As the harvest is upon us, I decided to head back to the site where I found a broken Lizzie hammered a few weeks ago. Only to find that the grass had grown quite a few inches since my last visit. It was detectable, but I decided to have a look around to see how the harvest was going. The wheat fields are still in crop but it looks like its ripe for cutting soon. With my options running low I had a look at one last field to find it cut and ready for a good search. The stubble was quite high in places and I’m not a big fan of stubble, but this certain field has given up some nice finds in the past so was well worth a go.

I arrived at the site at about 10:30 am and by the time I was ready to detect the time was approaching 11 o’clock. Armed with my XP Goldmaxx Power I was ready to start. I made the decision to switch the machine into silencer 1 and set my sensitivity to the 12 o’clock position. As I knew I wouldn’t be able to get the coil head low to the ground as I would like, I kept my swing speed slow and careful.

The signals on this particular field are never in abundance, and you have to work it to get a decent target. My first find turned out to be a run of the mill button, and as usual I came home with quite a few buttons.

When I first gained permission on this site, the farmer was telling me some of its history over a cup of tea, and he mention that there used to be ‘hovels’ on this field. He gave me a rough area where he thought the used to be, and after learning this information, I always find myself heading in that direction.

On my way over to the hovel area I found some more buttons and also a large lead pot mend. In times gone by, our ancestors would use lead to mend their pot or pans and when we find these mends, it is easy to recognize the shape. Normally the mends I find are in circular shape with a smaller lead circle on top.

After an hour of not finding very much apart from coke and lead dross, I changed direction and headed to the other side of the field. A few feet into my new line, I got a good signal under a pile of straw. I gave the straw a scrape with my foot and out jumped this little toad (or frog?) I gave me a bit of a fright as it was the last thing I was expecting to see. I carefully picked him up and took him to the edge of the field where the grass was long and damp. It was a very hot day, and I didn’t want him to get cooked or eaten by a bird.

The find the toad was sitting on turned out to be another piece of lead, but karma must of thanked me as a couple of feet away I got a great signal which turned out to be a tiny hammered coin. It measures 10 mm in diameter and the inner circle measures 7mm. I have a feeling its an Edward farthing, from the London mint.

After the excitement and giving my thanks to the Detecting Gods lol, I decided I would stay in the same area and see what I could winkle out of the ground. I set my bag down on the edge of the field as a marker, and set about giving the area a good search. I stayed in the same area for the rest of the day and the finds I managed to make were great.

Even though I spent my day in a small part of the field, it was a really enjoyable session. I can not wait until the land has been ploughed and rolled so I can spend some more quality time on on there. As soon as I have researched the finds I will update this page with their identifications. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my scribbles. Until next time,
Happy Hunting

Well today I thought I would return to the same field as last week, where I was fortunate enough to find the broken Lizzie six pence (See here).

Today’s search couldn’t have been any more different though, as my last visit to this site, I was getting loads of signals, whereas on this occasion, I found it quite hard to get a decent one! Same machine and same settings. Just a different day. It goes to show you how certain conditions can play a part out in the field.

I began detecting at about 10am and instead of going straight to the spot where I found last weeks hammered. I decided to give the field a rough going over, and I planned on using the Union Jack pattern.
On my first length up the edge of the field I only managed one decent signal and it turned out be this lovely Livery Button with a flowers design. I really like picking up buttons like this as they can be very unusual.

It took me about another 45 minutes until I was starting to get my ear in, so to speak. I was beginning to pick up more signals many of them small buttons and bits of lead dross.

Unfortunately about 80% of this field is littered with the dreaded coke. The machine I use is a XP Goldmaxx power which is known to give a good signal for it. The GMP does have an Auto mode, in which the detector discrims  against coke. The only down side to this is that I believe the machine becomes less sensitive to small targets such as cut half’s and other smaller hammereds. So I prefer to persevere with the coke and after time I begin to learn the difference between the tones. I still dig them just to be sure as I have only had the machine for 4 months and I’m still learning it.

Another one of the lessons I’m learning as well  is the iron tones. When I now get one of those ‘iffy’ tones I am now 90% sure if a target is iron or not. One of my targets today turned out to be a very interesting iron find. I got a good signal on this and I’m sure that most machines would of gave one too. Its a 14th-18th century cannon ball, or grape shot. I have been told on the Detectorist forum that it is from  a serpentine cannon. It weighs in at 219g and is 40 mm in diameter.

