Shaking off the posting slackness

Shaking! Funny how that word is still on the mind aye ;) lol!

I've been out on about 10 hunts since the 13th of Nov.
Couple of these times i have met up with some other local detectorists in Hagley Park.
Most of the other hunts have been back to the other places im slowly covering.

12 pennys, 4 half pennys, about 30 1c and 2c pieces, and $40 in goldies makes up the most of the finds, with the more interesting coins being a 1889 british thrupence, 4 NZ silver shillings, and 1 NZ silver sixpence.

Went out to a couple spots today, with the intent to find $10. Arrived at the first area and spent about a half hour there and got nothing apart from a few 1c pieces and bottle caps. Ended up heading back to an area that i have got coins from in the past and within a hour or so had my $10, which took me over $400 since starting back in August.

Hope everyone had a great Xmas, and has a Happy New Year! :)

HH!


Edit:  1049pm :

Lmao - about 20 mins after i posted the above - we've just had another small aftershock ;)

Back into it . . . Again!

After another slack week or two, I challenged myself to get up at 5am and meet up with some other ChCh detector's this morning in the Christchurch city area.

I ended up staying till about 9am, and once again attracted some attention from a "concerned" resident from across the street. He actually came over and asked if i was from the council and when I said no, asked why i was digging holes in the park. His attitude at first was a little pompous in my opinion, and didn't even take my offer to show him how the process of finding a target / digging it / replanting the plug works. I know i wouldn't approach someone with an attitude like he had, from my own residence, without knowing how the person he was approaching would react, or retaliate to what felt like an unprovoked attack on someone minding his own business. Each to their own i suppose. My patience is wearing thin with people like this tho, the next one i get may just get more than a nice reply offering to show what i am doing.

I didn't find any old coins today, but the few interesting bits and pieces, $13, couple old NZ coins, meeting another detectorist and the interesting chat i had with the local were well worth the early wake up ;) HH!

Back into it

Had a swing at 2 new areas today, after a week of slacking. Was good to get out again :) I hate finding things with BIG diamond looking things in it. This latest one has a F in a circle stamped on the back of the setting. I reckon the F=Fake ;)

2 Playgrounds

Spent the morning searching a couple parks. One silver and one junk ring plus a little clad.
GL & HH to those that get out over the weekend :)

Single Silver Shilling

After a short morning hunt at park #2 (found a couple half pennys and pennys, along with half of the 1c/2c in the picture below), I then swung by another place that I've been wanting to try for a while. A gate was open this time, so i drove myself in, asked the grounds keeper (mowing the grass in a tractor) if it was alright, and as far as he knew at that time - it was. So, i spent about an hour and a half, and plucked out the goldies, solo silver, along with the rest of the pennys and 1c/2c's from a 50m by 20m area. Found out after i finished, im not actually allowed to MD there. I'll look into it further tho, cause i thought the reasons given were BS! ;)

4 keys, 2 silvers and a wallet

The wallet had $1.01 of old NZ coins and 7c Aussie in its coin holder. Nothing else in it except for the coins and the key. The other 3 keys on the shoelace were found separately. A 1935 shilling and 1941 florin were this afternoons best finds in my mind. The other coins are 2 British pennies (1906 and 1931 in the same hole), an old NZ 20c, two old NZ 10c and a 1951 NZ shilling. GL & HH to those heading out over the weekend :)

Swinging in the Rain

Headed out today for a couple hours while the drizzle was about. Not another person in sight, until it cleared up a bit later in the afternoon. Spent about an hour and a half trying a few different spots for silvers at the picnic area. No silvers today, but the gold colored coins and another junk ring were fun enough to dig :)

2 Months of Digging

Its been a fun first 2 months of metal detecting! I've become more addicted to MDing than i was to gaming! At least im getting a little exercise now. Here is a pic of all the coins found in the 2 months. I'll borrow the better camera again tomorrow to show the other stuff  ;)

The box the ATpro came in makes a good temporary treasure chest ;) 

Junk rings:

Gold and Silver Rings:

43rd hunt

Spent the afternoon at the picnic area again. Found an assortment of stuff, including 4 and three-quarter silver coins. The ring is light and resembles some sort of mood ring. Was surprised at the shallow depth of the thruppence hardly 3 cms of dirt above it. GL and HH to those that get out this weekend! :)

Pre-decimals on the beach

Finally found a few pre-decimal coins on the beach today, along with alot more older NZ coins, a few more aussie ones, $2.50 clad and a couple more fishing lures.

Short evening hunt

Went over an area i had searched already again today for about an hour this evening, and dug some more of the 50's/60's signals that i guess i had previously ignored as pull-tabs the last time. Looks like i might have to re-search this area again over a few days and dig all the 50's/60's ;)

The silvers below have just been scrubbed under a cold tap with a toothbrush so far. A few other times i've then scrubbed them for an hour with toothpaste, or some sort of bathroom creamcleaner, or soaked them in a jewellery cleaner pottle and scrubbing with a toothbrush with that. I'm interested to know how everyone cleans them up further from here?

Short afternoon hunt

On the beach this afternoon in the midday heat for an hour. No really interesting finds, but i did figure out today, that alot of those iron sounding things i've not dug on the beach might have been rusty new 50 cent pieces - lol!

Short morning hunt

Spent a couple hours this morning checking an area next to where I found 2 shillings back in August. The coins are 3 pennys, 1 half penny, Aussie 50c & 20c, 30c in old NZ currency, $1 clad and a 1934 florin :)

Gold and Silver ( Sorta )

Spent this afternoon at the picnic area coin shooting in the dirt again. $32 in goldies, 28cents old NZ and a 1953 Penny. Good fun :)

The little 925 only just fits past the outer joint of my pinky.

