

The first hunt of the season has now finished, brilliant fun and the boys did extremely well considering the problems with the late cropping this year and the limited ploughed land available. No axe hoard for Mass Bruce this time but some nice bits and pieces turned up. Cal Shawn had the best hunt so we dubbed him 'Obi-wan' one as he learned a lot from the master Arkansas 'Yoda' Gary and sucked up some great finds ! The dry weather continues which is now hampering them ploughing !!

Mass Linda was presented on the last day with the 'little people detectorist' trophy pictured above for all her hard work in researching the history of the land and producing some great maps. Hopefully they will help lead us to the 'big one'

9th Sept 2004 Cal Shawn does the double rings !! Hunt page updated with a few more finds

(c)

Some great finds today including Cal Shawn's double ring finds, a nice 1819 - 18 carat gold signet ring this morning and a possible Roman bronze finger ring this afternoon. Another great find was this Roman mount.

(y)

Thanks to the UncleanedAncientCoins forum guys for provisionally ID'ing the earlier Roman coin find,

'I believe it is a majorina of Constantius II struck during the revolt of Poemenius at Trier circa 353'

8th Sept More finds updated - more to come

Any ideas on this coin found yesterday??

	(y)
Looks like a Roman but never seen a reverse like it, any idea Roman buffs ? please drop me a mail

8th Sept 2004 Ploughing is going slowly - posted a few more finds on the hunt page

The really late harvest has really messed us up and only a few more ploughed fields have come on line. We are usually spoilt by now with 80 or so ploughed and rolled fields, stubble sucks big time and only one guy has been brave enough to venture onto it. However the weather has been amazing with cloudless skies so we are all getting a good tan !.

Because of this years and last years freak weather patterns I have decided to move the start of next season forward one week so we will now commence on the 10th Sept just in case the same happens again.

6th Sept 2004 Great finds and more land

Some great finds turning up including what looks like part of a Bronze age axe and a Saxon 9thC cruciform brooch. Cal Shawn was getting skunked all morning then within 15 minutes before lunch got a full Edward III 1351 hammered silver groat and nearby a James 1st 1604 hammered silver sixpence within minutes of each other. Amazing how those last few swings of a session can make the difference between a crap morning and a great one !! Mass Bruce also did the double hammered one of which looks to be a rare Mary 1500's hammered silver penny and the other an early short cross silver hammered 1/4 penny.

Still not got around to posting any more of the finds yet as we just got permission to hunt got a new site today that is a 9thC manor house, mentioned in the Doomsday book . We hit it this afternoon and dug huge numbers of coppers from the 1600's but nothing very old yet although Texas Gary got an exceptionally nice 16thC decorated sword hanger. The land around it is about to be ploughed so it should hopefully produce some early finds during the season.

4th Sept 2004 Field still sucks !!

Tried a field this morning that sucked big time last season but esearch showed it had the potential to produce some tasty Celtic gold finds. It still sucks this season as well ! However Mass Bruce managed to find an early 1300's silver hammered farthing to save the morning. This afternoon Ark Gary picked another field that also pretty well sucked too but he still kept up his daily silver tally with a rough old Roman silver denarius and Cal Shawn picked up a George III sixpence. We are off to hit 1000 acres of brand new land tomorrow which Boston Beau has picked so we hope his choice is better LOL.

3rd Sept 2004 Ark Gary gets the ball rolling

First days hunt,the weather is perfect, hot, sunny and not a drop of rain

Mass Bruce receives his 'find of the year' Roman Urn from Mass Linda

During the lunchtime break the boys boys were presented with their awards for last year.

Ark Gary has taken an early lead after the first day with 4 silver including two nice hammered, 1300's Edward penny and a large nice condition Irish 1605 James 1st shilling. Cal Shawn found the first gold off the seeded hunt field, a full Victorian gold Sovereign so that now leaves 5 out there. All the usual bits and pieces are turning up including part of a 1st C Roman Dolphin brooch, a number of large Roman coins in poor condition. I have been out hunting and not had much luck so far, early days yet. Will post more finds when I get the chance.

Edward 1300's silver hammered penny, Henry VI half groat (2 pence) , Irish James 1st Shilling (12 pence)

12thSept 2004 Some nice finds coming up

1205 AD James 1st (the Lion) of Scotland hammered silver cut half pence(y)	Can anyone ID this Saxon looking bronze ?(y)

2nd Sept 2004 1 hour to go - perfect weather -

The boys have stuck it lucky with the first hunt and are due to arrive in just over an hour, perfect weather, 20 degrees, no wind and sunny.

http://www.jbest.net/weather/weatherNow.aspx

30th Aug 2004 Removed Roman gold test results

I have had to remove the Roman coin gold test report from my site as it apparently infringes the copyright laws by showing it !! It was basically a graph showing all the constituencies of the coin with the basic overall result of 97% pure ancient gold. Mass Tracy kept the original copies of the report for her coin find so she has all the info she needs.

29th Aug 2004 Forum/Club Competition closes in a few days - Roman cart finds update

If you are going to have a go at this years free competition to win some gold then make sure your guesses are in by the 1st Sept, the closing date. I have logged all the current guesses on the page

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

As the finds are made I will update this page during the season to see who is the current winner.

