Wednesday 26 December 2012

S. Hague Smith Penny Traders Token

Hey all,

Had a quick hunt with my Etrac before work in a local park fro about 2 hours between the showers.
Pretty pleased with the result as i got 13$. Very worn out Victorian 3 pence,
But the find of the day for me is a following S. Hague Smith Penny Traders Token

Unfortuantely it has rarity 2 (common)

But still pretty good :


here is a picture from the Link :



Thanks for stopping by

Saturday 22 December 2012

Ring Recovery for John L, Kohimarama, Auckland

Got a call from John who got my number from a fellow detectorist Brett.John dropped his wedding band into swells during high tide. Good thing- he noted exact line towards beach/trees and was able to give details  to me upon arrival. Another good thing that he called samme day and not 3-10 tides after as beaches are now sanded in with light sand and gold would sing pretty fast.

Anyway, this time it took only several swings from top high tide mark down to hear a sweet tone :-)  (Not always lucky like that)




Thank you John for your generous reward and also thank you Brett for giving out my number.

But evening didnt finish right there :-) I decided to spend couple of hours  at the beach as the tide was going out , weather is warm , no wind and a coming cyclone that will spoil the rest of the weekend.

Within 10 minutes i got a nice 4 gram silver ring and just 15 minutes after old drop gold ring 5.5 gram 9 ct,
the ring is probably from last year or earlier as alloy started to separate (you can see green oxidation on the ring)


So not to bad for the evening :-)

I still have a request to find another wedding ring at Takapuna, but that one i've spent already 2 tides without success as the area too trashy :-( nd it is over ankle deep during low tide.... So it is really hard to grind area :-(

But maybe.. maybe i will find it..
Thanks for stopping by





Friday 21 December 2012

Quadruple gold and long-awaited SILVER Half Crown !

All i can say - i had an absolutely awesome 2 hours at the beach digging old targets,
Its already 0.6 low tide and next low low tide will be only on 12-17 January.
I tried to use my sifter today, but gave up as waves were really high and i couldn't get out chest deep, so was only going up to weist.

Here is the whole lot i got today, just in 2 hours :



Total rings: 6 -Gold :3 ,Silver 1,Junk 2
Coins : My main Achievement is a SILVER HALF CROWN!

- i was waiting for one for over a year now!
Another brass pin, Antique Lipstick that i though was a gunshell, Several buckles, Typical "German Silver" spoons. a pair of "Pilot" sunglasses (made in Italy) and glass didnt get scratched, but frame is busted
Copper bracelet that has  "Mark" engraved, but chain was steel that got clogged in a rust ball- so i had to through it away

I really like the Sward Pin, only copper, but still looking good, might be attribute of the soldier uniform, will do research

And here we come to my Gold finds :


All 3 rings are 9 Carat with total weight of 7.8 gram
Ear ring is 1.07
The locket- i thought it was gold, but seems to be plated brass.

Thanks for reading and stopping by :-)



Tuesday 18 December 2012

4 hours at Mission Bay,Chest deep in water

Heya all,

I am still chasing next gold ring, without much success :-(
Here are all finds for today :


Couple of junk bracelets and other bits and bobs.

Here is good stuff :


* Set of silver hoop earings
* Silver snake lock
* Possible silver charms
* Possible silver Stud (not likely)



Rings :
*Silver with mark "TOTS"
* Silver marked STG
* Silver with 3 different hallmarks : 3 leafed clover with ACS, tank, and ring in square
* Stainless steel

And intact Pistol Bullet !

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Friday- Monday Finds

Heay all,
Semi fortunate lowest tide for me this month - a number of good finds, but no gold ..
Oh well, there is always next time! :-)

Here is a quick Video of Our crazy 4 am outing with Brett (Littlespec) :




And the rest of the finds :


When i scooped the watch - thought it was gold bracelet :-( but turned out to be Seiko Gold plated and busted :-(, i wish they were water proof, then it could have a chance of survival.....

