Full Metal Detecting

Quick Hunt, Like The Speed Of The Wind

2011-07-19T05:51:00.000-07:00

Been over a month since my last hunt, been itching to get out there, that being said, took this hunt pretty easy, only dug about 6 holes.

Found 2 bucks, a spoon and an old toy car. After doing a little bit of research it looks as if the car is a Dinky toy, modeled after the Speed Of The Wind car from the 1930s.

Speed Of The Wind Dinky Toy Car.

Valarium Silver Spoon

Three Months Metal Detecting Finds

2011-05-23T19:40:00.000-07:00

Haven't been able to get out so I made a video showing my finds over the 3 months I've been metal detecting, mostly out of frustration, but it's nice to recap.

Awesome Day Metal Detecting, 2 Silver Rings And Our Oldest Coin Yet

2011-05-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

Had a great day at the fields we've been detecting, the weather was a bit iffy but it held out. We actually did a bit of reconnaissance over the weekend, scoping out where people gather, it seemed to help out our metal detecting efforts enormously finding two silver rings and our oldest coin so far as well as a few other older coins and some spendable cash.

Best I can tell the stone could be a pink star sapphire, it's a beautiful little thing with the way light reacts to it, need to go have a look at a jewelry store and learn me a thing or two about bling.

We had a lady come up to us wondering if we may have found her husbands ring, she described it and we hadn't, she smiled and went on her way. I wasn't prepared for this, I should have gotten her details because chances are we may find that ring. So next time I'm gonna have pen and paper ready.

Oh, before I go, check out my image gallery, thought it would be a nicer way to view the photos, I got them categorized nicely to.

Finds.

925 Silver ring with what could be a Pink Star Sapphire.

925 Munted silver ring.

The 2 silver rings.

Old lighter.

Ronson Whirlwind Lighter.

1952 New Zealand Half Penny.

1905 British Penny.

Ilco Australia Key.

Three Days Worth of Hunting

2011-05-05T03:23:00.000-07:00

We probably did 10 hours worth of hunting over those three days, most of which was at the large sports field. Our best finds were the two pieces of jewelry, our first ever, a silver pin and a junk ring.

Not quite sure what to do with the silver pin, I don't think it's worth much, but I guess it could be easy to find the owner, what would you guys do?

We found loads of the old decimal coinage, me jars getting pretty full now, found it strange that we found no pre-decimals at all, I'm guessing the field may have been hunted out back in the day, though we really didn't cover much and passed on a lot of targets, the place was full of junk.

I'm hoping to get back to my secret spot very soon, seemed to be nothing but old coins and $$$, the parks right next to a little row of shops, I think that's what's making it so good for coins.

Three Days Worth of Finds.

Silver Pin With Maybe a Gem and Alisa Written on it.

Sterling Silver Pin.

Copper Ring Maybe With A Few Stones.

Three Toy Cars.

A Day At The Park Metal Detecting

2011-04-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

Spent the other day at a local park metal detecting and it was probably the best hunt I've been on so far, mostly because it was just a great day at a park, the finds weren't so great. I went about midday and was expecting the park to be busy and it was, I drew a lot of attention with the strange looking machine dangling from my arm, all feedback was positive and full of interest.

It was my best coin day so far, most I've found on one hunt, though nothing to write home about. I'm a little concerned that I'm not finding a lot of the smaller pre-decimals, they're either not there, which is fine or the F2 is not picking them up, guess I just have to do some more testing.

The first 4 photos below are from my backyard, the toy handcuffs are my favorite non-coin find so far, the rest are finds from the park.

Toy Handcuffs.

Toy handcuffs, Crescent Toy Co, Made In Gt Britain.

Nickel Silver Fork.

My First Watch.

1952 New Zealand Penny.

1950 New Zealand Penny.

1959 New Zealand Penny.

1947 New Zealand Half Penny.

1939? British Half Penny.

Munted 1962? New Zealand Half Penny.

