8/26/26 Report - A Miscellaneous Variety of Finds and Objects Researched. 20th Century to 450 Million Years Old.

 

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

Reverse of Token Find.

I noticed the above item sitting on my desk beside my coin microscope and a variety of other miscellaneous finds.  I couldn't really see the design on it because of the heavy patina.  I could just see a little of the design and figured it was probably one of those No Cash Value game tokens, so I didn't really pay much attention to it and it remained on the table unexamined for a good long time.  I looked through a group of pennies to see if I could find anything interesting, and I didn't.  I then decided, since it was there and I had my equipment set up, to slip the token, or whatever it was, under the microscope, and I was surprised.  Here is what I saw (with some sharpening and help from the photo editor).

Parking Token.

I asked copilot for an identify and it failed.  Then I queried Grok, which gave the following response.

Your token matches a well‑documented U.S. “Antique Car” Parking Token, a generic brass token used by many private parking systems from roughly the 1960s–1990s, with continued re‑strikes into the 2000s. It is not tied to a specific city unless the reverse side carries additional wording (yours appears to have only the car and “PARKING TOKEN”).

I then did a search using U.S Antique Car Parking Token as the search term and found the item pictured and described in Token - Parking (Antique Car) - United States – Numista

The search process and results (as general as they are) turned out to be more interesting than the actual token.  I found Grok to be more helpful than Copilot.

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There was another token sitting there that I looked at too.  Here is the one side that was easier to read.

I cleaned the other side but wasn't able to get a lot of the corrosion off.  Here is that side.

At least I could see enough to see that it was a SUNOCO item.  So then I asked Grok about that one, and Grok again worked well and pointed me to another site where I could see the entire series.

Here is the info.

Introduced in 1969, one year after Shell Oil Company’s very successful "Mr. President" promotional coin game, Sunoco's "Collection of Antique Car Coins" was the first true collector's promotion. This promotion was based on the 75-medal Franklin Mint "Collection of Antique Car Coins" that was produced over two years and in three 25-medal sub series. Sunoco would only utilized the first two of the three 25-medal series. This exhibit will focus on Series 2. The promotion did include coins with special "instant winner" reverses like the Shell games; however, unlike the Shell games the two 25-coin sets were not broken up into prize groups with low mintage keys that had to be turned in to claim the prize making them unobtainable today. This meant one had a reasonable chance of actually assembling the aluminum set through continued patronage of their local Sunoco service station.

And here is the link to that display.  eExhibit - Sunoco Antique Cars Coin Promotion 2

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Jumping to another kind of object.  Here is a small lapel pin which I guessed was either a cub scout or boy scout pin. 

Grok identified it as a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) pin, not Cub Scouts, and the style places it roughly mid‑20th century, most likely 1940s–1960s.

While I had my microscope up and going, I took that photo as well as the insignia on a pen knife I found.  Here it is.

Scouting Pen Knife Find.

Close-up View of the Insignia.

Unfortunately, the light blurred out the "CUB" part of "CUBSCOUTS."  But that is what it is.  

Before taking a closer look today, I thought the insignia was a metal insert, but I found out that the surface of the insignia is a clear plastic. 

The wolf corresponds to a cub scout ranking.  There were other animals that indicated other ranks.  For each rank, or age group, certain activities were required to complete or obtain the rank of lion, bear, bobcat, etc.

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Polished Ordovician Limestone Containing Orthoceras Fossils.

I've found paperweights while hunting bottles before, but I didn't know about this one, so I just asked Grok.  Here is what it said.

Fossil: Orthoceras (straight-shelled cephalopod)

Rock: Polished black Ordovician limestone

Age: ~450–470 million years

Likely origin: Tafilalt, Morocco

I didn't know it was sold as a paperweight. I thought it was maybe just a example piece.

Both the age and source surprised me. Grok said they were commonly sold as souvenirs.

I can't say it is the oldest fossil I've ever found but it is definitely old.

That was a little something different for today.  I just got into looking up some things I didn't know much of anything about.  It shows the variety of oddities you might find on the desk of a long-time treasure hunter.

By the way, as an alternative to Wikipedia, which I've used in the past, you might check out Grokipedia.

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It has been a while since I've done any beach metal detecting.  I'm eagerly awaiting some good erosion but it doesn't look like it will be real soon.

A new invest is out there.  I think it is Invest 96 now.  

 

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Source: Surfguru.com.

Nothing exciting with the surf chart.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net