Latest News Page - March to May 2006

16th May 2006 Cal Randy's finds

More unposted finds

Early one piece Dragoon Guards button - 1819 George 1st sixpence - 1856 Victorian sixpence

4thC Constantine type Roman bronzes sent for ID 1.28g, 14.43mm - 1.60g 15.74

'both GLORIA EXERCITVS (Glory of the armies) types. These were struck for virtually the entire family of Constantine over a 10 year period (330-340 A.D.) that spans the death of Constantine I and the elevation of his sons to Augustus. The one with the bad lamination, I suspect is Constantine I, c. 335-337, and the greener-colored one appears to be Constans as Augustus - c. 337-340 but I can't be completely sure about either. The exergual mintmark on neither of the reverses is clear enough for me to name the mint(s) involved.'

13th/14thC Edward hammered silver penny - London mint - sent for straightening to ID

Lead chess piece - 18thC cord operated bell clapper - Decorated watch winder

15th May 2006 Updated the site and paperwork

I have updated the site and added a new Watch Winder page to the finds index. More export license have been received with details on the members forum.

11th May 2006 Celtic bronze coin update - more finds

Very interesting early feedback from the CCI is that the two Celtic bronze coins found by Mass Mike and posted on the 9th are of the North Thames tribe. These bronzes are the same type as that rare Celtic gold found by Cal Mark in April. Mike found another 4 possible Celtic bronzes but they were too far gone to confirm their ID.This possibly confirms trading taking place from this newly discovered visiting tribe with the locals.

Arizona Reid had a great hunt in April that included that early Charles II milled silver and the perfect condition Georgian fob seal, his export bag included some great finds not yet posted, the purse bar is the first complete Medieval example found here with decorated ends.

Superb Medieval decorated purse bar

Porcelain figure - 18thC bayonet scabbard tip - WWII Royal Airforce

1718 Sweden copper 1/6 Ore Carl XII - Early document seal that requires careful cleaning

10th May 2006 ID of yesterdays posted Roman coins - updated March 2006 finds page

Facinating background and info from Mark below.

This time you have two unofficial coins. I've been trying to move away from the term "barbarous" in describing these because it's an outmoded and rather pejoritive term coined by elitists of an earlier age - as in "Barbarous Radiate" - when, in reality, the folks who made and used these coins were no more barbarous than those who made and used the coins they imitate. But whether you use the term "Contemporary Counterfeit", "Unofficial Imitative", "Ancient Forgery, or "Barbarous Radiate", that's what the first one is. I can't tell from your photo whether the radiate portrait is bearded or not, but the prototype for this coin would most likely have been an official, Gallic Empire antoninianus of Tetricus I or II - "Dad" being bearded, and "Junior", clean-shaven. At this size and weight, adequate for even an official coin of the era, it is unusual to see such crude and illiterate work - that usually appears on the smaller ones which didn't try nearly so hard to imitate the prototypes in general.
Whether these were counterfeits made to decieve (seems unlikely dunnit? what with this level of workmanship), filled a general need for coin in an era of chaos when official coin was unavailable, were the equivalent of "Plantation Tokens" - scrip used in large Latifundia - farming estates - and/or were meant to be exchangeable for regal coin when it became available again - well, we just don't know. They might have filled any of these functions, all of them, or "none of the above". At any rate, the prototype for this specimen, as far as I can tell, was the SPES AVG type common to all the Gallic Emperors. This shows Spes - allegorical personification of "Hope" - advancing left, holding a flower and hitching the hem of her skirt. If the bust proves to be beardless, you can say it was copied (loosely) from Tetricus II, if bearded, it could copy, in about this order, Tetricus I, Victorinus, Postumus, or - far less likely - Laelianus or Marius, both of whom were extremely short-lived.

The second, broken one is also probably unofficial. It's a bit harder with the coins of the Severans to be certain. The prototype, if it's not actually official, is a denarius of Septimius Severus dating to about 211 A.D.
The coin, were it whole, should read "SEVERVS PIVS AVG" on the obverse and "P M TR P XVIII COS III PP" and shows Jupiter standing left, holding thunderbolt and scepter, between two children (Caracalla and Geta, presumably) - RIC 233, RSC 539.
This one is a bit more problematic to tell whether or not it's official. You say it's AE, right? The Severan denarii underwent significant debasement so that some issues of even irrefutably official specimens may appear to be billon or even AE after millennia in the ground. There also exists a significant body of high-quality copies in AE, some lightly silvered, which seem to be unofficial. Since these have been appearing in larger numbers in recent years since the use of metal detectors has become commonplace, particularly in Eastern Europe, they have been - probably wrongly - conflated with the "Limes Falsa" lightweight, crude AE's in imitation of the AE types of the 1st and earlier 2nd centuries A.D. found along the "Limes" or borders of the Empire. The name "Limes Denarius", although a misnomer, has been applied to these so often that it has stuck. Here again, although we know that these AE denarii are more or less faithful copies of silver prototypes, and we know that they were both struck and cast in various places - we even have numerous molds and forgers' dies - we don't understand the role, if any, they may have played in the official monetary system. Were they copies made by semi-Romanized folks just outside the reach of empire? - folks who had become accustomed to the use of coin but who did not have access to official supplies? Were they a form of military scrip meant to keep large quantities of precious metal from falling into enemy hands in the event of a defeat - and presumably redeemable in good coin at some future date? Were they out-and-out counterfeits? Were they particularly debased official issues? (well, the cast ones probably weren't) Or did they fill some, as-yet unknown function? They might have done any or all of these at various times and places.
Or, your coin might just be lower-grade silver and completely official.