The two finds posted on this page on the 14th June have now both been ID'd as Roman rein guides off a cart and possibly a chariot. Both these finds came off the same corner of a field so are they from the same cart or is there a Roman Chariot scrap yard there ? LOL

26th Aug 2004 Heeeeeeeeeeha 7 days to go !!!

Billericay Mark is in desperate need of a detecting fix and is champing at the bit to get swinging on the fresh land but I stopped him LOL, certainly not letting him loose 7 days before the start of the new season on his own to suck up the good stuff before we get on there. He will just have to go 'cold turkey' hehehe.

25th Aug 2004 Brilliant Research - Important new 'best practice'

A very special thanks to Mass Linda who since her visit last March, when Bruce found his Axe head hoard, has been beavering away back in the states plotting all the known archeological finds on a huge map of the land we have permission to hunt. She has plotted hundreds of items, ring ditches, Roman roads, axe heads, museum digs, Beaker people, medieval villages, Roman graves etc from the National database of finds that stretch back 30 years or more prior to detecting. There are over 200 odd plots outside my front door alone. A lot of them are really early 6000 BC finds but some are as late as 1200AD possible Medieval villages. These have been made by field walking, brought up by the plough and museum excavation. A particular plot of a Roman cemetery is on land we have never got around to hunting yet and nearby a group of Stone axe axe heads were also found. It will be fascinating armed with this information whether it will actually help the find rate. I must admit that I just go out there and swing aimlessly but this important work completed by Linda could lead us to some more great finds. Due to the important historical significant nature of last years finds and the potential of finding even greater historical artefact's I have added important new 'best practice' to this years hunting. We learnt a lot last year about what to do and what not to do when we find the significant finds so these new practices are very important.

1. I will use my digital camera to record location and situation of the 'significant' finds.

2. If a find is made below plough depth we stop digging and leave the find where it is and wait for the museum staff to come out and record the find properly in situ. This prevents contamination by handling and allows for the soil to be tested for extra information like pollen grains etc. The finder will work with the museum staff to record and excavate their find under controlled conditions.

3. 'Early' finds in the plough soil are now to be left unwashed for the museum to get maximum information from and prevent contamination by handling or cleaning. The museum can decide the best method for not 'hurting' the item and again get maximum historical information from the item prior to cleaning. Another important side issue is a recent treasure of Silver Roman spoons was greatly devalued by the valuation committee due to their incorrect cleaning before they went for inquest. The 'normal' finds like silver hammered coins etc can be cleaned in the normal way.

24th Aug 2004 Land News and members area updated

Phew ! what a relief, just been out to survey the land and there are virginal ploughed fields to hunt. Most of the fields have been harvested and are available but hunting stubble sucks big time. I have updated the members area with more news on the latest situation. I have been chatting to the farmers and we need to make a double effort to get them a load more hoards and treasures to help pay for the poor crop this year LOL.

25th July 2004 Cal Charles Roman coin find solved !!!

Remember Cal Charles Roman coin find that came out of the ground like this without any cleaning ? I have just had a brilliant e-mail in from Susan Headley, see below, that runs an ancient uncleaned coins resource that solves the puzzle and gives us a great site to join. Roman coins are notoriously tricky to ID so we now have an on line forum of experts we can join to help with our ID's. Check out the links to her site.

What is it made of ? Looks like copper but it came out of the ground like this so it must have a high noble metal content - does anyone know the type of metal or the date of this coin ? Amazing condition

Hi,

A friend told me about your site, and after a look through your Roman finds page, I quickly recognized the coin near the bottom of the page (to the left of the fibula near the bottom, where you ask if anybody can tell you what
this coin is, and help date it.) It is of the Roman emperor Arcadius, as follows:

Minted by Arcadius, ruled 383 to 408 AD; this coin was issued between 15th
May 392 to January 17th 395.

Obverse: DN ARCADIVS PF AVG - Diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right.
Reverse: GLORIA ROMANORVM - Emperor (Arcadius) standing facing, head turned
right, holding labarum (standard with a christogram on top) and globe.

The size (in millimeters) of this coin should be about 21 to 25 mm's, whatwe call "AE2."

I don't think these were minted in Great Britain, though, because the Roman Empire had already lost much of the western empire to the "barbarians," so it's a rather interesting and curious find for Britain. The reason it came up out of the ground so clean could be attributable to one of two explanations: (a) these coins were all "pickled" or sometimes even properly (albeit thinly) plated to give them a silver appearance when
issued. The "pickling" process was one of causing the 3%-5% silver content of the alloy to rise to the surfaces, making the coins look better metal than it was. The high (although quite thin) silver "pickling" may be what
saved the coin from the corrosive elements of the soil. (b) For some mysterious, unknown reason, sometimes bronze coins come up clean anyway. I've sorted through probably hundreds of thousands of freshly-dug ancient
bronze coins (found in the Balkans) and my guess would be about maybe 1 in a 100, or maybe even 1 in 125 come up "clean" with neither patina nor corrosion, but one knows they're ancient because they readily show a porous quality under high magnification that is lacking in non-"crystallized"(non-ancient) bronze. Well, I may not be explaining this right, you'd need a proper metallurgist to get it exact, but this bronze coming out of the
ground "clean" is rare but it does happen.

