6/18/18 Report - A Couple More Silver Cobs From a Cold December Hunt. Thoughts on Mystery Item.

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

Phillip V Half Reale with Off-Center Monogram.

Here is one more of the Mexico minted cobs found on a very cold day - December 23, 1989.  I'm pretty sure of that date now.  The cobs posted in this post and the previous two posts came from that same hunt.

This one has a fairly large surface and an off-center strike.  Once again you see part of the Phillip V monogram.

The beach was not heavily cut, but there was a significant cut to the front beach.  All the cobs these cobs were found between the dunes cross-over and what used to be known as the Christmas Tree to the north of the access.  The Christmas Tree was part of an old dead tree that everyone decorated with any kind of flotsam.

Other Side of the Same Cob.

Again you can see the the type of cross that indicates the Mexico mint.

Here is another one.  This is a very small cob.

Small Mexico-minted Half Reale.

This one had lost a lot of material.  It is way underweight.

Other Side of Same Cob.

I have this photo upside down.  It looks like a faint Carlos II monogram.

This is the smallest and poorest cob of the day.

That was a day I remember well.  Back then I still a very high cold tolerance.  No more.  I had on a sweater that I used up north when I went ice-skating and had the beach to myself as the wind was blowing on that freezing day.  My wife stayed in the car.  One other detectorist showed up, and even though he had a coat and everything, when he walked out onto the beach and felt the cold he just shook his head and turned around and left.  It was a very short hunt on a very cold day.   No telling how much would have been found if I had stayed an hour or two.

December of 1989 featured several surges of Arctic air into the central and eastern United States beginning around mid month and lasting until Christmas. This Arctic outbreak was a historic event, with many locations establishing monthly or all-time record lows. Sub-freezing temperatures extended across much of the southeast U.S. with considerable damage to citrus crops in Florida and south Texas (newspaper reports indicated "nearly total destruction" of the citrus industry across the north half of Florida). Dallas had $25 million damage caused by broken water pipes that froze in the cold, along with subsequent production losses due to failures at manufacturing plants. Many other locations across the southeast U.S. had damage from frozen pipes as well. The cold weather resulted in snow and sleet falling as far south as central Florida just before Christmas, and parts of northern Florida had its first White Christmas on record.

Here is that link.

https://www.weather.gov/ilx/dec1989-cold

Note the correlation between weather and finds.  This hunt followed several days of north wind.

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I received a number of good ideas about the glass mystery item I posted a few days ago.

I'm not sure yet, but my best guess at this time is that it is a antique fly or bug catcher.

Antique fly/bug trap.

Above is an example of a typical fly trap.  Note the funneled entryway from the bottom.  This one was made to hang, others are elevated on feet.

Below is the one I found.

The bottom section is very much like the typical examples I've found.  The difference is the top half, which is solid except for an empty tube and compartment.  My assumption is that the top half is the  basis for the 1876 patent.  It could be to hold a bait substance and/or attract and catch other insects such as ants.  I still don't know.

It has no feet, so I wonder if the upper hollow space might have been for some type of hanger.  There seems to be no other way to hang it.

I originally thought that it was a some type of insulator.  I got other good responses, and I'm not sure yet.

Thanks to all.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net