Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
While the stock market has been going through wild gyrations, the price of gold has been doing well. Above is the 2018 chart. The early days of 2019 have also seen increases.
The up-trend in gold prices started back around the end of August and has continued through yesterday, when it closed at about $1298 US dollars per ounce. Today however it is down again. You never know what it is going to do.
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Some finds are rare for one reason or another. Even though I used to target and find a lot of gold jewelry, I seldom found sets together. There have been times though when I found a matching engagement and wedding ring. On a few occasions I found a matching pair of ear rings. I showed a diamond and pearl set before.
The one time that stick out in my memory when I found a matching engagement and wedding band together was in the shallow water beside a picnic area on a causeway in Pensacola. They were only a couple feet apart. They were the same size and design. They were gold and diamond, but fairly inexpensive. I figured they just slipped off at the same time. Maybe a little suntan lotion and a Frisbee or something was involved. Who knows? Anyway they ended up lost in the water in very close proximity.
Here is a more recent matching set found on a Treasure Coast beach. 14K with diamonds. They were also found in shallow water very close together. They make a more expensive set than the Pensacola set that I talked about.
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| Matching Engagement Ring and Wedding Band Set. |
I always figured the matching earring finds were taken off together. It is difficult to imagine a pair of those coming off at the same time.
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Older silver dollars are also rare finds for me. I haven't found too many, and most of the ones I did find were found together in a cache. After finding those and doing a little research I learned just a little about VAMs.
VAMs are cataloged varieties of Morgan or Peace dollar. For each year and mint, there are varieties that are identified by characteristics that may include any of the following:
- Doubled dies
- Die cracks
- Die clashes
- Missing letters
- Additional design details
- Letters or numerals in unusual positions
- And other die varieties
VAM silver dollars are cataloged using a system of numbers and letters that incorporate the “VAM” name. A normal Morgan dollar or Peace dollar is classified as a “VAM-1.” Subsequent VAM dollars are recognized as a VAM-2, VAM-3, VAM-4, and so on...
See https://coins.thefuntimesguide.com/vam-dollars/
"VAM" is a combination of the initials of the fellows (Van Allen and A. Mallis) that extensively studied and catalogued all the Morgan and Peace dollar mint varieties in The Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan and Peace Dollars.
Some VAMS are quite valuable.
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I added the 18th Century Material Culture Resource Center web site to my reference link list. It is well worth browsing.
We'll have a few more days of calm surf on the Treasure Coast.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