Here's a match for your coin on WildWinds.com, which you might want to give
to your visitors as a reference to help attribute their finds.

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/arcadius/_heraclea_RIC_027b.jpg
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/arcadius/_heraclea_RIC_027b.txt

WildWinds is at: http://www.wildwinds.com

Please note that the example coin shown here was minted at Heraclea. I can't discern the mint-mark on your coin from the photo provided, but if youcan make it out, it's on the reverse beneath the line the emperor stands on (called the "exergue" by coin-freaks.)

Also, I am the Owner/Moderator of one of the internet's largest email discussion groups about "Uncleaned Ancient Coins" (and other dug-up finds that are ancient such as small artifacts, etc.) If you would like to refer
your members to me when they find Roman coins and such, I would be happy to help them determine what they've got, plus my membership of 600+ "dug-up finds freaks" would be happy to contribute their collective wisdom as well. =) You can find the home page of my group at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UncleanedAncientCoins

We discuss everything from the cleaning of finds to attributing them, although most of my members buy their finds rather than dig them up themselves, because we don't have anywhere to dig in the USA, lol, I'm sure
most of them would rather be out hunting than talking about it. <G>

Your web site is an amazing resource, thank you for the time and effort you put into maintaining it! If you know of any detectorist groups that like to sell their dug-up finds (either cleaned or uncleaned) please let me know.
I'm always in the market for curious dug-up bits. =)

All the best,
Susan Headley
List-group owner, UncleanedAncientCoins

23rd July 2004 - 2005 Award

s

The award on the left is the new one up for grabs this year, the one on the right already has Mass Bruce's name on it for his axe head hoard last season. Can he make it a double this season and get the other one to make a nice matching set of bookends LOL

15th July Added Mike's E&W article on line - see 2nd July post

11 July 2004 Brilliant Budlight Ad for detecting - Awards back from the engravers

The 'find of the year' and 'prolific coin hunter' shields are back and engraved with last seasons winner's names immortalised for posterity. I have ordered up another one of those silver roman looking jugs for this season as they are an impressive award befitting the winner of 'find of the year' and very well made. Mass Bruce's jug has been engraved and will be presented to him in Sept when his team are all back for the first hunt of the season. Can his team do it again and set the target for everyone to beat on the very first hunt of the new season as opposed to the very last full hunt of the season ?

9th July 2004 Axe head to go for more investigation - Members area updated with postage news

Vancouver Brent's circa 2000 BC flat axe find is to go off to the British museum for more investigation by the top bronze age expert. This type of axe is extremely rare for the Essex area and is a significant archeological find. They are normally found in the Norwich and Suffolk areas.

2nd July 2004 Eastern and Western Magazine

Click on thumbnail pictures to read

Georgia Mikes article on his hunt over here when he and Ark Gary went on a rampage together has just been published in this months Eastern and Western Detecting magazine, I forgot how much good stuff they managed to 'hoover' up between them. Mike and Gary are back again early in the new season and I will have to try and find a way to keep them off the fields LOL, perhaps I can get them to do a lot of sightseeing instead!!

27th June 2004 Updated members area - Don't forget to send me your guess for this year free competition to win some gold coins.

All approved shipments have now been posted.

25th June All outstanding export licences arrived today - 2 referred

The last of the approved export licences arrived today and shipping will take place tomorrow. There are only two applications that have been deferred to experts for further consideration which can take up to 15 days for a decision to be made, those two guys it effects have been informed. Obviously this does not include the hoards and treasures awaiting inquest.

24th June 2004 Updated Saxon page - Shields/Awards are off to the engravers

Boston Bud suggested I added the history and research he did on his brilliant early Saxon gold coin find to the new Saxon page which I now gone ahead and updated. All the shields and urns are now off at the engravers having this years winners names engraved on the roles of honour. Mass Bruce will be presented with his Roman silver urn trophy to take home with him as winner of 'find of the year' when he is back in Sept. I have commissioned more awards for this years competitions as prizes and also a novelty one of the 'detectorist family' pictured above mounted on a marble stand for the 'detectorist of the year'. This will be awarded to the detectorists who portrays the best attributes of detecting whether he is getting skunked or finding hoards !!

18th June 2004 Members Area updated with export news

14th June 2004 Added Rod's Roman cart fitting

After the museum ID process this unknown widget turned out to be a Roman bronze cart fitting (chariot possibly). It suddenly dawned on me that Georgia Mike also found a similar widget in the same location last March that we were unable to ID, are the two related ? These look very closely related so are they from the same cart ?

Canadian Rod's Roman cart fitting

Georgia Mike's unknown widget from last March ??

13th June 2004 Ohio Buds gold story goes on line

A slightly cut down version of Buds story from the Gold Prospectors magazine is now available to view online, he found the Saxon gold dagger piece which is currently at the British museum and waiting for the treasure inquest to be held. Check out the new link above

Update since his trip;

The gold coin he refers to in his article turned out to be that Charles II Gold Touch-Piece. Touched by Charles II himself at a Touching Ceremony. Presented to a loyal subject by Charles II 1660- 1685. All the rest of his finds with the exception of the dagger have been successfully exported to him.

10th June 2004 Members area updated.

