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Today was probably the most brutal hunt I can think of so far. Today looked good about a week ago when I was talking to Chase, so we decided to do some hunting on a permission we've been to before, he stopped there on his way to another detecting event. I got out there early, it rained a bit on the way, and the weather had changed quite a bit, from initially a nice day in the 50s, to a cold day with winds near 50mph. At first the wind had stopped completely, last night we lost power it was so bad. I was happy to see that it was still in the low 40s and thought we might have a day more like we expected. Well that didn't happen. The sun came out but as it did the wind picked up, and as the day wore on the temperature dropped. I think it was about 37 by the time we got sick of the wind hammering us. Pretty much all we got today was buttons, but some good ones. Finding really old Tombacs is always a good thing for me anyway. I ended up with 7, and the smallest thimble I've ever found. Got a corset hook, a buckle bit, and some of device that looks like a very old rank insignia, but I really don't know. I also have no clue what the little square with the "eyes" is. We've been over the spots we were hunting today, I brought my WS6 Master rig with the 9" coil to see if I could scratch out some more stuff, and was pleased with the result. I ran Relic at 40 kHz max to catch the small stuff and anything that might be on edge. Almost everything I got was small. 😅 Best find was an 1814-1821 artillery button, first one I've ever found. It seems to be Tombac, not brass: Here's a sidelight for detail: And here is what it would look like if it wasn't dug in my acidic soil: Trash was about right for this place: I brought the root back because it had a BB embedded in it, I thought that was funny. It took a long time to find it. 🤪 I don't think I'll be going out in the wind much like that anymore. 😵

I had a lot of stuff to do around the house for the last 6 days, couldn't wait to get out to the old house again, despite how cold it was today. It started out at 32 degrees, and ended up at 38. 🥶 I have Reynaud's in my hands and feet, so I brought two handwarmers and kept them in my vest. I sure needed them, as most of my hunting was in the shade. I was in the shade of the treeline in the distance. Where it was darker the ground was frozen about an inch down, so it wasn't too bad. I just had to break through it in spots. Today I had the WS6 Master with the 9" coil. My goal was to search places I had not looked, there is a lot of erosion where I was today. Lots of large and deep fissures that were difficult to hunt. It ended up being a really good day, I got a find I have been hoping to get for a long time now 🥳. Trash was the usual stuff: Lots of busted brass and copper, buck and musket balls, some harmonica bits. Here are the large finds, one is a broken rein guide, one might be a barrel tap plug, and I have no idea what the center item is: And now the finds, a lot of really old stuff. 3 Tombacs, brass buttons, plates and horse tack. A large buckle in 3 pieces, a pin with threads on it. The thing above the big buckle has a hole on either end, I'm guessing some sort of handle. At the edge of the field I got a solid 88, and dug my find of the day: A 1776 silver 1 Real coin minted in Mexico. This is a first for me, to find one of the larger Reales in such great shape without a hole! I also found what I think is a pistareen: It's silver, about the size of the Real: It is marked with suspiciously Spanish symbols on both sides. Despite the cold it was a great day! 🍀

I have to say that this farm is not the most productive place I've ever hunted, but I'm doing ok. In 4 visits I've covered about 3/4 of the place, and got some pretty good relics and coins. I kinda expected more but imagine I'm not the only one that has detected there. There is one spot loaded with aluminum bits, another that has a lot of molten lead, and yesterday I found what was probably a barn site that is nothing but nails. I've been lucky hunting one side where stuff was dragged out by the farm equipment, but I'll have to consider higher reactivity or other coils for the barn spot. It also has lots of steel bits which was probably from a roof, I have a place like that in front of my house. I walked about 6 miles again, made some great random finds but also dug a lot of trash. I must have walked a fence line because I found a lot of copper fence wire. Here are some of the interesting large finds, someone here once told me what the spiral wire thing is but I forgot. Got a musket ball and a couple of post-civil war minié balls, what might have been part of a stirrup and a really cool rein guide. The porcelain "Frozen Charlotte" doll head was on the surface. They were popular from the mid 1800s to early 1900. The strangest large object was this: A brass strip with a triangular pocket. No clue. 🤔 Here are the finds, some unrecognizable bits, a really nice large tombac, rose tag, some kind of reed, some brass buttons and a lead button. I dug a pretty toasted KG2 halfpenny, and a 190x V nickel was my last find. Using 40kHz in Relic netted me this small silver object, possibly a "Tree of Life" pin, the trunk is missing. You can see where it was attached and the pin weld on the back, size compared with the Trime I dug here the first day: Yep, it's that small, and thin. It was also about 8" deep. I looked for the school house, but there is nothing near where it was, and a new house has been built further in, so next I'll look for the old church that they say was here. I'll probably only find random stuff from now on. I'm going to dig the yard, but it will be a trash fest 😬 🍀

