My friend and myself had just received another permission and on the Saturday we decided to give it a hunt not knowing what to expect. The permission was over 500 acres and contained the beautiful Irish countryside with a River running through the fields. I had looked at old maps and found nothing of significance apart from an old Mill. We decided to take the first field nearest to the car and this proved unsuccessful with just animal tubes and other rubbish being found. We therefore decided to make our way to a smaller field nearer to the river.
Bingo our first coins started to appear though fairly modern they were at least something.After a while I got a cracking signal and decided to dig out the target. What I unearthed was a heart shaped metallic object. Thinking it was my first horse brass I thought little of it. I then however decided to take it to the nearby river and give it a quick clean. To my surprise I could observe writing on it saying "God save King George III" . I thought this was brilliant as I could then put an age to the brass heart. However this was not to be the only surprise. As you can see from the video I then turn the heart around and on the other side is written "Success to Orange Men". Wow, could this be the first mention of Orange Men (an organisation renowned in Northern Ireland and throughout the world) other than in paper format?
The organisation had been formed in 1795 and within the reign of George III. This was defiantly worth investigating. A few days after getting home I emailed the national museum and showed them pictures asking for their views. They had not seen anything like it and suggested it was a badge with a hidden message "Success to Orange Men" and definitely made within the early stages of the organisations formation. They thought it was an excellent find and I am therefore contacting the Orange Order who have just received a grant for a museum to see if they wished to acquire this badge.
Hopefully this unique and one of a kind item can find its way back home into the hands of Orange Men.
Gavyred – Northern Ireland, UK
