16th Century Silver Coins Stash Discovery
Canvassing the Dirt for Loose Coins
We unearthed a total of 350 silver "hammereds" that day! But we knew that there were probably more coins left in depths and around.
I Could Not Be More Happy and Content
Every Treasure Hunter's Dream
We were truly excited while we were sorting out the coins by their face value. We probably acted a bit too rejoiced, like little kids who obtained a fantastic toy they had dreamt about! As Vasily and I had already had similar experiences before, we took it easy. But Andrei, who would recently just begun metal detecting, freaked out completely and could not even go to work next day. Finally, after an hour, we sorted out the coins, counted them, split the cache in three equal parts, shook hands, and parted.
On the picture below, there is an iron object lying next to the plastic container with silver coins. It was situated 15" deep and above the buried coin cache before we dug it up while deepening the hole. It was so rusty that it was hard to say if it was either the tractor's part or… a door bolt from 16th century. But it could explain why no one had discovered the cache before us.
In Eastern Europe it is called a "Cache Protector" ("Obereg") - usually a padlock that was placed above the hidden treasure by a superstitious burier with intention of protecting the stash from being discovered by others. It looked like that the "cache protector" had successfully carried out its task for 500+ years… until we came over. Made of iron, it masked the signal of the cache from all metal detectors that had passed over!
A Hoard and Its "Protector"
Was it pure luck? Did the Gods of Metal Detecting finally reward us for many "fruitless" hours that we spent treasure hunting? Or, maybe, our intuition, perseverance, patience, and experience made us successful? It did not really matter. I only wished a lucky day like this would happen more often!
LAST VISIT TO THE TREASURE SITE
Somebody who witnessed the hoard discovery made a phone call to his buddies in St. Petersburg - not the smartest idea! The news about cache discovery spread inside the metal detecting community as fast as the jungle fire. At the end of Day 2, a few more local metaldetectorists appeared at the site, and they began digging holes all over the place creating a huge black rectangle in the field. I wished my old digital camera did not stop working that day. I had to borrow a camera from someone for a few seconds to take at least a few shots but they did not come out well. Otherwise I would have some incredible pictures for you to see.
New Arrivals of Those Who Seeks an "Easy Street" in Metal Detecting
Within next three days, a swarm of members from the St. Petersburg Treasure Hunting Club arrived to the site and literally turned over the soil with their shovels all around the "hot spot". Even a few bore pits were dug. A dozen of hard-to-detect coins were recovered. The pitch-black rectangle in the field dramatically increased in size.
I would never forget the scene of the local agriculturist's arrival to the field at the end of the day 2. He grabbed his head with both hands in disbelief when he saw the fresh black spot which looked like the landing and departure place of extraterrestrial spacecraft, and an army of men in camouflage armed with shovels and "strange devices." My buddies and I did not want to participate in madness and just stayed away for a few days.
After the "Silver Rush" quietened down, my partner Forrest and I decided to revisit the site and search it with 7-1/4" coils in order to recover the tinniest "fish scales", only 3-4 mm in diameter, of the smallest face value - "Polushka." No one from all treasure hunters I knew had found one. I believed we now had the best opportunity to find the most rare coin at the treasure site where all other types of coins of the "Ivan The Terrible's" period were present.
Only a few metal detectors, including Minelabs with small coils, can recover such coins. We also decided to use the most (or the only) productive method of "fishing out" the elusive "fish scales." The method is described in "Tips" section or directly here.
Upon our arrival at the location late at night, we did not go to sleep but went straight to work instead: we turned our head-lamps on and started digging a prospecting pit next to the spot of cache discovery. Our method worked just fine: within first 10 minutes of scanning the dirt with a small coil, I finally scored... a smallest hammered coin of the Early Russian era, 1 Polushka! Its diameter was only 3.5 mm.
1533-1584 1 Polushka Coined at Tver Mint Under the Rule of "Ivan the Terrible"
After we had dug four more prospect-holes and had numerous tea breaks, we pocketed five more "hammereds". At 4 am, another metaldetectorist Dmitry arrived at the site and was surprised to see us drinking tea around a camp fire. He was determined to find a hammered coin and started digging a prospecting pit with a great enthusiasm. His determination was rewarded with a few "keepers" as well. Forrest and I recovered two more coins when the sunrise broke out. But it was time to get some rest before we would collapse from total exhaustion.
Five More Hammereds Were Recovered Over Night
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