Beachy Head and The Golden Galleon

I took a chance with the weather and drove to Crawley, Hampshire on Thursday for a Weekend Wanderers dig. As I made my way back to the car in the drizzle I found a very worn silver disc, probably my first hammered coin but nothing to identify it.

On Saturday I headed to Eastbourne with Aunt Bea's new Compaq laptop. She can now use Skype and send photos by email. I have set up TeamViewer so Simon and I can access her desktop to sort out problems.

I stopped by Beachy Head on the way and we visited the Towner Gallery which has an interesting view from the lift over west Eastbourne.

We had lunch at the Golden Galleon and enjoyed the view across the Cuckmere River which was muddy from the recent rains.

Sunrise with Oysters

We catch some wonderful sunrises if we emerge early enough. This was taken three days ago at 7:54am. The days are starting to lengthen, dusk is now around 5:30pm instead of a depressing 4pm in December. Oyster catchers were foraging on the green yesterday and gulls were aggressively investigating what the attraction was.

The past day has been spent getting rid of a nasty piece of malware called nugel.E. on my desktop pc. It was deeply embedded and removal programs wouldn’t shift it so I had to manually erase suspect files and registry entries. That took a whole day as I had to repeat the exercise several times until the little b… did not return. I thought I was well protected with AVG and a firewall, now I have a bunch of other programs to assist. This is the first time I have had a serious problem in 15+ years of internet use.

Royal artillery, a wren and an emu

Today’s dig was near Henfield. The first thing to greet us was an emu trotting around the farmyard. In the afternoon it followed me, pecking at the grass in the divots as I dug them. My finds were:
• three and a quarter buttons, including the Royal Artillery button below. It is early 19th century, copper-alloy, 16.5mm diameter;
• a lead seal, with JC 1800 on one side
• A copper coin, well worn and clipped, 28mm, which I finally identified as a George II halfpenny c 1750
• a 1941 farthing with a wren on one side and a modern £1 and ½p
• a lead weight, 1¼ oz, a harness mount, a KIA-ORA bottle cap, a drawer handle and a Chad Valley child's pail in 2D! (below)

Wandering near Winchester

Twas a cold winter’s day yesterday as I headed off to Winchester for a Weekend Wanderers dig at Crawley. A couple of snow flurries fell on the way and during the morning, but nothing settled. Not many people turned out due to the late notification - the organiser's server crashed. It was a pleasant, sunny day out, but nothing exciting found. Many nails, including the 8cm one illustrated, a couple of musket balls, a modern button, a piece of plough damaged coin with some indecipherable letters, a hook which may be a clothes fastener and a piece of pottery

More Romans near Shoreham

Another club dig near Shoreham today. Plenty of WWII munitions from a firing range and a 1912 halfpenny for my efforts. One of our members had a good day, 3 Roman including his first denarius above.

I have now identified this as Emperor Vespasian, AD 69-79. The obverse has the letters VESP + AVG (for Augustus, meaning Emperor) + CENS (meaning Censor Perpetuus refering to the Emperor's permanent holding of the old Republican office of Censor. The Censor had the power to rule on who was entitled to be a Roman Senator).

Penny launches new Crime Novel

Sue’s sister Penny publishes her first Crime Novel 'Like False Money' this month. If you are in London on March 3 you are invited to attend the official book launch (wine & nibbles!), just RSVP Penny or me please.

Your invitation is below!

Harness mount and woodpecker at Cowfold

Sunday's dig was near Cowfold. A heavy frost disguised a field which was a delight to dig, loamy crumbly spoil. Ice had formed on a puddle in a shaded corner of the field. My finds were average and included a plain oval copper harness mount, an unrecognisable copper based coin between the size of an old halfpenny and penny, a small button and recent one and five pence coins. A woodpecker added a pleasant sound to a very agreeable day. Alistair went home with a grin having found some half crowns and shillings by the main path through

 the large field.