Ancient Greek Coins, Metal Detecting, Metal Detecting Finds

An ancient Greek metal detecting find – revisited

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An ancient Greek metal detecting find – revisited

I posted this picture a few days back, probably my favourite metal detecting find of all time, an ancient greek coin minted in Italy. I found this coin almost 20 years ago and didn’t notice until just now – there seems to be writing just above the bull’s back:

An ancient Greek metal detecting find - Thurium bull ancient greek coin
An ancient Greek metal detecting find – Thurium bull ancient greek coin

Can’t believe it took me this long to notice! The writing isn’t ‘eye visible’ on the coin itself, but the camera certainly seems to have picked it up. Time to break out the flatbed scanner and photoshop, wonder if I can enhance it enough to make it readable?

Metal Detecting UK

Coin Auctions, Coin Collecting, Metal Detecting Finds, Metal Detecting Hoard Finds, Roman Coins, Roman History

Rare Carausius ‘Clasped Hands’ Denarius being offered by Dix, Noonan and Webb

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Rare Carausius ‘Clasped Hands’ Denarius being offered by Dix, Noonan and Webb

Dix, Noonan and Webb are offering a very rare Carausius ‘Clasped Hands’ Denarius in their December 9th coin auction:

Carausius, Argenteus, London, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, rev. clasped hands, 4.19g/6h (cf. RIC 549; cf. Shiel 14-20). Very fine and very rare £600-800

There was a near perfect example of this coin found amongst the 52,503 coins of the Frome Hoard, found by Dave Crisp. See The Frome Hoard Book, by Sam Moorhead, Anna Booth, page 28 for more information about this very unusual coin and an interesting theory about the meaning of the letters ‘RSR’ beneath the clasped hands from Guy de la Bedoyere. Although, John Y. Akerman writing in Coins of the Romans Relating to Britain, 1836, says “It is difficult to assign an exact meaning to the letters RSR; but if conjecture be allowed, it seems highly probable that this coin was struck at Rutupia (Richborough in Kent).”

Wish I had the money for this one!

Metal Detecting UK

Coin Auctions, Coin Collecting

New London Coins Auction catalogue, auction 131 on 5th and 6th of December

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New London Coins Auction catalogue

The new London Coins Auction catalogue is out. The catalogue for the auction is up to London Coins Auction usual high standard (with loads of colour photographs), as are the the offerings within. The sale catalogue contains more than 2300 individual lots. Fewer ancients in this one than usual, but as always, there is something in this sale for everybody.

The auction takes place on the Sunday 5th and Monday 6th of December at the Grange Hotel, Charles Square, Bracknell, Berks, RG12 1ED.

Bids by e-mail : bids@londoncoins.co.uk,  or  snail mail to 4-6 Upper Street South, New Ash Green, Kent DA3 8JJ, phone 01474 871464 or fax 01474 872173. See www.londoncoins.co.uk for more info.

Metal Detecting UK

Famous Treasure Finds, Metal Detecting Hoard Finds

Silver cup with Athena seated from the Hildesheim Treasure

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Probably the finest known example of the Roman silversmith’s art:

Silver cup with Athena seated from the Hildesheim Treasure. Photograph by Andreas Praefcke from Wikipedia
Silver cup with Athena seated from the Hildesheim Treasure. Photograph by Andreas Praefcke from Wikipedia

Silver cup with Athena seated from the Hildesheim treasure, discovered on October 17, 1868 on Galgenberg Hill in Hildesheim, Germany. Dating from the first century AD, this cup may have been owned and used by the commander of the lost Varus legions.

Identifying Metal Detecting Finds, Metal Detecting, Metal Detecting Finds

Cartwheel penny found with a metal detector for comparison

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Cartwheel penny found with a metal detector for comparison

Cartwheel penny found with a metal detector
Thought this coin would make for an interesting comparison with the Cartwheel two pence coins I posted a few days ago. Above and below: A cartwheel one penny coin found with a metal detector. The pitting and corrosion on this coin is a testament to the hostile soil conditions found in many places in the UK, and the high quality copper used by the Soho Mint in its manufacture. On a long enough time line, copper coins and artefacts exposed to hostile soils conditions, not to mention the chemicals used in modern intensive farming, dissolve away to nothing.
Cartwheel penny found with a metal detector

These photographs are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Which means you can take them for use on your own web site etc. as long as they are properly attributed.

Metal Detecting UK

Ancient Greek Coins, Coin Collecting, Identifying Metal Detecting Finds, Metal Detecting Finds

An ancient Greek metal detecting find – coin from Thurium or Thurii

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An ancient Greek metal detecting find – coin from Thurium or Thurii

Thurium bull ancient greek coin metal detecting find
This one is still my favourite, and oldest, metal detecting find of all time. A coin minted in Thurium, a Greek city in modern day Italy, in the 4th century BC. The bull charging right is a recurring motif on coins minted in Thurium. How it ended up next to a canal in Hertfordshire, I guess we’ll never know…
Thurium bull ancient greek coin metal detecting find

When I found it, I was absolutely convinced I’d found a Celt, but the British Museum later identified it as being an ancient Greek.

