2 hours in the scorching sun...

[omegamike]

Phew! what a scorcher today is. Could only manage 9-11 but it was a well spent two hours. Managed to winkle out 5 of my favourite things...... lead tokens, plus a viccy farthing, two or three of the tokens are recordable so I'm happy with that Has anyone else managed to get out today or are you waiting for the sun to go down?

[Nuke em]

Well done , i like lead tokens . I am out later this evening on the beach again, need some pocket money and a goldie i think.

[Tony Hunt]

Still waiting for the sun to come up here in Dorset, you keep it I like it cooool.

[roastedtoe]

Good two hours! Nice one. Tokens are always interesting finds. I've got a warm spot for viccy too. Lol although I don't get all the complaining about the heat...it's just right for me. I'd stay out all day in it.

Just trundling home on the bus from the river myself. Usual kilo of spare change, few George v's as standard. Nothing too wild today although I did pick up a 1940 Italian lira in excellent condition. So a bit of interest there. Fascist money. Lol

[stewart73]

Nice day out. Any idea what tokens like that might have been used for?

[Steve_T]

Well done Mike maybe tomoz for me.....

[Nuke em]

Farmers paid there workers lead tokens so they could keep the silver hammereds ? also other farms would not sell goods to other farmers workhands with other farmers tokens so they were only able to buy there food or whatever at the farm they worked in .

[seanmagee1]

fair play to you mike for getting out in the heat, too hot here today for me! maybe tomorrow

[omegamike]

Here's an extract from a 'Token' web site:

Lead tokens were used in Britain from the late 13th century to the early 19th century. The former period is the one during which fractional denominations were first introduced. Rather than using pennies alone they were often chopped into halves and quarters to provide small change. Whilst the latter is the period during which the Government successfully overcame the shortage of small change which had plagued the country for several centuries.
Even the smallest official coin, the farthing, was a significant portion of a man's weekly wage, practicality drove communities to resolve the small change situation which the authorities were not able to. No official record survives of who struck them, where, what they were valued at or under what local agreement they circulated. They probably had a very limited geographic radius of use and were probably struck or cast by such craftsman as the local blacksmith. Not all crude lead tokens would have been coin, some of them were almost certainly passes, whilst others will have had their value defined in terms of commodities or services rather than the currency of the day.

[Garry J]

Fair old haul there,

[omegamike]

Thanks gents yea not a bad haul considering the field has been done to death for over 25 years but the GPX is great at pulling stuff out that everyone else has missed. I left the field after two hours and there were another four lads detecting the top end, don't know what they found? not much I expect....