Early morning finds from local swimming beach...

[Cubfan64]

Got up and drove to a local beach before sunrise this morning and spent ~2.5 hours enjoying the peace and solitude while hunting up to my neck in nice sun warmed fresh water. Saw a heron and turkey both eating stuff along the beach and it was near because there was a heavy mist floating along the water for the first hour or so.

Here are my finds - excited about the necklace (I know what 14K means, but anyone know what IN or AWAD stands for?). The little charm doesn't have markings but it has weight to it and I think it's probably silver. No idea about the earrings - my gut feeling is because the posts don't appear to be anything special, they are quite likely not diamonds, but darn cool to find anyways and I'll get em checked out soon to make sure.

Happy hunting everyone.

 

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[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

You done good, congrat.

Very, very nice.

have a good un..............

 

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[DPBOB]

Nice finds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GOTTA LOVE THIS HOBBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CONGRATS

 

[Ant]

Nice finds but:

I noticed the same things. If the clasp really has rubbed off as it looks, then for sure the clasp is not 14k alloyed gold as it is marked. The close up of the links look a little suspect too. If it’s plated you should be able to look at it under a magnifier to see if you can see places that the gold has chipped away, sluff off or where the gold did not adhere to the base metal during the electroplating process. Did you check to see if it is attracted to a magnet?
I think this might be the manufacture of you piece.
AWAD & Company Jewelry Store
http://www.bebimi.com/location/awad-%26-company-diamond-jewelry-shop.htm

 

[Cubfan64]

Nice finds but:

I noticed the same things. If the clasp really has rubbed off as it looks, then for sure the clasp is not 14k alloyed gold as it is marked. The close up of the links look a little suspect too. If it’s plated you should be able to look at it under a magnifier to see if you can see places that the gold has chipped away, sluff off or where the gold did not adhere to the base metal during the electroplating process. Did you check to see if it is attracted to a magnet?
I think this might be the manufacture of you piece.
AWAD & Company Jewelry Store
http://www.bebimi.com/location/awad-%26-company-diamond-jewelry-shop.htm

Hmmm, ok this is odd, but using a magnifying glass I can't find any spot on the clasp that looks worn - I'm wondering if the picture picked up some kind of reflection (although that pic sure does look like a worn spot). It's not attracted to a magnet at all.

Looking at it under a microscope tomorrow should help identify any worn spots - I'll also weight it and let you guys know what the weight is - it certainly seems awfully heavy. It's also 24 inches long.

Oh - one of the earrings I found has a teeny tiny .925 stamp on it so at least that part of it is authentic. I'm not getting any hopes up, but it sure would be cool if the diamond was real

No matter what I had a heck of a lot of fun out there this morning and you can bet your butt I'm going to be going back again!

 

[Old Tom]

Cubfan
I have dug hundreds or gold items, and that looks like gold to me. There are test kits you can purchase, but
they mostly for confirming what grade of gold it is 10K, 14k and so on. 14k gold is 58.5 percent gold. To me your chain and cross looks like (at least from the picture) that some white gold has been applied for appearance.
Also Jesus on the cross looks to me like white gold. Let me post a pic to your like that one of the rings in the picture has white gold attached to it, is it the ring with the large jade stone. If you look close you can see the bands on the side alternate white and yellow gold. I think the cut areas of your chains looks like this. But maybe just what I am seeing in the pic ... does it look solid yellow gold to you? I had the ring in my picture checked out, and found out it is a common practice with good jewelers in Hong Kong. And maybe where your chain was made. The AWAD and IN are makers marks or loosely hallmarks. Marks put there to guarantee the quality of the gold. You could always take it to a gold dealer in your area, where they would weigh it and tell you what they would give for it. Just for your own mind to know it is solid gold, also would give you a idea of its gold value.

this is just my thoughts .. I think it is a really good find .. not common to find gold that heavy looking.

