Artifacts and coins shown on this website are a representation of what may be found.
Not all items found on the tours are displayed on this website.
Click on any coin
below to view the finds!
Each year new artifacts
and coins are found due to the farmer's plow turning
the ground and reaching
down into fresh soil. Luck naturally plays a large part.
However any individual in the field for the first time has
the chance of making a WONDERFUL AND SIGNIFICANT
DISCOVERY! Being in the region
where the MOST potential exists increases the odds of being "LUCKY." And
archaeologist are still searching for the burial place
of the Celtic Queen
Boudicca, who massacred 70,000 Romans in 61 A.D. (Her homeland,
to which she retreated, is in the vicinity of where you
will be metal detecting.) Metal detecting for Artifact
and coin finds of Celtic, Roman, Saxon, Viking, and Medieval
to more
recent times — a span of over 2000 years — is possible in
this area of England!
A Little History
Neolithic age begins 3,500 B.C.
Bronze Age begins 2,100 B.C. Iron age Begins 500 B.C.
Celtic Britain — Click
on any coin above to view pages of Celtic coins and artifacts —
Migration
of Celtic people from Southern Europe 550 B.C. Celtic coins
are often made of bronze, sometimes of silver
and gold. They also had gold ring money (see example
above) They produced there coins primarily in two ways — struck
and cast. Celtic coins are very artistic, depicting animals,
gods, humans. The boar and the horse are frequently
depicted for they were the companions of the hunter
and the soldier. Symbolic stars are often present,
especially the sun and the moon with imaginary animals,
half-human, half-beast.
Roman Britain — Click
on any coin above to view pages of Roman coins and artifacts —
CLAUDIUS, in
43 A.D., directed his 40,000 troops straight to Colchester,
where he established an ostentatious capital
for Roman Britain. During the following years, the rich
farmlands to the north became the location of wealthy Roman
Villas,
Imperial Estates, Forts, Camps, Towns, and soldiers' land
grant properties. Roman Coins during the Empire were struck
(rather than cast). Each coin was struck by hand. Roman
coins did not have any denomination, or numerical value printed
on a coin. A coin's value was based on the relative values
of the precious metals (bronze, silver, and gold) that
it
was made from. So a gold coin was literally worth its weight
in gold. In 23 BC, Augustus overhauled the coinage system
creating the following relationships: 1 Gold Aureus= 25
silver Denarii 1 Denarius = 4 Sestertii = 8 Dupondii = 16 Asses
= 64 Quadrans.
Anglo-Saxon Britain — Click
on any coin above to view pages of Saxon coins and artifacts —
Following the abandonment of England by the Romans in 407
A.D., England underwent a series of invasions by an assortment
of Germanic tribes, namely the Saxons, Angles and Jutes.
This period lasted until the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Anglo-Saxon gold tremisses were minted from about 630 A.D.
By the middle of the seventh century the gold coins were
increasingly being debased with silver and by about 675 A.D.
had been completely replaced by silver. Silver rather than
gold was the currency metal in England for most of the period
600-1066 AD. These were the first English pennies but they
are commonly known by their name Sceattas. Sceattas continued
to be produced and issued up until the middle of the 9th
century. It is thought that such a silver penny represented
the value of about one day's work for a Saxon peasant.
617 A.D. marked the First invasion by the Vikings. King
Alfred defeats the Vikings but allows them to settle in Eastern
England in 878 A.D. Edward the Confessor was the last Saxon
King descended from Alfred the Great. When he died in 1066
without an heir, his nephew William of Normandy invaded England,
defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Hastings, and claimed
the throne.
Medieval Britain 1066 A.D. through 1484 A.D. — Click
on any coin above to view pages of Medieval coins and artifacts —
English Hammered Coins
In England from the time of the Norman invasion (1066 A.D.),
silver was the main metal used for hammering. Gold was coined
only regularly from 1344 base metal Farthings were first
issued during the early 1600s.
Tudor Britain 1485 A.D. through
1600 A.D. — Click
a coin above to view pages of Tudor - modern coins
& artifacts —
For those
who seek additional Information on artifact and coin
finds you could discover
in England, please see the links
page. If you want more historic information there are
also some great links for that.
More artifact
and
coin finds images coming in the future.
