12/8/19 Report - A Couple Beaches and A Couple Finds. College Inn Bottle.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Red Cross Blood Donor Pin Find.

I took a look at John Brooks and Frederick Douglass beaches late this morning.  Here is John Brooks.

John Brooks Beach Around 11 AM Sunday Morning.

For some reason the gates were still closed at 11 AM at John Brooks.  Frederick Douglass park was open though.

The beach at John Brooks looked very much like the beach at Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass Beach Sunday Morning.

Neither beach had significant cuts.  There were a good number of shells up around the high tide line at both beaches.

Frederick Douglass Beach Sunday Morning.

There were still a good number of coins and other cheap jewelry on the Fort Pierce beaches.  I found the above Red Cross Blood Donor Pin at Fort Pierce.  It is only one half inch across.  At first I thought it must be a very small coins such as an Ore or Kopec.

I remember another type of Red Cross pin from when I was young.  It was more of a thin tin and had a tab that bent over to attach to your collar or lapel.

This one evidently had a straight pin at one time.

Back of Same Red Cross Blood Donor Pin.

I have no idea what the "A" means or the age of the pin.

Coins and a few bits of cheap jewelry were found this morning.

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A day or two ago I showed a College Inn bottle found by Joe D. and discussed some possibilities.

Jorge Y. sent this photo of a College Inn bottle he found online.

College Inn Bottle with Label.

Submitted by Jorge Y.

This bottle has the same kind of "College Inn" embossing as the bottle submitted by Joe D., so I'm assuming that it comes from the same company, but I think they probably held different things.

Thanks Jorge.

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Yesterday I was talking about how different beaches give up different kinds of finds.  Besides the different kinds of finds you can also get some clues about where certain items came from by the type of encrustation or corrosion.

I always like the gun metal blue patina on old silver coins from the cold fresh water lake of Minneapolis, for example.

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Button With Red Cut Stone Found Today.

Here is another item I found today.  Looks like it  would be from Marie Antoinette's treasure.  Just joking.

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The surf is going to increase a little through the week but not much.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/7/19 Report - Analyzing Cultures For Metal Detecting Locations. A Few Finds. College Inn Bottle. Surf Coming.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Where you metal detect has a lot to do with what you find.  That isn't surprising at all, but it is worth noticing the extent to which it is true.  If you blindfolded me somehow so I didn't know which place I was at but just showed me the targets I was digging, it would be easy for me to tell you if I was in Pensacola, Miami Beach, Minneapolis, or any of a variety of other places where I spent a fair amount of time detecting.  It would be easy.  

Yesterday's news brought back a lot of memories.  I used to do a lot of work at the Naval Air Station where there was a shooting, and I lived for quite a while at Miramar, where the UPS truck was highjacked and more people were shot and killed.  

When I went to Pensacola, I always took my metal detector.  This was about thirty years ago, I would guess, and when I went to that area I would often detect Pensacola Beach, but also other nearby areas such as Gulf Breeze, Milton, or Ryerson State Park.  

In those days air travel was much easier.  It didn't hurt that I was among the top five percent of frequent flyers for Eastern and Delta Airlines, which usually got me a free upgrade to first class, but airport security was not such a big thing.  I remember one time when the security people looked at my metal detector and didn't know what it was, but just shrugged their shoulders and that was that.

But to my point - when I first metal detected in Minneapolis, I waded into one of the lakes in my wet suit and immediately started hitting old coins.  The lake was full of silver coins, and other silver including a lot of silver religious medallions, but few rings, and little gold.  Some of the lake bottoms were not easy to detect because of the rocky bottoms, but some of those lakes had obviously not been hunted much before, if at all.  The finds were very different from the glitzy Miami beaches, where you would find a lot of gold, including a lot of very expensive jewelry.  The people and cultures of Minneapolis and Miami are very different, and the finds show that.

The finds in Hollywood Florida and Miami were also different.  I don't know if that has changed since then, but back then you could find a lot in Hollywood but the finds would not be as expensive as what you would find in Miami.  In Hollywood you'd find some gold, but it would generally be 10K gold, or gold plated rather than 14K, 18K or higher.   The value of the items on average was simply a few steps lower in Hollywood.

