It was a cold wet Autumn Sunday morning in Derbyshire. I was on a Hammered Hunters Derbyshire club dig on a farm that was all pasture, I wasn’t having a very good morning and already turned up a bit late to see everybody already swinging in the fields, After moving on to the third field I walked up a bit of a slippery bank before deciding to come back down then boom, 20 on the VDI, on beach mode 1, an Elizabeth 1st shilling, pretty good condition too I was buzzing. After showing it to a few people around me I checked the area and moved on across the field, the only thing I was finding then, was bits of lead, there was an old lead smelting works at the top of the hill so as you can imagine, it was everywhere. I decided to go back to the area where I found the Lizzy shilling, half an hour later, boom number two, 22 on the VDI, I dug roughly a 10 inch deep plug and used my pin pointer, about 2 inches from the bottom of the plug I saw the silver colour, it was that big and clean that I thought it was an aluminium lid until I pulled it out, I was shaking with excitement, it was massive and something I’d never seen before. I looked around and saw another detectorist, he could see I was a bit excited and asked what I found, “I think it’s something a bit special” I replied and he came over to have a look, after calming down I took some photos and sent them to my mate Justin, who replied back with an answer for me, James VI 30 shillings, that must of been a fair amount to lose back in those days and 400 years later it was in my hand. That was my best day out in the fields so far, I hope I didn’t use up all my luck that day.
Antony – Staffordshire, United Kingdom