Updated the home page with a site guide to help you navigate easier.

9th June 2004 Tesoro to publish Axe head report

I have had Tesoro Electronics approach us to publish Bruce's axe head report story in their annual magazine, that find of Bruce's has certainly fuelled everyone's imagination. Keep an eye out for the issue. The hoard is currently still with the British museum undergoing tests with no formal inquest planned as yet.

We are all beavering away behind the scenes getting ready for next season, upgrading the bedrooms in the non smoking house with new beds, carpets etc and adding more picnic chairs and equipment to the 'Scooby doo mystery van'

5th June 2004 Old Skills

Had a couple of e-mails in from guys that are using old skills to reproduce artefact's from the past. The Oyster Fair is held each year in Colchester and I will be going along and have a look at this fascinating skill of hammering coins. Check out his site. www.grunal.com Would be neat for us to have our own Colchestertreasure hammered coins !

Hi a brief note to let you and your associates know that Grunal Moneta will be giving demonstrations of hammered coin production at this years Oyster Fair and will be happy to identify English hammered coins brought to the mint free of charge. Come along and have a chat about Hammered coins I guarantee you will be fascinated

Regards.
Dave the Moneyer
( AKA Dave Greenhalgh )
Please visit our web site
www.grunal.com

I also had a nice mail in from a guy that is taking part in an experimental iron age farm and saw Bruce's axe head report. Perhaps when he has got it up and working we might get a chance to see them being made

Hi,
What a fantastic story! Thanks for taking the time to put it online, along
with those great pictures.
I'm actually involved with an experimental iron-age farm and I'm just
starting to set up an area for making items in bronze. With some time and
effort, I hope to be able to make items like the axes you found.
I was especially interested in the ingots. Do you know what happened to them
? They look rather like what would be known as "charges", which is
basically a lump of metal that can be melted down when needed and cast into
whatever object is wanted - much more convenient than lugging a load of
copper and tin ore around the country! They look like they've come out of a
crucible, probably the same one that the metal ores were smelted in.
Either way, thanks again for your effort in putting this online.
Regards,
Fergus

26th May 2004 Still updating the site

This summer break is great for catching up on paperwork and putting the finds onto the right pages of the site. I have put the hammered silver into the correct time frames and also updated the button page with a lot more of the finds and put them in to sections, military, livery etc. Amazing set of early numbered military regiments of foot, if there are any experts out there please help me ID some of the trickier ones both livery and miltary or if I have got any wrong then put me right. We have a large number of titled family livery buttons denoted by the crown on them to ID.

22nd May 2004 Added the Torc page and updated some of the history pages

Over 30 years ago a Celtic torc was ploughed up on one of our fields by a lucky farm hand. He had hung it on a hook in his shed thinking it was a useful piece of copper !! for a long time before his mate realised that it was gold and it went for inquest! The old guy still lives in the village and has recounted his story to some of the guys while they have met him while out detecting. We have yet to find another one but just to get the juices flowing for next season I have put together a page showing some of the famous ones found over the previous years, they are just so beautiful.

20th May 2004 All outstanding finds ID'd

All outstanding finds have now been completed through the museum process of ID and recording of important locations. Some 'unknown' widgets turned out to great finds like a Roman bronze cart fitting found by Canadian Rod. Roman coins are notoriously hard to identify but a couple of them also turned out to be early examples around 50AD. Vancouver Brent's silver Roman coin find has been declared part of the previous Republican Roman silver hoard made earlier in the season as it came from the same location. No more updates yet on the previous hoard and treasures which are currently going through the Treasure process.

I learnt an interesting fact about larger Elizabethan hammered silver yesterday which I had identified as groats (4 pence's). The later Elizabethan period groat sized coins are actually sixpences which I had not noticed in the books. So several of the groats found by the guys turned out to be sixpences.

19th May 2004 Beavering away getting the paperwork done!

The previous guy handling our finds last season, prior to the museum taking over the role, certainly did not do his job very well. I have been liasing with the Celtic Coin index to ensure all last years Celtic gold finds were properly ID'd and registered and it appears that none had been done at all. This is an important part of the process as all Celtic gold finds in Britain are logged and given a unique number. I have updated the Gold Page with all the updated information, CCI numbers and comments from Philip de Jersey the expert that maintains the database. Alaskan Todd's Norfolk Wolf stater appears to be a rare one, great find.

The export process for finds is at full swing with three guys packages on their way home today.

Celtic gold stater Norfolk wolf type 65-45 BC found by Alaskan Todd 'CCI No 04.0681 is the Norfolk wolf. Another nice coin, c. 50 BC. The basic type is common (over 300 coins) but there are minor variations in the design, and this appears to be a rare variant with a sort of stick below the wolf rather than the usual crescent and pellet. I haven't checked through all the records but from memory there are no more than half a dozen or so from this die variant'.

15th May 2004 Updated the site - should be quicker to load

Added lots of interesting bits to the site, Celtic history page , Museum info and combined all the historical and local links on the Colchester links page. There are some great links to other sites that have history of the Romans, etc.

12th May 2004 Members area updated - moved half this page to a new page to speed up loading times

I have created Latest News page 2 with info on pre 20th March to help speed up load time for this page.

