A Few Of Guessologists Finds

[user 794]

The bush site is a great area for you. I love the older stuff.

Do you also look for gold in the locality?

 

[Guessologist]

Do you also look for gold in the locality?

Not very often, the goldfield hasn't got a reputation for coarse gold in addition to almost zero alluvial work so I haven't really given it a serious go to be honest. That said though there's always exception to the rule and most of the dumps probably haven't had a serious pounding because it's not a nugget field, perhaps the odds of finding a little aren't the worst.

 

[Guessologist]

A couple more finds from what's getting to be a well trodden patch of ground for me. It's been so dry, I can't wait to get a good soaking on the ground to liven things up a bit for the Nox, always seemed to make targets jump out of the ground with my other detectors. The '22 penny was a sunbaker, lying in the middle of the road and looking all the worse for it although the pitting suggests to me that it's spent quite a bit of it's life buried. Probably got graded to the surface I guess. The florin was a nice find under some chinese scrub, my second now. I'm starting to believe that it's true that you have to teach your detector what targets sound like before you start finding them! Although you can't get much more obvious than big silver I suppose, maybe you have to teach it what they sound like vs. an aluminium can?

 

[Jaros]

Great florin.

 

[Dave79]

Although you can't get much more obvious than big silver I suppose, maybe you have to teach it what they sound like vs. an aluminium can?

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11952/1553137345_54.jpg

And a bloody 2c piece!

 

[Goldpick]

Target sizing via pinpointing is usually a good tool for dismissing larger high conductors vs a coin sized target, though it can depend on how deep it is and its orientation in the ground.

Funny thing is after a while of listening for less obvious tones from deep coins, a florin sitting near the surface does make a detector scream like it is modern junk - probably the reason why some sunbaker florins are overlooked.

Anyway, congrats on the florin, hopefully some rain will be on the way soon.

 

[Guessologist]

Oh yeah, pinpoint mode usually gives me an idea of what I'm looking at, although I have to say that as much as I like the 'nox, I reckon that the Go Find had a better pinpoint mode. And overload which was super handy when dealing with cans. I wish the Equinox would be updated with a toggleable overload or large target signal, then again I think I understand why it's not there, it's the kind of detector you want to be using around the iron...

 

[Guessologist]

Had a short swing over a very promising site that I've hit up once before without the Equinox, and was completely disheartened by the amount of iron contamination. As far as I can see, it's a very very old domestic site with some form of less old mine-related workshop on top of it, all demolished on top of itself. Every single swing would give 3-4 false signals (killer duo of nails and metallic slag), so I've been putting it off till I got a better machine. It's still a challenging site for the Nox, but it's the difference between doable and undetectable. It's going to pay off with some time spent on it:

Amongst the sea of 18-22 false TIDs, a clear 33-35 jumped out at me and said dig me up. Which was a bit of an ask due to the concrete-like soil but I soon had a smile on my face when I levered up a clod with the screwdriver and it had the clear curve of a coin cast in it. I actually expected silver due to the high number, turned out to be one of the older big copper pennies (1854). Then the silver teaspoon came along with relatively low but distinctly silvery tones. The two parts were actually quite far apart from each other and I didn't realise that they were off the same object till I sat down with them afterwards. The hallmarks were very interesting, I always get interested when old mate George pops his head up on silver...

Dublin hallmarks, and the date letter corresponds to 1811, which makes this spoon my oldest found object to date. Maker was John Power.

 

[DetectingSA]

Ripper mate, sounds like youre onto a pearler of a site, cant wait to see your future finds there!

 

[Wally69]

Nice finds

Thought of getting the spoon handle made into a bangle or finger ring ??? I have been trying to find a decent one to have a crack at.

 

[Dave79]

Looks like a good site. Try turning recovery speed all the way up to 8. You'll lose some depth but probably find some more masked targets.

 

[Guessologist]

Now that's a cracker of an idea! I was trying to think of a way to keep it separate to my boxes of metal junk, recycling it might be the way to go. The design is pretty worn but the novelty would make it worth it, I'd almost think about making it hallmark facing out...

Went back over to the site where I recovered the old civil war era belt buckle after work while my detecting mojo was still high, and finally recovered a coin! I've put an embarrassingly high number of hours into the spot which clearly has more than one demolished structure without bagging a coin so I'm finally satisfied. It was only a 1938 old design half penny, practically an anachronism given the other things out there, but it counts! Also bagged another musket ball, and recovered my old digging tool that I lost months ago.

 

[Guessologist]

Looks like a good site. Try turning recovery speed all the way up to 8. You'll lose some depth but probably find some more masked targets.

First thing I did today, turns out I had it up as high as it can go already, it's kicking my butt! I cycled through many different modes in the hour I had, figured at least I won't be on the worst settings for the whole time. Came up with the goods again though:

1829 shilling, it's only the second George IV coin I've managed in all my travels so far so I'm pretty satisfied for my time. Here's everything else that made offending noises:

I think those square nails are what is causing the havoc, although they don't sound that "naily" in the way everything is falsing. There's a button (cleaned it up, it's got the gothic "double ring edge" text), an interesting nugget of some kind of coarsely crystalline, ductile metal (usually antimony around here but it's too bendable so maybe something like bismuth), part of a pocketwatch probably from the 30's and that big ol' buckle.

 

[Smoky bandit]

Wow what a nice coin mate. :Y: :beer:

 

[Dave79]

Awesome coin!!!!! Is iron balance turned all the way up too. I've got quite a collection of square nails too, usually come up around 15 -17 until you get close to them then iron signal. I figure that if you get rid of the junk some good targets will surface eventually but it sure can get disheartening digging dozens of high tones for crap.

 

[DetectingSA]

Beautiful coin! Can we get some close ups mate? Looks in great nic!

 

[Guessologist]

Finally got it clean enough to be worth taking better pictures, the black horn silver crust was really tenacious and took ages to get off. Ended up going the foil and bicarb rub which might have been a bit harsh. It's not much less worn than the 1816 that I found a few weeks back, but at least you can see the lion and crown design pretty well.

I did have the iron bias all the way up when I found this guy, think I turned it down to 1 afterwards.

 

[Mackka]

Love it
Mackka :Y:

 

[Goldpick]

Nice old silver, the bust and date still look reasonably prominent. :Y:

 

[Guessologist]

Had another quick swing, this time I tossed it in field 2, recovery max, iron bias max and dropped the sensitivity down to about 12. Dropping that sensitivity way lower than I was comfortable with was the magic setting, it tamed the nail farm almost completely and brought out a few very obvious targets that I've missed several times:

Some kind of plated decorative thing, a mid 1920's .410 brass shotty cartridge, a straight razor fragment, copper ring and a brass fitting of some sort (found a couple of these before, no idea what it comes off). Ill go back and start winding down the iron bias then upping the sensitivity gradually.