Back at the old farmhouse today! I gave the landowner some of the stuff from last time, the silver spoon bowl and the flintlock trigger guard. The farm apparently has a barren section, a place behind the house where relics are extremely old, and then what I call "Aluminum Alley", the next spot is loaded with iron and lots of can slaw. 😵 I have not got to the largest field yet, but I did walk through it and it made the day better. Trash was hellacious this time, lots of small lead and bullets, large junk too. Despite all that, got some pretty cool relics, I think I found the rest of the barrel tap, it was really far away from where I found the spout. I found a drawer pull, buckle bit, the end of a skeleton key, a very small rectangular buckle, a silvered Dandy button, a small strap with initials on it, and a small General Service cuff button. I also found this cool token: The Crescent Machine company of Ohio, they made woodworking machines until about 1946. https://mycompanies.fandom.com/wiki/Crescent_Machine_Company This is the serial number for a really early one, the company started in the 1890s. This strip of copper or brass has initials, it looks like it was linked: And here are the coins I dug today, when I was leaving I took an arc through the big field and scored the 1887 IHP and the 1899 Barber dime: The wheat is a 1920. 🍀

Another installment of digging at the small farm, got out yesterday to do some digging. I met up with the owner who provided more history of the place, and I gave him the crotal bell I dug 😢 along with some of the other artifacts that are too big to display. The owner said his wife would be thrilled! It's going to take a while to get through this place, thankfully there isn't a lot of newer trash in the ground. It's really an honor to do this for them, but as I surmised they are not particularly wanting everything, but they do want me to be forthright about what I find. I have no problem with that. It was a beautiful day, the ground was perfect, not too wet or dry. I started at the bottom of this hill looking for stuff that might have washed down it, in my scouting trip I got a Trime so I knew there would be more. Nothing at the bottom where the field is eroding, but starting a little higher produced some great results: A mix of the old and newer, not sure what the object with the square hole is on the top left, but the trigger guard, rein guide, Tombacs, brass buttons including one I've found before, buckle bits and a nearly complete 1700's shoe buckle, and a Braided hair large cent (no date 😵) made it a great day. The knife blade appears to be Tombac and the silver object below the trigger guard is a taco'ed spoon bowl that I can't straighten. The round object in the bottom row is what I believe to be a paper collar stud, possibly silver backed with a brass stud. There may be a cap missing for the back: I had to read it backwards but it is stamped "Gold Twist London". The front has some indecipherable text but I'll try to find out what it says. I'm going to be making a display box for these nice people and the size of it will be determined by the amount of stuff I find 🙂 🍀

Today I invited Chase down to go to a new permission that I had doubts about, but I shouldn't have. We met up at a place we hit before, searched it a bit but all I got was an 1898 IHP. We decided to go to the new place. It's around 50 acres with one carved out for a farmhouse, someone lives there. Corn stalks and cover crop, despite the drought it was fairly easy to dig. We walked the field for about 30 minutes or so, and found nothing at all but some small aluminum bits. Then we got closer to the road, and at almost the same time Chase dug an IHP and I got my first button: We heard lots of iron in this spot, so we figured we probably found a hotspot, and it turned out to be pretty good, later we found a second one. Here's my haul, 7 buttons - a big dandy and one tombac, a pipe tamper with the top missing, a rectangular buckle marked "1850", an odd piece of metal that I can't really identify but it's not lead. An old spectacle buckle, a round lead disc with cut marks on it, a lock slide marked D.M. & Co, and 3 copper coins, one large cent, one about the size of a farthing, and the IHP. Sadly the two older coins are toasted, if I can get any details I'll update this post. I also got one piece of cast silver that is hand engraved, concave, and broken: Not sure what this is. But it's cast silver! Here's the trash, not bad, we picked up all aluminum to make sure it wasn't masking anything. I hope Chase will post his finds either here or on his own, it was a surprisingly great day. 🍀

I thought it was going to be a nice day today, sunny and in the 60s with a bit of wind, but not what it ended up being. There was no wind at all when I got there, it was cloudy and kinda cold, in the 40s. My goal was to check out the last spot Chase and I didn't get to, about an 8 acre spot. I found nothing there. ? Nothing. But, in 7 hours and 7 miles of walking, I managed to get a few things, random stuff here and there: 7 more buttons, two of which may not be, the octagon and the misshapen one 3d from the left. A few buckle bits and a whole buckle. Only 4 came from the button hotspot. What really stands out is the smallest thing in the button row, I've found plenty of buttons with no shanks, but never a shank with no button! It was about 4" deep, a solid 51. The Deus hit it like it was on the surface. Also dug a 1945 wheat. I don't get much trash using relic with the 13", and today was no exception. By the end of they day the wind was blowing 20mph with gusts to 35, I really couldn't hear targets through the WSA II headphones, so I called it early.

It was way too windy to cut my grass yesterday, and I'd only be cutting the grass that grew with the dew, the drought continues. 😵 I only had about 3 hours of light left by the time I got stuff done, and my wife said "well you could go out"... So I did and I'm glad I did. Went to the largest part of this enormous farm down the road, I've found and hit most of the hotspots so only random finds remain, literally half of the 200 acre farm is relatively barren. My first find was a wheat penny as soon as I started, but I knew it would be a while before I found something else, I didn't expect much. Got a nice ball button in a particularly trashy area nearby, and then nothing for a long time crossing the field. I decided to head back via a spot where a few random things surfaced in the past - nothing, nothing, nothing, then bam, got a 95 on the Deus. I said "Say it isn't so" out loud! 🤣 I used to whine and cry that I never found a Barber coin until I did, but 2024 has been The Year of the Barber for me, in the last 3 weeks or so I think I've found around 8 of them, and I think 4 quarters. My thank you for coming token was a flat button nearby, I think a more detailed search of this spot is in order. 🤔 Trash wasn't bad at all, there wasn't much out there. Here's a pic of the back of the coin for the numismatists: 🍀

