Metal Detecting a 100 Year Old Australian Stone House
Beautiful Turn of the Century Australian Stone House
A few days ago I got permission off a local farmer and his wife to go metal detecting at an old stonehouse on their property, no doubt one of the most beautiful stone houses in the district.
I took a beautiful photo of this house a few months ago, and knew that I’d have to return one day to do some metal detecting for old coins and relics.
So finally I had a day off and eagerly drove out to the house with my E-Trac Metal Detector, Garrett Pro Pin Pointer, my trusty shovel and my sifter and plenty of water, as it was a bloody hot day!
One of my most favourite things to find while metal detecting is old dog licence tags, usually made out of brass.
I have found around 20 of these Dog Licence tags so far, since I started metal detecting, and I hoped to find one today.
These Dog Licence Tags are issued to dog owners, so that if the Dog is found it can be returned to the owner, even today the same thing happens, except the dog licence tags these days are made out of a crappy plastic, not like the good old days when things were made to last.
Well My luck was running high, and just near a old stone shearing shed, I found one with my detector, one of the best ones I have found so far.
1930 - 1931 Dumbleyung Road Board Dog Licence Tag
If you click on the image to the right, you’ll see a bigger and better photo.
This is the first of these tags I have found with a clover leaf design, usually most of the tags I find are in a triangular shape.
I also found a another dog tag just the other day, this one was also really nice, another unique design, and this tag originating from Wagin, some 40km away from Dumbleyung.
I spent around 4 hours at the old house, it was a really good day, nice and peaceful, just how I like it.
I found some really nice coins, and found my first English Farthing, dated 1926.
I also found some pennys, a couple of six pence coins, some nice buckles and other interesting things.
As well as that, I also found a really nice old bottle dump, basically a big pile of dirt, but plenty of signs of really old Marble Bottles, Codds, and other rare bottles… I just wish I had a bobcat or a dingo, if I had one of those, I could get underneath the soil to get the good bottles.
I am actually thinking about hiring one from a local bloke for the day, $250 a day he charges.
Feel free to watch the YouTube Video I made of the day below.
Old Bottle Dump Find
Old Bottle Dump Find
I found a nice old Bottle Dump the other day on a farm just out of town in a very secluded and hidden spot. The good thing about this bottle dump is that know one has ever been through this dump and it is full of heaps of old bottles dating back to around 100 years.
I have been there a couple of times already and pulled out some really nice bottles to add to my collection, and obviously the old bottles are on the bottom of the dump.
The bottle dump is right next to an old tin clad house, so that also doubles as a great metal detecting spot for me to go to once the summer weather cools down a bit.
Old Iron Clad Home
In Rust And Ruins
Rusty Patterns
Pumping the Ghost Town Water Well – Part 2
Finally Pumping Water out of the Ghost Twon Water Well
Today my mate Rob and I went out to the old ghost town water well today and finally started pumping out the water of the disused water well.
It is so deep, it’s amazing how the settlers must have dug it out by hand over a hundred years ago. The water in the well is now not fit for consumption, it is putrid and very smelly, and a bit salty, not that I would taste it.
The reason I want to pump out all of the water is to basically see what maybe on the bottle of the well after a hundred years and more. I am hoping that maybe there would be a heap of old bottles sitting at the bottom.
Rob reckons I am crazy, but I told him, that you never know whats down there, and I mentioned to him about kids getting up to mischief back in the old days and throwing bottles in the well, just like we used to do when we were kids … get up to mischief! And then he saw the possibilities of what might be at the bottom of the well.
Rob operating the water pump
Anyway, we pumped a lot of water out today, not sure exactly, but we reduced the depth by about 7 metres of out, so I don’t know how many cubic metres that would be. It took around an hour, I was hoping that we could pump it all out today, but it must be bloody deep down there.
Not sure how many metres would be left, I reckon probably another 7 to 10 metres in water depth. It is extremely dangerous, the edge of the well is unstable, and if you fell it, you’d be dead for sure I reckon. From the top of the well to the current water level, I reckon it would be a 20 to 30 metre fall.
To be honest, I don’t really plan on going down there when all of the water is pumped out, but I do plan on hopefully lowering down a good spotlight and my video camera, that way I may be able to find out whats down there. My torch is good, I can still see things down there at the moment, but once most of the water is pumped out, then I’ll get a better idea.
Hoping to go back out there and finish the job within the next couple of weeks.
Very Deep and Dangerous Water Well
Old Water Well Update
Just a quick note to say that I went out to the Old Ghost Town Well with the water pump a couple days ago.
Since I am new using my friends water pump, I did not use it properly, as I was supposed to add water to the top of the pump to help with the suction. I did not do this and it did not work…. I’m such a dumbass!
