A few years ago a man in England taking a walk with his dog and metal detector found a gold coin that turned out to be the most important single coin find ever, dating from the eighth century and the only one of its kind yet discovered. A couple of years later he sold it for just under half a million pounds. It wasn’t a complete accident that he found the coin. He is an amateur metal detector enthusiast who always keeps an eye open for metal on the ground, even while walking his dog. No doubt he continues to keep his eyes on the ground even more after this find. Unfortunately he doesn’t get to look at the sky and the trees and the flowers all that much; which I suppose is a pity because a one-off discovery, even like that one, can never compensate for a life spent staring at the dirt.