Busy Day

I have been keeping my favorite field until last, but I noticed other farmers ploughing and drilling so I went down on Sunday and gave it a go. I did not find any artefacts but I was kept busy with digging. In total I dug 206 of the signals I received. The item I recovered the most was Lead 1.67 kg of it..

I did get an interesting button, a early 19th century Russian bag or bale seal and a broken silver locket (possibly) Victorian.

I am not a lover of coins but the coins that came out were few. I have left them at work but I think it was three copper halfpennies and three silver coins.. One 1928 Six pence, one 1790 George II maundy 2 pence piece and one Elizabeth I sixpence 1566 (in poor condition) The interesting thing about the Eliz. I sixpence is... it is the size of a three pence coin. The entire legend has been clipped away up to the beaded circle. The queen's head is totally worn but the obverse shows the shield and the date. Pictures to follow later.

As I have said not alot to show for 6 1/2 hours detecting, but each signal could have been an artefact.  In the past this field has produced three lead seal matrix, a Roman button and loop fastener and a medieval enamelled pendant decorated with a unicorn. 

The weather was beautiful, the field was stubble and I was able to take my car on and park well down the field. No one to bother me all day so you can guess that i enjoyed my day. 

What it is all about

This is why I enjoy my hobby so much and is, to me, what it is all about.

Yesterday Friday 16th September 2011 I was invited to join a fellow detectorist for a day on one of 'his' fields.

The fields had just been harvested of a crop of Sugar Beet. This is the first time I had been on a field straight after the crop had been removed, I will think twice before doing so again :) The ground was solid there was not a drop of moisture to be seen. Still we gave it a go, he told me this was one field he had waited all year to get on, so that sounded promising. The first hour or so we had a few buttons some odd scraps of lead and a Georgian Halfpenny. I got a good clear signal and started to dig or rather tried to but the ground was solid. The problem with my detector setting is that sometimes the loud good signals turn out to be Iron at some depth. Well at about 4 inches and 10 minutes later, I still had not found it! The good signal continued and I was sure it was not iron. I got my associate to check with his machine which was a better model than mine and he confirmed the signal was good but said it was likely to be a button or cartridge case.

I sat myself down on the soil and started to dig carefully because I still could not pinpoint the signal. This meant it was deeper still.

I got a faint signal on the probe and did my best to dig around it bearing in mind the hardness of the soil. When I was quite sure I had surrounded the signal with a small V shape trench I eased the central clump of soil and straight way I wish I had my camera. There on the edge of the clump was a piece of decorated copper alloy. I was over the moon because this meant an artefact and not a coin. I do love artefacts :)
I showed the item to my associate and straight away he went in with the finger nails. I had to stop him, I not hurting it he said just getting the dirt of. "No you are not I said , It can wait until I get home."
" Don't you want to see what it is?" he says.. I said "It looks Saxon to me, possibly a medieval strap end!"
Well that was enough to make me put it away. Until this morning, when I put it to soak in Distilled water. Within a very short time the soil and what I thought was rust had fallen away to reveal (and don't quote me on this) a cast copper alloy Saxon Stirrup Mount with some decoration. I have not figured out what it is but there are similar ones illustrated on the Internet that say a figure with snakes. I cannot see it myself :)
I have taken this image and replaced it back into some fresh distilled water until I prepare it for Laura McLean our local FLO (Finds Liaison Officer). By prepare it, I mean to allow it to dry and then store it away from any more exposure to moisture.


.

CatchUp Time

I have not been here for a while, it is so easy to get sidetracked on the Internet.

Well I have been back to the Not so New Fields recently and spent a couple of days on one field in particular. The reason! Simple really, I had not been on this one before.
The field had been a cereal crop and was now just stubble with large circular bales of straw. I, like many others find stubble hard going until it has rotted well. However the up side is with the bales still on the field I can use them as guides and markers to prevent too much close over detecting.

This field started to produce copper coinage from the late 1790's into the mid Victorian period, with a scattering of lead bag or bale seals and a couple of lead labour tokens or tallies. A couple of the tokens are similar with a cross and pellets on one side and blank of the reverse. Because I am not a lover of coins (although they are handy for dating the other finds nearby) I am always happy to see artefacts or parts thereof. The tokens are a type of coinage but are more borderline between the two.

