New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

How many pulltabs?
Hang on to a few of those goldies (one of each date) in 50 years time they'll be sought after by detectorists =)

Hunt 2016.3:
Coin-Shooting again for an hour before the rain at another grassy knoll.
Very quiet, only $9 in goldies and a couple of V caps.
Amateur "Hacker" had visited this spot in last couple of weeks - Lots of squares of dead turf visible...Neatly replaced, but dead.


Hunt 2016.4:
Early morning stroll along the grass verge.Looking for coins generally this time.
Surprisingly, only $2 found, but picked up four small silvers and a couple of older pennies out of a sea of filtered-out pull tabs, bottle caps and foil.
Finds of the Day: EF 1 dot 1942 Thruppence, second place goes to my first Aussie 3d.

Cheers LKD,
The Fijian is too rotted out to pull a date, although I'd guess late 70's based on the condition. (The acid soils here are really hard on coppers)

They are photographed on black velvet under natural light with the camera stopped down a tad to deepen the black.

'just' $9! hahaha
Good tip on the photo's. They come up real colourful.

I'm pleased to hear I'm not alone, when it comes to feuding with that dreaded sand! ..... Roll on winter, fingers crossed anyway.
The old mud flats are great for a bit of normality and action in the way of tones through the headphones.
Good job on the silvers and misc finds, thanks for the class pics.
HH Iggy

Hunt 2016.7
Acting on a 'hot tip' about a pile of "turn of the century" bricks in the scrub, I headed out to have a few hours swinging there before heading back my current pet haunt in the mangroves at low tide.
Was a lot more overgrown than I expected, and bulldozers had made a mess of much of the site.


Came across old bottles very quickly, I stashed some of the embossed ones (as hopefully easy to identify) for collection on the way back to the car.

All seem to be 1940's vintage.
Eyeballed the front half of an ancient FunHo(?) Tractor but more was missing than present so tucked it into the undergrowth. A lot of rusty iron, big hinges, stove parts, and railway pins although only found one lead-head nail... Which surprised me, but suggested the bulk of topsoil
has been bladed over the edge into a sea of Jasmine, Gorse and giant ants (I kid you not - these buggers were a full 10mm long and were frequently found trying to chew through my jeans so they could make off with chunks of my leg. Like mini Wolverines! In fact, I suspect it was the ants that demolished the house...)


Anyway, picked up a few old decimals along the edges of the bulldozed area but the age wasn't there (other than the bottles). I picked my way through the ginger, avoiding the ones bending under the weight of ants and emerged into a slightly less blanket-bombed area.
Two swings and I had a clean non-ferrous tone - You beauty! Old button with a crown and cypher (ID: NZ Railways, C1940's), next swing and 50cm away, a walking stick sterling decorative piece. Oh, please continue like this...!




Well, it didn't. Although targets were much better quality - Lead grapeshot (I assume ex- cannon, at an inch across, probably picked up at a beach or battle site by the original tenants) and a lead bag seal but no markings on it. In fact heaps of lead (that lovely old, white, and highly toxic stuff). Looks like someone was casting something, or lots of somethings in lead here as there were many odd chunks which had been poured into random depressions in the ground - I assume surplus from a melt tipped from the crucible to be remelted later, and forgotten?


A nice piece of old pale blue stained glass came out, still in the lead frame. Prior to the float glass technique used today, they used to hand
blow a cylinder, slice it open and roll it out flat with wooden paddles leaving a distinctive linear ribbed texture. (Thanks Time Team!)
This looks like a front door panel piece or similar.



By this time, I had exhausted the easy bits and low tide was approaching, so wombled back to the car for some scoff and down to the sea...

The mangroves are getting thin now, criss-crossed with my footprints which makes clearing an area really easy :)
Lots of old decimals, one penny and a jet black '42 6d. Two junky rings and GOLD! A nice 9ct with stone. Was really deep but rang out clear, must've been sitting flat. Also dredged up a rotted out 9ct heart locket and the usual keys, lead sinkers etc.


Stopped at a garage sale on the way home, and saw a rusty old machete - obviously very old as the blade didn't bend like the modern recycled Honda Civic ones. Handed over the $3 and both parties were happy.


Got home and started to clean it up - Hmm, that looks like a stamp... Bit of scrubbing and


A productive day, and one of the more enjoyable hunts - except for the ants.

