Was hoping you would hop aboard Lammers, with your knowledge of things that go bang, you are indeed invaluable, so lets hope you keep well past your “Use By Date”. I kinda knew deep down that they were most likely WW1, but Boer would have been better. Amazing that at the outbreak of WW2, in fear of the dreaded Hun invading us and using our own guns against us or our allies, they buried these. Bit of an over-reaction at the time. Must have been a Govt Decree of some sort. It is an urban legend that those two were indeed buried. But Council records from that era, make no mention of the fact. Ah ha. The Official Secrets Act and the “Loose Lips, sink ships” era. Mr Krupp coming to pick up his goodies. Sovereigns Musketballs. what are they, are you suggesting we dig up past members of the Royal Family. I am perplexed Mr Balls, are we to become grave robbers digging up these sovereigns. Oh dear dear me. Another thing perplexes me. In many old race course photo’s from the past I have been able to zoom in on the landed gentry’s waist coats. ,Many of them seem to have this chain thing hanging down. which goes into the waist coat pocket. And some times the chain is affixed outside and seems to have something dangling off it. I often wonder what the dangler is. I do know the rich people, used to like to skite and show their wealth in public, and as they couldn’t lug their treasure chests around, they used to wear these gold things. that looked like flattened nuggets. I call them Golden Flatters". Cheers " The Hatter" . .
Thanks for the nice comment - appreciated. It is sometimes possible for some guns to be Boer War era. One of the guns at Kuriheka Estate is as it has a Martini Action firing mechanism. We must remember that New Zealand had an active volunteer and Mounted Rifles membership and they had a large number of guns and just a few are still about today. One of those guns does indeed look as though it might be from the Boer War era but then again some guns from that era were indeed pressed into service in WWI. The front one however does look Krupp - BUT krupp made guns prior to the Boer War as well. Krupp was founded very early in the 1800s and by the 1870s was exporting guns to many different countries. Krupp guns were considered superior I think due to the fact that they were made of steel rather than cast iron.
It is rumoured that there may be one or even a considerable few more buried near Dunedin but I have never followed it up…I should I suppose.
Now to the chain that you see the old timers wearing. It was called a Fob Watch chain. The Fob was a little pocket in the waist coat into which you put a watch and the watch was secured on a chain - either Silver if you were like me,poor, destitute, insolvent, bankrupt and financially embarrassed or Gold if you had just a little bit of wealth. If you see wee dangly things hanging off the Fob chain then they are often wee medallions and once again silver or gold depending on the wealth of who ever presented or gave them to you. Often School boy rugby teams might be presented with one per player - I have several here - a silver one for a Great Uncle (He got killed fighting overseas) with ‘Best Back Green Island School’ 1927 (I think) and another one for him or a brother for winning a boxing match. My grandfather had one for being a member of the Choral Society which he joined to take his mind off the trenches of Flanders where he was during WWI - They were all silver. I have a gold one for bravery overseas when the Army did not award a bravery medal but the community back here at home decided he deserved one. My grandfather also had a gold one for running a five mile running race. I have only seenone really rubbishy one and it is neither gold nor silver and I have it inthe glove box of my truck meaning to give it to some kiddie who likes collecting things.Thats what the dangly things are - Yes you sometimes find them at parks and where ever the old boys frequented. Some of those Fob watch chains are nearly big enough to anchor a ship! Out detecting I have found one Fob watch chain - silver but broken and one gold Fob chain medal - that was in the 1980s. I have never been awarded any of those dangly things and the only dangly things I have are troublesome and have got me into a good deal of strife!
And adding to the trivia, that wee little pocket in your jeans that is absolutely useless for anything other than sticking one finger in to try and winkle a coin out, is a leftover from the pocket watch days.
