33rd ring (junk) and a "fit to be tied" Zippo, or some very smart roots...

[litefire56]

I've been collecting lighters since I was a kid, back when you could get a real working lighter out of a gumball machine for a dime. Those days are long gone. So it was a bit of a thrill to dig this Zippo tonight along with my 33rd ring, since I started detecting in May '08. I found this at an old site turned park about 3' away from where Brett had dug a '04 ( I believe) Barber dime. I don't see how we missed this signal as we have pounded this small area many times since the dimes came out. ( I dug a Rosie there 5 mins after the '04 then)
The lighter was at 10" in very old dirt so I'm thinking it was buried for some reason and first tied with twine. If these are really roots, I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight.

I'll be able to date the Zippo once I get the bottom cleaned off. But first any guesses on its age and
what might be in it, if the guts or lighter insert are not there?

Yeah, I'm bored....

[justdigging50]

Maybe witchcraft stuff, wooooooo scary.

[Lowbatts]

I'm with JD50 on the spooky/creepy/bad mojo notion. Pop out the creepy cat's other eye before you do anything with the lighter. Gotta be circa 1983/84 though buried a little later, maybe mid-90's.

[litefire56]

Well the cool thing about the Zippo is you can precisely date them by year according to a series of dots or slashes on either side of the logo, which also has changed 3 times.

http://www.smokerstuff.com/datingcodes.htm

The twine or creepy roots turned out to be wire actually, and the series of 3 dots to the left and 4 to the right of the logo, without a Pat. Pending stamp, makes this a 1959. The insert was still in there and no gold $20 eagles to be found.

[twistidd]

Cool lighter! Had I known you collected those, I wouldn't have thrown all of mine out. I've dug a bunch and most are rusty and cruddy anyway. But now that there's a way to date them, I might just hang on to them from now on.

Joe

[Brett]

Cool post! Wish I had read this before you opened it, but I guess I didn't have to wait in suspense like everyone else did!

I like the info on dating the zippo lighters, especially because it's encoded

[Pocket Spill]

Neat find and great job researching the date of it.

[kimsdad]

Now that was a wild find!!!

It's funny that it was wired shut with the guts still in it. Here my mind was thinking about all the evil things that could have been locked inside.

O.K. Maybe it was used to light an arson fire that killed someone. Then the guy felt bad so he wired it shut & buried it.

Ahh... hallucinations, or just a vivid imagination? Only my pharmacist knows!