Additionally it is easy to buy un-cleaned or otherwise low-grade coins and artefacts and using this book, plus a little work, improve them for your own collecting pleasure or for resale at a large profit.

Through this book you can also learn how to quickly and easily replicate your finds, which you can then share with friends and landowners or profitably sell.

You can buy coins far below their value on auction sites simply because the seller has taken a poor photograph. Photographing small objects is easy when you know how and all is clearly explained in this book. You can have great photographs for your own records or to get finds identified or to sell to magazines or to help sell your finds for the best price.

The chapter headings give you an idea of the vast coverage of this title:

Introduction ● In The Field ● Map Reading ● Safe Storage ● Identification and Assessment ● Introduction To Cleaning Finds ● Mechanical Cleaning ● Electrolysis ● Chemical Cleaning and Conservation ● Repair, Restoration and Replication ● Photographing Your Finds ● Storage and Display ● The Treasure Act ● Bibliography and Suppliers

As most detectorists realise, we are only the custodians of our finds for a relatively short time. This book ensures that once having found these historical coins and artefacts every reader will be made aware of the precise varieties of cleaning and conservation that are available to them. Some people argue that such conservation methods should only ever be undertaken by qualified experts. Well, reading this book could make you into that qualified expert!

One thing I particularly liked was the section on display - covering a wide variety of options and styles. This can be a much neglected section of our hobby. If you are intent on keeping your finds, care and display are both vital and the latter also has many educational advantages.

There are still some detectorists out there who go out, recover items and then store in an un-cleaned condition in plastic bags scattered all over the house. In my book these finds are only marginally better off than if they had never been recovered.

This book is so useful, that I don’t think that I have ever met a fellow detectorist who knows so much about cleaning, restoration and conservation procedures. Many people know about rubbing a silver coin in tin foil etc, but this book educates us all to some degree and serves to destroy some of the myths.

Its clear precise layout and information will hopefully avoid things like part truths such as “wrap a discoloured denarius in tin foil and leave by a heat source such as an open fire grate until glowing” a friend once did this resulting in the denarius exploding; sadly bits of a smoking coin of Vitellius adorned the living room floor.

This book is very well illustrated with plenty of full colour images, particularly useful are the “Before and After” photographs, allowing the possible and potential results to be seen. It is packed full of good tried and tested procedures, highlighting pitfalls, possible variations in results and the “should never do”.

In essence this publication will be a leader in the responsibilities of preserving for tomorrow the history of yesterday that is unearthed today.

It may be a small format book but along with all the identification guides etc, it will rank as one of the biggest and most important detecting publications on your bookshelf.

The reader will find sections on Probe Usage, GPS Recording, Map Reading, Safe Storage in the Field, Mechanical Cleaning, Corrosion of Metals, Ultrasonic Cleaners, Barrelling Machines, Electrolysis, Chemical Cleaning, Photography, Display, Replication and so much more.

The section on Replication is little short of brilliant in its own right. How to make and where to get copies made is fully covered, and how to make cast copies of your finds is fascinating and expertly described.

It really only has one remaining category in relation to being bought by a detectorist or for one and that’s “essential’.

Credit to all involved in bringing this book to the detecting world, I’m sure it will be recommended world-wide,

Julian Evan-Hart