Nov 06 finds

Zot · November 26, 2006 6:00AM

Finds from Ireland.

I was digging all signals in an extremely trashy area, filling my pockets with junk. I would have switched site, but it was already getting too late for that.
But then…

18k. I think this is Sheffield, 1893.
This is gold ring number 10 for the year, six of which have (surprisingly) been 18k.

The legislation is quite tough over here, which limits my detecting to crappy sites; piles of dirt from road works and random woods far away from any historic landmarks. Still, everything is so old here that there’s always the chance of a nice find popping up in unexpected places.

I headed out to some random woods for my next hunts, but noticed that they weren’t quite random enough to be unsearched. Someone had been digging crappy holes, leaving some soil visible behind (not that I blame them, as this was in the middle of nowhere really - and only other detectorists and maybe the occasional dog owner would see them)

Still, the place appeared to be completely fished out, and I decided to try some more difficult areas. I found a nice looking spot that was overgrown by stinging nettles. Alright!

Digging here was tricky. I could manage the nettles in front of me (most of the time, although my right hand got stung quite a bit), but the most annoying part was bending over and have the nettles sting me in the a$$ (through my pants!). Several times. Grr!
The pain did pay off to some extent, as I got a few older coins here.

Victoria Halfpenny (young head), 1854
Here it is as dug…

… and after my considerable investment in the potato farmers association..
The olive oil lobby will soon get their generous share as well

Now that the green death is almost gone, this will be a really nice one after some soaking. It must have been near UNC when dropped – particularly the obverse details are razor sharp in hand.

Misc coins. Nothing too fancy, but a couple of nice ones in this grouping as well.

Thanks for looking! Happy hunting!
-Z