I Don't Believe It!

It was late February this year (2017) when the club had a Sunday dig on a ploughed field near Pegwell Bay.

- Stu Harrison

Previously a few Anglo-Saxon sceats and the odd Roman artefact had been found there over the years, so I was very keen to try out my recently acquired XP Deus. Having previously used a Goldmaxx Power, I decided to use program 2 to get started, which I was assured was almost the equivalent of the Goldmaxx Power. So off I went, heading for where I knew a few decent coins had been found before. At 10 o’clock precisely that sunny day (you remember these events in detail), I received a nice crisp two-way signal, which I instantly recognised as probably being a coin.

The excavated soil sifted through my fingers and there it was – my very first gold coin! Happy days indeed. It was a stunning Victorian half-sovereign (Figs.1a & b). I knew what I had to do instantly, and immediately proceeded to do exactly that ‘the dance.’

Joe Daly was about 10 feet away from me and started to smile as I pranced around doing my rendition of a Scottish looking fling! Anyway, I informed both the site officer Josh Davies, and our Chairman Lawrie Sharp. I wished to be able to keep this find, and later the farmer kindly agreed I could pay him half of its current value.

Two weeks later, I decided to go to one of my old favourite permissions, it being yet another gloriously sunny day. After about an hour or so I had only found a Victorian sixpence, so I headed off briskly walking to another area. On the way I got another good signal, which turned out to be a Victorian silver threepence. At this point I was reasonably happy, thinking that I would go home fairly soon.