I wasn't going to post my last two days of hunting, really didn't get out for long and only found a few things, I was in a field near my house that produced my most valuable find - an 1803 Draped Bust Half Dime. I found a bunch of buttons with it, and was wondering if I'd find anything else in that area. I had also found a 1/2 real Cob there on another trip. It's a fairly small field, about a fifth of the whole place, it's way out back and ends in a point on a river. Very valuable land my farmer friends own! First day I was only out there a couple hours, I have a lot going on but managed to get about 3 out there. I got a small handful of trash, a couple of musket balls, a lot of buckshot, and a lot of harmonica bits. Today my trash was similar: I did get a really old doorknob with the iron shank, a tack stud, and a pile of lead again. Here's what I found that was interesting: A solid brass divider tool, a small one probably used for navigation or cartography. I found one like it that was estimated to be from 1650 to 1750. Wow! You can see with the other objects it is small. Got a clad quarter, a nice 1901 IHP, a thimble tip, a really strange object with leather sandwiched in it that is sadly broken, a red cattle tag, and some sort of plug. Also a small button with the shank. I'm thinking there was a mapping expedition here, and the divider was lost. They may have lost some of the buttons as well. I hope to free the device up and polish it a bit if possible, but it may be pretty valuable as is. 🤔

As @Joe D. wrote, "the third time is the charm!" It was 39 this morning when I got to the beach, but it warmed up fast. I was late for low tide so I was worried that I wouldn't find much, but I started finding old coins and relics right away! As soon as I walked down to "the spot", I dug this 1913 Barber dime. 🥳 It was like that for the next 3 hours or so, I walked to other spots on the beach and found nothing but clad. Here's everything old: 1914 Barber Quarter, Barber dime, 3 Mercury dimes from 1918 to 1941, two Buffalo nickels, and two pre 1960 Jeffersons. 7 wheats, I'm going to tumble them all from my recent visits to get dates. Got what I think might be an old dog tag, it says "TAX" on it and has a stamped serial number on the back. A garter clasp, a Washington DC bus token, a small lock with engraved initials, a key and a small piece of jewelry with a stone. Here's the trash, a good portion of it came from looking elsewhere. 5 more silver coins! So far I've found 10 or so here over the 3 visits.

A lot of my farm permissions are starting to open up due to the month long (as of today) drought. The farmers say they've never got their crops in so early, the corn was a loss due to the early year drought but soybeans were right in the pocket for all the rain. Despite the dry, the weather here has been incredible, I'm still trying to finish up beach hunting but after today I may have to spend more time at the beach because digging the ground here is like hammering concrete. Today I invited Chase down to hit some open farms, we ended up going to 3 because the first one I went to before he got there was planted with winter wheat. Always check with the farmer to find out what is there. The 3 we finally visited were only turbo tilled, so maybe the first 2-4" were soft and dusty, but below that dry and hard packed ground. It's going to take a lot to get to where we usually are this year. It was a long day but not unproductive, I managed to get a few things, and a couple of strange things I've not seen before: I ended up with 5 buttons and 5 coins. One button may not be one, it is extremely old, heavy, and has an unusual back: And the front appears to have had some decoration and maybe lettering a couple hundred years ago: If anyone recognizes this as something else I would appreciate knowing, it may be a broach or something. Regardless it is crude and very old. The best button was this basket weave Treble Gilt: I cleaned it up a bit with lemon juice to bring out the gold. I've found a few of these in the past but not with this blackmark: Got a thin flat, a fat flat with the shank still intact, even some thread in it that fell out. Also a button back with stamped lettering that I can't make out. 5 coins, one Buffalo nickel and 4 wheats, the latest is 1951. Here's what I had to dig for all that: The usual stuff. One last thing, if anyone can tell me what this object is that would be cool: At first I thought it was a light bulb socket but it's way older than that, thick heavy brass. It kinda looks like a bottle of some kind. 🤔 It was a great day to be outside. At the end we got a possible 1,000 Acre permission nearby. 🤞

Beautiful weather here this week, but the ground is drying up so I need to get out as much as possible. No rain in sight for the next 15 days. 😵 I have a permission where I dug a half of a 1607 King James 1 sixpence, and recently got permission to hunt the land across the road as well. Earlier in the week I scouted the new place, and used ONX Hunt to mark a spot in the middle of the field where I detected a possible deep coin. I only had a composite trowel, and after getting down 4 inches I still couldn't hear the target with my MI-6. I marked the spot in ONX and left. The landowner of the new permission mentioned that he might sell some of the land and to check with him after the corn was harvested. I sent him a text in the morning, but didn't immediately hear back from him so I went across the road to my other permission. The corn was cut really short and may have been bush hogged, a very fortunate instance. I really dislike hunting in corn stalks but these were cut right to the ground. In about 4 hours hunting the spot where I found an assortment of extremely old relics and the coin dating to the first explorers here, I did pretty well: A large coat button, a silver wash button, a small decorated cuff button, drawer knob, half of a knee buckle, either a rivet or collar stud, a small triangle that may be a cut coin, and a pewter object that says "Police Whistle". I tried to find a whistle with similar stamping but could not. The really old buttons came from the area where I dug the KJ1 sixpence, so they are probably from that period. The whistle bit came from the edge of the field near the road. I got a text later in the day from the landowner saying it was ok to hunt the field across the road, so I used ONX Hunt to get to the spot I got that coin signal in. I'm pretty impressed with how accurate that app is. I dug down and about 8-12" down was a 1934 wheat penny. That and some other finds came up, nothing impressive except for the last find of the day which gave me hope for this field: An old thin button. The farm is about 40 acres so I'll have a lot of searching to do! Trash was pretty much all firearm related, including a live shotgun shell. Just a few bits of aluminum and steel, you have to dig those buck balls if you want buttons. It was nice to add a few more bits to my KJ1 box.