Mark

9th May 2006 Extra hunt dates and GPR

Ark Gary has completed his course in Ground Penetrating Radar at Denver University so we now intend to move forward and purchase our own GPR set for the members to use. A good system costs between 26 to 40 thousand bucks so to finance it we intend running additional hunts during this years peak season with a Senior member in charge. Check out the availability page for more details, these hunts attract a 25% discount on the normal non members rates.

9th May 2006 Some more great finds found by Mass Mike

1st C BC/AD Roman La Tene fibula brooch - C1000 BC Bronze Age socketed implement fragment 35.57 mm L x 21.99 mm W

Roman bronze coins sent for ID to Mark Lehman - 2.16g, 18.13 - 1.88g, 18mm

Celtic bronze coins sent to CCI for recording

Right facing horse Addedomaros style 45 BC - Left facing horse like a Cunoblein 'Biga' type Early 1stC

Post Medieval small chisels/implements - 16thC Tudor button

7th May 2006 More finds - GPR course feedback

Senior member Ark Gary is currently on a GPR course at Denver University http://www.du.edu/~lconyer/ and his feedback after the first two days is excellent.This course is designed to teach the use of Ground Penetrating Radar in Archaeology to locate map and study buried Archaeological features. This type of equipment is perfect for continuing the work on our Bronze age village site started by the Sussex Archeology field unit.

15th Regiment of foot officers one piece button, 1865 - 3 Pfenninge German states Prussian coin

1836 William IIII milled silver 4 pence - 19thC Knife Scabbard tip - 88th Regiment of foot

2nd May 2006 More interesting finds from the export bags.

Illinois Tim made a couple of great finds, Medieval decorated ring brooch and a Roman bronze cart fitting.

14thC gold decorated ring brooch - 18thC gilded decorated clog fastener- 16th/17th C German Jetton

A fragment of a Romano-British protected loop terret. 28.5 mm L x 17.9 mm W

Complete hasp and clasp - Georgian - 17thC pewter child's finger ring

1st May 2006 Exporting - club pendant

Approved export licenses have started to arrived, more details on members area. Cal Jeffs 'find of the year' Roman bronze winged Phallus pendant has now been exported back to him in the USA and he is getting reproductions made as a club badge. If you are interested in one then post your request on the members forum.

27th April 2006 More Roman coins ID's - updated March 2006 page

Identification of all Roman coins found here is a very important aspect to understand the date spread on an area we are detecting. 2 more Roman's cleaned up yesterday show the new area we have detected since February has a period of activity from the 1st to 4thC AD.

Roman 1 - 2.20g, 19,14mm - Roman 2 - 0.92g, 12.43mm

Roman 1 'small-module follis of one of the members of the family of Constantine - and a perfect example of what I refer to as "Murphy's Law of Ancient Coin Legends" - the part that is most important, if there's any question who it is, will be the part that is missing. I can easily say who it isn't - it's neither Constans (wrong letter on the end) nor Constantius II (too early) - what I can read on the obverse is "...ONSTANTI.." but this could be either Constantine I or II. The reverse is the "SOLI INVICTO COMITI" type and shows radiate Sol standing left raising hand and holding a globe. It's from Lugdunum by the prominent "L" in the exergue (SLG, probably), and, looking in RIC, I see from the S - F fieldmarks that it's too early at 313-14 A.D.to be Constantine II.'

Roman 2 'I am not going to be able to tell you who or where-from on this one - but your reverse image was upside-down again. It's a GLORIA EXERCITVS (Glory of the Armies) with 2 soldiers, holding spears in outer hands and resting inner hands on shields, flanking 2 legionary standards. The 2-standard type are the earlier form with this legend and date to 330-335 or so. Again, it's a member of the family of Constantine - could even be Constantine himself, but there doesn't appear to be any usable legend on the obverse of this one at all'.

Mark

Mark's ID of yesterdays Roman coin

That one's easy - that's a Constantinopolis city-commemorative. When Constantine the Great moved his capitol from Rome to his newly-rebuilt city of Constantinople, there was a large series of parallel "Urbs Roma" (to help appease "jilted" Romans) and "Constantinopolis" coins issued from all mints. Originally issued around 330 in great quantities, then declining in size and numbers, they were revived after Constantine's death in 337 when the succession was somewhat in doubt - so that individual mints didn't have to declare for the various contenders. As small as your is, it probably dates to just before or sometime in the decade after Constantine's death.

