I made the find on Friday 4th October in a pasture field near a Norman Church near Yeovil Somerset, it was raining that afternoon on arrival at the location, I set up my Equinox 800 and put it in Beach mode for field 5 tone settings, it was my first try using these settings on my own permission, I decided I was going to do a sort of union jack pattern search on the field to see if there were any hotspots, with this in mind I decided to do a perimeter search first, as I went along the edge I kept looking up at the Church tower which dates back to 1287 praying for some good fortune, my first few finds were the odd button and a Victoria Half Penny, followed closely by a One penny, then a bit more trash shotgun cartridges, then another Penny this time of Edward Vii, I knew then this field had never been detected as there were Georgian and Victorian finds everywhere, I reached the bottom of the field next to the hedge and found a few more bits and pieces, then found myself drawn yet again stopping and looking up at that Church tower thinking to myself "come on just one piece please to go back to the time of the church" as I approved the gap in the hedge where the farmer drives down into the next field my Equinox gave a lovely crisp two way signal, I dug down around 5 to 6 inches and out popped this little silver item, but due to the rain and mud I was only able to clean it up slightly and could only distinguish that it was thicker on one side down too thin on the other, I didn't think much of it at the time and actually thought it maybe a squashed silver Victorian perfume cap or something, but as I knew it was silver I placed it in my finds pod a carried on, a few more bits and pieces came up more Georgian and Victorian well-worn coins and a modern key, I was getting wet and tired so decided to end my day there and went home, it was only here after cleaning the silver item that my heart missed a beat when I noticed under magnifications the cross and lines on the edge of what is a Silver ring and then the unusual cross on what appeared to be a silver medieval penny, I sent photos via WhatsApp to my usual detecting mates Rob Harris, John Porter, and Matty Bush where we discussed what we thought it maybe, Rob instantly thought it was Norman King Stephen, it had crossed my mind this is who it could be but was a little sceptical as I believe they are rare as hens teeth, anyway the consensus was this was more likely who's reign this coin was from, excited to find out more I sent an email to Laura Burnett my local FLO, and after a few days Laura responded and asked me to attend her finds identification day at Taunton museum at 10am on Saturday 12th October, I was on night shift the night before but even though I'd had no sleep I was to excited and had to find out more about my item, there was a small queue of people waiting to see her on Saturday morning so I waited with my wife patiently in line until it was my turn, Laura was excited to see my find and stated she had seen rings of this type before but never one fused to a ring, I asked a few question and even my wife joined in lol then the $100 dollar question did she think it was a Stephen penny or a Tealby type??? , she instantly dismissed the Tealby type and said the design definitely appeared to be that of King Stephen as the cross was different on the front of the coin, she then looked through her eye loop and said Kevin more news it's not one coin but two, she said it appeared at some time it may have been in a fire more likely in the stubble, my jaw still hit the floor on hearing this as one silver Stephen is rare enough but I now appear to have two!! Laura went onto say she believed it came from what she called the Anarchy period!! The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Normandy between 1135 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a succession crisis precipitated by the accidental death by drowning of William Adelin, the only legitimate son of Henry I, in the sinking of the White Ship in 1120. Henry's attempts to install his daughter, the Empress Matilda, as his successor were unsuccessful and on Henry's death in 1135, his nephew Stephen of Blois seized the throne with the help of Stephen's brother, Henry of Blois, the Bishop of Winchester. Stephen's early reign was marked by fierce fighting with English barons, rebellious Welsh leaders and Scottish invaders. Following a major rebellion in the south-west of England, Matilda invaded in 1139 with the help of her half-brother Robert of Gloucester. Laura firmly believes this find may come from a hoard, she told me at that time it was common practice to have small stacks of items of value and coins wrapped in cloth then buried with the obvious intent to retrieve them at a later date, Laura believes that the find definitely constitutes to the Laws of the Treasure act and is on its way to the British Museum for study and analysis, so now comes the waiting game, I really can't wait for the story and report on this one, and now I have a massive mission to undertake, and track down this possible elusive hoard fingers crossed👀🤞
Kevin - United Kingdom
