Hello From South Gloucestershire, UK

Hi Everyone in CCF,

I started collecting British coins when I was eight-years-old but for around sixty years life got in the way with things such as joining the RN, raising a family, working in the offshore oil industry and latterly travelling the world as a maritime consultant. Now all these years later, I have resumed my numismatic activities with renewed enthusiasm.

I am also a keen amateur historian (I am completing a degree in history) and my special interests are the Tudor-Stuart period and the European Reformation. To complement this I have also started a second (more gentle) career at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, thereby perhaps following the ethos of now doing what I enjoy rather than pursuing the elusive and arduous goal of seeking professional success for its own sake!

Most weekends I am off into the countryside with my 'XP Deus' metal detector searching for coins and artefacts. In the UK we are so fortunate with having history all around us and indeed, a few inches beneath our feet! My best finds to-date include a Philip & Mary groat, several romans including a denarius (to be my avatar) and numerous hammered pennies. At this point I must emphasise that I am a responsible detectorist, always searching with proper insurance and permissions and my finds are submitted to the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme database (via my place of work, in fact).

I think I have probably said enough now - maybe too much, but I feel that a full introduction is far better than an incomplete one. Suffice it to say that I am looking forward to being a useful and active member of this Forum that for some time now I have observed and liked.

Lastly, to giveaway my roots - Happy Paddy's Day!! Frank