Erik Oostra

I fully agree but I was also a bit surprised by how the general public can view our community.. although i've had a few encounters with people who saw me as a 'scab' (someone preying on the misfortunes of others).. I also didn't realise that in England these 'bad apples' had a name: Night Hawkers.. does sound pretty exotic..

This caught my attention.. didn't know it was as bad as all that.. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jun/02/theres-a-romanticism-about-nighthawking-but-its-theft-when-metal-detectorists-go-rogue

Found this on social media.. had a bit of a chuckle, humour will see us through this thing..

Just been trying to find out what a Ch'ien-lung coin is worth, I had dreams of making my fortune but it’s only worth around $11 on eBay.. Nonetheless it’s still one of my best finds yet, if only thinking about the story behind it and how it ended up on Magnetic Island (if only it could talk).. The only thing that puzzles me is that it has a character on the top of the reverse side which none of the others on that site have, maybe it was a limited edition and might be worth a fortune after all.. 😃 It’s dated from around the time when the first fleet got to Australia in 1788 and way before this part of the country was first settled (from 1864).. It’s pretty mind boggling to say the least.. Also had another good morning at Alma Bay, found another tungsten carbine ring (they seem to be popular), gold rimmed Ray Ban sunglasses and a few dollars’ worth of coins..

Phrunt, you were spot on again, it is that coin! That site recons it was made during the reign of the Ch'ien-lung Emperor (AD 1736-1795).. Thanks a lot for your excellent research! You spotted it way before i did.. This is a little blurb about him that i found online: The Ch'ien-lung Emperor was the sixth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigned from 1735 to 1796. Ch'ien-lung is thought of as one of the most brilliant rulers in Chinese history. He was a patron of the arts, which reached a very high level during his reign. His is also one of the few Chinese emperors to abdicate the throne, which he did to honor K'ang Hsi (his father) by ending his reign just before it would have exceeded the length of K'ang Hsi's reign. It boggles my mind how that coin ended up in Radical Bay of all places..

it's gonna be a long night.. wonder how it ended up in Radical Bay.. you were spot on about concentrating on old coins.. didn't think they'd be Chinese though..

just reading what it says on that site: The most commonly encountered Chinese cash date from the Ching Dynasty and have the Manchurian "BOO" character on the reverse left hand side..

Crikey! this one doesn't have the same characters as the ones shown on the site.. this doesn't mean it's not an old Chinese coin.. am looking further into it.. could be my best find yet if it turns out something ancient.. thanks a lot for your help here mate!.. i thought it was a gimmicky medallion of some sort..

Thanks a million mate, you've made me a wealthy man! I'm not sure what the Chinese coin is.. or even if it is a coin.. can't find anything resembling it online.. maybe some sort of medallion.. there were some rumours of a Chinese Fleet having visited Townsville in the 1420s but I'm not holding my breath on that one.. 😜

the coins were worth $10.20.. my maths has always been crap.. but it turns out i'm richer than i thought.. enough for a few hard-earned beers anyway..

This morning’s haul at Radical Bay, nowhere near as many silver coins as I’d expected (a total of $9.90) but I didn’t spend as much time there as on the last trip because tourists were starting to arrive and I hate being a preforming monkey (I’m just shy that way).. By far the best finds today were a ring with little diamonds all around it and some nice shells on the beach.. Some odd things were a padlock and a little pulley, just some of the weird things people take camping I guess.. I’d paddled my kayak out there as I’m not a great fan of hiking up and down steep hills.. took about twice as long but paddling around the island is no great hardship (just dodging the weekend boaties is a bit of a pain in the arse).. I’ll be back at Radical Bay next week as I’m sure there’s a lot more there, including ‘old’ coins like the few 2 cent pieces which were in the camping area.. In the meantime I'm off to my home bay (Alma Bay) early tomorrow morning to make the most of the very low tide (1:55 am), this allows me to search where people have been swimming and hopefully find a lost a ring or two.. I think the Germans call this 'schadenfreude' where you take delight in another person's misfortune, something gold detector prospectors never have to worry about..

its a shame you can't post videos on this forum.. i tried to post it by linking it to my facebook page but it obviously hasn't worked.. here's a video snapshot of what it was all about..

This is Radical Bay, my favourite bay on the island (not just because of all the coins to be found there).. the photo shows the camping areas behind the bay and the Palm Islands in the background.. I'm going back there tomorrow on my kayak for all the silver coins i left behind last time.. will also hit the beach this time and not just the camping areas..

No that's it, sorry to get your hopes up mate.. but you can find out what happened on my next posts..

Yes it's tiny, it doesn't even fit my pinky.. but here's a better photo..

2Valen, i wish it was.. it's a tiny silver ring with a little turtle..

