I just returned from a two week metal detecting holiday in England, searching for old coins and relics. The detecting took place around Colchester, the oldest recorded town in England. The area is famous for many Celtic gold coin finds, Roman and Saxon coins and relics, plus many medieval era finds. The story of human occupation dates far back into prehistoric times with stone cutting tools and implements being found while detecting. I was using my favourite metal detector, the Minelab Equinox 800. I have been detecting for going on 50 years now, and the Equinox is easily my favourite detector ever due to its incredible versatility. It replaces the half dozen or more detectors I used to need for coin, relic, jewellery, gold prospecting, and in water hunting. For a person like me that likes to do it all it is a near perfect detector. Better yet for travel it is light and compact, and so I had two Equinox along (one for backup) occupying less weight and space than would be the case with single detector I have owned in the past. The best part is being able to own a couple for less than the cost of some single detectors on the market. I used the 15” coil exclusively on this trip for ground coverage as much as depth. I prefer running Park 1 settings in the U.K. with minor tweaks, the main being 50 tones, Iron Bias 0, and Recovery Speed 4. I generally hunt wide open full tones but have target ID 6 and lower notched out as a cherry picking mode to eliminate tiny stuff where time is limited. It is easy to flip back and forth using the Horseshoe Button. I was hunting an area where I was getting some 1800s and 1900s coins and buttons when I got another typical button response of about 17. I proceeded to dig but the hole was getting deeper and wider with no button found. One of the things I like about the 15” coil is I can pinpoint fairly well with the tip or heel of the coil, and nosing around in the hole revealed the target was deeper and larger. At over a foot the target was squealing, and I was sure it was a large iron target or possibly even an aluminium can. There have been times and places where I have kicked the dirt back in the hole and moved on from such targets, but not in England where you never know what might turn up. I was however getting near the flow line now, the point below which the ground turns rock hard and where due to the rules we have to stop digging. I worked round the centre of the target and gave a last scoop, and there sitting in the bottom of the hole was a large green item that tumbled out of the shovel full of dirt. I’m no expert at this kind of stuff, but it looked like a Bronze Age axe head to me. This was not something that I had ever expected to find and so my brain was not really processing it. I wandered over to my buddy Tim who was nearby and asked “is this what I think it is?” I swear he almost fell over, realizing the import of the find more than I had, and assured me I had found an excellent condition Bronze Age axe. Better yet, it appeared to be intact, as many of these that are found have been broken. The final verdict was that my find is a Bronze Age palstave, a predecessor to the modern axe. A palstave is a development of the flat axe, where the shaped sides are cast rather than hammered. My particular find has been identified as a Bronze Age (circa 1500-1400 BC) cast copper alloy primary shield pattern palstave, dating to the Acton Park Phase. In other words about 3500 years old, and about as old as anything that can possibly be found with a metal detector! I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would ever find anything so ancient while metal detecting, and the fact this axe is intact and in good condition makes it the find of a lifetime, and that is no exaggeration. Thanks Minelab for producing such a great detector in the Equinox that aided in the discovery of this amazing find! Photo of Steve with axe by Tim Blank used with his permission.
Steve Herschbach – Nevada, USA