I'm getting ready for my last camping trip of the year this week, really didn't have time to travel to a permission, but this afternoon I got this really strong feeling that I should hunt a small field behind my house. I'm glad I did. The field is only about and acre or so, I've found an early buckle, some buttons and tombacs here. I really thought today that I would find a coin. If you can you should always follow your hunches, if you get a feeling in the field that you ought to "go over there", DO IT. I have found many great things this way. Today was no exception, and a great feeling. I didn't get much junk: Just a few headstamps and an old copper nail. I think the pull tab is probably from the War of 1812 🙄 The British came up the river behind my house and brought a lot of beer. 🤣 Seriously though, my relic finds were cool: A lead weight or game piece, a lock box keyhole escutcheon, an old brass thimble, and the coin I thought I would find: An 1869 IHP, a semi-key date coin in its own right, only 6 million were minted. It's in pretty good shape, but examining it under my coin microscope revealed another attribute that makes it even more desirable, the "9 over 9" restrike. Here is a pic from the USA coin book: I'm pretty sure of it. 🥳 Follow your hunches! 🍀

Don't know what it is this year, for the second time I've found gold that came with a moral obligation 🤔 Apparently the karma from the last time I found gold and "did the right thing" led me to an even greater test, I hope I passed... This past week I noticed one of my permissions had been harvested of corn, they cut it really short. I've been eager to get out and relic hunt, this particular spot has been hit hard, but I hoped I'd find something and I did. Got out there fairly early, and decided to look for a gold coin that I was originally asked to find when I first got this permission. I poked around for about 45 minutes or so where they told me the coin should be, only hearing and digging aluminum. I wanted to go to other parts of the 67 acre field, so I headed out feeling I had done my due diligence. I've spent hours looking for that coin over the last couple of years. Today I brought my WS6 Master setup with the 9" coil. I figured the 9" would be easier to get around the corn stalks but the battery wore down fast, later I switched to my trusty 13" coil and the RC. Not 5 minutes into my walk across the field I got an upper mid tone, and a solid 79 in all directions. I'd been finding nothing, so I was glad to finally find something. It was more than something: 1886 S $5 gold coin. It also had a gold bezel around it but it was mangled. There was also a chain, I'll have to look for that some more but it's probably part of a tilling machine now. 🙄 The landowner drove up, and joked with me that he now wants half of everything I find, and I said "How about everything I've found today?", and held out the coin. You should have seen his face. I said "But wait, there's more!" and handed him the bent bezel. This coin has been lost for a long time, probably 5-10 years or so. The landowner thought he knew where it was lost, but it wasn't near that today. There is a long story behind all this but I've written enough about it. He did say he felt bad taking it from me, but I said "Honor feels much better than deceit", and I thanked him for all the stuff he did let me have. Nothing I've found was as valuable or desirable as this coin, but I've done well. He also has now allowed me to hunt around the house. 🙂 This coin and another were passed down by the original builder of the farmhouse. I also did good afterward: Mid sized button with shank and no marks, a broken brass object I believe to be a small crotal bell, a suspender clip that is decorated with a fish and a dragonfly, and a large copper or brass strap. Also got a small lock slide. The best objects are the two small buttons: Really old one with decoration; And a most interesting ball button with no base, the shank soldered inside. I figured out why I got so much trash: This might be some good advice to the more inexperienced with the Deus 2. I've been hunting all summer in full tones, if you follow my posts the trash got to be less than the good finds. It didn't start that way, listening to the tonal nuances was the process that got me a successful summer. Now I'm using Relic with pitch tones and I'll have to learn it all over again. 🤔 My point is that bouncing around different programs with different tones will mess you up. Find programs and settings that work, and stick with them. It will get better. I use a modified Beach Sensitive and Relic, that's pretty much it. I might switch between the two to verify a target, but that happens increasingly less. Relic for relics, and Beach for beach. Ok, I have one question for y'all, am I now in the Gold Coin club, or am I disqualified because I "knew" it was there? It was lost the same as any gold coin gets lost... Anyway a great day. Yet again I had to take the moral high ground with an awesome find, and it feels pretty good. 🍀

Went to my big beach today, got there early as usual. It was 67 degrees, only warmed up to 83 today but thunderstorms cut me short, I was out there 6 hours. Supposedly there was a lot of activity last weekend, but afternoon severe storms really put a damper on things. I did do well, and as usual got some surprises. Dug a good amount of trash, those old pull tabs come up in the 70s. Fishing tackle, sinkers and some old copper screws. The finds outnumbered the trash however: Got 55 coins today not including the crusty Zincolns I threw out. Even got 4 wheats, the old coins were popping up again. I could only read two dates, 1944 and 1917. Having 100+ year old coins come up is quite a shock on a beach. 🤔 I also got a lot of other stuff, the small medicine bottle and skeleton key were where the old wheats were. I guess an old spot has been uncovered, in previous posts I've gotten old silver as well. The small wave ring might be silver. The flashlight works, has three levels of brightness and is rechargeable. Got my usual Hot Wheel, an old copper bracelet, a couple of earrings. It was an interesting day.

