You show me yours, and I'll show you mine.............

Here are my treasures, all dug in lil ol NP in the last 10 months.........I'm off to Aussie for a couple of weeks and will be back just before Xmas. Happy Hunting everyone.

Bronze, Silver and GOLD!

Looks like not only has the silver drought broken.........the gold gods were smiling on us today. We went back to an old favorite school for a couple of hours this afternoon. I have pulled out over 300 coins from this place including around 40 pre decimals, however only 1 silver before today. I was on a mission to find more silver and clean out the old decimal copper nickel coins I knew were still there. The pictures below show all the goodies we dug...................and the gold ring, yep it rung up in the mid 50s on the F4, I was almost certain it was going to be another old 20 or 50 c piece. Just another very good reason to dig everything but low iron signals. As with the other 3 gold rings I have previously dug, this one found its way pretty quickly on to Carol's finger!

A bit of silver at last!

After a horror run over the last month or so...........finally dug a bit of silver amongst the pennys. I hope the drought has now broken!

And here are the recycleable non ferrous bits, the silvery ring is plastic unfortunatly, but I think the rectangular buckel might be quite old.

A few interesting finds from the weekend

Scouted out some new locations out of town on the weekend, a couple more 100yr plus old schools that have been closed down.Very dissapointing with not much to find apart from the odd old decimal or two. Both these schools were in very small towns with not even a general store, so I guess there was not much reason for the kids to have money to loose? Stopped in at an old favorite park on the way home and dug these goodies in about 2hrs hunting. Plenty of 1s and 2s, a few goldies, my first Australian kangaroo 1/2 penny, a toy hammer head, a very heavy brass ring(homemade or school made I think) and this tiny brass wheelbarrow that I think may be from one of the early monopoly games.

Drinks anyone?

Another quick hunt up at the park this afternoon, sort of 'commando' style through the bush. Not much to be had today, one old penny, an aluminium silk stocking tin from around the time of WW2 and a couple of bottles of booze. The booze is a first for me, I'm used to findng plenty of empty bottles and their caps but have never found an unopened bottle before.

Lost my propointer!!!

Damn!
Went to go for a hunt today, the first since last weekend and my propointer is missing. I know it came back from Taupo with us last Saturday, and we had it on Sunday during an unsuccessful hunt at a local school. That was the last time I saw it. The digger is in the bag, the propointer holster is in the bag but no bloody propointer. BUGGER!, BUGGER! BUGGER! Went back to the school just on the offchance I had dropped it and it was still there, but it is of course school holidays........so I'm guessing some kid now has a totaly alien piece of electronic equipment in his room that makes a nice beep beep sound when near metal! Anyway I've emailed the school  in case it is handed in but don't like my chances.
On a brighter note, got out for a hunt today at another old school I've been to before, 40ish coins, including 4 pennys and a US quarter.I had forgotton just how much easier the propointer makes it to find your coins!

Mine's bigger than yours!

With the weather, the rugby and other commitments, there has not been much to report on the treasure hunting front for the last couple of weeks. I thought I would post some of my more 'unusual' finds from the previous few months detecting.
This one is the biggest bullet shell I have ever seen, a .50cal I believe. It was dug in a local park that was originaly part of an army rifle range up until about 1950. I have put it next to a standard WW2 .303 case dug in the same area for comparison. The headstamp is RA 42. Made by the Remington Arms Co in 1942.

Back of the Plaque

You can see where some sort of fixing went, a pin perhaps?

Commando Hunting...........Interesting Find

Back to the park this evening and tried something a bit different, decided to get into the bush real close up around the tree roots and bushes. It was hard work pushing through the low scrub but had its rewards. Not many coins, a couple of 1/2 pennys and a penny, $3 in spending and 11c in old decimal coins.
The interesting find was this plaque, it has a hunting scene embossed on it and was originally silver plated by the looks of it. Maybe from a trophy or the like...........any ideas?

Cherry Picking again. SILVER!

Spent the weekend housebound with 'manflu' so there was not much going on in the treasure hunting department. Feeling like a box of fluffy ducks today so we got out to the 'park' to cherry pick amongst the ring pulls and bottle caps. Came up with these few beauties. Two English florins in one hole, a couple of pennys dug from amongst at least a dozen pull tabs surrounding them, the earing, maybe silver but no markings, and the ring............not sure on this one it has a mark that is "Z EP" and the three tiny stones  don't sparkle much, so I'm guessing  gold plated junk metal and glass stones.Still I'm well pleased with pulling out the florins.

Back to the railway line spot..........

Back again tonight after work for an hour or so to hunt along the wooded area between the sea and railway line...the finds are drying up but the quality is increasing! Here are the finds, uncleaned as they came out of the ground, and then cleaned. YES there is another SILVER 1/2 crown in da house!!!!!!!!!!

The 'New Spot' produces SILVER!

Beautiful fine clear day today, so after work we decided to go back to the new spot along the railway line I tried out on the weekend. Well I was right, there is silver there! Took a while to get on to it but there is definately plenty of potential here. The first find turned out to be a pocket spill, a really scratchy signal bouncing from pull tab to copper.............I nearly didn't dig it, turned out to be 10 coins, 8 X 1c pieces and 2 2c pieces. Not much value, but the most coins I have had out of one hole before. Hit on a couple of pennys amongst the tree roots, dug them out and one was an Aussie kangaroo penny, the first I have dug over here. All the others have been the older Commonwealth of Australia pennys. Had another scratchy hit next to one of the pennys and out popped the Florin.......The other 2 silvers came out of single holes, very scratchy numbers on the F4 around the 60s which is usually an older 'beaver tail' ring pull. The English one is a very worn 1922, just managed to get the date under the magnifing glass.
Here are the pics. OH, I forgot the surface finds........... a perfectly good pair of sneakers (too big for either of us), a nice pair of woolen gloves and a toy machine gun with lights and sound (still working!)

