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Full Metal Digger
10-18-2020, 04:02 PM
Hello Diggers,
On my recent trip to Bavaria I was having a pretty bad morning (relatively speaking) and wasn't finding anything good. After 2 hours of nothing I got as scratchy signal that jumped between iron and high tones. I always dig those signals because it usually means an iron arrowhead or Roman nail. Instead, a little iron medieval buckle popped out of the hole. It looked to be from about 1200 so I was happy with that.

I stood up and reswept the hole out of habit and got a high tone! I couldn't believe it! I looked in the dirt and saw a super thin silver coin! I very carefully picked it up and put it in my special coin holder. The coin had some damage but thankfully it wasn't fresh so it must have happened in ancient times. This beats my oldest silver by 100 years! The front shows the king riding a horse and carrying a flag with the sun behind him. The back shows a lion in the center of a circle with four "peers" looking on. On my coin it sort of looks like a little skull at about the 10 o'clock position. That is one of the peers looking at the lion.

The buckle is a little bit taller than a U.S. quarter and the tongue is rotated from the 9 o'clock position to about 5 o'clock. After cleaning I will be able to move it back to it's correct position. Here's some pics plus an example that is in better shape than mine. Thanks for looking and happy digging! Dave.

Tony Two-Cent
10-20-2020, 08:34 AM
Congrats on your oldest silver coin, Dave! Over 800 years old! WOW!

What an incredible piece of history! One has to wonder if the coin and the buckle were lost at the same time.

Now you need to update your signature. :-)

:perfect10:

Bucknut
10-20-2020, 09:45 AM
Pretty amazing! :shocked04:

OxShoeDrew
10-20-2020, 03:51 PM
That's just ridiculous. :shocked05::shocked05::shocked05:
Is detecting popular in Bavaria? Why are these things still in the ground? Are they as fanatical about detecting as Americans? AMAZING, DAVE!

Donnie B
10-21-2020, 05:39 AM
:perfect10: WOW!

Lodge Scent
10-21-2020, 07:11 AM
:wow:Very cool find. Any idea how many were actually made or are in existence? I can't imagine it would be a large number.

milco
10-22-2020, 09:11 PM
Amazing find! Yes.....would be interested to how popular MDing is in Central Europe? Obviously, it seems immensely popular in the UK and in Eastern Europe and Russia, but you don't see much online from Central Europe.

Noah
10-23-2020, 05:55 AM
You’ve Got me on oldest anything!:notworthy:

Ill Digger
10-23-2020, 05:13 PM
Very cool Dave!
Ain't it amazing how these medieval period coins are so thin that they can break in your hands, or in your pocket!
Great save my man!
Congrats on your new oldest! :grin:

wisconsin digger
10-24-2020, 09:40 PM
I always laugh when I see these posts. I am happy when I hit the century mark and you pulling silver coins 800+ years old. AMAZING. Congrats on an amazing OLD coin. WD

Full Metal Digger
10-25-2020, 11:46 AM
Is detecting popular in Bavaria? Why are these things still in the ground? Are they as fanatical about detecting as Americans? AMAZING, DAVE!

Drew, Detecting is popular for sure. A lot of folks coming to Bavaria from neighboring countries but they are in it strictly for the money. A good weekend can be worth a $1,000 if you can hit one or two good finds. Of course, people like you and me are not in this for the money--just the love of history. With over 27,000 square miles, there is a lot of Bavaria to be detected. I can probably cover 1 acre a day if I'm being thorough.