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1593
Zot
Posts: 825 ✭✭✭
--- Update Nov 19 ---
Still in Sweden. Another weekend - another opportunity.
I had been watching temperatures falling steadily throughout the week. Early in the week the nights were below the freezing point, and now the days are too. Digging was going to be difficult at best..
Quite a change in the weather in one week.. and yes, the white stuff on the ground in the second picture is snow..
November 12 vs. November 20
Still, I made my way to the spot where I had found the 1882 copper and 1904 silver last week. Although I had hunted it quite thoroughly the last time, there was bound to be something left still... Also, this site had very little trash, which was good given the digging challenges.
I also knew it had potential for much older stuff than 1882.
When I got there, I made two observations:
1) The landscaping work was completed, and the area had been filled with fresh soil. All targets would now be a few inches deeper:
2) The ground was badly frozen:
I started detecting anyway
. There were only few targets, and I discarded most "iffy" targets as well, to minimize time wasted on digging junk. "Digging" (more like scratching) each hole took a lot of grunting and groaning... I also dug extremely economical holes to save some time, so the risk of scratching targets was high. Still it took ages to dig each hole. I detected for almost two hours and think I dug 9-10 holes in total.
Early on I got this badge. I like finding stuff like this, it will be interesting to see if I can find out something about it. Your ideas are of course most welcome!
Then an unstable signal that I almost didn't dig.... *shudder*
Did someone say old stuff?...
Swedish 1/2 Öre 1593, 219/1000 silver
The date can be determined as this is a one-year type. Given that this was most likely my last hunt for the year, the MD year 2005 definitely ended on a high note!!! (Edit: lighter pictures inserted)
This coin was made under the reign of Sigismund III, 1566–1632, king of Poland (1587–1632) and Sweden (1592–99).
Lots of interesting history related to those dates and the guy in general..
There are more details visible on the reverse than the obverse, e.g. the three crowns, 1/2 ÖR (which looks more like 1/Z on this particular type) and part of the text around the rim ("MON..."). The swedish coin book I'm using has so crappy pictures that I can't make out the full text from it... It also seems that the centering on the coin I found is quite good, the two pics I've found on this coin so far (one in a coin book, one on the web) are both somewhat off center.
--- Original message Nov 13---
Hello,
This weekend I had the pleasure of staying in Stockholm, the beautiful capital of Sweden:
I had originally planned to post this later, after I’d had the chance to take some better pictures of these back in Finland, but after Sunday’s finds I feel the urge to get them out now
All coins are pictured after only a quick rinse with water.
I had the chance to go detecting on both Saturday and Sunday. This was my plan:
Saturday
Objective: Find plenty of coins.
Ideally old of course, but there are some cool mid 1900’s Swedish coins as well that I wanted to dig. After some hasty web searches and looking at Google Earth, I picked a somewhat remote beach that had history going back to the late 1800’s/early 1900’s.
On my way there..
And arriving..
This place looked promising. There was a house next to the beach with two of these old looking paths leading right down to the beach itself.
I started by digging three pulltabs in quick succession. Ugghhh..
I quickly noticed that while Swedes don’t toss around nearly as many bottle tops as Finns do, they are much worse in the pulltab department!
Soon the coins started coming. It appeared this place hadn’t been detected at all, as I pulled out tons of early 1900’s coins, many even being close to the surface. The oldest coin was a 1916 1 Öre copper.
I got 5 silver coins as well. Unfortunately all of them were post-1941, which marked a reduction of the silver content from 80% to 40%. Due to only being 40%, I believe they technically shouldn’t be called “silver”. Oh well, if it contains silver, I’ll call it silver!
This was the best coin: 1 Krona 1942
Here are the other four silver coins. 10 and 25 Öre coins from between 1947 and 1961
2 Öre 1941. Not old or rare, but in nice condition.
I also found this ring. (the scratch between ying and yang was not my doings)
All in all a productive day.
Sunday
Objective: Find some older coins, even if this means coming up with nothing.
After having selected a general (old) area, I walked around for hours looking for promising spots. I wasn’t being successful, and only had a couple of modern coins to my name until finally I found this:
Thank you for removing the surface trash in an old part of the city!!!
