Metal detecting in Dunedin

A very good day out hunting

I didn't get the chance to go out detecting on the weekend, but if you are self-employed, if the workload allows it, AND if the weather is fine, it is obviously the right time to go out detecting for a couple of hours, regardless of the fact that it is only Wednesday.

I went back to Bethune's Gully today, an area that has been very kind to me in the past, although I've done all the accessible parts to death. Today I decided to tackle a very steep part of the site and wasn't disappointed when I found this tiny watch-winder within the first ten minutes or so.

About twenty minutes later I turned up an old two-cent piece and on re-checking the hole, found a one-cent piece to join it. I don't get many coins spills so I was pleased enough with that result.

Shortly thereafter I found this Victorian halfpenny, so now at last, I was properly into the pre-decimal range.

The date is mostly illegible, this coin is in bad shape, but the last figure is certainly a nine, and the previous one looks like it might be seven, so probably 1879. Even if my imagination is running riot, it has to be either 1869, 1879, or 1889.

Following various tracks, past and current, higher up the hill through the pine plantation I finally got another good signal and turned up a shiny metal clasp. Since it looked like part of a purse I was quick to re-check the hole. In the hole was the other part of the clasp which came out with a bit of leather still attached.

The pinpointer told me there was still more to come, and I quickly recovered a florin, two shillings and a sixpence, all Victorian with dates ranging from 1890 for the sixpence, to 1900 for one of the shillings. Whoever lost this coin purse must have been really pissed off I'd say. The only shame is they didn't think to leave me a sovereign as well while they were at it to go with all the sterling silver!

That was certainly the highlight of the day, I'd never found a Victorian coin with a face value higher than a sixpence before, nor had I found four silvers in one day very often, if at all.

I did gather up an old twenty-cent piece a few metres further along the track, and then a current issue ten-cent piece on the way back down to the carpark.

All in all, a good couple of hours, and I think I only have one beer cap, one nail, one piece of wire and two scraps of foil in the junk pouch.