Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
The unique 339-gram piece sold for 2,817,500 Swiss francs ($3.49 million). It had a starting price of 2 million Swiss francs, the Geneva-based Numismatica Genevensis SA auction house said, confirming it had broken the European record for most valuable coin...
The Centen, or 100 escudos in a former Spanish currency, was made in the central Spanish city of Segovia out of gold brought from conquerors who went to the Americas or "New World"....
Lost for several centuries, it turned up in the United States around 1950 where a New York collector bought it before selling it to a Spanish buyer a decade later. It was later auctioned to another collector, whose identity is not public...
Spanish gold coin from 1609 breaks European record at auction | Reuters
Rare 339-gram Spanish coin from 1609 breaks European auction record
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Getting into holiday season, maybe you've given some thought to what you might give as gifts. I know one young man who I'll give an interesting coin find of some type as I have in the past.
Not all kids are interested in coins other than what than what they can buy with them or what they are worth, but this young man has done a little metal detecting and appreciates coins. I've shown a couple of his finds in this blog.
Metal detecting, as I've said before, is a great hobby, and for many different reasons. Beyond having value, coins have a way of stimulating an interest in history and other academic subjects.
The range of subjects I address in this blog is very broad. Lately I've talked about things like geology, fluid dynamics, and geography, densities and much more besides history. Anyone that does much metal detecting will end up investigating some of those subjects to some extent.
I remember one Christmas when an uncle visited our house one Christmas, it mut have been in the 1950s and gave me a silver dollar. It was a Peace dollar. I still have it, but it was something I clearly remembered all these years. I can see it in my minds eye. I was standing on the porch outside of our front door. I call that a successful gift.
Likewise, my mother received a gold coin from her grandfather when she was a young girl. She kept it her entire life too.
I'm sure that some kids would simply sell a coin, or worse yet lose track of it somehow, but there are some kids that would appreciate and treasure such a gift.
A coin gift is worth considering, especially if you can match it with the right kind of recipient.
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I started putting together my electrolysis setup for that possible cob that I found back a month or so ago. The white vinegar treatment wasn't making any progress, so I going to try electrolysis and see how that goes.
I'm going to use the same converter I used in this post.
I bought some new alligator clips, and the object will go in the bath tomorrow.
You can also use a battery as shown in this post.
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| Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com. |
I took a little walk to look for bottles today when the water was flat and visibility was good, but no luck. That was the first time I did that for quite a while.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
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When I began, I hoped to gain financially. At first I was a coin shooter and kept records of my finds. When I found a lot of coins, or on occasion bills or other things, I thought I did well. That was during a time in my life when I was looking to the future and hoping to become be able to provided for myself and my family. Although I had a profession, which had nothing to do with metal detecting, metal detecting provided a supplemental source. At that time I measured my success in economic terms. Sometimes I didn't find much and was unhappy about that.
After a while it became very much about seeing what I could accomplish. It became a challenge. I wanted to see what was possible for me. Success or failure was still measured largely in economic terms though.
Once it became very much about the challenge, I wanted to see how far I could go. I wanted to see what was possible - for me. There were times I really pushed myself.
The matter of it being fun was a part of it, but the fun was at times sacrificed. There would be times when I would push myself physically and do things that I now realize were downright dangerous. I'd call it stupid now, but youth doesn't always recognize danger or stupidity. Age doesn't fully do away with that either.
All along I understood that success, no matter how measured, could be aided by learning. I wanted to understand how things worked. I wanted to improve my efficiency. I was not only interested in what I could find, but I was also interested in the amount of time and effort that was required. It was not only about the absolute amount found by the amount found per time period.
Over time I became less interested in the economic payoff. That has to do with changing circumstances to some extent. I was still setting goals, but not all of the goals were the most economically productive.
Now that has gone to the extent that some things I enjoy finding are worthless economically, but they have another kind of value. They seem to put me in touch with something bigger or take me back in time. They put me in touch with the people that made or used the items before or with other times.
Now it is more of a Zen thing. It is a way of being in the world. It is just an extension of who I am.
I can't say these stages were all that well defined. They overlap. There was always some element of fun involved. There was always some element of curiosity being satisfied - and learning. There was always some element of the joy of being in nature. But the relative emphasis or importance changed over the years. Now I have to say that it has almost nothing to do with economics for me. The learning part of it is a big part of it. The curiosity part is big. The finds have played their part. I've studied the objects. I've lived with them and learned from them and am preparing to discard or pass them on.
