Irish finds
Zot
Posts: 825 ✭✭✭
It's been a while since last post.. I've had less time for MD'ing than I would have liked, but I have managed to do some quick hunts in a new country...
Ireland!!
Oh the possibilities here, I really wish I'd had more time.. I did find some stuff though.
This post will only show some of the coins, and in uncleaned condition to boot. A few more are sitting in olive oil back in Finland now, and I'm in Germany at the moment myself... (the detector is here too. That thing has quite a bunch of airline miles on its back by now...).
I'm somewhat surprised that I haven't run into any trouble travelling with it so far, given how suspicious it must look to someone inspecting the luggage and not being familiar with the hobby... I've written "Metal detector (hobby)" in a whole bunch of languages on the box just in case..
As usual there had been no time for research, except for getting a map of Dublin w/ surroundings, and a 5-minute consultation of Google Earth.
Snapped this pic on my first hunt, just strolling along the coast:
I was so busy looking for spots to detect that I completely forgot about the mandatory critter picture... This is as close as it gets this time
I didn't see any live seals on this outing.
Due to having limited time, I was confined to the Dublin area, where detecting spots weren't very easy to find. I did manage to find one though; an old sports field surrounded by woods on all sides. There were some old churches nearby (and with old, we're talking ca 1100s), so there could be almost anything in the woods...
I walked onto the sports field (track and field type) and noticed a long jump track along its side, with boxes of sand at both ends. It didn't seem to be in very heavy use, as the sand boxes were partly overgrown with grass...
I started by detecting these sand boxes, hoping to pick up some easy coins. I was proven right, there were numerous coins in the sand.
These were my first Irish coins, so picking them up was great fun - total newbie excitement!
The first coin was (I think) a 1993 coin. Then one from 1978: Ha! New oldest! Next one was of another type: Ha! New type! You get the picture...
I picked up a bunch of coins from the sand boxes, but nothing older than 1970's, a slight disappointent in the age department. Here they are:
(actually, I now see there's an ugly green/red coin on the upper left in the picture. That one is not from the sand and could be older.)
I then moved to detect an area at the edge of the woods. There was a lot of trash, so I had to be a bit picky with the signals to make any progress at all.
After a while i got a nice signal:
British Halfpenny 1861 (bronze) (Ireland became independent in 1922)
Here is an angled shot that shows the details a bit better.
After this I picked up another two keepers, a 1942 1 Penny and a 1920 British Penny. Both are nice and large coins. They are currently sitting in olive oil.
Also, dedicated to Goldrush for his great work on the monthly awards:
*** drum roll ***
A button!
An aluminum pendant:
And then, the best coin:
A great, strong signal three inches down. I hadn't had this type of signal before, so I was pretty excited.
Can you see it there, in the middle of the hole?..
...a massive coin!
This coin is now also sitting in olive oil. The pic below is the only one I have of it right now.
The name "Hibernia" on large Irish coins is good news!
Will post details and pics of cleaned coin later. (Edited to add: To reduce the suspense, it's nothing spectacular, a George III penny circa 1800, but still a nice find for me
)
Thanks for looking! Happy hunting!
-Z
Minelab: GPX 5000, Excalibur II, Explorer SE. White's: MXT, PI Pro
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Comments
<< <i>
The mighty cat is politely overreacting to finds that on his meter should only cause a 2 mm nugde of top left whisker!
<< <i>politely overreacting >>
The Yikes dude was for the big picture. Zot posting cool finds and writing well from yet ANOTHER country. Also, I couldn't find my "green with envy" cat
It finally hit me, when I made the trek to MD with LordM, that the history and adventure are the things I enjoy most. The finds end up in boxes and folders and all the tick infested poison ivy patches start to look the same.
I'd love to be over there making Swiss cheese of Europe, hunting for points in Ohio, digging dumps from the San Fran 1906 earthquake, or hitting the Florida coast after a hurricane.
Emerald green with envy.
<< <i>(Insert green-with-envy icon here)
Emerald green with envy. >>
<< <i>(Edited to add: To reduce the suspense, it's nothing spectacular, a George III penny circa 1800, but still a nice find for me ) >>
Sounds pretty spectacular to me!
Great post Zot!
Thanks for posting a fine European button!
<< <i>BTW, that Catholic medal you found is a Miraculous Mary Medal >>
Thanks for the great link LM! I didn't realize it was such a specific item.
<< <i>I've found two of them, as well as two Saint Christopher medals, over the years. All were silver (or at least silverplated)- are you sure yours is aluminum? >>
At least the bulk of it is. Certainly looked like aluminum to me, and it's light as a feather...
As far as silverplating goes, I didn't notice any signs of that, but will take another look when I get a chance (don't have it with me right now, I dumped it into olive oil back in Finland as well, hoping to loosen up some of the ugly dirt that's stuck to it big time..