The cannon ball is a nice and different piece from the normal musket balls that I tend to find, so finding this really made my day.

When I started detecting this morning the weather was perfect. With a nice bit of sunshine but not too hot. With my head down and concentrating, I didn’t notice the huge black clouds heading for me. The wind began to pick up and I could smell the rain in the air. There is one very large tree right at the the edge of the field, on the other side to me! I decided I better make my way to the cover of the tree just in case the rain did come. As soon as I made this decision, down came the rain! And I was soaked to the bone. All of a sudden a huge crash of thunder hit and made me jump in fright, I must of jumped three feet in the air, ha ha
After having a couple of cups of coffee and a cigarette, the rain calmed down a little and I carried on with my search.

My next two finds of note was two lead tokens. The first I believe could be a cheap home made love token. On one side are the initials V.F and on the other side the initials W.H. I have never seen a love token like this before, but it does look like some kind of token.

Here is the other lead token. On one side it has the initial H and on the other side, is a cross made up of pellets. As in the picture before, it is rather hard to see the initials. It is my photography skills unfortunately because in the hand you can see the detail clearly.

Some people don’t like to find too much lead, but I am always happy to find it on a site, as it shows that there has been activity there. Lead has been used for centuries, as it is such a easy metal to use and ply, due to its low melting point. The tokens wasn’t the only lead finds I made today. I also found a couple of bag/sack seals and lead weights.
Suppliers of certain goods such as fertilizer and seed would seal their bags or sacks with one of these lead seals. It would provide the customer a receipt as such, it would show who made the produce and where.

I always seem to find quite a lot of buttons on this field, and today was no different. I did find some nice examples, and one in particular made me smile. Although it is not a button as such, it is more of a stud if anything. It still has the leather attached around it, maybe because it is not that old.

It is a stud from a piece of equestrian use. It has the word ‘Dickies’ through a horse shoe.   I know that ‘dickies’ make many work and PPE Clothing, so they must have a line in the  equestrian field also.

One of the great aspects of the GMP is its ability to find with ease very small targets. I will get a great signal through my headphones that I am imagining it to be an average size find. But it turns out to be tiny. Here is a selection of the tiny finds I found today.

So there’s another dig report for you to read over, and I hope you enjoy reading it.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to read these reports,
Until next time… Happy Hunting

I love this time of year when the farmers start to begin the harvest. When I get out onto a newly cut field, I feel like I’m on a completely new field. I have been lucky that with the last few days of extremely warm and dry weather, the farmer has cut two of the grass fields. When I have this whole site to detect, I rarely go on these fields. But as these were the only fields available, I jumped at the chance to have a swing on there. 

I arrived at the site at 11:30 and walked the short distance to the field. When I have detected this certain field, I have only ever found ‘modernish’ finds, mainly Georgian and Victorian bits, such as thimbles and buttons. So I wasn’t expecting anything like hammereds and the such.

Today I was using my XP  Goldmaxx Power, it was the first time I had used it on this site, as I only purchased the machine at the beginning of the year. I knew that this certain field held quite a bit of coke and I wasn’t too sure how I would get on. One of the first things I noticed was how many good signals I was getting. Lead and the usual finds like shot gun caps that we all find was all over the place.I really enjoy detecting these types of sites and it keeps your mind focused and ‘on the ball’ so to speak.  One of my first finds turned out to be a thimble. It has the top broken off, but it was still a good start in my book.  After about ten yards, I had recovered five grotty buttons and a large Georgian copper coin, and I was really starting to get in the swing of things. My next find turned out to be quite a good one in my eyes. I think its a lead token of some kind. On one side it has a Crown on top of something and on the other, two letters above what I think looks like a figure of some kind. As soon as I get a positive ID I will update this site. 