Your coin shows the allegorical personification of the city of Constantinople on the obverse, helmeted and with spear over shoulder and had the legend made it onto the undersized flan, would have read CONSTANTINOPOLIS. The reverse, anepigraphic but for the exergual mint mark, shows Victory on prow of a ship left. In your specimen, Victory holds an unusually prominent palm-branch (I think) - usually, she holds a spear and leans on a shield.

Mark

26th April 2006 Roman bronze ID- more finds processed

Great info from Mark Lehman on yesterdays Roman bronze.

What I can tell you, despite the lack of detail, is that this is a dupondius of Trajan, 98-117 A.D. Luckily, in the early 2nd century A.D. the Romans were still doing high-quality, representational work and Trajan's profile is unmistakeable. The denomination, "dupondius" (two asses) is indicated by the spiky, radiate crown of Sol - by this time, any coin displaying this sort of headgear can be assumed to be a double-denomination. particularly since the "S" of the obligatory "S - C" (Senatus Consultio - "by consent of the Senate" - an official and fondly held myth that the Senate still had any say in matters like the small-change supply at this point in the Imperium) virtually all imperial AE's carried seems to be in the correct position this way. I still can't quite make out who or what is being portrayed here, and since Trajan was around for quite a while - nearly 20 years - there are literally hundreds of possible reverse types for dupondii. A complete WAG might be Hilaritas, who is usually portrayed holding a long palm branch.

Mark

Constantine 337 AD 0.76g, 12.3 mm - 20th C lead soldier - 2nd Regiment of foot - 16thC button

Roman bronze lynch pin - Roman bronze pin head - 37th Regiment of foot - Medieval apothecary scoop

Interesting piece inscribed 'IVI' on reverse - needs more investigation

25th April 2006 Finds out of the bag

Export process have revealed some nice finds missed during the hunts.

Army Ordeance ? - Medieval small chisel - Railway button - Georgian decorated oval buckle

Just cleaned up an earlier ring find by Bud Bing to reveal the initial 'Pvke' - possibly Roman from the area that produced the XIX legion ring

Trajan, 98-117 A.D "dupondius"- 1808 Louis Napoleon, King of Holland - Netherlands East Indies 1/16th of a Guilder

16thC Tudor button - Post Medieval bale seal with shield and cross design

82nd Regiment of foot - 1817 George III shilling

1st/2nd C Roman latch key

23rd April 2006 Latest Coroner papers - Updated more finds pages on the site

Coroner papers (form 1 ) for Mass Bruce's 'Post Medieval silver thimble' and the 'Silver Roman ear scoop with twisted handle' found by Cal Randy have arrived. It appears by the title on the Coroners papers that the find is indeed of the Roman period and therefore a rare find made in silver. The silver thimble has been disclaimed and returning to finder, the ear scoop is going forward for inquest as the museum has shown interest in acquiring it.

I am continuing to update the finds on the site onto the individual pages. Exporting of outstanding finds is in progress with more details on members area.

18th April 2006 Added another 1000 + acres - latest hoard valuations

We have just been approached by a new landowner to detect their land, which is over 1000 acres in size, from next Sept which I have agreed to. This is prime Romano/British land and has a Roman village at it's centre so it has huge potential. More details on members forum. The landowner of the 2nd Celtic gold hoard found this season, declared treasure recently at Colchester Coroners court, has received the initial valuation letter this morning. The valuation committee meets in late April to decide on the final reward. The individual offers for the coins appear to be fair and I have recommended that it is accepted from the landowners behalf.

16th April 2006 Updating pages - Roman Coins, Artefacts and Seal Matrix's

I have asked Mark Lehman to have a stab at our poorly ID'd Roman coins currently on the Roman page as I have updated it with the latest finds and put the outstanding ones at the bottom of the page. Marks expert input has been invaluable over the last year at giving us in depth information on the Roman coins we find.

I have started to add Romano/British artefacts to the new page and updated the Seal Matrix page with those stunning ones you found this season.

15th April 2006 - Cal Jeff's 2000 year old Roman willy wins find of the year - interesting ring find

Cal Jeff's personal artefact find has won this years vote for the 'find of the year' award. Jeff wins a free weeks holiday next season, the Roman silver urn trophy and his name on the shield of honor. Congrats to Jeff who intends to have reproductions made of his find, members have shown great interest as using it as a club souvenir to wear around the neck like the Roman's did LOL.

A previous brass ring find by Mass Mike which I have partially cleaned has reveled a puzzling set of inscriptions. You can clearly see an X with some kind of struck through anchor mark to the right and what appears to be a flag to it's left. Is it some kind of 17th/18thC navy ring ? , this needs more research as it is a fascinating find.

