 |
| Gold Stater Part of Hoard. Source: See Noonans Mayfair link below. |
Tom started metal detecting as a young boy but took a more serious interest in the hobby in 1994 as a teenager. While walking through Rye in East Sussex, he found a Charles I Rose Farthing in a flower bed, which immediately captured his imagination... From the hoard, Tom and the landowner have chosen to keep a single Stater each and after splitting the money with the landowner, Tom plans to use some of the money raised to support local archaeological work in Suffolk.
As Tom explains: “The reason I went to this new field was because my niece was keen to go metal detecting, so I wanted to find a suitable location to take her. It was when I was there that I noticed that the field rose from a nearby stream in a gentle gradient and had dark silty soil, which was in a perfect condition on a dry October day, so I decided to use my trusty metal detector!
He continued: “Later that afternoon, I started to get signals and found two pieces of Viking hack silver. I continued searching and was astounded to find a gold stater, and after changing the settings and going up and down rows that I had marked out – I went into hunting mode and found another six staters! When it got to sunset, I called the landowner and took the coins to show him and his wife. Later that week, I returned to the field and found more coins – making a total of 17 coins!”...
Here is the link for the entire article.
HISTORY PROFESSOR FINDS IRON AGE GOLD! | Noonans Mayfair
Several things to notice there.
1. Tom had a good knowledge of history.
2. He tried a new location. There are tons of new areas out there to be explored. It is easy to fall into habits even when they become unproductive.
3. He observed the lay of the land, including details of the soil and saw the significance of each.
4. He found some hack silver, which indicated old activity, so continued. There was information in the first finds that encouraged continuing.
5. After finding gold, he changed settings, adapting to conditions according to the information obtained.
6. Another stater was found. How many times have I talked about birds of a feather flocking together, or to put in in more direct terms, how finding one type of an item increases the probability of more being found. I once conducted a pole that showed that when people found one cob there was a very high probability that they would find more than one.
7. He went into "hunt" mode. He changed search strategies, going from exploratory, or what I would call "sampling" mode to a "hunt" mode, which, after taking into account all the information gathered to that poine, would be a very systematic slow careful and intensive search mode
I've described my progressive step-search strategy before. See Treasure Beaches Report: Pt. 2. (2020 and Beyond). : 3/6/23 Report - If You Don't Like The Result You've Been Getting, Try Something Different. More On Step-Search Strategy.
The hoard recently brought in around $44,000 at auction. Here is that link.
Detectorist’s Iron Age Gold Hoard Brings £33,200 at Noonans - Numismatic News
---
A study by the UAB and the University of A Coruña has succeeded in demonstrating the existence of Roman-era alluvial gold mines in the Eastern Pyrenees...The Roman technique for extracting alluvial gold was based on eroding the gold-bearing deposits with water. They used various washing methods that ranged from simply channeling water through the sediments to constructing galleries and flooding them with pressurized water...
When we read a beach, we analyze how the water is moving sand and other objects such as coins. We take advantage of what nature is doing to the beach. I often think about ways of taking greater advantage of the same forces. When I see any of the Gold Rush programs, for example, I can't help but think of the hydraulic mining techniques of the old miners. The same techniques were once used on Padre Island. I'm talking about hydraulic mining of the beach. Of course, that is now illegal, but there are more passive methods. Carter and Trevillian, in Diamonds in the Surf, told about meeting a man who created gold traps on the beach by arranging rocks. You might still be able to find copies of that book.
If I were a gold miner, I would often think of hydraulic mining. It would be fun to control the water rather than waiting on nature to erode sand.
---
Over 18,000 views on the TreasureBeachesReport.blogspot.com yesterday.
---
 |
| Surf Chart from Surfguru.com. |
No big changes here, just a slight decrease over the week.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net