I have also changed the menu system to make things quicker

11th May 2004 Famous in infamous ? LOL

There are 3 publications with excellent write up's this month on some of the guys hunts. Ohio Buds 'epic' is in this months Gold Prospectors Mag. Boston Will's long awaited 'novel' with his Henry VIII hammered making the front cover in the Eastern and Western Treasures and Cal Charles reporter style write up in the Route 66 Mag. Georgia Mike Smith has also got his article of 'biblical' proportions about his successful Sept hunt coming out in the August's edition of the Eastern and Western. Boy these guys can sure tell a story !! it was down 3 feet deep and the batteries were failing, yer we all believe you !!

9th May 2004 Vancouver Brent's Republican silver find added to hoard

The early Republican silver Roman coin found by Vancouver Brent on his last trip has been added to the previous declared hoard earlier this season, it was found in the same location. Final ruling of the outcome of this hoard has not been made yet, the hoard and treasure page has been updated to reflect this new

addition. More gold has been added to this years gold hunt competition page

7th May 2004 Lucky break again avoids a near total disaster !!

Michigan Tracy's mint Roman gold find was a one off total fluke, found totally unmarked having been rolling around a field for 2000 years. It's exporting was delayed by several months as it had undergone all sort of extra examinations by the local and British museum and it had also had a non destructive gold test carried out to find that is was 97% pure and ancient gold. It was probably the finest example of it's type ever found in Britain, So finally after all that waiting it was ready to ship and Tracy decided because of it's importance to pay a lot of money and ship it via a top carrier fully insured to make sure it was safe. Delivery was guaranteed by the company in two days but after a dozen phone calls from me chasing it finally it arrived 5 days later !!

Then the good bit starts , the bag arrived with a hole in it !!! The Roman gold had been taken out by someone during transit, taken out of it's protective package and put back free in the middle of all the other metal finds in only a bit of tissue paper and a plastic sleeve !! The other finds were also rolling around now outside the burst inner plastic bag, The export licence was missing and the original ID letter from the museum now moved inside the package. What a nightmare !! Luckily this story has a happy ending as by pure luck again the Roman gold escaped damage and the other finds were still there. This coin certainly has a charmed life !! Obviously we are now seeking vengeance on the shipping company to find out what went wrong , can you imagine if the gold had fallen out of the hole in the package or had been scratched by a crotal bell !! What a nightmare !!

6th May 2004 Further ID on Ohio 'gold fingers' Bud's gold coin find

Bud certainly new how to sniff out a gold find having also found that gold Saxon dagger piece this season. His other gold find turns out to be a very valuable as well, presented by Charles II himself and worn around the neck for healing purposes, what a brilliant artefact.

Charles II Gold Touch-Piece. Touched by Charles II himself at a Touching Ceremony. Presented to a loyal subject by Charles II 1660- 1685.

5th May 2004 Members area updated with possible club hunt news

Updated Awards and Prizes pages with the first 3 gold coins bought for the seeded hunt competition.

Added this years forum/club competition, guess and win a gold coin competition. Check out the forum page here

4th May 2004 - Maps and finds exporting - some site pages updated with history overview

I am busy getting all the paperwork prepared for exporting the last of the outstanding finds. Mass Linda is still beavering away plotting historical data from very early maps and current archeology information on all the sites ready for the new season. Interestingly a spot by an old barn on new land that Cal Charles found by accident, that produced several nice Roman bronzes, is actually on the side of a Roman road that Linda has managed to plot on one map. It will be fascinating to see if all the hard work and research pays extra dividends in Sept.

30th April -2004 ID'd Canadian Rods coin weight correctly

Ship design

What I originally thought was a Medieval Apothecary weight ( it was upside down LOL) is in fact a 14th C Noble gold coin weight, great find

29thApril - Bronze age and the Beaker People page added

Recently, while Bruce and his team were hunting here, we learnt from the previous owner of the land that one of our sites had a 'Beaker People' excavation carried out on it 30 years ago. The museum uncovered several graves and artefact's. I have produced a new page on the site with the history of these remarkable people. click here

28th April 2004 - Land slide Victory for Mass Bruce's axe head hoard

With two days to go before the closing of the election Bruce's axe head hoard has already stormed to victory !! Well deserved win.

With over 80% of the possible votes having already been cast the axe head hoard has taken 64% of them. They cannot now be overtaken so therefore it wins the 'find of the year' first prize easily this year. Bruce's nearest rival the Saxon gold dagger piece was 2nd with 19% of the votes. Congrats to Bruce who wins a 9 day inclusive free detecting holiday here, the Roman looking silver urn and most

importantly his name on the role of honour shield. Check out Bruce's own axe hoard report to see how it did it and most amazingly it was on the last full hunt of the season !! Talk about cutting it fine !

27th April2004 - Gold test written report - copy from the archeologist scientist who tested Michigan Tracy's Roman gold coin.

Tiberius 14 to 37 AD gold Aureus found by Michigan Tracy(c)

No idea what it all means except the Au on the graph is gold, I have posted the original report to Tracy with her coin that got it's export licence approved Ok so she can do some more investigation and report back on what the reports tells us. The overall report was ancient gold 97% pure.

This report had to be removed as I had a complaint from the guy that ran test that reproducing this on my site infringes his copyright !!