With great difficulty I found the patience to take a picture first, and then had the MXT beeping within seconds.
The first sweep gave two solid hits: Bang, bang – two targets, both only one inch down and reading in the low silver range. Unfortunately both were modern 10 kronor coins. Very promising though, this site could definitely produce something.
I was pocketing coins in quick succession until roughly in the bottom right corner of the picture I got another solid coin hit, two inches down:
1 Öre 1882
This coin is in great condition (the picture doesn’t do it justice), both the obverse and reverse show sharp details, and it will be a beauty once I get some of that dirt soaked off.
Juiced up by this find, I was continuing my search, hoping that the next target would be an old silver.. About 20 minutes later I got it:
10 Öre 1904
Lesson learnt: Patience pays (sometimes)
The whole jolly lot from Saturday and Sunday.
Happy hunting!
-Z
Still in Sweden. Another weekend - another opportunity.
I had been watching temperatures falling steadily throughout the week. Early in the week the nights were below the freezing point, and now the days are too. Digging was going to be difficult at best..
Quite a change in the weather in one week.. and yes, the white stuff on the ground in the second picture is snow..
November 12 vs. November 20
Still, I made my way to the spot where I had found the 1882 copper and 1904 silver last week. Although I had hunted it quite thoroughly the last time, there was bound to be something left still... Also, this site had very little trash, which was good given the digging challenges.
I also knew it had potential for much older stuff than 1882.
When I got there, I made two observations:
1) The landscaping work was completed, and the area had been filled with fresh soil. All targets would now be a few inches deeper:
2) The ground was badly frozen:
I started detecting anyway
. There were only few targets, and I discarded most "iffy" targets as well, to minimize time wasted on digging junk. "Digging" (more like scratching) each hole took a lot of grunting and groaning... I also dug extremely economical holes to save some time, so the risk of scratching targets was high. Still it took ages to dig each hole. I detected for almost two hours and think I dug 9-10 holes in total.Early on I got this badge. I like finding stuff like this, it will be interesting to see if I can find out something about it. Your ideas are of course most welcome!
Then an unstable signal that I almost didn't dig.... *shudder*
Did someone say old stuff?...
Swedish 1/2 Öre 1593, 219/1000 silver
The date can be determined as this is a one-year type. Given that this was most likely my last hunt for the year, the MD year 2005 definitely ended on a high note!!! (Edit: lighter pictures inserted)
This coin was made under the reign of Sigismund III, 1566–1632, king of Poland (1587–1632) and Sweden (1592–99).
Lots of interesting history related to those dates and the guy in general..
There are more details visible on the reverse than the obverse, e.g. the three crowns, 1/2 ÖR (which looks more like 1/Z on this particular type) and part of the text around the rim ("MON..."). The swedish coin book I'm using has so crappy pictures that I can't make out the full text from it... It also seems that the centering on the coin I found is quite good, the two pics I've found on this coin so far (one in a coin book, one on the web) are both somewhat off center.
--- Original message Nov 13---
Hello,
This weekend I had the pleasure of staying in Stockholm, the beautiful capital of Sweden:
I had originally planned to post this later, after I’d had the chance to take some better pictures of these back in Finland, but after Sunday’s finds I feel the urge to get them out now
All coins are pictured after only a quick rinse with water.
I had the chance to go detecting on both Saturday and Sunday. This was my plan:
Saturday
Objective: Find plenty of coins.
Ideally old of course, but there are some cool mid 1900’s Swedish coins as well that I wanted to dig. After some hasty web searches and looking at Google Earth, I picked a somewhat remote beach that had history going back to the late 1800’s/early 1900’s.
On my way there..
And arriving..
This place looked promising. There was a house next to the beach with two of these old looking paths leading right down to the beach itself.
I started by digging three pulltabs in quick succession. Ugghhh..
I quickly noticed that while Swedes don’t toss around nearly as many bottle tops as Finns do, they are much worse in the pulltab department!
Soon the coins started coming. It appeared this place hadn’t been detected at all, as I pulled out tons of early 1900’s coins, many even being close to the surface. The oldest coin was a 1916 1 Öre copper.
