I was out with the Metal Detectives Group in Buckinghamshire at a field where rather excitingly an ancient pathway thousands of years old that spans over 20 miles passes through this particular field. For a change I decided to use my 9 inch 7.5khz concentric cool instead of the 10.5 inch DD. I usually tend to search slowly up and down areas of the fields in straight lines but again for a change on this particular day I was just following my gut randomly stopping to glance in the next direction I thought might lead me to a great find. It wasn't long until I had a strong signal that turned out to be quite a large piece of lead, I then turned right for a few paces and then right again, I took a few steps and had a "triple beep" signal which was telling me there was a target right below my coil and close to the surface of the soil so I took out the pro find and as soon as I put it on the surface of the soil I could hear it was right there just below the surface.
I prised the earth up with my trowel thinking to myself it was probably another piece of lead until I instantly saw the gold, realising it looked like a coin and although I think I had tunnel vision at this point I took a photo straight away before lifting it out of the ground. From the initial identification it turned out to be a Full gold stater of the Catuvellauni tribe dating to around 2000 years ago which is so amazing to me and I can't believe that I have been lucky enough to find one and even more so as it is the first hammered coin I have ever found!
Another one was found on the day by another Metal Detectives Group member which has rather excitingly made us joint finders of a small hoard, investigations will continue to search for a potential larger hoard. We have handed our finds in under the treasure act for identification at our local museum and look forward to hearing back from them.
Darren - England, UK.