I thought maybe it may have been a gravity issue, but my friend told me about adding the water to the inlet to help with the suction. So now I know how to work the water pump properly, I’ll be heading back out to the well hopefully at the end of the week.
You learn something everyday!
Cleaning Old Bottles and Jars
Recent Bottle Dump Finds
I have not been doing any metal detecting for a few days, as I have had the bottle dump fever! I have been out bush looking for old bottles and jars, and I have found some beautiful bottles and jars to add to my growing collection.
I have not found anything too valuable in recent days, a few milk bottles worth $70 – $100 each would be the most valuable I have found in the last couple of days. My favourite bottles to find are old beer bottles which are embossed, such as Pickaxe, Perth Glass Works, Swan Brewery, B.E.CO LTD, Fremantle Bottle Exchange, and much more.
I have a really nice collection of beer bottles, and I am always on the hunt to buy bottles that tickle my fancy, so if you have any beer bottles, crown seals, and even soft drink bottles, please send me an email with photos of what you want to sell.
I have over a thousand bottles and jars in my collection, I don’t have anything too valuable in my collection, maybe the most valuable one is only worth a couple hundred dollars, but its not about value, its about what they look like, with the beautiful embossings, the air bubbles, and the way they were made.
I found out a great tip today browsing a bottle collectors website, and that is when searching bottle dumps, use a bottle probe.
See how to use and make a Bottle Probe
So I will be going back to the local old rubbish dump in the next few days to do some probing … it sure beats digging holes and hoping for the best!
Anyhow over the last two days I have been pre cleaning my bottles and jars, using bottle brushes to clean out all the dirt from the inside of them bottles and jars.
I am not even a quarter of the way through cleaning them, so it is going to be a very long process. But it is a nice relaxing way to spend a couple of days in the sunny warm weather.
My Bottles and Jars awaiting a cleanIt is a very time consuming process cleaning bottles, I even bought myself a Bottle Tumbler from Jar Doctor in the USA, and if you live in Australia and want one of his excellent machines, be prepared to pay quite a bit of money, it is worth it…. but unfortunately it costs a fortune just to get the machine into Australia via customs. You have to pay customs fees, custom brokers, shipping fees and other fees.
Just to buy the bottle cleaning machine cost me $2800 USD, and then another $1500 AUD for all the fees for customs, shipping ect.
But while the Australian Dollar is strong against the US Currency, get one now!
The bottle tumbler is a great machine, but I have found that it really boosts the electricity bill, because just to clean one bottle on average, will need to be tumbled continuously for 3 days. And when you have one thousand bottles to clean, well thats a few years of cleaning bottles!
But I only clean the bottles which I want to put on display.
Jar Doctor Bottle Cleaning Machine (Jar Doctor "Wayne" Pictured)
A good tip to make a old bottle look in Mint Condition is to get some baby oil, put a tea spoon or so in the bottle, and rotate the bottle in a horizontal motion, and that will bring the bottle up like brand new… but it is a temporary thing. But will make your bottle look brand new.
Attention Australian Bottle Hunters and Coin Shooters!
If you are an avid Australian Bottle Hunter and Coin Shooter like I am, I would like to recommend a couple of great websites that may be of use to you as they are for me.
Bottle Guide Australia
This is a brilliant website for collectors and searchers of Old Bottles, there is nothing better than coming home from a Bottle Hunt and then to bring your old bottles inside, put them on the floor next to your computer and then to do some research on the bottles you have found.
You do a keyword search of the bottle you have found e.g. “Fremantle” and Bottle Guide will present you with a list of all bottles which have Fremantle stamped on them, then you can browse through the photos of bottles listed and find the bottle you have found on the day, if it is on their database, the database will give you information on how much the bottle is worth, the rarity of the bottle, past auction results and prices paid for that bottle. And so much more.
See attached image for an example.
Bottle Information Page on BottleGuide.com.au
BottleGuide.com.au is not free though to search for bottle prices and bottles on their database, it costs $33 AUD for a one year membership, but it is well worth paying that outlay, you can pay via paypal, cheque, credit card or postal order.
I like to also use bottle guide when looking at bottles for sale on Ebay, you can get some great bargains from sellers or are unaware of the bottles value that they are selling.
They currently have over 10,000 bottles on their database.
So if you love bottle hunting, make sure you join bottle guide!
BlueSheet.com.au
The same goes with what I said about Bottle Hunting, I also love coming home with the old coins I have found to see if they have some value to them. So once I sort them, then I go to BlueSheet.com.au and browse through that dates I have found.
This site is great also, before I found BlueSheet.com.au I used to go to a couple of websites which did show current valuations, but their information was out of date, and BlueSheet.com.au coin values are always up to date and accurate.
Highly recommended for coin collectors, coin hunters, or people with a big jar of old Australian Coins laying under their bed!
