Lazy Sea This Morning Just After Low Tide.
I was looking at some finds the other day and was reminded once again how what you do after the find is important.
I was looking at one small charm that was hard to tell how old it was. One little mark on the back caught my attention. It was too small to read, so I got it in good light and pulled out my jewelers loop. Only then could I see 925 stamped on it.
That, of course, means that is sterling silver, which also means that it is not centuries old. A mark like that can often help narrow down the age of found items. Carefully scan finds for small marks.
Some designs have been used basically the same for centuries, so they can be hard to identify by date, especially when they've been in salt water for a while.
It is good to have a good quality jewelers loop to inspect your finds.
A loop can also help you determine the value of gem stones.
Another recommendation is to avoid storing different types of metals together. If one type of metal is stored touching another, the metals can leach or one can mar the surface of the other, leaving hard to remove marks that can ruin the look.
Pewter Medallion Marred By Being Stored In a Box With Other Metal Items.
This is one example. It survived the beach very nicely, but then was damaged by being stored with other metal items. It looks like it might be very difficult or impossible to get rid of the new damage. Although this isn't an important item, the same thing can happen to more important finds.
You don't have to worry about that much with gold, but silver is especially prone to being discolored or marred by other metals. Definitely don't store salt-water blackened silver with like-new silver.
When it comes to silver items, I'd individually wrap each item to keep each one from touching another.
Kovels Komments says, Vintage watches are fashionable again. Some men in their 30s who gave up watches for cell phones are now wearing watches as jewelry. Watch collectors say they have learned to appreciate "a proper mechanical timepiece." Grandpa's watch is cool, especially if it's an old Rolex. And wooden jewelry is back. Remember those carved costume jewelry pins made for children in the 1950s? Hip-hop artists have started a trend back to wooden jewelry. Wooden bracelets, beads, pendants, and even cufflinks and sunglasses are being made. But old wooden jewelry is still selling for bargain prices.
Bernie C. is interested in starting a detecting club in the St. Lucie area. I guess there was one there at one time. Bernie is willing to take the lead to get this thing started. Let him know if you are interested. His email is twiprod001@att.net.
He has a web site for you to look at too.
www.stlucietreasurehunters.vpweb.com
Don't forget that anytime you want to check out the Jupiter area beaches, you can find the photos at the following web site, that you can also find in my treasure links list in this blog.
http://www.jupiterbeachpics.com/
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
Cindy is a tropical storm out in the Atlantic, and like Bret, is moving away from us. Neither will affect us.
The wind is from the south again, and the front of the beaches are building again.
I'm putting my beach conditions rating back to a 1 again.
That didn't last long, but there is a lot of summer left.
The next several days will see seas down around one foot, so we are back to the conditions that existed prior to the recent erosion.
I saw several guys out detecting the low tide area this morning.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
