Ancient British Gold Quarter Stater

Steve Smith asked if I would like to hear the story about how he found his first gold coin. I told him I would be very interested to hear about it and following on is his account in his own words.

“My first gold coin was this lovely condition quarter stater of Verica measuring 11.48mm in diameter (Spink 126), which was found under strange circumstances. I gained permission to detect on a site being developed for housing and began to search on some pasture before the grass and topsoil had been removed for a new entrance road.

The developers had unloaded a bulldozer near the entrance and some earth in triangular lumps had fallen from the metal tracks as it came off a low loader. I received a nice signal on my White’s 5000D series 2 machine in one of the lumps of earth and when I checked it out I was stunned to find it contained this quarter stater.

To this day I still wonder where the bulldozer had been previously and whether my coin could have been a part of something more impressive. I will never know but it is something to consider every time I show off this wonderful coin. “

It would have been a thrill to find any coin under these circumstances but quite incredible for it to be an Ancient British gold quarter stater in exceptionally good condition. In Ancient British Coins it is listed as the Verica Thunderbolt type (number 1205) and is catalogued as being very rare. Steve will never know if the bulldozer had disturbed a hoard or if it had picked up a single coin that had been lost close to two thousand years since. His coin is nevertheless a great find with an impressive story attached to it.

Have you ever located something in an unusual way? If so then contact me have details. All detectorists love to hear tales about how things were located, especially when they relate to something that turned out to be really special.

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