BEHIND THE DIG : SILVER IN THE BUCKLE FIELD
Counterfeiting, the Golden Age of Buttons and a History of Uniform
We have been patiently waiting for harvest over on our permission and to our joy on our latest visit the harvest had begun! Well the hay harvest, not quite the harvest of our dreams, but appearing over the crest of a small public footpath reaching into the depths of the permission we are faced with a tropical jungle no more. Over 5ft grasses that rendered the field uninhabitable for the detectorist have been beautifully cut down to a mere couple of inches, the perfect conditions.
With bales dotted all over this brand new short pasture we set to work between the bales, excited to be back in a field that has eluded us for most of the year being too overgrown to work with. Although we do always joke that one of the bales will have been placed over that elusive gold …
Immediately, right off the bat, just a couple of footsteps in, a strong 20’s VDI signal shows us why this field remains one of our favourites and it’s all to do with that small public footpath that has been winding across this pasture for centuries. Yes it’s absolutely chocked full with lost coinage and we have had some of our most beautiful milled coinage finds off these grassy slopes. You may remember our 1899 Victorian Half Crown.
Over 5ft grasses that rendered the field uninhabitable for the detectorist have been beautifully cut down to a mere couple of inches, the perfect conditions.
Toasted George II Halfpenny.
It might not be milled silver yet but our first 20’s VDI turns out to be a rather toasted halfpenny, one that as all detectorists do, if you tilt into the light a little you can just make out the sombre bust of George II placing this coin from 1729 - 1754 AD. A coin coming from 18th Century Britain, it’s not too much of a surprise that it hasn’t survived in the best of condition, and that has absolutely nothing to do with its age. You see in the 18th Century the huge economic and societal changes that Britain was going through with the Industrial Revolution created a much better economy for travel and trade. But the economic pressures of war meant that Britain's coinage could simply not keep up with this new demand as very few new coins were being minted as all effort was being put into the war effort and what little coins were circulating simply kept circulating becoming ever increasingly more worn and worn.
Naturally counterfeiters grasped this opportunity and flooded the market with what they needed, change. Just poor quality change made out of inferior metals to the officially minted coinage. Counterfeiting was such a problem at this time that it was an offence punishable by death, in fact for female counterfeiters the punishment for ‘coining’ ,as it was known, was to be executed by burning at the stake. Can you believe this was a rule right up to 1790?
A coin coming from 18th Century Britain, it’s not too much of a surprise that it hasn’t survived in the best of condition, and that has absolutely nothing to do with its age.
Broken Lead Toys.
Continuing on with this tale of counterfeiting started in the 18th Century our next find, an 1807 George III Half Penny, reveals more of the troubled pressures faced by the Royal Mint at this era. In 1780 the Royal Mint conducted a survey of the coins in circulation and made the astonishing discovery that only 8% of the copper coins in circulation were genuine and officially minted. The counterfeiters really had taken over. This led directly to the Royal Mint outsourcing their production of official coinage to the man who claimed he could produce coins “not only superior in beauty and workmanship to that of any Nation in Europe but also so manufactured … that counterfeiting will be prevented”. This man was Matthew Boulton of Birmingham and with his brand new steam press he started manufacturing the official copper coinage from 1797. This latest coin discovery is an example of Matthew’s steam press milled copper coins but did he help prevent counterfeiting as much as he so claimed?
But moving away from the coins it’s the rather unsettling and disembodied form of a horse’s rear hind and the decapitated torso of its rider that appears next. Another lead toy to add to the collection, a fragment of one at least. But this fragment actually reveals the incredibly important hollow lead casting technique that was first produced by William Britain’s in 1893, a technique that pushed his company, Britain’s, to the top of the toy market where they remained for decades, manufacturing almost every toy played with by little boy or girl in the United Kingdom. A cavalry soldier fallen in battle this toy fragment is evidence of the late Victorian and Edwardian Toy Soldier craze, a craze that soon fell out of fashion after the horrific and changing times of the First World War that shifted public feelings away from children playing with toys that promoted violence and militaristic ideals.
But moving away from the coins it’s the rather unsettling and disembodied form of a horse’s rear hind and the decapitated torso of its rider that appears next.
Button plague.
Then came the detectorists' favourite. The button plague. It’s not all coins and quirky artefacts lost on these historic public footpaths, you would actually be shocked just how many buttons are lying a mere few inches down ringing up with glorious little signals that you would be foolish not to dig. You would also be shocked just how much societal and cultural history are trapped in these commonplace artefacts too as buttons first started to become widespread amongst fashion as early as the 13th and 14th Century when close-fitting clothes became more stylish, especially amongst the wealthy and they can reveal a lot about the fashion trends in society at the time.
The majority of the buttons popping up on this dig however came from the so - called Golden Age of Buttons, the 18th - 19th Century. At this time buttons were produced in a huge variety of styles, designs and metals with the main manufacturing centres of England based in London and Birmingham churning out a huge volume. The reason for so many buttons being manufactured was simply down to the fact that buttons were used in an astounding number of garments at the time, from coats to waistcoats, pockets, hats, breeches, leggings, cuffs, shoes, the list just goes on. On one individual alone there could be found several dozen buttons in one singular outfit so it’s no wonder they lost them so regularly.