14th April 2006 Last voting day - 2005/2006 summation

Voting turn out has been excellent so far and only 3 or 4 votes separate the top 3 finds. It's you last chance to have you say on the eventual winner as voting closes today at 1800 GMT.

What another great season and our best so far in terms of rare finds.That superb field Archeologist report we commissioned detailing the extensive history of the land we hunt was one of the main highlights for me as it showed us the real potential of the area. Some of the amazing treasures and hoards have now finally been purchased by the local museum and could possibly be already on display for members to visit in Sept.

We found some stunningly rare Saxon finds including the ornate silver strapend, stirrup mount, two Offa Rex and one Coenwulf coins. To find just one would have been a great year but 4 is just fantastic. These finds were just widely scattered from one end of our 15 sites to the other so the potential to find more of them is now huge.

This season we also uncovered another 4 new Celtic tribes trading in this area bringing the total found now to 9 tribes. Chicago Ron's 'Snettisham' type was particularly important as it was from a totally new area which could be of real interest next season. Cal Mark found one of the rarest Celtic's ever found here just 5 minutes before the end of the season !! Again these finds stretch over all the sites.

Too many memorable artefacts were found to mention them all but personal artefacts are my favourite like the complete Georgian fob seals found by NH Dave and Phonix Reid, the 13thC seal matrixes, Earl of Hereford's enameled pendant, Cal Jeff's Roman bronze winged Phallus pendant, Mass Linda's Woad grinder etc. So many really neat finds to pick a winner from.

We also hotspotted another dozen new areas that are now 'hot' properties for next season including potentially our best Roman area found to date,

So all in all a great season and another valuable lesson for us all about land we had all walked through previously and casually dismissed that can produce some great finds if you hit the right spot.

Thanks to all the members that have made all these great finds possible again solely by your hard work out there for 10 hours a day in all weathers. It has been brilliant fun for us here and your support especially from the senior members has helped to make it run smoothly. I am very proud at the attitude of the bulk of guys that come here who realise what we are achieving in history terms and stick to the rules and the Treasure act.

Unfortunately on the down side there will always be the greedy 'weasel in the woodpile' who tries to ruin it for everyone. He was caught by the members after smuggling that rare Celtic gold off the farmers land and out of the country. With everyone's help the gold was eventually returned to the farmer which is credit to the memberships loyalty to the landowner. This guy even had the cheek to record this gold coin with Eastern and Western treasure magazine, some people defy belief !!

So now it is back to the paperwork for me getting all the rest of the exporting done. Sorry to anyone still waiting for their finds to be posted but I will be trawling though all that in the next couple of weeks.

Again thanks to all that came here and dug all the great finds to make this web site an interesting place to visit. It is going to be a long summer without playing with your ponies LOL

13th April 2006 Extra - Our rarest Roman silver find ever ???

Mark Lehman our Roman coin expert has been laboring away trying to further ID an earlier Roman silver find by Ark Gary. Here is his findings.

'The "Aha!" moment has arrived. The coin is not of the Flavian Dynasty after all - it's Galba - and a very rare coin!

I had been laboring under the misconception that Galba struck no coins with counter-clockwise legends - had been told so by folks who should know - but I suppose they were referring to the coins' obverses - however, as I check RIC I, I find that even obverse CCW legends aren't unknown for Galba - from the mint of Tarraco in Spain - and yours has one. Now Galba is a rare bird - any Galba is - but the Spanish mint pieces are rarer still, and with the CCW legends, rarer still!
So I hope you're not displeased that it took me so long to figure all this out - but I have not only never handled or seen one of these in person, I didn't even know they existed, and some of the best-known numismatists on the web didn't know it either.

Your coin, dating c. April, through late 68 A.D. is RIC vol I, #13. The obverse legend reads counterclockwise from about 4:00: GALBA - IMP and shows his laureate bust. The reverse reads CCW from about 9:30: DIVA AVGVSTA and shows the deified Livia (yes, that Livia, if you recall "I Claudius") standing left, holding a patera (ritual libation dish - full of poison?) and a scepter. This coin is accorded a frequency rating of "R2", meaning there were only about 10 - 15 recorded specimens at the time the book was written (1984).

Woo Hoo! What a find! The British Museum probably already has one, but despite its state of preservation, this is a very valuable coin!'

Mark

13th April 2006 Keep your votes coming - findoftheyear@colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk.

Still time to click on the link and vote for your find of the year or just send me a mail via the forum to vote. It is a very interesting result so far with the votes spread over half a dozen finds with one getting a 1/3 of all votes cast. Another great find out of the export bag was Mass Linda's silver Roman that looked intially like another bronze unit 3.16g 16.82mm, Mark Leham has ID'd it for us. I have posted a few more outstanding finds on March 2006 page.

That's a denarius of Faustina I, wife of Antoninus Pius whom she married during Hadrian's time. She died in 141 A.D. after giving birth to numerous children, including the future Faustina II, wife of Marcus Aurelius.
This extensive posthumous series in her honor is mostly from 147 A.D. and later .
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA. Draped bust rightr.
Rx: CONSECRATIO. Ceres standing left raising hand and holding torch.
SR 4593, RIC 382b, RSC 165a.

