I decided to take up metal detecting and look what I found! [solved]

After reading all the stories of metal detecting I decided to give it a go, so I picked up a cheap detector and headed for an area outside the city that was the site of an early whaling and sealing community in the 1800s and I struck it lucky....check this out, over 4000 coins in a big cache!!



I'm feeling generous so I'm going to give away some of the lower value ones where I have multiple copies of the coin to some of the members here.  Send me a PM if you want a couple.

So lucky



I've got no coin from your country before 1940. I would be glad to swap some coins of your treasure  

If the truth isn't dependent on the current date, then congratulation ... I hope you made a video  
and what did you find in particular, did someone threw away his old penny collection?

Well I've had my first couple of lucky customers, still plenty to give away.

I'll make a vid of the coins later, there's a real mixture of old coppers and quite a bit of  silver.  ALl from the time of the whalers and sealers in the mid 1800s

Nice find Neil! Did you have trouble hauling it back home all by yourself?

No, no trouble carrying it,  I had a friend there with me called Olaf Prosil.

Bet you two had a whale of a time ! two coins for me please  

I feel like this is a joke but I am not getting it if it is.   

Yeah Olaf is a pretty good guy, even if I do only see him once a year.  But he's really good for a few laughs.

Quote: neilithicAfter reading all the stories of metal detecting I decided to give it a go, so I picked up a cheap detector and headed for an area outside the city that was the site of an early whaling and sealing community in the 1800s and I struck it lucky....check this out, over 4000 coins in a big cache!!



I'm feeling generous so I'm going to give away some of the lower value ones where I have multiple copies of the coin to some of the members here.  Send me a PM if you want a couple.

 
You jammy bugger ---what a scoop

any farthings or smaller (Hint Hint) or even Canadian cents?
I even bought a metal detector last year and will be doing some detecting around the lakes on the weekend, will let you know the outcome

Quote: jadejackalI feel like this is a joke but I am not getting it if it is.   

 Some sort of twisted humor, perhaps only funny to the poster.

  Yea, Neil, I'll take a bucket of those free farthings your giving away  

 

What are the highlights of the lot?

Well I've had some more satisfied customers, but still more coins to give away.  

Your friend Olaf Prosil was surely your lucky charm; and that find was his best birthday ever; which surely is tomorrow/today (04/01). Lucky guy he is.

Yes it's his birthday today over here, possibly tomorrow if you're in a different time-zone.  I catch up with him once a year on his birthday and we get up to some shenanigans together.

Ha ha, First of April! Nice one!

Quote: jadejackalI feel like this is a joke but I am not getting it if it is.   

Olaf Prosil =  afillooprs  letters, which is an anagram >  april fools
It is a joke  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day

Ok, I had my fun during the day.  It is in fact an April Fools day joke.  I know it's not April 1st everywhere yet, but that didn't diminish my fun  

My friend Olaf Prosil and I (well spotted Zac) sure do get up some shenanigans each year on his birthday  

Happy April Fools day everyone

And if you fell for it and contacted me.....don't worry, you weren't alone  

You still should give metal detecting a try!

Nice one Neil, well done.

I was getting reeled in quite nicely until you mentioned your friends name.

If I'd have been on here this morning I probably would have PM'd you.  

I would have fallen for it as well if it wasn't revealed as an april fools.

I was going to post that I have also just bought a metal detector to give it a shot as well!  

I gave up on metal detecting because I did not have the time to do it.

I knew it was a gimmick straight away.

In New Zealand we have a law called Archaeological Heritage protection, where any site operating before 1900 is protected and looting or unauthorised excavation is punishable with jail and if the site involves Tangata Whenua Heritage (Translation = Maori stuff) you can find yourself in deep s@#% pretty darn quickly. Wahi Tapu (Scared Places) and the Heritage Register are on a national data base from Maori Pa to old houses built before 1900 and even Heritage interest buildings from 1944 earlier (Such as a lot of 1930s Art Deco structures in the Hawkes Bay, built after the 1931 earthquake). Anyone rooting around them with a metal detector would have the book thrown at them, if caught.

If anything Metal detectorists and Bottle diggers are the scourge of archaeology as these people destroy the context of where artefacts are found. All they care about is striking it rich and digging up treasure and its a lose lose situation as we lose a vital understanding of past human behaviour. Their main goal is finding gold sovereigns and silver crowns.

(I am a trained Archaeologist with a Masters Degree in Archaeology) and despite not actually working as one, stay ahead of current issues, heritage protection and digs and have a real issue with treasure hunters.

New Zealand has a very short history compared to Europe, but we are very proud of it and like to think our past is well protected and respected, both Maori and European heritages.

However metal detecting is fine at the beach, local parks and your home, but please not on heritage sites.

Also if anyone unearthed that many coins anywhere - it would be big national news, and lets face it Whaling stations often had very few coins found - you would have to work hard to lose thousands of coins at a time we had a massive coin shortage in New Zealand.

Of course you know this tale is nonsense, when our news is full of stories like a skull found under a house believed to be that of a drifter who disappeared around 2005. Even if 10 pennies were found there, it would make the news next to endless garbage about cretinistic rugby and league players and alarmist headlines about Coronavirus.

This happens when you resurrect old threads ... the flies arrive damn fast.
Edit: Oh someone is fast today with the antispam

Thanks - I removed it and banned the new member.

Was there a spammer?

What were they selling, Sex, drugs, Vigara, knock off sunglasses, fake DVDs or wanting money for a Nigerian money laundering deal?

Quote: "Moneytane"​
​(I am a trained Archaeologist with a Masters Degree in Archaeology) and despite not actually working as one, stay ahead of current issues, heritage protection and digs and have a real issue with treasure hunters.​
​

Is it possible to collect old coins without any harm to the heritage?

Quote: "numinis"​

Quote: "Moneytane"​
​​(I am a trained Archaeologist with a Masters Degree in Archaeology) and despite not actually working as one, stay ahead of current issues, heritage protection and digs and have a real issue with treasure hunters.​
​​

​Is it possible to collect old coins without any harm to the heritage?

​Yes, don't loot them from protected archaeological sites!
If you are buying coins from an archaeological background, ask the dealer about the context, if he does not know or refuses to answer - don't buy them.

NZ, Britain and a few other countries have laws that force people to report finds of old coins before 1900 and from very ancient or unique sites. Britain has "Treasure Trove" laws in which finds of 10 or more coins that are pre 1920 must be reported to the crown, or you can be arrested. Usually they will let you keep half of them - unless the hoard is of extreme historical importance.

But I know many countries - particularly 3rd world ones and ones controlled by a religion that is intolerant of earlier cultures and religions (Like Islam) have no laws about looting heritage and artefacts and it is a serious problem.

Moneytane: thank you.
(I understand that this thread was started as a joke and is largely irrelevant to my question, but, considering the matter important, I used the opportunity.)

I don't know where to look for dealers who have ethical concerns like I do. Some time ago I found a website of a closed coin shop saying "it is nearly impossible to purchase coins ethically now" (they meant ancients). But it seems that many collectors are interested in such coins.
Also I don't know how to draw the line between "coins from an archaeological background" (to use Moneytane's phrase) and commonplace, archaeologicallly unimportant ones.