Summer is almost upon us here in Australia, so with the days getting warmer I took the opportunity to take my Minelab Excalibur II for a dive. I really enjoy spending an hour or so floating along just of the bottom searching for lost coins and relics.
The area I was searching has given up a good number of old coins and two gold rings last summer, so I was looking forward to seeing what I would find this time. Working in about 3 metres (9 feet) of water, it wasn’t long before I had my first target, a modern ten cent coin. A few more modern coins and some bottle caps and ring pulls later, I had a solid signal. Setting up my GoPro, I started fanning away the sand which revealed a blackened ring, which I thought was a junk ring. Unfortunately when I got home and was viewing the footage I found I had set the GoPro to photo mode when I turned it on and only had a picture of the sand.
A little while later I had another nice sounding signal and started fanning away the sand, then I was into packed shells, a good two or three minutes of fanning and I could see the bright copper tone of an old penny. This one was a 1962 Australian penny, so not as old as some I have found in the past. The interesting thing about the old copper coins is the way they corrode, they develop a black crust on them which rubs off to reveal a shiny coin, which are generally thinner the older they are. The interesting thing is that they don’t tarnish once the crust is rubbed off, even a year later I still have shiny coins I dug last year.
The last target was a small religious medallion, being made of alloy it was quite corroded, and only a small portion is readable.
All to soon it was time to head back to dry land. Once I was out of my dive gear I showed my wife my finds and she pointed out that the ring had .925 stamped inside! A very nice dive spent doing a hobby I love.
Until next time, I wish you all the best in your treasure seeking.
Mark.
westcoastmark 