Goldpick's 2020 Deus & Equinox 600 finds

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Yesterday I went back to the inn site, though didn't have much luck after a few hours of gridding, so off to a "plan B" site with the renments of an old stone cottage to poke around.

Once again I pulled out the Equinox with that great 6" coil, and proceded to scan the surrounds for new patches of goodies. Didn't take long to find patch about 6x6 metres with a good concentration of finds, and some cool ones at that. Military relics were the flavour of the day, with my third SA Peace medallion from 1900 (struck by Stokes & Son to commorate the Boer War), two aussie military buttons, one British general service button, and an "Australia" shoulder badge. Was also very surprised to pull two more silvers from the ground as I would have thought most would have been cleaned out by others previously. I put that down to the ability of this little coil being able to sniff out targets from all the other ferrous and non-ferrous junk. I could imagine there would be plenty more targets if you were able to scape away the top several inches of top soil, as you do struggle with penetration due to masking from all the rusty nails etc.

On another note, it has occured to me that the Boer War medallion has been modified, with scalloped out sections on the cross ends - the work of a bored child, who knows. :p

Anyway, not bad for a plan B and worth another few visits. :D

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Just a quick trek from yesterday on an 1800's site, not much to show other than the 1865 Vic hp and several buttons, some of which are derived from local tailors. Also yet another pocket knife on its very last legs, a folding ruler hinge and plenty of nasty and annoying tin. :argh:

All found with the Equinox 600 and 6" coil.

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Just some results from a night detect on an early to mid 1900's site - easy detecting, sandy soil though a freezing night with some rather numb hands. Despite going over the site many times in the past, I still managed to find a new patch that was missed previously. Bit of everything really, coppers (oldest 1917), military button and buckles, oil lamp turner, jewellery, shaver parts etc.

Used the Deus with the HF coil as the audio is better than that on the Equinox for going "ears" only at night. ;)

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Can't believe it has been so long since I've been out for a swing, work has been getting in the way lately, amongst other things. Packed up the Nox with 6" coil fitted to hit a ww2 era site for the umpteenth time, the small coil really does a good job at unlocking some previously masked finds.

Found a few coppers from 1940's to 50's and one earlier commonwealth penny - all in pretty ordinary condition. Managed to get my first silver for the year, a 1951 thrip. This site has been pretty good in the past on the military related buttons, pins and pendants, best item of today was the POW appeal pendant followed closely by the trench art kangaroo carved from a penny. The large button is of British general service origins.

As for future detecting, hopefully as things cool down and dampen up I will be out a bit more often.:):)
 

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Finally got out for two consecutive hunts at two seperate house sites, both dated from the Victorian era onwards. First house site I discovered a whioe ago near an existing 1800's site that had produced 1860's and later coinage, only found it due to noticing out of place vegetation growing about 100m away through the forest.

There was plenty of iron in the ground to confirm past habitation, and it didn't take long for the Deus to start hitting on some good targets. Judging by the number of larger non-ferrous targets, either the site has not seen a detector before, or they were just cherry picking coin sized/value targets. Surprises were the stamped "900" silver bracelet, silver fob watch back and silver gilt WW1 peace medallion. A couple of coins from 1911 and 1917 plus a 1904-05 dog registration tag were also a welcome sight.

The small brass medallion is from a hand saw marked "Disston & Sons, Philadelphia", it is dated around mid 1870's to 1880's.

Hope you enjoy the pics!IMG_20220430_114006.jpg




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The second house site I have not visited since owning my Minelab Explorer SE Pro years ago, so probably worth having another shot with a faster machine. This site has actual ruins on it, so it has definitely been hit by many detectorists over the years - though not exactly easy due to the amount of iron ploughed into the surrounds masking the good stuff. Low and slow was the order of the day (deus again), and first good target was the 1929-30 dog rego tag followed by several buckles, spoons and the older style brass shotgun cartridges.

One particular spot must have been an undetected scrape from the house site as it held several targets missed by others - my first Rising Sun in a long while and a Paris suspender buckle. Directly opposite that scrape I received what could only be described as a perfect coin high tone, wondering how it could have possibly been missed I was puzzled as to what it was initially. Looked like an old English penny though the front was not familiar, and after a decent clean turns out it was an 1856 10 Centimes with Napoleon 111 on the obverse!

Just goes to prove that detecting always provides surprises at every turn as I nearly didn't turn off to this site, preferring to continue on from last time - oh well.IMG_20220430_114805.jpgIMG_20220430_114835.jpgIMG_20220430_114859.jpgIMG_20220430_115013.jpgIMG_20220430_115043.jpgIMG_20220430_115304.jpgIMG_20220430_141444.jpgIMG_20220430_141523.jpgIMG_20220430_141820.jpgIMG_20220430_141909.jpg
 
Nice haul mate. Couple stars of the show definitely made that worthwhile. Need some inspiration the detector getting dusty.
 
Finally got around to editing some pictures from a couple of hunts last year. First one was detecting a friend's property in an 1800's hamlet just out of town. His residence used to be an old bakery and later a roadhouse, so I was expecting a fair bit of junk in the ground. Armed with the Deus and small HF coil, the first spot to detect was a large garden bed utilising excavated material from where the stagecoaches used to park (now a swimming pool).

Low and behold, the first decent target of the day was a double beep 55, and after having a quick look saw a ring shaped object on the surface. I was initially going to dismiss it as a child's aluminium play ring, though on closer inspection it looked really yellow and with hallmarks. Now I have only ever found a couple of gold rings in a dry land setting, and I was getting excited that this ring might be really old. After some research the ring was made by Joachim Matthias Wendt, a very well known colonial jeweller from Denmark who settled in Adelaide around 1851. He liked to use local gold and gems in all his jewellery, and in fact owned the Alma Gold Mine at Waukaringa which supplied most of SA''s gold after the 1850's.

The ring is small, only 1.6 grams though made of 22ct gold - most likely a woman's ring. After such a great start to the day, surely the rest of the day was going to be a bit of a let down. Quite frankly there was so much iron in the garden bed that it was near on impossible to get any penetration, though the next target was a boomer and also near surface - an 1854 Vic half penny.

As predicted the rest of the hunt in the backyard was a bit of a let down, with a few buckles down assorted period items - and a lot of rubbish. The owner of the property was in the process of renovating and had found several silver coins in the walls (including two florins from 1925 & 1947). Even after I offered the ring to the property owner, he let me keep the ring after if I paid him half of the gold value for it (I think it is worth more in historical context), though at 1.6 grams it wasn't worth much in the end.

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