Went on a short hunt this morning...my experience is I usually find my best stuff at a new spot on the first one or two visits. I've known these people that own this property for 20 years. Their clients of mine. Still i've been reluctant to ask if I can detect around their house which dates back to the late 1800's. This week I decided I better have a go at it soon as they are in their 80's and retiring to Texas in a few years. Targets were few and I was not in the mood for a long hunt because I'm putting in a new fence back at my house and needed to get back so I could dig holes without my metal detector. They lease another property that is loaded with stuff (Calling Merton) that I plan to hit before the ground hardens. The watch is Gold plated. I love the ship with the flag on the bow. Does anyone know what that clip is? at first I thought it was a suspender clip but It kinda looks like a hair clip? Trash not included in photos

I'm having a day off skiing today so thought I'd take the Algoforce out for a quick test of the new firmware, I've never found something I consider a relic before, for a start New Zealand is such a young country, so relics are few and far between, and realistically not very old compared to relics in Europe, or even the US. I wasn't sure it was anything unusual at the time other than I found a bottle, that's weird for me 🙂 I only found it because I dug an old New Zealand pre decimal shilling, unfortunately not a silver one and while digging the hole a clump of soil came out, and once the clump came out the bottles tip was exposed, so out of interest I recovered it. I just thought I was removing some junk and put it in my pouch and resumed detecting. I took a photo of the shilling as I thought it was pretty cool I found a coin I'd missed previously, nothing special about the depth of the coin or anything, other than the bottle in the hole with it, probably missed it in the past due to sloppy ground coverage, I've no idea. It's a 1967, really hard to read the date, a shame it wasn't a little bit older as it would have been silver. Today has remained frozen all day so I wasn't really out doing a big detecting mission, I just wanted to try out the new Algoforce firmware on a spot I've hit pretty hard to see if any new targets might pop up seeing it has new feature by way of a mild soil mode with a big depth increase over its normal mineralized mode in my milder soils. So, I had a quick swing over some of the area, it was by no means a serious detecting mission, just a little test out of the running of the machine in this high EMI location. It worked very well, nice and stable in 19 sensitivity. I took off home not long after as it was starting to get dark and pretty cold. Once I got home I home I cleaned up the bottle by running it through the dishwasher then took a photo of it Not a bottle type I've ever seen before, and it's made pretty dodgy, the glass isn't like you would see on a modern bottle, even the base of the bottle is a bit uneven, it wasn't until I took a photo of some writing on it I saw something weird, it says Property of W Gregg & Co Ltd Dunedin The writing is hard to read, but you can see in this photo how uneven the glass bottom on the bottle is. I can't find the same bottle on Google but I've found other old bottles from the same business, it seems you never owned your bottles back then, must have had to return them to get them filled up again. I found some information about the business. GREGG, W. AND CO., LTD. , Coffee, Spice and Starch Manufacturers, General Merchants and Importers Lower Rattray Street, Dunedin. This business was founded in Princes Street by the late Mr. Gregg, in 1861, and was removed some years later to the premises it now occupies. In 1897 the business was merged into a limited liability company under the style of W. Gregg and Co., Limited; Mr. Gregg, the founder, acting as managing director until his death in May, 1901, when Mr. William B. M. Fea assumed the management. Amongst the many specialties for which the company is noted, are its high class coffees, pure pepper and spices starch, soda crystals, flavouring essences, etc., etc. W. Gregg and Co., Limited, were the first in New Zealand to manufacture wax vestas and starch. Gregg's “Eagle” starch has been for the last fifteen years the leading brand in the colony, whilst the firm's “Club” coffee, (its special brand household word throughout New Zealand. Messrs W. Gregg and Co. make it a standing rule that not one ounce of anything adulterated leaves any of their factories, and the most modern machinery obtainable is used in the manufacture of their various goods. They have been awarded a gold medal, a special gold medal, and over fifty medals and awards for the excellence of their manufactures at the following Exhibitions:—New Zealand, 1865; Christ-church, 1872; Sydney International, 1879; Melbourne International, 1880–81; Wellington Industrial. 1885; New Zealand and South Seas, 1889–90; Wellington Industrial, 1896–97; and Otago Jubilee, 1898. The company's chicory farm of fifty-six acres, and drying kiln are situated on Inchclutha. Its coffee and spice mills, and warehouse, are in Lower Rattray Street, and its starch, soda crystals, flavouring essences and kindred manufactures are carried on at its extensive works at Pelichet Bay, convenient to rail and wharf. I found this old poster saying it was packaged in Faney Canisters 😛 Not sure the age of the poster though, probably newer than the bottle. What I found interesting about that is they were coffee merchants, and oddly, instant coffee was invented just over an hour drive from where I found the bottle and the Dunedin factory this bottle was from is just a couple of hours drive so maybe it's something to do with coffee or had coffee in it? Today the brand still exists, but it's just called Greggs and they still sell instant coffee. Here is about the instant coffee invention The man who invented instant coffee The invention of instant coffee, dissolvable in hot water, was credited to a Japanese chemist working in Chicago in 1901. Turns out, it was a Kiwi - more 10 years earlier. David Strang, who owned a coffee and spice works factory in Invercargill, applied (and got) a patent for soluble coffee powder in 1889 under the name Strang’s Coffee. But until recently it was a barely known fact until the Historic Places Trust registered the house owned by one of his sons, James. Strang was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1847, and one of his first jobs was in a coffee warehouse. He was only 16 when he boarded the Barwood to come to New Zealand in 1863, landing in Bluff. He worked in several trades until in 1872 he established a coffee factory in Esk Street, Invercargill. The business grew quickly, expanding into other foods including spices sold around New Zealand and Fiji. Strang’s products began winning awards around the country and in Australia. In 1889, he applied for the patent for soluble coffee, the first of its kind in the world and began selling it. With sharp marketing in mind, he sent samples to newspapers to get the word out. The Otago Daily Times reviewed the substance: "Strang's soluble coffee powder requires no boiling, but is made instantly with boiling water. Then, again, it can be made in a breakfast cup and requires neither the use of pots nor the employment of experienced cooks." He was also one of the first people to successfully claim a patent under New Zealand law. He said he used a ‘dry hot air’ process to make it, essentially blowing hot air over liquid coffee until it reduced to a solid. Strang also filed patents for a "coffee-roasting apparatus of novel design" and Strang's Eclipse Hot Air Grain Dryer. He was also credited with making mocha. He married Mary Jane Ramsey in 1877 and they had five sons and six daughters. Strang died aged 69 on July 19, 1916 and is buried in Eastern Cemetery in Invercargill with his wife Some years ago, I found an old bottle in my vegetable garden, I think it was thrown out, now I'm very interested to find out what it was, my wife can't even remember me finding it and I'd say she's guilty of throwing it out 🙂