I got 5 silver coins as well
. Unfortunately all of them were post-1941, which marked a reduction of the silver content from 80% to 40%. Due to only being 40%, I believe they technically shouldn’t be called “silver”. Oh well, if it contains silver, I’ll call it silver! This was the best coin: 1 Krona 1942
Here are the other four silver coins. 10 and 25 Öre coins from between 1947 and 1961
2 Öre 1941. Not old or rare, but in nice condition.
I also found this ring. (the scratch between ying and yang was not my doings)
All in all a productive day.
Sunday
Objective: Find some older coins, even if this means coming up with nothing.
After having selected a general (old) area, I walked around for hours looking for promising spots. I wasn’t being successful, and only had a couple of modern coins to my name until finally I found this:
Thank you for removing the surface trash in an old part of the city!!!
With great difficulty I found the patience to take a picture first, and then had the MXT beeping within seconds
. The first sweep gave two solid hits: Bang, bang – two targets, both only one inch down and reading in the low silver range. Unfortunately both were modern 10 kronor coins. Very promising though, this site could definitely produce something.
I was pocketing coins in quick succession until roughly in the bottom right corner of the picture I got another solid coin hit, two inches down:
1 Öre 1882
This coin is in great condition (the picture doesn’t do it justice), both the obverse and reverse show sharp details, and it will be a beauty once I get some of that dirt soaked off.
Juiced up by this find, I was continuing my search, hoping that the next target would be an old silver.. About 20 minutes later I got it:
10 Öre 1904
Lesson learnt: Patience pays (sometimes)
The whole jolly lot from Saturday and Sunday.
Happy hunting!
-Z
Minelab: GPX 5000, Excalibur II, Explorer SE. White's: MXT, PI Pro
0
Comments
That's quite a haul for a weekend Zot. Excellent finds and story.
Again great story.
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<< <i>temperature >>
Very warm for this time of year, must have been around 10 C (50 Fahrenheit) during the day.
It could all change very quickly though, next weekend everything could be covered in snow (let's hope not, as I'll probably still be here then)
<< <i>But you forget the crazed animal picture
I know, I thought of that but I didn't seem to run into any.
The best I saw was a fat cat that was sitting on the hood of a car (engine probably was warm), but thought I'd see something more interesting still, so I didn't take a picture
No kidding, it's already happening!!
I might be able to relocate a bit further south for the winter months - we'll see.
>>Do the Swedes look at you funny when you're out detecting? Do hot Swedish women like this kind of activity??
Not really, but then again I get totally lost in my own thoughts when I'm detecting (a great thing about the hobby - fantastic stress relief!), so I don't really notice people until they stand right next to me. I also tend to detect mostly in areas where there aren't that many people around. Swedes are more outgoing than finns, so I end up chatting with people more.
In all countries I've detected I've found most stares to be a result of not knowing what I'm doing. Once informed, many people seem understand the hobby - I guess there lives a small treasure hunter inside lots of people so they can understand why someone might find the hobby meaningful (in fact more meaningful than e.g. stamp or coin collecting...)
As for the women (Sweden is most excellent in this department!), I can think of more efficient ways... (I'm happy to recommend you some nightclubs)
>>A ny chance you can put a lighter picture of the old coin for us to see? It's about impossible to make out any details. I hope to go detecting tomorrow for a couple hours or so. I'd be more than happy to find some 1964 silver or a buffalo nickel (old school, not the 2005 variety).
Good point. The coin was pitch black when I found it and the details were hard to see details also with the coin in hand. When I look at it now, it has actually lightened a bit. I took new pictures (with the crappy mock-up of a photo setup in my hotel..) and made them quite light to show details
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Zot, you are preaching to the choir here. I've spent some time in Stockholm and the other Nordic capitals (Helsinki included). Anyway, on a random, otherwise unremarkable summer night several years ago at the Stockholm Hard Rock Cafe, I was blown away by the throngs of ridiculously hot women everywhere. What a country, what a memory
Nice dig!
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Zot's threads have become my very favorite to read.
If I can't go detecting in Europe, at least I can do it vicariously.