After the Saturday being violently windy and having a leg injury over the last couple of weeks I was desperate to get out detecting. One thing I was considering was going down to attend a toddy’s digs ,which I like to attend as much as I can manage ,Being a moderator on toddy’s site I try to make the effort.
But where to go. There was a new permission that I had not visited and looking over the land it didn’t look promising. However doing some research, I found out that there was a reputed medieval chapel on the site and perhaps a religious shrine.
So after checking the Minelab EQUINOX 800 was charged and headphones also, I set off with no great expectations. But the weather was set fair and the sun was shining and a gentle breeze an ideal detecting day, nothing lost nothing gained.
The detecting was rather slow at first and I was starting to think, nope the field looked as if no one had ever walked over it. Then I noticed some medieval pot shreds and thought well I’ll give it another hour. At this point, I was running the EQUINOX at 22 on the sensitivity in the program with very little feedback through the headphones then the ground started getting noisy so backed the sensitivity back to 20 and turned off all metal. First target dug was a 16thc lead religious token next was a penny from 1940 followed by bits of lead and bronze pot shreds ,might get a hammy here I thought. Next out was a medieval looking iron key of some size.
Next beep was showing 12 on the screen and I had just dug a piece of lead at the same numbers but the tone sounded different but that might just be my imagination. So spade into the ground and sod out scanned the hole I had just dug and another spadeful had to come out, and there in the sidewall of the hole there was a gleam of gold. My first thought was a gold hammered coin but then I noticed that it was too thick and decided it must be a thin gold band. I reached down and gently extracted the ring from the hole and then I noticed the two stones and I almost lost my breath. In my hand was a most beautiful gold Tudor ring. Being of a rather cool nature I refrained from doing cartwheels and somersaults but maybe managed a very loud, you beauty or something similar that cannot be printed.
On arrival home I looked up Tudor rings and seen several that were similar to mine in shape and form. So next part of the story is out of my hands and that is the mysterious workings of the Scottish treasure trove department, where the ring will be tested for gold content and dated formally. The ring is of very high gold content as it makes my wedding band look white.
Having being in the hobby for 30 years and being very successful in that time I must admit this is one of my best rings maybe not the heaviest but definitely the prettiest .
Morayhunter - United Kingdom
