UnderMiner
Silver Member
- Jul 27, 2014
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- Minelab Excalibur II, Ace 250
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- All Treasure Hunting
Dug this up today. Didn't know what it was supposed to be. Got home and cleaned it up. Totally confused I consulted the internet and boy was I shocked - turns out this artifact is a child's toy that dates from about 1890-1900! They were made of silver and were essentially bell rattle/whistle toys. They were given to babies and young children by their wealthy victorian parents. Hard to believe as these are very small toys and children can easily choke on them, but back then I guess the adults didn't know too much about child safety.
There are three big silver bells and two little silver bells. The bells are connected to the handle that also serves as the whistle. There is a maker's stamp on the bottom that reads "RJK". According to the sources I can find online there were many varieties of silver bell rattle/whistles made in the late 1800's and this is one of the more rare examples. Prices for surviving examples vary between $200-$400.
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I hear ya, when I saw it for the first time I thought it was some sort of junk bells off the end of a fishing rod or something, when it was cleaned up it still confused me until I looked it up online. Until then I didn't even know such a thing exited.
