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Suddenly, Marbles Are Everywhere!

AirmetTango

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Joined
Apr 14, 2017
Messages
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Location
NW Ohio
I know I’ve said this in a few of my posts before, but I continue to be amazed by the weird streaks and/or coincidences that crop up in this hobby on a pretty regular basis! This time, it’s marbles...

In late March, forum member Dan B. invited me out to hunt one of his field permissions with him - at some point during the hunt, the topic of marbles came up, with me mentioning I had never found one in my 2.5 years of detecting. “But”, I said, “I think it’d be pretty cool to get one eventually”. That was March 20, judging by the time stamp on the pictures of my finds from that hunt.

So naturally, while hunting a farm field site just days later on March 24, I was amused and amazed to find my first marble sitting right on the surface, a small, multicolored glass beauty:

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That was cool, but it didn’t end there - next came an old clay marble on the surface of a farm field. Then another glass marble came out embedded in my plug while digging another target. More clay marbles, including a huge “shooter” in a farm field...then another came out in a plug. Long story short, from the end of March to early June, maybe 2.5 months, I went from zero marbles to 9 - five of them just in the last couple weeks! I even got twin green glass marbles out of a field on the same evening! For a little while, I felt like I couldn’t go on a hunt without bagging a marble! And I vastly underestimated how fun it would be to find these little gems - I’m truly thrilled with each one. Then while researching the big shooter marble (I’d never seen one so large!), I ran across this cool article that made me appreciate them even more:

The Secret Life of Farmland Marbles by Chris Bennett

Fascinating article that vividly portrays how the game of marbles was much more intertwined with farm life than I could possibly have imagined before!

Anyway, here’s a few pics of my recent marble finds, with a group shot at the end:
 

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Your wife can never say that you are crazy. You found some of the marbles you lost.:laughing: nice job I love finding marbles also. I came across two Glass and two clay marbles this weekend. Glad I was able to share my marble finding luck with you!
 
Excellent article in your link. I found a clay 1" marble a few weeks ago poking out of a pile of dirt at an old park that was undergoing some renovations. I went back the next day and found a late 1800s German glazed clay Bennington marble a short walk from where I found the other. It was just sitting there poking out of some dried overturned dirt next to modern trash. We had a lot of rain after they started the project, so I assume that helped expose them.
 

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Those are some nice marbles and I really like those clay ones. That's exactly how I find most of mine. Just gotta keep your eyes peeled to the ground. Congrats!
 
How strange...marbles...kid and I were headed to a rural creek yesterday to slosh around for arrowheads (me, unsuccessful) and crayfish (she, successfully). And we drove by what I have deemed The Marble Field (as I have found one the three or four times I have detected it). I told her I would give her five bucks if she found one before me. And whattaya know, kid 1 me 0.

Bet I find a clay marble soon now that you have a couple....and your Bennington is coming soon.....
 
Man that’s pretty cool! I’ve only found a few marbles, and only one has age to it. My favorite one of course. Congrats on the marble cornucopia!
 
Marbles are always fun in the hole and look great in the trinket finds jar!
 
In your next hunt, maybe the topic of how you've "never found a cache of gold coins" should come up :money::money:
 
Your wife can never say that you are crazy. You found some of the marbles you lost.:laughing: nice job I love finding marbles also. I came across two Glass and two clay marbles this weekend. Glad I was able to share my marble finding luck with you!

Nah, she's more likely to say "You know, you can't compensate for losing your mind by bringing home someone else's marbles...." :laughing: She's been in Spain with the kids for the last couple weeks, so she hasn't seen most of them come in yet. At this rate, I'll have an entire jar full waiting for her to see, sitting right in the middle of the kitchen table...I can't wait to hear what she has to say about that :lol::lol:

They sure are even more fun to find than I originally thought, so I'll be glad for you to keep sending that luck my way! It's funny you mentioned "losing your marbles". I always new that phrase obviously originated from the game of marbles, but through the course of learning about the shooter I found, I was fascinated to learn that a few other common phrases are rooted in the game as well: "knuckle down" and "playing for keeps" come directly from the game as well. I'm always interested in the origin of slang terms and phrases...and it seems you can always tell how embedded into culture a game or event is by how many catch phrases it generates, and how long they endure after the fact!

