The story of a Jewish sealer

Frankly, we detectors are kind of, well, sometimes almost a sect that has a lot of endless and often pointless debates together - something like photographers arguing over whether Canon or Nikon is better (the debate is really useless, we all know that only Nikon). :-) And one of such frequent discussions is the topic of whether it is better to go looking in the woods or in the fields. Both versions have their ardent supporters and the debate is very often quite funny. But one such endless discussion had an interesting conclusion in the form of a rather interesting finding - a small but nice seal with an inscription in Hebrew.

Jewish seal - is very small (area about 10x12 mm), in the photo comparing the size with the coins found next door.

After all, it's only a few Fridays that have been dedicated to raking, so I already have quite a few friends of detectors and one of them is Roman from Nový Knín, who digs much longer than me and, frankly, is also significantly more successful, which is mainly due to by being younger and more persistent after all. We once had a debate together on the popular topic of field versus forest, because he prefers forest, while I prefer fields and meadows. Between talks, I complained that I hadn't found anything worth talking about for a long time, and he laughed at me, saying that if I wanted to find something, I had to go to the forest, because the fields had been collected for a long time.

That's how it kind of came to my mind, and when I finally had a day off after a while, I said to myself that I would try to go to Roman's recommendation with a detector in the woods once in a while. What can I tell you, I've been walking through the woods all afternoon and found just such a classic piggy bank in the form of cartridges, beer tops, Bolshevik crumbs, beer cans and similar "treasures". After five hours, I had my teeth really full and I also went back home. As I was returning, the field, which I have slowly behind the barracks and which is now also plowed, was completely laughing at me from a distance, so it is absolutely ideal for searching. It was still light, so I thought I'd give it a try. So at the edge of the field, I turned on the detector again, put on my gloves, and mumbled in a low voice for myself in this sense:

Oh, my dear field, I was unfaithful to you in the woods and I ... I found him, you certainly wouldn't do that to me. :-)

I just said it, climbed into the field, swung the detector a few times, and followed one great signal after another. Literally in ten minutes, I found three pretty decent coins on about 20 meters, including one silver coin, in perfect condition, and on top of that, as a bonus, a beautiful small seal with an inscription in Hebrew. I laughed at it for a few more days whenever I walked around with my dog. Then it's no wonder we detectors are so superstitious. :-D :-D

Jewish seal - a found seal, already cleaned and ready to be handed over to the museum.

Now to the findings themselves - the seal is very small, only about 10x12x30 millimeters, weighing less than 12 grams and has a hole in the upper part, so the owner probably wore it on a string, maybe even on the neck. Of course, I was also interested in what the Hebrew inscription meant, so I approached the Jewish Museum in Prague with a request for help with translation. The local curator translated the inscription for me as וואלף בן הרב סימון which is in Latin Wolf ben ha rav Simeon, ie in Czech Wolf, son of Mr. Simeon. The seal is small and very simple, so it can be assumed that it is a purely utility seal of a not very wealthy owner. According to the extent of the corrosion layers, the dating is estimated at approximately the first half of the 18th century, ie about 300 years old.

Of the coins found, the silver 10 Krajczár from 1870 is interesting, which is not an extra rare coin, but this particular one is interesting mainly because it is in a super condition, because otherwise it is usually in significantly worse conditions (technically not even possible about silver but about billon, which is an alloy of silver with copper with a silver content of only about 40%). The second interesting thing is that it comes from the Karlovy Vary Mint, which is quite a rarity. In this case, the mint is identified by the letters on the back of the coin under the likeness of Emperor Franz Joseph I., in this case the letters GYF, which are an abbreviation of the Hungarian name Gyulafehérvár (German: Karlsburg or Weißenburg). Today's city of Karlovy Vary has about 65,000 inhabitants and is located in Romania, on maps you can find it on the river Mureș under the name Alba Iulia.

The second coin found is a copper 1 Pfennig (1/4 tailor) from 1759, ie during the reign of Queen Maria Theresa. Quite nice, but basically a common coin, in this case the only interesting thing is that it is in a pretty nice condition. Copper coins are usually found in a very bad condition, some so much that it is not even known and what kind of coin it is. This was also the case with the third coin found, which was 1 Krejcar with 1885, which could be identified at the time of the find (see the photo below), but the condition was so bad that after cleaning the dirt went down with the embossing and basically only copper wheel.

To be sure, I will add that the seal I found will be handed over to the Jewish Museum in Prague. So just for one interesting finding and next time we will hopefully explore something else, keep your fingers crossed. So much success and the field versus forest debate is resolved, always and only the field! :-D

Michal Kupsa alias Kapsa