Harry_Morant
Bronze Member
Do you ever get that nagging doubt that you've left a spot undone. I had that feeling today. For the last twelve months I've been going to a park not far from where I live and have had some great finds - badges, rings, shell casings from the 1880s and about 100 pre-decimal coins dating back to 1822.
Well there was this corner of the park that on the very first day of my searches in this park I decided not to hunt. I went back to this spot today and Woohoo! - I'm very pleased with myself. I had not long started when the coins started to pop out of the ground (at this point I thought about slapping the back of my own head). Anyway I did about an hour and then the battery in my pinpointer died prematurely. I called it quits and headed home as the day was heating up fast.
My best find for the morning was a little pair of metal wings. When I cleaned this up I could see it had old damage but could just make out "BOAC Junior Jet Club". BOAC was a British airways that went out of business in the 70s.
When it cooled down later in the day I went back (with a fresh pinpointer battery)- out popped my fourth florin for the year - I only found one last year. I then got a signal on my detector which was either a 2 cent coin or predecimal silver so I made my normal coin sized hole. My pinpointer buzzed and I went to dig around what I still thought was a coin....."screetch" - damm I scratched it. i then realised it wasn't a coin and carefully extracted the object. It was a cross of heavy brass - in the centre of one side I could just make the roman numerals "XV" - the other side was too encrusted to make out what was on it. I knew that this wasn't something you got out of a cereal box and it was vaguely familiar to me but i didn't know from where.
I was pretty excited and had lots of possibilities running through my mind of what it might be, I must admit that I has to stop myself from heading straight to the car to go home to clean it up. I told myself that I would wait until I found another two items and then I'd go. After about 20 minutes I'd found another coin and a junk ring (the second for the day). The first ring I'd found was a ground down large nut - a schoolboys pride possession no doubt. In the photo's I've added a US Quarter so you can compare the size with some of the coins I found.
When I got home I cleaned up the medal which had a crown in the centre on the other side. After about half an hour of research I think I have worked out what it is - an pre-1918 Imperial Austrian/German 15 year long service medal. The mind boggles at what its doing buried in a park in Australia (Australia not Austria
). Who knows, it might have been brought back from WW1 and taken to the park by the soldiers children.
All up a great day which just reinforces why I love this hobby - you never know what you'll find!
Well there was this corner of the park that on the very first day of my searches in this park I decided not to hunt. I went back to this spot today and Woohoo! - I'm very pleased with myself. I had not long started when the coins started to pop out of the ground (at this point I thought about slapping the back of my own head). Anyway I did about an hour and then the battery in my pinpointer died prematurely. I called it quits and headed home as the day was heating up fast.
My best find for the morning was a little pair of metal wings. When I cleaned this up I could see it had old damage but could just make out "BOAC Junior Jet Club". BOAC was a British airways that went out of business in the 70s.
When it cooled down later in the day I went back (with a fresh pinpointer battery)- out popped my fourth florin for the year - I only found one last year. I then got a signal on my detector which was either a 2 cent coin or predecimal silver so I made my normal coin sized hole. My pinpointer buzzed and I went to dig around what I still thought was a coin....."screetch" - damm I scratched it. i then realised it wasn't a coin and carefully extracted the object. It was a cross of heavy brass - in the centre of one side I could just make the roman numerals "XV" - the other side was too encrusted to make out what was on it. I knew that this wasn't something you got out of a cereal box and it was vaguely familiar to me but i didn't know from where.
I was pretty excited and had lots of possibilities running through my mind of what it might be, I must admit that I has to stop myself from heading straight to the car to go home to clean it up. I told myself that I would wait until I found another two items and then I'd go. After about 20 minutes I'd found another coin and a junk ring (the second for the day). The first ring I'd found was a ground down large nut - a schoolboys pride possession no doubt. In the photo's I've added a US Quarter so you can compare the size with some of the coins I found.
When I got home I cleaned up the medal which had a crown in the centre on the other side. After about half an hour of research I think I have worked out what it is - an pre-1918 Imperial Austrian/German 15 year long service medal. The mind boggles at what its doing buried in a park in Australia (Australia not Austria
). Who knows, it might have been brought back from WW1 and taken to the park by the soldiers children.All up a great day which just reinforces why I love this hobby - you never know what you'll find!
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