Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| X-Ray Image of Conglomerate Found by Fred B. Photo submitted by Fred B. |
One of this blog's readers offered to have the item x-rayed. Above is the x-ray image of that conglomerate. The bright white object is the lead.
It appeared that there were no coins or other items in the conglomerate other than the lead and spike, so Fred decided to leave it how it was found.
Fred offered a big thanks to this blog for hooking him up and to the reader who made it happen.
Thank much J. Y.
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One thing I like about writing this blog is that when I make a mistake, I am quickly corrected. Hundreds of people read this blog daily, and that readership includes experts and hobbyists that are knowledgeable about all kinds of subjects. That helps me a lot because and I write about a lot of different types of things. I don't think anyone can be really expert in more than one or two subjects, so I certainly need and gladly receive the help of my readers.
Just yesterday I posted a Standard Oil advertising token that I didn't know much about and asked if anyone might help me narrow down the date. Well, as usual, some one came through. Ben M. did some research and was able to add valuable information. Below is what Ben said.
Hi Treasure Guide -
I enjoyed reading your blog for today regarding the Standard Oil token. Tokens in general are a favorite metal detecting find for me - in my opinion, they are more intriguing than coins. Local merchant and trade tokens can often be researched to reveal interesting individuals or unique local history which just isn't possible with coins.
Anyway, I did a little poking around on the internet for your Standard Oil token in an attempt to narrow down the date a little. The best I could come up with so far is this website, which shows the same design listed along with a second design for the Standard Oil Company (Indiana) used from 1882-1931:
The website obviously isn't official, so the credibility of the info is somewhat suspect. The first design appears to be the logo for the top of an old service station gasoline dispenser, and maybe not used company-wide as a letterhead style logo. I've confirmed from other sources that the second logo in that date range was used by Standard Oil (Indiana) starting in 1926, and apparently was the first "official" logo used by Standard Oil according to wikipedia (again, not necessarily definitive information): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoco (see the logo section).
Looking at newspaper advertisements from the 1920s, there were absolutely no logos used in Standard Oil (Indiana) ads until early 1927, and then suddenly every add included the "Service" logo referred to in each web page link - that sort of confirms the info from the wikipedia page. Anyway, all of this might imply that your token may pre-date 1926, otherwise I think it would have used one of the "official" Standard Oil logos from one of the later time periods.
Anyway, I hope that helps...it certainly was fun to do the research, especially since I haven't had a new token find of my own investigate lately :)
Thanks Ben! Excellent research and report. I appreciate your help and I'm sure others do too.
Ben not only provided information about the token, but he also provided a good link about logos that you might find useful in the future.
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I often tell people to take their find to a jeweler or pawn shop to have it tested. That is a good way to find out what metal your find is made of, but don't expect the jeweler or pawn shop owner to be able to tell you much of anything about your coins. They have testing equipment for metals, but they probably won't know a lot about coins - especially treasure coins. We all have our limits, and as I said above, you can know something about a lot of different things, but you can't be a real expert on a lot of different topics.
I've been finding out how complicated coin collecting can be. If you get into collecting even just modern varieties and errors, there is really a lot to learn. I was really surprise to find out how complicated it is.
I haven't yet mastered identifying doubled die errors. Doubled die errors looks to a novice (me) very much like a lot of other types of doubling. I have a hard time telling the difference between machine doubling and doubled die errors. One problem is that true doubled die errors are pretty rare, which means you most often see them in books, which, of course, only show two dimensional pictures, which make them all look pretty flat.
Despite how much there is to learn, I'm enjoying what I am learning.
There is also a lot to learn about treasure coins. There are so many of them and they were produced for so many years and there are so many different designs. To make it more difficult, if you find one on a beach, it can be covered by a lot of corrosion or encrustation, and half of it might not even be there.
The complexity can be confusing, but doing the research and learning can also make it that much more rewarding.
Don't just look for a coin and then ask how much it is worth. Even if it is difficult and takes a long time, do your research, learn more about the coin, and enjoy the process. You will then have something that has a whole story to go along with it.
As I always say, Keep an item until you learn its story. It might not look like much, and you might not think it is worth anything, but wait until you are sure. It might not be worth anything, but I am often surprised by what I eventually learn about an item.
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There are still no storms or big changes in beach conditions.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
I've been finding out how complicated coin collecting can be. If you get into collecting even just modern varieties and errors, there is really a lot to learn. I was really surprise to find out how complicated it is.
I haven't yet mastered identifying doubled die errors. Doubled die errors looks to a novice (me) very much like a lot of other types of doubling. I have a hard time telling the difference between machine doubling and doubled die errors. One problem is that true doubled die errors are pretty rare, which means you most often see them in books, which, of course, only show two dimensional pictures, which make them all look pretty flat.
Despite how much there is to learn, I'm enjoying what I am learning.
There is also a lot to learn about treasure coins. There are so many of them and they were produced for so many years and there are so many different designs. To make it more difficult, if you find one on a beach, it can be covered by a lot of corrosion or encrustation, and half of it might not even be there.
The complexity can be confusing, but doing the research and learning can also make it that much more rewarding.
Don't just look for a coin and then ask how much it is worth. Even if it is difficult and takes a long time, do your research, learn more about the coin, and enjoy the process. You will then have something that has a whole story to go along with it.
As I always say, Keep an item until you learn its story. It might not look like much, and you might not think it is worth anything, but wait until you are sure. It might not be worth anything, but I am often surprised by what I eventually learn about an item.
---
There are still no storms or big changes in beach conditions.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
