scaupus
Hero Member
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2011
- Messages
- 900
- Reaction score
- 540
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Not too far from a beach
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
After dropping the kid off at school I hit the basketball court at the closest park. I went to the nearest corner and right off the bat, I recovered 4 one British pound coins, a pocket spill, right? They are worth $6.52 at today's rate. That was of course totally unexpected, but the unexpected is what makes this hobby fun.
Within a few minutes I found a diamond ear stud, which I assumed to be glass, I could see that the pin-back was base metal. However, the pin and mount looked more like sterling to me, and the pin was quite soft, it bent easily. Just to be prudent, acknowledging how uninformed I am about jewelry and the fact the pin-back might not be the original that came with the stud, I put it in a zippered case in my wallet.
It was warming up fast, and I didn't want to go "appetite over tin cup." After a few minutes more, I called it quits. I wanted to save this court, and the park generally, as a quick morning fix that I could use for at least several weeks more. I had only covered about a 50' square area at one corner of the court this morning, and not thoroughly.
Later I researched diamonds a little, and learned a few tricks to tell if a stone is likely to be a diamond or not. I had thought the fact that this stone was not colorful meant it was glass. But I learned on Wikihow.com that good diamonds have facets that are shades of gray. Other criteria indicate it may be a diamond. For instance, it scratches glass, doesn't fog when breathed on, has a frosted girdle, and also has inclusions - see the dark spots along the top edge of the stone's face in the photo - and that's a nasty lot of inclusions, if that is what they are! I removed the color from the photo since it was a weird reddish yellow due to the lighting and the camera. The stone is about 4.6mm at its widest point, or probably about 3/4 carat, I think, from what I've researched online. Boy, I learned a bunch about diamonds.
I don't want to be disappointed later, but I have to wonder now if it may possibly be real. Tomorrow I will try to get to a pawn shop or a jeweler who advertises that he buys jewelry. The closest jeweler to me wants $75 before he'll even look at a piece, so he's not going to get to see it
Well, that was a good 20 minutes this morning. It makes up for 3 stifling hot hours of nothing but clads and some copper tubing and flashing in Coral Gables on Sunday. That just was not fun. I seem to need those lousy days to get good ones.
Within a few minutes I found a diamond ear stud, which I assumed to be glass, I could see that the pin-back was base metal. However, the pin and mount looked more like sterling to me, and the pin was quite soft, it bent easily. Just to be prudent, acknowledging how uninformed I am about jewelry and the fact the pin-back might not be the original that came with the stud, I put it in a zippered case in my wallet.
It was warming up fast, and I didn't want to go "appetite over tin cup." After a few minutes more, I called it quits. I wanted to save this court, and the park generally, as a quick morning fix that I could use for at least several weeks more. I had only covered about a 50' square area at one corner of the court this morning, and not thoroughly.
Later I researched diamonds a little, and learned a few tricks to tell if a stone is likely to be a diamond or not. I had thought the fact that this stone was not colorful meant it was glass. But I learned on Wikihow.com that good diamonds have facets that are shades of gray. Other criteria indicate it may be a diamond. For instance, it scratches glass, doesn't fog when breathed on, has a frosted girdle, and also has inclusions - see the dark spots along the top edge of the stone's face in the photo - and that's a nasty lot of inclusions, if that is what they are! I removed the color from the photo since it was a weird reddish yellow due to the lighting and the camera. The stone is about 4.6mm at its widest point, or probably about 3/4 carat, I think, from what I've researched online. Boy, I learned a bunch about diamonds.
I don't want to be disappointed later, but I have to wonder now if it may possibly be real. Tomorrow I will try to get to a pawn shop or a jeweler who advertises that he buys jewelry. The closest jeweler to me wants $75 before he'll even look at a piece, so he's not going to get to see it
Well, that was a good 20 minutes this morning. It makes up for 3 stifling hot hours of nothing but clads and some copper tubing and flashing in Coral Gables on Sunday. That just was not fun. I seem to need those lousy days to get good ones.
Upvote
0
