1515Art

Thanks Lunk, the tiny one for sure and I’ll try and take better pictures of the others and make the Windows I cut a little better.

OK experts what ye say, I think a couple of these might be good, detecting out at gold basin no gold this trip but these got a pocket ride home they all hit on the 7000 and are magnetic I cut rough Windows with a right angle grinder no polishing or chemical treatment to the surface.

like I suspected plenty of idle hands in need of of mystery to pass some time, not that this new information will do anything but add to the confusion as it points in a slightly different direction. The unanimous consensus was not Chinese the snake and boats looked more Egyptian inspired everyone thought for what that’s worth and I guess the boat construction does resemble bundled reeds, the snake in that form, fan shape objects, infinity... it’s easy to see a lot of different connections to a lot of different styles so who knows? Most everybody though you’d find a dragon form represented for luck someplace if it was Chinese? 

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

I think it's going to take 7 years again.  😅  I found "oriental whip snake".  One down (maybe), several more to go.

 

It paints an interesting picture the connection to the early history and the Chinese minors with the symbols of luck you have to be on to something there. I copied images of all three different buttons and painted a romantic picture of different hunters finding these in gold fields across the country dating from the late 1800’s and the connection with the early history of the Chinese. All my wife’s friends here and abroad are bored stuck at home and hopefully want to help solve a mystery so maybe something will pop up from one of her groups?

26 minutes ago, caprock said:

Art,

can you translate this banner, it is from a circa 1852 store in Michigan Flat Ca, run by the Stanfords. Would be greatly appreciated. It is the only photographic evidence that at least in this case, white miners catered to the local Chinese needs.

 

Something to the effect of “Tangshan Grocery store, shop always have”

54 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Three similar buttons, but none identical.  California gold camps from the mid-1800's?  Oriental designs on the buttons?  I see a growing connection.  Someone is going to crack this wide open.  2Valen needs to contact his buddies who specialize in Oriental antiques.

BTW, I played around with Google Image Search, including sketching a couple individual designs from the buttons and trying to just match them.  Either I don't know how to use it to its full potential (likely) or that software/app is grossly in its infancy.

This is in no way definitive, but growing up in China my wife is pretty familiar with most Chinese symbolism and the images on the button didn’t speak to her in a way that said Chinese? But I agree the gold camp connection is intriguing. 

I found this older flat button with a similar style in the design layout searching commemorative  buttons, the ships do kind of resemble Chinese junk, but for some reason the building kind of reminds me of rough representation of a Philadelphia type building (independence hall)?

29 minutes ago, kac said:

Unfortunately it seems all the search engines are using popularity over content and meta tags now. Gone are the days when you typed in a query and ended up with what you wanted instead of some stinking irrelevant ad or topic. Really annoying.

When we are allowed outdoors again I'll ask my neighbor, he's an antique dealer and probably knows.

I tried a couple different google searches and google image searches with different key words too and not much useful, at one time in the early days the first hits would have given you a direct link to an identification page for free and you could have narrowed it down a number of ways, all you could learn right there I’m hooked, The information high intoxicating. I kept coming back for more like everyone else searching for answers, google was waiting on the corner with a sly inviting smile as though they expected my return. I was having to search harder now clicking more links it’s frustrating but I could still satisfy that restless need to know, it just took longer to get there and I’d find the information less rewarding the need to return becoming more frequent the empty feeling from conflicting advertisements making me feel anxious, sleepless and strung out unable to decide my own breakfast... I fear the street knowledge all that’s left, I need the answer to the mystery of the button, really nice button and great find best of luck finding about it sorry for the google rant🤪.