BlueSheet.com.au cost me $26.95 AUD for a 12 Month Subscription, but they have many more membership options.
BlueSheet.com.au Half-Penny Prices
BlueSheet.com.au specialises in the following Australian Coin Valuations
EARLY AUSTRALIAN COINAGE
NEW SOUTH WALES (1813)
HOLEY DOLLAR (1813)
DUMP (1813)
AUSTRALIAN GOLDADELAIDE ASSAY OFFICE (1852)
ONE POUND (1852)
FIVE POUND (1852)
HALF SOVEREIGN (1853 – 1920)
SYDNEY MINT (1853 – 1869)
YOUNG HEAD (1871 – 1887)
JUBILEE HEAD (1887 – 1893)
OLD HEAD (1893 – 1901)
EDWARD VII (1902 – 1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1920)FULL SOVEREIGN (1853 – 1931)
SYDNEY MINT (1853 – 1870)
YOUNG HEAD (1871 – 1887)
JUBILEE HEAD (1887 – 1893)
OLD HEAD (1893 – 1901)
EDWARD VII (1902 – 1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1931)TWO POUNDS (1887 – 1902)
JUBILEE HEAD (1887)
EDWARD VII (1902)FIVE POUNDS (1887 – 1902)
JUBILEE HEAD (1887)
EDWARD VII (1902)
AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH COINAGE
HALF PENNY (1911 – 1964)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1964)
PENNY (1911 – 1964)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1964)THREEPENCE (1910 – 1964)
EDWARD VII (1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1964)
SIXPENCE (1910 – 1963)
EDWARD VII (1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1963)
SHILLING (1910 – 1963)
EDWARD VII (1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1963)
PATTERN (1927)FLORIN (1910 – 1963)
EDWARD VII (1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1963)COMMEMORATIVES (1927 – 1954)
CROWN (1937 – 1938)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1938)
KOOKABURRA PATTERNS (1919 – 1921)
HALF PENNY (1920 – 1921)
PENNY (1919 – 1921)
Great Bottle Dump Found
Old Bottle Dump littered with thousands of old bottles
Two days ago I found this great bottle dump with thousands of bottles spread out over approximately a one acre area.
I was quite lucky to have found it, because I walked around 3 kilomtres from the road, and I was just about to turn back, when I spotted some rusty old drums a couple hundred metres away from where I was, so I walked a bit further and then all of a sudden I saw that beautiful sparkle of glass! Every bottle hunters dream, sparkling glass in the bush means old bottles!
When I saw how many I just did not know where to start. But got to the task of looking for bottles which I have not got in my collection so far, and also finding bottles which are worth a bit of money.
And I have around 100 or so bottles and jars which I do not have, so I was really happy about that.
When bottle hunting I usually only look for Bottles and Jars that have Logos or Words stamped onto the glass, some bottles and jars which don’t have any markings are not really worth collecting or investing in, unless of course they are very rare.
So over the last two days, I have made two exhausting trips back and forwards to this old bottle dump, when I say exhausting, it really is, because I put in the bottles in my old Navy canvas bag and put the bag over my shoulders and walk back to my car. As I said previously, the trip back to my car is around 3 kilometres and the bag would be full of bottles, and would weigh around 40 kilograms, so I it was great to get the weight off my shoulders on arrival.
So now I have got another 200 bottles that I need to photograph and categorise. I am getting a new little shed soon, built especially for my Old Bottle and Jar Collection and I am also getting a Bottle Tumbler from the Jar Doctor in the very near future, to clean all my bottles and jars, so they are like brand new again.
The bottles which I am particularly interested in are old beer bottles, softdrink and soda bottles, sauce bottles, wine bottles and poison bottles, but anything that catches my eye and something I don’t have will be added to my collection.
I am new to this bottle hunting experience, I don’t have nothing really old, probably the oldest would date back to 1890.
I am a member of Bottle Guide, and I really love coming home to check out the current values of the bottles I have just found, it’s always nice to find a bottle which is rare and worth money.
The Bottle Dump
Jeff – A Man obessed with Bottle Collecting and Bottle Hunting
Some of Jeffs Bottles waiting to be Sorted and Cleaned
Being an Avid Bottle Collector myself I have known about a man who resides near my towns large of district of Dumbleyung Western Australia for a few months now, but I had never met him, until today.
I decided to go for a drive to his home to a tiny town with a tiny population of around 10 called Moulyinning and introduce myself.
I had seen parts of his collection from the road before, there are thousands of old bottles laying around his shed, and inside his shed, just waiting to be sorted, cleaned and categorised, a task with in my opinion would be near impossible because of the amount he has.
