Find Of A Lifetime? First Hunt Of 2021 Turns Spectacular!

The metal detecting gates opened for me at the beginning of the year! The old bottle on my way was a sign. Once on top of a hill, I could connect with the environment and feel the surrounding powers.
It started with many musket balls, a medallion and melted lead. I moved soon towards the spot where the noise of the "eagles" came from.
This is the motive from the medallion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George

As already mentioned in the subtitles, I'm not proud about the way the key was extracted.
I wasn't really expecting something like this to pop out (I'm a pessimist by nature, always with low expectations, despite a good feeling that day).
I thought, the area was cleaned out and the remaining objects were made of 1700's lead at best (in a spot I moved away from).

The 1700's (?) shoe buckle surprised me. Despite the relatively big iron part in the middle, the detector produced a healthy non ferrous signal (probably due to the geometry of the loop).
When I heard the signal above the key, I thought it's going to be iron of similar geometry at best (like a 1940's buckle).
I was also very tired that day, I couldn't sleep the night before, the way to this location was steep and after lead find no. XX together with a signal that indicated iron, I wasn't really in the "mood" of spending more time than necessary on this dig.
Once I've spotted the edge of the key, I thought "oh boy, that could have easily gone wrong"...
Fortunately the item wasn't damaged (although one tiny edge is shining a bit in the macro shot).

Then there was the following iron signal which, once I saw the rusty end part of the key, appeared to be its end (to me). After removing it, the signal got cleaner and out came another unexpected part (made of copper) that apparently belonged to the key.
At this point I thought the remaining signal must be coming from a chain that connected both parts, but it could very well be an unrelated piece of iron.
I assumed that it will be corroded (like the one bit I already dug) and wasn't really trying, like I probably would on a chain in one piece, made of copper or silver.

You saw how difficult it was to ID the signals afterwards. All targets were made of iron, nevertheless some sounded great even when the layer of soil got removed (yes, I re-ground balanced the detector in between).
With all factors in mind, I think it would be extremely difficult to make a different decision. It was a combination of a misleading signal, multiple targets in one hole and other circumstances that lead to this.

I'm not 100% sure how old the small key is. I know nothing about keys, but everything is pointing towards the Roman era. I've seen the same design elements in a PDF document about Roman buckles. Maybe the item isn't even intended to open locks, but to serve a decorative purpose, like a brooch...

There also is this website that shows Roman keys with openwork handles, made of two different materials: https://finds.org.uk/counties/findsrecordingguides/keys/

I could try to clean the key, but I think, if there is a chance that something could go wrong, it's better to leave it and let the authorities handle it, should this opportunity arise at some point in the future...
I will store it in distilled water for the time.

I hope you liked this adventure. It was quite something for the very first hunt of 2021.
Thanks for watching.

Видео Find Of A Lifetime? First Hunt Of 2021 Turns Spectacular! канала MetalDetecting24