tigerbeetle
Full Member
- Jan 2, 2009
- 166
- 275
- Detector(s) used
- Many -- Fisher, White's, Minelab, Cobra, others
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
Only recently, I began to home in on the astounding interest (and worth) of what might be called localized findables. In a nutshell, these are local-interest detectables that seldom elicit a whoop or a one-man high-five upon being dug. It’s when the provenance -- the item’s lineage -- begins to shine through that the serious significance of the find hits home.
A perfect example came my way recently, while digging a Deco dump -- my expression for those fascinating dumps from the 1920s and 30s. I was having a decent dig unearthing the likes of flatware with Bakelite handles and colorful celluloid toothbrushes (I use for art projects). Slow-hunting with a hand rake, I uncovered a silver-ish metal object that at first seemed like little more than a corroded something-or-other. I almost passed on even picking it up but curiosity got the best of me – a winning weakness common to every blue-blooded Th’er.
An initial dirt removal exposed some sort of badge, or the likes. Even then, the find was barely enough to maintain my interest. Still.
Using some in-field ingenuity, I used the bristles from one of the dug toothbrushes to do some serious de-dirting.
The first thing to come clear was an old-fashioned fire truck. Now, my interest was heating rapidly, pun intended.
I could see I had found an official firefighter badge. And I knew that firefighting collectibles are becoming a big thing.
Further toothbrushing exposed the word “Driver” on the top of the badge. Quite cool. This indicated the badge was for a very specialized individual, I’m guessing a driver. Further, one side of badge had the abbreviation “No.” and on the other side the other side “1.” Likely the fire company’s number.
I was quite intrigued by the find and took time to study the fire truck as means to date the badge. It sure looked to be the 1920s.
Now, knee-jerk reaction might find the relative newness of this find a bit of a letdown. I should know. I was about to tuck it away as a fairly cool albeit modernish find. Then I noticed some writing along the very bottom of the badge. It was tougher cleaning it to the point of readability, which actually added some super suspense as I began to realize what was written.
Now, for most folks this won’t sound like much but the bottom embossing read: “Beach Haven Volunteer Fire Company.”
For me, it was a total stunner. Flies could have freely entered and exited my mouth for the next 30 seconds.
Beach Haven is one of the more famous tourist towns on Long Beach Island, NJ, where I’ve lived for over 40 years. It’s loaded with history. HOWEVER, there is astoundingly little of a tangible nature when it comes to the town’s past, short of postcards.
This was an amazing find, damn near unique. Most of all, it was an example of pure unadulterated local history, since Beach Haven in the Twenties had exactly one fire truck. And I had the badge from its driver.
Yes, I’m tracking down the driver's name -- though it’s taking quite some effort, records being very sketchy back then.
This find is a perfect example of seemingly low-level finds elevating to epic-find dimensions when coupled with local interest.
I wrote about the find on my TH’ing website -- http://digtreasure.ning.com, a blog zone that I never really made public – and immediately received large-dollar offers by folks ravenous for local collectibles.
I have since found that the demand for hometown-related items is now sky-high, everywhere in the nation. This adds an attractive dimension to TH’ing, one that perks interest in newer dug items.
PS: Sure, firefighting collectibles can also arise in the way-back realm. Being a specialist in the Federal Period, I've scored some early-day firefighter finds. Below is a detector find I made years back. It gets no rarer than this early-American firefighter button. It rates only slightly behind my Washington buttons.
A perfect example came my way recently, while digging a Deco dump -- my expression for those fascinating dumps from the 1920s and 30s. I was having a decent dig unearthing the likes of flatware with Bakelite handles and colorful celluloid toothbrushes (I use for art projects). Slow-hunting with a hand rake, I uncovered a silver-ish metal object that at first seemed like little more than a corroded something-or-other. I almost passed on even picking it up but curiosity got the best of me – a winning weakness common to every blue-blooded Th’er.
An initial dirt removal exposed some sort of badge, or the likes. Even then, the find was barely enough to maintain my interest. Still.
Using some in-field ingenuity, I used the bristles from one of the dug toothbrushes to do some serious de-dirting.
The first thing to come clear was an old-fashioned fire truck. Now, my interest was heating rapidly, pun intended.
I could see I had found an official firefighter badge. And I knew that firefighting collectibles are becoming a big thing.
Further toothbrushing exposed the word “Driver” on the top of the badge. Quite cool. This indicated the badge was for a very specialized individual, I’m guessing a driver. Further, one side of badge had the abbreviation “No.” and on the other side the other side “1.” Likely the fire company’s number.
I was quite intrigued by the find and took time to study the fire truck as means to date the badge. It sure looked to be the 1920s.
Now, knee-jerk reaction might find the relative newness of this find a bit of a letdown. I should know. I was about to tuck it away as a fairly cool albeit modernish find. Then I noticed some writing along the very bottom of the badge. It was tougher cleaning it to the point of readability, which actually added some super suspense as I began to realize what was written.
Now, for most folks this won’t sound like much but the bottom embossing read: “Beach Haven Volunteer Fire Company.”
For me, it was a total stunner. Flies could have freely entered and exited my mouth for the next 30 seconds.
Beach Haven is one of the more famous tourist towns on Long Beach Island, NJ, where I’ve lived for over 40 years. It’s loaded with history. HOWEVER, there is astoundingly little of a tangible nature when it comes to the town’s past, short of postcards.
This was an amazing find, damn near unique. Most of all, it was an example of pure unadulterated local history, since Beach Haven in the Twenties had exactly one fire truck. And I had the badge from its driver.
Yes, I’m tracking down the driver's name -- though it’s taking quite some effort, records being very sketchy back then.
This find is a perfect example of seemingly low-level finds elevating to epic-find dimensions when coupled with local interest.
I wrote about the find on my TH’ing website -- http://digtreasure.ning.com, a blog zone that I never really made public – and immediately received large-dollar offers by folks ravenous for local collectibles.
I have since found that the demand for hometown-related items is now sky-high, everywhere in the nation. This adds an attractive dimension to TH’ing, one that perks interest in newer dug items.
PS: Sure, firefighting collectibles can also arise in the way-back realm. Being a specialist in the Federal Period, I've scored some early-day firefighter finds. Below is a detector find I made years back. It gets no rarer than this early-American firefighter button. It rates only slightly behind my Washington buttons.
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Thank you for sharing these excellent recoveries with us.