Anyhow I pulled up to Jeffs place, he came out of his house, probably thinking I was a Jehovahs Witness on a mission from God, but I was not, I introduced myself to Jeff, we shook hands and I told him I was here to check out his huge bottle collection and he was pretty happy and excited when I told him that!
Jeff is a wonderful man and very friedly character, with plenty of stories to tell.
I did not go there to get any bottles or ask for any from Jeff, but as I looked at his collection he was more than happy to give me some bottles which I did not have and he ended up giving me around 40 beautiful old bottles, and even a nice old Blue Bottle and plenty of old softdrink and beer bottles which are my favourite. I felt a bit guilty, but Jeff insisted, so how could I say no.
As you can see by the photos I have attached, his yard his littered by his collection, but its not just his yard, inside his house is just old bottles everywhere you look, and alot of other very interesting things, like old enamal signs, bits of pieces of many other interesting things he has found on his bottle collection adventures through Western Australia.
He gave me plenty of advice, and I learnt alot today about bottles, what to look forward, spelling mistakes on bottles, and so much more.
I ended up staying at his place for four hours looking at his bottle collection.
Tomorrow he is going to show me one of his secret bottle dumps, so I am really looking forward to that.
I really love bottle collection, it is another of my favourite hobbies which of course includes metal detecting.
Soon I am getting a small shed put up in which I can display all my bottles and my metal detecting finds to friends and family.
I am also about to invest in a Jar Doctor Bottle Tumbler which cleans bottles, it has to be imported from America, and it costs around $1700USD but I know it is going to be worth the investment!
Jeff with a small section of his Thousands of Old Australian Bottles in his collection
Metal Detecting Withdrawal Symptoms Fixed! Silver Ring Found!
Rusty Ring? No - It is Silver and Silver does not Rust! Before after Photos Coming Soon!
Over the last week I have not had any time to go out Metal Detecting, due to the Easter Holidays and spending time with my family, so yesterday it was time for me to go out bush to go and find some stuff before I went crazy as I was seriously having withdrawal symptoms!
Winter is not too far away and the days are getting shorter, so I left around 4pm with a couple of hours to spare until darkness, I decided that I would go out to my towns local Lake, Lake Dumbleyung and to some hunting for possible lost rings!
Anyhow I arrived there, covered myself in some insect repellant, because the flies are really bad out there and off I went.
A friend of mine Tony from Sydney Metal Detector Services gave me a few metal detecting tips for when searching in salt water and very mineralized conditions. I have a Minelab Etrac Metal Detector and I set the detector into the settings he gave me and off I went.
The section of the Lake I went to is the old Water Ski Club, at the moment the Lake is near on dry, but very muddy around 50 metres from the shoreline. I just basically detected around the ski boat ramp area and where people would swim when the Lake is full of water. I found the usual lot of pull tabs, and then a old silver coin, I think it is an Australian Six Pence, so obviously that coin had been sitting in the water for over 40 years.
Then I got my self I nice tone, and dug around, the soil was like brick hard clay, and after around 10 minutes of digging around, I found myself a ring!
I have attached the photos of the Ring, I think it is a Silver Ring, as you can see, the ring is very tarnished, which is to be expected with a Silver Ring laying in Salty conditions for a long period of time. And the same goes with the Silver Six Pence I found.
I also went for a bit of a walk on the salty flats, I was amazed to find a beautiful old glass coca cola bottle just laying half buried on the Lake, so I presume that bottle had been there for at least 25 to 30 years or more, it is obviously a bit weather worn, but other wise in excellent condition, no cracks no chips.
I love finding Old Bottles, that is another hobbie of mine. See my Old Bottle Collection
The Old Australian Glass Coca Cola Bottle I found on the Lake bed
As I mentioned above and you can see in the photos I have attached, both the Silver Ring and the Silver Six Pence are very tarnished, so much so, that you would not know they are silver.
So I have decided to do another Coin Cleaning and Silver Ring Cleaning experiment.
Currently I have both the coin and the ring, soaking in an ice cream container, which I covered the bottom with some foil, placed the ring and the coin on top of the foil, then put around 4 big table spoons of Bicarbonate Soda on top of the ring and the coin. Then I covered the ring and the coin in about 2 litres of boiling hot water.
I will let that soak for 24 hours, then I am going to clean them up in my Lortone Tumbler using some very fine tumbling grit and watch the tumbling very closely so I do not do any damage to the ring and especially the coin, which could be of value.
My Lortone Coin - Rock and Jewellery Tumblers
So I will keep you up to date and post some before and after cleaning photos of the Silver Coin and Silver Ring.
Anyhow, It was great to get out for a couple of hours yesterday, there is nothing better that going metal detecting, it always clears the mind and makes you feel great.
Tarnished Silver Sixpence - You can just see King Edward VII's head! Before - After Cleaning Pics coming soon!