Denarius of Faustina I- 147AD

1560-1 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver half groat - Martlet Mintmark found by Chicago Keith - 1356- 61 Edward III hammered silver half groat - Canterbury mint found by Mass Bruce

12th April 2006 Stunning Celtic find - Updated hoard and treasure page with latest info from museum - posting more finds

Celtic Woad cosmetic grinder - boat shaped with suspension loop 14.5g - 45.12mm L x 9.88mm T found by Mass Linda

What is woad ? click here

It is always great fun going through the find bags after the hunts have finished getting ready for exporting as you can find some real treasures that were overlooked. This stunning gem found by Mass Linda is a classic example of a really personal Celtic artefact circa 1stC BC to 1stC AD of a woad grinder worn around the neck by a suspension loop.

1723 George 1st SSC silver shilling - quite a rare find - Late Victorian 1897 silver shilling

Payment for outstanding treasures and hoards has started to arrive for those bought by the local museum.

I dropped off Cal Marks silver ear scraper today as treasure to the museum and they reckon it is possibly medieval , the Romans did not make silver ones apparently !! They returned Ark Gary's medieval gilded piece with clear stone as it is not 10% gold by weight. Ohio Eric's hollow gold ring - feed back from the British museum is it not Bronze age but they have not been able to date it !! Boston Beau's decorated silver piece - 18thC foreign and not treasure. Ohio Keith's silver Charles 1st bust button face - not 300 years old and returning to finder. More individual info on the hoard and treasure page.

11th April 2006 Boston Bill finally gets his trophy

Mass Bruce took home and presented the engraved silver trophy to Bill for last years 'find of the year' for his 4thC Roman gold ring. The ring was eventually declared treasure and bought by Colchester museum. The winner of this years award is currently being voted for by the members. The winner of the 'coin hunter of the year' award will be announced when all exporting has been completed and the coins totaled up.

7th April 2006 Tenn Earl wins the Wayne memorial trophy - Voting time for find of the year - uploading more finds to March 2006 Page 6

The free holiday and Roman looking silver urn trophy next season goes to the guy who find this season gets the most votes from the members. It is important you vote for your personal favourite for any find on the following pages. Send your vote to findoftheyear@colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk. Closing date is 15thApril and winner announced shortly afterwards.

Sept 2005 Page

Sept 2005 Page 2

Oct 2005 Page 3

Nov 2005 Page 4

Feb 2006 Page 5

March 2006 Page 6

7th April 2006 Brilliant way to end the season.

Boston Beau was passing on business and popped in to meet the guys and have a couple of hours fix. He managed to find two great hammered silver, Henry VIII penny and Elizabeth sixpence but more importantly another 1844 Victorian gold half Sovereign making it 4 in two weeks from the same area. This area is noted for gambling so we have found the location now of the actual area they used .The two Georgian gold watch winders were also found in this location so some serious wealthy gamblers visited the spot. Another superb find in this area by Pheonix Reid was a complete Georgian fob seal with etched stone and the best condition one we have ever found. He also got an early Charles II milled 3 pence.

Georgian fob seal with woman in relief looking right - 1679 Charles II milled silver three pence

Tons of other great finds to clean up and post shortly

5th April 2006 Roman 19th legion ring ?

The Roman bronze ring found by Mass Bruce yesterday has XIX clearly showing and similar to the ring (left) from a dealers web site who are selling it as a ROMAN LEGIONARY RING OF THE XIX LEGION (ONE OF THE LEGIONS OF THE VARUS DISASTER). Further advice is being sought from the British museum to verify it's ID. If it does turn out to be an XIX ring then this is a fabulous find from a well know defeat on the Roman Army. Below is some history of the famous battle involving the XIX.

Legio XIX was a Roman legion levied (drafted into military service) in 41 or 40 BC by Augustus. They were destroyed in AD 9 in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The emblem of the XIX th legion is unknown, but probably was the Capricorn as other legions levied by Augustus.

The first assignment was in Sicily where Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey, was still rebelling. This revolt put Rome's grain supply in peril and it needed a harsh response.

In 30 BC, veterans of the XIX legion were settled near Pisa, and after that, the rest of the legion was allocated in the Rhine frontier with base camp at Cologne. The XIX legion participated in the German Campaigns of Drusus (13 to 9 BC) and Tiberius (8 to 5 BC). By the year 5 BC Germania was a Roman province and Publius Quintilius Varus was assigned as governor.

In September AD 9, Arminius, leader of the Cherusci and a Roman ally, set a trap. He reported a major revolt of one of the western tribes and suggested the return of both governor and his legions to the Rhine. Varus accepted the suggestion and went with the XVII, XVIII and XIX legions. The army was trapped near Osnabrück and was completely destroyed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Between 16 and 18, Germanicus, the leader of the Rhine armies, looked for the remains of the legions. His army buried the bodies and recovered the legions' eagles for Rome.

