Mudwiggling through 2016 (part 2)

I would have rugby-tackled him before he got 5 yards :smiling_imp:

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Well, I got my silver in an 1886 young Vickie 3d, and also a wafer-thin old Aussie halfpenny (my first). Too worn to pull any date though it’s the circled pre-'roo version. Both the 3d and halfpenny were in the high tide splash-zone of dry seaweed and shells being so light. Not a lot else - bit more lead (starting on filling coffee tin #5 for this year already), usual old decimals and a selection of ancient beer can fragments.

So the gold still sits patiently, waiting


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Nice one.
I never realised nz used british coins pre 1933.
People often also accepted Australian coins, right up to 1967.
Not knowing these facts, I would have been disapointed if I’d found UK/OZ coins!

Popped out to test drive a mod to the Excal this afternoon.
Despite sand being deep and sandflies being excessive and voracious, I managed a decent handful of old decimals, a few sinkers
and the base of a late 19th/early 20th brass candlestick (bottom half filled with lead). Always amazes me, the things you find on a beach.

The large lead disc has been cast into some sort of pan, possibly a weighing pan off scales - Unfortunately the extent of text embedded in it only extends to "Patented " before being obscured.
So tantalisingly close to getting an ID on what was used.

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Very cool candlestick holder.

Been a couple of weeks, finally got out on the last of the big tides with @chris for a battle of the Excals.
Chris managed a nice 1906 3d, although I failed to lift any coin with anything other than Elizabeths head.
Honour was clawed back though with a surprisingly good nick, damn near immaculate, WW2 forces button and a 925 ring.

Dug a funky ‘dunno’ - Thought it may have been a whistle at the time, but turns out to be an ancient lead-head roofing nail where the iron had rusted out leaving a hollow concretion. Deduct 6 points from the score for that one :smirk:

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nice score any silver is welcome

That forces button is the best ive ever seen come out of the ground! Ive had some with patches of gilt remaining but that looks like its fully intact. Awesome job!

@SoilSurfer Came out of good old anaerobic estuarine mud. Only had a sniff of green crust on it which fell off under gentle fingernail persuasion (Can see where it was on the outside edge at the end of “Zealand”). I don’t think it’s actually been down there that long though?

Just cruising the web during lunch. Painted penny found back in April hunt may be a 2 Up coin


“The game is traditionally played with pennies — their weight, size and surface design make them ideal for the game and stable on the wooden “kip”, and easy to spin in the air with a slight twist of the wrist.
The design of pre-1939 pennies had the king and queen’s head on the front and writing on the back, making the result very easy and quick to see.
Today, it is common for a coloured cross to be painted onto the tail coin to accentuate the difference.”

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/inner-west/come-in-spinner-learn-how-to-play-twoup-in-time-for-anzac-day/news-story/f16f8ef4df540d166f8a0b7ea7cac834

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I’ve never had a play in the mud
I bet your exhausted after a couple hours!

Once you develop the wiggle, it’s not too bad - forget staying clean though.

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Good grief - been a month since my last binge!

Shot out during the storm to see if anything had moved. I wasn’t disappointed.

Late Miocene (±4 million years) tree roots exposed in the beach


First target:

And the first of three small golds
and a silver.

Final haul from just on a couple of hours - Surprised not more coins, but I suspect they’ve all been washed further down the beach and I was focussed on chasing gold tones anyway

Get out there guys and girls. Wait for sunny weather and someone (or the sand) will have beaten you to it

MW

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good on yer can there be anything better than yellow staring back up at you.

Would you believe we got nothing but a few mm and a slight puff. 
 thinking about heading up your way in the morning for the low. Great score on the gold by the way

Nice haul.
How often do you dig non-gold & non-silver targets?
(are just digging everything for the comp?)

Do you dig a few things to gauge the age?
Does it depend where you are digging (land, beach, waters-edge, water) & what machine you’re using??

All the time. Just happened that the surf has stripped all the spacejunk out of this area - I know where it would have gone on the beach too - Accordingly, I’ll be avoiding that area for a decade or so :wink:
Was sucking everything out of the ground for the comp :sunglasses:

Not really. The first few finds generally tell me what I’m likely to find and the respective depths. Then I either move on, or tune into the silver/gold tones.

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Nice haul of gold, well done. it amazes me how many rings you beach combers find. Unforetuneatly for me have no sandy beaches anywhere near where I am !! Have to do a roadie to one day to a find a likely beach !! Keep up the hunting good stuff

Rivers and lakes are good pickings. Find your local history books, they’ll tell you the best locations.
I found a lake that had been used for racing (perfect oval), the only mention of this activity was the history book - no other photo’s at the museum or anything. They had picnics around the lake for decades.

Was another windy night last night, peaking at the same time as high tide so headed back. Long drive, although sand had dropped another 6" or so :money_mouth:
Quick line of test holes down the beach showed a new area of about 50x20m where the bedding was only 200mm or less under the surface so got the waterproofs on and started gridding.

The watch was just under the surface, sitting on the clay - As you can imagine, it gave a decent ‘toot’ in the headset!!! :confounded: Ears are still ringing LOL. Also pulled a '65 florin, blob of keys as well as the usual suspects.

Picked up another skinny gold, and a broken piece of 9ct - I only know this as it’s the bit with the stamp on it :laughing: despite trawling the immediate area to death the other pieces eluded me. Probably light enough to be mobile in surf.

Favorite finds were two eyeballed pieces of fossilised wood. Haven’t found any proper stone wood fossils in NZ before.

Drying out and recharging everything for the final push somewhere else tomorrow.

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