I headed out to a freshly cut maize field, I had been there once before and did not manage to find an awful lot. History of the area suggested a possibility of Roman finds, I was optimistic. Two hours later after searching through a lot of silver paper trash, I managed to pop out a coin or two but nothing Roman. I did not have long to search, maybe a couple of more hours before my little munchkins needed picking up from school. I decided to head for a different field, one where I had managed to find a few items from different centuries in the past. Being that I only had 2 hours, I wondered if I should break my cardinal rule of digging everything? Should I try and pick off just higher toned coin targets? Common sense took hold, no, I would stick to my guns. So many times before had I found a nice medieval tiny silver hammered coin for example, that came in as a low tone. I set off on the field and started to hit small old lead targets, lots of them, target after target. Suddenly I got a similar toned target, although this was different. After digging the hole, I fished a round with my pinpointer for an unusually long time. It was a really hard target to locate, then suddenly I saw it. Shimmering gold in the sunlight right in front of me was a beautiful small coin with a crucifix and ancient legends, the detail crisp and in high relief. I was stunned! Here before me, staring me right in the face was a beautiful ancient gold coin!!! I looked at the reverse and could make out a profile of a head. From my own experience I thought this coin to be Anglo Saxon or Merovingian. Wow, for 5mins I sat in awe, complete awe. After 3 years of detecting, I had found my first gold coin and it is ancient. I kept thinking it was fake, how could I find such a gold coin???? I searched the area throughly and had a few heart stripping moments but no more gold! I decided to head home, I need not be greedy, the earth had given me a find of a lifetime. On returning home I asked a few people with more experience than me on coin identification and it was confirmed this was a Gold Merovingian Tremissis. I was stunned! An extremely rare coin to find! Eventually I was able to get in contact with a leading expert on gold coins from this period who researches this type of coin at a University in Holland. The coin turns out to be a pseudo-Madelinus type gold tremissis. It was minted in Holland most likely between 600 -675 AD under the rule of Dagobert I or maybe Sigibert III. I think it was the right time for me to walk over this coin, I understand my Minelab Equinox 800, it takes time but it pays off to know one machine well and to be able to dial it in for different situations! In this case I was running the machine pretty sensitive, the multifrequency technology definitely helped to locate this beauty! Finds like this come at the most unexpected of times, usually when your session is a hard slog, when your guard is down and it is easy to get sloppy and miss a find of a lifetime! Keep everything tight and stay alert! That find of a lifetime is just around the corner!