I'm posting this in Coins and Relics because all the pieces of jewelry are relics. ? This isn't a beach hunt, I've done much worse there ? What seemed to be a "let's check this place out a little more and go somewhere else" hunt turned out to be a whole day in this little field, I invited Chase down for the day because it was going to be warm and I thought it might be worth the trip for him. It's a small field, only a few acres, totally nondescript. I got there a bit before Chase, walked back and forth along this part of the field, there is another huge farm next door. We think there was a house here, but nothing exists on any Topographic maps. By the end of the day we were sure of it. First find was what may be a gold plated metal ring, no marks inside. Might have been a replacement or bargain wedding band: It only weighs 2.6 grams, but it does ring when dropped. A 91 on the Deus 2. I'll probably take it to my jeweler who has an XRF gun to make sure, because it does weigh more than a similar size 14k band. Next find was a 1944 war nickel: Chase arrived , we walked all over and found some wheats and lots of junk. The place is stupid with crap, aluminum, bits of old brass and tons of iron everywhere. I was running Tekkna, and it did well for me. We didn't find much more for quite a while, we were thinking of leaving, and then I found this mangled silver spoon: Almost 16 grams of coin silver. I then found this trunk plate, a Civil War era plate from a Washington DC trunk maker used until 1880. I joked that I just found the jewelry box plate... ? Who knew I would sorta be right... Chase went off to check out the back of the field, he had been on top of a hill finding nothing but large pieces of aluminum and concertina reeds, and I walked back from where I found the spoon, and got one of my best finds of the day: This massive 8.4g Sterling ring with probably a glass stone, it's purple and seems shattered. I motioned for Chase to come over to this spot, and we just kept finding jewelry. He will probably add his finds later, it was an insane day. ? Very difficult to find stuff in all that iron and trash, we both were using D2s with the 9", anything bigger wouldn't have done as well. Next I dug this Sterling pin: It was taco'ed but I got it straight. Here's the trash, lots of large brass, lead and aluminum. I didn't get much iron at all, Tekkna is great for this kind of challenge. Here's the total haul, the best is yet to come: Obviously finding a really old ring is a thrill but nothing could have prepared me for the last big find: Apparently this is quite rare, researching it only found one other like it. It's a 1904 Republican National Committee badge for the Chicago Convention, where Theodore Roosevelt was selected. The Chairman had this 14k version made for him, but sadly passed away before the Convention: His was 60 some odd grams, my piece is 35: It may at least be plated. It's unbelievable it held up this good for 120 years. ? I haven't had as productive a hunt as this in quite a while, we hope to go back and find more. It's very difficult going.

Was out for a couple hours with the Nox 800 in Park 1 with the 15" coil hunting for deeper coins on a local park soccer field and sidelines. We have had plenty of rain to make the ground a bit more willing to give up deep signals. The spoon was the first thing that was found, and it came out of the hole in that condition. The ring was wavering between 27-28 which was a hint as to it being something other than a quarter or dime. The ring does contain what my "Diamond Selector " says are diamonds. Sadly, it looks like it was hit by a lawnmower. The first writing I saw in the inside of the ring was 14k; then the GP showed up before the final 925 was seen. The waterfow band was an interesting find that I believe likely came off a goose...back in the 1940's!

