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Minelab

The Big Scottish Coin Hoard

26 Dec 2013
Find of
the Month

…I am still absolutely buzzing as I write this, and undoubtedly will be for a considerable time to come! And as I am not a writer by profession, I’ll just put the words down on paper that come into my head. I hope in some small way to pass onto you the amazing feelings we had when unearthing our find, and I will be happy knowing that you manage to experience even a small amount of the fire that ran through our veins on those days. There is nothing better than digging a hoard, except when digging it with your friends and sharing that experience!

...Well, where do I start to tell you about the greatest day of dirt fishing I have had since starting this truly amazing hobby? At the beginning of day one I suppose.

DAY 1: My detecting mate Gus (Ironman), and I (P0k3Rman) ventured forth onto a new land permission. I usually do the research and Gus will do the cold calling and the public relations for our little group of detecting addicts. As usual, I fired up the CTX 3030, with great anticipation of the finds to be made that day, and as so often happens, after 5 hours of detecting in the lashing rain and howling wind, we were like a couple of drowned rats and that initial anticipation had dissipated into more of a “please let us hit something”. It was around 3pm and we were doing a last scan of the final field before heading for home. As we entered the field, I decided to go left, up the slope immediately facing me, while Gus chose right and we agreed to meet at the stone dyke at the far side of the field. Ten minutes into this last scan, I heard Gus shouting to me over the walkie talkie, all he said was "look at me". I quickly turned round and peered through the murky light, and there he was doing the craziest hammy dance I'd ever seen. It was as if he was bopping away to some kind of techno style Euro pop, with a little samba and line dancing thrown in for good measure. I immediately stopped scanning the clod I had just dug, and hurried across the field towards him, just thankful that one of us had hit something nice. On reaching him he said "think it's a short cross mate", referring to an English hammered coin of the medieval period. I took it from him and rubbed the mud from the side facing me, "nope it's a long cross" I declared, to which he replied "no, not that side, the other one".

…Now, at this time, Gus was not fully up-to-date with his coin identification (mildly put) and I rolled my eyes and flipped it over, rubbed off the mud, and was staring at another long cross! Impossible I thought, and then it then hit me "it's two stuck together" I shouted and all went quiet. "Possible hoard here" I murmured, Gus’s eyes bulged “you think” he whispered, “yup” must be a chance I replied. “Scan around here, and let’s see” I drooled. I quickly hurried back up the slope to my last hole to finish checking it out. Then what followed was simply stunning, Gus hadn’t even take a step and shouted “another one here”, he continued the arc motion with his coil and less than six inches further he blurted out “another here”, followed by “stop digging that scrap and get your butt down here mate”, or words to that effect. At this point, I flicked the switch in my brain and entered the ‘Sharon mode’, and was over beside Gus, some sixty feet away, within seconds. Never have I seen my feet move so quickly (Sorry Sharon, couldn’t resist it). We then dug the holes as quickly as possible, as it was really starting to get dark, and suddenly he was 4-0 up in the hammered coin count. We started laughing, and saying things like “don’t believe this”, “can’t be happening can it?” It was at this point that we just pushed open the gates of madness and accelerated into a crazy detecting and clod digging frenzy.

...3 Alexander III, 1 Irish Edward and 36 full flan Edward coins later, all dug in just over an hour in the thundering rain and semi-dark, we were exhausted. We found ourselves simply digging clods and then once we had 10 or 15 open holes, we were going back getting on our hands and knees and probing the holes to retrieve the hammered coins. We had quickly decided that this was the best, and really only, way we could do it, because just when the coins started popping out of the ground, the rain got heavier, the mist got thicker and the sky got darker.