To all those heading out in the weekend, GL and HH! :)

Picnic Area

I've missed getting dirty, so i gave the beach a rest today and dug some holes in the mud.

No silver, no pre dec's or real gold, but the $19 spendable keeps my interest in that spot ;)

Yes, my pinpointing and plug making needs practice - lol ;)

Another couple hours at the beach

Spent another couple hours on the same beach, this time, mostly up on the dry sand. Ended up with $5.80 spendable,  an Aussie 50c, $2.34 old NZ currency, a key and a few bits of junk.
Also took a newly acquired toy along for a play ...

Must make myself one of those pipe type of sand scoops for the dry sand, too much time spent for $1.00! lol ;)

On the beach again

Spent about 3 hours this afternoon grid searching another bit of the beach area i started last week.

Finds seem to be starting to dry up for me there now. I picked up a couple junk rings, a few old decimals, $1.20 spendable, and a few other junk items in the time i spent out there today.

Friday Fun

Top ring is stamped STG, needs a good cleaning as its mostly black. Has 2 buckles like on sandals on the top of the ring. Bottom ring has 3 purple/red colored stones on 3 separate bands, joining at the bottom. Cant see any marks on that one. Pipe #2 I've dug made me laugh, I don't even smoke, normal smokes! Some more old currency, and the $8.40 spendable takes me over $200 in total clad since Aug 1st. Fun Friday! :)

Good luck to all those who head out over the weekend! HH!

Gold Rings - #1, #2 and #3!

Welllll... i guess just #1 seeing they are all linked together - lol!

Weather looked like it was going to crap itself with in the hour when i decided to leave the house today, but after yesterdays finds, i was determined to head back there today, even if it was only for 30/40 minutes before it hosed down. I'd only dug about 3 or 4 coins before hitting the ring. I've been hoping for something gold since the 1st of August, but when #1 actually comes out of the hole, it sure got the heart pumping!

Not long after digging out the ring, the rain started lightly, but, after just finding that, the jacket hood covered the earphones, and i kept on going for another 30 mins or so till it really started bucketing down. Ended up pulling out the gas money for the day and some more older coins.

It had a stamp on one of the bands, and it looked like gold, but i couldn't really make out what the numbers were, and i was itching to know exactly what it was, so i took it into a jewelers on the way home. The lady there told me it was stamped 375 and it was a 9crt russian wedding ring. No names or other engravings on the bands, means its a finders keepers ring in my mind - WOoHoO! Gold #1 - TICK :)

Roll on the next afternoon its not raining!

More beach swinging

Tried a different beach area again this afternoon, a bit closer to low tide today, and this one seems like it could be a little more productive than the others I've had a go on so far.

Back to the beach

Gave another beach a go today, even getting out and wading up to my knees in the water. Didn't pull a single thing out while i was in the water, or even on the wet sand. The stuff below came out on the dry sand. $10 spendable, old 20c/10c/5c, junk ring and sinker. Keeps me interested in the beaches for a while longer ;)

Exercise is good!

After this week of digging around in the dirt, im sore, more sore than i've been in almost 2 years. Each day my arms hurt, my legs hurt, my back, shoulders, wrists and even my fingers hurt! But, knowing all this soreness is my body saying, wow, your exercising again, makes the soreness (and 100's of pulltabs) more enjoyable! The other good thing is, my bum aint hurting from spending 8 hours each day gaming now! ;)

Couldn't search at sports ground 2 today, as there was a group of people gardening or spreading bark or something in the area, so i went back to sports ground 1 for an hour or so and pulled these out...

Here is my weeks trash from both areas...

...and the the keepers.

It's been a fun week of dirt digging. GL and HH to all those that are heading out in the weekend! :)

More sixpences

Another couple sixpences this morning, along with 7 NZ pennys, 4 British pennys, and the usual 2c's and 1c's that seem to be everywhere on this side of this park. The silvers were parked right up against a stump of a tree that had been cut down a while ago, only about 5 cm down. The first trowel full popped them out.

Today and yesterday i've had a few more people stopping and asking about what im doing, and although its want i said i wanted on Monday, it also now means i have to go back tomorrow to finish this area off. New area number 4 will have to wait till next week ;)

Few more silver

Same park, but from the other end, slowly scanning and digging almost every half decent target. Will spend one more morning/afternoon finishing off this sideline area, then ill try another end of the park.

Cant think of an exciting title for a slow hunt - LOL ^^

Started grid searching the area i wandered on Monday, from the opposite end where i found most of the silver and after about 2 hours, i had only pulled up 1 older than decimal coin, a bent 1876 penny. I'll be back to the other end next time ;)

Weighed yesterdays silver coins out of curiosity, although after collecting coins for over 20 years, i don't think i could ever bring myself to send them away for melting down! ;) 

Hands up!

This morning i found myself at a new location... again! lol ;)
I guess i just wanna try em all out, and see if there's any stuff worth spending more time there.
And after seeing all the silver dug over the weekend, i was wanting more!

New area number 3 didn't disappoint . . .

Got out before sunrise, and left about 3pm, just a little bit after i had a visit from some officers!
 Haha, yes, thats right, some busy-body called the police, and said someone was digging up the park! Funny thing, which worked in my favour, is that one of the officers used to metal detect in the UK! So after a bit of a chat, and a squiz at what id pulled out for the day, i was wished good luck, and they went off, hopefully not to be called out to someone elses time wasting arrogance. I plan to head back to the same area tomorrow, and actually start grid searching blocks of the area, instead of just randomly wandering the whole area swinging.

I'll also be writing a little "note to the editor" for the next local paper, directed to the arrogant nosy-parker,
and will suggest to them, that next time, they actually come and inquire what im doing, instead of wasting valuable police time ;) Anyone else had something similar happen???

Semi cleaned scans....