This one is for the button fan, I dug a 1926 wheat in another field but that was it for the coins. Invited Chase up for one of the last hunts here, a new 100 acre permission that I didn't find much in before, we set out to scout the other half of it that I didn't get to. It's a huge field that had beans on it last year, usually I prefer to hunt in bean stalks but this one is tough, the stalks are too tall. We ran into a farmer friend who told us this is because when they are rushing to get the beans before a rain, they lift the combine collector and don't cut them short. The stalks become really stiff by spring and are very hard to walk on, they chip at your shoes and can go through your hand or foot if you're not careful. ? We set out heading to the other side of the field, Chase went ahead and hunted around the old barn, I think he got a couple of wheats there. I walked up the center of the field not expecting anything, I had crisscrossed this field before and found literally nothing. Got a 47 and dug this rolled copper "tinkler" that was traded with the Indians: https://www.nativetech.org/metal/tinkle/tinkle.html It would be a "point" or arrowhead if it had a point, these were hung on their clothing and they jingle. I immediately went into circle mode, making a spiral around the place I found the first object, and hit 3 buttons. By this time Chase was way across the field, so I noted where I found this stuff and joined him to scout the rest of the place. We found next to nothing, I got just a few buckle bits. We decided to go back to this "hotspot" and the buttons just kept coming, I think between us we found well over 20. Small cuff buttons, medium buttons, a couple large, both brass and Tombac. They were everywhere in about an acre or so. What I thought might be a pretty bad day turned out to be a great one, I got all this: 16 buttons and a bunch of other brass stuff. Chase did as well. When things wound down we quit for the day, but there are certainly more there. Here's the trash, only a handful but I got fooled by a few bits of big iron today: I was using Relic exclusively, with the 13" coil on the Deus 2, with reactivity at 1 and Audio response 7. Some of the buttons were over 10" deep! We found other artifacts that deep too. Sadly we found no coins in that spot. We think it was an area where people got together and traded stuff in the 1600s and 1700s, and possibly with the Indians as well. This is a great example of how you really have to search a farm to find the hotspots, it takes a lot of determination and some really good guesses. You just can't give up! There may be another hotspot here, there is a part of the field we didn't go to, but we'll get there. ?

Got a new permission yesterday, a nice older gentleman approached me while I was digging in a small field I call the Jewelry Box. After talking to him for an hour (really more listening), I asked if I could detect his farm and he said that would be fine. It's a big place, 100 acres but only about half that is field. The coolest thing is that there is an old blacksmith shop sort of on the property, but the landowner doesn't own it. There were also two older houses far back on the farm, now gone. There is a much newer one there now where the owner lives. I went there today to scout it and see if there are any hotspots. I managed to find about 3 things, but man that place is clean. It was probably detected in the past. I walked for 3 hours and other than a buckle, a clad dime and a small pin on watch, all I find there was buck shot and shotgun shell ends. ? I only searched half of it today, it was warm but the wind was blowing about 20mph with gusts to 35. It was absolutely brutal, walking on bean stalks and getting blown all over the place. I finally gave up and went back to the small field next door hoping to save the day. I had both the 9" and 13" coils with me, and ran Relic most of the day but switched to the new Tekkna program when the trash got dense. This also prompted me to switch to the 9" coil. While the 13" has pretty good separation, the 9" really sees so much less ground it can pick targets a bit better. Ended up with some pretty good stuff, the last 3 hours I searched my small field and scratched a few more good finds. Here's what I dug: Some sort of famous person spoon, a large brass buckle used to hold a strap on the pin, a General Service button. Got a 1937 wheat and the small gold plated watch near the shop, the brass buckle in the back of the field. The 1943 war nickel, the incredibly detailed buckle among other things came from the small field, it was a tough but decent day. Trash in the small field was horrendous: Got a little toy cap gun, sadly broken in half near the barn.

This will probably be the last post from me about Tekkna for the Deus 2, I might mention it in passing but I want to show y'all a typical day out using it. Brutal start today, when I got to this field I've named The Jewelry Box, one that Chase and I found a good amount of silver jewelry in it was 38 degrees, it never got warmer than 50 and the wind was strong. I've come back a couple of times, but today I really wanted to use Tekkna the whole day with both the 13" and the 9" coil, after seeing how well @NCtoad did with his 13". Sadly it didn't really work out as well as I hoped, this field is so loaded with non-ferrous junk and iron it became apparent that I had to switch to the 9" coil for about half of it. Tekkna really does a nice job of finding small stuff in iron, I can imagine if I had a spot with nothing but iron I'd be able to find a few more things there. But that's about where it ends, I can use my heavily modified Relic program too with the same end result, just varying Reactivity where necessary. I try to be very honest about the trash I end up with, here's a photo of everything I dug today that I will not be keeping: Only one piece of iron fooled every program on my machine, everything else is Non-Ferrous. Clock and Pocket watch parts, flatware, pocket knife bits, knobs, shotgun shells and bullets, along with foil and other annoying aluminum are everywhere in a portion of this field. I rue the day the Concertina was invented, I think we have found just about every reed now. ? Chase and I hit it really hard, almost all the silver stuff is gone, but I still managed to squeak a few more things out of it today: Got a brooch that is really shot through with bronze disease but it's one of the more unique things I've ever found: Even the back of it is interesting. There are multiple ages of activity in this small field, probably from the 1700s to the 1890s, and then from about the 1920s to the 60s, there are things representing both eras. It was probably cherry picked long ago because no large coins have been found here and there should be some. Regardless, the Tekkna program is great for a spot like this, but I still think the 9" coil is preferable to use with it. Bottom line is if there is a lot of non-ferrous junk, you are going to dig a lot of non-ferrous junk if there is the possibility of finding jewelry. That, it did quite well. I'll be keeping it on my machine, with the 9" coil handy. There was another bright spot, a gentleman almost in his 90s approached me in this field today, and after an hour or so of talking with him he gave me permission to his 100 acre farm next door ?

