Anybody digg ancient coins?

[His Star]

Hello again.
Finally i dug one denar after long long time.Welcome Geta!

I can't imagine the thrill you guys must experience when you find an ancient coin.
I get a kick just seeing what you find!

[curtislclay]

Nice find, but it looks more like Geta's cousin Severus Alexander, IMP C M AVR SEV - ALEXAND AVG / LIBERTAS AVG, RIC 156.

[curtislclay]

Badly tooled: you are not the first person to lay hands on this sestertius since its discovery!

[Marcus Aurelius]

Great observation curtisclay!
I just won the bet with my friend who claim that it could be seen only with microscope.
I like them authentic,even very very worn.
Thanks

[areich]

Your friend must have very bad eyes.

[Cibalia]

Is the artifact in the top right a key?

Andrew

It's a strap pendant

[Cibalia]

So Marcvs, as the authorities haven't locked you up yet, when are you going to invite me? I'm only half an hour away don't forget. Check out my finds:
http://calverley.info/finds
By the way, if anyone sees any mistakes in attribution, please be so kind as to correct them!

[Marcus Aurelius]

So Marcvs, as the authorities haven't locked you up yet, when are you going to invite me? I'm only half an hour away don't forget.

  Very funny Cibalia.Why should they lock me up?!This is not ilegal in my country.I already told you that i never hunt in Sirmium,or any site interested for archaeologist.I hunt in fields around Sirmium,and trying to save (as much as i can) coins and artifacts from tractors and chemicals.
And why you want to hunt here,when you have great hunting sites in Croatia?Last year i saw one very expencieve sestertius (dug in Croatia) in one club near my town where hunters sell their coins.This coin hunter was from Cibalia.Maybe you?
This is what i could not save 
Have any more provocative question Cibalia?

[Cibalia]

Provocative? But it was you who said some time back that the authorities cause problems and the police chase detectorists from fields.
You also made this post in September last:
"But i sugest not to bring your metal detector with you becouse it is ilegal to hunt coins here and custom officer will took it from you on custom department .Or you can try to hide it.Choice is your."
Why would I want to hunt there? To compare sites, techniques, finds. You did invite me once. Don't get all paranoid on me! You are welcome to come here.
The difference between me and you is that you sell your finds, I don't. That's all.
By the way, what was the sestertius?

[Cibalia]

Just seen a couple of early celtic items in the picture above. Do you see the couple of items that look like a series of rounded objects linked together. The one at the bottom has three sections and the other has two. Originally they had four, behind each circular section there is a small loop. Dozens of these would be wired together to form a belt. Because they used so many, they are a common enough find.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Provocative? But it was you who said some time back that the authorities cause problems and the police chase detectorists from fields.
You also made this post in September last:
"But i sugest not to bring your metal detector with you becouse it is ilegal to hunt coins here and custom officer will took it from you on custom department .Or you can try to hide it.Choice is your."
Why would I want to hunt there? To compare sites, techniques, finds. You did invite me once. Don't get all paranoid on me! You are welcome to come here.
The difference between me and you is that you sell your finds, I don't. That's all.
By the way, what was the sestertius?

Yes this is part of the Celtic belt.Belt was originaly made of 32 peaces like that one.
Once again about hunting:Police do not chase us from the fields!
It is ilegal to hunt IN the city,or any digging site.Inspite of that many hunters do that,and they have great finds.Vetranio siliqua recently together with 12 more siliquas in one little pot.Iulianus Pannonian gold coin!!!And that ground where hunters found all this was already inspected by archaeologist!!!
I told you before it is ilegal to import detector in my country.Well i was wrong.I call custom department and they told me it is quite legal to import,and all i have to do is to pay 30 % custom fee.

[Cibalia]

Speaking of inspecting, the archaeologists have just finished a rescue dig here. They did NOT check the soil that was dug. it was loaded into trucks and tipped without a glance. The museum didn't even know where the soil was being dumped (vision of a new archaeological site being discovered at the dump point!). in the end I followed the truck and it was being dumped in a garden in a village 15 miles way. I shall ask the landowner for permission tomorrow and see what the museum threw away.
By the way, I have studied the law and there is nothing against metal detectors in Serbia or Croatia, what there is though is this law:
"All items of cultural value below the soil or under water, belong to the state"
It would seem there is no way around that but I would argue that it doesn't apply on plough soil or soil on spoil heaps, which is all I detect.

[AlexB]

Hello

Im guessing that whether it is illegal or not depends on whose asking and what they might get out of it!!

Brgds

AlexB

[Ardatirion]

Cibalia - if it is an archaeological dig, it would have been thoroughly examined as the dirt was removed. As such, its unlikely that you'll find any coins or interesting things there. At a well-funded, important dig, every meter of that dirt would be sifted to find things as miniscule as plant seeds. But likely, as this was a rescue case, they just didn't have anywhere to put all the tiny potsherds and whatnot that they found. It happens more often than you'd think.

So hey, go ahead and have a blast going through the already moved dirt - it won't hurt anything. By the way, if you find anything, tell me so I can make fun of the archaeologists who conducted the dig.