Did Someone Mention Knucklebones? (Another Competition!)

Here is my pile of 'dug' knucklebones, the first person to guess the exact amount of bones will win them all! Hint...............there are somewhere between 23 and 25.
PLEASE READ THE CONDITIONS OF ENTRY!

1.The judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
2.All participants must be legaly allowed to possess knucklebones in their respective counties.
3.Only one entry per contestant is allowed unless accompanied by a large bribe.
4.The winner will be responsible for either the personal collection of the prize, or agrees to provide a stamped self addressed padded post bag for the promotors to forward the said prize.

GOOD LUCK!

More 'Honey Hole' Adventures

Planned 2 hunts today, the first at the new spot along the railway line I went to yesterday. Well I got there at 6.45am and at 7am the heavens opened............thunder, lightning the whole works. Made it back to the car a bit damp and with only a solitary 1c piece. I thought that would be the end of treasure hunting for the day, but as is common in the 'Naki' the skys cleared by around 10am. Plan B was to check out another school down the coast that had been closed for a few years, we got there around 11.30 and hunted for around an hour. Apart from 2 1/2 pennys and a few old decimals..........nothing! Bugger! Time to put plan 'C' in to action............yep, back to the 'honey hole'. Well I wasn't dissapointed, there is still plenty to find there, only 1 silver today but plenty of pennys and other stuff. Pulled out another 50 or so coins in a couple of hours plus a couple of pocket kinves, a badge, 2 spoons and another strange hexagonal lead thing. The ground was really soaked today and the soil muddy, I guess that made the deeper coins more conductive as this is now the 3rd time I have been over this ground. Perhaps that is why I dug another 26 1 & 2c pieces, they were really deep and most on edge, swing fast and you miss them completely, slow and they 'tune in' to a nice 70ish on the F4.
Here are the pics.

New spot tryout.

The pickings at my main park are getting leaner and leaner, especially in the pre decimal and jewellery dept so I have been doing a bit of research for some new hunting grounds close to town. I tried one out this morning, its a heavily wooded reserve along the railway line just back from the foreshore. So far it looks quite promising, I got a '51,'58 & '64 florin coin spill (along with a '67 20c), a '47 1/2 crown, a '35 British 1/2 penny, 1919 Aus 1/2 penny and a '56 Kiwi 1/2 penny. Also a '52 Kiwi penny that looks like its been flattened by a train. I don't konw what the round lead thing is.....could be a token? Add to that a couple of old lipstick cases, the plated fork, some old decimals and another $8 in goldies and I think you can say there is more there. The fact the pre decimals were there gives me hope that there will be some silver..........the 1/2 crown was only 1 year off, 'Bugger'!

Back to the 'Honey Hole'

Got a break in the weather and the rugby this afternoon so we shot out to the 'honey hole' that we discovered last weekend ,for a couple of hours. I went over the same ground again, but this time swinging low and slow. We were rewarded with another 48 coins from the same patch of grass between the old pool and playground. Broke the silver record for a single hunt with 7 today, plus another 10 pennys, 4 1/2 pennys, 3 copper nickel florins, 2 copper nickel shillings and 20 or so 'brown buggas'. I thought I would also show just how little 'junk' we had to dig to get all this. Most of the older coins were quite deep, some 8" plus, and the copper pennys are quite badly coroded for some reason.

A day of records and personal bests...............

After a very slow start to the detecting weekend, (only 24 coins for 4 pre decimals,  after work on Friday and yesterday), we decided to head out of town again today. This location has an old school that has been closed for about 10 years and not yet re developed. We started off badly, with only an old decimal 10c to show for the first 1/2 hr. I was about to give up and go to plan 'B' when on the way back to the car I got a solid hit. This was in an area of grass between the old pool and playground, about 20 X 5m. Two hours later this was the result..........A Personal Best of 65 coins from one location in 1 hunt, a record amount of pennys (20) a record amount of 1/2 pennys (5), the most silver shillings (5) and an equal best on the silvers for 1 hunt (6). Add to that a pile of brown buggas, a few spendable goldies and a couple of badges and suffice to say I'm happy but tired!
Not much trash either, nearly every signal was a coin...........I havn't even scratched the surface at this location yet, I'll definately be going back soon!

And the WINNER is................................

The total value of the coins in the jar is $143.97.  That makes Peacehavens (Ged Dodd) from Yorkshire UK the WINNER! with a guess of $144.44. Thanks to all those who participated and perhaps I've inspired you all to to something similar. The shiney silver Aussie 50c piece will soon be winging its way to the other side of the planet.

Cherry picking again............

Back to the park tonight to a really trashy hill overlooking a cricket ground, I've been over and over it, again and again, and thought I would give it one more go.................Nearly every signal is a shallow ring pull or pull tab.............however a really slow careful swing unearthed these few coins amid the trash. I only dug the iffy signals deeper than 4" and this was the result. Quality not quantity tonight!

Pocket Spill.

I had a busy weekend, with the rugby on Sat night.............yes I still follow the Wallabies, once an Aussie, always Aussie! It was the first  Tri Nations win for us since I arrived on these shores in 2003. Then last night went to the Taranaki vs Hawks Bay game and saw the home boys retain the Ranfurly Shield. In between I managed a few quick hunts with not much success......................So tonight I was hell bent on some pre decimals. I went back to a spot in 'the park' that I had hunted only once before, back when I had the 'el cheapo' headphones and no propointer. I had always thought there should have been more there than the few old decimal coins I picked up back then. Well the pictures are worth a thousand words........30 coins in 1 1/2 hrs including this pocket spill of 4 half pennys, a florin, sixpence and threepence.