Swindon-based metal detectorist "Lardbelly" (sic) made a farmer's evening when he knocked on the door to ask if he could take home for the evening for photography the gold coin he'd found on his field (New permission, first signal......OMG! Fri Mar 21, 2014 11:12 pm). After a nice long chat with the landowner and a cup of cocoa, he gingerly took the farmer's property home and placed it on the photography stand, and in such a hurry that he placed it down with the reverse upside down. He then put up the post:
Out this evening on a new permission and this was my first signal! On pasture about 8" down it rang up at 65 on the old T2It's an angel of Henry VII, class 5 with the London mintmark: pheon (1505-9).
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| A similar coin |
1 comment:
I have just had a message from Silas Brown who relays:
"Mr Barford,
Malachias, my cousin is a rural vet in the region to which you refer in your "Angel" post. While out on a visit yesterday evening he saw a car parked on the edge of a field and a suspicious looking character digging as dusk fell. Since he knows all the farmers, he called in and informed the landowner that somebody was digging in the fields beyond the woods. "Lad a bit on the large side was it?" the farmer asked with a smile, "he needs some exercise! Yes, he was round here earlier asking when it would be convenient to drop in to show me what he's found and sign the items off. He's coming after the news has finished, want to stay and chat to him?" Malachias had some poorly livestock to look at, and could not stay.
He was browsing the internet the next day as he was sipping his coffee before going about his morning rounds, and came across your article about an "Angel" and he assumed that this probably was the same bloke he'd spotted the previous evening. Same region, same timing... How many other metal detectorists would be out in the area as dark fell on a Friday evenyng? What a stroke of luck. As he was driving past the farm, the farmer's missus was out tending the geese. "Congratulations on that Tudor gold coin that young man found last night ! You must have been pleased to see that!". The lady looked at Malachias suspiciously - "what gold coin?" she asked.
Could Malachias have made a mistake? Can that young man show a signed off form from the landowner that he is temporarily loaning his property to the artefact hunter? If we see the s=ingature, malachias will be able to tell whether he'd got the right farm - he knows all the farmers".
Well, thank you Farmer Brown for sharing that story with us. Even if Malachias was making the wrong assumptions, or is in some way an unreliable witness, it is food for thought. How does the responsible detectorist properly gain custody of valuable gold coins belonging to a landowner?
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