Living at the start of the Highlands in Scotland older finds are hard to come across although their are definite exceptions, with this in mind I have started attending rallys all over the UK when work & finances allow. During one of the rally's in Norfolk I was fortunate to meet 2 gents: Gary & Steve from Wiltshire. After talking for a while and getting to know them I succeeded in getting an invite to travel south to do a bit of hunting on their permissions. So on Thursday 9th February 2017 myself and a friend headed down on our long journey south, we had three great days of socialising and detecting. I have the CTX 3030 and the others had the XPs and a challenge was made for best coin/artefact find. So I ensured my set up was correct with Fast Response, Manual Sensitivity, Auto Ground Balance etc. We were off and I initially had a slow start due to being in a shot gun cartridge infested area but soon the treasures started to appear with varied finds from parts of a 14th century belt clasp, to musket balls and 19th century coins. By the third day, I was well on my way with finding a King John penny and my best ever find: a Silver Stater which has been identified as an Durotriges. C.45-40 BC. Obv; Abstract head of Apollo right. Rev; Disjointed horse left; above, pellets; behind, pellet in ring. I had few reasons to be exceptionally happy. One, this was a dream find; two, was the best find of the trip beating the XPs and lastly, a 500 mile each way trip was surely made worthwhile.
Paul – Scotland, UK.