Metal Detecting by John Clark

Author:John Clark [John Clark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847975386
Publisher: Crowood
Published: 2013-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

Many invaders have passed across the landscape – Goths, Visigoths, Romans, English, Spanish and Germans, to name but a few – and one would expect to find an interesting mix of coins and artefacts. But this has not been the case in my experience. I live in Département 53, the Mayenne and a part of the Pays de la Loire, where farming is a major industry and there are many hectares of land available for searching around the village. There seems to be little involvement by archaeologists or indeed interest in the curtailment of detecting, although further north there may be restrictions in searching due to the numerous military sites and the possibility of uncovering wartime explosives. While it is difficult to give an objective comparison of the find rate in France compared with Wiltshire, in terms of the quantity of non-ferrous items located my figures in France might be less than one-tenth of my UK finds. The number of coins, in particular, especially those minted before the Revolution, is low and to date I have not found a single silver coin. My oldest find in France has been the broken blade of a late Bronze Age axe, but most finds relate to the period after the Revolution. The most common coins come from the period of Napoleon III (reg 1852–70), the 50 centimes piece being the size of the old British halfpenny. Some unusual finds, unique to France, are the pre-war bicycle road tax tags.

Unusual French bicycle road tax discs. (David Ebbage)

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