Metal Detecting UK

Coin Collecting, Identifying Metal Detecting Finds, Metal Detecting Finds

Queen Victoria ‘To Hanover’ gaming tokens or jettons, 1837 to 1867

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Queen Victoria ‘To Hanover’ gaming tokens or jettons, 1837 to 1867

Queen Victoria 'To Hanover' gaming tokens or jettons, 1837 or 1867
Queen Victoria ‘To Hanover’ gaming tokens or jettons, 1837 or 1867

A Queen Victoria ‘To Hanover’ gaming token or jetton, dated 1867. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of these were minted between 1837 and 1867 (at least the most recent date I have seen on one of these tokens or jettons is 1867, there may be later dated examples around, some are dated as early as 1830). The man on the horse is not St. George slaying the dragon, but the Duke of Cumberland on route to claim the crown of Hanover.

Queen Victoria 'To Hanover' gaming tokens or jettons, 1837 or 1867
Queen Victoria ‘To Hanover’ gaming tokens or jettons, 1837 or 1867

These photographs are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Which means you can take them for use on your own web site etc. as long as they are properly attributed.

Coin Collecting, Identifying Metal Detecting Finds, Metal Detecting Finds

Cartwheel Twopence Coins, Cartwheel Penny Craziness

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Cartwheel two penny coins

Cartwheel two penny coins produced by the Soho Mint, Cartwheel penny
Cartwheel two penny coins produced by the Soho Mint, Cartwheel penny
Cartwheel two penny coins produced by the Soho Mint

Probably my favourite Georgian coins, the Cartwheel pennies are a currency experiment that didn’t quite go as planned. They were created by Matthew Boulton at the Soho Mint in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1797. Eight of these cartwheel twopence coins, laid side by side, measure exactly one foot, an unusual sort of anti-counterfeiting measure. They weighed exactly 2oz a piece, the one penny weighing  exactly 1oz. At the time they were produced it is believed that as much as two thirds of the copper coinage in circulation in the UK was fake. They were also the first official British coins struck using steam power.
A quick and easy way of telling a cartwheel twopence from the one pence, without a side by side comparison, is to measure the thickness of the coin. A cartwheel twopence is 5mm or 1 fifth of an inch thick and the cartwheel one pence is 3mm thick.

Cartwheel two penny coins produced by the Soho Mint
Soho mint mark beneath Britannia's shield
Soho mint mark beneath Britannia’s shield

Matthew Boulton and his Soho Mint also produced tokens for the East India Company. The millions of copper tokens salvaged from the wreck of the Admiral Gardner, wrecked on the Goodwin Sands on January 24/25, 1809, were produced at the Soho Mint on Matthew Boulton’s steam powered coin presses. Admiral Gardner was carrying 54 tons of the copper coins, which had been destined for use by the company in India.

These photographs are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Which means you can take them for use on your own web site etc. as long as they are properly attributed. I’ve already added a couple of them to Wikimedia Commons.

Metal Detecting UK

Metal Detecting, Metal Detecting Finds, Museums, Portable Antiquities Scheme

Interesting British Museum document on the analysis of the Coenwulf Mancus

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The analysis of the Coenwulf Mancus

Analysis of a gold mancus of Coenwulf of Mercia and other comparable coins by Gareth Williams and Michael Cowell [PDF]

This very interesting document describes not only the Coenwulf Mancus and the various processes the British Museum used to examine and authenticate it, but also shows the other six ‘later’ Anglo-Saxon gold coins in the British Museum’s collection. There are only eight known ‘later’ Anglo-Saxon gold coins in existence, seven held at the BM and number eight is in a museum in France, or Belgium or somewhere, can’t remember.

Also, there was a great photo of a Coenwulf silver penny on page 37 of the November issue of The Searcher.

Metal Detecting UK

Identifying Metal Detecting Finds, Metal Detecting, Metal Detecting Finds

Early 17th century book fittings as the book binder intended

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Metal fittings from old books are relatively common metal detecting finds!

Early 17th century book fittingsSome early 17th century book fittings as the book binder intended! This book was bound, probably in Oxford, in around 1618-1620. The book has undoubtedly seen better days and the repair to the spine is really quite unfortunate.
Early 17th century book fittings

Early 17th century book fittings

Early 17th century book fittingsOne of the most touching things about books like this are the personal notes about births, deaths and notable incidents made by the owners. This one also contains the recipes for folk remedies to various ailments.

Early 17th century book fittings

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