[oldcoinz]

if it is an archaeological dig, it would have been thoroughly examined as the dirt was removed.

That is not always the case. If the dig is in a cultivated field there will be a plow zone. I was in a class where the professor told us about using a backhoe to remove the plow zone.

[Ardatirion]

True, true. But the context would already have been disturbed on that. That doesn't mean there isn't interesting material in it.... I hope Cibalia finds some nice stuff.

[Cibalia]

Cibalia - if it is an archaeological dig, it would have been thoroughly examined as the dirt was removed. As such, its unlikely that you'll find any coins or interesting things there. At a well-funded, important dig, every meter of that dirt would be sifted to find things as miniscule as plant seeds. But likely, as this was a rescue case, they just didn't have anywhere to put all the tiny potsherds and whatnot that they found. It happens more often than you'd think.

So hey, go ahead and have a blast going through the already moved dirt - it won't hurt anything. By the way, if you find anything, tell me so I can make fun of the archaeologists who conducted the dig.

You presume too much. You weren't there so can't say. I have worked 13 years with the local museum, I am experienced and know when something is lacking. If I say the soil isn't examined, it isn't examined! The lack of staff and time was against the museum. Their sytem is that all holes are dug by hand, and usually the wheel barrows have their dirt poked around a bit by students. This time that didn't happen.
I have found nine truckloads of soil from this dig. The first produced two Gallienus coins, the second and third a Claudius Gothicus coin and a ring, plus bits of copper. A half hour's work. There will be more

[Ardatirion]

Ok, then it isn't a very good archaeologial dig. Lol.  Best of luck with your finds.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's common for archaeologists to take the top layer off by mechanical means and just ignore it, if they want to dig the deeper layers. Unfortunately, they tend to have decidedly limited time and money available.

[*Alex]

Ok, then it isn't a very good archaeological dig. Lol.

Not true. Here in Britain, when a site has had the upper layers of soil disturbed by cultivation over the last 100 years or so very often the upper layers of "plough soil" are removed by "the big yellow trowel" i.e. a JCB mechanical digger. The operators of these machines can work to very tight tolerances and are under the scrutiny of on site archaeologists. The spoil heaps from the machine are generally worked over by metal detectors and may even be visually inspected but are certainly not sifted for plant seeds. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this practice.
Once a level is reached below this disturbed layer, or visible archaeology is evident, it is an entirely different story and each inch of soil will indeed be painstakingly excavated and sifted.
The archaeological techniques used would, of course, depend on the particular site undergoing investigation.

Alex.

[Cibalia]

Alex is right, but that is how it would work in a perfect situation. Around here, there is so much rebuilding after the war that the museum has a schedule of rescue digs. this means that all they can do is make sure that the excavations are done by hand, ie men with spades and shovels. They used to post someone at each wheelbarrow on smaller digs but smaller items were still lost. This recent one had ten holes for the foundation pillars and four guys digging in each, with only one archaeologist to watch, with a student. there is no way they can inspect the soil and artefact recovery wasn't their priority, just recording any walls, pits etc.
 Now, the museum don't want me to go scrabbling around in the soil for artefacts, even though I would pass them on to the museum. Why?
Because it would like like they haven't done their jobs correctly, which they haven't, but it's not their fault.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Hello
I hunt today after long time,and i found this Republic denar.Wowww it is about 2050 years old coin.This is why i love this coin hunting so much.
P. Clodius M.f. Turrinus. Denarius circa 42, AR 3.73 g. Laureate head of Apollo r.; behind, lyre. P.CLODIVS – ·M·F Diana standing facing, with bow and quiver over shoulder, holding lighted torch in each hand.
Regards

[jonkag7]

I can't even imagine how amazing that must feel! (I know, youve heard it a thousand times, but still!) Very nice Republican denarius! Continued good luck hunting!

Jonathan

[GMoneti]

Well, if you were to find a hoard with multiples of a rare and expensive coin, the price of the individual coins will be reduced sharply.  But not to worry, since it's all hypothetical.   

[basemetal]

Well, hypothetical, but with much greater chances of success than winning a lottery.
In Britian, and most any other country that was once under the rule of, or influenced by the Roman Empire, there are, without doubt, and I think even the experts here will back me up, easily found (with or without metal dectors) hoards that contain thousands of roman coins of every denomination, metal type, and time of mintage. The trick is stumbling across,  or informed guessing, or hours of research that  will in the future uncover some of these hoards.  Only a small minority have been found hard as that is to believe. 
What always comes to mind when I think on this is Mr. Clays story of on Cyprus, I believe, where a workman found numerous  jars or amphorae  of "ancient medallions" while his employer or boss or the landowner was absent and tried to sell the lot for the equivalent of $100.  Finding no takers, he then went to the local foundry and sold them for a pittance to be melted down.  The landowner returned and managed to rescue 1400 or so out of a possible 14,000 coins.
I always encourage Marcus with this thought.  There's gold somewhere in that black Serbian soil!