Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED MACRO PIC CLOSEUPS AND X-RAY PHOTOS

1liquigirl

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Gambling in Atlantic City is a thing of the past. You'll make out better on the shoreline. I run with a Garrett Ace 250 and came back with this and a few pieces that I think are bayonets, various sand pennies and the mouth of an 1800's amber brown whiskey bottle. It stormed with thunder and lightning the night before, and the surf was really pounding. The beach opened at 6AM and out I went. I turned the stone over and there it was, a chain and a shiny silver coin sticking right out at me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and after the shock wore off, you should have heard me whooping it up. I put it in my bag with the shells I had been collecting prior. I didn't care at that point about breaking any of them, to me I don't think I'll ever find anything better. About a minute after I put it in my bag, an ATV cop went by me, and I ecstatically said "Hi" to him. It was probably pretty out of place, but I couldn't help it. I held onto that bag like my life depended on it all the way back to the hotel room, to show my sleeping partner the treasure I had truly found. I wonder how long it takes to embed coins and chains in to sandstone? More than 30 years, I'm sure. :laughing7: We didn't head straight home, we went to a friend of ours that owns a stones and gems shop. He'd never seen anything like this before. He told us that as is, we are looking at a value of at least $400. We plan to get the stone X-rayed at some random dentist's office to see if there may be a pendant or even a gem on the chain and if we're lucky, there may be more coins. There is an indent in the rock underneath the area that the coin is showing that could have held another coin, it is completely round and about the size of a dime. There's alot of MDing that goes on along the shores of Atlantic City and alot of iron content out there, so I bet this stone could possibly have been overlooked by others more than once. I want to get all of the sand removed that is concreted on this coin, but I'm afraid to hurt it in any way. I carefully removed some of the grains of sand with a razor blade and I am sure I didn't scratch it. It is just enough to see that some letters are still present, but not enough to identify them. I refuse to do anything more to it. I trust someone out there can get it clean. The chain located in the top left of the stone in picture one and on my finger in picture two is handmade, the ends of each link are wrapped over the next loop. It is non magnetic, but has been tested for 14 ct gold and dissolved right away at our local jewelry store, so it's more likely to be bronze. A few more links are showing on the other side of the stone from where it hangs out on the other, so most of the chain could be wrapped up inside the stone. I hope to make banner with this one! I live in Central Pennsylvania and I doubt there is anyone around here that could identify this coin as is, it is thinner and smaller than an American Dime.

Update: There have been lots of views, replies and posts for me. Read the whole post to see the progression of IDing this. We will have the Macro pics of the coin tomorrow (Thursday, October 7th). We have used Goo Gone and the sink spigot for two days (alot longer tonight than the last). It's is showing a spot in the middle of the coin, when it hadn't before, but not much more. We used aluminum wrapped around the coin with baking soda and hot water for about 5 minutes, it didn't help much. We're hoping to find a dentist to do a water pick trick on the coin, although none of the dentists we have called wanted to even do an X-Ray. We paid $105 for two X-Ray photos at Metzger Animal Hospital in State College (I had volunteered here 12 years ago, in High School. We received a phone call back from the head of the Earth and Mineral Science Building here at Penn State. The head of the Department gave me an e-mail for a lady in the Anthroplogy Department. She has lived in Florida and has worked with shipwrecks. Just waiting to hear back from her now. Thanks for the five coin rating, on the My Best Finds Forum, but to see how this is progressing, it goes to show you, that everyone wants to find treasure, but the time and effort it takes to ID and find it's place in history, takes alot of work and patience. No one sees that in the beginning, then you find something good and you realize. Please, any other suggestions would be appreciated.
 

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Bigcypresshunter

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

N.J.THer said:
bigcypresshunter said:
In comparison to the dime, the threaded stud is very large diameter. I just thought that it may be a toilet flush handle with the chain attached. :dontknow: The dime doesnt seem to fit this scenario. :icon_scratch:

I just saw the X-ray and I knew I saw that chain before. It is the handle to a toilet with the flapper chain...I'm 99% positive. In high school which was many many years ago I worked as a plumbers assistant. The threaded item maybe a Johnny-bolt which would make sense.

NJ
The value just plummetted. I think the threaded part is to attach the flush handle to the tank.
 

