Harry_Morant
Bronze Member
Earlier in the week I went to a park I've been keeping my eye on and posted up the shiney threepence and a few Australian pennies that I had found promising that I would be back this weekend.
Saturday morning I went out and was soon greeted by a drunk still with his bottle of beer and not long after another guy (about 40ish) who asked me how I was going. Forgetting one of the cardinal rules I keep telling myself, I said that I'd found a few old coins - "Great!" he says, "I detect too". Doh! - I don't think he too much of a threat though as he was talking about his mum buying a $10000 detector (is there such a thing?) and he didn't know that you could tell the type of coin by the number that comes up on the readout. I got the feeling he had something pretty old and basic so hopefully I can cover a lot of ground before he decides to give it a go.
Over the last two days I've probably spent 3.5 hours finding some modern coins, old pennies and half pennies and a few bits and pieces. I had no idea just what I had until I started cleaning them up this afternoon and I can tell you I'm one very happy camper.
Some nice and unexpected finds were a brooch and a brass shield that looked to be hand stamped.
The first coin I cleaned up a little turned out to be an English penny (pre- 1911 all our currency was from Great Britain). It turned out to be a Queen Victoria Penny from 1867. This was the oldest coin I'd found by 44 years so it was smiles all round.
A few of the coins are really badly worn so I could only tell what they were by wetting them and getting the light at the right angle. I soon found I also had a 1902 Queen Victoria Penny, a 1921 George V silver threepence, a 1950 George VI Half Penny, A 1955 Queen Elizabeth Penny.
That left me with one mystery coin. It was a little larger and heavier than the other pennies. After a lot of gentle cleaning, wetting, squinting and lighting I could make out GEORGIUS and a head on one side and a very faint large crown and the letter B E R on the other. I looked up the web and a book I had and couldn't find any matches from Great Britain. I weighed it (16.2g) and that didn't match any English coins either. A little more gentle cleaning etc etc and I could just make out a shield shape below the crown with some diagonal lines. When I saw that it reminded my of Ireland for some reason (I now remember that the Irish Harp is on the Guiness label). I looked up my reference book and there it was with the crown and harp.
The B E R was for HIBERNIA (Ireland) and I found that my coin was an Irish 1822 George IV Penny which were only minted in 1822-23. Talk about bouncing off the walls - I couldn't stop smiling. Family though I was nuts
I'm going back tomorrow!
Finds:
1822 George IV Irish Penny
1867 Victoria Penny
1902 Victoria Penny
1921 George V Threepence
1950 George VI Half Penny
1955 Elizabeth II Penny
10 x Decimal 1c
5 x decimal 2c
1 x decimal 20c
1 x decimal $2
Saturday morning I went out and was soon greeted by a drunk still with his bottle of beer and not long after another guy (about 40ish) who asked me how I was going. Forgetting one of the cardinal rules I keep telling myself, I said that I'd found a few old coins - "Great!" he says, "I detect too". Doh! - I don't think he too much of a threat though as he was talking about his mum buying a $10000 detector (is there such a thing?) and he didn't know that you could tell the type of coin by the number that comes up on the readout. I got the feeling he had something pretty old and basic so hopefully I can cover a lot of ground before he decides to give it a go.
Over the last two days I've probably spent 3.5 hours finding some modern coins, old pennies and half pennies and a few bits and pieces. I had no idea just what I had until I started cleaning them up this afternoon and I can tell you I'm one very happy camper.
Some nice and unexpected finds were a brooch and a brass shield that looked to be hand stamped.
The first coin I cleaned up a little turned out to be an English penny (pre- 1911 all our currency was from Great Britain). It turned out to be a Queen Victoria Penny from 1867. This was the oldest coin I'd found by 44 years so it was smiles all round.
A few of the coins are really badly worn so I could only tell what they were by wetting them and getting the light at the right angle. I soon found I also had a 1902 Queen Victoria Penny, a 1921 George V silver threepence, a 1950 George VI Half Penny, A 1955 Queen Elizabeth Penny.
That left me with one mystery coin. It was a little larger and heavier than the other pennies. After a lot of gentle cleaning, wetting, squinting and lighting I could make out GEORGIUS and a head on one side and a very faint large crown and the letter B E R on the other. I looked up the web and a book I had and couldn't find any matches from Great Britain. I weighed it (16.2g) and that didn't match any English coins either. A little more gentle cleaning etc etc and I could just make out a shield shape below the crown with some diagonal lines. When I saw that it reminded my of Ireland for some reason (I now remember that the Irish Harp is on the Guiness label). I looked up my reference book and there it was with the crown and harp.
The B E R was for HIBERNIA (Ireland) and I found that my coin was an Irish 1822 George IV Penny which were only minted in 1822-23. Talk about bouncing off the walls - I couldn't stop smiling. Family though I was nuts
I'm going back tomorrow!
Finds:
1822 George IV Irish Penny
1867 Victoria Penny
1902 Victoria Penny
1921 George V Threepence
1950 George VI Half Penny
1955 Elizabeth II Penny
10 x Decimal 1c
5 x decimal 2c
1 x decimal 20c
1 x decimal $2
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