Fake 1922 Sixpence.


As I had a couple of hours free today I decided to give my Deus a run on the local beach. I was not expecting much but just wanted to try out the beach wet and dry settings. Very impressed with them really, didn't seem to get much depth but the Deus stayed very quiet and stable. All I was finding was a lot of small pieces of aluminium and foil. There's was just too much sand been dumped up on the beach so only stayed an hour.

I did managed a one pence piece and thought I'd struck lucky with a silver 1922 sixpence. On closer examination of the sixpence it just didn't look right. An alarm bell went off in my head as I remembered a similar one I had dug before. After showing the last one I was told it looked like a possible fake and the only way to test it was to put a little pressure on it to see if it will snap in half. With that one i did apply a little pressure and sure enough, it snapped in half. Well, with this one today I did the same thing, applied a little pressure and 'SNAP'....it was a fake.

Apparently they used to compress layer upon layer of silver paper to make these fakes. Here is a link to a You tube video better describing this process:

Thursday 27 November 2014.

8 comments:

  1. "Alternatively he could have left the artefact entire and done a chemical spot test (potassium dichromate + nitric acid like he'd have learnt if he'd been paying attention at school)...." writes your old pal from Warsaw on his blog.

    It's a pity too, that Barford didn't pay more attention to his grammar teacher when he was at skool, since his prose is - for an archaeologist - turgid and muddled much like his threadbare, confused theories. For instance, while he gets his rocks off abusing detectorists, he's quite content to offer you what might be a suitable cleaning method.

    Have a look at his blog it's loaded with mistakes and below par grammar, giving rise to a theory that's gather momentum, that he's not an archaeologist though he may once have been a 'gopher' on a dig in the dim and distant.

    That said, he shows a level of good taste by reading your blog.

    Regards

    John Howland

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, thanks for the heads up John, I've just popped over there and had a peep. Yikes!!!!, potassium dichromate and nitric acid, e'll, they would never have allowed that in our school, half the class would have drunk it.

      Delete
    2. Oops, sorry for the 'Barford'.

      " that's gather..." should have read, "that's gathering."

      JH. Be obliged if you could correct before the Comrade sees it! hahaha!

      Delete
  2. Janner you bad lad fancy breaking that historical artifact in half shame on you . Things must be slow in the world today if the moron from Poland has to pick on you lol. No hoards found this weekend ? no rallies for him to slag off ? what a poor sad little tea boy Oh you did know he was the tea boy on the digs

    ReplyDelete
  3. All I can say is lucky it wasn't a real one hehe.
    I know I was bad, but to make amends I will superglue the two halves back together and re-bury it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Janner, what a dastardly act, Giving the Warsaw warbler something to bitch about. Have you no decency?

    ReplyDelete
  5. You know what hurts.....When I leave this world and go to the great permission in the sky. I won't be remembered as the detectorist who reported a treasure find of a silver spoon, or the detectorist who found a WW1 medal which was returned to the family, or the detectorist who returned a lost ring to its owner, or even the detectorist who found a lost machinery part for a farmer....All I will be remembered for is the detectorist who snapped a fake sixpence in half....Gawd how it hurts.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Janner:
    Have a look at the blog, Cultural Property Observer, by Washington DC, lawyer Peter Tompa, who destroys Barford at every turn. There you'll find some big guns supporting metal detecting and collecting.

    John Howland

    ReplyDelete