I had almost got to the other side of the field when I hit the ‘coke’ patch. My GMP was going a bit crazy. So I decided to flick it into the Auto mode, which stops the detector from picking up coke. This can be a Godsend in situations like this, but I don’t really like using it, as I worry that I am making the machine less sensitive to smaller targets. Whilst in this bad area I found a huge lead weight, with an iron ring at the top. It has been made into a bell shape and it gave off one hell of a signal. It also made my finds pouch hang down to my knees.
I also managed to find another thimble but this one was completely squashed. The time was getting on and I had to leave the field at 2pm because of arrangements I had, it was about 1:30 and I decided to make my way over to the entrance side of the field. As I have mentioned previously, this field has never thrown up a hammered coin, so my next find took me by surprise. As I lifted out the clod of soil, the find dropped out. I couldn’t believe my eyes, as it looked like a cut quarter hammered. But a very large one. Once I had picked it up, I could see that it was in fact a coin of Elizabeth I. Only it had had a chunk taken out of it, I presume by a plough shard and the remains was bent in half.

It’s a very worn coin, and I don’t think an ID of the Mint will be available, but I believe it to be a Sixpence of Elizabeth I 1558-160. It was only just over a week ago that I had found my first Lizzie coin, so I was very pleased with the find. It also showed me that the field has more to give than I had first thought.

This find had rounded off my couple of hours out very nice indeed. I decided to make my way back to the car, and had already made up my mind that I would spend a whole day on this field as soon as I can get out again.

My total for this small session was, 2 Musket balls, a rather nice small buckle, 1 lead token, 3 Georgian copper coins, the large lead weight, The Lizzie hammered, countless buttons and lead dross, and a couple of unidentified pieces.


Once home, and after cleaning up my finds, I set the task of unbending the hammered coin. I used the process of annealing. This is where you heat up the metal to a cherry red temperature, quickly cool the metal and slowly unbend the coin. Only straightening it a small bit at a time.

I am very happy with the outcome, considering how bent it was at first.

So roll on my next outing to see what else there is to be found. I will do my best to carry on writing about my detecting trips, so keep a look out for my next instalment. Once again thank you for taking the time to read this,

Unti Next Time Happy Hunting

22nd July 2012

I must say, I never manage to get out detecting three weeks on the trot. With work and a young family, I never manage to find the time to get out. But today was the third time out and what a great morning it turned out to be.

I met Jimmy at my first RallyUK dig in September 2010. When I had just started metal detecting. He was using a Garrett Ace 250 and I was using an ancient Viking 7, and we became good friends and since that day Jimmy has often been kind enough to take me out on his permissions. Today we headed to his ‘Market’ site. Jimmy calls it his market site as he has had so many coinage of various ages from it. It is a large pasture field of around 20 acres and today it was a joy to dig, what with the rain Essex has had lately, the ground was nice and soft to dig.

I met up with Jimmy at about 7:30 AM and by the time we had got to the site it was 8 o’clock. After a quick natter we made our way to the field which is surrounded by beautiful old trees. These trees are so huge it would take ten of me just to get my arms around them.

My luck was in today in a big way. After about half an hour of wandering around my GMP gave me a really nice signal. I was expecting it to be another bullet case as the site was littered with them and I had already dug up 4 to my name. But I was in for a big surprise when i removed some of the mud from the hole. Because there, sitting in the clod was Queen Elizabeth staring up at me.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, and quickly shouted over to Jimmy who was only a few feet away. My first ever ‘Lizzy’ penny, and what a cracker it is too. Its a Queen Elizabeth 1st Penny, minted in London between 1582-1584, which you can tell by the ‘A’ Mint-mark.

I was over the moon at this stage, and my day was made a good one in such a short space of time.

After the excitement, we picked up our machines and made our start once again. Jimmy’s Deus was finding him a lot of lead and musket balls. I always like finding lead on a site as you know that there has been activity on it. As I mentioned earlier, the site is littered with empty bullet shells, these casings give such a good signal, that you have to dig them. After about an hour of finding empty shells and lead dross, along with the other routine finds, I found a nice condition Georgian copper and another Musket ball.

Jimmy said that he wanted to head over to the other part of the pasture field, which was separated by an electric fence. We crossed over the fence and re-stared our search once again. Soon as we got into the newer section, my Goldmaxx was picking up more iron signals, and Jimmy told me that the owner of the land had told him that here once stood a Medieval Manor House which had burnt down in the 17th Century. The lay of the land had lumps and bumps here and there, and this is where Jimmy believed that they had moved the rubble of the old house. Within 10 minuets of searching in this section, my Goldmaxx gave me a good signal, but the good signal was quickly followed by an iron one. Normally I wouldn’t dig such signals, but because the ‘good’ tone was so good, I thought maybe it could be a good target above a bad one. So dig I did and this is where may day turned from a great one into an excellent one.

