Help - General Info

[aloysius]

Hi guys.
Visit the forum a lot, but as I'm from NZ, a few things still mystify me! What in the heck is a wheatie? Is it a one cent coin? Secondly, in what year did the US cease minting silver coins? And lastly (at this point), I picked up a seated liberty (at least that's what I've figured it is) in a second hand shop. Cost me a dollar, but what caught my eye, is that it had a hole and circlet so it could be worn around the neck. I can just make out the date - 1858. Is it worth anything? Or just the dollar I paid! lol.
PS, I occasionally hunt at our local beach here in Dunedin in the South Island with a Minelab 2000. Have found a couple of quarters, and also US Marine dog tag which I'll have to get around to returning somehow. Any ideas?
Cheers from down under

Rick.

 

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[jeff of pa]

A Wheatie ; A Lincoln cent , minted between 1909 & 1958, with Wheat Leaves on the Back.

Silver ; 1964 Last Year for .900 Silver Coins

1858 Seated Liberty, What ?? ? ? ? ? ? ?A seated Dime ? that's probably about right Considering there is a hole in it.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?If it's a Quarter or Higher, the Silver Value alone would be more then a Dollar.

HAPPY HUNTING ; jeff

 

[rasrandy]

Rick,post a pic of your silver and dog tag.Imsure someone here can help u with those.Glad to have u here...interested in what u find there in n.z. Randy

 

[Emperor Findus Cladius]

Unless the dog tag is old, I would not worry about trying to return it. I spent 20 years in the USMC, and when I lost a dog tag I just got another made at our admin office. I know whoever lost it got another made relatively quick as they are required to be displayed at the frequent wall locker inspections we had.

 

[Kent in AL]

Pics of a wheat cent (wheatie, wheatback, wheat penny).

 

[dudes2112]

I would try to find the owner of the dog tags you just never know. We have a little newsletter we get every month at work and there was a story in it this last time about a lady I work with who lost her uncle in the battle at Normandy. The body was sent back but this lady's dad was never 100% sure that the body was his brother. He was a little in denial I guess and always thought his brother would some day come home, he never did. A few months ago, a lady walking on the beach found the dog tags and somehow, through the internet, returned them to this lady who was very excited to get them.

Dudes

 

[vwayne1]

Doesn't sound like his seated coin has a hole in it, to me. He said a hole and circlet was on the coin. Sounds like a coin bezel for mounting on necklace. The bezel might even be silver or gold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rvbvetter]

aloysius; Great to have you here. Keep us up to date on your finds. What forum or site do you favor there? I would like to check it out. HH

 

[aloysius]

Many thanks for all those replies guys! I'll try and cover all the questions in return.The coin is a dime with a small hole in it to which the circlet is attached, therefore a necklace pendant.
I tend to frequent the gold prospecting forums; one of which is Doc Louissignont's.- Yank-Aussie gold forum. Another one is Finders, based in Australia.
I will try to get the original dog tag back to the owner (have to relocate it as I've been in the midst of house renovations! lol) The owner might appreciate that, I think.
Can't post pics unfortunately, as I have no digital camera and am somewhat of a technophobe, but hopefully one day I'll get over it!
I don't get out to the beach much, as I live below the 45th parallel, and the water is a bit cool most of the year for swimming. However, a couple of years ago there was a huge cut that kept working for about three months. In that time (and I tried to get down as often as possible) it was a poor couple of hours if I didn't get a hundred coins and at least one ring if not two. Absolutely brilliant stuff! One particular evening, the tide was in, and I just put detector away and tried to jump down between waves and grab what I could! One beauty earing and a silver ring in that lot. It was amazing (and frustrating!) to see coins roll away into the surf!!!! I hate to think how many goodies are still buried beneath tonnes of sand!
The only valuable stones I haven't found in a ring so far, is emerald and opal. The best men's gold was a chunky 9ct, 8 grammer, which just happens to fit perfectly!!!!
To date, I stopped counting at 5000 coins and 50 good rings. The rest were what you call 'nut'
Well, I've waffled on enough: Great to finally make contact, and I shall keep looking in.
Cheers guys (and gals!)

