Armed with my trusty Minelab X-TERRA 705 I attended a metal detecting club dig in Oxfordshire, England where we had access to extremely old farm land with huge selection of fields. After a few hours of detecting, I noticed that everyone was avoiding one particular area in the largest field. I wandered over and soon realised that this section was full of iron fragments. On realising this was going to be a difficult area to detect, selected the best Discrimination Pattern (I usually detect in All Metal) suitable for the ground. Only after a few minutes of detecting I heard a really nice clear note through the rubbish. Digging deep, I spotted the unmistakeable glint of silver and, as I found out later, I had in my hand a rare King Stephen (1096AD to 1154AD) silver penny! I was even more elated to find out this extremely thin and worn little coin is worth between £500 and £750. Aside from the fact that the X-TERRA 705 has more than paid for itself, I have found numerous usual and interesting things from meteorites (best to look on pebbly beaches) to gilded buttons.
Big Dee - England, UK