Goldpick's 2019 XP Deus finds

[Goldpick]

Today wasn't at all an ideal day to go detecting, very wet and with more storms forecast for the afternoon. With that in mind, I had one real aim and that was to locate my missing skid plate for my HF coil which I didn't notice till I was home last week - I ended up borrowing the skid plate off the 9" LF coil for the day.

It pretty much bucketed down for the whole time I was out, so I just ran the Deteknix headphones with the puck controller and the HF coil, and as always ran just off the tones. I retraced my steps throughout the site and it wasn't till about three hours later that I found the skid plate sitting right next to me whilst excavating a target - whew!

Happy that I had located the skid plate, I did actually manage a few targets for my troubles including a hallmarked silver ring (still trying to decipher), 1951 sixpence, and a few more pennies/hp. Also found a fob watch that was literally falling to pieces in my hands, the Sheffield spoon must have been on edge as it didn't come across as a significant target.

Found you at last!

 

[golddiggerart]

Good detective work on the skid plate gp... And some nice finds for your wet stormy day. :Y:

 

[TonyynoT]

Nice assortment of finds there.

 

[Guessologist]

Always coming up with the goods! I'm jealous of your soil, I'd swap our clay for that sand any day...

 

[Goldpick]

The aim for today was to hit one of my older sites for a more detailed look, though when I arrived it was apparent I was going to have access issues - so what to do? Instead I drove further along the track to intersect the now defunct railway line and followed it back towards the original site, thinking that people may have walked back along the railway line at sometime to access the nearby siding. Worth a bash I thought, so I fired up the Deus and took a beeline straight down the middle of the access track hoping for a target or two.

First target was a belter, what I am thinking is a shield shaped bridle rosette - a very good sign (ended up with three). Next target was a Victorian half penny, and not long after that it was apparent that I had possibly stumbled across a railway workers camp from the 1800's. Turns out there were targets everywhere, hence I spent the rest of morning/arvo gridding up the track to see what else might turn up. Once again the Deus proved its worth as a hoover for buttons, including what must be the smallest button I have ever found.

Anyway, it was a fun day out and quite exciting to literally stumble across a new untouched site - something quite rare these days.

 

[silver]

Someone pilfered the stones

 

[Sandta]

Nothing is safe with detective GP on the case
What is that 'celebrity' clip/hook ?

 

[Smoky bandit]

Wow every thing is so green there.
Awesome finds and photos as usual.
Well done :Y:

 

[golddiggerart]

Awesome gp... Love the veilheads they're something spectacular.. :Y:

 

[Goldpick]

Nothing is safe with detective GP on the case
What is that 'celebrity' clip/hook ?

Not sure Sandta, I have found a very similar item in the past that used to have a miniature painting in the top section, though could also be a sporting related item (cricket). Looks to be a suspender type buckle going by the hook and rear clasp.

 

[Goldpick]

Was a beautiful day for a detect today, sun shining and 21 degrees made for perfect conditions - needless to say it was straight back to what I am sure now is a railway workers camp. There are no indications of any previous permanent structures, and looks like the grader pretty much ran straight through the camp spreading the finds all down the track. Adding to the theory we found an isolated patch of Victorian coppers and silvers a few years back about 500m to the south, so it would be good to figure out what intervals they were camped at along the line to help locate more patches.

Seems I did a pretty good job at hoovering up the more significant targets last trip, so I ended up using pitch mode on the Deus which does very well at picking out very difficult non-ferrous targets amongst the iron. Spoons and buttons were all the rage today, with the best finds including a spring loaded cufflink, "Waltham Watch" fob watch winder and a very clean though dented 1891 penny. Not much more to do here now other than to wait for the grass to die off before having a final detect.

All I can say is the horse that belonged to that horse shoe must have been damned small!

 

[Dave79]

Awesome little pocket watch winder, could be a trail of spots along that railway. I was chasing a trail of an old water race this weekend but 3 foot deep washouts in the track turned me back :/

 

[caparobertsan]

Amazing amazing research skill! I am too lazy to do any research now :Y: ower: ower: :clap: ... My local park has stopped giving up any interesting metal object. Only finding bullet casing...