HH
MW

Edited by user Saturday, 27 February 2016 8:41:19 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Just updating the log.
Nothing exciting, so you won't miss anything if you click the Back Arrow now :)

Hunt 2016.8
Big tides meant an early shallows run at low tide. Left home at Silly o'clock aiming to be in the water at 4. Unfortunately came across 1-car prang, got the guy sorted until fire arrived (Moderate injuries, but he'll be okay). Finally got to Spot X at 5am...Tide on the way in. Helped for about a half hour by ancient and very friendly Labrador that materialised out of the darkness and paddled around with me giving the scoop a good sniff every time I had a dig. First target was a ring which got me fired up when I saw it in the scoop, unfortunately stainless. 280g of lead and a few old decimal 5 & 10c pieces. $2 in goldies. Cool watching the bioluminescence in the water as I swung the coil and the meteor-like streaks of green shooting away as I spooked fish. Stepped squarely on a flounder which scared the BeJezus out of me. Packed up at 6:30 and headed home for coffee.

Hunt 2016.9
Another pre-dawn "big low" raid at a well-worked over spot, really scratching for places that have actually had sand removed rather than heaped up with these long period easterly swells.
Was promising at one end of the bay with plenty of oldish light grey lead turning up, but that was about all. Gave up after 2 Hours as the tide was racing in and the wind chop waves/spray were just unpleasant.

Pic is a composite of both hunts - Lead bucket is now overflowing but way too heavy to shift!


Hunt 2016.10
Spontaneous afternoon hunt along grass verge after the rain, $7 in goldies, 1951 penny and a few old decimals. Plenty of junk. Abandoned after 30 minutes as I was covered with flying ants which finally forced me out. Had a chat with a pedestrian, "There's two $4,000 engagement rings off the steps at __ __________ . I know, because I threw them!" That's been added to "The Book" to try when I head south sometime, just need to work out how far a pair of diamond rings will travel in anger :)

Back into the maps this afternoon, need to rethink my hunt strategy.

Edited by user Friday, 25 March 2016 2:45:29 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I like the engagement ring story, a couple years back a lady came up to me telling how she knew where I could find a ring....... It was her wedding ring that she had thrown off the middle of a bridge.

Hunt 2016.12
New Mangroves.
Located a spot where the road had been diverted and the old road formation is being repossessed by the mangroves. Decided to get the Redbands on and have a crack.
Covered both sides as far as an old bridge abutment about 50m in, found an old swinging pin which was cool, tucked it up in a mangrove for future wayward travellers. Quite surreal working away on an old road with trucks thundering past about 20m away. Ended up with a 57' penny, '61 ha'penny and a silver (just) 1946 Shilling.
Lifted a neat homemade sinker at the bridge, cast into a screw cap. Added to the collection of novelty sinkers.

Daylight was starting to light up the canopy so I headed back for breakfast. Nailed a Tot-Lot on the way home for a tidy $10 in gold. Perfick.
Recharging batteries now and may head back for the evening low and do the next section.

Edited by user Monday, 28 March 2016 11:00:15 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Swinging pin is the old "Crank Handle" used to start cars, phased out pretty much in the late 50's I suppose - Although I had a Lada Cossack (stop laughing) which also had one. Went 8 months without a starter motor :)
I only have two 'novelty sinkers' so far, one cast in a mussel shell, the other in the screwcap. The spoon ones are six-to-a-penny.

Anyhoo... Todays dose of fresh air:

Hunt 2016.13
Returned to an earlier permission http://www.paydirt.co.nz/forums...asty-Dirt.aspx#post44085 that I've been holding off on during the summer. Piddling down with rain so it wasn't long before I had mud all over me.
Had the 5x8 coil on the ATP this time to wriggle my way between the trash. Headed straight to a spot that produced some silvers last time, and I was soon back into them, with 3x silver thruppences and a 6d before they drifted away.
This location was apparently used a couple of times for Scout/Guide camps back in the 40's although it seems the Guides and Brownies were a lot more active than the Scouts! Tally of GG badges after 2 Hrs was 9! Five of them came from within the same swing radius, two still with pins intact.
Nothing Scouty was found however, which was a little disappointing given the figure of 500 kids according to the farmer. Still, always another day.
Haven't bothered with the old decimals, you can imagine the usual 20c/50c etc.

AT Pro 5x8 coil
Saturated gravelly basalt loam
Bulk of coins coming from 10-15cm, badges all around 8-10cm.
Pro Zero, GB@85, full sens, Iron Audio off, Iron elim @40

Back into the water tomorrow hopefully.