Coin cache

[vcubitt]

I have just surprised the heck out of myself by actually finding something useful, and perhaps valuable, other than gold with my metal detector.

I was out prospecting quartz veins and the like east of Canberra in the Great Dividing Range and swung the detector above an "outcrop" of mineralised quartz and the detector went off in a big way. Of course I thought it was rubbish, but always check anyway.

I lifted a few pieces of quartz to find some coins half buried in soil under the quartz. I lifted them out and the first one was a 1942 Penny. I used my pointer to check around and signals were all around the quartz rocks. Needless to say I kept digging and ended up with a fair quantity of coin, all pennies and half pennies I think.

The location is a bit of a mystery as to why anyone would hide coins there, but I will be back to thoroughly detect the area.

Can anyone give advice on how I should treat these coins? Should I clean them or not? I have no idea whether they might be worth more uncleaned as a cache or individually as cleaned coins. I am stoked at finding them!

 

[Wally69]

Give them a gentle clean in soapy water and lets see what treasure you have unearthed. 8)

 

[Phoenix76]

vcubitt, yeah mate, like Wally says, a gentle clean to start with and see if you can sort out dates etc. Once you have a better idea of what you have, then you can look at a more severe clean. But don't rush it mate. Take your time and clean them softly first up and try to see what you got.

One thing I can tell you mate, get back out there and expand your search area. Look, it might be a one off, but we don't know the history of most of these places, so take some time and explore all the surrounds. If you don't find anything else, at least you have had a nice day in the bush. Cheers.

 

[Ramjet]

Awesome find. How many coins?

 

[Heatho]

Yep that is quite amazing, very nice find. :Y:

 

[vcubitt]

112 coins in all! I will get cleaning, gently, and report back!

 

[Smoky bandit]

Hope there all 1930 coms :Y:

 

[samrota]

WOW, awesome find. Congrats

 

[golddiggerart]

Congrats on the hoard mate....
:Y:

 

[Sandta]

We all dream of finding a cache ... and you've got one
I hope there are a few 1930's amongst them

 

[Trash]

A great find

Very exciting

As said , take note of all the dates

 

[The Scrounger]

Pirates treasure

I didn't think that Canberra had any pirates,looks like I was wrong.

Good luck with the result arty:

A find of a life time

 

[vcubitt]

Well I have had a good look at them... No 1930 pennies I'm afraid to say. The earliest coin is 1911 and the latest is 1951. They are all pennies and half pennies... There are quite a few 1951 actually, so it must be pretty near the time the cache was "lost".

A bit further evidence... under the dirt a lot of the coins are blackened. They are not deformed but a few are possibly burnt. I checked Trove and a bushfire is recorded very close to the location in 1952. The pieces of broken material I thought might be pottery indeed are pottery and probably held the coins. I will try to collect more pieces to see if it shows any sign of having been burnt too.

I will head back out to see if it is possible a building was there, though I just cant see how, or if someone was unlucky enough to hide their cache of pennies, then have a bushfire go through and lose the location after the devastation fire causes.

Whether there is much value in what I finally clean up or not, this is a really interesting process! The coins are soaking now so hopefully the soot will lift off easily later. Some are in pretty good condition, and i think will rinse up nicely!

 

[Ship of fools]

What a great find!
Matt T

 

[AussieChris]

Stuff of dreams vcubitt!

I was ploughing a paddock one day and had my head over my shoulder watching the discs turn the ground, watching for rocks or anything out of the ordinary and noticed quite a few coins spill up out of the ground.

Same thing for me, all half/pennies 46 in total, that I could find at the time anyway. All of them were Victorian, off the top of my head they ranged from about 1870-1895. I still have them all in various albums etc.

Repairing and changing out some very old hardwood floorboards in our family home we discovered almost 400 coins under the house all pre 1900. Thats what got me started really.

 

[Secret Squirrels]

Aww mate, what a great find, i'm real excited for you. hopefully they clean up a treat. The story behind their existence is enthralling, i hope the puzzle pieces together.

 

[ChrisD]

Bit of a long shot, but search Trove for that specific area and time frame, something might show up.

 

[user 794]

What a great find, and unexpected.

I agree with the others about careful cleaning and widening the search area (I presume you were using a gold machine but if you have a coin/relic machine try that, it might help with discrimination if the hut/house had burnt and there are lots of rubbish metal around). I suspect that unless the coins were saved away from the hut for some odd reason then there are likely to be other coins there including silvers. The pennies could have been stored separately but other coins and good junk could be nearby.

Apart from looking at Trove look for the Parish Map of the area too.

Good luck! I'd say the area is well worth going back to more than a couple of times. And then there was the possibility of gold in the area too - mate, it sounds like a piece of detecting heaven!

 

[flyrodder]

Yes they have pirates they go under the name Polaticions

Pirates treasure

I didn't think that Canberra had any pirates,looks like I was wrong.

Good luck with the result arty:

A find of a life time