...Unfortunately, at this point, we had to decide whether to go back to the car for the head torches and continue detecting all night in the appalling conditions, or take the decision to leave the field and return the following day, we chose the latter. So there we were deciding to detect off a field which was absolutely BOOMING with signals. Unfortunately, every step just brought more and more positive signals, and it just became impossible. We had already dropped a couple of coins due to the weather conditions, and it took ages to find them again. So, rather reluctantly we had to power the machines down and trudge off the field. I’m pretty sure that if we had not taken this decision, we would have been there all night. And in the morning the police would have found two dead bodies, drowned in mud, but strangely enough covered in silver coins, and with massive smiles etched permanently on their faces!

...Slipping and sliding, but laughing all the way, we eventually made it back to the car and set off home, and the journey proved to be a complete giggle fest of outrageous proportions. We were so excited that we even managed to take several wrong turnings, but we didn’t care as we were now bona fide hoard finders! Whilst on route we phoned the rest of our detecting team, known in metal detecting circles as the ‘Ayrshire Division’, Sharon answered the phone and after a little joking, we just shouted in tandem into the speaker phone “HOOOAAAARRD!!!!” We then continued to relay a completely garbled and gibbering description of what had just happened to us.

…Once at home base, we noticed that almost all the coins consisted of fairly clean looking silver and most had full unclipped flans, which were hardly worn at all. Long into the evening, we discussed how the coins must have been stacked; and it was mentioned more than once, that surely there must be a honey pot somewhere with a lot more coins in it? The first pictures attached are of Gus and I celebrating and then one of Gus’s ‘hammy hands’ holding the first 40 coins. These were taken during the first night, after a couple of bottles of champagne and much merriment with the rest of the Ayrshire Division, who had arrived to congratulate us and feast their eyes on the initial hoard. It was actually Sharon, who spotted that we had three Scottish King Alexander III coins and an Irish Issue Edward I penny. In all the excitement, we hadn’t even checked them, although, I think we could be forgiven, as we were digging them in the dark after all!! I can assure you that it was a very late evening, and there followed a rather sleepless night, consisting of a lot of tossing, turning and dreams of hammered coins.

Derek - Scotland, UK

Day 2: We set off bright and early, at 6am, the next morning, with a full strength Ayrshire Division, with Sharon, Simon (Slider) & Marty (itsthemar) joining us on day two, for more muddy mayhem in our hoard field! Strange as it may sound, on the journey to the field, Gus and I started becoming a little paranoid, and actually doubted ourselves from the night before; did we really hear all those other signals?, what happens if the team walk onto the field and start digging scrap? We needn’t have worried though, as what followed was pure and utter hammy madness!

…As we were walking onto the field that morning with the full Ayrshire Division present and correct, we were all just BUZZINNNNNNNG!! Although, I have to admit that I was thinking it would be a great result if all of us would get at least one coin each. Meanwhile Gus was stating “yes, everyone’s first signal will be a hammy” and “I’ll be disappointed if we don’t reach the big fifty”. You could literally feel the excitement coming from the group; the air was just electric with anticipation. Gus was the first to get a signal, and I dutifully manned the video as he dug the clod and turned it over. “Well” I said, “is it a hammy”. “No, it’s a bit of lead” was his reply, and I gulped. Suddenly, there was a cry from Simon “HAMMY!!!”, and I rushed over to see him, with the video still running. As I reached him he was just picking it out the earth clod, and as he turned over the little piece of muck he was holding between his fingers, there it was shining up at the camera; a beautiful little hammy, and number 41 of the hoard. I will swear forever that the bust of Edward I, on that particular coin, was smiling up at us, happy once more to see the light of day – pure magic!!!

...It was then that the madness really started in earnest, and shouts of “hammy” and “another one!” were filling the air, along with copious amounts of laughter and merriment.  It was great to see the rest of the team experiencing what we had the night before. Fifteen minutes into the dig, we had around 15 hammered coins between us. Sharon had hit a couple, one of which she described as “just perfect”, which brought a smile from the rest of us, followed be endless amounts of ribbing at Sharon’s expense during the next few days. It should be stated that we always rib Sharon with caution, as she has an amazing ability for reeling in the most beautiful finds during a season. Unfortunately, we just can’t help ourselves and happily take the punishment when it comes. Within an hour the four tins, which were in use for coin storage, were filling up nicely. And this is the way it continued for the next six hours, until once again we were beaten by the light, howling wind and persistent heavy rain. At the end of day two, we had dug another 101 coins, giving us the grand total of 141…yes, 141 beautiful little medieval silver pennies!!

