New Member Intro

Greetings All,
After a couple of false starts and some help from Miguel I finally signed up.
I hope to attend the upcoming AGM at Luina.
I am originally from SA but bought a place near Cygnet about 7 years ago and now spend more time here.
Bought my first detector (a “Wildcat”) way back in 1982. I was working at Falls Creek in Victoria and used to pick up coins in summer that had fallen out of pockets on the ski slopes. I was the first person to try a detector there. I really cleaned up, because people had been skiing since after the War. Lots and lots of pre-decimals. My best find was a silver medal from the 1952 Winter Olympics. Later, I fell on hard times and sold the lot to a coin shop in Adelaide. Sometimes you do what you have to do.
Later, I took the detector to Finland when I worked there for a year. I found a Swedish 1 Ore coin from 1642 and a big copper ring with a horse-head on it. Probably from some wealthy person, I was told. Sadly, in my many worldly travels I lost these 2 pieces.
In 2002 I moved to Russia to live with my wife. Just down the end of our street was an ancient settlement from Byzantine times. I bought a new detector and tried my luck. My best finds were 2 Byzantine coins and a small copper figurine.
But in all my hours of detecting I have never found any gold. So I hope to change that here in Tasmania. I did have one try near the Whyte River a couple of years ago but no luck. I see it is now covered by an Exploration Lease.
I look forward to listening to experienced gold-seekers at the AGM.

Regards,
Tom

6 Likes

Welcome Tom . You have had an interesting life by the sounds of things . Hope you have some pics of those long lost finds , and best of luck on the gold in Tassie . Curt.

Welcome to the forum Tom, and thanks for the interesting introduction!
Hope to see you at the AGM, you’ll need to be fairly self suffucient in terms of camping, but with your experiences you should be fine.
West coast Tassie will be a new experience: bring some insect repellant and good wet weather clothing
Cheers,
Andrew G

Thanks, Curt.
No; unfortunately no pictures.
You can’t guess the fate of the 2 Byzantine coins…my father-in-law had arthritic knees and heard that bandaging copper to the knee helped. So my wife, ever eager to help, swiped my coins and gave them to her dad. He saw they were a bit dirty, so filed off one side of each to clean copper!
He said they worked really well…needless to say I was not impressed. (OK; they did not have much dollar value but they were historical.)
Back in SA I took my detector to the old primary school I went to (now no longer a school) and found lots of coins. Same for the old showground and racetrack in my home town. The dry sandy soil meant the coins were just as when dropped. The only coin I have left is an 1892 English penny found in the ruins of an old Inn near the Princes Hwy.

2 Likes

Hi Andrew,

No worries about the camping. I have a Hilux with a 2.4m tray and canopy so I can sleep in that if wet and a tent if not. I did have a look around the Whyte river a couple of years back. Crikey; talk about rough country! To think those guys went out there all those years ago with no car, no refrigeration, no preserved foods, no light gas stove, no detector etc etc. Probably a shovel and an axe and that was it! Incredible!
Mind you; they found heaps of gold and I’ve found none! LOL

1 Like

Hi @Tom, welcome!

I look forward to meeting you in Luina.