Silver 1/2 Crown

After doing a bit of research during the week I identified a swimmimg hole on the banks of a river about 20 mins from home. Google earth showed some grassed areas and a nice sandy beach of reasonable size.We headed out this morning in hope of finding some jewellery and goodies on the beach, however on arrival we found plenty of people already there. Searched the bits of the beach we could get to, but nothing  except bottle caps. We decided to give one of the grassed areas a going over and the first signal was a penny, next signal a penny with a 3d stuck to it, and the 3rd signal the 1/2 crown. I thought we were onto something big but the next hour or so only produced another penny, a 47 florin the 2 toy cars and som bits of old swiming trunk belt buckles. The ground is pretty trashy with plenty of Tui tops and melted aluminium from bonfires past, but with a bit of patience I think there is more here to be had. Only went over about 1/3 of the grassed area as the grass was just too long in places. I'll go back again and get there early next time to do the beach where all the people were camped in one corner nearest the deeper swimming hole.

Good news, Bad news......

Got permission to hunt 2 more closed schools, both dating back to the late 1800's and showing lots of promise. First one produced 11 coins of which 6 were pre decimals, all pennys and a couple of them early 1900's British. May be worth another look but the trash to coin ratio was huge. The second school produced 13 coins, 12 of them decimal....... supprisingly the 13th was a British 1916 shilling. I have a feeling this school may not quite be on its original site. So thats the bad news...........Good news is today we headed back to a park in a town nearby we hunted recently. Total haul 29 coins, including 8 toasted pennys, a 1/2 penny, $4.50 in spending and the usual old decimals. Nice to find an almost intact Fun Ho D8 bulldozer, a Fun Ho holden chassis and the little stg silver bracelet was a bonus. I think the round lead thing with 2 holes is an old hem weight?
 Pics below. HH

Pics from the last hunt

 

 

 

 

Back into the "swing" of things!

It's been a while since I posted..........various reasons, the first being very busy at work and the second being that I live in a fairly small city, I seem to have removed every skerrik of metal from the ground for miles around! I have been out detecting over the last few months but nothing worthy to report, a few coins here and there, mainly old deimal, a few pennys and 1/2 pennys and thats about it.
Today we were forecast 30 deg, hot for the Naki and I decided come hell or high water we would find somewhere to hunt. We headed out to a town nearby that has been fruitfull before, a river runs through the main park and there is a swimming hole there that has been used for many years. We have hunted here before, liberating a couple of silver rings and a gold ring from the river bank by the swimming hole. I thought the council may have sprayed the vegitation and we would have a bit more area devoid of weeds to hunt. I was right they had, and "BINGO!" the first signal I got, a nice pull tabby 50ish turned up this  9ct signet ring.
Also picked up a couple of half pennys before moving to a grassed area where a school oval borders the park. More pennys and old decimal from here with a couple of silvers thrown in, along with the old toy gun. The most interesting find of the day was the token like thing. One side reads " round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows". The other side reads " Shune delux uniforms, Evansville Indiana" There is what appears to be a tiny hole right in the middle, so I guess at some time in its life it did spin around.......will research and follow up with more info if it comes to light.
Gotta say it is good to be back into the swing.....!
Pics to follow as soon as the website lets me upload.

Whats better than silver..........?

More gold!
Tried a few different spots today, skunked at the first 2 so we headed out of town to an old favorite park on the banks of a river. There is a swimming hole at the river, and here we have previously dug a couple of silver rings, a few pennys and plenty of old decimal. Instinct said to try it again as we had ignored jumpy pull tab type signals here in the past, and with the gold rings we have found of late coming into that catorgory............who knows. A couple of old decimal coin spills later, got a jumpy 58-61 on the F4, dug it thinking it was a beaver tail and out popped this nice little 3g,  9ct gold and saphire ring. WOO HOO!

Of course Carol had it on her little finger as quick as a flash!

 I think I am now more tuned in to when to dig what might be gold. For those using the F4, or any other Fisher machine here is my experience for what its worth.
Below 20.......Iron based
Below 30.......Junk
30-40............Pull tab (varing soil conditions will change the reading along with depth, orientation etc)
40-55............Copper nickel (mostly old decimal coins)
55-61............Possibly GOLD! DIG! DIG! DIG!!!!!!
60-70............Bouncy signal that drops off below 40 at the edge, Beaver tail pull tabs
60-62............$1 & $2 coins (also anything aluminium!)
63-68............Aluminium screw caps such as from V or wine bottles
70-80............Copper coins, 1/2 pennys at the lower end of the scale, pennys have a much larger profile than 1 or 2c pieces, small silver coins and of course flattened ali cans, but they have such a large profile you can tell what they are, unless of course it turnes out to be a silver bangle!
80-100...........Difficult range to interpret, all higher conductivity metal is here, larger silver coins, medals, bangles, etc along with bottle caps, large rusted iron horseshoes and other larger iron based stuff. Usually if its deeper than a few inches and has a small profile I'll dig it.
Having said all that, things like the rings from beaver tails, mowered canslaw and die cast metal pieces will sitll trip you up, just remember that the brain in the machine has to work in conjunction with the brain of the operator. Simple rule I now follow...........If you are in anyway unsure dig it! Cheers and HH everyone.

Another "Honking" great gold ring from the Goldmine!

Not much to report in the last couple of weeks, we have been going back to the goldmine most days after work weather permitting and consistantly pulling out around $20 a time. Now up over the $600.00 mark for this site this year although they are getting harder to find amongst the pull tabs and bottle caps. It was just too cold to get out yesterday with a max of around 8 and a nasty southerly wind to boot. Around lunchtime today we decided to head back to the "goldmine" to top up the spendies............ Well the first find was the 3d, then the  penny, then the silver ring, albiet a bit squashed............how could the day get any better? As you can see it did, amongst the goldies on a bank we had done before popped out this 12gram 9ct ring, well that certainly made our day!

Bloody freezing this morning!

We couldn't decide where to go for a hunt today, it was bitterely cold this morning with a temp of close to 0. Around linchtime when it had warmed up to about 8 we decided to repeat last weekends venture. First hunt in the next town for some oldies............ the pennys and 6d from that park, than on the way home we hit the goldmine again. Very happy with the resulting 44 coins. The oldest an 1879 penny, nearly $20 in spending and a nice silver as well.