It was a cracking Monday afternoon on the 10/10/2022. After finishing work I figured the weather was too good to waste, So I headed to the city for a swing. After checking out 2 possible locations and turning up a pile of old cans and a few modern coins, I headed to a 3rd and final location in hope of a decent find. After finding a early church (for Melbourne standards) I decided to ask around and got permisson to detect its courtyard. After a few minutes I had finally unearthed my first pre decimal coin for the evening, a crisp 1927 comm penny. This gave me hope for a few decent finds, or atleast a couple of silvers... 15 minutes in I swung over a booming 34/35 target with 3 bars on the depth gauge. I immediately cut a nice clean plug and folded it back. The Profind 35 told me I was within a few inches off the target, it was just a bit deeper in the hole. So I grabbed my hand shovel and poped out a few inches worth of dirt and seen a massive green oval shape item pop out of the nice loose sandy soil. After picking it up, I just figured it was a piece of horse tack, but as soon as I whiped the find on my pants I was shocked to see an English crown at the very top of the oval. After a quick field clean I was able to read the banner which reads "THE ROYAL CLAN ALPIN REGIMENT" Not knowing what this was I continued on swinging before finding a nice 1952 floz followed up 30 seconds later with a 1946 rams head shilling, then my detectors battery ran out of charge. So I returned home and got busy with some research... Little did I know what I had unearthed. It just so happens to be a 220 year old sash buckle for a regiment created in Scotland by the Scots and English before the Irish also joined forces to protect the UK. The regiment was only in service for 3 years from what I can find. 1799-1802. How it got here is anybodies guess, the owner may have moved to Australia soon after settlement or it could possibly be an heirloom of the soldiers family. I have sent photos and some information to the national military museum in Scotland to confirm this is what I have found. I should hear something back within the fortnight. Sometimes we hit it and find alot of goodies with our detectors, other days we struggle. Location is everything, if your not in the right place then you may struggle to find the goodies that others have missed. But be persistent, I never in my wildest dreams expected to find a crotal bell in Oz let alone an amazing old piece of military history like this. Good Luck & Happy Swingin' to you all.
