Some great finds today at an old Chicago beach park!

[TreasureGuy25]

Had a few hours to spare today, so I hit a beach park that I could tell was pretty old by the landscape. Only spent about 3 hours out there but this was probably my best hunt so far considering the amount of time I hunted.

My finds:

1 Mercury Dime '43-D (very sharp and uncleaned) I cleaned my last one very gently with baking soda, it turned out great! But I'm always tentative of cleaning coins.

5 Wheats '19, '30-S, '36, '41, 49-D

A Dr. Pepper watch fob. I can barely read "Grin and begin to win by drinking..." (I would love to clean this thing up better, I tried a weak peroxide and some baking soda but I'm barely removing any of the crud. Any ideas?) Here's a link to a picture I found http://www.backintimetradingpost.com/products/dr-pepper-good-luck-pocket-watch-fob.html

A "United States Cinematograph Co. - Motion Picture Apparatus" plate of some sort.

A "Chicago Game Company" Token

2 keys, a dog tag and $2.26 in clad

 

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[p2c]

An Electronic wonderland happens under my coil every time my detector is turned on ... (cool token)

Congrats, that is a nice Merc -- full split bands. Yeah, personally for silver the only thing I like to do is soak in water, maybe a little soap and not for too long... Water can cause blackening unless it is deionized water. I am a lot more liberal in what I do to copper and nickel.

A whole lotta nice finds for the beach. You must have hit somewhere with some recent erosion or something of that sort.

 

[treasurefiend]

Great finds!!!

 

[TreasureGuy25]

A whole lotta nice finds for the beach. You must have hit somewhere with some recent erosion or something of that sort.

Actually it was an old park about a hundred yards off the beach, wasn't swingin in the sand... but I did last week and all I came up with was a ton of clad so it's nice to find some oldies again!

 

[litefire56]

Looks like a great old park! Nice finds!

$200-$400 on that fob
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/5482574

 

[TreasureGuy25]

Looks like a great old park! Nice finds!

$200-$400 on that fob
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/5482574

Wow, thanks for the info! Do you know of anyway I could clean it? I couldn't imagine it being worth anything in this condition, or is it?

 

[p2c]

Depends on what kind of metal it is. It looks like it may be aluminum. Is that your assessment? I found an aluminum token that was not that far gone, but it was corroded like that. I soaked it in mineral oil and used a whole lot of toothpicks and time and scraped the corrosion pretty hard with the toothpick. The toothpick was soft enough to not really scratch the aluminum, but could supply enough force to get the corrosion and rust to come off. End result was pretty good.

I am sure it will look a lot better, still no where near pristine, when you get all that sand and gunk that is corroded on it off. My aluminum token took some time and work, be patient.

 

[marinedad]

thats some nice old stuff ted.

 

[Lowbatts]

FOB's, keys, tokens, coins and sil-vah for icing! It's like a beepin' menu of goodies! Nice hunt!

 

[bilt46]

The camera plate may have been something from this bit of this history....

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2007/Reel-Chicago/...

 

[watercolor]

Nice mix of history!!

Watch fobs are always a favorite to find and can be so telling about an area's history.
You just never know what you will dig next. . . that's what's so neat.

 

[kimsdad]

Great finds, Ted!!!

Of course the Merc is gorgeous, bit the Cinematograph plate is the winner for me in that mix! Dog tags are always welcome here, too.

 

[TreasureGuy25]

The camera plate may have been something from this bit of this history....

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2007/Reel-Chicago/...

Great find on the info! I did find it a couple blocks off Broadway/Sheridan towards the lake, not too far from the places described in the article, just imagine the history behind it!

Thanks again!

 

[justdigging50]

Nice finds! What metal is the Dr Pepper thing made out of? That's thing is Cool!

 

[TreasureGuy25]

Nice finds! What metal is the Dr Pepper thing made out of? That's thing is Cool!

Trying to figure that out, maybe brass? Its pretty heavy... I would love to get it cleaned up some how. I already tried a weak (CVS, 3% I think) peroxide and baking soda but didn't do much... any ideas?

 

[Brett]

Wow! Really great finds! Love that token.