Rather than waste a day not detecting, we decided to have a couple of hours at a local cricket pitch as a compromise. This was due to one of the team having a heavy session the night before.
The pitch itself is placed over a field of ridge and furrow so, before starting, we joked about the "ubiquitous" hammered.
Even before switching on, we found a £2 coin on the surface!
There had been a bonfire there two nights previously so our "job" was to clean up any sparklers lying on the surface.
The groundsman was pleased that we could provide such a service for free.
He didn't know how long the field had been a cricket pitch so perhaps we could pin it down to a rough period?
We used the 9" HF coils for a change governed by the usual standard GMP which has proved itself time and time again.
Sure enough, decimal and pre-decimal coinage started to emerge with 46% of the coinage being the latter, so almost a 50/50 split.
125 coins in total were recovered with some coming from depths of 10 inches.
Some lovely examples of silver coinage were recovered, one being a nice hammered sixpence of Elizabeth I dated 1585 (8 inches deep), the rest were made up of Victorian, George V and George VI. A superb florin of George VI date 1946 came up in the same condition as when it was dropped. The George V shilling and sixpence as well as the George VI sixpence were also in great condition.
As for the "cut-half", would you believe we found the other half too!
Here's a breakdown of what we found:
Pre-decimal
1 x Elizabeth I Sixpence 1585
1 x George VI Florin 1946
1 x Victorian Shilling 1853
1 x George V Shilling 1936
2 x George V Sixpences 1921 & 1930
1 x George VI Sixpence 1941
1 x Victorian Three-pence (worn)
1 x George V Three-pence 1919
13 x Thrupenny bits
13 x Pennies (Victorian to George VI)
23 x Half-pennies (Victorian to George V)
58 Total
Decimal
1 x Two-pound
17 x One-pound
1 x 50p
4 x 20p
2 x 10p
18 x 2p
16 x 1p
8 x Half pennies
67 Total
There's probably another quarter of the field to do so we may return one afternoon to finish it off.
To view the images of the day please click here.
The pitch itself is placed over a field of ridge and furrow so, before starting, we joked about the "ubiquitous" hammered.
Even before switching on, we found a £2 coin on the surface!
There had been a bonfire there two nights previously so our "job" was to clean up any sparklers lying on the surface.
The groundsman was pleased that we could provide such a service for free.
He didn't know how long the field had been a cricket pitch so perhaps we could pin it down to a rough period?
We used the 9" HF coils for a change governed by the usual standard GMP which has proved itself time and time again.
Sure enough, decimal and pre-decimal coinage started to emerge with 46% of the coinage being the latter, so almost a 50/50 split.
125 coins in total were recovered with some coming from depths of 10 inches.
Some lovely examples of silver coinage were recovered, one being a nice hammered sixpence of Elizabeth I dated 1585 (8 inches deep), the rest were made up of Victorian, George V and George VI. A superb florin of George VI date 1946 came up in the same condition as when it was dropped. The George V shilling and sixpence as well as the George VI sixpence were also in great condition.
As for the "cut-half", would you believe we found the other half too!
Here's a breakdown of what we found:
Pre-decimal
1 x Elizabeth I Sixpence 1585
1 x George VI Florin 1946
1 x Victorian Shilling 1853
1 x George V Shilling 1936
2 x George V Sixpences 1921 & 1930
1 x George VI Sixpence 1941
1 x Victorian Three-pence (worn)
1 x George V Three-pence 1919
13 x Thrupenny bits
13 x Pennies (Victorian to George VI)
23 x Half-pennies (Victorian to George V)
58 Total
Decimal
1 x Two-pound
17 x One-pound
1 x 50p
4 x 20p
2 x 10p
18 x 2p
16 x 1p
8 x Half pennies
67 Total
There's probably another quarter of the field to do so we may return one afternoon to finish it off.
To view the images of the day please click here.
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