When The Beach Is Generous,Hit It Hard!!!

[Expat Aussie]

Reading some otherv posts where some people are prepared to spend £40 on petrol to take them to a beach makes me realise how lucky I am to live within a 20 minute drive to three excellent beaches.Back at the end of March 2013 there was a sustained period of strong Northerly winds which I knew would remove sand from the local beaches so I thought it might be worthwhile to try some detecting on the one where pre-decimals often turn up.The problem was it was still a strong wind and there was rain in the air - not ideal detecting conditions!! On arrival it looked promising and it didn`t take long to find the first coin.The cold wind made my eyes water but I stuck with it for a couple of hours ending up with 47 coins.It was only when examining the finds back home that I discovered one of them was a hammered James I sixpence A short time ago the sand on several of the beaches here had been replenished from dredgings in Harwich harbour and I suspect that the sixpence came from there.I did a couple more detecting sessions in the following days and found some more coins but no more hammered or any jewelry (mustn`t be too greedy).In total,I ended up with just over 100 coins,all decimals 1/2p - £2 and pre-decimals 1/2d - one shilling.As I`ve already posted one photo today,I`ll hopefully post the sixpence after cleaning,tomorrow.

[slowsweep]

thats a lot of holes but well worth the effort congrats

[Coins_hunter84]

Nice. You will be clean that sixpence ?

[Expat Aussie]

Absolutely,it cleaned up well.I`ve used up my 3 photos allowance for today but will post the pictures tomorrow.Before cleaning the mintmark was obscured by hard concretion and I couldn`t read the date properly.That`s the only hammered I`ve cleaned - those that come out of the soil look better as found in my opinion.

[Fishermansam]

Absolutely,it cleaned up well.I`ve used up my 3 photos allowance for today but will post the pictures tomorrow.Before cleaning the mintmark was obscured by hard concretion and I couldn`t read the date properly.That`s the only hammered I`ve cleaned - those that come out of the soil look better as found in my opinion.

Nice one mate
Why don't you use an online host like photobucket
Then you can post your photos up through that as much as you like with no limit


Sam

[Peter Pearce]

Nice one expat hope you have a large finds pouch. Well done on the hammered I would not expect too many crop up on the beech nowaday's. But I wouldn't know as I never detect the beeches. Well done mate I look forward to viewing the coin cleaned up. Thanks for pics mate. Pete.

[Expat Aussie]

Well,as promised,here are the photos ofsixpence after cleaning.Ithought long and hard about whether to add them on to this post or create another,deciding on this one as rhere is already a photo here showing the coin `as found`
I know some of you peeps will want to know how I set about cleaning it so here goes.To start with I used the tried and tested method of the silver paper and soda crystals - a system that has worked well before with Victorian silver but this time to little avail.So I thought desperate times call for desperate measures and reached for the Goddard`s Silver Dip (tm).Knowing that it`s pretty strong (on the label it says `cleans silver fast`) I left the coin in it for less than 5 minutes then carefully brushed it in water with an old toothbrush and hey presto the results are there to see in the photos - the date (1607) and the mintmark (coronet) now clearly visible.

[slowsweep]

nice one, it cleaned up well

[Tomo]

Nice assortment there and luvly hammy. Not had one on our beach yet but I think they traded in banana's here back then