renault.rich

Hi I Live in Devon and have been metal detecting for around 2 years now. On Wednesday I decided to travel up to a friend’s farm which is not to far from Silchester to do abit of metal detecting. Because I live in Devon which did not really see much roman activity I have never found anything roman but I have always looked forward to the day when would finally find something roman and im hoping that today is today lol. While I was on his land I found two coins, the one in the photo and I will also add a photo of the other one once I have cleaned it up. Please help I have looked all over the internet but I cannot find anything similar but to be honest I done have a clue what I am looking for, it would be great if someone could identify and date this for me. Please tell me its roman lol Many thanks Richard

It sounds like a good place to hunt where you are I wish there was more history round where I am. I have been metal detecting for around two years now and I do have a good collection of finds and lots of coins but my oldest coin is only around 300 years old my detector is a Garrett GTI 1500 and yes it is great at discriminating iron out, to be honest I have never really had it set to find iron there’s just to much of it in the ground and it always just seems to be junk when I do dig it. Well if you do ever get back into it and would like some company I would be quite happy to drive up to chesher every now and then I like to get away and do a little detecting over a weekend etc. My father is also into metal detecting and some times he comes along with me with his detector, I also believe it’s more fun when there are two of you. I have been looking on the internet to find some roman sites that I could mybe go to hunt at but I have found that the moment anyone finds anything roman in an area the national trust or English heritage rush in and make it a scheduled monument. It would be good to find a virgin site that is not Scheduled. Many thanks Richard

Wow that sounds great your getting me excited about going now I would love to come away with something roman, so do you really think I have high chances of finding any roman coins or do you think much of the area would have already been gone over dozens of times by metal detectorists. Also where do you think the best place to try is I mean most of the town within the roman walled area has now been built on so the only places really available are the areas surrounding cirencester out side of the old roman wall but will this still be a good place to hunt or did the Romans mainly keep to the inside of there walled area. Also yes I think I will take a vist to the museum and I will also report anything I find to them plus keep an eye out for the manicure set you found. Many thanks Richard

I would be so happy even just to find one roman coin or brooch as I have never found anything roman yet there is not much history down here in Devon and next to no roman activity. Even the big excavations done by archeologists 36 miles away from me in Exeter found hardly any roman metal work but I am going away up to cirencester next mouth for 2 days and I am really hoping to come back with a few roman coins for my collection the only problem I face is once im there is trying to get permission off local farmers to let me onto there land and my past experiences with farmers has not been very good most of the time the answear from them is no so I just hope I don’t waist my 2 days wondering around trying to get permission. Anyone got any tips on getting permission. Many thanks Richard

Hi thanks for all your replies, I do not believe it to be roman as there is no roman activity at all in this area the Romans never really made it into Devon they got as far as Exeter built a very small fort there and that was it really. I think this is just going to be one of them finds for my unidentified finds box as theres not much to go off and its not really much to look at. Cheers for all your help and im sure i will be posting more coins on here that i find in the future. Many thanks Richard

Hi flash thanks for your reply. I have had a closer look at it today and you are right it is made of lead and not copper. I have also tried to clean it up a little more but it’s still not much to go off and I have also had a look around the web for one similar but with no result. To say that it is made of lead which does not corrode very easily it is in very bad condition. Do you think this is a home made token and probably a one off and that’s the reason that I can not find any other the same? Any more info on this would be great. Cheers Richard

Hi I found this large copper coin while metal detecting in a field near cockington village, Torquay in United Kingdom it is very worn and not much to look at but it does have very distinctive indentations off to one side on either side of it. I think the shape of the indentation is either square or shield shape. The coin measures 32mm and around 4mm thick. I have never seen a coin before like this but im sure someone who has seen one like this before would easy recognize it via the location of the square/shield shape dents. Any help on this one would be great, cheers guys Many thanks Richard feature