<p><strong>When I was stationed at Ramstein AFB as a medic I befriended a German Ambulance driver named Mr Merkel.</strong> On night shift awaiting emergency calls we talked about Germany history and sites. I told Mr Merkel I had a metal detector and had poked around in various places finding 1600 coins, some WWII pins, and some gold rings in the local swimming lake.</p> <p>I told him my dream was to get out and relic hunt for some Roman artifacts but my research so far was unsuccessful. Mr Merkel suddenly smiled and in broken English told me he had a friend in a local village about 20 min from the base who has found many Roman Denarius coins after a good rain.</p> <p>Well the following weekend Mr Merkel drove me out to meet Mr Ginder and we sat around on his farm drinking great German beer getting to know each other. Mr Ginder spoke very little English and my German was fair at best. But with time we managed to talk about his finds and process of discovery. I explained to Mr Ginder if he would take me to his hot spot I would let him use my back up machine the Tesoro Silver Saber, and I would hunt with the sovereign minelab. We agreed to try the next weekend and I showed up at 0630 chomping at the bit to get started. I spent about 20 minutes teaching Mr Ginder to use the detector as it was all new to him and he had one other stipulation. If I found a coin that he did not have in his collection he would keep the coin, and that's a hard pill to swallow when your popping coins from the ground that date back to 260 AD.</p> <p>We started to hunt and managed to find four coins that day, I got to keep one. The next weekend I went back to his farm and he had chores and other business keeping him busy so he told me to go hunt with out him.</p> <p>I went back to this field but decided to hunt closer to the edge of the potato field and the Forrest. There were hundreds of foundation rocks thrown down there that once were part of the Roman centre point back in the day. I started my grid and worked back and forth covering every inch on the way, and with a minelab slow is the way to go. I was getting frustrated until I got a high tone that was remarkably shallow and easy to dig in that recently turned sod. I knelt down and broke out the gator to push back the soil and was amazed at what I saw looking up at me as it was my very first Ronan bronze ring. I brushed it off and slid it over my ring finger and it was a perfect fit wondering how it was lost and who had worn it so long ago.</p> <p>Now I was excited so I got back to business moving even further down the hill making slow rhythmic swings with my detector and hearing nothing for twenty minutes.</p> <p>I stopped two get a drink and take a break when I had a premonition I should go back up the hill and work the east corner were Ginder had found many coins. I headed up and the second swing of the coil I heard a faint high tone and started to dig slowly not wanting to scratch or ding up the possible relic. I have never won anything ever but I felt like I just one the lottery as in the hole was what looked like a horse with a mermaid tail about 2" long and bronze. At first I was confused on what I had found, but flipping it over I could see were a pin once was and I had found my first and only toga pin. What a day and surprisingly that day I found no other coins or other relics. But who could complain after finding two awesome relics from Circa 260 AD!</p> <p>Sadly I rotated back state side just 4 months later, I did mange to find 12 denarius coins in that potato field that Mr Ginda allowed me to have. Mr Ginda was not interested in rings or toga pins as his passion was just the coins so I felt blessed he passed on them as there my favorite relic from the German potato field!</p>