Rick.

 

[paratrooper]

That area was rife with Marines during WW2 . They fought the Japs at Port Moresby . Australia was a popular rest stop as well as a hospital site for more serious cases . With a little research you could find out what units were there . Then go to their web site and look for the guy . A friend of mine said they will give you all the info they have for the Marine . Of course that might be an address from 1941 . Good luck .

 

[Darod]

Aloysius,

I loved the story of the beach cut! Could you expand on that story and tell us what kind of coins you were finding? US? or what?

If you have a scanner you can scan the coins and rings pretty easy. This way you don't have to worry about getting a camera and learning that device!

Most of the scanners have very simply software, pretty much fully automatic scanning and saving of images to your desktop or another folder on your PC. If you don't have a scanner you can purchase an "all in one" printer, copier, fax, scanner, card reader type unit that would cost in the neighborhood of $150 and be MORE than capable for what your going to use it for.

This way you'd have a new printer and could make copies of pages as well as scanning images etc.

Just food for thought.

Anyway, I did like the story of the beach cut and would like to hear more details on that one if you get the time.

I think everyone else has covered your questions on the coins (wheatie, silver, etc.) so I'll just let that be.

Thanks for posting here and talk at ya soon!

Rod

 

[BULL]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[JARMAN]

Welcome Rick, that was my question to as to what age the dog tag is.Lots of U.S. troops in the area ?as P-Trooper said.HH

 

[aloysius]

Hi there Rod (et al!)
Biit more detail on the big beach cut. Must have been in the Winter of '03, and hadn't been to the beach for quite a while, but happened to take my faithful labrador for a walk. Lo and behold, what met my eyes was a cut of 8 to 10 feet! Have never seen it before or since. It was right in front of the St Clair surf club, where everybody sits in summer. "Wow, oh golly gosh, gee whiz" might have been the words I used if I'd thought of them, but lets say my heart pounded, and other words might have escaped my lips! lol. If only I'd been there when the whole thing started, but never mind! Occasionally I'd go down before work, but more often after and detect for 2 to 3 hours. The vast majority of coins and rings were found in the first 6 to 10 feet out from the cut so I suspect that they were coming out of the dune as it it was collapsing with each successive tide. Naturally there were zillions of one and two cent pieces, and it was not uncommon in spots, to have 3, 4 or 5 coins in one little patch. I made it a habit to go over these spots several times just to get them all. There were relatively few pulltabs, as they are lighter and I'd say they'd get washed out quite easily.

What did intrigue me was, about 100 feet to the South from the club, I got an increasing percentage of pre-decimal currency. Perhaps this was the more common area to relax and swim in the early days. This was great because of the higher percentage of silver coins. NZ, Australia and I believe England ceased minting silver coinage in 1947, so any dates before that- YAHOO!

One fascinating find I initially couldn't figure. I detected this 'stuff' in a round shape. Looked at it, and put it in my pocket to take a closer look at home. Still couldn't ascertain what it was - until it dried out a bit! Then I could see that the 'stuff' was leather with stitching around the edge. "Wow" I thought, might have something here! I undid the stitching to get into what was a little pouch and inside were 4 chinese or oriental coins of some sort. Two were a gold colour! BUT just brass unfortunately. Apparently, these can be given as some sort of good luck charm and was a most interesting find.

Oh, by the way I usually use a 10' elliptical on my modified SD2000, as it's quite sensitive to smalll coins and rings. I believe you call the same coil a 'Joey' I also have a 15" ellptical as well, but it's less used, as there's a heck of a lot of digging involved! I never use scoops as you do, but a cut-down garden hoe, or a small shovel.

That'll do for now, but I will relate a couple of stories in the next few days if you can bear with me.

(Have to give that scanner idea some thought!) Will rings show up ok on it?)

Cheers,
Rick.