Denmark hunts V+VI

Zot · March 4, 2006 5:49AM

Some new stuff from Denmark. Here is a collection of dirty metal objects I’ve accumulated since last posting (quite limited time for detecting recently):

Part of these are dug on land, part from the coast outside the fort I’ve posted some pictures of before. That particular beach strip is a treasure trove, I hope I’ll have another chance hunting it at low tide, such as pictured below (slight drool warning!).

This area is full of signals, and 80% of them are non-trash. Unfortunately they are underwater most of the time..

Detecting here yields a continuous stream of finds, with some 80% of digs being good targets (coins or good/semi-good relics). Target recovery is a bit slow though, as most targets have to be recovered from lumps of clay that have to be torn apart by hand to release the target that’s hiding inside.. The upside of this is that some targets are very well preserved for having spent a century under the sea. Some (non-silver) coins come out blast white looking like they were dropped yesterday. With copper coins it’s hit and miss – some are well preserved, others corroded almost beyond recognition and wafer-thin, and some come out being a funky color to say the least.

Hello! I'm Zot's latest copper coin find!

So far the beach strip has only yielded two 1800’s coppers (a 5 dateless öre coin, and a 2 öre of the same type, which has very nice details, except for (unlucky) corrosion on the date, so it’s dateless too, and its color is even funkier), and no really old coins. The two coppers will need to be retoned once I get my hands on the necessary chemicals back in Finland (sulphur etc)

Given the volume and the dates of coins coming out, there’s definitely silver there too. In addition, it yields lots of “crusties” that I haven’t bothered to check out yet. I could probably run a “guess that crusty” competition full time!..
Here are a few examples:

Hmm… now that I took that picture of the crusties, I got curious all over again, myself…
Investigated, they will be…

Let’s start with suspect “4” in the picture above.

It had such thick crust all over it that I couldn’t tell anything about its likely type or material. Electrolysis was the method I chose. Soon lumps of black gunk started falling off, and the remainder got thinner and thinner…

Eventually I could see the edge of the coin. It was very thin, hardly a quarter of the thickness of the original crusty thing, and was silverish in color. This was getting interesting.

The coin was worn thin through corrosion, and also had a pattern of lines worn into it, apparently due to back and forth motion caused by waves , but after a while I could see parts of what remained of the design. I was puzzled, as the design elements I could see didn’t match any Danish coin I knew.
I was stumped for a while..

, until the coin cleaned up some more and I could see what it was - a silver Swedish 1 krona!
Here it is in its final condition:

Swedish 1876 silver 1 krona

The date can just barely be read, and is confirmed by the type (which in this condition can mainly be determined by the location of the legends around the bust), as it was only struck in 1875 and 1876.

Some closeups of other finds:

A brooch. I like finding older jewelry like this, even if it’s not silver or gold. I’ve had some fairly good relic hunting ground recently, and I’m starting to increasingly prefer stuff like this over coins..
Here it is, pictured as dug, and after soaking in olive oil for a month (making it dark chocolate brown and revealing traces of an old gold plating)

From the lead soldiers/figures department:
I really like this one! It’s in good shape and stands firmly on its own

And some more.. an Indian…

…and a warship.

ACME Boy Scouts whistle

I like finding older keys! I enjoy the variety of the designs and the history that one can easily track down. This one for example: P. & F. Corbin was established in New Britain, Connecticut in 1849 and the Corbin brand still exists today, although having gone through a number of changes in terms of ownership and location of production. This key radiates the craftsmanship of its time.. a lot of attention has been paid to the design of such a common object

Finally a small suggestion: Unless you are absolutely sure that what you’ve found is trash, take it home with you and have another look…
I got a recent reminder of this: the following piece was quite dirty when I found it, and I thought it was a broken key (it’s less than an inch in length) and was about to throw it in the trash at the site together with bottle tops etc. For some reason I took it with me.
Here it is rinsed off, and still doesn’t look like much worth having.. This is what I saw in the field as well:

But turning it around…….. (look at the top left corner..)

It seems to have had quite a number of “diamonds” set into it at one time. I doubt that this particular find is worth anything, but the principle should be clear enough…

Edit: Tip number 2: If you're writing a lengthy post such as this one, I highly recommend writing the text in a word processing program first, and then pasting it into here.. I learnt this lesson some time ago, only to have it confirmed again now as the server froze when trying to post the message..

Thanks for looking! Happy hunting!

-Z

loditom · March 4, 2006 6:26AM

Dang Zot that is a sweet spot you got going there.

Those are some cool find's,I really like the lead toy's.The battleship look's like it may be from WW1.That broach is really cool also,you need to find out the tide table's so you can get to that spot at low tide.
Now what about the rest of the crusty's,have cleaned them to see what they are??HH,Tom

Zot · March 4, 2006 6:36AM

<< <i>Now what about the rest of the crusty's,have cleaned them to see what they are??HH,Tom >>

I checked crusty #3, but that one was a modern coin from 1990!
#1 and #2, plus a few others are still mysteries. I'm saving them for times when I want to go detecting but don't have enough time to go out

Edit: About the tide tables.. yes, I've thought about that. The problem is that there are only a few times when I can get out to the site anyway, so looking at tide tables could only drive me nuts when I can't get out!

I basically go out there and check the tide. If it's low, I hunt the beach strip. If it's high, I hunt a nearby forest that has good stuff in it too!