Other fields on the same farm have given up some milled silver coinage of a similar period, but this one has yet to give me a 'silver' coin with the exception of this one.

 

Which I am glad to classify as an artefact. The coin has been completed worn or rubbed clear of any of the original features and in their place there has been letters and names . Mainly, Watkins which has been struck twice along with R.Law and G McD. On the reverse there are a few marks and letters but not as many. The size is approximately 24 mm in diameter and weight 3 grams. The edges are irregular and the coin /disc is thin. This suggests it may have been a William III sixpence although the size is too large, they were 21mm. It is too light to be a shilling unless alot of the coin was clipped away?

Another more interesting piece ( To me it is :)...) is a lump of lead.

Not much to look at but it just goes to prove that you must look at everything before you dis-guard it.

When you glance at it it appears to be just a lump of lead but when I cleaned the soil from it I noticed the following stamped into the back.

It is hard to see what the stamp is but at first it appears to be a shield with 3 lines/ fish /cannons /Seaxes. There is also what I thought was two  cannon balls below.

So I applied a bit of flour and got the following details showing.

The 3 items now look like cannon or seaxes but the two cannon balls now look like letters. I blew out the flour and using a bit of floured blue tack got the following impression.

If I find out some more I shall add the details here.

Thanks for looking.

I cannot say why this was done but I like to imagine that is was done by someone trying to make a copy of a seal to use in a dishonest way!!! The story it could tell...If only!

Keeping busy

I have been kept busy on the 'new' farm over the last two days. Now I just have to find the good stuff..



Seriously though I have been enjoying doing land that has not been detected on before. I have need able to mark off areas and do them as thoroughly as I can. The results have been much the same as the first field, a variety of buttons and coins mainly, with a mixture of odds and ends.

I did find my largest lead seal or rather 2 one large and flat the other large and very thick approx 1 cm.



I also recovered my second scabbard hook or 'Frog' a nicer copy than the first.

Small is Beautiful

When I returned to the first field for the second time, it was raining quite heavily so whatever signal I got I was determined to make sure I recovered the item.
There was one small signal that kept eluding me, everytime I moved the sticky soil I lost the signal but I stuck at it here it is.



Very small but never the less as it dried out I noticed it was decorated so I cleaned it a little and then scanned it to enlarge it to this.



It may not be old but I like it non the less.

I have had another piece of luck on this field, again something small.




A silver cut quarter of King John (24 December 1167 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death. So this coin dates from around 1199 to 1216 and is in what I would call very good condition.

Another fine day.

This Sunday gone, I met up with a new detecting partner or rather someone who had always wanted to have a go at detecting. I went to a different field and detected alone for the whole morning, not alot compared to the other field but I did find my best livery button to date and I was still kept quite busy with signals.
This is the button,



I hope you find it as interesting as I do and with so much of the silver plating remaining it gives us a chance to image what it must have been like when it was new!
The button was made by C.PITT & Co., 50 St. Martin, London, so this dates it to pre 1895.

Always interesting, if you can identify them? Are lead seals used to seal bags of grains, rolls of cloth etc.



Here is one I found on this field that I hope to idetify with help of this great reference site. Bag Seals

This is the small mixture of the other bits that I found.






I did manage to find a small silver coin which is too badly worn to identify, but I would make a guess at a Victorian sixpence.

And this crotal bell with the pea intact but the handle broken. I always like finding these.

Return

I went back to the field yesterday afternoon, but despite my trying hard I could not beat the rain. At one stage there was thunder and lightning directly overhead, so I took shelter. I did find a few bits, including a button back marked Compton and Son, London. Although it is nothing to look at, it does help piece the jigsaw together.




and a more interesting smaller tunic or jacket button. with an image of Brittania standing with a Lion stood with it's paw on a globe, behind her. The initials around the edge are B.I.S.N.Co which with research I have identified as British India Steam Navigation Company which was formed in 1856.



I can only assume that this was also lost in the streets of London and transported up here mixed in with the street fertilizer. This seems the most likely answer to all the London connections and it has been confirmed by the land owner that this did indeed happen. They used to transport Straw to London and the barge would return with the fertilizer. The other items were a few pieces of lead and oddments of non ferrous.