Well All right! My first gold! ;)

D

Darod

Guest
Well,

I did it! I found my first gold yesterday at a public park in my area. I had a post/poll recently that alot of you participated in which was asking everyone how long it was before they found their first gold item. Right away everyone was offering advice as to where they find most of their gold items. SO,...I took everyone's advice ( Thanks Jeff!) and searched a park in my neighborhood that has a small lake for swimming. I found this gold earring on the shoreline in about 2" of soil. What a neat feeling! To see that pretty shiny thing pop up out of the muck.

I found a bunch of clad yesterday as well. This is the first time I've hunted in fresh water and I was a bit surprised at the condition of the coins? Look at the photos and if anyone can tell me what that black stuff is I'd be very appreciative :)

Also, take a look at that penny I have there! I'm guessing this is caused by electrolysis? Not sure? any help on this one?

Finally, I found a 38 special bullet! Kind of a strange thing to find in a public park? Unfired at least :) My question on this one is the lettering on the casing. W W ? Not sure what company that is? I know that S&W is Smith and Wesson but I'm not familiar with W W ? Any help on this one would be great as well.

OK, I hope everyone likes the picks. Use the last link if you want to see more. OH,...almost forgot! I will add another pica that shows all the clad I've found this week. I've had fun even if it is just clad :)

Rod

Here's My finds from yesterday:
http://www.ao-fl.com/myfinds/1_30_05/all.jpg

Here's the earring I found yesterday:
earring1.jpg

earring2.jpg


Here's the penny and the quarter with the black stuff on it:
http://www.ao-fl.com/myfinds/1_30_05/pennyquarter.jpg

Here's the bullet I was talking about:
http://www.ao-fl.com/myfinds/1_30_05/bullet.jpg
http://www.ao-fl.com/myfinds/1_30_05/bullet2.jpg

Here's a link to the rest of the photos I've taken on yesterday's finds:
http://www.ao-fl.com/myfinds/1_30_05/

Here are 2 images of a curious item I found the other day while hunting a home that was built in the early 1940's. I could be wrong but I think it is part of a very old bicycle tire innertube. I can remember when I was a kid that they used to have a brass fitting of this size and approximate shape for the valve. If anyone can confirm or deny this please comment as I'm curious what this actually is. I could just be junk. Here it is:

http://www.ao-fl.com/myfinds/1_30_05/innertube1.jpg
http://www.ao-fl.com/myfinds/1_30_05/innertube2.jpg

Finally, here is a photo of all the clad I've found in the last week:
http://www.ao-fl.com/myfinds/1_17thru30_05/all.jpg

Rod
 

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NICE, your Curious item is part of a Toothpaste Tube or other type of Tube Like a toothpaste tube. Could be Glue also. I don't think innertube, because of the threads. there should be more if it were an innertube. The Earring is Cool, Congrats on the gold. and on the BLACK you asked about, just Tarnish. Water will even turn Silver Black, but you may find some nice copper coins without tarnish.............. Remember When pulling coins out water, Expect them to look the opposite of what they look like in Dry Ground. AGAIN , Congrats ; jeff
 

Jeff,

You think? The threaded part is very small. Smaller than a toothpaste tube of today. However, the glue suggestion could be correct, however, it appears to be made of brass? If it is from a glue tube, would you think it is rather old? The photo has a dime next to the item for size reference.

free2dtect,

I really enjoy this stuff so making the post with all thoses links is pretty much a fun time to me :) Anyhow, thanks for the compliment and I will probably do most of my posts like this one :) what can I say, I'm weird like that :D

Rod
 

I added to my post above, I wanted to check things out carefully before Completing it. I'v found old Brass Tube tops like that in OLD places, 19th century sites.? ? ? ? ?as I said above, Innertubes have alot more threads. at least today they do. but I'd say just a Large Tube of Glue. maby even the old TIRE PATCH GLUE, if your old enough to remember that? ;) maby BUCKRAM knows if innertubes had that type thread years ago
 

Your probably right Jeff. I would estimate the disc part to be about the size of a quarter if it were flat. The hole in the middle is completely open though. Now-a-days the hole would be partially opened and you could tell it was pierced. I image that some time ago this might not be the case. Personally, I don't know how they made the glue tubes from days gone by. The size of the threads to support your theory of a glue to, that is for sure.

Of course, it could just be a piece of trash? :D

Fun to think about it anyhow. What about that bullet? I know it's a modern day casing and the bullet type is called a waud cutter for target practice. However, I don't remember ever seeing that particular nomenclature before on a casing. Any suggestions on that one? Anyone?

Rod
 

really! Cool. I'm not familiar with that. Is that a brand name that winchester makes today? Or is that something a bit older that they used to make?

Rod
 

Them earrings don't come easy! Great hunt!
 

Flip beat me to it. Yep..winchester-western. It's an older name. Western used to be just western, then winchester and western became one and the same and ammo was marked winchester-western. Now, I think the western name has been completely dropped and it's winchester again. I am not an expert, but I think the ww marked bullets aren't more than 40 years old, or so.
 

Winchester still marks some of its brass with W-W. And they still use that headstamp on 38 special brass today. I would say that one is at lest 2 years old and probaly older. Its hard to tell on brass cause of all the factors ie: soil acidity, alloy mix, corrosive non corosive load. They have been used buy police in revolvers mostly for years and yeas since the 1920's I think, and also in some rifle and can be shot out of almost any 357 magnum.
 

Thanks for posting. That is a real nice earring!
 

Good finds!
The bullet looks just like the "wad-cutter" we used in target practice when I was a Deputy Sheriff.
They were cheaper to buy and use in a .357 magnum. A Cop could have lost it.
 

Your exactly right on the wad cutter guess. That is what it is :)

Also, I was thinking the same thing as you,...maybe a police officer lost it.

Thanks for the comments.
Rod
 

What part of the world are you hunting in? The 'black stuff' on the coins is corrosion from local elements.

Your zinc penny is badly corroded because these are made with pure copper coating pure zinc in direct contact. These create a mild electric current, like a battery. Water accelerates the current and you wind up with something that looks like an old used battery over time for that reason.

The quarter looks like it was exposed to sulfur, but I'm not sure of that. Lots of dead leaves in water create an acidic environment that robs oxygen from the water as they rot. So you wind up with an acid-reduction environment that can precipitate other metals that are dissolved in the water as the metal from the quarter is itself dissolved (replacement reaction). Sulfur does similar things to a greater extent.

Knowing what the water has in it is key to understanding the nature of the corrosion. After you have more experience with this you can infer the nature of the environment based on the condition of the coins, but this is difficult to do (especially from pictures).
 

Wow!

you are as your name implies :) A lab rat.

Great information, thx. I'm in Florida, the Melbourne area. There are some leaves deposited in the lake as you suggested, however, I am not sure if there is enough decay material to cause the corrosion you see on the coins. Florida does however, have a limestone layer. As you know the entire state is basically a limestone table. I'm curious, what effect if any do you think this might have to do with it?

Rod
 

WW is marked on the brass of alot of my ammo I got some winchester .44 magnum rounds that are marked WW so winchester most likely the maker. Looks like a casing to me
 

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