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WOO HOO!!
Zot
Posts: 825 ✭✭✭
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy....
You know how it is.. sometimes you feel you're doing everything right and still get nothing..
Other days, everything seems to be going your way..
December 21, 2006: A hunt where everything came together for Zot.
It's been chilly earlier this week, with some snowfall and a slightly frozen ground.
The last 24 hrs the temp has been above the freezing point again, the little snow that fell has nearly melted, and the ground can easily be dug.
I started my Christmas holidays two days early and went out digging today
I headed out to the same area where I found 6 older coppers the other day (and got 6 more on a hunt the next day that I haven't posted here).
While these are nice finds, I was getting a bit annoyed that such an otherwise productive site refused to cough up a silver. There just had to be some of it here!!
The journey to the site was a very slippery one, as the roads are still icy. I had to take it slow... getting myself killed in traffic wouldn't help my chances of finding old silver..
A challenge when detecting for an extended period of time (I detected for about 5.5 hours) in conditions like this is keeping your feet warm. That was sorted with two pairs of socks, the outer pair being thick woolen socks made by my late grandmother (I used to get a pair of them for Christmas each year, and still have two or three pairs that are brand new
)I started detecting, with no discrimination and digging all signals.
I didn't find anything special for the first hour. Not too many good signals, but I picked up two small 1-penni coins (copper) from the late 1800's + a few more modern ones. Not too bad.
And then it got better...
Got an excellent signal (although an identical reading to the screwcap signals I'm getting all the time). Not very deep (4 inches), but this is deeper than most screwcaps are, and it sounded good. I was almost sure that this one would be a coin.
I cut a plug and stuck the pinpointer into the hole. I got a signal in the hole and wiggled the target into view.
Hum! It's a sizeable coin alright, but it's not of the brown, corroded type. In fact, it's rather shiny...
YES!!!!! Finally I got one of those elusive Finnish silvers!
And, it wasn't a small one either: a 1 Markka coin!
I managed to resist wiping it at all, and folded it into one of the soft napkins I carry around for better finds. Then into the finds pouch it went (after doublechecking several times that there were no holes in it and that the zipper was properly closed
)1 Markka 1892
Very high grade one to boot! (Rick, if memory serves, the coin you won from a contest of mine last year is significantly more worn
)No cleaning at all except rinsed under running water.
The text around the obverse reads: "94.48 kappaletta naulasta selwää hopeata", translating into "94.48 pieces from a pound of fine silver"
Sweet detail!
It took me a while to recover, as I've been trying quite hard to get one of these...
Recovering.. I very carefully went over the area, but only found a couple of junk targets, which I dug with a smile.
Everything from here on would just be bonus.
After an hour of no mentionable finds, I dug an old spoon, which I think is silver too (shown at end of post in the summary picture).
Then, a very good and deep signal. A coin for sure.
Indeed it was, and out plopped a large 10 penniä copper. This was a great find, but now that I'd tasted silver I didn't get all that excited.
It got its own napkin though.
Scanning the hole I still got a signal. Alright - a double hit!
I quickly recovered another silver! Another first for me:
50 penniä 1865
A well circulated example. Note how much more worn e.g. the eagle design is compared to the 1 Markka 1892.
Wow! This sure was proving to be a great spot. Another napkin used, and off we go again!
I was shocked to get yet another signal here, a few inches from the previous two. A faint one, showing up as 8 inches deep.
From the bottom of a deep hole I recovered a third silver, and again a new type!
25 penniä 1875
A beat up example.
This was getting ridiculous... after never finding one of these silvers before, I get three within an hour!
Fast forward another hour, to a good deep hit - a bit odd sounding though.
I didn't know what to expect, but was glad to see another large 10 penniä copper. Napkin (my last one).
Scanning the hole, there was still a signal there. Another double hit!
I recovered a fourth silver - another 25 penniä coin.
As I now had run out of napkins, I had to pack two previously dug coppers together to free up an extra one for this coin
25 penniä 1889
After this, things started going downhill a bit, and during the last three hours I got a few older coppers, including a new type, Alexander II (1860's) 5 penniä - but no more silver.
Edit: Here's a picture of the 5 penniä coin
What a day! There's a whole bunch of coins here, each of which would normally have been the highlight of the day.
Here's the whole lot!
Thanks for looking! Happy hunting!
-Z
Minelab: GPX 5000, Excalibur II, Explorer SE. White's: MXT, PI Pro
0
Comments
Oh yeah one more thing......... YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats on finding that old Finnish silver finally!
The 1 Markka is outstanding!!
BTW- did I mention you really suck!
Gary
WTG Zot!
(but I have to warn you, I'm going to give you a run for your money this month...
haven't posted it yet, but I think you're going to like this one
<< <i>I'm going to give you a run for your money this month... >>
Bring it on!
I'm not done myself yet, either
Them un-brown, rather shiny things are sweet.
I'm still working on breaking the 2 silver/day barrier.
<< <i>I'm going to give you a run for your money this month... >>
I may have given a 'walk', with a 1787 German states Schilling, but my picture computer crashed again.
<< <i>1787 German states Schilling >>
(hints on my recent foreign= silver, my 2nd oldest coin found and it has a picture of Napoleon on it)
Look what you started Zot!!!
Bad Zot, bad, bad, bad!!!
<< <i>(hints on my recent foreign= silver, my 2nd oldest coin found and it has a picture of Napoleon on it) >>
There's a zillion silver coins with Napoleon on them, but I'm most likely toast no matter which one it is..
For the moment.
-Z (setting his alarm clock for tomorrow in light of recent trend of suckiness among fellow forum members
You crack me up Z-man! haha
(also, my apologies for hi-jacking your post... after pulling my old coin, I just had a feeling
you were going to pull some old silver this month though!!!)
Sounds like there's even a silver race going on this month too.
When it rains it pours...
But in your case I hope it's warm and sunny so you can get back out to that spot tomorrow!
Looking forward to seeing the great stuff you pull out of there!
Congrats on all the finds and Merry Christmas to you!!!
Your going to have to go back there now as there is more silver waiting for you.HH,Tom
Let's see... what kind of critter really sucks?
Here, how about a vampire bat?
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