2020 finds for pulsetrain

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pulsetrain

Paul
Joined
Oct 29, 2020
Messages
37
Reaction score
164
Location
Melbourne, VIC
Hi all, thought I'd create a late thread for 2020 beach finds.

Still a great year considering the lockdowns.

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Great to get out for my first hunt since the covid lockdown restrictions were lifted.

Sand levels were high, zero targets and took about an hour to find a low spot with a couple of deep 5 cent coins.
Clay was at about 40cm, measured when finding the florin.

The spot was perfect for the TDI, with the 5 cent coins probably being just out of reach of the VLF brigades that frequently hit that beach.

All the boxes getting ticked, slowed right down and adjusted the pulse delay and swing speed to get max depth from the TDI.

The bullets were fairly obvious but even deeper at just whispers were the two gold rings.
The thin one looks like low carat gold < 9ct with high silver content corroding off the surface. Probably a "brummy" ring as mentioned on the trove website.

The larger one is an older silver topped ring, I believe these were common up until about the 1930s before jewellers started to use white gold. They are frustrating rings to find as the white metal setting was usually used to show off a diamond. Nearly every time they are a heartbreaker find with the silver corroded off and leaves you wondering what kind of stone was lost.

The condition is amazing. No wear on the thickness, no scratches and only a couple of miniscule dings on one edge. If it weren't for the missing setting you would think it was brand new from the jeweller. It had to have been lost when new.

It has very interesting hallmarks which I'm just finishing up some research to add to this post. My guess is it has been sitting underwater for around 120 years.

pt

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Dave law said:
So did you try to find the owners? Nice haul all the same. Cheers.

Hi Dave, I always try to find the owners and don't hunt strictly for monetary gain (besides going to a park for a goldie topup).

Most of the owners of these rings are likely to have passed away a long time ago.
Two are dated in the 1930's, another two have hallmarks from the 1800's and the rest no inscriptions but are probably from the early 1900's.
These are the types of rings I target and to be honest don't have much interest in grabbing something someone just dropped.

Only the square ring looks 1970's but unfortunately no inscription.

I do research all rings I find and wouldn't hesitate to return someone else's property as I have done in the past.

pt
 
The hallmarks on this ring were a bit of a mystery.
It was fairly easy to track down the jeweller who made the ring. His name was Charles Alfred Horne and ran a watchmaking / jewellery shop in Gawler South Australia.

The confusing part is what appears to be assay marks showing that the ring was assayed in a town in S.A. Also surprising is how the ring ended up at a Melbourne beach.

After a long search I was unable to find any examples of other jewellery or items hallmarked in Gawler.
I wondered if Charles Horne stamped the assay marks himself until I came across a trove article showing there was an amateur assay club in 1888 which later became the Gawler School of Mines in 1893.

The location of Mr Horne's shop was right next door from 1892 to 1900 (there are conflicting articles showing the business was there a bit longer), and I'm guessing he probably dropped in to get his jewellery stamped.

I might send off an email to the Gawler historical society to see if my theory is correct. Probably some mistakes in my research but would be awesome if it was assayed at such a historical office (and probably quite rare).

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original post office, telegraph station and school of mines buildings.
Charles Horne had a shop adjoining the old post office
 
Thanks guys, only a couple more posts till I get access to the like button.

Clodmaster I agree, doing the research at least half the fun of detecting.
 
I went back to the spot where the Gawler ring was found.
Just to check if sand levels had lowered.

Not much to this hunt, only the predecs and sinkers giving a hint that it was worth keeping an eye on this spot.

1 x florin
2 x brittania pennies
1 x halfpenny
1 x threepence
2 x 2c
$1.05 for the tumbler

one brass ring 9.9grams, sure felt like gold in the dark

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Looks like a nice old button there too. What year is the florin?

Can see how that brass ring would have got you going.
 
Clodmaster said:
Looks like a nice old button there too. What year is the florin?

Can see how that brass ring would have got you going.

It was dated 1947.
I seem to find a lot of the 1946/47 florins, probably more than any other years.

Just checked the mintage numbers and 46/47 was a lot higher than other years.
Strange never really thought about why until now.
 
Went back to the same spot and noticed the seafloor was muddy colour.

Seen this a few times before at this beach and knew it was going to be good.
Most of the sand had been stripped leaving the clay bare.

5 Predecimals (4 silver)
1 Junker Pandora lookalike ring
9ct ring (Rodd)
18ct / Palladium / Platinum ring

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Never found a ring with gold + palladium + platinum hallmarks before.
Not sure which part is platinum and which part is palladium. Fortunately the prongs were made of metal strong enough to hold the diamonds.

Looks like it's about 1930s, which seems about right for how far it was down. Wasn't easy to get out and I have snapped a few scoops before in deep clay so took my time and chipped away till it was in the scoop.

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Stunning ring in the daylight. The white metal does a good job reflecting all flashes from the diamonds.

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Apologies for ramming all these posts in at once, was a bit short of time this week to keep up with things.

Awesome total for this week finding the final 4th gold ring in that spot before the sand returned.

This one was actually sitting on top of the clay which I thought was a bit strange for it's art deco look. Got the heart pounding when I saw that lovely 18ct colour.
I was expecting it to date around the 1920's but an inscription inside the ring puts it in the mid 1960's.
It's a long shot for a ring return, only first names mentioned.

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