Goldpick's 2019 XP Deus finds

[Goldpick]

Ended up taking a work mate out detecting the other day to see if he was interested in buying a detector and taking up the hobby. We went to the same site as on the 21st Oct to see if I could get him his first predecimal coin, and with cheers of joy he managed to snare a 1943 Roo half penny only after a short period of time with the Makro Racer 2. So that's one more person now hooked on detecting.

Conditions were really crap for a detect, hot weather and thick scrub had me gulping down litres of water to stay on top of things, not to mention seeing the first brown snake for the season.

I did ok, a couple of coins surfaced to keep the interest up, oldest being a 1922 penny, also found a beaut heart shaped pendant (gold plated). The 1927 hp is a funny colour due to accidently dropping it in a citric acid slurry vs Bi-carb, lucky it wasn't a 1923 example. :argh:

One happy camper!

 

[Goldpick]

Out for a few hours tonight for a park detect, and considering the lack of targets I didn't do too bad in the end. Highlights were the Edward 1907 hp and 1904 sixpence, neither of them were very deep, though lucky to even walk over them considering the size of the area.

 

[Jaros]

Great finds there Chris.

 

[Goldpick]

Thanks Jaros, it was a nice night to go for a stroll, the coins were an added bonus.

 

[Goldpick]

Talking about a few weeks of crap weather, not much good for detecting though a pretty good time to think about some research. I have been going over some old parish maps from the 1860 to try and find some interesting spots to research/visit, that's if I could even find them due to the inaccuracies of old maps. I noticed on one of the maps and old trail following some of the local watering holes, used by settlers of the time. Turns out one of the water holes had a name that still exists today (surely couldn't be that easy), so with the Deus packed up and ready to go I headed out to try and find this supposed stop over point to see if I could find anything to verify that it was indeed part of the trail.

Well I found the rough area of where the waterholes existed, though getting anywhere near it with a vehicle was out of the question at the moment - might need a few more weeks to get in there. Disappointed I looked on Google Earth to see what other waterholes existed in a northerly direction of where the trail headed, and spotted another small opening in the forest a few kms away. I managed to get within a few 100 metres of this waterhole (most are actually sinkholes with permanent water), so off to see what the Deus could sniff out with regards to old timer evidence. Immediately I was digging up old shotgun shells from just about every early brand known to man, plus plenty of raw lead, a very good sign (Kynoch, Eley Kynock, Eley, UMC Co., Remington, etc). The evidence I was looking for came in the form of a two piece gold gilt coat button from about 7" down (back mark is "Stand D colour, Treble Gilt). That single button dates to around the US civil war period which is smack bang in the 1860's period I was searching for, so pretty excited about that. arty:

Very eager now to get back to the main waterhole to see what might have been dropped there, guess that will have to wait for now. :|

I also had a small hunt from last night under the moonlight, not hugely successful though did have two pennies come out of the same hole stuck to each other, and the 1959 Rams head shilling made my night. The ring is a junker, also the 1935 penny looks to have been really abused by someone in the past.

Last night !

 

[Smoky bandit]

Wonder whatwas happening to the 35 penny. :8
Nice finds GP. :beer: :Y:

 

[Goldpick]

I drove around to a few spots today, though came up empty handed - what to do! I guess lets have a try at a well detected stone cottage site, and try a few different settings to hopefully liberate a few more finds. This site is particularly challenging due to fire ravaging the property and leaving a mass of rust nails in the aftermath. I think the oldest coin we've had off this site dated to the late 1800's, so there is always a good chance of finding something interesting from the Victorian period.

Pretty sure last time I was here I used pitch mode instead of the hot program on the Deus to detect the nail ridden track for coins, and was indeed quite successful. This time I applied pitch mode with iron discriminated out, though still with the iron audio grunting quietly in the background, and digging anything from foil range upwards. Surprisingly I had an 1879 Vic penny came from the ground literally right next to the ruins, the mind boggles on how many detectors would have been over that ground.

Further down from the ruins I had several high TID numbers come up for various targets missed previously. First came the cool Baden Powell medallion commemorating his involvement in the Boer War (dated 1900), nearly had a heart attack seeing what looked to be a gold coin sitting in the hole, though it was not to be, just gilt. Second target was a sterling silver/gold gilt broach, at first I though it was plated being so thin and light, luckily it had sterling marked on the rear. Last high conductor was my first SA dog tag for a while now, it was dated from 1911-12.

Pretty happy with that little excursion, might go back for a more comprehensive detect when it cools down a bit.

 

[Heatho]

Some very nice stuff coming in mate, nice work.

 

[golddiggerart]

Very nice finds and I love that brooch. :Y:

 

[Goldpick]

After work I headed back out to the Victorian era stone cottage for a few hours to have another run utilising pitch mode on the Deus. Ended up digging a ton of non-ferrous targets, unfortunately including plenty of modern junk items not shown in the pics, and my legs are certainly paying for it today.

The iron contamination is so bad here that I had previously unearthed a florin going off what was a very scratchy mixed tone, nothing that would say "dig me" unless you simply digging anything slightly resembling a non-ferrous target.

The best find of the day was a pre-federation South Australian Military button from the Boer War era (possibly earlier), thankfully the shank was still intact and in overall very good condition. The maker was Shierlaw and Co based in Adelaide, they supplied the Military in SA from 1860 through to 1920. Also picked up another dog tag dated from 1929-1930, surprisingly a surface find previously overlooked. The cap at the bottom right of the main finds pic appears to be silver, though am yet to find a visible hallmark. Plenty of other odds and sods were picked up along the way, and I still have penty more ground to revisit in the future.

 

[Smoky bandit]

The cottage just kees on giving.
You collection of coins and relics would be amazing. :Y:

 

[Goldpick]

I think I am going to need a new display cabinet soon, the old one is getting a bit crowded with all the relics lately.

 

[Goldpick]

Aside from taking out a wallaby last night, I had a pretty epic outing on the coins - pretty much an all-nighter detecting both a lake shore and park. Only two silvers came from the lake plus assorted roo and commonwealth coppers. The park held the best silvers including a trio of shillings and tons of the usual annoying BB's. Will be back to that spot as it has barely been touched, should have spent the whole night there vs the lake, as it doesn't look to have seen a detector before with some silvers sunbaking.

At least I came out on top for petrol money for a change, I had literally just stepped out of my car and notched up my first of many goldies for the night.

 

[Heatho]

Honey hole!!

 

[Goldpick]

Yes it does look to be a honey hole, good thing is that a majority of the pre-decimal coins found there are early 1900's, and the .925 silvers come out of the ground in excellent condition. There was also very little modern junk, all I had to do was listen out for sweet high tones - I tried hard to find a florin for the full house, but it wasn't going to happen this time around.

 

[caparobertsan]

Hunted with Deus? High tones from Deus are really something aren`t they? :clap:

 

[Goldpick]

Yep, as always - got to love those sweet tones!

 

[Goldtarget]

Just out of curiosity GP how long where you out for give or take coil on the ground?

 

[Goldpick]

Just out of curiosity GP how long where you out for give or take coil on the ground?

Think I arrived around 9pm, and headed home around 4.00am.

 

[Jaros]

All I can say is that you really had a ball out there. erfect: :clap: :clap: