Luck comes and goes, with long droughts, followed by literal droughts and undiggable land.
This year, the farmer decided not to plough my favourite field, and with it being near impossible to dig, begrudgingly, I decided to revisit another field on the same permission that had been ploughed. I’d detected it the previous year with very little success, but without another option, I headed there and invited fellow detectorist and Hub member, ShaggyBFC (Andi), along for the day.
The field is huge, so we decided that the best strategy would be to work through it in sections. Conveniently, telegraph poles run the length of the field, giving us an easy way to mark each section.
Off we went.
Ten minutes in… a Roman coin.
Not a great one. You could make out a little detail, but it was enough to suggest there was history there.
Five minutes later… another.
This time, much better detail, at least on one side. I could clearly see the she-wolf with Romulus and Remus.
I was over the moon.
Now, I have to admit, I’m not exactly used to finding Roman coins with lots of detail, so I’m very easily pleased!
Five minutes later… another.
And even more detail.
By the end of the session, we had found nine Roman coins in a relatively small area, with each one seemingly better than the last. Then I found a stunning Constantine I / Sol AE follis.
We returned for a second visit and found even more Roman coins, including an incredible Allectus quinarius.
By the third visit, however, the field had gone quiet.
Andi had a much better day than me, finding five more coins to my one grot, so we decided to call it a day.
As we walked the short distance back towards the cars…
Beep.
Not a particularly good signal, but one of those signals you dig anyway.
Boom.
A beautiful Roman coin with loads of detail.
I showed it to Andi, and then noticed a tiny glint of silver on the bust.
“That could be a denarius, you know,” Andi said.
“Noooo… it can’t be. It’s green! Could be a contemporary fake?”
Andi pulled out his trusty squirty bottle.
One squirt.
The bust suddenly lit up silver.
Later confirmed by Allectus as a Geta denarius.
My first.
In total, we have had 27 Roman coins that are soon to go through the treasure process as a potential scattered hoard! Incredible!
A denarius had been on my bucket list since I started this incredible hobby.
But it turns out these past three weeks had a bit of a bucket-list theme…
Just a few days later, I found a Papal Bulla, another dream find.
And then today…
The unthinkable.
We returned to the same field and spent an hour around the potential hoard site with absolutely no luck. We then moved to a different field, but after a while I shouted over to Andi that we should go back to the “hoard field” and try a completely new section.
He agreed.
We’d ventured out from the first section previously, but it had been incredibly quiet.
Still, we set off, each heading in a different direction.
Five minutes in, I got a scratchy signal.
I dug it up and pinpointed it down to a small ball of mud.
I broke the ball in half.
And within a fraction of a second, I shouted at the top of my lungs:
“ANDI!!!”
Shortly before falling backwards onto my arse in complete disbelief.
(Subtle.)
Andi came galloping over with the speed of a man half his age.
“What have you got?!”
I opened my hand.
Nestled perfectly inside that little ball of mud was a gold Quarter Stater.
A moment I will never, ever forge. With a great mate to share it with.
For the most part, this hobby tests our patience.
It teaches you to accept the droughts, the rubbish signals, the endless bits of canslaw and the days when you wonder why you bothered leaving the house.
But every now and then…
It really is the stuff of dreams.
Good luck out there, everyone!
