More Coins

Intro: 

Hi! Welcome to the metal detecting show Episode number 21. My name is Ciaran and this week I continue my series about the History of Coins and We have our regular tech time out where this week I chat about when to detect and of course some updates from my adventures in metal detecting. So, let's get On with the Show. 

Jingle: 

Hey! Thank you for listening were at episode 21 and I hope you enjoy the show this week. If you want to give me feedback or interact with the show, please reach out to me on twitter @detectingthe or Instagram @themetaldetectingpodcast or If you want to pop me an email to ciaran@themetaldetectingshow.com  

If you like this content please don't hesitate to tell your friends and don't forget to hit that subscribe button. 

Jingle 

So, this week’s adventures in metal detecting didn't result in many earth shattering finds. day 1 was a prospecting day on a beach that I knew was very unlikely to reveal anything astounding but previously this beach produced a few Millie balls for me, which is always good but this time nothing. 

quite a few signals rang up as solid 10/11’s on the equinox and as any NOx user knows you got to dig those 10/11 as they are the same signal gold rings give off but alas i finished day 1 with a bag o cans. Day two was an impromptu day at the beach with the kids where i managed to slip away for a few hours detecting bringing in the beach hunters standard of a couple of spendable and noting out of the ordinary.  

On this trip I  tried out version one of my 3d printed 90 degree handle for my beach scoop utilizing a small piece of bicycle handle bar  it worked fine till it broke as expected but now i know where to strengthen for version 2 ill pop the 3d file up on the website if people have access to a 3d printer want to try it out. All you need to add is to grind off the handle piece of an old bicycle handle bar for a comfortable 90-degree handle on your beach scoop. 

Also, this week I have started to produce some show stickers and if you’d like a sticker just pop me an email with your address and I'll send you out some however nothing in this world comes for free i will ask that you subscribe to the show in return.  

In episode 19 I talked about the history of coins part 1 where I discussed how coins were invented in the Lydia region of Asia minor approx. 630BC we discussed how the invention of coin went from electrum coins produced in Lydia to the Athenian Owl from the Greek city of Athens. This week i want to take the journey from Greece to Rome and that starts again in Athens with the OWL. The owl coin from Athens became so widespread and important to Greece culture that it is still seen today on the euro coin for Greece.  

The Athenian coinage became so wide spread that it was used as far as Africa but it was the adoption by other Athenian cities such as Corinth that paved the way for the Greek currency to spread like wildfire to the regions of Italy and France. Up to now all coinage represented animals on the obverse and a punch of purity on the reverse and this continued till Alexander the Great who is attributed with being the first person to personalize their coins with in this case Alexzander inscribed alongside the head to Herakles on the obverse and Zeus holding and eagle on the reverse.  

This personalisation is the first time that coinage moved from state financing to personal financing of the currency in 325 – 320 BC i suppose if alexander is going to pay for it he might as well stick his name on it.  

Up to now all currency was produced in Greece with Rome adopting the same coinage but it was only a matter of time before Rome started to produce it own coins and at the end of the 3rd century BC Rome started to produce the denarius and again with more personalization with Roma inscribed on the obverse and as time passed this personalization became more prominent and sometimes on the whim of the minter in one such case the minter in an effort to raise the families profile produced a number of coins that depicted the minters great uncle who was responsible for building an aqueduct into Rome.  

This personalisation continued till the roman republic became an empire with coinage being standardise with the head of the emperor on the obverse and the reverse normally reserved for some image to indicate a great deed or building produced by the emperor. The addition of the emperors' head on the obverse quickly became the standard and tradition. 

This tradition signifies a meeting of the personalization and politization of coinage that continues today almost 2200 years later where in the UK we still have Queen Elizabet the 2nd on the obverse and in the US, we still have the president on the obverse.  

Back to Rome with the empire on the march it was inevitable that roman coinage spread across Europe with the culmination in the conquering of Britannia by Claudius and the romans in 43 AD. Although Britannia already had Celtic coinage at this time which I will cover later it was the completion of this conquering by Vespasian in 69 AD resulting in Britannia being the north most point of the roman empire. 

The planned conquest of Scotland was never achieved and in 122 Hadrian ordered a wall to be built that would separate Roman territory from the aggressive tribes to the north.  Large sections of the Roman Wall still exist and are a popular attraction in northern England.  Britannia settled into its role as the backwater province of a vast empire.  In 287, Marcus Aurelius, the commander of a Roman fleet proclaimed himself emperor and ruled Britannia as a separate empire until his murder by Allectus in 293.  Allectus ruled Britannia until his defeat by Constantius Chlorus in 296.  Chlorus' son Constantine was proclaimed emperor by his troops at Eboracum (modern York) in 306.  By the end of the fourth century, Rome was facing serious challenges and the emperor of the western provinces proved incapable of defending his empire.  In AD 410 Honorius ordered troops withdrawn from Britannia and it ceased to be a province of the Roman Empire. 