This morning I plugged the charger into the deus and my WS4 headphones were dead, they would come on for a split second when first plugging them in but that was it and the battery indicator was completely nonexistent, I’d run them down last time out and forgot to charge them and they sat uncharged for probably a couple months my bad I know better. Couple years ago the lithium battery in my Cordless drill stopped taking a charge and after researching I found with my drill anyway the batteries had a habit of doing that and someone had found a fix that sometimes worked, trick was to rapidly plug and unplug the battery from the charger and or with the battery in the charger base do the same action at the wall plug in, the intent to introduce little power spikes into the lithium battery controller circuit tricking the battery controller into thinking there was a charge in the battery and beyond my understanding this somehow resets the battery with enough juice so it will accept charging. 
 

with my only option sending them in to have the battery replaced and with things kind of iffy right now in the world I opted to try the bush fix, took me a couple tries with 3 or 4 rapid connect disconnects and the battery indicator started responding flashing from empty to full in succession. After about 8 hours time (the first 4 hours the battery didn’t fill past the initial indication) the meter shows a full charge and the headphones seem to be working fine.

someone here will I’m sure have a better understanding about this and why it worked and probably several reasons why this is taking a chance zapping the firmware, but it worked and I don’t have to send it in😀.

18 hours ago, Jim in Idaho said:

Good looking deck, Clark! I've been doing interior remodeling this winter, and am really looking forward to some nice weather, and a prospecting trip, myself.

Jim

Hey Jim, thanks and projects can sure get in the way of our fun the deck was a few years ago but seems like only yesterday and I only thought I was busy back then, geez it’s a long list of one thing after another that I won’t make you suffer through. At least the deck was fun, what you been remodeling, moving walls around or adding elegance with designer accent walls? I’ve been watching to much HGTV I think but yep, sounds like you’ve had a productive winter and bet the wife is pretty pleased big deposit in the honey-do-bank. Sounds like you plan is on a better schedule than mine, weather and everything should line up perfect, I’ll be done with my stuff about the time temps start hitting the 100’s guess I’ll try a little night time hunting if I have to. Good luck out there and hope you find a nice pocket.

clark

6 hours ago, Sebastrue said:

Great job. The decking looks very good. I want to repair the decking on the terrasse, but I don't know what to use wood or composite boards. What is better?

There’s some talented carpenters active on the forum, I really couldn’t tell you for sure what’s best. I choose redwood because I like the look and I think it makes a comfortable surface to walk on, but I really don’t have any experience with the manufactured stuff I’m sure someone on here has used both and can offer some advice.

6 hours ago, strick said:

I like that brush...never seen one like that before.

strick

id Be doing a lot of swearing and cursing trying to bundle and tie it that ol horse hair must be some pretty tough stuff. I got a bag full of long strands used for decorating pottery makes an interesting look when you slowly lay the strands on while the clay is just below red heat and has a burnished clay finish, Raku with horse hair on terrasigulata.

not my work but a nice example where the form and decoration complement,

11 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Magnet fishing showing up here is ironic to me by the very fact it will attach to the same metal that metal detectorists try so hard to discriminate out, iron.  Since gold, silver, copper, and nickel will not attach to it, it has never really intrigued me (except when I was a kid and bought one out of a magazine ad).  That's not to say that there are not interesting iron and steel things to be recovered, but especially attempting to recover those things from the water, you know they are going to be pretty corroded.

• Some of the videos on YouTube are pretty fun to watch you get to cherry pick the finds, pulling out a gun would be a little rush kinda like finding a little nugget, might even help solve a crime, one of the videos over in Eastern Europe guy pulled an old ww2 machine gun out of a river. Find a place going through the old records and maps where you think a long abandoned river crossing might have been and bring your detector too, once you pull out all the old iron you can cherry pick the high tones. Might even find A safe full of gold, but that might take more than one magnet😀.

My son sent me a magnet fishing setup last year for my birthday, I’ve only tried it once for a few minutes I didn’t find much but carry it in the Jeep just in case I find myself someplace I want to look. Depending where you live I’d imagine water crossings in historically rich area would A good place? They’ed probably kick me out of the Bellagio if I try it there, lol. 880# magnet should hang on pretty good, happy hunting show us what you find.

