Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Nice Reale.A lot of us on the Treasure Coast spend most of our time looking for something like this. Everybody in the world would recognize this as treasure, but treasure comes in many forms, and you can't always find one of these. That is why I like to be aware of a broad range of things that can be useful if not valuable.
I enjoy picking up those miscellaneous things like dive watches, spikes, fossils, bottles, or even things like pliers or sinkers. They can be useful. And you can't always find gold coins, so it helps in those times when beach conditions aren't so great.
In the last week or so I've talked about some of the biggest rarest Spanish gold coins, clad coins, modern jewelry, and military artifacts. That is quite a range.
Today I'll stretch that range a little more.
Rusty Old Jack Found.Old junk! Yep, it is. But you know what - it's useful.
No, it doesn't work anymore - at least not the way it was meant to be used. But it will function very well. I plan to make something out of it.
Work the finish a little and paint it gold, and it looks like a horn. Too big and heavy maybe, but it could serve as an architectural ornament of some sort.
That isn't my present thought though. I'm thinking about making a stand for a bird bath out of it. Or maybe a stand for a sun dial. That could possibly work too.
I have another old find - a heavy cast iron base for a large old industrial fan or something that will work just fine as a base under the jack. Then all I need to add is the bird bath itself. Or I could turn the fan base upside down and with a little effort create the water container out of that.
So who cares? Nobody probably - at least not unless they get the point I am tying to make. The point is that with a little imagination even apparently worthless finds like this rusty jack can become useful.
Did you know theft of manhole covers is becoming a problem because the covers can be sold for a good money as scrap? It's true. Here is a link, if you don't believe me.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/05/19/rising-ripoffs.html
I found a manhole cover in a creek bed not long ago. Don't know how it got there.
But getting to my point - it can be both fun and profitable if you realize the possible usefulness and value of a very broad range of objects. This jack is just one example.
Many detectorists pass up perfectly good objects. I've shown in the past how pot shards and various shipwreck artifacts can sometimes be sold for a small profit. Sometimes when people are looking for coins, they walk right past, or worse yet, throw away, objects that could actually be worth a little. I know I've done that.
I've told the story about how I found my first old bottles after a hurricane and later learned that they were worth more than the silver coins that I was looking for.
It happens. When you are not busy digging up gold coins, don't pass up other things that might be interesting, fun or even valuable.
On the Treasure Coast another front will be coming through. The wind is now from the north and the seas very nice and calm. That will be changing a little.
The surf will be increasing about Monday or Tuesday. Unfortunately the surf web sites are now predicting less of an increase than previously. It looks like things might no improve much.
Time will tell.
Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
