Ancient Cache Discovered: Thousands of Roman Coins ... - Garrett

Ancient Money Cache Found With GTI 1500!Ian Botley of ShropshireCounty, England—a Garrettuser for eight years—has beenmetal detecting around hishometown area for more thanten years. While he has beensuccessful in digging Romanera historical artifacts andmodern jewelry during thistime, nothing prepared himfor what he would discover inNovember 2007.There’s no better way todescribe the incredible recoverythan in Ian’s own words. “Aftera couple of hours detecting ondry ground and only findinggeneral detector finds of nosignificant interest, I decidedto do one more scan down thefield,” he recalled.“While doing so I got a goodpositive signal using my GarrettGTI 1500 detector. I dug downtwo-three inches and revealeda bronze Roman coin. I thenscanned the area and found afurther 13 coins scattered in thevicinity along with a bronzering. The coins appeared tohave been fused together atsome time.”At the time of this discovery,Ian was searching in Relics modewith his GTI 1500’s threshold onlevel 4 and sensitivity on 12.Unable to locate any furthersignals, Ian contacted the localShropshire Finds Liaison Officer(FLO) and arranged to take theitems to him and complete atreasure report—as required inEngland due to a 1996 treasureact. “The initial examination ofthese coins showed that theywere Fourth Century Bronzecoins of the Emperors DecentiusIan Botley of Shropshire County, England, found more than 2,800 Fourth Centurybronze Roman coins with his Garrett GTI 1500. The hoard is seen above,along with the remnants of the pot which once housed this cache.and Magnentius from the period350-353 A.D,” Ian detailed.“I felt strongly that afterfinding the 14 bronze coins andring that there was the possibilityof further finds and maybea hoard. I had been unableto detect any further targetswhen the ground was dry so Ireturned later after a significantamount of rain. Using myGarrett, I centralized my searchover the area where the coinswere scattered and picked up afaint signal. I proceeded to digdown scanning the ground as Idug and the signal was gettingstronger.“Finally at a depth of aroundone foot, coins were startingto be revealed. I started fillingthe pockets of my jacket withthe coins but then the jacketbecame too heavy to wear. Ihad to remove it and continueto fill its pockets while it was onthe ground. The deeper I dugdown—at this point using myhands—the more coins I foundand then fragments of potterystarted to appear.“In the end I was just puttingmy hand in the ground and waspulling out handfuls of coins.

English Cache (continued from page 2)Although greatly fragmented, the originalcache pot still had an intact base piece. Afull excavation of this site revealed 2,855total Fourth Century bronze coins.Once I had got the majority ofcoins out of the pot I gentlydug around the pot hoping toget the majority of it out in onepiece. However, it was severelycracked and crumbled thelargest piece being the base thatstill had coins stuck to it.“I scanned the sides of thehole and retrieved a few morecoins. I then decided to fill thehole in, knowing that it waslikely that there would be morecoins to be found and noted itsposition. I struggled to carry mydetector, spade and my bulgingjacket containing the coins andpot fragments back to my car.In the end I had to carry thejacket a few yards and then mydetector and so on.”Back home, Ian laid out an oldsheet and gently piled the coinsand pot shards onto it from hisjacket pockets. He contacted hislocal FLO again “to tell him thatI had found hundreds of furthercoins and the pot. He gave meadvice over the telephone not toclean the coins or try to separatethe fused ones. He arrangedwith me a date to view thesite so that he could carry outan excavation for the treasurereport.”In the meantime, Ian begancounting the old Roman coinsinto piles of ten and rows often, which was time consumingas some of the coins werefused together. When the countreached 1,000 coins, “I wasshocked,” Ian said. “The pile didnot seem to have gone down;then another 1000 were countedand then a further 806.”The coins from the potappeared to be in good conditionbut there were so many differenttypes of coins that Ian wasunable to identify them withoutcleaning them. He decided toleave that work to the BritishMuseum to undertake.When word reached CharlesGarrett—founder of GarrettMetal Detectors—of Botley’sEnglish hoard, he was thrilled.“As someone who has spent mylifetime searching for treasures,I know exactly how excitingit is to find such a remarkablecache,” Garrett said. “This iswhat metal detecting is allabout. Finding such a cache isa treasure hunter’s dream cometrue.”In speeches and in his bookson treasure hunting, Garretthas often pointed out that suchgreat caches are out there to befound for those who put in theeffort. “Many agree that cachehunting is the most romanticand potentially most profitableform of metal detecting,” hesaid. “You must think and actdifferently when you hunt forcaches. After all, you’re lookingfor money that someoneintentionally hid from you.”Garrett has found severalmoney caches in his decades