Hello Friends!
Let's face it. We all enjoy digging up silver in any form, but the sight of gold is a beautiful thing, no doubt. This week, I had a blast digging the gold and silver! I made it out to the turf once this week, and the beaches 3 times.
For my one turf hunt, I got out on Saturday with my buddy, Jason(Jamflicker), to a few pounded parks in Los Angeles. I got off to a really slow start. It took 3 hrs just to find my first wheat penny. I actually found a buffalo nickel before my first wheat. I think that was the first time I have ever done that.
Shortly after finding that first wheat, things started to heat up for me. My first piece of silver was actually a silver button topper, a first for me. Then the silver coinage started coming. I managed to dig 6 silver dimes, which seemed nearly impossible with how my day started. It was a long day, and I'm still sore from the marathon hunt!
My 3 beach hunts were fantastic!! The first of these hunts, I struck gold and silver! The gold is a 10kt, 1959 class ring. The letter "K" is all I know for a high school, and I couldn't find any high schools in my area that start with the letter K. I will probably go to the ring manufacturer's web site and contact them to see if they have records back to 1959. The ring was very deep...around 16+ inches along the low tide zone. Also pictured is a large gold heart which I will test this week when I get my gold test kit. It weighs in at 7.4 grams, and looks promising. There was no corrosion on it when I dug it from the depth of the sand/saltwater. I scratched it on top, and didn't see any copper underneath. I also got a number of silver coins, which included a 1929 SLQ, a couple buffalo nickels, and some silver jewelry. It was just a very satisfying hunt. The second hunt, I ended up finding a big cookie coin, and after a lot of soaking and chipping off the crust, it turned out to be a '36 Walker Half (my 14th silver half this year). Also found were a few pieces of gold filled jewelry, and a handful of wheat pennies, in addition to a 1906 Indian penny. The third beach hunt was another golden hunt. I started off with a silver Washington, War Nickel pocket spill, followed by a bunch of wheat pennies, and a few more pieces of silver jewelry, and a Mercury dime. I was swinging my coil along the low tide line when I heard the faintest of signals on my PI machine. I started digging, and got down to around the 17" mark....I pointed my coil down to the bottom of the hole, and heard a loud signal...I made one final scoop of sand, dumped the sand on my pile, and I saw a flash of gold. I couldn't believe it. Beautiful, shiny, untarnished. I knew it was higher karat. I held it in my hand, and saw there was three different stampings inside the ring. The first stamp was "18 Kt"!!
The second stamp said "Montgomery Bros Los Angeles". The third stamp was a maple leaf. After that recovery I was done for the day!! I got back home and started researching the maker's mark on that ring. I couldn't believe it! I had found a ring from the first jewelry store ever in Los Angeles....Montgomery Bros, founded in 1881, touted as the "Tiffany's" of the West Coast. I read up on the Montgomery brothers, James and George, and learned that James, the oldest brother was born in Ontario, Canada. Then I understood the Maple leaf stamping on the ring. I think the company closed business in 1930, after many successful decades. They grew and became the largest jewelry store on the West coast in 1899. It was fun doing the research on this ring find, however, I have not been able to find another piece of jewelry with this maker's mark on it anywhere online. The Montgomery Bros also were silversmiths and worked on many clocks too, and engraved clock parts with their makers mark back in the day. The ring weighs in at 4.2 grams. I'm really happy about that find, the age of the ring, and its significance to Los Angeles, where I grew up.
All in all, it was another great week of turf and surf. I surpassed my last year's silver coin totals, and am now at 550, FTY. I also added a really nice piece of gold to my collection. The light at the end of the 600 tunnel is growing brighter, and some nice gold has been surfacing also for me these past few weeks. What year it has been, and it's not over yet!
Thanks for looking!
Good Luck to Everyone!
HH,
Raphis
Dan
1910 Pic of Montgomery Bros, Los Angeles
Let's face it. We all enjoy digging up silver in any form, but the sight of gold is a beautiful thing, no doubt. This week, I had a blast digging the gold and silver! I made it out to the turf once this week, and the beaches 3 times.
For my one turf hunt, I got out on Saturday with my buddy, Jason(Jamflicker), to a few pounded parks in Los Angeles. I got off to a really slow start. It took 3 hrs just to find my first wheat penny. I actually found a buffalo nickel before my first wheat. I think that was the first time I have ever done that.
Shortly after finding that first wheat, things started to heat up for me. My first piece of silver was actually a silver button topper, a first for me. Then the silver coinage started coming. I managed to dig 6 silver dimes, which seemed nearly impossible with how my day started. It was a long day, and I'm still sore from the marathon hunt!My 3 beach hunts were fantastic!! The first of these hunts, I struck gold and silver! The gold is a 10kt, 1959 class ring. The letter "K" is all I know for a high school, and I couldn't find any high schools in my area that start with the letter K. I will probably go to the ring manufacturer's web site and contact them to see if they have records back to 1959. The ring was very deep...around 16+ inches along the low tide zone. Also pictured is a large gold heart which I will test this week when I get my gold test kit. It weighs in at 7.4 grams, and looks promising. There was no corrosion on it when I dug it from the depth of the sand/saltwater. I scratched it on top, and didn't see any copper underneath. I also got a number of silver coins, which included a 1929 SLQ, a couple buffalo nickels, and some silver jewelry. It was just a very satisfying hunt. The second hunt, I ended up finding a big cookie coin, and after a lot of soaking and chipping off the crust, it turned out to be a '36 Walker Half (my 14th silver half this year). Also found were a few pieces of gold filled jewelry, and a handful of wheat pennies, in addition to a 1906 Indian penny. The third beach hunt was another golden hunt. I started off with a silver Washington, War Nickel pocket spill, followed by a bunch of wheat pennies, and a few more pieces of silver jewelry, and a Mercury dime. I was swinging my coil along the low tide line when I heard the faintest of signals on my PI machine. I started digging, and got down to around the 17" mark....I pointed my coil down to the bottom of the hole, and heard a loud signal...I made one final scoop of sand, dumped the sand on my pile, and I saw a flash of gold. I couldn't believe it. Beautiful, shiny, untarnished. I knew it was higher karat. I held it in my hand, and saw there was three different stampings inside the ring. The first stamp was "18 Kt"!!
The second stamp said "Montgomery Bros Los Angeles". The third stamp was a maple leaf. After that recovery I was done for the day!! I got back home and started researching the maker's mark on that ring. I couldn't believe it! I had found a ring from the first jewelry store ever in Los Angeles....Montgomery Bros, founded in 1881, touted as the "Tiffany's" of the West Coast. I read up on the Montgomery brothers, James and George, and learned that James, the oldest brother was born in Ontario, Canada. Then I understood the Maple leaf stamping on the ring. I think the company closed business in 1930, after many successful decades. They grew and became the largest jewelry store on the West coast in 1899. It was fun doing the research on this ring find, however, I have not been able to find another piece of jewelry with this maker's mark on it anywhere online. The Montgomery Bros also were silversmiths and worked on many clocks too, and engraved clock parts with their makers mark back in the day. The ring weighs in at 4.2 grams. I'm really happy about that find, the age of the ring, and its significance to Los Angeles, where I grew up. All in all, it was another great week of turf and surf. I surpassed my last year's silver coin totals, and am now at 550, FTY. I also added a really nice piece of gold to my collection. The light at the end of the 600 tunnel is growing brighter, and some nice gold has been surfacing also for me these past few weeks. What year it has been, and it's not over yet!
Thanks for looking!
Good Luck to Everyone!
HH,
Raphis
Dan
1910 Pic of Montgomery Bros, Los Angeles
