South Island Trip

I have been a member for a while and enjoy the site so have brushed up on my IT skills so i can contribute.
Im on a road trip from the Coromandel, and whilst in Dunedin, checked out a very small piece of the town belt, great place to detect and super easy to cover up all evidence of a dig!
2 silvers and a nice old ring next to a 1910 Penny.

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Interesting mouthpiece. Haven’t seen one with that long a shank before and the retaining lugs are uncommon. Could you take an image showing the cup (bit you blow in) next to the florin for scale. Looks like it may be off one of the larger brass instruments.

Its stamped Percy Code model 1991 ( I think cant make numbers out properly)

Do you have recommendations on what I can use to clean my finds up, I know you shouldn’t for coins but Im not keeping them for their value

I’d say probably a flugel or similar. looks like an extension has been added (wouldn’t try and separate though) I only played trumpet and cornet so that’s a guess. It is off a smaller brass though, and may be silver plated.

Cleaning the silver coins - an hour in cloudy ammonia, work over with a stiff toothbrush, repeat until ready for a final rub with Brasso.
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Penny looks to have a nice stable patina, I’d leave as is, light clean under warm water with the aforementioned toothbrush.

Mello Yello cap - You’ll need to send that to your local museum conservator for specialised treatment, then put on TradeMe with a $1 reserve
:wink:

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Check coins on the Interwebs before cleaning - there’s been many valuable coins massively devalued by cleaning (Guilty!). If you’re in an area turning up old coins, try and resist the temptation to rub and see what it is, just bag it and check them all when you get home.

great thanks i had to keep the mello yellow cap, i loved that stuff

A good hunt by the look of the results, well done. I tried a small bit of the belt myself yesterday, but nothing but sparse junk at that particular spot, so crossed the road to Jubilee Park to cover an area I’ve been to before and came home with three pennies, a halfpenny and a five-cent piece. I particularly like that florin, I need to find a silver florin…

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With my own as yet indeterminable severely corroded predecimal that seems to have taken on sand granules (it was recovered at the beach) I approached the lovely people at Te Papa for some tips to remove layers of the environment in order to get a date (the predecimal status can be determined by what is left of its measurements). Sadly, didn’t reach them before the holidays so have been told to wrap it in acid free paper in a zip lock until the expert returns well rested. If they allow it, I’m happy to post the tips on getting them. Or maybe someone wants to invite them to post on preservation, it would likely save them time answering emails.

Have a squizz in here…http://community.paydirt.co.nz/t/some-useful-pdfs/1931

Green Island - Found an interesting old bit council un-cared for space for a couple of hours detecting.
An interesting variety, from modern coins to an early English penny.
Super stoked about the brass NZR padlock, unfortunately i scraped it digging it out.

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Great work there.
Coins look to be in good shape, any chance of some closeups?
Will you clean them a bit?

I’ve had no luck with islands so far, but I will persivere.

still working on the cleaning up bit I do have some cloudy ammonia going but it doesn’t move a lot, any suggestions?

way back in the old days I used to have a toy gun like the one in the top of your picture. it was supposedly a ray gun and when you pulled the trigger it shot out sparks. lol. that was mid to late 60’s era.

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The gun is very cool, unfortunately it is missing a piece of the cover on the other side, my 10 year old son has claimed it and wont return it!

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