 

[Goldpick]

I was at a bit of a loose end today trying to figure out where to go for a detect, ended up at yet another early 1900's house site that I hadn't touched for a year or so. Ended up going for a very long walk just to see if I could locate some new patches of finds several hundred metres away from the original site. Absolutely nothing, that was until on the return trip via a different route I got a good sounding tone, a chunky Henry Martini projectile. They were everywhere, so much so that I gave up in the end digging more of them, preferring to head back to the car and have another sniff around there.

Turned out to be a day of just a few good finds as there weren't many good ones left to dig (cleaned up on previous trips), with just one 1945 hp, a nice ornate buckle and a few odds and sods. That was a bit of a bust, so back towards town I stopped off at an 1860/70's site that had also been given a thorough going over in the past. Only three finds surfaced, an unmarked button, lead rosette, and probably my favourite find of the day - a two piece button with a dogs head on the front.

 

[Goldpick]

Today's pics are from two different sites/days, the first being the Victorian railway site, and secondly the same early 1900's site iI have been picking over for a while now.

I ran the Deus on pitch mode, though had real trouble getting coil to the ground due to the recent rains causing the ground cover to grow like mad. Still managed some more targets with the best being a gold gilt broach, and despite its size it wasn't a resounding "dig me" tone - likely to have been sitting in edge and made of very thin metal. The lock key hole cover from a 2 lever Barrons lock was also an interesting find. The coins were a disappointment being very corroded and possibly fire damaged, oldest was a 1918 penny.

Am off to an old house permission tomorrow with a workmate, pity the weather forecast looks crap - nothing a good raincoat won't fix.

 

[Goldpick]

Thanks to the inclement weather my permission did not come through, so plan B was to go and check out a site for a possible old dwelling that I had spotted on google earth a few years back. Large trees lining a possible entrance track to the site was a good clue that something existed there in the past, and that was confirmed by broken pottery on the edge of the track and a good showing of iron in the sandy soil. I had been out to the site previously for a quick test detect, unfortunately I ended up turning down the incorrect track which explains why I never hit any targets and wrote it off a bit too soon.

So far I have only spent a couple of hours zig zagging over the whole site picking out the most prospective areas, even found the steel cased bore by accident. One side of the track came up with the holed penny and various household bits and pieces, though it was the opposite side of the track that was more interesting with out of place trees and possible rubbish pits.

It was around one of those pits that provided most of the coins, also including the sterling silver pocket watch cover and the compact case. Initially I was disappointed and thought the pocket watch cover was plated due to a very brown (ie copper looking) cover, that was until I spotted the Lion hallmark for stering silver. It took some scrubbing to clean it back to its shiny silver finish, and was happy to have close to 10 threepences worth of silver for the display cabinet.

The Shingleback lizard provided some company during my digs, much more preferable over a Tiger snake. :argh:

Other items included a toy iron, shaving razor handle, harmonica front cover, clock/pocket watch parts and the usual buckles and buttons. Should prove to be a good site going by the initial results from what was a pretty short hunt.

 

[Goldpick]

Just did a bit of hallmark research on the pocket watch case, the maker/s were Richard Oliver and John Edwards who partnered to make watch cases in London from 1846 up to 1859 before the partnership was finally dissolved, so the case does have some age to it. arty:

 

[golddiggerart]

Nice one GP, love that blue tongue find,. :Y:

 

[Goldpick]

Just for something different, at 9pm last night I thought it would be a good idea to go detecting around a lake shore for some predecs - even if it was close to a 300km round trip to get there and back (crazy detectorists). Managed to get back home around 5.00am after nearly collecting a Wombat on the way there, and a Kangaroo on the return trip - thank god for LED lightbars.

With clear skys, not a breath of wind and a crescent moon to detect under, I took a gamble on hearing that the water levels had dropped since I was last there, hoping that the lapping waves had manage to uncover some more goodies over the last year or so. I picked a spot where the shoreline was slightly scalloped away and had success pretty much straight away with a sixpence. I spent the rest of the evening gridding up a relatively small area that held quite a few coins - some of the coins were deep whilst there was the odd copper and thrip pretty much sitting on the surface.

All up for the silvers were a 1952 shilling, 1951 sixpence, and 1951, 1952, 1943, 1941, 1936, 1921 thrips. The coppers were in their usual terrible condition and the ring is not silver unfortunately. The old spinner lures are always a welcome find.

 

[golddiggerart]

Well that was certainly worth the thrip :Y: