Possible Spanish Silver Cross found in Corpus Christi

Diggin-N-Dumps · Jul 24, 2015

I know I posted this in "What is it" a few days ago...Because I had no idea what the hell it was..lol

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/470256-ornate-piece-found-corpus-christi-gulf.html

But I thought i would throw it in here.

Went to Corpus with my buddy Jcobb to do some surf hunting and take a break from the 100+ temps here in North Texas.

Found what we thought was a piece to a buckle or something, didnt really think much about it and just threw it in the pouch.

It was pretty much solid black and had sand that turned to concrete on it.

Anyhooo, I was looking at it when I got home and swore I saw Jesus on it with 2 angels on each side.

I could tell it was something old but was still clueless as to what it really was.

After a few days in the What is it Section, I was given some really good advice on how to clean it.

To my amazement, after only 20 or so minutes, it came out GLEAMING of silver and i was able to see it a little better.

So, here are some pics on the different stages and the cleaning methods.

I'm hoping this is the real deal, because on that trip, my ATP PRO fried and I used my buddies ATP as a back up...which ended up dying the next day after 4 hours or so of using

Sorry for the pics being out of order, I tried a few times to upload them in order and its throwing them in there this way

Never thought I could kill 2 AT-Pros in 2 days....but I did

romeo-1 · Jul 25, 2015

Diggin-N-Dumps said:
haha..Ok, that makes sense..I know Cru has never really came off like that before..but I have had people criticize what they think "OLD" is...its definitely not a 1600's French Coin thou!

Take nothing away from that amazing relic! I would equate that to finding trade silver in my area...something I am still looking for!

Crispin · Jul 25, 2015

That is old, no doubt. I place it around 400 to 500 years. But what do I know? I am just an old, impoversied Fire nugget hunter.

Erik in NJ · Jul 25, 2015

CRUSADER said:
Why so excited

Don't mind him--he's just drunk!

Argentium · Jul 25, 2015

Yeah that occurred to me later - that the comment had to do with the Caps .

Crispin · Jul 25, 2015

Erik in NJ said:
It's a really nice relic! Congrats on the find. Any markings on it of any kind or is it too worn from being it the sand? It came out great after the cleaning.

Don't think there will be any markings. My guess is mold was hand carved by spanish sailor and then cast on some beach. Don't think they cared about stamps when trading silver back then...

Erik in NJ · Jul 25, 2015

Yes I figured a lack of any sort of stamp would possibly give it a baseline date of before they began stamping silver.

Diggin-N-Dumps · Jul 26, 2015

Erik in NJ said:
It's a really nice relic! Congrats on the find. Any markings on it of any kind or is it too worn from being it the sand? It came out great after the cleaning.

I've looked all over for any type of markings, but its either extremely worn or as mentioned just a crude cast.

Argentium · Jul 26, 2015

Plenty of modern crucible castings can look just like that . The absence of hallmarks here is not necessarily indicative of anything
either .

BuckleBoy · Jul 26, 2015

My hunch is modern. The spanish generally had very good looking jewelry/crosses. I wouldn't expect a crude casting like that to be older than the 19th or 20th century. It was tarnished by it wasn't encrusted with a hard black crust, which is a big sign that it hasn't been in the saltwater very long.

Good find!

Crispin · Jul 26, 2015

BuckleBoy said:
My hunch is modern. The spanish generally had very good looking jewelry/crosses. I wouldn't expect a crude casting like that to be older than the 19th or 20th century. It was tarnished by it wasn't encrusted with a hard black crust, which is a big sign that it hasn't been in the saltwater very long.

Good find!

Every time I post hard, old, encrusted silver that I have dug out of the gulf everybody calls them fire nuggets. How does a guy win around here? If recognizable...modern. If unrecognizable...fire nugget.