Source : Perth Now news
An amateur treasure hunter has struck gold at a WA beach, collecting a bagful of historic coins along the shore after last weekend’s powerful WA Day long weekend storm.
Local metal-detecting hobbyist Bill Allerton thought he’d try his luck at Madora Bay Beach, beside where the stairs were dramatically ripped away from the access point just days earlier.
But it wasn’t just a couple of dollars he walked away with, as the local bagged a haul of coins that have been out of circulation in Australia since the decimal currency was introduced in 1966.
Along with $1 and $2 gold coins, Mr Allerton told 6PR his bounty included threepences, sixpences, an old penny from 1915, a root penny from 1954, and even a floren.
“When I first started, it was all goldies at the beginning, and the cut of the sand is probably like looking at the roof of your house, it’s massive. And as I walked down, the cut got deeper, and I think, ‘Oh, all these 5c pieces’ — well I thought they were 5c,” he said.
After a closer inspection, the amateur collector realised just how old some of his coins were.
“I said to the wife, ‘Well, I’ve got to go back and have another crack at this’, so I went back the next day again, just coin after coin after coin, and then I went back again in the afternoon, and did again, and I haven’t been back since,” Mr Allerton said.
“I’ve probably done 80 meters of what, probably a kilometre beach that’s cut out.”
He said many of the coins were sitting on the surface of the sand.
However, Mr Allerton suggested it was due to the steep cliff the storm had created.
The amateur collector admitted it was his luckiest haul at the location.
“It’d be probably 20 foot of sand, because from the top of the stairs down has completely gone,” he said.
“I don’t normally do very well on the beach, that’s the first time I’ve got like coins like that on the beach.”
