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‘Twas the 16th May 2017 & a good friend of mine had kindly invited me to his home in Warwickshire to detect the fields surrounding his house. M made me a cup of tea when I arrived & we had a good natter. Genuinely one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met...
...you see the hoodie that I’m wearing in my profile picture? M had the logo designed for me & the hoodie made & sent out to me just before Christmas a couple of years ago. As with all of the farmers that I’m lucky enough to visit, I’m proud to call him my friend...
...M told me all about the house & it’s history & then showed me the fields that I’d be detecting. My first find was a bit of a spoon. It wasn’t terribly old, but it was maybe Victorian & a good sign of things to come. M walked with me for a while before having to do some work...
...the first field was a little quiet, so I moved into the second of the two fields & almost immediately hit a target. In 2017, I was still very much a novice when it came to metal detecting & I was still getting to know the different sounds & signals...
...this wasn’t a familiar signal & the numbers on the display unit were a little lower than those that were common for coins & the such like. So I began to dig. I was expecting a button or something similar. I certainly wasn’t expecting the flash of yellow that caught my eye...
...now, at this point I’d just like to say that I don’t detect for monetary gain. I don’t seek gold. That’s not why I detect. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll already know this. For me, it’s all about the history of an item. Up until that day though, I’d never found gold
..that first glimpse of shiny yellow completely took my breath away. I froze. Eventually, I reached into the earth & pulled out a small ring. This was all very new to me & as I wiped the soil away, I convinced myself that it was a piece of costume jewellery...
..being a little older & wiser now, I should’ve known that it was real. For a start, it was very heavy for its size & secondly, the soil just wiped clean off it. There wasn’t a hint of tarnish or corrosion. I should’ve known that it was gold but 2017 me wouldn’t quite believe it
not long after, M returned to see how I was getting on. I showed him the ring & told him that I thought it was probably costume jewellery, M told me immediately that it wasn’t & that he was almost certain that it was gold. For the second time that morning, my heart began to thud
These were the photographs I took of the ring as soon as it came out of the ground. Looking at them now, I’m not quite sure how I managed to convince myself that it wasn’t real. Suffice to say that I can’t look at them now without smiling to myself & remembering that morning..
As if that wasn’t enough of a reward for one day, my efforts continued to turn up worn copper coins. Most were unfortunately too far gone for an identification. But one or two had just enough detail on them for me to know that they were Georgian. Again, a very positive sign..
..not long after midday, I got another superb signal. This tone was a little higher than the copper coins that I’d managed to recover that day & upon digging the hole, I discovered why. Out came a silver shilling. Only the second shilling that I’d discovered up until that point..
..to this day, it remains the only coin from the reign of King George IV that I’ve found. King George IV reigned between the years of 1820 & 1830, though the design on the reverse of this coin means that it was minted between 1825 & 1829...
..not long after, Leanne returned to pick me up & take me home. But I will never forget the day that I spent detecting my friends ‘garden’ & I will be forever grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to detect, for everything he’s helped me with since & for being my friend..
..before I left, M also gave me a Rhea’s egg too to show the kids. Wonderful animals & their eggs are HUGE! 
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Not long after, I had the ring checked & it was confirmed to be 9ct gold with tiny diamonds & what we’re either small rubies or red synthetic gems. The ring had been altered to be made smaller & it dated to the Victorian period. The first piece of gold that I ever found..
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