Old Tom

 

[mchamby]

The cross is great looking, I hope you find you have a diamond there also. I bet you didn't want to leave when it was time. Thats what I do all too often and then get into trouble with my oxygen, just hate to possibly have missed something good. HH Good luck if you go back.
mchamby

 

[Ant]

I've got more that a few bootlegged pices of gold, even silver. The first pic shows what I see. The second pic is of my poke, no plated pices in my hands.

 

[Maggot]

very nice finds! congrats, i love detecting in the water too when nobody else is around.

 

[Cubfan64]

The chain weighs 34.2g and the cross pendant 8.7g.

I took a look at the chain under the microscope at work and I gotta say that those spots that look like wear marks down to bare metal are just not there. It had to be some kind of odd reflection thing from where I took the picture. I found a few scratch marks on the chain, but none of them showed any different color metal under the surface.

That plus the fact that there is no magnetic attraction at all leads me to believe it really is 14K gold, but I'm going to take it to a jeweler this week to make sure.

I also looked at the earrings under the scope and I'm certainly no expert, but both of them look fake to me (which isn't exactly surprising!).

An interesting comment regarding the water hunt that I forgot to share....

The 2 earrings and tiny silver charm were very difficult for me to bring to the surface due to their size and the fact that they kept slipping through the holes in my scoop. I knew they were there and I knew they were small because they kept moving each time I took a scoop. I was lucky this time because the water was extremely clear and I could actually see the bottom as I was scooping, so I finally just used my detector head to swish the water about 1/2 inch above the bottom to move sand until I caught glimpses of something and then used the tip of the scoop to slowly scoop it up and close enough to me to pick it off the end.

Had it been an overcast day or lots of other beaches, I would likely have never been able to get them into my pouch. Needless to say I'm going to be hitting the hardware store to try to make a "liner" for my scoop with smaller holes to catch some of those tiny things!

 

[JerV3]

Nice gold chain and cross.

I'd wear that puppy. It does give you that gangster type of look though.

HH Jer

 

[Cubfan64]

UPDATE: Took the necklace and crucifix to 2 different jewelers each of which confirmed that they are both indeed 14K gold through and not plated (woohoo!!!). The little diamond in the crucifix is not real and neither are the earrings, but I didn't expect them to be.

Retail value estimate for the necklace and crucifix fell in the range of $700-$1100 according to each of them and I actually found a number of necklaces online that look exactly like it (down to the clasp) for ~$800-$1350.

Certainly my best find ever!! The folks I work with who've laughed and joked with me about me being too young to be "wearing bermuda shorts and black socks on the beach with a metal detector" aren't laughing now .

(Oh, and I DON'T WEAR BERMUDA SHORTS OR BLACK SOCKS on the beach - just to make that clear!!).

Thanks for all the responses and good wishes.

Happy hunting to all.

 

[civilman1]

Nice work Cubfan...That cross is a piece of artwork,wanna sell her.......Great find's,there's gotta be some more there....HH!!

 

[Cubfan64]

Nice work Cubfan...That cross is a piece of artwork,wanna sell her.......Great find's,there's gotta be some more there....HH!!

Dontcha know it - guess where I'm going Saturday morning again . I hope this doesn't offend anyone (and I really don't mean it to), but when I spoke to someone at work about the swimming area I found the necklace at, they mentioned that it's a VERY popular beach with latino's in their teens and twenties for some reason and that they wouldn't be surprised at all if I found more thick gold necklaces and crucifixes there.

I definitely didn't cover the whole swimming area when I was there last week, so I'll give it another shot and take my time - maybe I'll get lucky again

 

[1235CE]

That's great news!!.......I am happy that my observation was wrong!

Saturday??......what's wrong with, um, NOW!

again, great job!

HH all!
Greg

 

[Ant]

That's great news!!.......I am happy that my observation was wrong!

Saturday??......what's wrong with, um, NOW!

again, great job!

HH all!
Greg

I stand by what I said about that picture. A picture is worth a thousand words in my book and in the law’s book. The rub spot on the clasp definitely isn’t a shadow or a reflection unless I’m blind or something and that’s not the case.