Thanks for those target id's.. I've been keeping my eye open for old coins as well, especially at Picnic Bay where I've found a few Australian 3 and 6 pence and a shilling (with a ram's head).. even though i'd been over that beach many times we've had a few very high tides which revealed them all in the same patch.. their id numbers varied wildly depending on the corrosion.. it's even a joy finding 1 and 2 cent pieces.. I'm sure there's more old coins to be found at the other bays and historical sites like the old school, the Fords (a WW2 anti aircraft installation) and the old quarantine station..

Phrunt, sure was! now it's just a matter of going back for all those 16, 16, 13, 10, 13, 16, 10, 13, 16, 10, 16, 10s

Its been a while since I’ve posted anything as I’ve been away up north and when I got back to the island I was evicted from my house (rental).. The sewage tank had collapsed and my house been declared uninhabitable as a health hazard.. Crap way to start the year (pun intended).. Nonetheless, this morning’s coin-shooting expedition at Radical Bay made up for it, at least it’s put me in a much better mood.. I found $65 and 4 cents (‘old’ Australian coins 1 and 2 cent pieces).. Plus a $25 casino chip (it’s got a metal centre), a tungsten carbine wedding ring (worth between $250 - $300 online), some other pieces of jewellery and a hash pipe.. Whilst this bay was once a popular camping spot it has become isolated since January when we had over 260mm of rain in 5 hours which has washed away the access road.. I don’t think anyone has ever been there with a metal detector.. The first thing I noticed was the huge amount of rubbish metal in the ground with no end of bottle tops, ring pulls and old cans.. So much so that I decided only to dig for gold coins ($1 and $2) and 50 cent pieces, leaving all the other silver coins behind for my next trip.. I concentrated on the camping areas along the bay set amongst the vine and palm trees as the beach itself was yielding very little.. As I said this little haul has restored my faith in this wonderful world, all it needed was to let lose my Foxy Noxy..

Crikey, that's quite a recommendation! Considering your aversion to Chinese knockoffs, are you being sarcastic? If not, that's an awesome range of coil sizes.. Do they work as good as the real deal? or is it like anything else, you get what you pay for? For a cheapskate like me these coils could be a dream come true..

G'day Chase, is this really the case? are Vanquish and Equinox coils interchangeable? If it is it could be a cheap option to obtain a smaller coil for my Foxy Noxy.. I could get the Vanquish Pro Pack with two coils ( 8" and 12" DD Smart Coils) for nearly the same price as the smallest Equinox coil (and add another detector to the arsenal).. Am hoping this could work as both detectors are Multi-IQ (unless not all Multi-IQ is created equal).. I've read elsewhere (see link below) that the Vanquish 340 operates on 7, 18 and 75 kHz (i'm assuming these frequencies are the same for the other models).. Maybe these frequencies would cause havoc with Foxy Noxy which operates on 5, 10 and 15 kHz.. I'll admit to being a bit of a frequency freak but i'm with some of the others on this forum who'd also like to know what frequency or frequencies their machines are operating on.. In my mind this also applies to Multi-IQ, what's the great secret with the Vanquish? Does keeping the operating frequencies a closely guarded enigma create extra mystique for potential customers? I'd say just get out with it and tell the good folks what frequencies the thing operates on.. let the punters decide from there.. http://thesilverfiend.com/upcoming-minelab-vanquish-metal-detector/

This is what my first gold ring looks like up close under a magnifying glass.. bit of a shaky shot but it does show the little diamonds.. this and the little sixpence have more than paid for the Equinox 600 many times over.. if only in the sheer joy of finding them.. The Equinox is far out-performing its high expectations.. i've taken to calling it 'Foxy Noxy' (i'm sure i'm not the first)..

Thanks 2Valen, the gold ring and the one with a stone were found at Alma Bay.. am still not sure about what it is.. don't think it's a diamond because it is set in a sterling silver ring (925).. it turns out the gold ring is the one with diamonds, six tiny ones set in little 'love hearts'.. i didn't see them at first but had a closer look with my reading glasses and there they were! I'd been waiting for an opportunity to search in the surf zone and around the granite boulders that people jump off at high tide.. the sand doesn't slope as steeply into the sea at Alma as it does in other bays and there's a deep gully where the sand meets the sea floor.. when the Equinox arrived it was open season on the wet stuff.. i've been following the low tides around all the island's bays but some are very hard to get to with access roads washed out.. I also found a George VI Australian Sixpence (1952) on a beach which keeps getting washed away in storms.. i think it could have been in amongst the dredged sand from the boat channel into the marina, they're using this sand to constantly rebuild the beach.. the sixpence was hardly recognisable from what it's supposed to look like and has lost its silvery appearance.. still one of my best finds, so far.. if only when i think about the horrors this little sixpence underwent before it joined my collection..