My Christmas message

Christmas is now only a few days away and Paul and I send our very best wishes to all the viewers and contributors to this website. Despite the increasing spread of the latest variant of Covid 19, we hope that everyone is able to still enjoy the forthcoming holiday period. Restrictions are still in place but provided that we use a little common sense then it should be possible to meet up with our nearest and dearest, albeit in much smaller numbers than in pre-Covid days.

I’ve heard it said on a number of occasions that detecting as a hobby won’t last forever. This is said by those who believe that a time will come when everything has been found and the fields are empty. Maybe this could happen, eventually, but it certainly won’t be in the lifetime of anyone alive today. The fields continue to give up an astounding range of finds. It’s only a couple of months since a hoard of gold coins dating from the Anglo-Saxon period was unearthed in East Anglia and not much longer since someone found a Henry III gold penny. The latter, which is the ninth known specimen, will be sold next January for a truly eye-watering price.

It’s about three months since my detecting club started to have outings again. It was really nice to be out and about again with colleagues, some of whom I hadn’t seen for over a year. As most detectorists know, it’s great to be out searching the fields but the banter between other club members is part and parcel of an outing and I’d missed that as much as swinging a search-head. The last club outing, held on 12 December, was quite remarkable. In my second hold I found a Tealby cut halfpenny, in the third hole a Louis XIV liard and in the fifth hole a bent Edward I penny. Prior to this my last hammered silver coin had turned up in February of 2020 and then I find two in fewer than ten minutes! Unfortunately, my luck didn’t last, for my few minutes of good luck were followed by four hours of nothing else but junk. Still, you can’t win ‘em all.     

Keep sending in details of your finds to this website. They don’t have to be earth shattering, just items that will interest other detectorists. Additionally, if you have something to say about detecting, machines or finds we’d be happy to hear from you. If you have any problems about sending in pictures then Paul will soon put you right. There are lots of other websites but in some cases you won’t know who you are dealing with. On this one it’s just Paul and me and no-one else.