geof_junk

2 hours ago, GhostMiner said:

   Now the question becomes will this group...... 

...........of prospectors continue mining the same way with all that cash, I see an increase in equipment and mining activity coming soon.

4 hours ago, Erik Oostra said:

G'day Geoff.. Do you know what they mean by 'East Africa'? Is it just modern day Kenya or does it also include Uganda and Tanzania?   

This link might help.       ....LINK....

Here is some relative information from it.

First East African shilling

Unlike elsewhere in the possessions of the British Empire that used sterling, in British East Africa the shilling instead of the pound was the primary unit of account, with the pound being a superunit mainly used for recording very large sums of money that would be inconvenient if quoted solely in shillings.

This anomalous state of affairs arose because the first currency used by the British colonial authorities in British East Africa was the rupee, not sterling. The East African shilling was introduced to Kenya, Tanganyika, and Uganda in 1921, replacing the short-lived East African florin at a rate of 2 shillings to 1 florin. The florin had been introduced because of increasing silver prices after World War I. At that time, the Indian rupee was the currency of the British East African states. The rupee, being a silver coin, rose in value against sterling. When it reached the value of two shillings, the authorities decided to replace it with the florin. From the florin thence came the East African shilling. The currency remained pegged to one shilling sterling and was subdivided into 100 cents.^[2][3][4] In 1936, Zanzibar joined the currency board, and the Zanzibari rupee was replaced at a rate of 1/50 to 1 Zanzibari rupee.^[3] It was replaced by local currencies (Kenyan shilling, Ugandan shilling, and Tanzanian shilling) following the territories' independence.^[2][3][4]

In 1951, the East African shilling replaced the Indian rupee in the Aden colony and protectorate, which became the South Arabian Federation in 1963. In 1965, the East African Currency Board was breaking up, and the South Arabian dinar replaced the shilling in the South Arabian Federation at a rate of 20/= to 1 dinar.^[1][5]

The shilling was also used in parts of what is now Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea when they were under British control. Before 1941, these areas, then known as Italian East Africa, used the Italian East African lira. In 1941, as a result of World War II, Britain regained control and introduced the shilling, at a rate of 1/= to 24 Lire. Italian Somaliland was returned to Italy in 1949 as a UN Trusteeship and soon switched to the somalo, which was at par with the shilling. British Somaliland gained independence in 1960, and joined what had been Italian Somaliland to create Somalia. In that year, Somalia began using the Somali shilling (replacing the Somali somalo) at par with the East African shilling.^[6]

Ethiopia regained independence in 1941, with British support, and began using the East African shilling. Maria Theresa thalers, Indian rupees, and Egyptian pounds were also legal tender at the beginning of this time, and it is unclear exactly when this status ended. Full sovereignty was restored in late 1944, and the Ethiopian dollar was reintroduced in 1945 at a rate of $1 = 2/=.^[7] Eritrea was captured from the Italians in 1941, and began using the East African shilling, as well as the Egyptian pound. The lira was demonetised in 1942. When Eritrea formed a federation with Ethiopia in 1952, the dollar, which was already in use in Ethiopia, was also adopted in Eritrea.^[8]

Second East African shilling[edit]

A revived version of the currency has been proposed by the East African Community, which consists of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan.

It had been proposed that the Second East African shilling would be introduced into circulation in 2012, but the target was not met. A second target date of 2015 was set, but that was not met either. The third target date is 2024.^[9]

I found and still have an African coin that I found back in the early 1980s that I still have in my collection some where. I collect any coin with the 1948 date the year of mine and the younger King Charles birth year. I really like the coin because of the values on it (50 cents or half a shilling) as well. The photo show is the coin but not from my collection. 

Better to keep your mouth shut than take a claim. I took a claim out on a spot where I got 26+ ounces from first. All it did was bring it to everyone else's attention. By being careful I have had two spot that the wife and I got over 1 kilo from one and more than 2 kilo from another with out being followed by others and leaving no trace of working it for others to see.

Using the Neo Magnet did you have it covered with a cloth to help moving the black sand from it.

2 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

My autograph is only worth anything if it’s on a check. 