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Bigcypresshunter

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

Erik in NJ said:
The more I look at the x-ray pics the more I agree with your assessments - the chain type would explain the long round bent rod, at it appears to have a handle attached to one end. Would the older chains be made of brass? Nice sleuthing work!

The coin being there? Maybe it was a pay toilet! ;D Just kidding of course - I think the silver coin was just a lucky coincidence and makes it a heck of a conversation piece - shows well as is too!!
Pay toilet lol. Yes the older chains were brass. I usually hang out at the What Is It forum but I see theres more participation here. Its all fun and still a very interesting find. :icon_thumright:
 

Erik in NJ

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

The value just plummetted. I think the threaded part is to attach the flush handle to the tank.

On Wall St. we'd say the value just "tanked!" :D

Sorry - couldn't resist - let's hope it was a pay toilet on a Spanish Galleon!! I still love this find and think it's one in a million! Looking forward to some macro pics Michelle!
 

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1liquigirl

1liquigirl

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

Mark - Thank you for your 2 hours of research and imposed photo. That is awesome, you could really help IDing coins in that way. Great work!

Jeff - I remember Luke telling me at the shop that coral/sandstone/other things would leech to iron. Iron sticks to a magnet. We ran a magnet over the piece on all sides, again. Only two areas have some pull, I circled the areas in red in the enclosed pic. The areas are Black/Grey in color and I think you can link them to white areas on the X-ray photos, since they are protruding out a bit from the stone, and are in the right areas to possibly be the handle type piece and a broken off piece of the long rod piece. Anyone know what other metals are magnetic? The chain and the coin are not. Other than that, there isn't pull to the magnet on any other areas on this piece.

BigCypress - Thanks for taking the time to look through chains, we have done so as well, and came up with nothing. A handcrafted toilet flapper chain would be pretty interesting.

NJTHer - If you're right then we've started identifying the story/history of this piece.


Erik - Man, if this is part of a toilet, than I want one of this type. A pay toilet that only takes silver coins. :laughing9:


Here's a thought I've been pondering around with: What if the senario is more along the lines of items that fell on the leftover and still hot inards of a boiler for a steam vessel? That would make some sense as to all the black areas on this piece, right? And smaller areas of redish brown iron, adheased to it. At what temperatures do bronze and silver melt? Did any ships go down in the general vicinity that something like this may have occurred?
 

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Erik in NJ

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

LG - as we spoke about yesterday it appears that there are two threaded objects inside your "rock" - I'm surprised no one has mentioned the other one. They were probably made of steel which rusted. Are these the two areas which have the magnetic pull (where we see the threaded objects)? I believe your chain is brass and not bronze, but maybe someone here can tell you how one can tell the difference. Any luck on the macro pictures???
 

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1liquigirl

1liquigirl

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

The gentleman we are borrowing the camera from, said he didn't get the e-mail we sent him until this morning. Bummer to hold you guys off for one more day, but my partner is going into this gentleman's work to get the photos. I work tomorrow, so it won't be until tomorrow evening that I can get though the new shots and get them posted. Sorry, to leave you hanging. Anyone like my boiler idea, that I posted in my last post?
 

MilitaryCollector

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

What ever it is (I think it looks like toilet parts also). I assume it was sitting in a despression on ocean floor for long time and coin came along to same despression and fused along with other stuff. That happens alot. Break it apart I say :)
 

Bigcypresshunter

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

I dont think there is any melted bronze or silver. Steel will rust and expand and the dime stuck to it along with some sand. Only ferrous metals (iron and steel) will attract a magnet.

If this is a toilet handle, it would be anyones guess how it came to be on the beach. Construction materials are often tossed from oceanfront homes. I often find window parts, broken drain pipe pieces, broken bricks and roofing tiles, nails, screws and other construction debris on the beach.
 

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1liquigirl

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

BigCypress, my question is at what temperatures do bronze, brass and silver melt? If they melt at a high temperature, than the chain and coin and other items present within this piece could have landed in the still hot inner areas of a steam boiler explosion could they not? Just a possible senario to throw around some thoughts on. What do all think?
 

allen

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

Maybe the lightning struck the sand and
chain in a previous storm and caused it to
combine the chain and sand into a rock
like that? :dontknow:
It is a really cool find !!
 