...So, two days in and the total count was now; 7 King Alexander III Scottish pennies, 3 King Edward I Irish Issue pennies, including a Waterford Mint, a King Edward I English farthing and 130 King Edward I / II / III English pennies from various mints including; York, Canterbury, London, Durham and many more! The majority of the coins were unclipped full flan examples and most looked virtually uncirculated. We also managed to dig one coin stack, containing four coins, including the farthing. Another find, during day two, was a small solid silver locket, with a semi precious Scottish agate stone set into the back of it. This however, should be viewed as a casual loss, as although it’s not hallmarked, it does resemble those that were produced during Queen Victoria’s time on the throne of Great Britain, circa 1850’s. 

Derek - Scotland, UK

Day 3: This detecting session actually started on day five because of work commitments with some of the Ayrshire Division. The weather was easing slightly and although the wind was still blowing hurricane force, the lure of the hammy was just too much for us. We arrived on site knowing that most of the easy finds were gone, and we were looking for the scratchy, on edge, deeper variety of hammy, an altogether different breed. However, we were confident in our own abilities and those of our machines. In Scotland, we are used to searching for the elusive hammered silver coin, as these finds don’t come easy, and every single detectorist hunting in Scotland is doing so knowing that he has to be at the top of his game, every single hunt.

…Anyway, Simon, who is by far the most methodical hunter of our little group, amped it up and entered ‘excellence mode’. He just got the head down and started pulling up the most impossible of coins; deep, on edge, broken flans, you name it, he hooked them up and reeled those babies in. We ended the day with a further 23 hammered coins, with the lions share falling to Simon. Over the next two hunts we managed to snare another 11 of those little beauties, before deciding that we had exhausted the supply, but the demand was most certainly still there!

…Unfortunately, none of the members of the Ayrshire Division have a Minelab GPX 5000, which is something we need to rectify as quickly as possible. So, the next best thing we could possibly do was to find out if we could get the sweet spot of the scattered hoard scraped. We estimated that it needed to come down about 10 inches. Now, this is not easy to arrange, especially as we have a tenant farmer, a landowner and a separate contractor to do the scraping, but currently we have no other option. If we had a GPX 5000 we feel we could punch fourteen to sixteen inches into the earth and actually discover if there was indeed a ‘honey pot’ of coins waiting. So, Gus who is our resident ‘fixer’ hit the phone and within seventy two hours we had arranged to meet the tenant farmer, who also controls the contractor, who would be involved in the scraping. We met the tenant in the field and took him to the area where the hoard was found. “How much do you want to scrape” he enquired, eh, “twenty metres by twenty metres” we responded. Now, I shall not relate to you exactly what the farmer said, but it’s safe to say that he stated 200 cubic metres, or seventy one tons of soil, is a massive amount; not his exact words, but you understand me, right? Without hesitation, and actually without any real knowledge, we replied “sure, not a problem”. To be perfectly honest, this is something akin to a blind man being taken to the top of a building and asked “you understand how high we are, and you still want to jump?. To which said person responds “sure, why the heck not”.

…Okay, we shall have a little interlude and I shall try to answer the questions that most of you may have.

Q: Were the coins deep underground?

...Most of them were between 3 and 6 inches deep. A few coins were found quite deep, as I personally dug at least one the depth of a hand held pointer and Gus had a couple of finds at the same depth. Simon and Sharon also dug a few coins which were undoubtedly deeper than 6 inches.

Q: How close were they to each other?

...The vast majority were within a one hundred square metre area, 10m by 10m box, and perhaps around 30-40 outside that area

Q: Over how much area had they been scattered?

