Silver and Gold! Well, maybe...

Frodov

Bronze Member
May 24, 2007
1,021
34
Lexington, KY
Detector(s) used
Whites Prism IV / Bullseye II pinpointer
Ahhh.. a beautiful Autumn day, a day off, and no pressing items on the Honey-Do list! Of COURSE I went metal detecting! <grin> Well.. after a liesurely morning spent with my missus and brunch out at a local eatery. Eventually though I *did* get out to do some detecting.
I hopped in my little white truck (yes, small, white Ford Ranger), and headed to a nearby park where there are some volleyball courts (nets) set up and a couple of soccer fields laid out.. oh.. and a pretty fair sized tot lot nearby as well. I happened to drive by this very park on my way home from work yesterday, and it was packed! People everywhere, cars parked everywhere.. even in the grass where it was clearly posted "NO PARKING". Hmmmm clearly, some people just don't give a hoot.
Oh well, I guess there are people like that everywhere.. and this bunch was definitely an uncaring bunch as a whole I think, because the park was a mess this afternoon when I arrived. Litter, empty drink cans and plastic bottles everywhere.. food wrappers, foil, even some odd pieces of clothing, a single shoe, a shirt here, a pair of shorts there.. Did they leave in the dark? Leave in a hurry? <shrug> I picked up some of the trash as I detected, after lunch I saw that there were a couple of parks department guys there picking up after the messy crowd as well. They both waved a friendly and perhaps appreciable hello as I was detecting and picking up trash.
I didn't pick up JUST trash though mind you. I found a goodly amount of clad as well, along with some bling, a lot of pull tabs (of course) and a few odds and ends.. oh and one shotgun shell (base). Anyone know how old this bad boy might be?

10-6-08 018shotgun.jpg

It's a Winchester 12 gauge "NUBLACK" ? ? ? Any help? This park was, of course, farmland long before it became an oasis in the "burbs".

I found a pin on one of the soccer fields.. is Green White Red the colors of the Mexican flag? I would suspect it is.. there is a large migrant or "immigrant" population nearby this park.

10-6-08 015pin.jpg

The twin flag soccer pin was not the only bling I found today, I found a couple of small earrings too, not matches of course, that would be unusual, no these two are from different pairs. One has a small wooden bead remaining on it, and a small loop that probably connected something else to the earring at one time.<shrug>

10-6-08 004earrings.jpg

...The other is silver! or at least the post portion is silver..it's stamped.

10-6-08 013earproof.jpg

Along with the earrings and pull tabs (can jewelry) and LOTS of pennies.. I found GOLD! only it didn't and doesn't' LOOK like gold. In one of the volley ball courts, under the grass and a couple of inches down in the dirt, I found this chain and crucifix.

10-6-08 017crucifix.jpg

I thought it was a cheap pot metal or maybe copper when I first dug it up.. the chain was crusty and the cross was covered and filled with dirt and grass roots.. It wasn't until I got home later and took time to rinse it off that I found a couple of surprising Stamps! One on the back of the cross itself, it looks to have been double stamped..

10-6-08 008crossback.jpg
10-6-08 007Italy.jpg

14K ITALY ? ...and one stamp on one of the clasps of the chain.

10-6-08 005clasp.jpg

The clasp has a 14K stamp too.. but that chain does NOT look like gold. I wonder if they were both gold plated?.. and the gold has worn off most of it. The stamp itself still looks shiny and "golden".. at least on the cross itself.

Hmmmm... Gold or not? Or was it EVER gold? I don't know, but it's still neat finding things like this. I found another key to add to my collection of keys and locks.. this one still has a big ugly plastic key chain..fob..tag..whatever on it. You can see it here with all the "other stuff" I found today.

10-6-08 003stuff.jpg

Here's the picture of all my clad found today..

10-6-08 001clad.jpg

$6.55 in change.. not bad for a couple of hours of park clean up. <grin> Oh.. and 26 cents Canadian (not counted in my clad total)

10-6-08 002Canadian.jpg

Nothing against our neighbors to the Great White North, but the bank doesn't like me counting and rolling those coins along with US coinage. Something about it not be equivalent or something. <grin><shrug> That's ok, I'll just toss'em in with all my other Canadian coins and save them till I have a roll or two to take to the bank and THEN exchange them. Might be a while though, but that's ok, I'm in no hurry. I still get a kick out of finding the Canadian coins as well as the Home grown US coins. Got to love this hobby.

Happy Hunting Everyone!


Frodov
 

Upvote 0
Hello, got some great finds Frodov, you might try WWW. Cartridge-corner.com, you should be able to find out what the date is on that shotshell base. HH JYD
 

Here is a good resource for shotshell identification. http://members.shaw.ca/cartridge-corner/shotgun.htm

Looks to be at least early 1900's. The earlier ones say for example No. 12 instead of 12 Ga or 12 gauge. One of the beaches I hunt used to be a duck hunting club in the early 1900's. I have dug hundreds upon hundreds of these early shotshell bases. Out of curiousity I started saving one of each variety, so far I have at least fourty different varieties.

Steve
 

Nice!!!! Found some jewelry and enough money to (maybe) pay for gas (if you didn't travel too far.... :wink:).
 

cool finds, I have a piece stamped with Italy like that, I was told it was gold plated, I still enjoyed finding it though.
 

Fro is on his way up to becoming rich..LoL!

Keep at it Fro....HH! :thumbsup:
 

Cybercop106 said:
Nice!!!! Found some jewelry and enough money to (maybe) pay for gas (if you didn't travel too far.... :wink:).

Actually this park is less than two miles from my home, so yeah, I found more than enough clad to pay for my gas for this hunt. <smile> My wife liked it because I wasn't very far away or gone for very long. <shrug>

Happy Hunting!

