Trifecta Day - Gold, Silver and Bronze I have had one of those magical days that every detectorists dreams of a “Trifecta Day” where you find gold, silver and bronze all in just one hunt. Today was certainly one of those amazing days on my favorite permission. Its was not my first Trifecta in forty years detecting but my third. But this one certainly is the most memorable. The day started with a delay in getting to the farm due to the foggy weather, it taking over an hour to get there and so I did not get started till midday. Then me being a bit of a ‘Blether’ (Scottish for chatterbox) with the Estate Game Keeper it was another three quarters of an hour before I started to carry on griding an area I had identified as productive a few months earlier and had been searching for many weeks with my trusty CTX 3030 prior to this hunt. The total area is roughly 175 yards x 100 yards and was carefully grinding and overlapping my sweeps picking out the low tone signals from among the high tone iron. After a few bits of dross, buttons and lead I then had a mixed tone signal in my SuperblueS headphones and then low and behold it was a Scottish Alexander III hammered penny bit bashed but a welcome find. Now how did that get to Oxfordshire. So as usual sang badly to myself my version of Hammie Time, find point plotted in the CTX GPS and of we go again. Now on the previous hunt I had found a part of a broken Saxon Ansate brooch and in the back of my mind I was thinking to myself that I would have loved to find the other end. This don’t normally happen but today as I was approaching the area of its previously logged "Find point", it did, and finding the other end just completed this lovely find. Now that’s the bronze bit of the ‘Trifecta’ found. I continued griding finding few other more bits then a William III shilling turns up closely followed by another, But on close inspection it proved to be a contemporary forgery and a rather crude one at that. How that fooled anyone back in the days leads to some imagination. Well nothing much turns up so after finishing the last run and setting the way points in my CTX 3030 for the next hunt I was then ready to set off on the long walk back to where I started, still recording my Geo Hunt on the CTX 3030. I had just entered the other end of the last run way point and started to walk back up the ridge when I heard this sweet clear signal in the SuperblueS headphones and thought that has too be dug. One spade full of soil laid to the side of the hole and then I saw what I initially was the glint of gold. Well a couple of gilded buttons had fooled me earlier in the hunt and as you all know they catch many a detectorist out but no, I had another look and there it was a Celtic gold quarter stater. After a few expletives I carefully picked it up and gently blew on it and used a straw stalk to remove the loose earth. WOW after calming down and doing the “Goldie Dance” to the local wildlife (no-one else around) I managed to calm down and carefully GPS the find and place in a zip lock in my detecting vest for safe keeping till I could properly id at home. Once home straight into the reference books that I had but could not find the exact match for this little gem. I initially thought it was a Remic type but no matches so contacted Rod Blunt (UKDFD) who confirmed it was similar to an Extremely rare Tring Wheel quarter stater, actually struck by an Eastern tribe north of the Thames, c.55-45 BC. References Ancient British Coins 2228 of which only 11 had been previously recorded. Even the British Museum do not have one in their collection. Since it has been positively identified as a “Tring Wheel quarter stater” Get In !! Well after the reality sunk in I was buzzing for hours after as you can imagine. So after informing the Landowner he was absolutely gob smacked. When I originally was granted his permission to hunt the Estate he never imagined that anything like this beauty would turn up as he thought I would find just dross, a few buttons and occasional Viccie penny and like. Now that was a day to remember.
Minelab Mal - England, UK
