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Valued Member
United Kingdom
449 Posts |
Hello, was out detecting today and came across four small coins in the radius of no more than 1.5metres of each other. when they came out of the ground they looked like just 4 dirty discs and thought it must of been a collection of 2p's and 1p's which are badly oxidised and London earth is very acidic. It was only when I started to clean them I became rather confused.
Coin 1 is a definite silver which is a George I shilling(Spink 3645)however I would question its authenticity as it looks very crudely made.
Coin 2(2.5cm,looks like copper) seems to show the head of Queen Victoria, and the writing style would fit with the period however the reverse shows a basic shield with three lions and I can only make out the work Twenty.
Coin 3(2.5cm, looks like copper) I'm still in the process of cleaning but so far shows Britannia surrounded by beading then surrounded with what looks to be Victorian style text but so far have been unable to decipher it. There is something on the observe but still in the process of cleaning.
The fourth and final coin puzzled me the most(2.1cm, looks like copper), it clearly shows the number 20 reasonably large which is then surrounded buy text matching the third coin but is still un-readable just like the observe.
I have gone through my copy of Spink and so far have drawn blanks to what these could be, possible trading tokens did come to mind. These coins were all found at the same depth and all very close to each other, to me it seems strange to find coins varying in age.(roughly 100 years) During the Victorian period would 18th century silver coins still be legal tender even though they are 100 years out of date? and if anyone has any idea to what these coins are that would be great. I will get some pictures up however they will most probably just look like black metal discs as detail is only visable by wetting the coins and viewing through a magnifying glass.
Will
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Moderator
 Australia
16849 Posts |
Coin 2 sounds like a 1/24th shilling from Jersey. It should look something like this, though different dates have different-shaped shields. I'm afraid we'd need pics or further description to ID the rest. Quote:
During the Victorian period would 18th century silver coins still be legal tender even though they are 100 years out of date? They would have been legal tender, but would not have been commonly encountered. Britain had a Great Recoinage in 1816; pre-1816 shillings were slightly heavier and would have been removed from circulation. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
Would the area where you found them be a path to a factory, school, church, etc? Or possibly a gathering place like for picnics?
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Valued Member
 United Kingdom
449 Posts |
Thanks for the replies, I will photograph them tomorrow as I'm still cleaning them. As far as your question Biggfredd I have to admit I don't really know. There still might be more coins in the small area as my etrac ran out of charge digging the fourth coin(there was at least another two, but without the MD it would be very hard to locate them.). The area is in woodland next to a main-road so I was possibly thinking that a burglar may of been scared and thrown a bag of coins over the fence as the road has been there for hundreds of years. To me that only seems the logical reason as no buildings exist or have existed in about a half mile radius of this groups location.
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
449 Posts |
Yey! Success! I gave the two unidentified coins a good soak in sugar soap and it seems to of worked wonders. I can now positively ID both coins. Coin 3 is a Spanish 5 centimos dating to 1870, and coin 4 (what I thought was copper was in fact silver) is an Italian 20 centesimi dating to 1894. What a peculiar range of worldly coins to find together on the outskirts of a British wood. I will be returning on Saturday to the same spot to attempt to uncover anymore clues to the reason for these coins.
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Valued Member
United States
83 Posts |
 What a great find!! |
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
449 Posts |
Hello, I'm going back to the same spot tomorrow to see if I can unearth any other coins. I was reading somewhere that during 1860's some foreign coinage became legal tender in the UK?(may of been just bronze?) not to sure how true it is, just wondering if that could explain why such a mix of coins were found. Anyone able to enlighten me on this?
Will
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
449 Posts |
I went out early this morning to search the same spot again, came home with another 13 coins all within the 1.5-2 meter radius! Just giving them a clean now, will update on what I find and hope to get some pictures up too.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1610 Posts |
Quote:
I went out early this morning to search the same spot again, came home with another 13 coins all within the 1.5-2 meter radius! Just giving them a clean now, will update on what I find and hope to get some pictures up too. Cool, good finds!     Can't wait... |
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Replies: 8 / Views: 2,003 |
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Posted 02/20/2012 01:53 am