4th April 2006 Treasure updates.

Items reported as treasure to the museum will either go though the entire treasure process or be disclaimed i.e. no museum does wish to acquire the item and the finder gets to keep it.

Today silver thimble 'is possibly 17thC but will be disclaimed by the museum'.

Cal Randy's silver ear scraper - 'though it is very similar to Roman examples, it is probably medieval' and will now go to the British Museum to go through the treasure process and get a confirmed ID.

Cal Sarah's medieval spoon handle - 'It has been disclaimed but the BM who are currently analyzing it just to check if it is silver and not pewter or latten'

4th April 2006 Posted some more finds on March hunt page

Great Roman bronze signet ring find by Mass Bruce with the initial's XIX and an excellent open top silver decorated thimble. It appears to be 17thC by the style of the letters BB etched onto it and a markers mark of W. Reported to museum as potential treasure. Another solid gold decorated Georgian watch winder came from the same field as the last one !! Some rich guy was very careless LOL

3rd April 2006 Boston team do the double gold

Mass Linda picked up her 4th gold coin so far on these hunts with a stunning condition 1867 Victorian gold half Sovereign. Veggie Mike continued to hunt the path and a couple of hundred yards later got a nice early 1842 version.

I have managed to date and type some of the hammered silver from yesterday but I am still working on the ID of the rest found yesterday and will post pictures shortly.

1867 Victorian gold half Sovereign & 1842 half Sovereign

2nd April 2006 Great hammered silver day

The team hit a new 300 acre site yesterday and found 10 silver coins, 8 hammered and some are in stunning condition from Henry VII to James 1st, a date spread of 1485 to 1605. I am still working on the final ID of these coins as some appear to be rare ones and these issues are quite complex with their varieties. Some other nice bits were found including another solid gold watch winder, 4 later milled silver, 2 x George III 1817 sixpence's . William IIII 1834 sixpence, early bust Victorian milled silver sixpence, toy cannon, superb Tudor period button etc. An excellent days detecting.

1526- 55 Henry VIII 2nd coinage Laker bust E & D, 1508 Henry VII half groat - York Archb Bainbridge , 1604 James 1st sixpence

1st April 2006 Rarest Celtic gold found and Roman silver ear scraper day

North Thames type Celtic gold stater 5.54g - 16.93

Cal Mark got this superb Celtic stater just an hour before the end of this weeks hunt and on an area where no Celtic gold has been found before. I got feedback straight away from Philip at the CCI when I sent it off for recording and it appears to be one of the rarest Celtic gold coins found here so far.

'many thanks for this one, a rare one indeed. It's an example of VA 1509, also in the BM catalogue (BMC 350) and no. 34 in 'Coins of England'. It usually has a couple of S shapes on the obverse, although I can't see any traces of them here - the obverse is sometimes worn though. It seems to be a North Thames type, to judge from the few provenances available, but there are only six examples previously recorded so it is a rare type. I would guess quite early too, perhaps 40s BC. Certainly one of the best Celtic you've had so far, thanks! It'll be CCI 06.0195'.

cheers
Philip

Also what appears to be a superb twisted silver Roman period ear scraper has been reported to the museum as treasure yesterday. It was found by Cal Randy who was not aware of what a great find he had made at the time and also a Medieval shield mount he had lurking in his pouch. What a great way to end this weeks hunt !!

31st March 2006 Couple of nice silvers

Silver finds this week have been very scare but a couple of excellent ones were found yesterday. Cal Randy had worked his butt off all week hunting a Celtic site with limited success with just a couple of Roman bronzes . Yesterday he picked a huge 100 acre field in the middle of nowhere and got his first hammered silver of the trip a beauty James 1st hammered silver sixpence and a really nice Roman bronze . Cal Jeff also got a really nice early French Louis XIIII milled silver and a huge early decorated crotal bell. Another great find was a huge copper coin that initially looked like a George III Cartwheel twopence but Jeff had also found the 1797 cartwheel penny and comparing the two it was twice as thick and slightly smaller. Using the magic Locplus cleaner revealed a superb Parys Mine company 18thC token with a druid head. This was the face that launched a collecting mania and thousands of manufacturers,merchants and shopkeepers followed the lead.

1704 Louis XIIII milled silver - 1790 Parys copper penny token

30th March 2006 Cal Jeff finds dick yesterday !!

Cal Jeff probably got the find the year by a mile this afternoon with a 2000 year old Roman bronze winged Phallus pendant , Roman's were obsessed with big willies on statues, pots and jewelry. It is complete with etched foreskin and wings !! , brilliant find and all the jokes possible are being said tonight here, Jeff is cleaning the dirt of his dick, he was thrusting forward as he found it LOL

This has to be the most amusing find ever found here. It is the classic 'Winged Phallus' type in Bennets artefact book and you can see clearly on the back where the loop attachment wore through before it was lost.