 

...The straight line distance between the furthest coins (so far) is probably 70 to 100 metres. However, because of this, there are probably many more coins around the field, which we have not found yet.

 

 

Q: Have you found any evidence of a vessel/pot?

...No evidence has been found yet, i.e. no broken pot or chest and no purse bar. The only thing is the silver locket, which has no hallmarks and it does not have a key lock, rather a hinged loop with barb. It has what I would assume to be a Scottish agate inlaid into the back of it. The piece is quite crude, and I am no expert, but think it is Victorian.

Q: On what type of land was the hoard found?

...In the middle of an open pasture field, which was last ploughed around 8- 10 years ago. However, we think the area could have been wooded in the 1200-1300's, or certainly located right beside a wood.

Q: After your research, did you think you would find a hoard?

...I didn't specifically have a hoard in mind, I was just trying to put us in a place where we would have a good chance of hitting some hammered coinage. Although, with this site, the signs were fairly obvious to me that a huge amount of medieval activity took place in the vicinity, and there may have been a coin hoard found within a few miles in the 1800's. With my research technique, I am targeting more obscure sites, which take a bit more in depth research, this is with the hope that they haven't been detected seriously before!

…So, I leave you with 175 hammered medieval coins found so far, and with the next instalment of our little adventure still to come. Unfortunately, Christmas has taken over, and we cannot arrange the scraping until January at the earliest, and even this is weather dependent. So, I hopefully leave you all, as we are, desperate to know the end to this little tale, but no way of doing so until we finally get the scrape and scan seventy one tons of soil. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about this situation, and all we can do is wish you season’s greetings and all the very best in your hunts for 2014; Happy Hunting, and remember the big one is out there; you just need to get out and walk over it!!!

…to be continued…

Derek - Scotland, UK

Editorial note: The Ayrshire Division is a group of very close friends who all live in the local Ayrshire area and who detect together when they can. The team is made up of Primary Finders: Gus Patterson & Derek McLennan. Secondary Finders: Sharon McKee, Simon McKee & Martin McSweeny. The group have an arrangement in place, that any find worth over £1,000 in total monetary value will be shared equally amongst the members, after the 50% land owners split, and with the exception of husband and wife pairings. During 2013, the Ayrshire Division has, including the current hoard, hit some outstanding historic finds which includes; 255 hammered coins (including a smaller hoard of 30 hammered coins), 5 gold finds (two rings, three coins), 130+ post 1690 milled silver coins (some top condition and very scarce varieties), 30+ post medieval silver artefacts, several historical artefacts (sword pommel, bronze age hammer/chisel, medieval mounts, medieval tokens, an extremely rare medieval child’s Scottish annular brooch, and a even rarer find, potentially of Viking origin, which the group is unable to publicise yet!!!), 50+ church communion tokens (two varieties which we believe to be unrecorded) and even more interesting stuff that I've undoubtedly forgot to mention.

We believe that this find is possibly the largest unique hoard of medieval coins ever discovered by metal detectors in Scotland, and possibly one of the largest in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, we also believe that there has not been such a complete hoard found in Scotland since the time of Queen Victoria. The coin combination of the hoard is just phenomenal and the historic story it tells is extremely interesting, if not fantastical. The hoard, so far, includes ten out of the thirteen mints of Edward I, II & III; coins from the very first issue of Edward I through to Edward III (including some scarce varieties); there are three rare continental sterling imitations (contemporary European forgeries of Edward I / II / III pennies); three fascinating and potentially unique coin minting errors; a scarce Edward I farthing; seven King Alexander III of Scotland pennies, (including one scare variety and an even scarcer unknown mint variety); a rare English / Irish mule penny of Edward I; and three Irish Issue Edward I pennies (including two out of the three Irish coin mints in operation in the 13th and 14th century).

 

 

 

 

Above: Gaucher of Châtillon 1313-22, continental Sterling imitation silver penny (forgery)

Above: Robert of Bethune 1305-22, continental Sterling imitation silver penny (forgery)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Derek - Scotland, UK

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