If Lead Was Worth Its Weight In Gold....

.......I'd be a lot better off today. My detecting partner and I headed off up the M6 to do a bit of searching yesterday. The fields that we had wanted to detect on were unavailable due to the poor weather putting back the harvest so we tried some sheep pastures which are not regularly ploughed so potential finds could well have sunk out of range. However we were encouraged when the farmer told us that there was a pipeline dug through the fields a few years ago (that should have turned the soil over). The local archaeologists had given the resulting trench a thorough investigation so we didn't have very high hopes. I found all this lead. All of it is scrap (one piece could be a pot mend) and I wonder how it could have got there and why.

The "not lead" finds

The grass was pretty long but we could clearly see the area which had been dug over by the pipe layers as the grass was a different colour in one long stripe. So we concentrated on that and I have to say that we didn't have a great deal of luck. The spoon above was interesting as it has the name of Hogarth Jewellers in Kendal on it. Established in 1879 the firm is still going today . The Victorian sixpence from 1852 was the only coin that we found. The buttons are 18th and19th century.

As always the usual array of junk turned up so there's a bit less rubbish in the fields today. So all in all not a very exciting day until my spirits were raised late in the afternoon when I found this.

Item 1.Christmas cracker junk or something old. Any ideas?

I haven't found any gold artifacts since I started detecting and I don't know if this is gold. It seems to be some sort of clasp or perhaps a link from a bracelet. The birds are hollow and were probably made by folding a very thin sheet of stamped metal over as there are signs of a join along the bottom edge. The XP Deus detector gave a very loud and solid signal but the on screen number was only 35 which normally indicates foil.The style of hook is one that was used by the Romans but I'm not raising my hopes and would welcome any opinions on this interesting item. 

Item 2. Flat domed copper alloy with three lines at bottom

Reverse

I would also appreciate any ideas on this. It is a domed piece of copper alloy with three lines on the bottom in an arrow formation. I thought that the reverse was patterned but I think that it is just lines from casting. It is not a button and I wonder if it could be some sort of gaming counter or token.

Item 3 Copper alloy.

Side showing file marks

Finally another excellent signal turned up this piece of copper alloy. It definitely had some function although being only a partifact it's hard to think what this was. The edge has file marks which indicate some age. Again I would welcome opinions.


Even if all of the finds are insignificant we had a great day detecting The sun shone, the countryside was beautiful and the roads were clear. Looking forward to trying again when those crops are harvested.