29th April 2012 Me and my detecting mate Mike had been out for an hour or two on Sunday in the pouring rain. We kept ducking for cover in the nearby wood, it was then I realized his new army coat was better than mine, I was soaked to the skin and decided to call it a day. My detector was bleeping constantly so it was propped near the radiator to dry.
30th April 2012 All recharged and dry, a new permission was waiting. Mike was busy so I decided to give it a quick go on my own. When I got there it looked good, low stubble plenty wet from the day before. Turned on and BLEEEEEEEEEP….constant.. thought “oh bugger”, Back home.
So back at mum's house, the old girl had to go under the knife again, (the detector that is). The old things wrapped up in masking tape and araldite. The screws came straight of the back expecting an explosion of microchips and water from the day before. Fortunately everything stayed intact. Looking through the plates at the back I saw one that was not connected, Result.. Half an hour later I was ready to go.
Text mike, no reply.
Half hour later another text sent, Hello!!
Eventually he answered and we decided to test the old girl on some land of mine that was close. It was a quick walk to the testing ground, somewhere we had been loads of times before. Started her up and no problems, found a cartwheel penny at about nine inch. Thought I would test the noise cancel under some power lines.
A dull noise was heard straight away so I tried to dismiss it. When I moved the coil it disappeared. This is when things started to get exciting. I dug down to probably ten or eleven inches and I was just in to the clay (this is old pasture land, never been ploughe ) when I saw a sausage like thing roll in the hole. I had a good look and saw they were hammered and all stuck together. Mike, I shouted, IV found a hoard!
When I say sausage, they weren’t that long but just round. We knew there were about eight to ten coins. A step to the right and another dull bleep, it sounded the same so digging was very gentle.
Just a bit deeper than the others, I came across another lot. They were stuck together just the same. Now you have to realize, we were new back at detecting and never found a hammered before. We had a quick look round the find spot and then headed back home to see what treasures we had found.
A quick soak in soapy water started getting the dirt of and we realized there was more than ten. They dropped apart like opening a packet of polos. We were left with twelve coins and a few bits , twenty-six in all. (Towers, pennies, bits)
1st May My daughter’s birthday..
Like the good father that I am, I had charged my battery and was heading out to find her some more treasure. Nothing…
A more up to date detector was purchased on flebay that night and two days later it arrived. We were back to the site, running. Mike just watched nervously as I went over the find holes, Bleep she went. Out came the spade and ten mins later and about sixteen inches down we came across nineteen sword type pennies, towers, and pennies.
View more photos of Regnalds hoard.
All the best,
John & Mike - North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
