Hello, I have a collection of insulators but know nothing about. Old UPRR spur and than from original telephone lines.
Will you please show me what to look for? More or less common. Green, clear, ones that looks like crocks, glazed brown.
Clip rings or attachment stuff?
Screw on the wedge to attach to pole kind I see now are coat or winter clothes hanger uppers.
I would need to see what they looked like to tell the rarity of them. Most of the attachment stuff is worthless Guy wires, dead end, and spool insulators are not worth much. The side pins you mentioned are worth some money, the ones that would go in a hole in the cross arm not so much. On a RR spur you might find CD 154s, 145s, 152, and other double petticoat stuff. If you ever plan on hunting looking for the old stumps of telegraph poles are a good start, then look around the stump. Glass is almost always more valuable than porcelain.
I would need to see the insulators to ID them. Most attachment stuff is not worth much, those side pins you mentioned can be worth some money. Color and weird shape are what makes an insulator valuable. www.nia.org is a good site to ID insulators.
Nice! I have a few insulators but most were found by accident... one of them was in some disturbed ground and was right on top of a can that I had detected. I always thought they were neat!
WOW!!, I haven't dug an insulator in 10 years, very good dig, I gave all mine away to people, I never wanted to collect them, it's like mason jars, you need the right ones