However, After the Claudian invasion, Roman coins circulated widely in Britannia and a few official coins may have been issued by traveling mints during the reign of Antoninus Pius.  Many imitations of official Roman coins were minted in Britannia and seem to have circulated alongside the imported official issues.  After his revolt, Marcus Aurelius opened mints at Colchester and London and a significant number of bronze coins of numerous types were produced.   

Marcus Aurelius London mint marked the first-time coins are known to have been struck in that city.  When the breakaway empire was defeated and restored to Roman control, the London mint was allowed to continue production of official coinage.  The coins issued there can be recognized by the presence of a London mintmark in the reverse  which is a small space or inscription below the principal emblem on a coin or medal, usually on the reverse side.   

These mintmarks usually take the form "PLON," "PLN" or "LON."  Constantine the Great ordered the London mint closed in 325 and while it may have been reopened briefly in the 380s, this decision marked the effective end of official Roman coinage in Britannia.  Small bronze copies of Roman coins were minted into the fifth century to meet the commercial needs of the British population. 

Next week we continue with the history of Coins where i discuss celtic coins but up next is this week's tech time out. 

Jingle 

Time for this week’s tech time out!!!!! This week I want to discuss when to detect I know previously I talked about crop rotation and I went fairly heavily into that so I won't cover that this time but perusing the forums and reddit this week I see a number of questions repeated such as is  

it safe to hunt in a thunder storm? is it better to hunt when the ground is dry or wet and on and on.  

So let's start at the beginning if there was a beginning when you shouldn’t detect firstly I have said this previously and it is no harm to mention it again do not hunt in a thunder storm what you are essentially doing is waving a lightning rod about just asking for trouble so don't do it, do not detect in a field if a farmer has just put down seed that is one way of getting your permission revoked.  

Do not detect on a lawn that has just been manicured there is nothing saying that you can't with the owner's permission but if you do remember it is very hard to leave no trace in a lawn that is manicured to an inch of its life and very easy for the owner to see a messed up lawn and even though you both know that the lawn will recover it will leave a bad taste in the owners mouth. guaranteed!.  

Don’t dig in a drought there is not enough moisture for the ground to recover from the damage quickly resulting in dead sods of ground showing up in a few days. Don’t detect at night on your own unless you know the area and people intimately we have all head of countless stories of metal detectorists carrying out a night hunt on a beach only to get hammered by a group of drunken louts who think it's great sport to antagonize someone who is looking to be left alone. 

 So, there is a lot of times you shouldn't detect but when can you detect or when is the best time to detect and although I have said previously not to detect during a thunder storm. weather is a major player in the decision on when to detect for example did you know your detector preforms better on pasture when the ground is wet just after a shower not only do iffy signals come in clearer the ground is more manageable to dig. 

 If you are like me a like to beach detect hitting a beach after storm is possibly the best time to detect now that depends on whether the storm has removed sand from the beach or has deposited sand on the beach I have gone to the beach the morning after a storm to find cuts in the sand several feet deep where there used to be golden sand these cuts are where you see all those guys on YouTube pulling out gold ring after gold ring.  

Don’t forget to consider the tides its very seldom that there is an advantage gained in searching at high tide.  

Consider how the weather will affect your ability to detect is it too hot is it too cold will the ground be to hard how quickly will he weather sap your energy.  

People! consider people whether we are talking about fields or beach's we want to go to places that there were people and lots of them at some stage but do we want them to be present when we are detecting I am normally ok with people about but the best time to detect is when everyone has gone home from the park or beach the last thing you want is a stream of kids following you around like you were the pied piper of child minding while their parents watch on with pleasure as someone else entertains their progeny for them. I'm speaking from recent personal experience here. 

When to detect is down to personnel choices but always consider you personnel safety first, your advantage gained or lost by detecting at a certain time and whether you are setting yourself up for success. That it for this week's tech time out if you want me to dig deeper into any topic just hit me up on the social's and I'll make sure to discuss it. 

Wrap Up 

Ok I hope you liked this episode of the metal detecting show podcast 

I want to thank the website wnccoins.com from which i have quoted heavily from and drawn a lot of my information for this week's topic. 

If you like this content please don't hesitate to tell your friends and don't forget to hit that subscribe button and if you feel like taking your appreciation to the next level feel free to leave me a positive review on any podcast directory of your choice. 

Check out our website www.the metaldetectingshow.com for this episode show notes. 

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Once again, I hope you have enjoyed this episode and we will chat to you all again next week. 

Get out there and Happy Hunting.