There, that’s something you know now. Try and use it in conversation 
On the subject of lost cannon, there was one of the Ruapekapeka guns on the Russell foreshore for many years - at some stage it disappeared, and no-one seems to know where (Lammerlaw, empty your pockets…)
There are two others that I know of from the Bats Nest battle, one is on the Pa itself, rebuilt after some likely lads blew it up in the 1950’s with dynamite (I think), the other sits at the urupa beside SH1 at Waiomio, just south of Kawakawa in the North.
Me like - me want! I was at Ruapekapeka just a wee while back and while speeding past that cemetery I saw the cannon and I have never seen a car stop so quick - I was a good boy and left it there…its pretty cool and well worth a visit.
Hey Hatter, would it be better to leave the Sovereigns and just dig the Guineas. Might halve the digging time.
Now just to keep some equality in this dangly thing - Woman wore a chatelaine which again was a set of chains on which they carried keys, pencil, watch and whatever else they could lug along. Again made in gold, silver and others. So woman had dangly things to. I actually had a silver chatelaine once (no I never wore it LL) sold it through Christies about 25 years ago.
Cheers
Women should never have been allowed dangly things as it has led to many misconceptions - in more ways than one! - I notice that in Thailand and Bangkok a lot of ‘women’ have dangly things - in fact I understand that Bangkok was named for the deviancy of the locals.
I never knew about these chatelaine things so they are something new to me. In the past in my eagerness to learn about women and their habits and so on I never discovered about these chatelaine things but then if they were naked as they were then any items of attire, adornment and decoration had been removed and consequently gone unoticed in the frenzy to discover more exciting things…none of which involved dangly things!
Not getting much out of the tide at the moment - just a few coins.
So I grabbed a fob watch that I detected in the tide a year or two ago and decided to crack it open.
After about 10 minutes of rubbing with silvo it turned out to be Sterling Silver with London Hallmark. Inscribed is William James Levan - Feb 26 1855 - Cornwall.
Other than that the watch is completely rooted but still interesting as it could have been in the tide over 150 years. And no I didn’t find Mr Levan attached to it.
Cool find Musketballs. There are probably hallmarks inside that back cover that could tell you where and when it was made.
Chris.
St. Levan is a parish in Cornwall, I think it may be a gift from the parishoners to William James… if it is, then he’d be a fairly high profile character and should feature in papers of that time.
Beautiful piece. Love it.
That could be a St in front of Levan now that you mention it MW. I thought it was a scrow as there are several of them on it.
MK yes it is London but I can’t make out the letter yet to give it a date.
Thanks guys
This could be your pocket watch guy…
I think he might also show up in the Auckland Maritime museum database of immigrant ship passenger lists. They used to be available online but may have to physically go to yhe museum nowadays.
A few names on Auckland shipping passenger lists that match the date.
Try searching for William James here as the website won’t let me post a link to the results
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/passengers/passenger.html
Thanks for the research Westiedigger
I will chase up your info when I get back from my travels. I actually have a hall table made by a William James Cabinet Maker Wellington( a bit spooky) made around the same period.
Off in the tide to one of my favourite beaches at low tide today so fingers crossed. Raining cats and dogs but can’t wait. Will post if successful.
Just the one ring on Monday from one of my favourite beaches, plus the usual coins etc.
No markings. Me thinks stainless. Can’t complain even if the water is a bit cool.
HH
This time of year I would rather be here than anywhere else. Well maybe just a couple of hours of it.
And no I am not listening to music.
HH
Got that ‘raw’ square-edged stainless look to it, but hey, a ring is a ring.
I may (or may not 
) have found this in the parish papers of St. Levan…
Hells Bells MW.
You may have just solved it. Was there a date on the Newspaper?
Might have to change your name from Mudwiggle to “Super Sleuth”
Great work.
Thanks
MBs
I think it’s “Old Newspaper” font 
That’s about the only truth in that lot - I’d hoped you’d read the whole lot 
HaHa I read the whole lot but still had me going!! Especially liked the escaped hamster…very cunning Mr Wiggle 