Excellent article in your link. I found a clay 1" marble a few weeks ago poking out of a pile of dirt at an old park that was undergoing some renovations. I went back the next day and found a late 1800s German glazed clay Bennington marble a short walk from where I found the other. It was just sitting there poking out of some dried overturned dirt next to modern trash. We had a lot of rain after they started the project, so I assume that helped expose them.

Thanks TS, I really enjoyed that article too. It not only did a wonderful job of revealing the history of why marbles are so common in some farm fields, but it also perfectly captured the essence of why the people who hunt marbles love finding them so much. And I think it's truly the same for many of us who hunt relics.

Now that I'm on a little bit of a marble streak, I'm learning that they've got a pretty interesting history, and their variation is truly endless! Each one is pretty unique, just like the trade tokens I love to find so much. Can't wait to find more :yes:

Fantastic eyeball finds at the park tear out!! Those are beautiful!

...And we drove by what I have deemed The Marble Field (as I have found one the three or four times I have detected it). I told her I would give her five bucks if she found one before me. And whattaya know, kid 1 me 0.

Sounds more like kid 5 you 0 :lol::lol: That's truly $5 well spent, though :cool3:

Bet I find a clay marble soon now that you have a couple....and your Bennington is coming soon.....

We could bet $5 on who will find stuff first, but I think we'd end up just constantly passing the same bill back and forth! :laughing:
 
You keep this up Ben, you will competition with Jamflicker for being the Marble King. Great start to your collection. Trapper

Those are some nice marbles and I really like those clay ones. That's exactly how I find most of mine. Just gotta keep your eyes peeled to the ground. Congrats!

I found a couple more last night and not ready to relinquished my crown just yet. :laughing:

Thanks guys! I'm definitely looking forward to keeping my eyes peeled for more - it's almost like now that I've seen what they look like in the fields, I can't stop seeing them...same thing was happening when I went on a tear finding surface Indians in the fields earlier this year. Anyways, even if I grab a few more I doubt I'll be threatening Jams crown anytime soon :cool3:
 
Man that’s pretty cool! I’ve only found a few marbles, and only one has age to it. My favorite one of course. Congrats on the marble cornucopia!

Thanks GS! They are great fun - I like the clay ones because they have the obvious age and history behind them. But I also like the glass and other varieties as well from an beauty and uniqueness standpoint. Harder to tell how old the colored ones are, but I'm sure some of them are quite old too. I'm gonna have to learn more about the different types!

Nice marble collection.

Thanks metaladdict!

Outstanding marble streak you have going there! You're on a roll! Pun intended...:D

Ha! I see what you did there! :lol: Thanks Waveoff - it's amazing how fast I went from nothing to a mini collection!

Marbles are always fun in the hole and look great in the trinket finds jar!

Sure are! I'll probably find some sort of old candy or canning jar to put them in for a display - maybe I'll keep the clay ones out for a separate display idea. They will certainly make a neat conversation piece!
 
Yes, this hobby does seem to run in streaks.
My current streak is called "a lack of silver coins":mad:
I only have 5 FTY and at this time last year, I had about 20.

Somehow, I have been able to find over 300 marbles over the past 8 years of detecting, I really love them!
Here are the clay marbles I have found.
 

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Yes, this hobby does seem to run in streaks.
My current streak is called "a lack of silver coins":mad:
I only have 5 FTY and at this time last year, I had about 20.

Ohhhh - I know how that goes...I've been on the "lack of silver streak" off and on all year now. I'm averaging just a little over 1 silver coin per month so far for a total of 9, but like you, I had around 20 or so by now last year. The other silver is really missing - I've got absolutely no rings or other silver. It's not for lack of trying - I've had far more time to detect this year than last year. Just an off year and bad locations I guess...

Somehow, I have been able to find over 300 marbles over the past 8 years of detecting, I really love them!
Here are the clay marbles I have found.

That's a huge number of marbles for that stretch of time! Nice collection - I really like those blue ones...like little planet Earths!
 
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