Pennies, Silver Plate and a Bottle

2011-04-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

Haven't been out much, the weather's been pretty shite, though I think my latest finds will keep me pretty satisfied for awhile, just nice to find some older coins in my backyard.

One thing I didn't expect when beginning this game was the amount of cutlery I would find, most of it's been silver plate as well, but it would be very nice to find some sterling.

I'm pretty chuffed with the little bottle I found as well, it's kind of perked my interest in bottles now, though I really can't seem to find anything about it, don't think it's very old, but it would be cool to know what it was used for.

I really don't know when I'll be back out, though if the circumstances arise I'm really keen to get back to the beach, so hopefully my next video will be from there.

1920 British Penny Reverse.

1920 British Penny Obverse.

1954 New Zealand Penny Reverse.

1954 New Zealand Penny Obverse.

1941 New Zealand Half Penny Reverse.

1941 New Zealand Half Penny Obverse.

1958 New Zealand Half Penny Reverse.

1958 New Zealand Half Penny Obverse.

1935? British Half Penny Reverse.

1935? British Half Penny Obverse.

Insignia Plate E.P.N.S A1 WP Handle.

Small Nondescript Bottle, anyone know what it was used for?

Silver Sixpence and Half Crowns at the Beach

2011-03-31T03:12:00.000-07:00

Had another great hunt at the beach today, got my first silvers with the F2. We picked up where we left off in the last video and detected along a corroding bank that seemed to be releasing it's lost treasure.

1933 NZ Sixpence.

1934 NZ Half Crown.

Bullets and Cash at the Beach

2011-03-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

One of my best days out metal detecting, we were hunting at a busy entrance to this beach. I decided to hunt with sensitivity at 4 and 5 bars on the Fisher F2 and it seemed to make a world of difference in identifying targets, I had been using low sensitivity based on a few things I had read online about hunting at the beach, turns out you shouldn't believe everything you read.

$10 bucks in Cash.

Boswell, Hatfield & Co. LTD, Mary St Sheffield, Firth Stanless Knife.

Couple Bullet Shells.

EPNS Spoon.

A Few Firsts While Metal Detecting

2011-03-26T03:50:00.000-07:00

Got my first threepence and British penny on this hunt as well as a Fijian 5 cent piece, the penny is my oldest coin so far at 1917.

1917 British penny, I think.

1961 Threepence.

Fijian 5 Cent.

Got these on my latest hunt which resulted in a lot of junk, no coins and I haven't been able to find much information on the spoon and key pictured below, by the way that's my first key ever.

E&A S NS Spoon.

Pilot with ship's wheel.

Omega Metal MFG CO. LTD.

Testing The Fisher F2 With 4" Coil With New Zealand Coins

2011-03-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd film myself testing out some New Zealand coins with the Fisher F2, didn't realize it at the time but it's kind of hard to see the screen on the F2 due to glare. I'll probably get to doing a test with the 8" coil at some point.

Can't help but feel I've missed out on some finds by using low sensitivity and the 4" coil, but I'll probably go over the yard again with the 8" using different settings, I guess I will have gotten rid of a lot of shallow finds so maybe I'll be digging less holes, only deeper.

Tested a New Zealand Threepence, Sixpence, Shilling, Penny and a 1 and 2 dollar coin.

Got a hunt video coming up where I find a few firsts for me, plus my oldest coin so far.

A Hand Full Of Coins And Some Junk

2011-03-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

Got out for a quick backyard hunt this past Sunday, nothing to exciting, but I'm glad I'm finding a lot of coins. I'm really starting to get a feel for the Fisher F2, I'm almost at the point where I feel I can pass on a target based on the LCD and sound, getting a little tired of digging milk caps.

New Zealand 1 and 2 cent Pieces.

Australian and New Zealand 20 cent pieces.

New Zealand 5 cent piece.

My Second Halfpenny and a Little About the Cameras I Use

2011-03-20T03:50:00.000-07:00

My most interesting find was my second halfpenny, everything else was mostly scrap.

