Mudlarking the River Thames in London - A Very Mysterious Coin - Can you ID it?

it's a really beautiful morning today and so i've  come down to the river it's a really nice low tide   i got totally stuck in traffic for about an hour  so it's a relief to be down here i've got about an   hour left before the tide starts coming  in so let's go see what we can find so now that everyone is really  good at spotting pipes i'm going to   pan over this area see if you  can see signs of some pipage! now what does that look like now that is a lovely  old pipe bowl i can tell it's old because it's   rather small it's got a nice milled edge there  as well and so that's going to date to well   late 16th early 17th century i believe  and is there a stem that same old question maybe a little bit of a stem let's  see how much let's see how much ready ah not much but it's a lovely  old pipe bowl really nice so that's going to be early 1600s delightful well i have just seen something  round down here and i'm hoping that it's a nice   old coin actually i've just seen another round  coin over there but that's definitely a modern   one penny but the one that i've  just seen definitely isn't modern   so i'm going to come slowly  over it see if you can spot it see if you can see what i'm looking at   and you see it it's in the center there look  here it is now what is this is that i wonder well i can't quite make out anything on there at  the moment so i'm gonna have to give that a clean   a careful clean don't worry i'm  not gonna sandpaper it or anything   hopefully it's not completely so  worn that we can't tell what it is okay we'll see we'll see that later kind of make out a triangle in the middle actually and some round things hmm right okay well  i'm gonna carry on see what else i can find   it's a nice low tide today see if  there's anything else around here if you see anything just tell me to stop what's this this is weird it's like a really  pointy piece of wood like a spear with a metal bit   on the end it's strange isn't it what it is what  it came from a medieval television aerial maybe i do believe that i've seen another coin over  here or something round that could be a coin   i could be wrong i'm going to zoom  in so you can have a look it is just down there see it right there so let's go take a look Oh the suspense the suspense let's see let's see okay it's pretty worn but it's definitely a coin oh and i think it's victoria look you can  just about see her ghostly profile there   yep just there barely make it  out can you see oh fantastic excellent two coins in a row it's not bad is it   i think i'm gonna stay around here  for a while what else can we see it's funny because sometimes stones  look like coins like that for example it's easy to be fooled like this one  a nice big doubloon it's actually a stone okay here's another spot the pipe challenge so there is a pipe down there which i've  just seen i don't know if it's got a stem yet   now can you see where it is let's have a little look down here can you see the signs of a pipe i expect  you can now because it's just here look and what can we tell about it before we even  start extracting it well we can already tell   because there's a seam there that it's  likely to date to the early 19th century   and that seam there usually little leaves was   used to cover the imperfections of the mould and   i can also see it's got a little more spur  here so it's definitely early 19th century   so let's now see how much stem it's  got so i'm going to pull it out oh not very much i was hoping that it  might be a little bit more than that   and you can see that it's all black there  it's been sitting in that mud for so long   we might have a nice initial on the spur hard to see at the moment but there  we have it a pipe probably dating to   around 1840 to 1870 and it might have  some remnants of tobacco inside so   i'll keep the mud in there dry it  out and have a look when it's dry so well done if you spotted it well i guess what i've just seen what looks like  a third round thing over there possibly a coin now it's the first of march today and my brother  died back in 1997 so quite a long time ago   on the 1st of march and i'm beginning to think  that he's sprinkling coins on the foreshore for me matthew thank you look can  you see it it's just here look so what is it what is it yes another coin my goodness me i've  been treated today three coins in the day wow i'm really looking forward to cleaning that up   okay so there's another little  spot the fine challenge down there can you see anything as i zoom in yep it's a vulcanite bottle stopper let's go  see if it's got anything on the top any kind   of identifying mark of a brewery or a pub or  something let's have a look let's get it out it always makes it a lot more fun and  interesting when we have a name to work   with and we do look we do let's go and  rinse it off over here let's rinse it off oh and it's none other than my long  lost relative R. White and Son london   there we go big W for white R. White & Sons london i can see a button over there can you see it i shall zoom in there it is let's go and have a look it may have a maker  on it it does look like quite a nice button   actually a nice plain button have a look oh  that's a nice one what does that say on it it's always nice to find a  button with a tailor or a   shop name on it now that is somebody  somebody gosh my eyesight's going oh Cheapside okay brilliant i haven't  found a good button like this for a while with a   a nice name on it M. somebody  okay we'll look him up later okay and your next challenge is just down there we'll make it quick because the tide's coming in so here we are look it is of course a good  old pipe let's see how much stem there is oh nice lovely look at that that's a lovely 18th century pipe and  as i was looking at it i stepped back   and i heard a little crunching and i  realized that i just stood