A Day At The Park Metal Detecting

Spent the other day at a local park metal detecting and it was probably the best hunt I've been on so far, mostly because it was just a great day at a park, the finds weren't so great. I went about midday and was expecting the park to be busy and it was, I drew a lot of attention with the strange looking machine dangling from my arm, all feedback was positive and full of interest.

It was my best coin day so far, most I've found on one hunt, though nothing to write home about. I'm a little concerned that I'm not finding a lot of the smaller pre-decimals, they're either not there, which is fine or the F2 is not picking them up, guess I just have to do some more testing.

The first 4 photos below are from my backyard, the toy handcuffs are my favorite non-coin find so far, the rest are finds from the park.

Toy Handcuffs.

Toy handcuffs, Crescent Toy Co, Made In Gt Britain.

Nickel Silver Fork.

My First Watch.

1952 New Zealand Penny.

1950 New Zealand Penny.

1959 New Zealand Penny.

1947 New Zealand Half Penny.

1939? British Half Penny.

Munted 1962? New Zealand Half Penny.

Silver Sixpence and Half Crowns at the Beach

Had another great hunt at the beach today, got my first silvers with the F2. We picked up where we left off in the last video and detected along a corroding bank that seemed to be releasing it's lost treasure.

1933 NZ Sixpence.

1934 NZ Half Crown.

1934 NZ Half Crown.

Bullets and Cash at the Beach

One of my best days out metal detecting, we were hunting at a busy entrance to this beach. I decided to hunt with sensitivity at 4 and 5 bars on the Fisher F2 and it seemed to make a world of difference in identifying targets, I had been using low sensitivity based on a few things I had read online about hunting at the beach, turns out you shouldn't believe everything you read.

$10 bucks in Cash.

Boswell, Hatfield & Co. LTD, Mary St Sheffield, Firth Stanless Knife.

Couple Bullet Shells.

EPNS Spoon.

A Few Firsts While Metal Detecting

Got my first threepence and British penny on this hunt as well as a Fijian 5 cent piece, the penny is my oldest coin so far at 1917.

1917 British penny, I think.

1961 Threepence.

Fijian 5 Cent.

Got these on my latest hunt which resulted in a lot of junk, no coins and I haven't been able to find much information on the spoon and key pictured below, by the way that's my first key ever.

E&A S NS Spoon.

Pilot with ship's wheel.

Omega Metal MFG CO. LTD.

Testing The Fisher F2 With 4" Coil With New Zealand Coins

Thought I'd film myself testing out some New Zealand coins with the Fisher F2, didn't realize it at the time but it's kind of hard to see the screen on the F2 due to glare. I'll probably get to doing a test with the 8" coil at some point.

Can't help but feel I've missed out on some finds by using low sensitivity and the 4" coil, but I'll probably go over the yard again with the 8" using different settings, I guess I will have gotten rid of a lot of shallow finds so maybe I'll be digging less holes, only deeper.

Tested a New Zealand Threepence, Sixpence, Shilling, Penny and a 1 and 2 dollar coin.

Got a hunt video coming up where I find a few firsts for me, plus my oldest coin so far.

My Second Halfpenny and a Little About the Cameras I Use

My most interesting find was my second halfpenny, everything else was mostly scrap.

I shot this video using my Sony HD Camcorder, which results in very clear footage but it's very cumbersome to use, my previous videos were filmed with a Flip Mino, great get-up and go camera, but it's not very good for close-ups

I guess I just have to get better at using the equipment.

Metal Detecting Finds For The Day, Mostly Junk

Managed to get out for a quick hunt, no video this time, just a photo of my finds. Mostly junk, no coins but I did manage to get another milk token. Hopefully after a good clean I'll find some branding on the objects, love researching that stuff.

Metal Detecting Milk Tokens and Half Pennies

I managed to get out for a quick hunt, it had been raining a little lately and I've got to say the rain has made digging a whole lot easier, plugs come out clean and the lawn doesn't end up dusty.

I found a 1965 British Half Penny, which I guess is my first foreign coin, and my most interesting find was an old milk token from Upper Hutt, Zone 40, which was once good for one pint. I first thought it had something to do with a pub, I don't equate pints with milk, it's what I ask for when I want a beer.

I suspect my lawn has many more hidden and interesting artifacts for the finding, can't wait to get out again tomorrow.

My Second Metal Detecting Video And Photos Of My Finds

I really haven't been out in public much with my metal detector, I've been doing a lot of detecting in my backyard and finding quite a lot of varied items. I'm only about 1/5th the way through and there's a few junkier areas I haven't tried yet so that should be fun.

Below is a few pictures of most of my finds, I'm surprised at how many 1 and 2 cent pieces I'm finding, though they did mint a heck of a lot back in the day.

Some of the junk I've been finding.

Various coins, mostly 1 and 2 cent pieces.

My first spoon.

Grosvenor Plate EPNS A1, Electroplated Nickle Silver spoon.

Mount for a rear view mirror, wish I knew for what kind of car.

Patent number brings no joy.

Bronco toy gun, I remember having one of these when I was younger.

Ipana Toothpaste, I can't remember this stuff at all, best I could find is that it lost out to the competition in the early 70's, not sure when they stopped making it in New Zealand though, apparently it's still sold in Turkey.

My First Metal Detecting Video

Hopefully this is the first of many videos to come, actually pretty tricky recording with all the gear I'm using. This was actually quite a small hunt, a 1x2 metre patch of dirt in my back yard, but it took forever, I dug every target I found, including a very large pipe which I don't show in the video.

Hopefully I get better at recording and I'll catch you all on the flip side.

Welcome to Coin Shooting Kiwi

Welcome to Coin Shooting Kiwi, my blog about metal detecting in New Zealand. I'm brand spanking new to this game, in fact, I only just received my first metal detector a few days ago, the Fisher F2 which I purchased online from Kellyco Metal Detectors.

I got the 2 coil kit with pinpointer which cost me about $415 NZD including postage and packaging. It arrived pretty fast by way of Miami, about 11 days to get it to my door.

At the moment I'm in the learning stages, I've found digging to be the most difficult part of the operation, a close second is the attention metal detecting attracts while out in public, seems like every other person has a comment to make, though it's all been positive.

Anyway, time to get out there, I'll get back to y'all when I have some videos and photos.