I shot this video using my Sony HD Camcorder, which results in very clear footage but it's very cumbersome to use, my previous videos were filmed with a Flip Mino, great get-up and go camera, but it's not very good for close-ups

I guess I just have to get better at using the equipment.

Metal Detecting Finds For The Day, Mostly Junk

2011-03-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

Managed to get out for a quick hunt, no video this time, just a photo of my finds. Mostly junk, no coins but I did manage to get another milk token. Hopefully after a good clean I'll find some branding on the objects, love researching that stuff.

Metal Detecting Milk Tokens and Half Pennies

2011-03-08T22:59:00.000-08:00

I managed to get out for a quick hunt, it had been raining a little lately and I've got to say the rain has made digging a whole lot easier, plugs come out clean and the lawn doesn't end up dusty.

I found a 1965 British Half Penny, which I guess is my first foreign coin, and my most interesting find was an old milk token from Upper Hutt, Zone 40, which was once good for one pint. I first thought it had something to do with a pub, I don't equate pints with milk, it's what I ask for when I want a beer.

I suspect my lawn has many more hidden and interesting artifacts for the finding, can't wait to get out again tomorrow.

My Second Metal Detecting Video And Photos Of My Finds

2011-03-02T18:59:00.001-08:00

I really haven't been out in public much with my metal detector, I've been doing a lot of detecting in my backyard and finding quite a lot of varied items. I'm only about 1/5th the way through and there's a few junkier areas I haven't tried yet so that should be fun.

Below is a few pictures of most of my finds, I'm surprised at how many 1 and 2 cent pieces I'm finding, though they did mint a heck of a lot back in the day.

Some of the junk I've been finding.

Various coins, mostly 1 and 2 cent pieces.

My first spoon.

Grosvenor Plate EPNS A1, Electroplated Nickle Silver spoon.

Mount for a rear view mirror, wish I knew for what kind of car.

Patent number brings no joy.

Bronco toy gun, I remember having one of these when I was younger.

Ipana Toothpaste, I can't remember this stuff at all, best I could find is that it lost out to the competition in the early 70's, not sure when they stopped making it in New Zealand though, apparently it's still sold in Turkey.

My thoughts go out to the people of Christchurch

2011-02-22T01:08:00.000-08:00

I really can't put into words how I feel, terrible day for New Zealand.

Help those affected by the Canterbury earthquake, information about how you can make a donation can be found at the following sites.

Redcross.org.nz
Salvationarmy.org.nz
Anz.co.nz

I'm sure most banks will be accepting donations as well.

Diving For Paua, Ended Up Finding Treasure

2011-02-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

Me and my brother went for a dive for Paua yesterday, we go quite often and usually find a lot of stuff floating about, especially knives. Yesterday I found a nice pair of goggles and my brother found a watch drifting along the bottom. We got just one legal sized Paua before a bloody stingray decided to swim with us and scare us outta the water, thing was huge.

Well, fast forward to home and a quick search on the net, turns out the watch is worth $400 new, score!!!

My First Metal Detecting Video

2011-02-20T03:44:00.000-08:00

Hopefully this is the first of many videos to come, actually pretty tricky recording with all the gear I'm using. This was actually quite a small hunt, a 1x2 metre patch of dirt in my back yard, but it took forever, I dug every target I found, including a very large pipe which I don't show in the video.

Hopefully I get better at recording and I'll catch you all on the flip side.

Welcome to Coin Shooting Kiwi

2011-02-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Coin Shooting Kiwi, my blog about metal detecting in New Zealand. I'm brand spanking new to this game, in fact, I only just received my first metal detector a few days ago, the Fisher F2 which I purchased online from Kellyco Metal Detectors.

I got the 2 coil kit with pinpointer which cost me about $415 NZD including postage and packaging. It arrived pretty fast by way of Miami, about 11 days to get it to my door.

At the moment I'm in the learning stages, I've found digging to be the most difficult part of the operation, a close second is the attention metal detecting attracts while out in public, seems like every other person has a comment to make, though it's all been positive.

Anyway, time to get out there, I'll get back to y'all when I have some videos and photos.