Brother, can you spare a groat?
At a country show this weekend, we fell in with a group of very enthusiastic metal detectorists. They had some astonishing finds — although, if you read the labels, it was over quite an extended time period. I think one has a long wait between astonishing finds.
Many of them were probably votive offerings – small objects thrown into water for religious reasons. We…don’t really know much about this. My favorite of these — I was an idiot and didn’t get a picture — was a tiny head of a…well, I thought it was a wolf at first. But it either had three horns, or two standy-up ears and a single horn growing out of the center of its forehead. So! Either a wolf unicorn or, much more likely, the debbil.
I wonder who was trying to conjure that boi out of the brackish water and why?
Inset: a very good Henry VII silver groat. I love groats. Probably because I love saying ‘groat’. They were worth four pence and fell out of use in the Nineteenth C.
Uncle B bought me a metal detector when we first moved here. Then I discovered most of the land around is protected conservation land, no detectoring allowed. So I scanned our garden and found a few rusty nails. No groat for me!
Posted: August 13th, 2019 under britain.
Comments: 12
Comments
Comment from Sam Paris
Time: August 13, 2019, 10:02 pm
Glad you identified the groat. My first thought was that the relief was a jester. Seemed like an odd thing to put on a coin.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 14, 2019, 12:50 am
Is detecting on the beach forbidden?
Comment from Teej
Time: August 14, 2019, 1:37 am
What’s John a groat got to do with it? Unno?
I spose I could axe Google
Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: August 14, 2019, 2:22 am
We were introduced to “restoration videos” a few sessions ago… here’s one that restores a toy with which some of you might have played:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyWxgkQ_3OM&feature=youtu.be
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: August 14, 2019, 2:33 am
Groat – it sounds like something that you get when you grind grain down and then make into some porridge like thing.
I’d like a nice bowl of groat please.
Comment from tomfrompv
Time: August 14, 2019, 2:59 am
How would they know if you dug around your land? It’s critical to your health and esteem to fight back against “the man.”
I watch a YouTube series on mudlarking on the Thames and the lady keeps saying how people aren’t allowed to mudlark here or there unless you have a special,license. Hmmm. I would expect those places would be awash with illegal mudlarkers!
How many groats in a guinea, that’s what I want to know.
Comment from Sam Paris
Time: August 14, 2019, 4:29 am
Durnedyankee, my wife has a bowl of groats every morning for breakfast.
Comment from peacelovewoodstock
Time: August 14, 2019, 11:20 am
Fans of Firesign Theater have been dining on hot buttered groat clusters for almost 50 years ..
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 14, 2019, 12:34 pm
ExpressoBold—My son had that same Tonka dump truck (ca.1973), and it was a much loved and played-with toy. By the time I set it on the curb for garbage pickup, it looked just like the one in the before restoration!
Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: August 14, 2019, 8:38 pm
@ Deborah HH,
I still have mine plus a much-coveted Red Fire Engine. All my toys need work, though and these videos are very instructive!
Comment from Mitchell
Time: August 15, 2019, 5:17 am
Now you simply must open a pub called “Stoats ‘n Groats”
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: August 15, 2019, 2:57 pm
@tomfrompv – Your question prompted me to do a few minutes reading. Thanks!
A groat was 4 pence, and at 12 pence to the shilling, then a shilling was equal to 3 groats.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Before 1717, a guinea was 20 shillings. After 1717 no more guineas were made, so they went for a premium: 21 shillings.
BUT! No more groats were issued after 1662, more than a half century earlier. The guinea then was still just 20 shillings. So unless you want to get really picky, there were 60 groats per guinea. Some might argue 63, but those would be the really, really picky people.
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