Roman bronze winged Phallus pendant 27.87 - 49.02mm L

29th March 2006 Roman silver ID - posted a few more finds

Really neat artefact found yesterday by Cal Jeff appears to be a hinged clasp for either a bible or small chest. The gilded cross and quatrefoil design, like on early hammered silver makes it appear earlier but it is probably late Medieval in date. Mark Lehman has sent us this great info on the earlier Roman silver coin find

That's Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus and mother of Caracalla and Geta. The denarius reads IVLIA AVGVSTA on the obverse and DIANA LVCIFERA on the reverse which shows Diana standing left, crescent moon on her shoulders, holding a long torchdiagonally with both hands. This is a product of the mint at Rome c. 196 A.D. - during the reign of her husband. RIC IV, I 548, RSC 27, SR ('88) 1835, VM 15. Although RIC rates it "scarce", I don't believe it's really any scarcer than most other relatively common types.

Nice find!

Mark

28th March 2006 Catching up on photo's

Overall finds are pretty slim so far this week but some nice bits and pieces are showing up. Cal Mark however is sucking it up with a full range of finds including 5 silver and this stunning early decorated crotal bell with a makers mark of 2. Some interesting foreign coppers are also appearing including this weird looking French coin with a hole in the middle.

Roman silver sent to Mark for ID 2.92g, 18.87mm

Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus Rome c. 196 A.D

27th March 2006 Archived some of this news page - Roman coin feedback.

I have created a new page and archived some of this latest news to speed up load times. Links to old news at at the bottom of this page. Mark Lehman our Roman coin expert has again supplied some great information on the defaced Roman bronze found yesterday.

'A little tough to be sure from the images, but I believe that's Faustina II, the wife of Marcus Aurelius. If you rotate the obverse image 90 degrees clockwise, you see the characteristic hair-bun at the back of her neck. also, what's visible of the legend is probably: FA [VST] INA AVGVS [TA]. I can't really tell who the personification on the reverse might be. She was married to M. Aurelius in 145 A.D. and died in 175 A.D., So if this isn't a "DIVA" posthmous type, and it doesn't seem to be the sort struck under Antoninus Pius, this would date to 161-175 A.D.

I have never heard of "Memoriae Damnatio" on a coin of Faustina - but perhaps in Britain things were different? I'm thinking perhaps this might have something to do with the Antonine Wall? Or some campaign during the time of M. Aurelius that was very unpopular?'

Mark

27th March 2006 Getting a bit of a skunking LOL - posted a few more finds on March 2006 page

The Dakota crew are a hard to follow and made finding Celtic gold look easy last week LOL. The new Californian team are out there digging real hard but so far the finds have been very lean. A couple of Roman's, some nice early military buttons, 1800's milled silver and only one hammered silver so far an Elizabeth 1st groat. We have certainly found an area of high military activity as we have found over 30 Royal artillery 1790's pattern buttons and several bayonet frogs together with Napoleon wars buttons. This eagle button found yesterday is very interesting as it is not one of ours, does anyone recognize what country it is from ? The find on the right found by Cal Vicie is perplexing at it looks like a Georgian watch winder with a black engraved stone at it's centre but it also has the feel of a Roman disc brooch as it large ?.

Smallest coin ever found here 'Model Eight farthing' 1848 ??? 0.29g, 8.4mm - needs research as it is not in the Spinks coin book

24th March 2006 Offa Rex ID - Religeus find

Feedback from Martin at the Fitzmusem. North 310 Obv Offa Rex bust Ea or Eb, Rev Flower with 4 petals, Moneyers Dud, Ethilwald.

'This coin is now EMC 2006.0181. Unfortunately it is too late to include it in the book on the coinage of Offa to be published later this year, but it is still a very welcome addition to EMC.

The specimens of this type (Blunt 31, which is equivalent to part of North
310) in the book have weights between 0.97 g and 1.20 g. This new coin has the lowest recorded weight for the type, but the corrosion it seems to have suffered may be the explanation of this.

All the guys with the exception of Dakota Greg are off on a cultural visit to Colchester Museum, Greg is still out there on a mission for Celtic gold LOL. Great museum check out the link above. The neat religious Christ on the cross find is difficult to date but probably Georgian.

23rd March 2006 Another monster find

A huge site that previously we had no major artefact from so far in two years of detecting amazingly produced another monster find yesterday. Ark Gary was returning to a known house site hoping for some early milled coinage like a George 1st or a James II but on the way stumbled across this rare Offa Rex Saxon penny. These are rarer than hens teeth and this site will now deserve a lot more attention to see if he has uncovered a new Saxon area. I have sent the coin off to the Fitzmuseum for registration and feedback on the moneyer from Martin. Like Celtic gold the coin will get a unique EMC number and be available to view on their on line database of all early Medieval coin finds made in Britain. Interesting this Offa is the same diameter as the previous one found but well underweight by by 0.35g as the relief on the coin is a lot flatter.The Dakota crew continued their great run and got 4 hammered silver on another site including a stunning Elizabeth 1st sixpence and a possible rare Mary hammered silver penny. Dakota Greg found a solid gold Georgian watch winder which is neat find. I will try and get some more finds uploaded to the new hunt page this morning.