Silver Silxpence 1937 found at night, Silver ear ring found at Kohi

5 Rings in total :

The mustache with eyes ring  - Your argument is Invalid!
Big Chrome-something alloy that rings like silver but it is not - found a number of those
2 Tiny silver heart rings
and the best ring for the week - Nice Silver Men ring with 5 stones

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday 14 December 2012

Thursday 13 December 2012

Another 3 hours at city beach before work

Before it got hot and beachies start asking questions and wasting my time i hit the beach as hard as i can :-)

The results are speak for themself:

 34$ total , Silver pendant on silver chain and heavy silver earring from melted silver,

Pendant:


And the best finds are 2 rings :


 9Ct with 4 real diamonds, about 1.5 grams and 14CT mans band about 4 grams
My time run out due my shift work from 2:30 :-( gonna go tomorrow with sun rise again :-)


Wednesday 12 December 2012

Waiheke Tuesday Trip 11/12/2012

Being a shift worker has it own advantages - for example having a half day in the morning to do what ever i like before starting at 3pm
Thanks to Fullers NZ, operating Ferry trips to Waiheke every hour, it was eay for me to get there and come back

Here is a Short Video with my narration (sorry for low volume as camera is in water prof case):



And here are pictures of the finds (ring on the right is copper): 


The Best finds close up:
5 gram Pendant
7,4 gram Gold ring
Silver shilling and 925 wedding band


I can not read marking on pendant and ring, but if those are only 9 CT - still good finds ! (but comparing to my other 9ct items, these look more like 585 14ct)

Thanks for stopping by!




Sunday 9 December 2012

The Great "CUT" of Waiheke Island

Andrew and I had a long planned Waiheke Trip since August.
All went well :weather and tides  gave us an absolutely Amazing time at the Beach on Saturday. 
I didnt have a chance to do any water detecting as we got following upon arrival to main beach :


Fist 5 targets we all VERY VERY deep on the Clay level of beach, silver 6th pence and some pennies and zero light stuff on top.

the structure of the sand in the cut was following: 

Top : one scoop of light sand  5 sm
Middle : Black sand with rocks - about 20 sm
Bottom of GREEN Clay hard as rock with al targets laying on it under black sand level.

As you can see on the above picture the tide was really close and we had just about 2 hours before water covered the CUT , so we had to return in the evening (9am/9pm tides are awesome)

With absolutely no rubbish targets we hold our hopes for gold, but neither Andrew or Me got any :-(

My lot is about 100 Coins all up with 7 Silvers +1 silver Ring (but where was gold?! )

Before cleaning:



The lot after cleaning :

You can see a number of Predecimal coins there , but some are just over 1946 (Andrew got Lucky and got Hal Crown 1933)
Mine are just a bit older: 

The Ring:

The Brass/copper Pin: 

And the Australian Half Penny for My HP Reward (as a start of coin rewards for Australian coins) :



Grant, Where is all the 800 Gold Items you were talking about!?????
At least i got THAT MUCH just in 4 hours :-)

Thursday 6 December 2012

One year Wrap Up part 1 : Silver coins

Auckland is really really hunted out and most of old parks and other detectable areas are reinstated.
So it is really hard to find a spot that has never been detected or can have some leftovers...

but anyway, here is my lot, the total of 55 silver coins (so miserable to compare with South Island guys who get up to 30 silvers in one day):


I still do not have Half Crown :-( but hopefully will find soon

My Favorite coin of all is Indian Half Rupee 1936 that was found at Mission Bay
I also have 2 Sixpence 1944 that are still shiny as they were just minted - absolutely pristine condition
My last silver coin for a year was munted 1917 Canadian 10 cents

Next part will be Silver Junk and silver Rings :-)

Wednesday 5 December 2012

RIP Garret Pro Pointer


Just a lesson for everyone, i think.
Try not to get it wet, spend some time and even replace and seal the button
Regardless that it is 100% must have product - the design of the button is Crap.
so here are the picture of my broken one (i snapped switch on button as well) but the issue is that it is completely wet and partially corroded inside. The coil part is glued so can not take it out.



