12/9/13 Report - Marbles and How to Tell Their Age

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

Eye-balled Marbles

Yesterday I showed a nice old clay marble found by William M.  I always say that you should keep your eyes open and tuned to anything you might see while detecting.  Not only are there important clues, but you can also find some interesting non-metallic items, both old and new.

The marbles shown above are some of those found while detecting or just scouting around without a detector.  They aren't as old as the clay one.

One was found on a very steep cliff on a West Virginia hillside in the sunken deer hoof print.  It gave me a clue that there could be other things nearby.

A good number of marbles were actually manufactured in West Virginia.

Worn Sea Glass Marble

Little things like marbles can provide good clues to the presence of home sites or other human activity.

Many of these were found near or in the water.  The honey colored one, front and center, is so worn that I would classify it more as sea glass.

Most are very banged up, but a few are in good condition.  Of course, like anything else, condition is very important to collectors, and there are a lot of marble collectors and a lot of different kinds of marbles worth collecting.

The marblesgalore.com website is a good site for learning about marbles and the different types that are collectible.



And there are some that are manufactured with defects, just like with coins.  I always find them interesting.

Exampe of Defective Marble.

You can see the big wave in the surface of this marble.

There are other smaller waves in the glass that are not visible in this photo but clearly visible to the eye.

I don't really know much about marbles, but the marblesgalore.com web site provides a lot of good information.

Below is one of my favorite marbles from this group.  In the group photo above it is beside the honey-colored sea glass marble in front.


In normal light, the marbe shown below appears black, but when held up so the light shines through it, you can see tht it is blue.

Black Marble Held Up To Sun.

The lines and shapes in this marble are reflections.  The actual color is nearly solid.

Some marbles are real works of art.  Some even have porcelain figures of animals or objects inside.

If you find one it is worth taking a look to see if you might have a nice collectible one.

I'm convinced that a detectorist who makes good use of his vision while detecting will benefit by finding more objects and clues.

I've said this before.  I really enjoy eye-balling.  You can develop important detecting skills by eye-balling.  You can learn how things accumulate on a beach and how they cluster.  Eye-balling will also add to your finds.  And you can do it where detecting is not allowed.

Here is a web site that gives six ways to help identify the age of a marble.

http://www.ebay.com/gds/6-Differences-Between-Old-and-New-Marbles-/10000000177633979/g.html


According to the predictions the Treasure Coast could get something up to a 6 foot surf on Friday.  That isn't bad.  There isn't too much else hopeful out there.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net