Tide changes:

[NC_Bob]

I found a gold spike on the beach at new smyrna the days after hurricane jeanne hit town.

heres a pic of it.

its a railroad spike!

wonder why its gold?

the railroad pounds them in at intersecting rails every 500 or more miles apart.when they connected the east and west coast railroads they put in a gold spike.im not sure if they still do this or not.but its not a solid gold spike an im sure the ones in the past wernt either.otherwise the pirates would get them.when i found this one my ears hurt thru my headphones,i knew it was a gold hit but didnt know what it was till i dug 3 feet down near the dunes.i had to take it to my truck to put a magnet on it to see if it was solid gold or not.its plated gold 24k real heavy,not that cheepo gold plate like on jewelry or watches.

Golden Spike Monument is close to where I lived for some years in Utah. As you say, it marks the joining of the East and West sides of the transcontinantal railroad. The monument website mentions that of the 4 spikes driven in at the initial ceremony, 2 were in fact gold. http://www.utah.com/nationalsites/golden_spike.htm

I couldn't find any reference to what happened to the spikes after the celebration (I imagine they were removed and replaced with iron) but in looking I found a reference to another golden spike driving event in CA. http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/golden-spike-centennial-best.htm Right at the end of this page it says: "In 1976 the spike rests in the vaults of the California Historical Society in San Francisco. It weighs 9¼ ounces, is 5-7/16 inches long and is engraved as follows. Side 1 — Last Spike; Side 2 — Connecting Los Angeles; Side 3 — And San Francisco; Side 4 — By Rail. On the head is engraved the date, Sept. 5, 1876." Earlier in the page it says that this spike is the same dimensions as a standard railroad spike. Same as yours FISHEYE?

Finding that one would make your ears ring

 

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[Peg Leg]

That is one good looking RR spike.
How lets see who attacks you because it appears to be a RR spike and appears to be gold.
I would bet that the FLAMERS keep quite since several times you appeared to be a FLAMER yourself.
Did you know that New Smyrna is a Railroad Retirement town.
I wonder if anyone will ask you HOW DO YOU KNOW ITS GOLD? Did you have it assayed? It appears to have been Manufactured or was it Hand made? It appears to be a RR spike but are you sure?
Was it checked by an Archaeologist? Was anyone with you when you recovered this item?
How much did it cost for the gold paint?
Take a closer look at this spike and tell me what you see. I see wrinkles which were created from the rust on the iron. I would think that when something is plated that the object being plated would be smooth and the platting would be smooth as well.
I think this was ment as a joke or something else but I am still laughing.
NICE TRY.
Peg leg

 

[Peg Leg]

After spending a few hours studing the information provided by the young lady I can now see that there is still tons of artifacts to be recovered.
The information is from 2001 and since that time there has been leaps and bounds made in detecting equipment with better stuff coming up and the prices coming down to a point.
There should be NO treasure hunter going home without having a successful day. I also feel that there are shipwrecks off the coast that noone has any idea about. Most THers are concentrating on what has already been located and on the 1715 and the 1733 wrecks but what about the ships that went down prior to 1715. Think about this how many ship went down from the 1500's. This was the time that NO WORD of what happened to these ships during 200 years. This was also the time when the Indains killed any and all people that got ashore so there was no records made of where the ships went down and never will be. Yes Spain keep good records but we also know that records can sometimes be not all that accurate.
During the past few hundreds of years there is a reported 9,000 ships that went down along the east cost and this does not count the modern ships that sunk.
So when you hear about a site being worked out don't believe a word of it because chances are there are still major finds to be recovered.
Peg Leg