Will try out Probe 25 and also will be looking to buy Underwater Vibra Probe for next year

Sunday 18 November 2012

Excal goes Deep Part 3 : River/Mud/Beach and a Broken Scoop

Heya all ,

Lets Start from "the End" - when i almost finished for the weekend... and my Scoop Handle snapped... Again... :-(


No, it is not a bad wood and no it is not small pipe on the scoop - it is MUD and me trying to work fast in the water and putting too much pressure on the handle. I am tall and have to have long handle, hence higher chance to snap it :-(. Next Step - To find 30-31mm Stainless steel Pipe to make handle

But lets get to the good part ! i didnt realize that i found silvers, till i cleaned up mud coin blobs :-)
and that is where i found Shilling & 2 sixpence, where one is 1887 Young Head Queen Victoria! - really happy with that one :-)


Another 2 coins i am very interested in are some copper , 3pence size, that i can not read at all , so i used pencil and paper to get a slip of them ,PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU KNOW WHAT THEY ARE , Please


As you can see one side has Britannia and another just wording...that possibly read Victoria.... PLEASE HELP!

And here is the best of the best for the weekend, that made me and all my friends say :"WOW!!" :


I am gonna test Diamonds tomorrow :-) lets hope they are real.
The Ring was Deep and has years of Mud Patina on it (not as bad as those from Rarotonga- maybe X years in mud, not like XX years in reef)

And all finds together with couple of bullets and 2 other Junk rings i found over the weekend:



Thanks for stopping By, have a nice day and do not forget to invite me for a friendly hunt :-)

Friday 16 November 2012

Excalibur Going Deep part 2 : Mission Bay

Took half Day off yesterday to get to 0.3 tide and spent 3 hours at Mission bay.
I went almost to buoys with Chest deep water (at a low tide, that means with full tide the depth is about 4.5 meters there)

Found total 15 coins, crap pendant, HUGE diver's weight ...
But the Best find of the day is my only second Silver Florin :


It was a very good day, learned beach a bit more...
But the biggest problem there - Clay and Mud, I almost broke my second Scoop handle, as it is a rally REALLY tough work to dig for stuff there :-( every target is like 5 minutes plus .

I've also met Ray and he showed me couple of his Awesome finds from the past...
... Some really cool finds... :-) was really happy and please that Ray shared those with me....


Wednesday 14 November 2012

Etrac 1.5 hours: Test of 12 DD coiltec

Really wanted to test out the coiltec 12 DD coil, so went to Erin point,
While i was Walking towards the park - found flattened Silver Ring :-)

Didnt find much, but 1921 UK sixpence, 1913 Penny, old Belt buckle/broch that was silver plated and a fired bullet that has no impact damage and a Junk Ring that rung 12-07:




Tomorrow will be better :-)

Monday 5 November 2012

Excalibur At Mission Bay: 4.5 Rings

Heya all,

Got a day off today, so decided to go for an early morning hunt.
As low tide was 6 am, i was pretty much running away from tidal water while walking the surf line.

The best find of the day is a nice pearl Silver ring :



And here are the rest 3.5 Rings :

The top 2 are stainless steel , where 1st is not so good quality, but second is marked "SURGICOL STAINLESS STEEL" not my spelling mistake this time, but that what it says on the ring Surgicol .

The Big Gold plated Ring got me really excited when it first popped out of sand... Oh well. next time :-)
And the.5 of  ring is a half of Silver toe ring.