Erik in NJ

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

LG, In the latest x-ray pic you posted - inside the left oval is what appears to be a toilet flusher handle, which may have been chrome plated or something. It appears attached to the rod, which got bent during disposal and the chain would have been attached to the far end of the rod and still may be. The rod is probably copper or brass - Cypress should be able to tell us what those rods were typically made of....anyway that's what I'm seeing. The pieces may have been disposed of in a paper bag or cardboard box causing them to remain together until that degraded and disappeared. The silver coin is most likely from another source and came to rest for a while on the rusting mass long enough to remain there and get further immersed in the rust. Notice the coin is near the surface of the item and not deep within it - unlike the rod and bolt.
 

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1liquigirl

1liquigirl

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

Tony in SC suggested in the What Is It? Forum that the longer rod could be a tie rod/tie tack. Posted a picture of the tie tack. A tie rod would be a part of a car. Whatever it is, the high melt temperatures of the metals, keeps my theory going on the steam boiler explosion. Anyone know of any ships off shore that went down this way, or had steam boilers?
 

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Diggin-N-Dumps

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

Are you Planning on Ever Cutting them out?...I totally would :headbang:
 

Bigcypresshunter

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

Erik in NJ said:
Cypress should be able to tell us what those rods were typically made of....
The rod and chain would typically both be brass. Heres a 1920's era toilet handle. I like the idea that it was a bag full of broken parts. Its hard to find an old pic of a flapper chain but I also remember this type as a repairman.
 

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1liquigirl

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

No Diggin, I will not remove the items from this piece, it is better as a conversation piece/conglomerate.
Big Cypress, thanks for all your help so far. It's hard to say what it is, whatever it is....it got there somehow, and I am really thinking heat had something to do with it. Here's a shipwreck map of the Atlantic city area... There is a car float out there? Ok, so Tony's idea of Tie rod might be credible. Does anyone know if any of these wrecks sank due to a boiler explosion? Might need to post this on the Shipwrecks forum as well. Any help would be appreciated, it narrows down possibilities quite a bit. Thanks all of you and keep watching!!
 

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SouthJerseyJim

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

I think your really stretching this out now. A boiler explosion from a ship? I believe this is just 1 of one million big iron clumps that litter the AC Beaches after storms that just so happens to have a silver coin in it. Toilet flapper and chain probably from a restroom area on the boards that succombed to just another hurricane or noreaster. There are times after storms that the beaches sands are black with iron. You don't dare bring a machine out unless it has Iron Cancel. There are very few beaches like AC with its iron content thats why "In florida you may be able to see the date" on a reale. If your gonna keep the Iron chunk put it on your window sill or table it would make better convo that a single mercury dime, a toilet flapper, chain, and bolt. Just my 2...
 

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1liquigirl

1liquigirl

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

Yes, South Jersey Jim, this will always be a wonderful conversation piece, no matter what. And I agree, the iron content can have something to do with it. The boiler explosion idea is just a theory at this point, but I will be looking into it to see if there could be a way to ID where it came from. We may never know, but this is a possible theory for all iron chunks that can be found out there, including the ones you have. A theory on pier fires could be another, anything with heat. Were there any pier fires? There was one on the boardwalk store front near central pier. I saw it on YouTube. Any help and answers to my questions would be appreciated. SouthJersey, I'm glad you've been on the case here with us. I'm hoping to find a reason for the madness of iron content in the vicinity of Atlantic City, and will be doing everything I can to get to the bottom of the issue for us both.
 

Bigcypresshunter

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

I agree with Jim. Where is the evidence of heat?

I can imagine how bad the AC beaches are with corroded iron. I hate detecting Miami because of all the trash. The Treasure Beaches are different. They are perhaps the cleanest in the world.

I think if you clean a tiny bit more of the coin, you can ID it as either Merc or Rosey or whatever and that will give you a dateline.
 

N.J.THer

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Re: Treasure Set in Stone UPDATED X-RAY PHOTOS

Chain - not an exact match but you get the idea. These chains were used for the old overhead tanks handle pulls and in the tanks themselves for the flapper.

images
 

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