LOST AND FOUND - Something lost 300 years ago was found last week outside St Michael's church. Gerry Kennedy, who has been metal detecting for over 30 years, was searching the edges of Church Lane where ditches had been cleaned out and found nothing of interest. However, when he tried the mud where a drain in the road outside the lychgate had been cleaned out, he found an unusual coin. It was very worn indeed, but with sufficient detail to identify it as a 1694 copper halfpenny of William and Mary, showing both their heads. Up till 1692 halfpennies were made of tin, with a copper plug in the middle, to help the Cornish tin industry. In April 1694, the tin coins were recalled and a copper halfpenny issued from March until Mary died of smallpox in December. Hence they were only issued for 10 months. A ha'penny at the end of the 17th Century would have purchased a pint tankard of ordinary ale in a tavern and one penny would have bought a gill of gin or a whole chicken. In the Midlands, an agricultural labourer's wage in Winter was about 8 pence a day. The specimen he found was so worn as to show nothing on the reverse, where there would normally be found Britannia seated. In such a condition it has no monetary value, but prompts one to imagine the person who lost it so long ago, possibly on their way to church.