RainorShine
Forum Supporter
Went for a beach hunt at a place that was once the site of an over the water amusement park. The park operated from 1907 - 1913 when it was shut down because the neighbors didn't care for some of the unsavory activities that took place there (it was the site of one of the biggest bars in town at the time). A portion of the park housed a swimming pool that remained open until the 1930's. The entire structure was destroyed in a fire in 1931. All of the debris from the site, including glass, nails, tar from the roofing and every other conceivable piece of junk fell into the water.
I was told by a long time detectorist that if you find a piece of agglomerate with a good signal inside, don't discard it - break it open. Sure enough, I got a good 27 - 28 signal on my Nox, and it was in a chunk of black aggregate larger than the size of my fist smelling strongly of tar with glass and pieces of rock sticking out. This is the dirtiest stuff I have ever handled. It even smelled bad, and stained everything it came into contact with black. Heeding the advice, I broke the chunk open and caught the gleam of what appeared to be silver! Further efforts resulted in the extraction of what appeared to be a ring, seriously mangled and very thin. With work, I was able to restore the ring to a round shape and finally remove the crud on the inside. Amazingly, there was writing. It took some work to figure out, but finally deduced that I had found a "ring coin". I was able to make out "Republica De Panama, 1904" inside the band. Not sure of the original denomination, but I found images of the 3 possible coin options online to confirm the origin. This was a great find for me and one of those things that keep me coming back for more. Thanks for looking and HH.
I was told by a long time detectorist that if you find a piece of agglomerate with a good signal inside, don't discard it - break it open. Sure enough, I got a good 27 - 28 signal on my Nox, and it was in a chunk of black aggregate larger than the size of my fist smelling strongly of tar with glass and pieces of rock sticking out. This is the dirtiest stuff I have ever handled. It even smelled bad, and stained everything it came into contact with black. Heeding the advice, I broke the chunk open and caught the gleam of what appeared to be silver! Further efforts resulted in the extraction of what appeared to be a ring, seriously mangled and very thin. With work, I was able to restore the ring to a round shape and finally remove the crud on the inside. Amazingly, there was writing. It took some work to figure out, but finally deduced that I had found a "ring coin". I was able to make out "Republica De Panama, 1904" inside the band. Not sure of the original denomination, but I found images of the 3 possible coin options online to confirm the origin. This was a great find for me and one of those things that keep me coming back for more. Thanks for looking and HH.