Frodov
 

txkickergirl said:
cool finds, I have a piece stamped with Italy like that, I was told it was gold plated, I still enjoyed finding it though.

I'm pretty sure this crucifix and chain were gold plated as well.. once upon a time. Apparently this set (chain and cross) have seen a LOT of wear. I'm sure someone missed it when they realized it was gone. Too bad we as detectorists can't return EVERYTHING we find to their rightfull or should I say "former" owners. Oh well.. just another item for my growing collections of found items. I'm going to have to break out the table saw and start building me some display cases or shadow boxes. <grin>
yeah.. I enjoyed finding this cross and chain too.. as well as even coins or.. yeah..even pull tabs. It's more of a "discovery" thrill than the particular object I think. Kind of like fishing in a way, they don't call it "Catching".. it's the act of fishing. To catch anything is a thrill, and unique to every catch. Metal detecting is kind of like that for me too.. to find ANYTHING is thrilling.. to find neat stuff is a bonus. <smile>

Happy Hunting!

Frodov
 

Cr4zyH0rs3 said:
Fro is on his way up to becoming rich..LoL!

Keep at it Fro....HH! :thumbsup:

Rich? Well that's a nice thought anyway. I didn't start metal detecting to become rich, though I'd be lying if a stray fantasy of finding a nice little cache of gold or some little token or treasured BLING hadn't wandered through my over active imagination from time to time... <grin> Oh I'm not holding my breath by any stretch of the imagination. I mean I like the clad that I find, it keeps me in batteries, a cold drink now and then, gas.. at least for my treasure hunting expeditions.. and more importantly an occasional vacation accomodation (hotel stay or restaurant tab). .. But "rich" nahhh.. not yet.. but it's fun to dream and it's even MORE FUN to find little treasures here and there.. even if it's only a pull tab or a coin or two. The Fun is in the finding!

Happy Hunting Everyone!

Frodov
 

Frodov,
For us the fun is reading your fantastic adventures.
Joe
 

DD-777 said:
Nice digs Fro - I do believe you found the Italian flag. A good find indeed... :thumbsup:

You know, I think you are right DD. The Mexican flag has the Eagle in the White field of the flag.. the Italian flag is plain and unadorned as is on the pin and your pic you posted to me. So, it would probably mean that the pin represents the American flag and the Italian flag.. some sort of joint sports association or club or something I guess (soccer no doubt <grin>). Thanks for pointing that out to me. I guess I just jumped to conclusions considering where I actually found the pin and the prevalance of the Mexican or Latino imigrant population nearby said park.
Thanks for the assist!

Happy Hunting!

Frodov
 

It's " FOOL'S GOLD!" I tell ya, FOOL'S GOLD! Plain and simple. The fool of course is the one who bought it. There is trickery all over the place, and you know what the worst part of it is? Someone paid dearly for it. Or worse yet, they were the hawkers of this crap >:(. We find that stuff all the time around the beaches and in the lakes here. We call it our own "Black Hills Gold" Stamped right here in good 'ol Metro-Detroit Area :icon_pirat:. Though we do not have any hills around here except the affluent Bloomfield Hills ::). My area has never produced any gold items from the soccer fields or tot lots, for me. Seems, some other "seasoned citizen" is beating me to it. Nice finds though. Wish the soreness in my knees would go away for a few days, I have Osteo-Arthritis in both and it aint gettin' any better, heck tylenol doesn't work anymore for the pain........NGE
 

notgittinenny said:
It's " FOOL'S GOLD!" I tell ya, FOOL'S GOLD! Plain and simple. The fool of course is the one who bought it. There is trickery all over the place, and you know what the worst part of it is? Someone paid dearly for it. Or worse yet, they were the hawkers of this crap >:(. We find that stuff all the time around the beaches and in the lakes here. We call it our own "Black Hills Gold" Stamped right here in good 'ol Metro-Detroit Area :icon_pirat:. Though we do not have any hills around here except the affluent Bloomfield Hills ::). My area has never produced any gold items from the soccer fields or tot lots, for me. Seems, some other "seasoned citizen" is beating me to it. Nice finds though. Wish the soreness in my knees would go away for a few days, I have Osteo-Arthritis in both and it aint gettin' any better, heck tylenol doesn't work anymore for the pain........NGE

Yeah.. I know what you mean about not finding much or any gold. I haven't found a great deal here in my neck of the woods, but I have found a little. I'm still looking for that one big honkin' bracelet or a heavy ring.. or just one little engagement ring with a diamond solitaire.. <grin> yeah.. i know.. wishfull thinking. <shrug>
I'm sorry to hear about the knees. I'm not looking forward to the days when my own start rebelling against me. I was very hard on them as a younger man.. playing football, soccer, baseball, running track.. not to mention just everyday work on the farm or anywhere else. I have one that gives me fits now when the weather is about to change dramatically. So far the knee pads and the tylenol help. I'm told that Alieve does a very good job of lessening the pain too, but I've not tried that yet. For now I'll just stick with the good knee pads and an occasional dose of tylenol. You *do* use Knee pads don't you? <grin>

Happy Hunting!

Frodov
 

Yup, when I can manage to get down on one knee. 44 years of abuse on hands, knees, back, and belly hernia, doing autobody repair....... oh, and I don't see or hear very well. I am only going on 59. I use a modified 4" trenching shovel for stand up pluggin', I cut the handle to managable length, and put a "D" attachment on the open end. If I do have to get up, I use the digger for a crutch. I can't stay bent at waist very long, all the blood rushes to my head and then I can't get my hat off ;D. In the Tool shed you'll see a post of the tools I use ......... NGE
 

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