A Few Of Guessologists Finds

[Guessologist]

I figure that I might as well start a finds thread rather than clutter up the ID forum too much, there's a lot I don't know about some of the stuff that turns up in the ground!

Found this beaut army tag within 5 minutes of swinging on a new area today, which would have been inhabited from 1860s-1930s potentially. "Overseas Battalion".

There's a partial colour patch preserved on the tag, faded but looks like a purple over red rectangle which should be 6th Battalion which is a good fit for an hour out of Melbourne I guess. The population of the town there was that low that there's a non-zero chance of me actually being able to link it back to it's owner if the ID is good... What I can't pick is what exactly it was used on, maybe a trunk tag or something? I can't find any examples of a similar tag with google image search.

Had 15 minutes total to scout the site, found a 3g aluminium nugget (hoped it was a melted silver coin but the SG was way off) and a funny comb-shaped lead thing that I suspect came from a battery. Tons of potential for more relics!

 

[7.62marksman]

Have you found out what this is for yet

 

[7.62marksman]

The 58th Battalion colour patch was purple and red

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/58th_Battalion_(Australia)

As was 1st Division, 2nd Brigade, 6th Battalion

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_Colour_Patch

 

[Guessologist]

Have you found out what this is for yet

Nah not yet, suprisingly tough to find anything that matches on the net despite some pretty specific wording on the plate to help narrow it down. I'm pretty convinced it's 6th Battalion over 58th however, the colour patch is horizontal.

The site is making it hard for me, haven't found anything else interesting after a couple of returns. Just a few push button eyelets and small strips of lead. By the way, I assume many people come across little chunks of lead, that are like 1cm across with a square/trapezoidal cross section. They look like offcuts from a strip of the stuff What was their use in this case? I've found them at a few sites dating from the early 1900s now.

 

[Martin]

Great finds! :Y:

 

[7.62marksman]

Put some photos up of the lead mate

 

[Goldpick]

Very hard to find anything on that battalion disc, there's a couple of letters there I can't quite make out - very interesting find though. Lead is probably the second most common junk target I find on 1800's/1900's sites, including strips, small square pieces and thin lead sheeting. I know on the older sites one use for lead was for home made muskets/pistol balls and other projectiles, but also used for building purposes, flashing etc.

 

[golddiggerart]

https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/2095650

 

[Guessologist]

^ definitely peas in a pod with that matchbox cover. I'll chase up that lead for a picture when I'm home next.

Decided to check out an area near work this arvo, a stretch of forest between two townships only 1.5km apart that some old maps show the odd structure or two and goat tracks through. A gully runs through the forest between them, a good place to focus traffic and for flooding to bury relics I figure. Hit an Edward VII penny a few minutes in, can't tell you the date yet as it's the crustiest coin I've had the pleasure to dig so far! Then nothing special for an hour, except for a busted axehead and what I guess was the neck off a milk can. I did try to cover a lot of ground in one hit though, very much a reccy mission so plenty of room for improvement. At the end I came across a bunch of old bricks and iron targets that look a lot more like a ruin than dumped rubbish, near the confluence of a bunch of channels of this gully. I'm going to have to give the area some more attention in the future, it's gonna be pre-1900s .

The coin just volunteered to be the first thing I attack with my set of Andre's Pencils when they show up next week. My Go Find breaks in a new place every time I take it out now, all the plastic is just stressed to the point where its failing and it sounds haunted every time I swing, so Equinox for Christmas I reckon.

 

[Guessologist]

Had good fun after work today in the forest, got a beaut signal (after about three quarters of an hour of wandering) that had me immediately get the plastic shovel for recovery instead of laying into it with the pick...

Spot on, looks like an older, chunky penny...

Hang on, who's this bloke?

Neat, an 1858 Holloway token! Only had a few minutes to have a bit more of a swing in this spot but came up with an interesting cover of some sort with a swallow and it's nest, and a button with very fine writing on it, says "double ring". Hopefully it'll keep on paying out for a while, the soil is a nice loamy floodplain silt which is much kinder on objects than my other spots.

Unfortunately the token has a big cut on the other face, and a lot more wear, I'll just have to find a better one next time!

 

[silver]

Mate.... they're good finds hey ! :Y:
gotta be more hiding there

 

[Goldpick]

Any token is a good token, redardless of condition, well done. Is the swallow nest cover made of copper/brass or lead?

 

[Guessologist]

Any token is a good token, redardless of condition, well done. Is the swallow nest cover made of copper/brass or lead?

Seems to be brass, it's quite thin and has a few holes where it's been bent.

The token should date the site pretty well, there's only a couple of years between the establishment of the nearby settlement to support the miners and the banning of tokens in Vic as I understand it.

 

[Guessologist]

Back for a quick swing over the site again today, there's tons of iron masking going on but nearly everything that's giving a solid signal is at least interesting. Not a ring pull or kero tin in sight. Couldn't quite get the lightning to strike twice though:

Got a bullet, harmonica reed, another button (patterned front, "C. ROWLEY PATENT" on back), a featureless metal tag, the other half of the object that the swallow design came off, and a couple of random bits that I have no idea about.

Couple of better pictures of yesterday's finds with some light cleaning:

 

[Dave79]

Awesome. I was wondering what they were.

That token is pretty special!

 

[Guessologist]

First gold! Kind of, anyway...

Found this funny little threaded cone which rang up just like a .22 bullet, near historical mining. While cleaning it I noticed the unmistakable flash of gold in the oxidised crud, as a tiny grain right on the end! It's basically microscopic but I'll take it. The material that fills the end of the cone looks appears to be fragments of the local ore sulphides, I can only assume it's part of some assaying equipment. Anyone seen this before?

Otherwise, chance has been cruel to me lately, haven't been able to pull another coin out of the token site nor much of anything of interest. Been getting desperate and digging obvious nails just to make sure I'm still on the old stuff!

 

[Guessologist]

Finally broke a 7 month silver drought, two threepences out of the old's front lawn. Also snagged a couple of pennies, early 1c and 20c, a .22 bullet, a key and a matchbox car (late 60's MG 1100).

 

[Smoky bandit]

Nice mate..Well done :Y:

 

[Dave79]

Nice one, always good when you get permission to dig up the old man's lawn!

 

[Guessologist]

Nice one, always good when you get permission to dig up the old man's lawn!

Yeah it's a good spot, inhabited since the 1900s so it's been giving up a good spread of coins from mid 1890s to modern, with a strong bias for the inter-war period so far.