Needle In A Haystack

[strick]

I had intended to go to the beach today...easy and relaxing digging is just so irresistible. Last night I had readied the  Equinox 800,  CTX  and beach scoop in my shop in preparation. During the night as I slept voices kept telling me "Screw the stupid beach and take the Equinox to the foot hills and try it out in some real dirt" Gold nuggets and relics were calling for some reason. I didn't expect to find much...mostly lead bullets etc.... maybe a Chinese coin if I was lucky. And to tell the truth I was not in the mood to dig bird shot today so I hunted mostly in field 2 and Park 2 I put the 800 in gold mode 2 for maybe 5 minutes then switched back. First came the Chinese coin...nice to get one intact...I'd dug one in pieces a few minutes earlier. Then I decided to hunt some tailing piles and I was elated to get the powder flask...an hour or so later I was hunting near a creek so I could retrieve an ax head I had dug last year and left it on a fallen tree.  A solid 12 on the equinox...at first I thought I had a small gold coin due to the serrated edge... But  hey i'll take a gold ring any day. This sucker is old...the Chinese mined this place and I have yet to find any silver coins here. There are gold nuggets few and far between plus the place is riddled with lead shot of all shapes and sizes.  Grass was tall which made for challenging hunting. The ring came from the other side of the creek near the tree in the middle. Good luck and HH!   Park 2, Auto GB, Sens 22, reactivity 6,  iron bias  0 I had to auto GB often due to soil.  Pic with the Sierra is a toast to the old timer before I covered the hole 

strick 

[deathray]

heck yeah buddy! Great hunt. I have found that same flask. I actually just got the powder flask book, I will try to remember to look it up and pass on the info...just too tired at the moment. The ring is fantastic! Bet that got the heart beating!

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi Strick… that’s a good assortment of finds with your Equinox 800, particularly what may be an antique gold ring, powder flask, and Chinese coin. You might not have done so well at the beach as things stand, which just goes to show that sometimes it pays to follow your instincts or inclination. 

The Chinese coin is an unusual find over here in central Ontario, but we do infrequently find them in older parks and schoolyards, and former picnic groves. They tend to be in fairly good condition compared to older copper coin finds, but that is probably due to a different alloy composition and / or soil chemistry here.

Thanks for sharing your outing and those just excellent photos with us!!!

WTG 

Jim.
 

[GB_Amateur]

Cool finds, strick!  Any idea on the age of the ring?  I assume it wasn't left by the miners.  Really like that powder flask.

Figured you wouldn't give the SN ale crown cap any publicity by including it in the pic.  ?

[strick]

Thanks guys! Ray when I first seen the ring is was sideways to me and all I could see was the notches which resembled a serrated edge of a coin from a distance...The last thing I expected to find was a gold ring out there... a gold coin would be more probable.  

Jim-  some of those Chinese coins are older then we might think. A buddy of mine showed one I found recently to his wife (who is Chinese) and it was made in the 1600's ! I guess thats why some of them are disintegrated.  

GB- There are no markings on the ring...it appears to be crudely made of high k gold. I'd like to think it was dropped by one of the Chinese miners or their wife...Or maybe the head of the Chinese mining company that came to inspect their work...lol. At any rate there was a small community living in this area long ago and everything I've found so far is Chinese. Those Beer caps have got enough publicity on their own lately and I think I might have left one on the ground for the next hunt 

strick

[1515Art]

Amazing finds, the high carrot ring is really pretty. The Chinese coin is from emperor Kang Xi 1654-1722 cool old Chinese coin, also love the powder flask good hunting struck!

[bado1]

Awesome finds! That ring is really cool! WTG.

 

Dean

[Mike Hillis]

Sweet!

HH
Mike