Silver, Gold and Solved Mystery

ScubaDetective

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When I first started metal detecting while diving, I hit a lake called Cass lake in Pontiac. I kept finding these things. Nobody has ever been able to say what they are. Most had a rubber band around the outside.



Well I have been finding a lot of them in this river. Anybody new care to guess what they are? I found the answer today. They ring up like gold rings. Will enlighten everyone after a few guesses!


Saucer is actually steel with a porcelain finish. Also got a brass headlight rim.

A merc, rosey and silver ring. Two junk rings. The smaller one has Luke 6-31 stamped on the outside. What is left of a B-17 and a nice Noxema jar was about it. Oldest wheat is a 1920. The gold ring says LeGant 14K inside. It also has a pear with a P in the middle of it. 5.93 grams



















 
Man! This is a real puzzler! Naturally a guy would say 'Bottlecap' like Groundsweeper guessed and what they look like...but thats too easy right? You would have ID'd them by now if thats what they are...So they cant be bottlecaps! Lets think a little...a whole lot of them in the water...thats a clue...they were super common from something and used around the water...!

Like maybe even a component off of some sort of old time Firework? Just some sort of scrap component that nobody ever sees on account of they are launched profusely over the water?

OK, and they hit like a gold ring, meaning a brass kind of metal like a shotgun base...which we also find a lot of in the water and they hit like a gold ring.....but thats not what they are...so what could they be?

With a rubber band around the edge even? Probably puts them in the 40's era? Sheesh...just a guess...maybe some sort of Duck Decoy drain plug? :?: Hard to tell the size, and just trying to figure it out based upon the woodgrain of your table in conjunction with your other finds there..probably 1/2 inch or so, but not much bigger than that!

Something stupid and common and discarded around the water! I've never seen nothing like that before and this is driving me crazy!:laughing:

Also, that plane looks more like a B-25 than a B-17!....The nose turret and the top tail set up....Oh, Nice Gold!:laughing:
 
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congrats on that gorgeous ring, that one's a work of art! lots of other great finds too! :D
the first pic, what's the diameter, about a 1/4 inch?

About a half of an inch. And the rubber band IS supposed to be on the outside of it. Three of them today have it. Others might have but I could have lost them because I can't see a thing while I am digging.

The ring is very ornate. Probably 30's or 40's. I haven't found much info on the company yet. One of my favorites. This one isn't scrap.

 
Crimp on bottle seal. Like so:
 

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I'm going to guess some kind of bottle cap/top.

And that is one beautiful ring, congrats!

Congrats, you nailed it. Just wish I knew what kind of blob top bottle they went to. I am guessing beer. The rubber band on the outside is the seal between it and the bottle. This one is intact. I would have never guessed

Crimp on bottle seal. Like so:

Very close but they went in the bottle. Thanks for guessing!




 
Man! This is a real puzzler! Naturally a guy would say 'Bottlecap' like Groundsweeper guessed and what they look like...but thats too easy right? You would have ID'd them by now if thats what they are...So they cant be bottlecaps! Lets think a little...a whole lot of them in the water...thats a clue...they were super common from something and used around the water...!

Like maybe even a component off of some sort of old time Firework? Just some sort of scrap component that nobody ever sees on account of they are launched profusely over the water?

OK, and they hit like a gold ring, meaning a brass kind of metal like a shotgun base...which we also find a lot of in the water and they hit like a gold ring.....but thats not what they are...so what could they be?

With a rubber band around the edge even? Probably puts them in the 40's era? Sheesh...just a guess...maybe some sort of Duck Decoy drain plug? :?: Hard to tell the size, and just trying to figure it out based upon the woodgrain of your table in conjunction with your other finds there..probably 1/2 inch or so, but not much bigger than that!

Something stupid and common and discarded around the water! I've never seen nothing like that before and this is driving me crazy!:laughing:

Also, that plane looks more like a B-25 than a B-17!....The nose turret and the top tail set up....Oh, Nice Gold!:laughing:

B-25 it is then. I didn't know. I know it has metal in it for some reason. Maybe a bomb it didn't drop? Thanks for the laughs as always Mud. They drive me crazy also. I found a lot of them yesterday. At least I found one in a bottle!
 
Looks like a cross between a codd bottle and a Hutchinson. The bottle cap we all know and love took over in the early 1900's. I wonder if it's not some kind of growler that would be filled and capped at the bar or soda fountain and not off a production line.
 
Thats it?....A simple Old Timey Bottle stopper!! Well Knock me down and beat me silly with a sand scoop! :laughing:

Although, this sort of adds to the mystery of this item? How old is it? Why are they only found in the water? How come nobody has found them in general old dirt hunting, privy digging, bottle dumps, etc?

I remember my Grandpa told me back during Prohibition and earlier, He and his little Brother Chuck built a boat out of slab wood they procured from one of the many lumbermills around here, then they would go around and collect empty bottles from the 'speak easies' and pole that boat full of empties up river where the suppliers were set up....The guy would fill them, and they took them back to the places where the empties came from, and were remitted some form of financial recompense for their arduous freighting efforts...There was some sort of deal set up between the supplier and reseller, and my Gpaw was merely a 'mule' of sorts....Like a Walmart truck driver I suppose, without the goofy blue vest and name tag......

Still, the MKG river is one tough current to pole a boat upstream on! Like an all night kind of gig! In a heavy slab boat? Imagine! You certainly learn real fast how to work the bends and take advantage of the slack current areas! ...The proliferation of available outboard motors, rendered poling a boat another skill lost to technological mechanical advances...Its really hard to find a good pole boy nowadays in fact...Impossible even...

My Great Uncle Chuck used to kill 3 deer per year up in that MKG lower estuary with a single shot drop block .22....Said His Mom traded eggs and bought him only 3 shells! So my Gpaw would pole him on up in there and drop him off! He was expected to sit out there along a trail all night if need be, and kill a deer with a single well placed close range shot right in the ear, and get it home without getting caught somehow...He was about 12 at the time! I guess it was a form of 'Pokemon' back then?? :laughing: My Gpaw, being the older Brother, naturally made Chuck sit out there in the swamp to do the dirty work while he would sleep, smoke, and relax in the boat...Hunting back then wasnt for Sport...it was for survival!

Great Uncle Chuck said it was really hard to find a deer back then, every body and their Brother was after them, they were rare! Now they are running around all over the place and I often wonder what he would think of this bounty when I see one in the backyard nibbling unconcerned on the Wifes flowers!!...:laughing:

Me and my Cousin know how to pole a boat! Between us, I bet we have nearly 2000 miles of river and bayou boat poling experience! At night! Yeah...I guess this would look good on a resume?...We are so poor we couldnt ever afford a motor, a familial trait evidently, but if you ever need somebody to push a boat with a stick from 'Point A to B', I'm your gosh darned Huckle Bearer!..

In my late 50's I still have a really nice hand made ash pole ready to deploy as a propulsion device retirement plan, and a really old Remington .22 bolt action, so I'm doing better than most 401k's I figure..I actually can whip myself up a boat out of slabs in about half a day, or easily steal one in an urgent time pinch if it comes to it!.

Thats a really cool old broken bottle with a nice color there Dee!..Actually beautiful in its own way...Like us, Its busted up, empty, discarded, and pretty damned old! Oh the stories it could tell! I'd give you a dollar for it! laughing: :laughing:
 
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Looks like another good time out scuba, Nice gold and I have to say never seen one of those stoppers.
 
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