If you think about it there are differences in the people and cultures of the different locations.  That is something that is worth paying attention to.  Some cultures wear more gold and wear different types of gold.  You won't find as many people wearing big hulking diamond rings in Minneapolis as compared to Miami.  There are cultural differences and there are practical differences.  When the weather is below zero and you are wearing gloves around, it is not easy to wear gloves over big diamond rings, and what would be the sense of doing that anyhow, especially if you come from a frugal Scandinavian background.

I think you get my point and I don't need to go into much more detail.

You can still take your metal detector on the plane when you travel, but these days I prefer to just ship my detector ahead when I want to detect somewhere that I'm going.  I always enjoyed detecting new places even though there is always a learning curve.  You might find some good spots right away, but you might have to spend more time finding a decent place to detect.

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It amazes me how much stuff is out there to be found.  I didn't have time to go to the beach yesterday so I took a look at an area close by.  First I found a small cork stopper type bottle, so I got out my detector and found an old metal door knob.   So then I tightened up my search and found the little gold stud ear ring.  I'll have to hit that area some more some other day.

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A couple days ago I posted a COLLEGE INN bottle that Joe D. was hoping to learn more about.
I found a similar bottle online that had the same embossing, the same patent date and a very similar shape.  Here is what the description said.

Rare,Early 1930's,Excellent Condition, 7 and 1/8th " Tall,University of Maryland Laboratory Dairy,That was Located at College Park,Maryland,Heavily Mottled,Strapped Across the Center,Footed Chocolate Milk Drink Bottle,with a tapered ring neck and a small,single ring collar,that takes a metal cap,embossed on a 3/4 " high,clear strap around the center" COLLEGE INN COLLEGE INN ",in thick,solid strike.Embossed on the base" DESIGN PAT.FEB.24 - 31 ".A very hard to find bottle,filled at the Maryland University Laboratory Dairy in the early 1930's,and sold at the campus soda shop and motel,"The College Inn".In the bottle was a short-lived,"YooHoo"-like,chocolate milk drink,that was slighly popular for a lttle while,but only lasted a few years,like the dairy and the College Inn,and that's why the bottles are so hard to find.I found three together,with a Lab.Dairy,and a St.Elizibeth's Hospital Dairy.I've never seen another before or since.A very rare bottle,with a lot of character,and history behind it. (Source: www.worthpoint.com)

I also found a College Inn brand that is still in operation today.  Today that College Inn brand sells now mostly things like beef and chicken stock and gravy.  It seems it began in 1923 as the College Inn restaurant in Chicago.  This might have some relationship since other 1931 College Inn bottles that I've seen online are definitely not soda bottles but may be for something else like chocolate milk or gravy.

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I was having trouble with my camera, which is why I didn't get anything posted yesterday.  It just seemed like things wouldn't cooperate.

The weather is absolutely beautiful for being outside even though the beach conditions for finding anything old are not ideal.

It does look like in another week we could get another bump in the surf.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/5/19 Report - Christmas Silver Coins. Silver Prices Over the Years. Bottle For ID. Sedwick News.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Once Ounce Silver Ingot.

This isn't my Christmas greeting.  I think it's too early for that, but if you are shopping, here is an idea: it is a once ounce silver Christmas round.  This one was selling for $28.95 - quite a bit above the price of silver.  

Some of them are very nicely colorized.  I don't  think this kind of thing has appreciated great over the recent years and decades.  I wouldn't consider it a safe bet as investment, but it might make a nice gift.

Here is the chart of silver prices (inflation adjusted) beginning 1915.

It seems like silver, gold and coins always look like really good investments until you adjust for inflation.

If you have some junk silver around, think about melting it down and making something new.

There are classes you can take on lost wax casting.  I did that once, and even sold some of my junk silver to other class members to use in the class.

Here is the link to the price chart.

https://www.macrotrends.net/1470/historical-silver-prices-100-year-chart

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College Inn Bottle Found by Joe D.

Joe D. wasn't able to find much information about this bottle and would like some help.  Looks like a soda bottle, and it looks like the bottle was manufactured in 1931.

The bottom provides a lot of information.

Looks like patent no. 83427.   I haven't seen a College Inn bottle before, but shouldn't be too difficult to run down.

Any help appreciated.

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Here is a note from Sedwick Coins.  They'll be at the Fun Convention in Orlando on January 9.

Also remember they are taking consignments for the next auction.

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The tides and surf are still small but the surf will be increasing a little next week.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net