2/26/23 Report - A Little Saturday Hunt Turns Up Some Surprises and Personal Firsts.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Case Gin Bottle Recovered Saturday.

I planned on posting more metal detector tests today. but got some new finds that took up a lot of my time, and I haven't even cleaned or researched them much yet. 

 I was excited to find my first case gin bottle.  It was a real surprise.  At first, I couldn't see much other than a clump of barnacles and seaweed.  Then a I noticed a patch of black.  It didn't look like it was a bottle. I still didn't know what the object was but kept trying to get it uncovered.  I sure was surprised and happy when I finally saw that I just found my first case gin bottle.

You might want to check out the Queen Anne's Revenge report on glass artifacts.  Preliminary Glassware and Bottle Analysis from Shipwreck 31CR314, Queen Anne's Revenge Site (qaronline.org)

I was about to give up much earlier.  I wasn't seeing anything good for the longest time.  Not only was a not finding anything good, but there was nothing even close.  No older items.  I picked up a lot of very modern beer bottles, jars and other junk and was getting discouraged.  Then I made the find that turned the hunt from a big bust to a real good hunt.  Here it is.

Embossed Casper's Whiskey Bottle.

It is a nice embossed Casper's Whiskey bottle dating to the early 1900s - and in very good condition.

Casper's Whiskey Bottle Embossing and Top.

 Sorry about the poor background in this photo.  I'll get better photos after cleaning the bottle.

I also got some metal items, but not yet. 

The other side of this whiskey bottle is almost completely covered with barnacles.  And it is already sun purpled, which tells me two things - first iit has some age to it, and second, it was laying exposed to the sun for some time during its history. 

Bottles that turn purple with exposure to sunlight or other radiation are generally older than 1914 because the supply of manganese used for glass manufacture was reduced during WWI.  That is something to take into account when trying to date a metal detecting site.

I've done a little research on this bottle but haven't started to clean it up yet.  It is a Casper's whiskey bottle.  The other side of the bottle is almost completely covered with barnacles, but looking through the bottle, don't think I'll find anything interesting on the other side.

I also found a Mexican Mustang Liniment bottle.  I already had a couple of those.  That one didn't get me excited.  The two bottles shown above were the highlights of the day me.  Those two, along with the McCormick's Bee Brand bottle found the day before, are more valuable than most bottles that I find.

After finding the whiskey bottle, I turned around and headed back, taking a slightly different path.  The return trip turned out to be much more productive than the hunt up until that point.  The whiskey bottle was just the beginning.

Here is a group a finds from that Saturday hunt.

Variety of New Finds.

That reminds me, I also picked up a 1915 West Palm Beach Coca Cola bottle and a rubber hammer, which I'll undoubtedly find useful.  I would normally consider the Coca Cola bottle a good find, but it got overshadowed by a couple of personal firsts on this hunt.

Years ago I found a Hayner whiskey bottle that is very much like the newly found Casper's whiskey bottle.  They were popular around the same time.  

I see I posted the Hayner bottle a long time ago.  The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 9/19/12 Report - Glass Treasure Clues & Talk Like a Pirate Day  

The funny thing is that I clipped the following photo of case gin bottles last week and for some reason kept it on my desktop never imaging that I'd find my first just a few days later.  Coincidence?

Photos of Case Gin Bottles That I Clipped For Some Reason Last Week.

Here is a lead item I found.  To me those, whatever they are, are still a bit of a mystery to me.  Over the years I've found a few.  This one might be the fifth or sixth that I've found.  I think fifth.

Lead Stylus or Whatever.

It is just a touch over 2.75 inches long.  It weighs 50.3 grams.  I wonder if it would weight 50.0 grams without the foreign material adhering to it.  But they seem to vary in size even though they are about the same shape.  As I've said before, the Portable Antiquities Scheme shows many of these.  Sometimes that are called pencils or styli.  In previous posts I've discussed s theories on what they are.  The ones I've found are about the shape, being more blunt on one end and a little more pointed on the other end.  

Here is a previous post that talks more about these types of items. 

Treasure Beaches Report: Pt. 2. (2020 and Beyond). : 9/21/22 Report - Finds. Researching Lead Objects: Pencils or Styli(?) Bigger Surf Coming Thursday and Friday. (tbr2020.blogspot.com)

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I have a lot of cleaning and research to do, and also will be continuing my metal detector tests as time permits between hunts and other duties.

The tides are moderate, but we got some offshore breezes.  We broke a heat record yesterday.

Source: MagicSeaweed.com.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net