AirmetTango
Forum Supporter
I went out curb stripping today, which ended up morphing into a park hunt when the curb strip refused to give up much more than a pen and a boat load of pennies. Switching to the park didn’t seem much better at first, but when a jumpy high tone turned out to be a 1917 Wheat, I started to feel a little better - funny how a century old coin can change the complexion of a hunt, even if it is “only” a Wheat! 
Overall I still didn’t find much for the day: 91¢ in clad, and a junker heart pendant that my two young girls are likely to fight over because both their names start with “C”
. The Wearever fountain pen is pretty neat, though crushed to the point I can’t get the cap off - probably dates from the 1940s. Even the little black Lindy pen has a little age on it - might be late 60s. Looking closely at it, you can still see the seal playing with a ball logo on the side.
The find of the day was the ROTC collar insignia, though. Rang up as a variable 19-21, so I’m thinking yet another half-moon Zincoln. I was thrilled to see it was an ROTC pin when I turned the plug, and cool that both the Ballou clutches were still attached. The ground was rather loamy, so it came out looking in great shape, and with the deep brown coloring and VDI numbers I happily popped it in my pouch as a nice brass keeper. But once I got it home and rinsed some of the excess sand off, I noticed that the clutches were partially blocking some lettering on the back...when I took the clutches off and finished cleaning, I was amazed and amused to see it marked “1K”!!!
Is this seriously 1K gold??? To be honest, I didn’t even realize 1k gold was a real thing! But apparently it’s 4.17% pure gold If it counts, it’s my 3rd gold find this summer 
Anyways, the ROTC collar pin might date to as early as 1955, based on the stamping on the Ballou clutches and the great info on this website about dating insignia using the metallic clutches. Unfortunately, it isn’t clear when Ballou stopped making this style of clutch, so it might date to as late as the 1970s.
Overall I still didn’t find much for the day: 91¢ in clad, and a junker heart pendant that my two young girls are likely to fight over because both their names start with “C”
. The Wearever fountain pen is pretty neat, though crushed to the point I can’t get the cap off - probably dates from the 1940s. Even the little black Lindy pen has a little age on it - might be late 60s. Looking closely at it, you can still see the seal playing with a ball logo on the side.The find of the day was the ROTC collar insignia, though. Rang up as a variable 19-21, so I’m thinking yet another half-moon Zincoln. I was thrilled to see it was an ROTC pin when I turned the plug, and cool that both the Ballou clutches were still attached. The ground was rather loamy, so it came out looking in great shape, and with the deep brown coloring and VDI numbers I happily popped it in my pouch as a nice brass keeper. But once I got it home and rinsed some of the excess sand off, I noticed that the clutches were partially blocking some lettering on the back...when I took the clutches off and finished cleaning, I was amazed and amused to see it marked “1K”!!!
Is this seriously 1K gold??? To be honest, I didn’t even realize 1k gold was a real thing! But apparently it’s 4.17% pure gold
If it counts, it’s my 3rd gold find this summer Anyways, the ROTC collar pin might date to as early as 1955, based on the stamping on the Ballou clutches and the great info on this website about dating insignia using the metallic clutches. Unfortunately, it isn’t clear when Ballou stopped making this style of clutch, so it might date to as late as the 1970s.
...and made of brass as I originally thought out of the ground 