on a little   a little skull maybe a little  dog here look a dog or a cat so there we have it a lovely pipe and a skull look i've just started unearthing  this piece of metal here it could be some kind of bucket container   let's see what it is could be absolutely  nothing of course little a little tiny bucket i wonder what that held back in the day well i've just rinsed it out and look  it's got two holes on either side   so probably attached to something and  it had a purpose one day in the past well i fear it's the end of the pink boots i  have sprung a leak here look see there's a hole   and my foot is now really wet yuck i'm going to  have to order some pronto ugh i've got a sludgy   foot in my boot but they haven't done too badly  they've lasted me about two years so i can't complain hi everyone thank you very much  for watching i hope you're well   welcome to my studio and i'm very excited  to now go through this weird and wonderful   selection of finds from the thames mud and  i'm going to focus at first of course on the   three wonderful coins that i found and so first  of all we need to clean them up a little bit   to find out what they are so that's what we're  going to do first of all and i'm going to put   your id skills to the test right okay so these are  the three coins here that i found on this outing   today the same day which is very exciting and  i really want to know what they are now i know   that this one is a queen victoria you can just see  her profile there if you get the light just right   and we've got this one here which i  actually can't see who this is at all   so that's going to be fun finding out who this  is but this one here now this is the first coin   that i found and i can make out like a  triangle on there can you see it and on   the other side it looks like a few little little  circles i'm wondering if it's something arabic   so if you want to have a guess now  or if you think you know what it is write it in the comments and  let's see if you're right okay so here we go i'm gonna pop that in  there for just a very short amount of time well here we are um i don't want  to leave it in any longer because   i don't want to damage it and i  have to say i am none the wiser that pattern there has come through   just several little circles and on this side  here we can just see that sort of triangular   design but it's very worn and so do you know  what i'm going to do i'm going to put it on   twitter or facebook or somewhere like  that and see if i can find out what it is and so let's have a go with this one   so how did you get on i know there's lots  of coin experts out there so i've no doubt   that some of you will have been able to id those  coins as soon as they came out of the electrolysis   bath i did have some help with my id from  twitter and so i do now know what they all are   so i will give you a little bit of a clue two  of them are british monarchs and we already   know of course that we do have a queen victoria  coin here because we could see the profile before   we actually put it in the electrolysis bath but  one of them and this is the one which i was really   really intrigued about the one with the little  circles and the triangle this one is a french   monarch so there is a little clue in case you want  to continue trying to idea if you haven't already   so i thought it would be kind of fun just to  give you a few facts about each of these kings   and queens and i've got to say that isn't it just  great that you can go on the thames for sure and   find kings and queens from completely different  eras all muddled up together in the mud there   arent very many places where you can actually  do that so it's it's really very exciting   so let's start off with queen victoria now the  coin is very very worn i can't see the date on it   but it is a young queen victoria and she reigned  from 1837 to 1901 and she was only five foot tall   that's something that i didn't know and she was  also very rotund because she did absolutely love   her food she had nine children with albert and she  actually really didn't like being pregnant at all   there's just an interesting fact that i came upon  today as i was looking up some information about   her on the internet and i also found out that in  1842 she was the first monarch at least in britain   to take a ride on a train and she absolutely loved  it and it's quite nice because that ties up really   nicely with a piece of pottery which i found a few  months ago with a little tiny train carriage on   it with victoria written on it so this probably  was made to commemorate when queen victoria did   actually go on the train so that's a nice little  link between this coin and this piece of pottery so the next coin i'm going to tell you about is  this one here which has a very wonderful profile   of george ii king george ii and he was king from  1727 to 1760 and this is a george ii halfpenny   and i shall tell you a little bit of information  about george i'm going to check my notes to make   sure i don't get it wrong firstly he didn't get on  with his father they absolutely hated each other   his father who was george the first was actually  quite jealous of george ii's popularity and he   really didn't like him at all but interestingly  before they fell out george the first decided   that he didn't want his son george ii to  be in a loveless marriage like he had been   and so he arranged for his son to travel to  see his future wife incognito with a false name   to see if he actually liked her before a marriage  was arranged and so king george ii traveled over   to see his future wife caroline of ansbach  and he had a false name of Monsieur de Busche   and he met her she didn't know who he was  and he absolutely fell in love with her   so it was a success all round and so very  shortly afterwards he revealed his true   identity and caroline of ansbach and george ii  were married and they had