It was my second hammered of the day. A Scottish Hammered of King James VI of Scotland and the 1st of England. So not only had I found my first Queen Elizabeth 1st coin I found my first Scottish coin. Like I said, an excellent day!!

The coin is a tad worn but you can make out a Crowned Thistle on one side and a Crowned shield on the other. With a Rampant Lion inside the shield.

The Scottish Hammered was to be my last coin find of the day. But I was very lucky to find some nice Artefacts throughout the day too.



One of my favourites being this small Medieval book clasp.

And here is a set of broken nut crackers. I just love the decoration on these and the photos do not do it justice.

Thanks for a great day
So that’s my lot from a great Morning out with great company. I would like to thank Jimmy for being kind enough to take me to such a special site.

Here are some more pictures of my finds and from the day. I hope you enjoy reading this and looking at the pictures

Happy Hunting
Carper

15th July 2012 Pertenhall, Bedford

Well firstly, I must warn you that I have no pictures of stunning finds to show you. Unfortunately it wasn’t my turn. Although I did have a great day out once again with a great bunch of friends.

I arrived at QM’s house at 6:40am (ten minuets late) and we made our way over to Bishop Storford, to our friend John’s house. John had kindly offered to drive us to the dig site. We made good time and got to Pertenhall at about 8:15am. I was surprised to see so many cars and people there already, and knew that after last weeks amazing finds surfacing, it would attract more people to the dig.

Richard and Gill Evans who run Central Searchers had managed to secure the field from last week and also the 35 acre field next to it for us to search.

Once we had parked up and paid our monies, we made our way to the snack wagon for breakfast and tea. After chatting with friends we got all our gear ready and made our way out to the field ready for the off. 278 people had made it to the dig today. An amazing amount of people, and as last weeks field had took a bit of a hammering, about 200 made their way to the 35 acre field. So as you can imagine, it looked a bit cramped.

Seeing this, me and QM decided to take a walk up the edge of the field, to get out of the throng of people and find some space. Soon it was time for the off and we made our way across the field.

It took quite some time for my GMP to register a signal for me to dig and unfortunately it turned out to be a piece of foil, a signal that repeated for much of the morning. Throughout the day I did manage to find a broken button, a small pewter ball button, a lead token of some sort and a lot of lead dross. You cant win them all I suppose but I did see some beautiful finds and have had a very enjoyable day out with some great people. I took the time to have a play with my new camera and took some pictures of the day.

I hope you enjoy reading the report and the pictures. Until next time, Happy Hunting

I had a brilliant dig today with the Central Searchers club. The club organizers, Richard and Gill Evans had managed to gain permission for us to detect on some new land. Surprisingly for this time of year the land was ‘rolled’ and ready for drilling. We had roughly 45 acres to detect on and I was extremely excited to get going.

From my house, the site is around 100 miles in total. I’m never put off by the distance’s of these digs, as they are always well run and you get to meet a great bunch of people.
I had arranged to travel with my friend “QM” who offered to drive. Luckily for me, I only had to drive the 25 miles to his house and get going. I met QM at 6:30 am and off we set for rainy Bedford. The run was a good one and we made it in just under 90 minutes. Upon arriving at the dig site, we was welcomed by the usual sight of Richard snack wagon and a few detectorists who was as eager as us and arrived an hour and half early…Hahaha

The weather forecast had been all doom and gloom the last few days with flash floods and torrential downpours all over England. Luckily for us the rain had missed the dig site and the ground was only mildly wet and sticky.

After our usual breakfast of bacon rolls and tea, and talking to old and new friends we got our gear ready and dressed in our water proof clothing. At around 9:30 we got the go ahead to begin our quest for treasure,  (normally buttons and shot gun caps for most detectorists over the Country) and a rabble of  about 100 enthusiastic hunters made their way across the field.

The going was OK, with the ground not being too sticky and my XP Goldmaxx Power gave me a nice “dig me” signal. It turned out to be the remains of a roads ‘Cats Eye’.

After lots of walking in all directions and becoming 6″ tall with the mud on the bottoms of my boots, I started to get more signals. One of my best finds of the day was an an almost complete Crotal Bell. The only missing piece is the suspension loop which would of attached the bell to its owner. I imagine this happened in antiquity, and being the reason why the bell was lost?