26th April 2004 Added Mass Linda's testimonial added - Research and land

Mass Linda is heavily into historical research and is kindly going to produce a large colour coordinated map of all the fields for all guys to use next season. Currently we have approximately 70 + fields to hunt and this will be of great help.We have nine distinct areas that have multiple fields on them ranging from 40 to 200 acres in size so this map will be a great asset when you decide which fields you want to hit each day. Looks like Linda will get an extra large portion of 'spotted dick' next season for all this work LOL

25th April 2004 Looks like a landslide victory - added new gold coin hunt rules to prizes page - added

a Saxon page to the site

The final date for voting for find of the year will be the 30th April with the winner announced on the 1st May, so far it looks like a landslide victory for one find so have your say and get that vote in. I have added a Saxon page to the site as we found a few choice pieces this season and hopefully we can add few more next season to the page. Saxon finds are very rare so this was a great result. I have added the rules for the gold coin hunt to the awards and prizes page.

24th April 2004 Members only log on moved - disclaimed treasures returned - members area updated

I have moved the members only log on to a seperate page as it confuses some guys when they are trying to look at the latest news page. Click on the above link to take you to the log on page. I will be getting back all the dislcaimed tresures next week and getting the export process started for those and all the outstanding finds including the recent gold. I have ordered up another book for our library.
This catalogue publishes the British Museum's collection of over 4500 coins minted at the end of the Iron Age in the first century BC and before the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. Each piece is illustrated and indexes are provided for the inscriptions and symbols which appear on the coins.

23rd April 2004 Nearly did some smuggling !! Export licence required

I have been corrected by the British Museum that coins from a collection do in fact require an export licence in the same way as all our other detecting finds, nearly did some smuggling without knowing it LOL.

22nd April 2004 Gunswinger wins the forum competition- more competitions for next season

Congrats to Gunswinger from the treasure forum who's tie break question guess wins him the 50 BC

Celtic silver qtr stater on the forum competition page. I will be thinking up a new competition for next season so keep an eye out for it during the summer so you can have a chance at the prize. Voting for the 'find of the year' is going well with some unexpected finds getting the votes, I will give it another week before I announce the overall winner for this year.

Next season I am adding a bit of fun to the hunts by seeding a particular 60 acre field with a number of full gold Guinea and Sovereigns coins so that everyone hunting can have a chance to find that elusive gold coin. It will be fascinating to see if guys can actually find them during the season as we all just missed 92 coins LOL. These coins will be bought from a collection and will not need an export licence. ( I was wrong they do need an export licence I have been told)

The free weeks holiday prize for 'find of the year' and 'prolific coin hunter' awards will be up for grabs again next season again.

It sure was a long way between targets !!

21st April 2004 Extra - More info on Nevada Gary's Celtic gold find from the Celtic coin regisiter & Michigan Tracy's roman gold test results confirmed.

It took quite a long time but the final results of Tracy's Roman coin gold test carried out by an archeologist scientist have come back positive as ancient gold of 97% purity. If I can get hold of the offical test results I will publish them as it will be facinating to see what the componants of the gold are, what a find !

'It's a very nice example of one of the rarer Clacton types - only just over 20 of the basic type (VA 1458) are recorded, and there are some variations within that group (mostly in minor elements of decoration, and in particular the form of the 'flower' beneath the horse)'. It will be CCI 04.0481. '70BC Found by Nevada Gary(b)

21st April 2004 - Celtic gold coin hoard (Virginia Brian) and Texas Gary's coin ID'd and registered with the Celtic coin index

Thanks to Philip de Jersey at Oxford for ID'ing the latest Celtic gold finds and registering them on the Celtic coin index (CCI). All Celtic gold found on these hunts is given a unique number on the index that is

available to view on line at http://www.writer2001.com/cciwriter2001/. All Celtic gold finds made in Britain are registered on this database so it is amazingly comprehensive. It takes a while for these images to become live on the system.

From left to right

CCI 04.0477 'classic A' series, VA 2027-1. Generally believed to have been the last major series of his gold, so probably dating from the 30s AD. There are three or four matches for this particular pair of dies in the CCI, among the c. 100 of the basic type. The decoration at the base of the corn-ear is a bit more showy than usual.

CCI 04.0478 'plastic A' series, VA 2010-3. Believed to have preceded the classic type, so perhaps from c. 25 - 35 AD. About ninety of these are recorded here, and again there are a number of matches for both of these dies, including at least one coin in the British Museum (BMC 1819 in Hobbs's Catalogue of Iron Age coins in the BM).

CCI 04.0479 'linear' series, VA 1925-1. The earliest of these three, perhaps from c. 20 AD, and a little rarer, with about 60 recorded here. Again there is a coin in the BM from the same pair of dies, BMC 1783. There are a couple of rather unusual features to the dies - although not clear on your example because of the position it has been struck, there appears to be no V on the end of CAMV, and there's also a mark - perhaps some kind of privy mark - after the CVN on the reverse, you can just see the top of what looks like a letter I between the N and the horse'sfront legs on your coin.

Gallo-Belgic E stater, c. 56 BC. It's class 2 of the type, listed in Van Arsdell as VA 52. This will be 04.0476 in the CCI.

