Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Engagment Ring ABC News Photo |
It is a diamond and sapphire ring. Does that help?
Take a guess.
It actually sold for nearly $1 million.
Why?
Because of its history. It was given to Josephine by Napolean.
It isn't the most expensive looking ring in the world. You may have found a few that look a lot more expensive. The materials aren't the only thing that determines the value. In this case that is especially true.
The auctioneers weren't expecting much more than $20,000 for this ring, but the final bid was $948,000.
Just goes to show once again, an item is worth what someone will pay for it. If you want to get a good price for an item, you need to find the person who wants it the most and has the ability to pay. The one thing I like about that, and something I like about selling items, is if you find someone who will pay a lot, they either appreciate the item or will likely find someone else that does.
Here is the link to the source story.
http://www.batangastoday.com/napoleon-engagement-ring-to-josephine-1796-gold-ring-fetches-close-to-1m-at-osenat-auction/28143/
Different people like different things. I like a lot of different kinds of things myself. In this blog I talk about fossils, artifacts and relics, treasure coins, soda bottles, etc. etc. I'm less and less focused on the price of the items. There are things that aren't worth much that I like more than some things that are worth a lot more. I get a little tired of all the TV programs such as Storage Wars or even Antiques Roadshow where the climactic question is always, "What's it worth?" I'm often more interested in the items history. Who made it, who lost it, how was it made, how was it used, how did it end up where it was found, what does it mean and what does it tell you. Delve into those questions when you find something and you'll have more fun detecting and probably more success too.
Yesterday I talked about Legacy, the newsletter of the SCIAA and pointed out a few articles from the 2013 issue. The newsletter goes back years.
Here is one article about the discovery of the wreck of the Gold Spike. The article was published in 2002. It tells about Confederate forces scuttling supplies and sinking the CSS Chicora, CSS Palmettor State, CSS Charleston, and the CSS Indian Chief, in Charleston Harbor in order to avoid capture by the Union forces.
Congress appropriated $25,000 for removal of the CSS Charleston many years later. A clamshell bucket was used along with dynamite, saving much money.
Here is the link to that interesting article.
http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/sciaa/mrd/documents/golden_spike.pdf
As you probably know, I've been trying to better identify a straight-side Fort Pierce Coca Cola bottle. It seems it could be from between 1900 to 1919. Before that Coke bottles were Hutchinson bottles with the stopper top, and after that came the contour bottles. Bottles of that period had paper labels, which could explain why this one does not have embossing that says Coca Cola more prominently. More research remains to be done.
Here is a good overall article on Coca Cola bottle collecting that you might want to read.
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/an-interview-with-coca-cola-bottle-collector-and-author-doug-mccoy/
On the Treasure Coast we're going to get some colder weather. The wind is out of the West.
The surf is low, only about two feet and will be that way for a while. That means no immediate improvement in detecting conditions.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