King Offa - 780 - 792 King of Mercia hammered silver .0.92g - 16.64mm EMC 2006.0181

22nd March 2006 Created a new March 2006 hunt page to speed up loading

Feedback on the Gallo Belgic Celtic gold find

'This'll be CCI 06.0190. Difficult to say exactly which class of uniface stater it is with this amount of wear - indeed it's quite unusual to see one which is this worn, it looks as though it knocked about a bit before being lost/deposited.'

22nd March 2006 Another great couple of finds - Feedback on Celtic 1/4's

Ark Jack found an important Celtic Gallo Belgic type full stater in an area where we have not found this type before. It is heaviest Celtic gold ever found here at 6.24g, the others are around 5.6g. Ark Gary found the Roman silver first and then called Jack over to see it and on the way dug the Celtic !!!. The stater has been sent to the CCI for registration and Philip has just sent back the information on the previous two 1/4 Celtic quarter gold staters registered yesterday.

'many thanks for these. The Gallo-Belgic 'boat tree' quarter will be CCI 06.0187, and the Clacton quarter 06.0188.

The G-B quarter is a lovely coin, looks very sharp. There is a distinctive class of these which have all the little crosses around the 'boat' - they're not uncommon, but not always as nice as this.

The Clacton quarter is one of those where the wear on the obverse makes it look as though there's a face - and perhaps the Celts who saw the coin thought that too, although it is based on the same boat that appears on the Gallo-Belgic coin. Again it's not particularly rare, at least not anymore - there are a good dozen or more from this obverse die, and probably this reverse too although it's difficult to be sure from this image'.

50BC Gallo Belgic Celtic gold stater 6.24g - 16.58mm CCI 06.0190

Antoninianus of Postumus

Mark Leham the Roman coin expert has sent this great feedback on Ark Gary's silver Roman coin find

'That's an antoninianus of Postumus - emperor of the Gallic Empire of Rome. The northern and western provinces split off on their own during the difficult and chaotic times in the 250's & 260's A.D. About the same time Valerian was being captured by the Persians - and subjected to various colorful humiliations - leaving his son Gallienus in sole charge of the empire, Postumus, who had been one of Gallienus' generals, was proclaimed emperor by his troops and found himself in a very favorable position of power. He therefore was the emperor of Spain, Gaul and Britain for almost a decade. His successors did not fare as well, and the Tetrici were eventually forced to abdicate in favor of Aurelian.

Interestingly, the Gallic Empire seemed to be wealthier than the empire at Rome, the quality of the Gallic coins is higher, as is their general level of silver - Postumus and successors managed to coin better silver, then billon, than did Gallienus under whose reign the antoninianus fell from an approximately 50% silver coin to a tiny, miserable, silvery-washed copper piece - some of the worst may not even have been silver-washed.

Your piece is the PAX AVG type and shows Pax standing left, holding an olive-branch and scepter.

With obverse legend IMP C POSTVMVS PF AVG it could be either mint of Lugdunum or Cologne, according to RIC, but there are many authorities who question the attributions to one or the other mint (assigning them on the basis of style) - it's probably best to say that the origin of most of the Gallic coins is unclear at best'.

Mark

Still got to find the time to upload more finds including a facinating large cut 1/4 milled silver that looks Dutch !!

21st March 2006 Double Celtic day

The Dakota team who last year found the first Addedomaros gold hoard have found Celtic gold again, Dennis got the Morini and Lowell got the Clacton type off two separate fields. Both these guys thoroughly deserved their success for pursuing the same pair of fields for 2 straight days for 10 hours per day. I have sent the finds off to the Celtic coin register to be logged and further comments from Philip de Jersey. The Morini is a superb example with some unique features on the reverse as is the Clacton type's reverse.

70BC Morini 'boat tree' Celtic gold 1/4 stater 1.45g, 11.61mm CCI 06.0187

50BC Trinovantes Celtic gold (Clacton type)1/4 stater - 1.13g, 13.71g CCI 06.0188

20th March 2006 Rare hammered silver find

Great days detecting produced what appears to be a very rare Henry IV 1399 - 1412 Heavy coinage Type F London mint hammered silver half groat with the distinctive star on neck. Two rarer Edward III pennies were also found together with two unusual early Revolutionary War period military buttons. I have posted some more pictures on Feb 2006 hunt page.

Another great find was this 2ndC Roman bronze disc brooch with enamel and gilding still showing.

2ndC Roman bronze disc brooch

NEWS Oct 2005 to March 2006

Viking silver strap end- Rare Roman silver coin finds

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

More Archived News Pre 2004

michelle@colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk