Identification guides

155 short guides to recognising what you are holding — metals, pottery, glass, coins, and the skills of telling old from merely old-looking.

Written for collectors and detectorists who would rather record an honest “uncertain” than a confident guess. Free to read, no account needed.

Coins

12 guides

Identifying coins
Portrait, legend, and strike.

Identifying tokens and jettons
Not quite coins.

Identifying Roman silver coins
Denarii, antoniniani, and siliquae — and how to tell them apart.

Identifying Roman bronze coins
From heavy sestertii to tiny late-Roman nummi.

Identifying Greek coins
City badges, gods, and fabric — reading coins struck before Rome ruled.

Identifying Celtic coins
Abstract horses, wreaths, and heads — coinage reimagined by Iron Age artists.

Identifying Byzantine coins
Crosses, Christ portraits, and big value marks — the empire after Rome.

Identifying medieval hammered coins
Thin silver pennies struck by hand between two dies.

Identifying milled coins
Machine-struck coinage from the 1600s onward — even, edged, and datable.

Identifying Islamic coins
Calligraphy instead of portraits — and often a written date and mint.

Identifying Chinese cash coins
Round coins, square holes, and four characters that name the reign.

Spotting cast and counterfeit coins
Seams, pimples, soapiness — the tells of a coin that was never struck.

Cultures

12 guides

Recognising Bronze Age metalwork
Flat axes to socketed axes, palstaves, and founder's hoards.

Recognising Iron Age and Celtic metalwork
La Tène curves, horse gear, and enamelled bronze.

Recognising Roman military fittings
Belt plates, armour hinges, and the hardware of the legions.

Recognising Anglo-Saxon metalwork
Interlace, garnet cloisonné, and the brooch traditions of early England.

Recognising Viking and Norse finds
Ring-money, trefoil brooches, and the gripping beasts of the north.

Recognising Egyptian antiquities
Faience amulets, bronzes, and the hardest provenance questions in the hobby.

Recognising Near Eastern antiquities
Cylinder seals, Luristan bronzes, and clay figures of great age.

Recognising Native American stone tools
Projectile point families, ground stone, and respect for living heritage.

Recognising Pre-Columbian artifacts
Figurines, polychrome pottery, and a marketplace full of copies.

Recognising Asian bronzes
Chinese ritual shapes, Buddhist figures, and centuries of reverent copying.

Recognising Islamic metalwork
Inlaid brasses, calligraphic friezes, and geometry in metal.

Recognising classical sculpture fragments
Marble hands, drapery folds, and the grand tour's leftovers.

Domestic objects

13 guides

Identifying mirrors
Polished metal discs.

Identifying oil lamps
Nozzle, filling hole, and mold.

Identifying clay tobacco pipes
Bowl shape and heel marks.

Identifying agricultural tools
Sickles, billhooks, plough irons, and the seasons written in iron.

Identifying fishing gear
Hooks, net weights, and line sinkers from rivers, lakes, and coasts.

Identifying spindle whorls and loom weights
The flywheels and tensioners of home textile production.

Identifying styli and writing equipment
Iron pens, wax spatulas, and the tools of everyday literacy.

Identifying gaming pieces and dice
Counters, tablemen, and dice loaded with history.

Identifying toys and miniatures
Lead soldiers, miniature vessels, and childhood in the ground.

Identifying whistles and small instruments
Bone flutes, pipe fragments, jaw harps, and hawking whistles.

Identifying clock and watch parts
Gears, fusees, winding keys, and time's mechanical litter.

Identifying scientific and navigational instruments
Sundial fragments, compasses, weights and measures of knowing.

Identifying leather-working and craft tools
Awls, creasers, punches, and the specialist kits of vanished trades.

Glass

7 guides

Identifying ancient glass
Iridescence, bubbles, and weathering.

Dating glass wine bottles
From onion to cylinder — bottle shape is a timeline.

Identifying trade and glass beads
Drawn, wound, and chevron beads that travelled the world.

Identifying Roman glass
Blue-green vessels, ribbed bowls, and iridescence earned underground.

Identifying window glass
Crown bullseyes, cylinder sheets, and painted church fragments.

Identifying vessel glass fragments
Wine glass stems, phials, and the anatomy of broken glassware.

Identifying inkwells, stoppers, and small glass objects
The little glass things that survive whole.

Jewellery

15 guides

Dating medieval brooches
Form, pin, and section are your clues.

Identifying brooch and fibula types
Spring, bow, and catch.

Identifying finger rings
Hoop, shoulders, and bezel.

Identifying beads
Material, perforation, and wear.

Identifying cameos and intaglios
Carved in relief or sunk.

Identifying earrings
Hoops, pendants, and wires from four thousand years of pierced ears.

Identifying bracelets and bangles
Penannular gaps, snake heads, and twisted wire around the wrist.

Identifying torcs
The great twisted neck-rings of the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Identifying pendants and necklaces
Suspension loops, bullae, and lockets — things worn at the throat.

Identifying crosses and religious pendants
Crucifixes, saints' medals, and pilgrim souvenirs of personal faith.

Identifying rosary and prayer beads
Paternosters, decade patterns, and beads that counted prayers.

Identifying hair pins and combs
Bone pins, decorated heads, and composite combs from daily grooming.

Identifying dress hooks and fasteners
Hooked tags, dress hooks, and hook-and-eye pairs from vanished clothing.

Recognising paste and imitation gems
Glass posing as gemstones — historic, clever, and collectable in its own right.

Identifying signet rings and their engravings
Initials, merchant marks, and heraldry cut in reverse.

Materials

16 guides

Copper alloy or bronze?
Why cataloguers say “copper alloy”.

Identifying copper alloy
Copper, bronze, and brass — telling them apart.

Identifying silver
Tarnish, hallmarks, and the ring test.

Identifying gold
Why gold looks untouched after centuries.

Identifying iron
Corrosion, lamination, and magnetism.

Identifying lead and pewter
Soft, heavy, and dull gray.

Identifying bone, antler, and ivory
Organic materials and their grain.

Spotting gilding and plating
A thin skin of gold or silver.

Reading enamel decoration
Glass fused to metal.

Identifying amber
Warm, light, and electric.

Identifying jet and shale
Black, warm, and lightweight.

Identifying faience
Glazed quartz, not clay.

Identifying jade and hardstone
Toughness and a greasy lustre.

Identifying textiles and leather
Fragile organic survivals.

Identifying worked wood
Grain, tool marks, and joints.

Identifying niello and inlay
Black metal decoration.

Metalwork

19 guides

Identifying harness and horse fittings
Pendants, mounts, and buckles.

Identifying weights
Standardised mass, marked.

Identifying keys and locks
Bit, bow, and stem.

Identifying pins and needles
Head form and point.

Identifying mounts and fittings
Rivets, solder, and back.

Identifying buckles
The commonest metal-detecting find after coins — and surprisingly datable.

Identifying strap ends
The decorated tips of belts and straps, from Roman to Tudor.

Identifying buttons
From Tudor shanked balls to gilt livery buttons — small, common, datable.

Identifying thimbles
Sewing armour with centuries of manufacturing history in the dimples.

Identifying crotal and rumbler bells
The round jingling bells of harness, hawks, and sleighs.

Identifying musket balls and shot
Lead spheres that map skirmishes, hunts, and target practice.

Identifying horseshoes and ox shoes
Wavy edges, keyed heels, and why most field horseshoes are younger than they look.

Identifying nails and fasteners
Hand-forged, cut, or wire — nails date buildings and wrecks better than you'd think.

Identifying spoons
Knops, rat-tails, and marks — the spoon is one of the best-dated object types.

Identifying knives and folding knives
Whittle tangs, scale tangs, and pocket clasp knives.

Identifying scabbard and sheath fittings
Chapes, lockets, and mounts that outlived their leather.

Identifying vessel and cauldron fragments
Legs, rims, and patch repairs from centuries of cooking pots.

Identifying candlesticks and lighting fittings
Sockets, prickets, and drip pans — dating domestic light.

Identifying furniture and box fittings
Hinges, hasps, drop handles, and the decorated corners of vanished chests.

Pottery

16 guides

Identifying pottery and ceramics
Fabric, surface, and how it was formed.

Identifying terracotta figurines
Mould lines and vent holes.

Identifying amphorae and transport pottery
Shape equals cargo.

Identifying tiles and brick
Fabric, stamp, and format.

Identifying Roman samian ware
Glossy red tableware with moulded scenes and potters' stamps.

Identifying Roman coarse wares
The kitchen pottery of the empire — greywares, mortaria, and flagons.

Identifying Greek painted pottery
Black-figure, red-figure, and the glossy slip that defines them.

Identifying medieval glazed wares
Green-glazed jugs, splashed glazes, and the pottery of the castle kitchen.

Identifying tin-glazed earthenware
Delftware, maiolica, faience — white opaque glaze painted in blue and more.

Identifying stoneware and Bellarmine jars
Salt-glazed, orange-peel surfaces, and the bearded face of the Bartmann jug.

Identifying porcelain — Chinese and European
True hard-paste, soft-paste, and reading a teabowl sherd.

Identifying creamware and pearlware
The refined earthenwares that filled every table after 1760.

Identifying slipware
Trailed cream lines, combed patterns, and joggled marbling on country pottery.

Identifying prehistoric pottery
Hand-built, low-fired, and tempered with grit, shell, or grog.

Reading potters' marks and stamps
Name stamps, printed backstamps, and what they can and can't prove.

Reading a pot sherd — rims, bases, fabric
How to get a vessel out of a broken piece.

Religious objects

12 guides

Seals and seal matrices
Reading a reversed device.

Identifying pilgrim badges and ampullae
Lead-tin devotional souvenirs.

Identifying scarabs and amulets
Egyptian protective forms.

Identifying cuneiform tablets
Wedge-marks in clay.

Identifying reliquaries and devotional objects
Containers for the sacred — from enkolpia to house shrines.

Identifying ushabti figures
The mummiform servants of Egyptian burials — and their million imitations.

Identifying icons and devotional art
Painted panels, brass travelling icons, and the grammar of sacred images.

Identifying inscribed stones and fragments
Letters in stone, from Roman tombstones to boundary markers.

Reading Roman inscriptions
Abbreviations, ligatures, and how to expand IMP CAES without guessing.

Identifying manuscripts and papyri
Parchment, papyrus, and paper — and the fragments that survive.

Identifying wax seals and sealed documents
Pendant seals, papered wafers, and the impressions of authority.

Identifying funerary urns and grave goods
Cremation vessels, coffin fittings — and when to stop digging.

Skills

9 guides

Reading patina
What surface color tells you — and doesn’t.

Spotting casting seams
How an object was made narrows its date.

Recognising modern copies
The tells of a later reproduction.

General signs of a reproduction
What later copies get wrong.

Reading hallmarks and maker marks
A punched paper trail.

Weighing and the density test
Mass tells on fakes.

Using UV and magnification
Seeing what the eye misses.

Measuring and recording finds
Good records outlive objects.

Provenance, treasure law, and ethics
Know before you collect.

Stone

13 guides

Identifying worked stone
Flint, marble, and hardstone.

Identifying struck flint
The signatures of knapping.

Identifying obsidian
Volcanic glass tools.

Identifying hand axes
The Palaeolithic multi-tool — pear-shaped, worked on both faces.

Identifying scrapers and blades
The everyday flint toolkit — and how retouch separates tool from waste.

Identifying microliths
Tiny geometric flints that armed Mesolithic arrows.

Identifying polished stone axes
Ground, smoothed, and traded across whole continents in the Neolithic.

Identifying hammerstones and worked cobbles
Battered ends and pecked hollows — the tools that made other tools.

Identifying quern and grinding stones
Saddle querns, rotary querns, and the daily grind made literal.

Identifying whetstones
Hones worn hollow by centuries of sharpened edges.

Identifying stone mace heads
Drilled and polished prestige stones of prehistory.

Worked or natural? Reading flint honestly
Bulbs, ripples, and platforms versus frost, plough, and wishful thinking.

Fossils, concretions, and other false friends
Echinoids, pyrite suns, and stones that look made but aren't.

Weapons

11 guides

Identifying arrow and spearheads
Socket or tang, and section.

Identifying axeheads
Stone, bronze, or iron.

Identifying swords and daggers
Blade, guard, and tang.

Arrowhead types by period
Flint barbs to iron bodkins — which arrowhead is in your hand?

Identifying crossbow bolts and quarrels
Short, heavy, square-headed — the crossbow's ammunition.

Identifying sling bullets
Lead almonds, some with messages for the enemy.

Identifying maces and polearm heads
Flanged heads, spiked stars, and the business ends of hafted weapons.

Identifying armour fragments — mail and plate
Riveted rings and shaped steel from soldiers' second skins.

Identifying gun parts and gunflints
Flintlock furniture, trigger guards, and the knapped flints that fired them.

Identifying cartridge cases
Headstamps turn brass litter into dated, sourced evidence.

Identifying military buttons and insignia
Numbered buttons, cap badges, and shoulder titles — units written in brass.

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