1941 East Africa Shilling Found

1941 East Africa Shilling

I had another great detecting day today! I usually try and plan my day ahead so I can get a few hours in detecting to relieve my metal detecting addiction, so I get all my jobs done around the house and by around 2pm I am ready to head off detecting.

I am not working at the moment, I am having a planned long holiday, I have not worked for over a year, since leaving the Navy and it has been pretty good. I am doing all the things I have wanted to do for a long time and I am really enjoying my freedom at the moment. Thats why I am posting on this blog everyday about the stuff I am finding, because some of you must wonder how I find the time to go out detecting every day.

So today I went for a long drive on the isolated gravel roads around my district in search for good detecting places, hoping to find old abandoned homesteads, did not come across any, so on the way home I ended going to a couple of places that I had known about previously and thought I’d give the detector a few hundred swings!

The first place is one of my favourite old houses in the district, a beautiful old house, probably around a hundred or so years old. I really love this place, the house is beautiful with so much potential to renovate, I just love the long open verandah and I really love the beautiful Australiana style tin roof.

Today's Metal Detecting Spot 1 - Beautiful Old Australian Homestead

I found a couple of interest things worth keeping at this place as follows:

• 1955 Australian Penny
• 1948 Australian Penny
• Australian 1 cent coin
• Refill Only Mobile Oil Badge off a fuel tin with the Mobile Red Horse.
• Warranted Superior Saw Button
• Silver Teaspoon
• and the usual shotgun cartridges and bullet shells

Warranted Superior Saw Button

Warranted Superior medallions are found on secondary lines manufactured by Disston and other major saw makers with other brand names on the etch. Some smaller 19th century saw makers may have bought sawnuts and medallions from the bigger factories.

After 1900 or so the “small guys” were actually secondary lines of the “big guys.” The small companies were bought up by bigger ones and some of their products were continued for a time. Harvey Peace is one example. Most American saws from the 20th century, regardless of brand name, were made in the works of Disston, Atkins, Bishop, or Simonds.

In the case of Disston, their replacement medallions were stamped Warranted Superior rather than “Disston.” I would speculate their rationale was they didn’t want their name on lesser-quality saws. Brand identity and loyalty in the U.S. was much stronger in the first half of the 20th century than it is today. Source: http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/medallionpage.html

The next old place I went to is where I found quite a few old Australian coins, including an usual but thrilling find of a East African Silver 1 Shilling coin using my Minelab E-Trac Metal Detector.

I have had this minelab detector for around 8 months now and I am finally getting the hang of it, pre programing it for certain coins and learning how to discriminate properly. I learnt a few good e-trac metal detector tips tonight via watching youtube.com videos, so youtube.com is a great resource for learning how to use your metal detector.

The second old place is basically just old ruins of an old homestead, very old and a beautiful spot on top of a hill with views to die for

Today's Metal Detecting Spot 2 - Old Australian Homestead Ruins

Anyhow, here is what I found at the second old house:

• 1943 Australian Penny
• 1953 Australian Penny
• 1910 Silver Australian three pence
• 1941 Silver East Africa Shilling
• and the usual shotgun cartridges and bullet shells

Mobil Flying Red Horse Oil Tin Badge

1941 East Africa Shilling - Reverse Side

Another great days metal detecting