Absolutely Hammered

It all started back in 2015, on 15 November to be precise. Dave Franklin from Ludlow was doing a bit of detecting on the farm where he also works.

- Gareth Jones

He was fairly new to the hobby, and had discovered very little of interest so was just about to call it a day. He had only found four horseshoes and a battered empty beer can, but then decided to cut through a wood on the way back home.

He was rather half-heartedly searching a steep bank with his Garret Ace 250 when he got a good signal from something buried beneath all the bracken and small brambles. Suspecting it could be yet another shotgun cartridge cap, he nevertheless started to investigate. To his utter surprise, and from no great depth, out popped a Phillip and Mary shilling (Fig.1), then another and another. Dave’s excitement level went through the roof.

He had never found a hammered coin before and so immediately texted his two detecting colleagues Ben Puddy and myself. Ben was able to get out straight away and headed up to the site, full of feverish anticipation and armed with his trusty XP Goldmaxx Power. By the time he arrived Dave had already unearthed a total of 10 coins including five Philip and Mary shillings (Fig.2). A close-up of the obverse and reverse of one of these shillings can be seen in Figs.3a & b.