20th April - That's it until Sept - Arkansas Gary's gold mourning ring find, more info from the British Museum experts.

That's it now until next season as the crops are getting too high , whatever we missed will now be re plowed again and we will be starting from scratch in Sept with virginal land ! Don't forget to get your votes in for 'Find of the Year' selected from New hunt pages 1 to 8 on the Hunt section.

The British museum have sent more info on Gary's mourning ring find.

Description: A thin gold band, the exterior engraved with a skull flanked by pointed triangular panels with traces of white enamel in a lozenge pattern. Inside the inscription contains much of its black enamel:prepare be to follow me IK ob4 1st 67 (IK died 4 January 1667.The inscription is followed by the maker's mark, BW in a rectangular shield. The skull may once have been enamelled black. Note This is characteristic type of morning ring. There are some thirteen similar examples at the British museum dating from 1600s to 1730s(see Dalton 1471-1472)

19th April 2004 Canadian's take the title for the second year running - time to vote for find of the year

It's official, Canadian Rod clinched the title 'prolific coin hunter record this season with a massive score of 92 coins in just over 6 days, including 13 silver ones . This afternoon he pulled up a load more good finds including his last target a huge James 1st Irish hammered silver shilling. Rod has been presented with the winners tankard and his name will be entered next to last years winner Vancouver Brent on the shield.

Don't forget to send in your vote for the 'find of the year' award to

foty@colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk by the 30th April.

James 1st 1605 Irish hammered silver shilling

19th April -2004 Canadian Rod all set to take the coin title - more finds posted

It's Rod's last day and it looks like he has taken the 'prolofic coin hunter' award easily unless he gets totally skunked today. The high target set by NE Jerry has stood since the begining of the season at 86 for a week so it will no mean achievement if he clinches it on the last week of the season. He has also managed to find a lot of silver even though it has been mostly Victorian in date, so trying to find old homesites does pay off.

16th April -2004 Updated site - started to post more finds on New hunt page 8

Updated some of the site pages with hammered silver , lead, buttons, toys etc. Starting to post some of Rod's finds including what looks like a really unusual Henry V hammered silver penny.

Looks like Henry V 1413 AD York mint with mullet to left and lis to right of crown if you can ID it better drop me a mail please.

14th April 2004 More land added - Canadian Rod is going for the coin title - members area updated

Added a couple of potentially great new sites today along the coastal area where the Romans landed, might do a quick hunt on them with Rod later this week. Rod picked un- hunted homesite's yesterday on new land which produced lots of coppers from Charles II up to George V including a 1696 William III milled silver love token which puts Rod well on par for the coin title already ! He has put a huge 18 inch deep searching coil on his machine this morning hoping to find another axe head hoard LOL.

13th April - Back refreshed from a great holiday - Last hunt of the season - chat working again

Canadian Rod returns this morning for a lone hunt wandering over 6000 acres, it's a tall order but can he pull it out of the bag and capture any of the awards up for grabs this season on the very last week ? He has his work cut out deciding whether to pick existing or some of the 650 acres of new land we just got. I have still got more finds from the last hunt to post which I will do during the week.

The chat line should now be back up and working OK

5th April 2004 - Treasure and hoard - check the links above for more info

There appears to be slight confusion as to the treasure act and it's implications. The act is very fair and there to protect both finder and farmer, it ensures finds of National importance are protected for the countries benefit. Our job here is to see that the act is strictly observed and that all finds go through the Colchester museum. Determination of whether a find is deemed hoard or treasure is made strictly by the professionals at the museum. The outcome of any treasure or hoard verdict is between the finder and farmer, Colchestertreasurehunting are completely neutral and have no vestige interest in the eventual outcome as the find is split strictly 50/50 between finder and farmer unlike some other tours running these hunts.

4thApril 2004 Mass Bruce's axe head report posted - Forum competition and a few more finds posted

Mass Bruce has produced a facinating account of his day together with historical research on how the axes were made with some great pictures, a must read. Axe head report

The Treasure forum competition is now coming to a close with only Canadian Rod's last hunt effecting the eventually outcome. Check this link to see the current winners Win a 50BC silver Celtic Stater

3rd April 2004 Buried under paperwork - Guys head home - Posted Cal Charles testimonial

Posting of the last few finds will be really slow as I am trying to catch up on paperwork associated with the finds and the latest hoards. It was really sad to see the last of the guys leave today and head back to the to the states this morning, the last two weeks have been such brilliant fun and there was constant banter and laughter. If you get a chance to meet any of the guys at a hunt they will have some great stories to tell you. These guys were all a credit to detecting, no matter whether we had days of getting almost totally skunked or days of euphoria everyone just enjoyed the hunt. Fortunately they are all back on the very first week of next season so we can see if the 'hoard hunter' team can do it again.

A valuable detecting lesson was learnt with Bruce's find, dig every big signal even if it is literally in the middle of a huge field and there is not even a tree nearby. I would have probably left the target as a big piece of plough as it was literally in the middle of nowhere, not now though !! Texas Gary's Celtic gold find also proved that hunting in a location in the middle of no where that looks like crap also can also pay off.

Great site produced a fascinating set of sack seals dated late 1700 to early 1800, various cloth seals including Alange and two 17th - 18th C palm guards, one left handed.

