This weekends better bits........

Saturday we did  trip down south to a 1870's built racecourse..............was a great idea until we got there and found it locked up tight as a drum! Plan B was to do the town nearby..........disaster, not a bloody thing, the old high school that had closed down in '05 was walled off by a 6ft high chain lik fence. So we headed back home with our tail between our legs. Decided to stop off at another park in the same town we got the  coin purse spill for yet another going over. After an hour or so, having dug plenty of canslaw we finally found a copper nickel half crown. At that point we decided to head home, and were wandering up a path when I got a high signal, it took a while as it was right in the roots of a tree and I did scratch it but out came this lovely Florin.

Today we headed back to a local school where we had dug a couple of old pennys before, as you can see, we got a few more pennys, some old decimal and this rather wonderful 'Fun Ho" NZ made toy truck.

Foreign Coins

I was sorting the foreign coins today waiting for the rain to stop and realised I have quite a lot of countrys coinage. Not including Australia,( I have lots of these!) there are coins from the US, Great Britain, Fiji, Samoa, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Hong Kong, Singapore,Thailand, Germany, China, Vanuatu and South Africa.
I would be interested in knowing if everyone else has such a diverse collection of dug 'alien' coins. Looking at my records, most of them were dug at schools, which makes sense, with  the next biggest haul from our largest park which attracts lots of tourists.
Here's a pic.

Antique Padlock

Found this today at one of the local schools, this makes 2 antique padlocks in the last couple of weeks.
Also managed $14 in goldies before we were rained off.

Yesterday's interesting finds

We headed out into rural Taranaki yesterday in search of a couple of old schools that have been closed for many years. We found them both and were skunked each time, the first was so overgrown in the grounds and on the oval you could hardly swing the coil, the second looks like it has been sold and someone is now living there. Oh well thats detecting for you.............. We stopped off on the way home in a town we have had success before, found a small treed area behind the primary school and hunted for an hour or so. Plenty of old decimals to be had, but the interesting finds were the George V Coronation Medal (got to say the heart was pumping when I saw this surface, but alas it's not silver), a Danish 25 ore, and this very curious copper hand object. Looking at the back of it I can only think it was once a door knocker.......Any thoughts?

1/2 Penny comparison

As you can see the 1861 is smaller at 25mm vs the earlier one at 28mm. You can still see some solder at the top of the 1861 where it must have been worn as a medallion by some kid who lost it at the old school where I dug it.

Oldest half penny

Hit a new spot for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, it shows promise as this half penny proves. Its the oldest one I have dug to date. Between 1838-1860 Victorian half pennys were made from copper,  larger (28mm) and weighed 9.1g -9.5g . From 1861-1901 they were bronze , 25mm and weighed 5.5g-5.8g. The other significant difference is the older coins have the date underneath Vicky's head, where the later coins have the date under the Brittania.
This one even in its toasted condition weighs in at 9g and is still 28mm in diameter. I think I can just see the numbers 45 under the bust when using a magnifing glass so that would put it at 1845.

Correction to the 2011 tally

I just rechecked my figures on the coin total for the year,
Total is actually 2594 coins, I thought I sold myself a bit short there!

2011 tally......... The good stuff

Here are the final totals for 2011, my first full year detecting (I started in Oct 2010).
Total coins: 2594
Silver coins: 115
Pre Decimal coins inc silver: 592
Spending money (goldies): $699.00
Silver rings: 9
Silver bangles: 4
Other assorted silver pieces: 16
Gold rings: 4

I'm very happy with that lot out of this small community when compared to the larger citys. I'm pretty sure I'm the first to  hunt here and am fortunate in that respect.

On the wish list for this year...................

A '63 and '65 NZ penny
A '35 and '38 NZ 3d
A '38 and '39 NZ 6d
A George III coin
A gold soverign
A saphire ring  (request from Carol!)

Button close up

This is the best pic I can seem to get tonight................

School's out and I'm in!

Yes, back again to the same old school in the next town this afternoon for a couple of hours hunting. I thought there was still a few bits and bobs to be had, you know those 'iffy' signals that usually turn out to be canslaw or junkite. I decided to dig everything registering above 25 on the F4, I always hunt in all metal and use the big computer upstairs to discriminate and decide whether to dig or not. Suprisingly I came up with another 45 coins mostly old decimals as you can see however amongst that lot I dug a silver 6d, 3 1920's pennys and a '47 half crown. Also dug this lovely silver plated cuff button, it has a crown and coat of arms so must be from either the military or some government department. I'm still not sure I've cleaned it right out yet so there will be at least 1 or 2 more hunts there during the school holidays. As with the last old school I did over and over again, ....... all the finds are comming from a roughly 65 sq metre area around the old playground and amongst the big old trees.

Back into the 'Swing of Things", New Years Day hunt.

We are back from our little overseas jaunt, got back just before Christmas. Had a great time in Perth but I had forgotton just how hot it gets there, we had 38 deg for the first 3 days and then it cooled down to the low 30s. I managed to get in a couple of hunts on the beaches over there, not much to show for it except about $50 in goldies and the lovely stg silver Gucci ring below. I was quite supprised to find myself sharing the beach with a couple of other MD'rs, I wanted to swap stories but they kept their distance..........not quite so friendly as the Kiwi MD'rs. I did get in another hunt on Boxing day at one of my favorite old schools in the next town, the same one I dug the last gold ring in at the end of Nov. Managed to pull out another 45 coins taking the grand total from that school for the year.........155 coins and there are still plenty more to find I think!
We have pretty much had rain 24/7 for the last 3 or 4 days, so when the heavens cleared for a couple of hours this afternoon Carol and I headed out to our favorite park right in the city for a bit of 'bush bashing'. Not a lot of finds but at least we were out there doing it!. I like the old padlock, and the little stg silver jandal charm is sweet.
I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and are not too hung over today............here's to another great year of treasure hunting!
CHEERS