Today Chase came down for a "do your own thing" sort of hunt, we went to a permission of mine that almost guarantees at least something old. It was pretty cloudy today but exceptionally warm for mid March, there was a threat of rain all day but it never did, thankfully. The ground is still wet from the last storm under the surface, but the high winds blew the surface dry. I always fear Chase will come all the way down and not find much, but he did ok, just about the same as me but more buttons. It ended up being a good day despite the heat and the gnats that were everywhere. I only got 4 buttons today, one may be a small boss, but the biggest one is a silvered Dandy button. The smallest one has backmarks, and the top left one has some gold flowers on the front. I have no idea what the extremely figured piece of metal is top center. I even got a 1996 dime, my pay for the day ? Of course the feature item I found today was the complete spectacle buckle, my book says pre-1650, so it's pushing 400 years old. ? This might be the first complete one I've ever found, I usually find them in pieces. Overall it was a great day to get out there, it won't be long now until the fields are planted. Only a handful of junk, this place isn't too trashy.

It's been rainy the last few days, yesterday was so windy it wasn't worth going out. Today was supposed to be warm, it got up to 65 but was 42 in the morning. I loaded up my WS6 Master with the 9" coil and my Deus 2 with the 13", and went to the field about a half mile away. I haven't been to this spot in a couple of years, an old house stood here, and I got lots of coins and other late 19th century stuff. I really didn't think I'd get much today, but I did. I walked around where the house was for a while, really behind it. I found a couple of things , and decided to head out to a small corner that I only searched for a short time but found some buttons and a couple of IHPs long ago. Little did I know the spot was a small hotspot, I kept finding coins and buttons in there until there was nothing left. The area was only about 50x50 feet, maybe less. There was evidence of cooking pits there and chunks of sandstone indicating a much older structure. Each pit had large iron in the bottom, I assume a kettle long rusted away, and lots of oyster shells. That is always a good sign. I dug 3 IHPs, the only one I could read was an 1888. The other two are toasted, one slick and the other very encrusted. When the spot dried up I went back to the house area. A big surprise was digging my first Flying Eagle cent! It wasn't until I cleaned everything up that I found I had a second one. They're pretty toasted but I can make out enough of the 8's to know they aren't all that rare, but that's about it. It was kind of a thrill to know I got two today. That wasn't all though. Here's the stuff I probably can't fit in a display box, Looks like I dug a broken and bent musket trigger guard: Got some sort of tap or plug, some recent dog tags from 2006, a lock slide, a parasol slide, and a D Buckle full of the iron pin. Here's the trash, looks like a lot but it fits in my hand: It's all just buckshot, bits of lead and aluminum. I think there's a mangled spoon bowl in there. Ok, now for the finds: I got a Buffalo and a V Nickel at the house site, no date on the Buffalo but the V is probably 1893. At first I thought it said 1882 but that would not be my luck. ? Got a skeleton key, a Yankee minié ball, a small brass salamander with enameled toes, and 3 buttons, a fantastic ball button, a small thick Gilt button with some gold left, and my favorite: It says "Colombia Libertad". I looked it up and while there are many celebrating the liberation of Colombia from Spain in 1810, I cannot find this one anywhere. The back has "Colour" on it, so I assume it was made in England or an English territory. I don't know where the nicks came from. ? It's definitely the 1810-1850 style that is single piece. I also dug this interesting lead coin, it has lettering on it. If anyone has any information about the Colombian button I would appreciate it!

Got out today despite the threat of rain to see if I could tease any more jewelry out of the site where I found the big silver ring. The day started out nice and warm, about 55, so not bad. Ended up with rain late in the day, Today I used Tekkna and Relic, Tekkna where it was really trashy. I want to mention that while Tekkna is a great program, you only dig when you get a consistent signal, it's probably not the best when the place is loaded with aluminum and brass, and molten bits of metal. Since I was using it to find any more jewelry items, I ended up digging a horrific amount of junk: However, no iron at all. ? Finds were still pretty cool, and I kept my silver streak going. Ended up with an assortment of the really old and new, especially the 1906 IHP and the 1946 Roosevelt dime. Got some wheats, some interesting tags, and a couple of thimbles. I did get one piece of jewelry, this Sterling collar stud, this is the front: And this is the back.