2013 finds Paleoworld-101

[Paleoworld-101]

Hey guys,

Well I got my Garrett Ace 250 metal detector a few weeks ago, and have so far only used it a little bit on the beach. My main hunting ground has been my front lawn actually, and out of the 35 coins pictured below that I have found with my detector, 33 of them came from my front lawn! Who would have thought we dropped so much money? My oldest coin is a 1950 Half Penny, followed by a 1957 Sixpence (found earlier today actually) and a 1962 Sixpence. Lots of 1 cent coins and a couple 2 cent coins as well. The rest are modern coins. On top of these coins I have of course found lots and lots of trash as well lol and even an old house key. I'd say every 3rd or 4th target I dug was probably a coin of some kind which I think is pretty good. I didn't expect to find this much change so quickly. Here are some pics:

1957 and 1962 Sixpences

1 Cent Coins

2 Cent Coins

1950 Half Penny

Modern Coins

All coins

BTW I am not sure about the value of some of the older coins, would the ones from 1950, 1957 and 1962 be worth anything? I am new to valuing these old coins.

Cheers,
Paleo

 

[Heatho]

Nice finds mate, not sure on value. Always check the dates for rare ones..

 

[Guest]

For approx. value I check out the Gold Coast Coin & Stamps website as they list the prices they are selling for & that should give a pretty good marker to go off & help identify anything rare via the higher prices. As with anything condition is everything i.e. a 1928 florin in VG condition $19 - in aUNC condition $585.

http://www.coins-stamps.com.au/pre-decimal-australian-coins.html

(Edit Another site:
http://www.bluesheet.com.au/Identify/

 

[KeeponDiggin]

There are a few good www sites that value coins.
Nice finds so far mate

 

[Paleoworld-101]

According to that Gold Coast site, the 1957 coin could be worth anything between $1.20 and $15. What grade/quality do you think the coin is? I am not familiar with grading so have no idea what aUNC or VF even stand for.

 

[Guest]

http://www.coins-stamps.com.au/coin-grading.html
http://www.anda.com.au/documents/resource/00114_Pt%202%20-%20Grading%20Commonwealth%20coins.pdf

Unfortunately unless its at least aUNC (almost uncirculated) its probably only worth silver price of $1.20. Usually, (as I understand it & I may be corrected), with silver coins (or any really) the cut off grade for collectors will be high before a larger price kicks in depending on rarity i.e. the more common the higher grade/better condition required for higher prices but very rare coins may still fetch good prices at lower grades.
Anything below the cut off grade will only be worth the silver they contain. A good site (I think Nugget put it up before): http://www.australian-threepence.com/silver-coin-values/australian-silver-coin-values.htm

For instance if you ever detect a 1916 halfpenny check this before tossing it in the coin jar:
http://blog.perthmint.com.au/2012/06/08/when-is-a-coin-a-mule-when-its-a-1916-halfpenny-2/
http://davidscoins.com.au/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=569

 

[jimnyjerry]

Paleoworld you have a real old front yard to be able to detect all those coins in.

My yard was bush previously so only finds are discarded nails from the house going up.

As for my parents place, years ago we recovered all the silver coins my brother buried while playing pirate. :lol:

 

[the duck]

Well done you have done well indeed

 

[Scoopa]

Well done PW-101. That's what so deceptive about our hobby. Generally we see things how they are now and not how they've been used over the last 200 years or more! That's where the research about an area helps. But just think about this, if 1 coin is dropped each year at a particular location by one person, over say 100 years, it doesn't take long to add up. At some places I've found over 250 coins and they're still coming out! Great Stuff!

 

[farmeroz]

Well done paleo

The thing I find interesting is with some of the coins you find, The value of that coin back then could have been equivalent to 20 or even $50 in todays money?
Which gets me thinking a lot of people had holes in their pockets or clumsy, but imagine if today you went to the park and dropped a $20 or a $50 how peeved off you'd be once you realised...

Having said that I did find a $5 note in the middle of the shopping center the other day..

 

[gadgetman45]

That's my $5 I dropped it

 

[Scoopa]

I agree farmeroz. When we find any silver coins, they were worth a fair bit in their day, so someone really felt it's loss.

 

[Paleoworld-101]

Hey guys,

Metal detecting has been going good recently and I have crossed the $30 mark in modern change (found on the beach mostly) but of particular interest has been a few predecimal coins that I recently pulled from my front and back yard. 90% of what I dig in my yard is trash so finding coins like these is fantastic and it keeps me going lol. Our house was built in the 50's and used for many years as a holiday house with families continuously coming and going so I guess that explains why I keep digging up coins from the 40's, 50's and 60's. It's quite fascinating for me as I have walked over this ground countless times over the years and never thought there would be coins like this right under my feet.

Here is what I found today, just a couple of hours ago, a 1944 Penny in decent condition from the front lawn. It is my first Penny. Yay! I am surprised however that such a large coin can be lost and become buried. It's bigger than a 20 cent piece, how could someone have not seen it sitting on the surface?

This one I found just yesterday, a 1943 Half Penny from my back yard, right in the middle of a well used path. Been walking over it for years.

This 1947 Half Penny was found a few weeks ago, only about a metre or two from where the 1944 Penny above was. It is in pretty bad condition though.

Any suggestions for cleaning or is it too risky? On top of these 3 recent predecimal finds, I have got two more Half Pennies from 1942 and 1950, two Sixpences from 1957 and 1962 as well as a broken Threepence from 1951. All from my front and back yard. Fingers crossed for a 1930 or 1946 Penny next lol thanks for looking!

 

[Roscoe]

Some nice finds there mate. Unfortunately pennies usually don't weather well. But, some times you get lucky and score one in good condition. Those silver coins came up well. Those old timers dropped a lot of coins, just as we do today. I was having a beer one night, when all good discussions happen. I mate an I worked out that every one in Australia looses one coin a year on average and if we take that average as one dollar, then that's 25 million dollars a year that drops onto the ground. Now that depends were the coin drops, but even if we are conservative at 25% then that's 6.25 million dollars a year you can possibly recover, good luck roscoe

 

[Sa_bogan]

sweet finds mate

 

[Roscoe]

Some of my Pennies I thought about doing this to them just for a bit of fun.

http://www.videojug.com/film/make-gold-and-silver-coins

 

[Scoopa]

Great finds PW-101. It's weird how one coin can be toasted and another at the same location can be find. I've noticed if I'm searching a place where they use fertilizer, it eats the coins away.

 

[Roscoe]

The best way to clean them up is with a case tumbler and corn media. Makes them clean but still keeps them looking old.

[video=480,360]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtuD0KNBCE[/video]

I borrowed a friends tumbler with coin media it works a treat on old pennies...roscoe

 

[Goldandsand]

Nice finds