A large proportion of the buttons that we uncovered were examples of Tombac Buttons, a particular type of button that gets its name from the metal used to create them. Tombac buttons were created out of a metal alloy of zinc and copper that was designed to emulate silver, a mix the Americans named Tombac, and they can be easily identified by their shiny appearance and distinctive nipple on the reverse. Precious metal buttons at this time were an expensive commodity for the wealthy so alloys were often used to create a similar look. Gold buttons in particular are an incredibly rare find simply because they were reserved solely for the very wealthy and when they fell out of fashion then the gold would simply be melted down and reused into the next trend.
On one individual alone there could be found several dozen buttons in one singular outfit so it’s no wonder they lost them so regularly.
Silver Sixpence.
With plenty of these shiny tombac’s starting to populate the finds tin, we finally added a piece of milled sterling silver to the mix. An 1838 - 1887 Queen Victoria Sixpence. At a surprisingly high 20’s VDI signal for such a small coin we had our second ever piece of milled Victorian silver to add to the Roman Found Collection, and from exactly the same field as our first!
So with the Victorian collection growing, what was Victoria like as Queen? Well, Queen Victoria, with the assistance of her husband Albert, redefined what it meant to be monarch and helped to restore the faith and public support back into the monarchy. Being crowned at just the age of 18 she ruled Britain for 64 years during the age of the British Empire seeing incredible industrial and economic expansion. It is often said that at her death Britain had a worldwide Empire on which the sun never set.
But imperialism was not the whole soul to Victoria’s reign as her keen interest in the arts, a passion she shared with Albert, contributed to one of the greatest eras for the arts in Britain. Victoria herself was a keen amateur artist who produced over 4000 pieces of art over her reign alongside a vast collection of commissioned art that documented her family, the events of her reign, particular visits, and the royal residences. She even commissioned art as gifts for Albert specifically employing Franz Xavier Winterhalter to produce a series of nudes, and Sir Edwin Landseer to produce a portrait of his favourite dog, Eos.
But most famously Victoria is known for her grand show of permanent mourning that she entered after Prince Albert’s death in 1861. This is reflected in the later coinage of her reign that depicts the ‘Old Portrait’ of Queen Victoria draped in her mourning veil. Surprisingly for such a vast reign very little portraits of the Queen appear on her coinage with our sixpence bearing the most popular effigy that was used for 50 years of her monarchy, the ‘Young Portrait’. This young portrait was used until 1887 on sixpence coins, with a special sixpence issued in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and those sixpences onwards featuring the more mature profile of an ageing monarch.
Lead Toy Sheriff Badge.
With sterling silver finally in the coins pod we were certain we had found the ‘find of the dig’ until our next cracking high 20’s VDI had us shouting. The true joy of metal detecting is never knowing just what is going to turn up next and a Child’s Toy Sheriff Badge certainly wasn’t on our guessed agenda for the day.
But the best thing about this Sheriff’s Badge that proudly displays ‘Made in England’ stamped onto its reverse is the joint English and American history that it contains. A history that, believe it or not, goes right back into the Middle Ages, at the time of the Crusades. The concept of the Sheriff itself goes back around 1200 years with the modern name ‘Sheriff’ being derived from the Early Medieval term ‘Shire Reeve’, which was the name given to the man responsible for collecting taxes and enforcing the King’s Orders. As the first English settlers landed on the American Continent they brought with them this concept of Sheriff, using the Sheriff to maintain order in the new populations. As time progressed the need for the Sheriff grew and to distinguish these officials a badge was placed on their chest as a symbol of law and order.
This symbol is what brings us to the Crusades. The symbols and logos of most of the Emergency Services are actually largely based upon Medieval heraldry where the sign of the star was seen as a symbol of protection. This reaches back to the Crusades where the Knights of the Orders would wear symbols upon their shields and uniforms to identify them in battle. A lot of the Orders, like the Knights Templar, were originally created as a military organisation to provide security and safety to pilgrims crossing dangerous lands on their pilgrimages, these first orders of protection are what have filtered down into the emergency services that we have today continuing on the same symbols to mark themselves as protectors. If you look closely at all emergency services symbols you will spot the star as a common symbol amongst them.
From emergency services to military orders during the Crusades to the evidence of some more recent military action, our final find of the day was none other than a tiny General Service Button, that bearing the King's crown dates from 1902 - 1952. Originally introduced in the 1870s, General Service Buttons became used on all military uniforms from 1902 onwards with the small exception of Guard Units, Household Cavalry and Rifle Regiments who used their own specific pattern. Available in three different sizes, ours at just 14mm in diameter is the smallest size that would have been used and could have come from a cap, mess dress waistcoat or a gorget tab which is the patches of cloth insignia attached to the collar of a uniform.
A dig packed full of counterfeiting, the golden age of buttons, Victorian imperialism and art, the history of symbols used by our emergency services and military uniforms it’s always impossible to tell just where the research into the finds is going to take you. Every dig is different, with every field bearing its own intermingled stories of the people that it’s seen.
