My A-Z of Detecting

Part 1: A-G

- Alison Harrington

Introduction

With detecting ‘on ice’ due to the coronavirus outbreak, I took the opportunity to go through my boxes of finds, something I’m sure many of us have been doing. During the process I came across some rough notes for an article that, for some reason, never progressed beyond the germ of an idea. To keep myself amused I thought I might try to breathe new life into the concept. The working title ‘A Dictionary of Detecting’ was rapidly discarded as it became clear that not only would it be impossible to produce an exhaustive list of words without creating a tome of epic proportions, but that it would also be very arrogant of me to believe that I could attempt such a task. I therefore decided that this journey through the alphabet should be written from a personal point of view, simply featuring some of my own finds and experiences, and so ‘My A-Z of Detecting’ was born.

A: Anticipation and Antoninianus

I’ll begin in the way that I start every dig – with anticipation. We all recognise that feeling; the one that comes as we look out across the land with a sense of nervous expectation as we wonder if today will be that special day, the day we find something a little out of the ordinary. I experienced one of those special days last year when I recovered my first silver antoninianus. I had previously unearthed a number of bronze and billon examples so I knew that the double denarius began life as a silver denomination during the reign of Caracalla and that it was gradually devalued and debased over the years until it contained less than 3% precious metal.