01st April 2004 Posted Virginia Brian's and 'Axe man' Bruce's testimonial and picture added

Very interesting bunch of finds yesterday with a whole load of dated sack and cloth seals togther with another early lead palm guard for sowing, It looks like the guys have found the position of a sewing shop or house site. Will post more finds later.

30th March 2004 Texas Gary does it again - Celtic gold !! - More finds posted on new hunt page 8

What an amazing last full hunt of the season, another Celtic gold and this time a Galo Belgic 50BC type I think. Cal Shawn had a good feeling about this site all week and it paid off for Gary as he picked it to go back to this afternoon. This coin is pure gold and in mint condition and rivals Arkansas Gary's Celtic gold for being perfectly centrally stuck. The same field produced another 5 silvers including what looks like the first Edward 5th hammered silver I have seen.

Celtic gold stater- probably Galo Belgic type 50BC (c)

29th March 2004 Good start to the last week of the 'normal' hunts

Mass Bruce has sent me some more pics of his axe head hoard that I will post later, what a staggering find.

After two days of getting pretty well skunked the boy's managed to pull up a few nice bits yesterday including the first James 1st hammered silver half groat I have seen and another three half pence silver for Colonial use, this time William 4th. I will post more finds later as we are hunting brand new land this afternoon hoping for another 'big' one. We all had a fantastic fun week with Bruce, Linda and Brian who are now safely back in the states telling 'huge' tales of their hoard finds !! The whole 'hoard hunter' team are all back again for the start of the new hunts in Sept as the plough literally goes off the land !

There is one last hunt starting on the 13th April for a week if anyone want to join Canadian Rod for a 3 man hunt on the new 650 acres we just got plus any others where the crops are too high. This hunt has a 15% discount off the normal price for guys who want one last 'fix' before we close until Sept.

michelle@colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk

27th March 2004 E-mail problems getting worse. 07709242375 or text a message - posting a few more finds.

Spam filters are causing real problems as they are deleting genuine e-mails and you do not get a failure notification. If you do not get a reply to your e-mail within 8 hours then ring the number above and leave a message with telephone number by voice or text if it goes on answering machine.

26th March 2004 Nice quiet day - posted a few more of the guys finds on new hunt page 8

Nice quiet day yesterday with a couple of nice Roman bronzes and just the 'normal' bits and pieces. Last afternoon of the 'hoard hunters' tour and they are swinging to 7 pm tonight to try to find one last hoard LOL before thry head home.

25th March 2004 Starting to post latest finds on New Hunt Page 8

After all the excitment I am slowly getting around to posting some of the other guys finds on a new page I have created. Look at new hunt page 8. I will be updating during the day.

24th March 2004 Virginia Brian finds a Celtic gold coin hoard

We tried new land this morning and Brian found these three beautiful full Celtic gold staters just 10 feet apart from each other, man what a find !! They are the classic 40AD Cunoblein staters with corn and horse design. He did a great job at cleaning out the area as non of us could find any more when he invited us to 'bottom feed' after him LOL. The 'hoard' has been reported to the museum and the landowner informed. Massa Linda also managed to find a really nice Medieval half groat on the same field. I will get around to upload the 'normal' finds when I get a chance but these guys just love giving me more paperwork.

23rd March 2004 Extra - Look what came out of the back garden of the new land we got today in a spoil mound, what a beauty.

Edward IV 1464 Gold l hammered Ryal

23rd March 2004 - Can't count and more land - Will post pictures of an amazing gold find later from the new land. Wait to you see this one !!

It was in fact 10 axe heads in total not 11, what's a few axe heads between friends LOl. The guys are hitting the new land this afternoon and we added another 250 acres this morning taking the new land total to just under 700 acres since yesterday, they should have it finished by 6.30 !! Still not had a chance to upload the latest finds yet with all the rushing around.

22nd March 2004 - Mass Bruce finds a 1500BC bronze age looped axe head hoard and treasure - added another 400 acres of new land to hunt

What can you say about this find. Probably the most important find ever made on these hunts and of extreme archeology significance. 10 socketed axes of various sizes and types were buried together in close group along with previously unknown huge bronze circular ingots and bronze swarf. The axes are in pristine condition and are still sharp even after 3500 years in the ground. Mass Linda then found another 1500 BC axe head 30 feet away taking the total to 11. The museum came out to the field and completed the recording of the finds and took them away for further investigation and to start the hoard/treasure process. Other find's today included a Henry 8th hammered silver sixpence and an 8thC Saxon key. We got permission to hunt another 400 acres of new land to hunt today in a good Roman area, might hit is later in the week. I will start to post more finds later when the excitment has subsided !! What a day.

NEWS Sept 2005 to Oct 2005

Great Saxon silver finds Offa Rex - Coenwulf - Hammered gold

NEWS March 2005 toSept 2005

Villa Dig - Roman gold - Celtic gold hoard found

NEWS Sept 2004 to March 2005

Can Majos and Mass Bills gold rings - Texas Dave's hammered gold

NEWS March 2004 to Sept 2004

Roman gold coin - Mass Bruce's axe hoard

NEWS Jan 2004 to March 2004

2000BC Axe - Boston Buds Saxon gold

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