Home, again

We made it home about midnight last night, short one bag. It was delivered to our door today so all is well. I wanted to share a follow up on the stunning gold mourning ring, dated 1822, that Mindy found on Friday. The woman who was memorialized with the ring, turned out to be a relative of the farmer/landowner. He has been most gracious by letting us hunt his property, and stops by or visits with the guys out detecting almost every day. Mindy presented him with the ring yesterday, stating that it belonged with the family. She said she got almost as much of a thrill by returning it to him as she did when she first pulled it out of the ground. You are a class act, Mindy, and a wonderful ambassador or our hobby!\

Day Seven-Our Last Day

What fun today. With groups coming and going, we all met up at lunch time today, It was the largest group ever assembled here at one time with 18. Many of us have never met though we all feel like friends from the internet Forum we participate in. Mindy just came in from Minn and found a STONKER in her first hour. An incredible gold mourning ring engraved with a woman's name and "1822".

I didn't find any gold or silver today but I dug more lead chunks, all of which were perfect gold sounds. Oh well.....we'll just have to come back and give it another try. Clarence did well again today with a beautiful Roman bronze with clear inprint and a nice hammered silver coin.

It is now 9:30pm and we are tackling the packing problem. How did we get all this stuff in the suitcases the first time? All equipment has to be broken down and wiped off. Foreign dirt makes Customs people nervous. The taxi is coming at 6:30 in the morning to take us to Heathrow. We land in Portland a little after 11pm Sat night. It has been a wonderful trip. We will be back in September. Maybe this time I will find my gold? Thanks for following along with us this Spring. Join us again in September 2010.

Day Six - The Abbey

Today we went back to one of our favorite places from our three years of hunting here. The rain poured down this afternoon and it turned cold quickly about 4pm. One of our foursome had detector problems this aftenoon in the rain. My detector also gave me fits with an apparantly bad coil. Clarence is putting our backup on and we will hope that corrects it. With my equipment problem today I didn't have much to show for my efforts. Clarence, however, found a silver hawking bell that has been reported as treasure. The bells were attached to the hawks before sent off to hunt so the handler could hear where the hawk was. Clarence also found a hammered silver coin.One of our housemates found a beautiful pre-1500 braided gold ring. Outstanding!

Another group of Northwesterners came in this evening. A group of five from Washington, Idaho and Alaska. They seem like a nice group and we will see them tomorrow in the field. Also, Chicago Ron's group will have two new members coming tomorrow and we are anxious to finally meet them. We all know each other from the internet but have never met.

Tomorrow will be our last day. Hard to believe it's been a week already. The taxi will pick us up at 6:30am Saturday for the trip back to Heathrow. Hope for gold tomorrow! It's our last chance for this trip.

Day Five

Today we were at yet another new area for us. This site consisted of twelve huge fields and was the location of some earlier spectacular finds. The detecting gods were not with us today but the sunshine was, followed by light sprinkles. I found only one silver coin today, a Queen Victoria two pence. Clarence did well today with a hammered silver, a milled silver and a gold guilded cufflink. We also found some musketballs, buttons galore, bits of lead, and just plain junk.

At lunch today, we got word that the other team here, Chicago Ron's Barn House Boys, continue to find the good stuff we seem to miss. Today, in the same field we were in on Tuesday, one of the Illinois guys found a hammered gold coin. This one is Queen Elizabeth I and is valued at 4000 British Pounds Sterling. It was found very near to where I was searching. Dang! A hammered gold is at the very top of my wish list!

Tomorrow we have all decided to return to one of last year's favorite locations at an old Abbey. That location has given us many of our favorite finds from the past.

Day Four

Things were pretty tense around here these last 24 hours. Remember the itty bitty hammered silver I found (which turned out to be a James I half penney)? Well, Clarence dropped it and it was lost for a while. He found it on the floor and the marriage was saved. There was danger of a British divorce happening.

This morning, as soon as the fog burned off, it was a beautiful sunny day. Then the fog rolled back in and the wind came up. It was just like a typical winter day on the Oregon coast. All four of us got skunked today. We dug some greenies (copper coins that come out of the ground green), lots of chunks of lead, tons of buttons and a few other misc. goodies. Nothing to write home about (literally). To make things worth...the other house of seven guys from Chicago who are here with us this week, went back to the field we were at yesterday and I had found the itty bitty hammered silver. The other guys managed to find ten more hammered silvers and a silver Saxon sceat. Dang! Why couldn't we find them yesterday? Sometimes that's just the way things go. Tomorrow will be another day.

Day Three

Today was a good day. It only sprinkled once and the sun was shining most of the day. I found two bronze Roman coins and two hammered silver coins. One is the tiniest hammered I have seen. It is not yet identified but appears to be either a Charles I or James I half penney. Clarence found a beautiful decorated silver thimble, a Charles III six pence from 1817, and we both have a selection of "other finds".

Yesterday I told you about the really "rare to find" Saxon gold coin. Well, today that group went back to that same spot and gridded out a search pattern. They found a second Saxon gold! There were seven guys searching a small area so our group of four decided to try a different field today. We may go back and try to find a third one before the week is out. What the heck, I'm still looking to find a hammered gold this trip.

That's it for tonight. We (that means Clarence)is just about finished cleaning up our finds for the day. We have already been into the Advil bottle and just need to go to bed. We are up every morning at 6-ish, breakfast is at 7 and we leave for the field at 8am. More adventures tomorrow!

Day Two The Old Church

This morning we started off at the site of an abandoned church which was built in the 11th Century and abandoned in 1550. It was incredible to walk around and the still standing walls and think of the celebrations of marriages and sadness of burying a loved one from this church. We took lots of pictures and they will appear here or in the photo section of our website as soon as we get home. It really was one of the highlights of this trips just to be there.

But, we really are here for the detecting. This morning was not my best day of finds with some modern coins (1935+). I made up for it this afternoon with a bronze Roman and some doodads. Clarence also found a big bronze Roman, and some buckles and widgets besides. His coolest find was a visual and it was when we were detecting around the church ruins. It is a crock style bottle, possibly used for pharmacetical reasons? No matter the reason, it is probably from the 1800's and is very cool. Did I mention it was intact?

I have to mention the top find of the day and possibly the year. Sorry to say we weren't the ones to find it, but one of the fellows from the other house found an incredibly rare Saxon gold coin from the 600's. He found it just as everyone was leaving the field and headed back to the vans. WOW! The land ownder just happened to be there talking to everyone when it came in. He was amazed. I guess we will just have to find our own tomorrow.

March 20, 2010 Day One

Greetings from the UK. We were picked up in London this morning and taken to Colchester and the home where we are staying. We tossed the luggage in our room, put together detectors and unpacked full rain gear and boots, and ate a quick sandwich. Our host picked us up and we were out in the field by 1pm. We hunted until 6 tonight in one field that was planted in cabbage. Thank heaven for the crops to protect us just a little from all the mud.

At the end of our first half day, all in all, it was a good day which started a little iffy. I had equipment problems, all will be corrected by tomorrow. My pinpointer had no battery and I lost the nut for my arm cuff within the first hour. Clarence took the nut off his and rigged up something for his detector with the spare rubber bands in my rain cost pocket. Next time, I check all machines for batteries before we head to the field.

I know there are a lot of people reading this blog who have no knowledge of detecting and some of the equipment I might write about. I will try to keep this non technical and use plain English. Tomorrow is be another day.