10/2/19 Report - Markings on Gold Ring. Bottles and Plastic Crate Finds.

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

Date Inscribed in Recently Found Ring.

The above ring is inscribed with the date 5 - 20 - 87, presumably the wedding date.  You'll occasionally find rings that are not from the U. S. that have the day before the month and year.  For example, if you see 20 - 5 - 87, you might think something is wrong unless you realize it is probably from a country where they put the day first.  Of course if the day and month are both small numbers, such as 1 and 2, you don't know if it is January 2nd or February 1st unless you know which system is being used.

You'll also find other things that are marked different from the way we usually do it in the U. S.  This high karat ring, for example is marked 90%.

Same Ring Marked 90%

The ring acid tests to over 20k gold, and I presume the 90% is the purity, which, if true, would be about 21.6k.

Rings from some places, such as India or China, are often higher karat than we find common in the U. S.

The name inscribed in the ring is Kwong, which is a name that seems to derive from Central China, but is also common in various places in the U. S., most especially California, as well as other places, such as Korea.

---

Three Found Green Bottles.

These aren't new finds.  I've posted at least one of them before.  I just like the different shapes.  I especially like the round one on the right.  The photo doesn't do it justice, but it might look good catching the light in a kitchen window.

As you know some old and rare bottles can be sold for a nice price, but these ones aren't worth much of anything.

If you collect bottles, you'll quickly discover that they take up space.  That is why I always like to find a plastic crate.  Here are a couple of the crates that I've found along with a few of the bottles.

Found Coca Cola Bottles with Found Plastic Crates.

The bottom crate contains a variety of Coca Cola bottles.  One of the nice things about the plastic crates is that you can stack them six or seven high to save space.  Another nice thing is that you can see through them, which makes it can make it easier to find what you are looking for.

Notice that the bottles are stored bottom up.  There are two reasons for that.  If your bottles are outside, you don't want water and gunk to accumulate in them, and secondly, especially with Coke bottles, the bottom provides much of the identifying information so you can quickly scan them.

I always like finding things I can use while I'm looking for coins or other metal treasures.   Here are some of the other crates and bottles I've found.

More Found Crates Containing Found Bottles.

If you buy plastic crates, you'll quickly discover that they are not cheap, so I'm always glad to find one.

---

Yesterday we were supposed to have some high water.  I haven't found out what it actually did yet, but according to the predictions it looks like we'll be having a more common 3 - 5 foot surf for a few days.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

That doesn't look to exciting.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/7/18 Report - Diamond Ring Find. Important Bottle Dates. Good Links for Good Info.

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

Beach Find.

There are always good things to be found on the beach.  I've said this before, but there is always some place to hunt and something to find.  

I've been talking a lot about Spanish shipwreck treasure and other old finds lately, but the beaches are always being replenished with new items.  Here is one nice 14K gold and diamond ring find.  While I know very little about diamonds, this one seems to be cut very nicely.  There are a lot of facets and they seem to work very well together.

Not only is the central diamond nice, but the surrounding diamonds aren't bad either.

---

I have three different threads going lately.  For a while I'll be on one, and then I'll jump to another.  I might be on one topic for a day or two or three and then change.  One of my recent topics has been how to determine the age of items.  My list of factors is general and can be applied to almost any type of find.  That, of course, includes bottles.

One type of mark you'll find on many bottles is “FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR REUSE OF THIS BOTTLE.” This law went into effect in 1935 and was repealed on December 1, 1964.  So that gives you a fairly specific date range, although the mark can be found on bottles that were distributed later than that date.

Here are some other important dates that can help you determine the date of a metal detecting site.

• 1934: Colored labeling makes its soft-drink-bottle debut. In the original process, the coloring was baked on the bottle.
• 1952: The first diet soft drink—a ginger ale called "No-Cal Beverage" produced by Kirsch—was sold.
• 1957: Aluminum cans for soft drinks were introduced.

• 1959: The first diet cola was sold.
• 1962: The pull-ring tab was invented by Alcoa. It was first marketed by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• 1963: In March, the "Pop Top" beer can, invented by Ermal Fraze of Kettering, Ohio, was introduced by the Schlitz Brewing Company.
• 1965: The resealable top was invented.
• 1970: Plastic bottles for soft drinks were introduced.
• 1974: The stay-on tab was introduced by the Falls City Brewing Company of Louisville, Kentucky.
• 1979: Mello Yello soft drink was introduced by The Coca-Cola Company as competition against Mountain Dew.
• Those and other dates can be found by using the following link, which will take you to a site about soda pop and other carbonated beverages.
• 
  
• https://www.thoughtco.com/introduction-to-soda-pop-1992433

Here is a link to a great web site for information about beer and soda bottles.  It will ask you a bunch of questions about your bottle to come up with a date range. It does requires some previous knowledge of bottle terminology.

http://www.sodasandbeers.com/SABDateGlassBottles.aspx

---

Here is a nice little web site about the basics of archaeology.  It talks about a lot of the same type of stuff that I've been discussing lately such as the difficulty of evaluating artifacts.

Here is a brief excerpt.

After establishing all of the scientific data about an item, the archaeologist must begin to direct higher level questions at the object such as: who made it? Why? How was it used? Who used it?

Deductive reasoning rather than laboratory analysis better answers these questions. Once the archaeological eye leaves the university microscope, it quickly refocuses on scanning an overview of all of the hard, physical evidence in order to deduce answers to the philosophical questions. Here is where interpretation begins to become mistily subjective...

Here is the link if you want to read more.

http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/ArchaeologicalInterpretation.html

---

Time Travel.

There are no weather systems of special interest right now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net