Maria Theresa bronze coin, Gallienus Viminacium, antoninianus, Hadrianus and Traian as, two bronze rings..
Hi Mat, sometimes I post a photo after cleaning, but in many cases it happens that, when collectors buy from me, they like to buy uncleaned coins..
Just clean them, put them back in the dirt, and then sell them. Easy. BTW those are some really cool digs, wish I could go metal detecting as well. But there isn't much in my area to find.
Metal detecting would probably be my primary hobby if I lived in a place where these types of things could be found! Your finds span at least 1600 years based on the coins. Do you get a relative sense of age based on depth? Or are you searching an area that's been plowed and so forth? Based on depth or otherwise, do you have a sense for the age of the rings? And also, if you sell the coins, do you sell stuff like rings as well?
In my country, unauthorized metal detecting, digging and selling archaeological artefacts is illegal and could end in jail. https://www.francetvinfo.fr/france/...mmes-en-garde-a-vue-dans-le-gard_2436211.html
Downside is, if the public has no motivation to search for stuff, then it'll probably never be found at all
In Britain, I recall all finds must be reported to the PAS for analysis; only if no govt or institution wants it do you get to keep the find. Failure to report could result in prosecution and fines
This means it is not unauthorized archaeological digging. In France any kind of archaeological excavation and taking out of archaeological material is illegal, even in your own property. Authorizations are delivered only if the digging is overseen by researchers with a valid research project. This is the law, and one may wonder why metal detectors are openly sold and operated in full daylight throughout the country. Of course metal detectorists, if gendarmes make a stop and start asking questions, may always pretend they lost their keys at night in this field, or maybe the next field, they don't remember... Much hypocrisy in this activity. A system like the British PAS has been discussed and almost unanimously rejected by archaeologists worthy of that name. Digging an excavation just because the MD rang, taking out the metallic material while neglecting or dumping among the rubble the ceramic or other material is just destroying an archaeological layer. Detectorists do not draw plans, surveys, stratigraphic sections, they just dig because their detector rang, find and take out the metallic object, put it in their pocket and hasta la vista baby. Subsequent reporting to the PAS is a joke from a scientific point of view: you must just give GPS coordinates accurate to a 1 metre square, that's all... For 90% of the finds nobody will check on the ground if it was the actual location. PAS files are useful only for knowing the area of circulation of coins, that's all, but all information about their context is destroyed and lost (what if your Gordian III antoninianus was not lost in the 3rd c. but in a medieval level, for example)?
Gino, when I wrote *digging* I didnt mean digging a hole 1 meter deep, but 5 to 15 cm deep..Even two coins were on the surface..
