After a while...

[Pilsner]

After some weeks without getting out due to an injury, I'm starting slowly to use my leg - walking with a metal detector is a good exercise
I found a park, where due to its location I didn't expect to find much, however two 2,5 hour visits proved me wrong.

Two weeks ago I found 7 predecimal coins:
5x roo penny (1950, 1952, 1955, 1963, 1964)
1x roo half penny (1943)
and a highlight of that hunt was a sixpence from a key year 1918, unfortunately not in very good condition, but I'm always thankful for such finds.

Today morning I managed to find another 13 predecimals:
3x roo penny (1942, 1945, 1949)
3x George penny (1921, 1933, 1932)
3x roo half penny (1943, 1953, ?)
3x George half penny (1926, 1935, 1936)
(interesting distribution)
1x shilling (1943)
and "The intermediate star" medallion (Australian royal life saving society)

The park is like a detectorist's heaven Very little trash, almost all beeps are desired targets, so I was able to use a bigger coil today to cover a bit more ground. Still some places waiting and hiding their treasures, so I probably will come back, but there are so many (other) places and so little time

I'm happy to be back. Good luck to everyone.

 

[ashhhhh]

Good haul there mate!

 

[TTKooAu]

Very nice hits Pilsner, you got my birth year 1955, nice one :lol:

 

[cmark]

Great haul pilsner.

So little time and so so many places to dig....I hear yah

Daylight savings kicks in shortly, more daylight for detecting (I think?)

 

[silver]

definitely a good feeling to be able to get out and dig as a feel good, even better when those finds are happening, well done on the silvers Pilsner. And without daylight saving in QLD cmark I can get out at 4.am in summer when everyone else is still fast asleep, and dig till my hearts content without anyone even saying boo let alone good morning,....Mrs still fast asleep by the time I sneak back home too(haha).

 

[cmark]

Yep, gotta luv DST if live in new south and swinging over the QLD border

 

[cmark]

Yep, gotta luv DST if living in new south and swinging over the QLD border

 

[Pilsner]

The same park, another 3,5 hours hunt = 28 pre-decimals! However just one silver.
This time I went slowly to cover just one part of the park properly.
Definitely more coins than junk, impressive. Some coins are in pretty good nick, some are in usual conditions

13x roo penny (19-39,41,41,42,43,44,44,45,45,47,51,51,52)
5x George penny (1913, 1917, 1920, 1921, 1935)
7x roo half penny (19-46,49,49,49,52,60, ?)
2x George half penny (1916, 1926)
1x three pence (1951)

Just for the record:
11x 2c
8x 1c
2x $2
1x $1
1x 20c

Two coins are still unknown to me, neither of them is Australian. The bigger one will be difficult to identify, there is not much readable on the coin.

Still plenty of ground to cover properly, so I'll be back

All in all, excellent morning, nice weather, now preparing the BBQ for afternoon
Have a good day, guys.

 

[Jaros]

Looks like a 1941 threepence??

 

[Pilsner]

Yeah, but this is not Australian one, still don't know which country, however it should be a commonwealth country I guess based on the name and head.

 

[Goldpick]

It's british, not sure about the other coin, nice work.

 

[loamer]

 

[slipped disc]

good pre-dec site, but odd about the number of pennys and halfs. mbe kids losing their pocket money running around the park and climbing trees etc. worth griding the area. I often do a site fairly quickly and go back over for a quick check. buggered how I missed some targets, sure I covered that spot, but coming back over it in another direction mbe.

 

[Pilsner]

Yes, that's the one, thanks guys.

Even if I go slowly, I know I go over some targets, if I think they are junk (and they usually are, but not always...) and some targets which might be visible from another direction. I take it that I should leave also something for someone else

 

[silver]

New kids in the future will thank you for their experience, I try not to find 5c,10c,20c,50c,...but sometimes you just can't help snagging a few here and there.

 

[AtomRat]

How do you neatly dig / detect a park? If you are getting the coins at a big depth, how do you dig that hole? Just asking so I know how to leave minimal impact.

 

[Pilsner]

This might be actually quite complex answer to this question, couple of factors should be taken into account. The biggest one I would say is the moisture of the ground. Then the quality of the grass - if it is manicured, very well maintained, I usually don't detect on such place. Also location and purpose of a park - some parks are for me out of limits. Timing might be another factor - when it rains or should be soon, then the potential plugs have much bigger chance to recovery quickly. Last, but not least, important is the way you do the plugs to give them biggest chance to survive, you should never cut a plug completely if it is just relatively shallow one. The deeper plugs have actually better chances to recover quickly as the roots are not damaged. You should always try to decide what method is the best to leave the park without visible impact not only right after your visit but also days after, when a plug doesn't die later due to damaged roots.

In my case, the coins were fortunately not at big depth, usually around 3 inches. With proper tools you can do proper plugs, especially when the ground is moist. When it is too dry, I usually don't go to parks or I hunt just modern coins using the screwdriver method.

 

[silver]

I dig a small deep C shaped plug and carefully bend it backwards so as to leave a section of roots uncut then retrieve using a pinpointer so as to zone in on the target with minimum soil impact, putting any dug soil back into the hole and bending the plug back in carefully, if it has to be exceptionally tidy(perfection) I put the soil on a piece of cloth so the grass is left with no dirt on it. I fill all my holes to leave it so that no one can pick on me about anything(even then and there). And if I find some grubs holes unfilled then I fill them up for them, all the while hoping to find them in the act one day so that I can talk them through the proper process and fix their bad habits, and introduce them to this forum.

 

[Goldpick]

Heading into summer, you find in some areas that when you try to do a decent plug, it all just crumbles and the roots become quite tough to cut, usually resulting in a mess. Generally you will know straight away if it isn't feasible to do plugs, with dry hard ground best left till next winter, or at least after a recent bout of rain. Look for areas that are regularly irrigated, as this will give the best chance for the plug to re-establish.

Also look at detecting around trees in parks, as many items are usually deposited under them, plus a lot of parks just cultivate the soil or spread bark and wood chips around the bases vs having grass right up to the trunk. Very hard to make a mess in those areas.

Good plugs are very hard to see, on several occasions I have accidently re-dug someone elses plug, as they couldn't be bothered digging deep enough, or the target wasn't pinpointed properly, and was just off to the side.

I also use a small towel for collecting any surplus soil, nothing worse than having a nice plug, but with soil spread all over the place to let people know where you have been.

The issue with digging actually on ovals comes when the plugs haven't had a chance to re-establish themselves, and as a result, when mowed, the plugs often get re-exposed or flipped up, leading to very grumpy groundsmen. Hence it is wiser to just stick to the extremities, where the surface isn't as critical compared to say a well manicured cricket oval.

I usually head to the beach and tot lots if conditions are not conducive for on land coin detecting.

 

[Pilsner]

A very frustrating morning today turned to very successful at the end...

After the ecent rain the ground in parks was ready for my visit again.
I started in one park which was just full of trash, no interesting targets, so I moved to another park, which was on the contrary very quiet, however with no interesting targets again. I decided to visit my favourite park to cheer myself a bit. After another 1,5 hour I was totaly frustrated with just trash and few 1 and 2 cents and was about to turn back home.
Suddenly I started getting good signals, which kept me busy for another hour. So in the last hour of my outing today I managed to find:

3x roo penny (19-43,50,58)
4x George penny (19-21,21,33,35)
4x roo half penny (19-43,43,47 and one totaly mangled)
1x George half penny (1931)
3x florin (19-46,47,54)

I think I've never found 3 florins in one outing and this completely changed my day, although I still couldn't break the year 1945 (to find an older florin). I'm very happy about the results, which just confims, that sometimes we have to be very patient and persistent to be rewarded at the end.
Happy hunting guys!