a very happy marriage   despite the fact that george ii had loads and  loads of mistresses apparently he really did   love caroline and in fact so much so that  when she died in i think yes 1737 he was   absolutely heartbroken and in 1760 when he died  shortly after he got off of his toilet store   he had left instructions that their two  coffins should be removed or the two sides of their coffins should be removed so  that their remains could be mingled together so   there are a few interesting lesser-known facts  about king george ii so that's those two so now   i'm going to reveal the identity of the third  coin which is the french monarch and so this   coin here is a louis xiv 6 denier piece and this  was revealed to me or id'd by somebody on twitter   i was really surprised because i didn't think  anybody was going to but now actually you can   now that i know what it is i can actually  see the the features which do reveal   the identity of the coin so how about a few fun  facts about louis xiv well he reigned from 1643   to 1715 and he became king when he was four years  old and he actually had a very long reign 72 years   and a few other fun facts about louis  he loved ballet dancing and he performed   in lots and lots of ballets yeah ballet he really  really loved it he also believed that he was   a direct representative of god and he claimed  miraculous healing powers and when he was out   voyaging around he used to go  up to people and touch them   and say that he could heal people from scrofula  and if you don't know what that is then look it up   also another fact is that louisiana the state  of louisiana in the usa is actually named   after louis xiv so isn't that marvellous that  within just a very short area really on the   thames foreshore you can find queen  victoria king louis xiv and george ii   so that was a real treat and now if we look at  these pipes what i realized afterwards is that   three pipes which featured on this video also  link very nicely to these monarchs because each   of those pipes comes from the same era as one of  them the one with the milled edge which i pulled   out at first now it dates from about 1640 to 1660  and so that marries up really well with king louis   xiv who reigned from 1643 to 1715. now for king  george ii we have this lovely long pipe here   because this pipe dates from about 1720 to  1740 and king george the second reigned from 1727   to 1760. so whoever was around during his reign  would have been smoking a pipe very much like this   and then lastly we have this pipe here which dates  from about 1840 to 1870 which puts it perfectly   in the reign of queen victoria so i'm very happy  to be able to marry those three coins up with the   three pipes it all seems to fit really perfectly  so now moving on from the coins and the pipes um   i won't spend too long on this i'm not even really  sure why i kept it but i will tell you that it's   actually polished up really nicely somebody  obviously cared about it at one point it's been   welded just here it's got these two holes outside  probably used to tip something i expect and if you   know what it was used for then please let me  know i probably won't keep it but it was found   on an area for sure whether there's a lot of  industrial work going on and ship building so   it probably has a link to that this curious stick  here which i did pick up with this bit of metal   at the end and it sort of tapers up yeah very  curious i'm not sure if i'll ever find out   what that was but again if you if you recognize it  or know what it might be then please reveal um oh   the button now walter whiffin what a great name it  sounds almost dickensian so this button w whiffin   from 146 cheapside he was indeed a merchant tailor  and i have found a wonderful letterhead from him   which i'm going to show you a photograph of he  was born in 1847 in kent and he died in 1906.   he was born in gravesend and he was married to  louisa and he had several children including ada   walter jr and maude so there we are a little bit  of information from this tiny button but i think   the best thing about the button is the name  because i just love that name walter wiffin   it's uh sounds like a really good character from  the book and what else have we got here okay yes   so the slight more gruesome find this little skull  which i crunched on i took it home for me gave   it a little rinse and i realized that it's very  similar to another skull which i have here so i   think they are dog skulls so i i was thinking that  this was a very small dog and this is even smaller   so not quite sure what kind of dog it was but  i'm pretty certain it's a dog it's not a cat so   there's not a lot else that it can be so  there we have it a little a little dark skull my nice vulcanite bottle stopper with white  R White & Sons on it i did actually find   a bottle that i've got here at home but it  fits into perfectly so that's very satisfying   it's been very satisfying about  screwing in a vulcanite bottle stopper so thank you very much for watching everyone  i hope you enjoyed that and thanks for your   feedback and your comments and suggestions i  always read them it might take me a little while   to respond to them but i really appreciate them  each and every one and thank you too to everyone   who has donated via my kofi account i'll soon be  getting my camera which should greatly improve   the audio in these studio roundups that i do so  i'd like to wish you all an excellent week ahead   and i'm very much looking forward  to seeing you again very soon bye-bye you

Channel: nicola white mudlark - Tideline Art

Views: 51,051

Rating: 4.9683232 out of 5

Keywords: nicola white mudlark, nicola white, mudlarking in London, best mudlarking finds, mudlarking the river thames, best mudlarking videos, Thames mudlarking videos

Id: JzEH-J662J0

Length: 36min 4sec (2164 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021