It is not worth much in Ozzie unless it is on a Cheque here. 🤑😀

Some prices of Crotal bells

A word of warning in WA wet soil, if you start getting bogged, reverse back out. Going forward normally mean you will get in a bigger bog. That red dust when wet will stop everything on wheels with little warning.

The Flumes were the ground is not flat (normally just a trench) that I have seen here in Aus look very similar. I have also seen and old "wooden pipework" town water supply, it was circular and held together with wire. It was about 13 Km long the area was very hilly and at one spot they dug a tunnel through a ridge.

13 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

Finders is back, but who knows for how long.

Suspended Again.🤕 

The adverts say it's 90% detector and 10% operator.

The Experts say it's 90% operator and 10% detector.

As to how much a detector is worth paying for depends on the amount of time you spend using it.

The targets/finds depends on time spent searching and the selection of location and who got there before you.

In summary. Consider the time you will use it and how important your time is. If your use/value is high get the detector with the higher features and price. To justify your choice divide the price by the hours you would use it, if it is too high drop down a level or so.  REMEMBER you are the one that has to put up the cash. 

The large one is in the dwt range at 1.2+ dwt (ie 20% larger) The next step is a ¼ ounce or bigger. 🤑

It is great when you get an accurate lost location. I looked for a couple of hours for a wedding ring. She said it was on the front lawn as she had spent all day there. The location was full of junk and no ring. About 3 months later it was found in the house when it fell out of the phone book. As it was a work mate wife he could not apologies more for the time spent on the junk laden front lawn. ☺️

Spot on Larry, and a heap more even some of them just posting their learning trip.

1 minute ago, Reg Wilson said:

Finders was the oldest forum in Australia. It has fallen foul of sabotage from a most undesirable forum.

A lot of good posts from early days are there. Ken Roberts told me he was setting it up years ago. I visits for  ages before I join in the early 2000s. It seem to have gone through a few bad times were good poster left or died, from 2015 onwards and the new members that join to cause mischief. 

In the early 1980s that size musket balls were quiet common in the Victorian gold fields. Being an early colony of UK in the 1850 gold rushes, it is not surprising.

Finders went down for a while, then had a quick return and got flooded with porn and died again.

Seeing all of mine are from AUSTRALIA and your monitor is not large enough to fit it on, I will refrain for breaking the rules and not post my larges. 😜  By the way all of those USA nugget look great beside the one being eaten so next time Gerry shave before taking the photo. 😁 

The area there is in a  National Park so not permitted. No panning in most rivers and creeks allowed due to it may cause Mercury contamination down stream from original mining in the area.

A great write up. I had a small scale claim in Australia nearly 40 years ago. The procedure to get it was full of red tape with BulllSh!t regulations that made the whole process a nightmare. Never again. How do you cope with the RED TAPE.

8 hours ago, fogrider said:

I love the 600. It does everything so well. Now that I've learned it's "voice", I can tell exactly what I'm detecting. It works so well for coins-on-edge, and it hit a dime on edge at 6 inches deep.

Yes, imagine if I had this machine back in the 80"s! How many coins did I miss?!

The settings that seem to work best up here are Park1, 22-40 Accept, 5 tones, Sensitivity 25, 15 kHz, Recovery 1.

I found an old Garrett for 20 bucks at a garage sale a month ago. It's pleasantly nostalgic, but quite the "beast".

 

 

I had to buy one of the first Garrett ADS for the wife when they were released at a cost of 4 ounces of gold but it paid for it self many times over. At $20 I might be able to pay for it with finds even today as that is less than a ¼gram now. 😄

It looks like ML would be better off swapping a faulty coil with another brand as it will save multiple postage costs 🤑. Lanny, a gentleman like yourself is welcome in Australia and I would supply you with snake, shark and dropbear repellent for free. 😁

Some nice finds there, well done. How would you like to have had the Equinox 600 back in the early 1980s.

The stuff  (Fiat Money) you get for selling it is doing no better.

2 hours ago, phrunt said:

Looks like you're all out of luck and it's developed a fault, if it's out of warranty there is little you can do, fortunately it's not an expensive detector to replace.   Just make sure your coil is done up tightly but there isn't much else you can do.

As Simon said not much you can do but check all cable, earphone and batteries connections. Let hope that is all it is.