The reason I’m pointing this out is that someone may want to buy a piece of jewelry with a rub spot and or ware marks like I see on that necklace. If you see spots on Jewelry like that it is not real. People get sent to jail and or prison using pictures with less detail than that, that picture tells it all. The Jewlery/Gemologist must be mistaken.

The picture is too clear to say that the camera put the rub mark on the clasp. That just doesn’t happen. I won't replay to this thread anymore if standing up for what I can plainly see causes a problem, you did asked if it was real. I'm not flame throwing I'm just stating facts as to what I see.

Chow

 

[Boobydoo]

UPDATE: Took the necklace and crucifix to 2 different jewelers each of which confirmed that they are both indeed 14K gold through and not plated (woohoo!!!). The little diamond in the crucifix is not real and neither are the earrings, but I didn't expect them to be.

Retail value estimate for the necklace and crucifix fell in the range of $700-$1100 according to each of them and I actually found a number of necklaces online that look exactly like it (down to the clasp) for ~$800-$1350.

Certainly my best find ever!! The folks I work with who've laughed and joked with me about me being too young to be "wearing bermuda shorts and black socks on the beach with a metal detector" aren't laughing now .

(Oh, and I DON'T WEAR BERMUDA SHORTS OR BLACK SOCKS on the beach - just to make that clear!!).

Thanks for all the responses and good wishes.

Happy hunting to all.

Yippie!!! I am really happy for you CF64!
We had faith in you all along and thta's one of the best finds on the site in a while.
You should be proud and happy, I would be. That chain is certainly a piece of"meat". Great stuff,
again congrats, and best of luck with continued success.

Golden smiles!
BDoo

 

[digman]

This is a nice treasure you found !!
Very nice.
AWAD is a jewlery shop in NY.
Good luck,
Digman.

 

[Cubfan64]

That's great news!!.......I am happy that my observation was wrong!

Saturday??......what's wrong with, um, NOW!

again, great job!

HH all!
Greg

I stand by what I said about that picture. A picture is worth a thousand words in my book and in the law’s book. The rub spot on the clasp definitely isn’t a shadow or a reflection unless I’m blind or something and that’s not the case.

The reason I’m pointing this out is that someone may want to buy a piece of jewelry with a rub spot and or ware marks like I see on that necklace. If you see spots on Jewelry like that it is not real. People get sent to jail and or prison using pictures with less detail than that, that picture tells it all. The Jewlery/Gemologist must be mistaken.

The picture is too clear to say that the camera put the rub mark on the clasp. That just doesn’t happen. I won't replay to this thread anymore if standing up for what I can plainly see causes a problem, you did asked if it was real. I'm not flame throwing I'm just stating facts as to what I see.

Chow

I don't mind your comments since I would say the same if all I had to go by was the picture - tell you what though, I will take another couple pictures at different angles and in different lighting and let you see that there truly is NO rub marks on any of those spots. The room I took the picture in is our upstairs bathroom which has a skylight directly above it and I took the pic right below it - there is also an entire wall mirror right behind the wall I took the picture by. I understand what you're saying - I really do, but I'm telling you truthfully that there are no marks there when you look at it under a microscope.

I'll try to get pics taken tonight and post them here as proof.

 

[Cubfan64]

More pictures for Ant's benefit. Ant, no offense meant, but a picture is DEFINITELY not worth 1000 words in many many cases - especially when you have the exact item in front of me like I do and have looked at it under a microscope and I know what I'm seeing - I also trust 2 independant jewelers who both did acid tests on scratched sections of the chain.

Ultimately you're welcome to believe whatever you would like to believe - it's not going to bother me one bit, but you should be a little less judgemental based only on a picture in the future. That said - I agree wholeheartedly that if I were looking at a piece of jewelry in person that had a rub spot like the first picture makes it look, I would indeed tend to believe it was only gold plated - the difference here is that you're not seeing the chain live and in person.

Happy Hunting all.

 

[Jason in TN]

Man that sure looks like the real deal to me. Very very nice.
Ant shame on you do I sense your a little jealous. That pile of gold in your hands
is nice too. Some of us find it in little pieces and some find big honking gold like
cudfan did.