New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Jafa made some rather disparaging comments about valuable artefacts and relics that had been posted by lucky detectorists such as Poohbear and his McDonalds motorcycle. It occurred to me that he might not know what crap really looks like so I thought I would start a worthless crap thread so that he and others with a less extensive archaeological background can learn to differentiate crap from treasure. Tonight for example I dug up this piece of crap off the end of a table leg. Ask yourself “Would I rather find a rusty piece of table leg or a happy meal motorcycle?” and I think you will agree that the motorcycle starts to look like more like treasure. If anyone else has some good examples of crap, post them here.

Thats quite untrue i think some rear coin,s or genuine artefacts are fine to be put here but why
as you put it rgmcbrid put"worthless crap" on here espcially if it take,s the thunder away from those great gold find,s by burying them off the active discussion,s even 1864hatter had the decentcy to say sorry agvin here is my gold to and you womble fella,s are with no respect at all for wonderfull achievements those guy got from a week away in the hills ruffing it...instead you put toy,s and wire etc ontop of there finds quite shamefull really but i gess people who go around showing of toy,s and junk probably have no shame.
Ray.

hahahaha to funny madsonic

Here we go again. Yes, again. Some of us have pretty short memories. It wasn't long ago a whole bunch of non-gold detectorists arrived on this site. Straight away a slanging match began between newbies and some existing members.

What i thought we all learnt is that this forum is a bit like the country we live in. It is made up of people of all ages, from all walks of life, all with varying views.

I myself at the time questioned all the non-gold finds as this is called a gold fossicking forum. I agree though that as many of us are into detecting there was a need to have the ability to display our finds. Digging up stuff is exciting, and not all of us have ready access to gold producing areas. Some finds i reckon have been more exciting than the gold.

There are two sides to everything. the table leg in question may be seen as shit to one person, but may have been really exciting to dig up by another. and who knows, in a thousand years time this may even be a precious relic.

Whatever the case is, this forum doesn't need the abuse. it was going along nicely lately. I recommend a great big breath after reading each article. If it grates your tastes go outside, circle, ponder, circle some more, and only then head back to the computer. Resist the urge to bite back with personal insults. It's not worth it. Focus on the positive.

Maybe we need a name and shame section like on target the TV program if such actions continue.

Happy hunting.

P.S. Creamer, i'd go back and find look for the other 3 legs and make the set.

P.P.S. Jafa, Welcome to the site.

I fully understand why people post rusty nails and bits of wire. Using a detector involves a lot of learning and you have to dig everything in order to understand what the machine is telling you. All unknown signals get dug. More importantly the amount and type of rubbish gives an indication of the history of the site and is therefore providing valuable information. Understanding what took place and when hints at what treasures might be laying around. Much like gold fossickers read the landscape to find gold, detectorists read the rubbish to find coins and jewellery. For example I was detecting at the local A & P grounds and started finding old carnival rubbish in one area; skull rings, darts etc, so I hit that section hard and found around $400 in gold coins. Similarly if you find toy motorcycles and forks like Poohbear did, it is a picnic area. Heaps of old nails there was a building. Lead weights is a fishing spot. So again I am quite happy to look at the rubbish because that is an important part of the story. If you don’t understand what is going on that is fine; but it is pretty pointless to make fun of people who do understand and are posting in a section called “Other Treasures” which was specifically added to the forum to keep the gold only threads clear.

The trick is to dig all targets but have a pinpointer, so the time taken to recover each item is a lot less. Eh Poohbear? :)

Well said rgmcbrid, I wish I could have access to Gold bearing sites (legal one that is ;) ) But as I don't I apply the same kid of focus on detecting. In fact detecting has been more profitable for me than my gold mining and while one gets you gold (LOVE THE STUFF!) the other gives you history and sometimes gold too. I was pretty excited when I found a penny from 1914 at a dock which was torn down a couple of years after the coin's age! I was really cool to unearth a treasure and a peace of history from a historic site! I also think that given the chance we all would love to go ruff it down in Gold country but the fact is not all can... (like me) so lets just congratulate everyone's find because one man's rubbish is another's treasure. Rather then putting down some people's finds because they don't meet our expectations. Just like when a mate of mine found a stop and go sign and was really excited about it... i probably wouldn't have struggled to dig it out myself and wouldn't have been excited about it but he was. So I was excited for him. lets all have that kind of attitude. if you think that it is a worthless piece of crap... than don't post. cheers

And yes gavin we do need a pinpointer thread as I am in the market for one but need advice. cheers

ok compulsory deep breath everybody.

That's it.

one more time

Ahhh. relax

:-)

HH all

Funny!

It takes all types and as a newbie I can say you can learn a lot from everyone both the goldies and the crutch swingers
My plan is to hunt for that yellow stuff with my md, I just love getting out and about and clearing the old melon.
As I'm between jobs (thank you earthquake) my wife has cut my allowance thus being rationed petrol money to local parks, so I find pretty much everything on here useful.

maybe we should call it a dirt fishing forum then it covers both bases j/k

I guess when people are so passionate about their hobbies it's easy to get them wound up, intentionally or not.


So I say thank you to all you guys, many of you have vastly increased my knowledge and are friendly enough to chime in and show a chap the right direction.

BTW so far my most worthless crap... An electric jug element..

It was dark outside and I didn't have anyone to hold my hand, uploaded now *8^)