Spent about 4 hours total with a little bit of coins... Nice day and a good exercise :-)

See you all at the beach

Thursday 1 November 2012

Return To Rarotonga :The Story

Heya All, I promised the story with some more pictures of your second Trip to Rarotonga .
Well, lets make it more broad than just my finds, i will cover all details and costs so you understand that it was awesome budget trip with wicked outcome :-)

I am not gona be like a travel agent, here are essential details to know :
Rarotonga  is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 14,153 (census 2006), out of the country's total population of 19,569. It is 32 km (20 miles) in circumference and has an area of 67.19 km² (26 square miles). Flight is 4 Hours from New Zealand Direct Auckland -> Raro
For rest general info refer to Wiki :-)

Here is google maps shot that i will explain :

As the island almost round, we will treat is as a clock for further easier directions. 
The best of the best area is Muri lagoon with several atolls located at 3 to 5pm 
The whole area from 3-9 pm is best for swimming and snorkeling as it has wide reef area and sandy beaches
Where north side has nerrow reef area , rocks and almost no water during low tide ,
High tide is only .7 meters, so it is simply impossible to swim and for the same reason there is no colorful fish you would go after.   



We wanted to stay at the same place were at our FIRST TRIP  butfor the dates we booked flight we were able to get only 4/7 days, so other 2 nights we had to book at Club Raro,being the cheapest at the time .With the night arrival on Friday to saturday night 00:00 am we had to stay there till Monday before we cou ld move to MANEA VILLAS . We ere spending only evening at club raro and both days we were away at proper beach - Muri and other day at Fruits of Rarotonga (deeper place about 2m with lots of fish)
We traveled by Bus that cost 4$ one way or 25$ for 10 trips - recommend to buy it, or you can rent a scooter at 14$+ a day

Here we are, a Raro team :  Elena& Max, Andrew&Ira




Special Thank you to Maryanne at Manea Villas for having us back! your service was perfect as first time and we defo will be coming back :-)

Manea Villas are self contained villas with daily room service.To save on Food (THIS PART IS MOST IMPORTANT READ ON) we took a full suitcase of food per couple .
* you CAN NOT not brings fruits and vegetables to Raro, but you can if its is frozen supermarket sealed packs
* you CAN bring meet/fish/dairy products if they are all factory sealed

So spending about 300$ total in NZ on all general food and some specials - saved us Thousands on restaurant there. As you can see we had restaurant quality meals done our self:




The only  Products we were buying localy are Fresh Bread 5.4$ a loaf and local eggs at 6$ a dozen.
twice we bought Tiptop icecreams 2L containers at 12$ - but that is pretty much it.
All local free yammy treats included Banas/coconuts and Paw paw growing on the Villas' territory :






So General Holiday part was absolutely fantastic! 
Now, lets get to the metal detecting part.





For some of you who looked up tides and noted that its only .7 difference and would think you can detect 24/7.
You can, but with tide coming and going really strong currents flow in the lagoon and it is almost imppossible to sand on feet. Also you can not use sandscoop as all targets go below the light coral sand and settle of reef bed, that is like sponge. so the only way is to free dive and remove sand with your hand till bottom is exposed and take the target out of the pores.

The Ammount of coins in the lagoon is insane! but with the difficulty in water it takes  alot of time and effort to get them.
This time i got almost same amount of coins as i got on my first trip! :-)

Total Coins: 355

Cook Island coins:
5$ * 7
2$* 22
1$*28
---
50C*7
20C*5
10C*7
5C*4
Total 107$ spendable
NZ coins:

2$*52
1$*43
50C*24
20C*40
10C*48
5C*24

Total 147$ spendable


Australia coins total 9 with 6.15$ value

Oldest coin 19XX Uk penny , heaps on 1/2 cent and one Florin 1962 :-(

However i got one silver coin -  3D pence 1946 :-)




The over interesting coin i got was 1974 old rarotongan Dollar! it is massive to compare with current one and olso compare with old biggest nz coin -50cent :

The Other cool items are 2 pair of sunglasses , one of them is POLICE brand with Rrp150$ +



And all the best finds are here : 

The picture speaks for it self with what rings are what :-) 

Thanks for stopping by! See you at the beach !