A Few Of Guessologists Finds

[user 794]

WW1 Souvenir!

 

[Guessologist]

WW1 Souvenir!

Date's right doesn't it? I have pulled a couple of Australian Military Forces buttons nearby out of this site so that tracks too. About 300m away from where I found that Japanese 10 sen a couple of months ago, seems to be the spot for well traveled coins.

I'm learning a lot about the Ottoman Empire so far from this coin, I'm more of an ancient history fan so the more recent stuff is a blur to me. I noticed the Heaton mint mark on the coin and wondered how that worked, now I'm learning about how the English got their hooks into the place and took it over. Looks messy...

 

[Guessologist]

Getting a lot of success for now going over old areas running the 11" coil flat out in Field 2, only have to cog it down in high EMI places. All my other detectors have been pretty useless at max sensitivity so far in this dirt. Fair bit of falsing but 99.9% of it isn't repeatable, barely digging any garbage. Varying the recovery between 7 and 9 based on iron trash density. Seems that the extra coverage and depth is offsetting the lessened separation ability vs the 6" for now.

Back to my old police station site for half an hour, slurped up a few more targets, the 1878 half penny was super iffy. The ground is not kind to anything at this spot. The other round thing is a kero lamp wheel, I can make out TIP TOP but that's about it. Any guesses what "The Duchess" was a part of?



And found another "Back to Heathcote 1937" badge the other day, not in as good nick as the last. Got three of these things now between 1927 and 1937...

 

[Manpa]

Is it part of a vintage peeler, Duchess as in Duchess potato?

 

[Guessologist]

Went in with a plan today since the finds have been slowing down, flicked over to a new user profile and went with Park 1, recovery 8, 4 tones with the breaks at 10,18,30 and finally decided to fiddle with the iron filter, set it from 8 down to 4. Fitted the 6" coil and went to the spiciest ground I have. Dug a couple of nails but plenty of new valid targets that were being masked:


The locket is clearly the best find - not sure how I'd not found it before as it wasn't in a super trashy spot but can't argue. I'm going to have to try and open it at some point...

 

[MegsyB007]

That's a locket?!! Wow! How can you not be curious to be opening that ASAP?! It's gorgeous! What metal is it?

Cheers,
Megsy

 

[Guessologist]

Haha, it's copper or brass, and it was corroded shut pretty hard, but I worked my way into the (maybe) 120 year old Kinder Surprise very gently shortly after that post. Thought it was going to be filled with sediment as it didn't rattle...


Well, there used to be a photograph in there, the top layers (now a whitish, clay-like material sitting on a translucent layer) have lifted from the backing paper. I reckon you could roughly date it if you knew what you were looking at, I don't... A lot of the original gilding is left inside.

 

[MegsyB007]

Aww... Can it be opened again? Sometimes they had a middle panel.



Cheers,
Megsy

 

[Guessologist]

Nah that's it by the looks, no space left for another panel.

 

[OzzieAu]

She’s a curious one our Megsy.

 

[OzzieAu]

That iron filter setting on the Legend will definitely unmask more stuff in your previously dug sites.... go even lower on it

 

[Guessologist]

Found an interesting one a couple of weeks ago that I've only gotten around to cleaning on the weekend - an ingot mould. I left it in the paddock for the rain to rinse off before bringing it home, bit heavy to cart around at about a touch over a foot long of solid iron.


No ambiguity about which metal this was being used for, the reverse has a conical assay mould which upon cleaning up a bit has some gold remaining in it:

 

[Guessologist]

Still having fun with really low iron bias settings, best finds from the last week have been:
Wetzal & Taussig New York pressed brass plate off a belt buckle. Had the same ID numbers as shotgun shell brass. Dates pretty tightly to the mid 1850s.

And a 1918 florin at my parent's old homestead. Came up as a 53-55 on the Legend, but with no ferrocheck reading at all. Turned out it was on edge about 4 inches down, which would contribute to why I've walked over it many times before

 

[Guessologist]

Check out this 1948 half penny I dug just before that florin, I've learned today that Perth mint 1948 half-pennies often have problems, and mine's certainly no exception. The first half of the date's struck so weak it's barely there:


And cleaned up the 1850's buckle a bit, needs a good brush but only have steel wool on me, looks nicer in person:

 

[Guessologist]

Got an iffy 20ish today on the Legend and dug down to the proverbial brass (or copper) tacks.

Must have some age on them, they seem to be fully hand-made.

 

[Guessologist]

Snagged a pair of cricket buckles in good nick. It was an iffy signal in mild soil, they were buried at an angle at a depth of about 10 inches. I pulled out the one with the design first. Refilled the hole before I swung over it again and realised there was a second target so had to dig it all out again, at the time I thought it might have been both parts of one buckle but on cleaning I see the featureless one has holes for fastening a centerpiece, pretty sure I did a third swing and there was nothing! It's in the book already, but mine's in a bit better nick than the two included which are fairly mangled.

 

[user 794]

I've just caught up with your posts over the last couple of months Guessologist. Great finds. You are on some fantastic ground. Congrats.

 

[Guessologist]

Been in a bit of a lull with detecting over the last few weeks, with the crazy rain and resulting deep grass and thick mozzies slowing me down a bit. Got a new permission which is going to be tough to crack, old ground with good potential but has had an old reduction plant dozed and spread out across it, slag and junk everywhere...

My sparse finds for now are coming forth with running the 11" coil again and dropping the iron filter down to 2. Means I have to run at about 2/3 power though, and notch out 60 for my sanity. Killer unmasking though, really scrounged some old coins out of ground I've flogged ever since I've been doing this.

A neat one from today, Anzac Day 1918 medallion that by rights I should have swung over many times before, iron filter 2 doing it's job. Hit it up with the Silvo once I realised it was plated (some of the high points got rubbed before then), amazing that it's held up that well for 100 years in this horrid soil.

 

[Guessologist]

Same ground today, but dropped the iron filter down to 1. Dug surprisingly little junk and jagged some ripper targets out of what's becoming well trodden ground, it's about the only site I have at the moment that isn't fully covered in knee-high grass. The combination of bigger coil and very little iron bias is really working for now to just give me a bit more reach in the tall grass, can't quite keep the coil on the ground as good as I'd like. This is all on M1 frequency as well, I'd imagine that when this stops working that switching to M2 will keep me going for a bit longer. 1910 threepence, 1914 penny (rotated it in an editor after I noticed it was upside down...) and a particularly cooked 1932 half penny that started to fall to bits on me. Star of the show is the absolutely enormous button with a countryside scene on it, never seen anything like it. I'll post a better front and back once I get some steel wool onto it...

 

[user 794]

Nothing like a good button!