3 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

I'm assuming you are referring to this one on the History Channel TV show "Pawn Stars".

I'm surprised you got a decent buy there.  Nice looking meteorite!

 

Yep that’s the place, first thing I’ve ever bought there but I’ve taken friends shopping for fun when they are visiting the US and they’ve gotten some pretty good deals on stuff after a little haggling.

I

1 hour ago, Glenn in CO said:

 

1 hour ago, Glenn in CO said:

1 hour ago, Glenn in CO said:

I saw this post late last evening and now it's disappeared. Anyway that was unbelievable intricate made dagger and appreciate the related info. 

Thanks for the update and will update when I receive information from Heritage.

After posting I was having some second thoughts so decided to take them down

Thanks Fred, I liked it so happy I didn’t screw it up.

The golden age of cinema, Calitki a spin-off I think 1959 a good decade for blobs. ”Horrors of the Black museum “ I think I was 5 when I saw that at the drive-in and I’m still uncomfortable using binoculars.

Being these are so common I felt comfortable taking a horse hair brush made for fine polishing jade and put a light fine polish on the high points to give the structure more contrast, I think it improves the display quality?

On 2/19/2020 at 9:48 PM, Glenn in CO said:

Thanks again for the info! Very cool story about George Taylor, but it's nice to know the real story when some one buys an item and then sells it. If anyone reading that article would say "wow" that person got a lot of money for an autograph, not a very good investment for a eight year period.

I will contact Heritage Auction and submit a few gold specimens for appraisal and compare them to the retail appraisal I received from a well know mineral dealer and see if the auction route may be the better way to go.

Appreciate the help.

Let us know what you find out too, I’m checking with the friend with the gold connections in Australia  and Nigeria on a price for gold nuggets directly from the supplier we’ll see what she comes up with. She did remark and seemed surprised they were asking as if it was pure 24k at full spot thinking from her perspective this was overcharging not being familiar with the premium nuggets can command so I’m hopeful the prices might be reasonable?

I was bumming around Las Vegas today and wandered into the Gold and Silver pawn shop for a look around as the parking lot was open and there was no line to get in. Walking through the shop one of the display cases was filled with nature and science objects and a handful of small meteorites and two larger all iron nickel from the Argentina Campo Del Cielo meteor impact. They were asking $25 for the small ones that were between a nickel and quarter in diameter and $250 each for the large ones. I grabbed one of the large one and asked for a discount and after checking they would sell it for 20% less making it $200 I’m sure I could have bargained more but didn’t care to, the one in my hand weighed 368 grams and had some nice character so I wrapped it up and took it home.  This is a very common meteorite as they go but seemed a fair price at around 1/2 the asking price for most of the similar examples on eBay and although not a bargain I suppose, but if you are in the area and looking for one of these (in a shop) $25 for a small meteorite doesn’t seem to far out of line?

So my sale was 11800 I think with the premium he paid 13570 then sold it 8 years later for 20000 paying 6000 @ 30% commission making his investment 19570 for a screaming net profit of $430 yippie! If he bought pictures?

Ha, I googled Geo Taylor letter and the very one I sold popped up I didn’t click on the link to read the details or when the sale happened this was a sale after mine.

in 2016 here’s the story     https://natedsanders.com/blog/2016/11/george-taylor-autograph/
 

The last piece I paid about 30% to Butterfield & Butterfield in San Francisco this was around 8 years ago and a few hundred more for pictures and ad space, it was just a old letter from the late 1700’s moved it from box to box and drawer to drawer over the years didn’t pay anything for it, there’s lots of them around and most of the time not worth much. This one was signed by a guy named “Geo Taylor” and I found out he belonged to a particular club made him collectible.

so 30’s better than 50 if the reserve is high enough and if you sign up with Heritage you can view the reserve prices and amount you need to minimum bid with commission give you the worst case.