Bart Smith, a Brit living in Chicago Illinois, visited his father, Rod, in Hampshire England and brought his new Equinox 800 (his first detector) for testing on an old cow pasture that had gone unploughed for centuries. However, upon turning up to the site they found out that the field had recently been searched by a local club with over 30 members scouring the land for treasure. Undeterred, they turned on the Equinox in Field 1 setting and within 20 minutes of their walk, Bart hit a signal of 20/21 about 10 inches below the surface.
Surrounded by an interested herd of cows, they carefully unearthed a small, muddy pebble from about a foot or so under a grassy pasture. “When we first unearthed the object from the mud we thought it might be a bottle tag or something used to help determine weights and measurements”, commented Bart. But once the object was brought home, Rod’s partner Sue correctly recognized it as similar to a medieval seal – with an Agnus Dei motif. She enjoyed the opportunity to start deciphering what she suspected was Lombardic text around the edges.
After being collected for study by the UK's Portable Antiquities Scheme, the seal was identified as an interesting find of cultural importance due to the rare nature of its inscription in stating the seal really does stand in for the seal-owner. It’s described as a medieval (1200-1400) copper alloy non-heraldic personal seal matrix of pointed oval form that depicts the Virgin and child, the Virgin at waist height only cradling the infant to one side in her arm, above an Agnus Dei, the cross extending backwards at angle, its head turned back to look at it. There is a horizontal grooved line between them. Around is the inscription +[SIG]NO RICARDI C[REDI]TE SICVT EI (in modern English, the ‘sign’ of Richard, believe (it) as if it were he himself).
See the seal record online: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/951636 - but I have better pictures if you want more.
Bart – Illinois, USA
