Thursday, 28 September 2017

Dug Up Like Truffles - the Bridport Hoard 'Excavation', another PAS Fail


Mike Smale shakes hand with
Anthony Butler farm manager in
 Bridport, Dorset after hoard found
Hundreds of Roman denarii have been found by artefact hunter Mike Scale during commercial event in Bridport (Anon, 'Man Finds Massive Coin Hoard On Metal Detecting Weekend That Could Be Worth Up To £200KSWNS September 29, 2017) :

An amateur historian (sic) digging in a farmer’s field has told how he found a once-in-a -lifetime hoard of 2000-year-old Roman silver coins – worth up to £200,000. Mike Smale, 35, found the hoard of 600 rare denarii in a farmer’s field in Bridport while hunting with his pals from the Southern Detectorists club. A single one can sell for up to £900 so the fisherman was astonished when he uncovered one pristine coin after another dating back to 32BC. [...]  The coins will be handed over to the coroner for valuation and then likely sold to a museum, with the profits split between the farmer and Mike.
The find at an 'undisclosed farmland location in Bridport' was made at the detectorists annual event, attended by 300 people  organised by Sean MacDonald, 47. The denarii included the 'galley' issues on Mark anthony but also some of Otho (according to 'Numismatist – coin expert – Dominic Chorney ')
 “The archaeologists excavating it couldn’t believe what they were seeing because these coins are so rare. “I personally think a find of this size and variety will never be found again.” 
To be frank, I rather think it is us looking at the way the archaeologists (well, one has a PAS hi-vis vest on)  are 'excavating' this material is something that if there were not photographic evidence in the public domain one could not believe". look at it! The second photos looks like the forest floor near me whan the wild boar have been at it. In France they have Truffle pigs, maybe in the UK they should train pigs to hunt coins, they'd be cheaper than an FLO and make the same mess on site.

Getting deep down and dirty but the hi-vis so clean

The beer can....oh please
You would have thought that after Lenborough, the PAS would have learnt.

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