New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Well Chris you have really (naughty word) up New Zealand history and the Maori population is going to deport you to purgatory via a hangmans rope - I can see it now. As for the bloke who wrote the book on the Celtic settlement in New Zealand - he will think you are the second best thing to Laudanum.

The coin on the bottom right hand side is probably a silver Tetradrachm of Athens 230 - 200 BC - the bottom coin on the left is also probably the same one.

Some of these coins show signs of maybe being Anglo Saxon for example the one with the cross though and yet another has Roman elements to it. The cross is an early Christian one and could feasibly be Byzantium of other.

The coin with S C shows Neptune and is Roman though if the fairly elaborate head is the obverse side it doesnt look Roman - the S C means I think 'Senatus Consulto' which sort of means that it is by a decree of the senate. Sometimes you will see EX. S C and that may appear on one of the other coins you have there.

Basically most of these coins appear to be Ancient Greek or show Ancient Greek features, some are Ancient Roman or appear to be so and one at least appears to be Ancient British of possible Anglo Saxon or Celtic (has more Opium) origins.

The coin with 1577 is an enigma though as it seems to read Feb 1577 so I have no idea at the moment what it might be but not Roman, nor Greek as it post dates those eras by many hundreds of years.

So the situation is this - there are several scenarios.

1) Some shit stole someones coin collection then got cold and felt great remorse and guilt and threw them away.
2) Some shit stole someones coin collection then discovered that they were fakes and threw them away.
3) Some shit stole someones coin collection and buried them until the heat cooled down.
4) Some shit stole someones coin collection and buried them, found they were fakes so didnt go get them.
5) New Zealand was in truth such a beautiful country back in the days of the Ancients that after they had discovered it they held United Nations meeting here and during
a drunken orgy coins were lost and recently found by you...thus proving that the bloke who wrote the book about Celtic New Zealand wasnt as silly as many make .
out.

All that might or might not be good news unless the last sentence above is correct and you are a Maori which basically means that they were second in the race for New Zealand behind Waitaha and the Ancients explorers of Rome, Greece and Britain - Keep an eye open for the newest Asterix Book - Asterix discovers Kiwiland.

Have a careful look at the edges as these coins were all hammered coins which means they were made form a round piece of silver if genuine and the design and inscription hammered into the coin on both sides and this squashed the coin out a bit - if they are fakes they will invariably be caste and the join in the mold should show around the edge as a line or slightly raised line so have a look at the edge and if there is no obvious indication of the moding join then you may have genuine ones.

The question now is -are they genuine? Get a jeweller to have a look but cover yourself by visiting the local Gestapo office first because if they are genuine silver coins then they are quite valuable and you could get a rap over the knuckles if they turned out to be stolen...that in turn means that you might have to wear a ball and chain and go around walloping rocks with a sledge hammer for a year or two.

Edited by user Monday, 7 November 2011 11:54:29 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

LOL...lammerlaw i hope none of them scenarios is true and they are from a ship wreck...hahahaha..except for maybe number 5..hahaha..as for them being silver
i dont think they are as alot of them have a copper look to them...and a white chalky sort of look to the ones that the edge broke off of when i went to clean them..almost like a calcium type of look...weather that is from lenght of time they have been buried and crusted over from the salt water ...or from what they are made out of i dont know...but i will deffinatly looking into it further.....i may even take one or two down to the museum to see what they say...
just hope they dont take them off me..lol....will also check in with the gestapo...lol

Also they were spread out over a big area so if someone stole a collection they then went and walked the beach while droping the coins...hahaha

Edited by user Tuesday, 8 November 2011 12:21:19 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

crusader coin?...the one with the cross is the other side of the one that has the 8V3 on it..second set of pics second from bottom.

hahahaha CHCH..lol..and thank you

no not same depth at all...some were only 4 or 5 inches and some were well over a foot and half.
and yes they were scattered..i was very excited finding them ...real or not it was a great day.

Remember that the edges can quickly betray fake caste coins and the white oxidized edges or surface can indicate muckmetal, pot metal, lead content as in inferior grades of metal which you might expect from fakes - my personal feeling is fakes but hey ya never know. They also made coins out of copper and bronze as well as gold so some could be copper. If they are copper coloured on outside but inner core is grey then most definitely fake as they would be pewter or muck metal and copper coated to look like the originals - but good luck Chris and may your coins be the real deal.

Genuine copper or bronze will oxidize to a greenish patina and even with bronze cancer or bronze disease the powder should have a greenish tinge to it...if it is oxidizing to z white colour then methinks its not the real deal. Silver will turn black or if it is greatly debased silver as is some of the Billon coins with only 24% silver then it may get that oxidized coppery hue to it.

They are interesting and even if fake should give you heaps to research as they pre and post date the biblical era so some are BC and some much later - someone mentioned the one with the cross as being possibly a crusader coin - yes it is possible - that form of cross was used by the crusaders but that means it is reasonably late - the main crusades were around the period immediately after 1100AD and went through for a couple of hundred years into the 1300s though the history of the crusades and what led up to them and immediately after extends over a longer period. The most important era of the crusades is probably during the era of King Richard the Lionheart - 1150s to 1199 I think and Saladin who was alive from the 1130s to the 1190s.

That form of cross would however have been on coinsof the Byzantium period onwards and can still be seen in the Long and Short cross coinage of Britain where it also doubled as an indicator of 'half a penny' and 'quarter of a penny'

The second coin down looks like it has an ear of grain on one side or maybe a palm - Faint possibility the era of Herod Agrippa though the ear of grain is a bit different to the ones I have seen or one I have.

Edited by user Tuesday, 8 November 2011 12:45:29 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Poohbear....try this link

http://www.cointalk.com/t48496/

I reckon they're similar ?

After talking to and showing to robert and Andrew (oroplate)..and reading grahams bit about the whiteness i would have to conclud that they are fakes as well.
they are plated or dipped by the looks of them..as i went to clean one a bit the corner broke off and the back peeled off smooth...and the white dosnt have any greenish or greyish look to them..

but even though i think now that they are fake it is still my most interesting find so far...
i found another 3 of them today and they were very well spread out..so the question still remains...how did they get there and spread out that much...
Thw tide was in so couldnt get down to the line were alot of them were so had to hunt the dunes on the beach and still got 3..

yes it is a shame...but still going to have them checked out just incase..lol....but i am very happy either way..as they make for a great find compaired to the normal 1 and 2 cent pieces..lol

ya no worries mate..