At around midday and after sampling some of Richards finest “Richie’s Curry and Chips”  a Cajun Chicken dish, I set off out into the field once again. I always make my way back to the snack wagon. Not just for Riches great food, but also for some inspiration. As you get to hear the rumours of what has been found already. I was told of a Gold Quarter Stater and numerous hammered coins being found all over the place, and I was ready to go and find my share.

At 1pm the heavens opened for an hour or so and I found out my water proofs were not as water proof as I had thought. With water seeping through the seems on my jacket, I was soaked!! I made my way over to QM, and when I was about 30 feet from him, he stood up and shouted over to me “Dan, I’ve found a Hammered”. Pleased for my mate and wanting to see the find I went over to see what he had found. It turned out to be a cut quarter.

QM has an amazing talent of being able to read and identify Hammered coins. And he does this on many occasions for everyone on the BMD forum. He told me straight away that all he could get from it, is that its a London mint. As he can see the ‘ON L’.

Times getting on!

The time was about 3:30 pm, and I was starting to hear of all the wonderful finds being made. Roman Silvers, Staters, Brooches, and all I had for my efforts was the Bell and a nice small thimble. I was desperate for something to be worthy of the distance travelled and I made my way over to where QM had found his cut quarter. The GMP gave me a good signal right next to a ball of mud, and it seemed as if the find was under the ball. I was really hoping for it to be something nice. When I had located the find and held the ‘clod’ in my hand, I was just wishing “Please be something good”

I wiped away the dirt and there in my hand was my first cut Hammered.


I had dreamed of finding a cut coin since I started this hobby in 2010. I had sold detectors that in general I was happy with, apart from the confidence in its ability in finding cut coins.

The GMP proved to me I had done the right thing in my mind, and I was as happy as can be. I shouted over to QM and gave him a thumbs up with a big grin and he knew what I had found.

QM style

Using his great skills in ID’ing coins, he told me that he believed it to be an early class short cross, and that he thought the Moneyer to be WILLELM. He told me to upload a picture of the coin onto the BMD site and he would give it the full works, QM style.

This is what he says of the coin……


“its not easy as it some what worn but I’m 99% sure I’m right …we start with the reverse …we can see WILLEL …THIS CAN BE SEVERAL MONEYERS …either WILLELM …or WILLELM B …WILLELM L or WILLELM T ….the last 3 minted in London on class 5a/b/c class coins which would be date around 1204/5-1208/9 [ king John ] ..now I know you will be well pleased with that as that would be your earliest hammered coin …but I believe this is even earlier the 1ST moneyer I mentioned plain old WILLELM minted classes in London 1a-1b 2-5c …Lincoln 1b-2 …..York 1b and Northampton 1a-1b as well as other classes and mints a busy lad our WILLELM was ..now the reason iv mentioned these classes is because I believe your coin is a class 1b …. the style of the E and X and no pellets in hair curl …and the large round eye …all lead me to class 1b …making the date 1180-1189 and more likely HENRY 2ND”

So that makes it my earliest ever coin. To say I was pleased is an understatement. It had made the journey and getting soaked to the skin worth. But would I be disappointed if I didn’t find it?? Not really as its part and parcel of the hobby. Getting out for the day with a great friend and meeting like minded people makes the day worth it. I would like to thank Richard and Gill Evans for a great organized dig and also to my great friend QM for the company

Here’s some more pictures of my finds and also of the day. Thanks for taking the time to look and read this report.

7th May 2012 (Own Permission)

Not long been back from a couple of hours out this morning. It turned out to be a very good couple of hours. I dropped in to say Hi to the farmer and to check on how his crops are doing. It turns out that all the fields on this site are high in crop, so there wasn’t many places to search.

Needing my fix I decided to search around the edge of one particular field that has thrown up some interesting finds in the last year.

Within ten minuets of searching I was lucky enough to find a silver hammered coin. It looks to be an Edward and I can make out the CIVITAS LONDON making it a London Mint.

Its a touch worn and clipped but I was very happy to unearth it.

My luck didn’t stop there. I unearthed two nice small buckles a tiny button with a load of crosses for the design and my favourite find of the day….. A medieval Sword Pommel. Here is a near identical one on the UKDFD database Click Here

So all in all it was a very productive couple of hours. Thanks for looking