Key Finds Today.

I had no intentions of metal-detecting today.  But after grabbing Starbuck's and then grabbing groceries, I realized I had had some time to kill before a meeting tonight!  So I finally headed out around 1:00 P.M. and told myself I had to be done by 4:00.  :)

I headed to a new part of the Metroparks today...a widely-used baseball field and picnic area.  It's only 1.7 miles from my house, so I figured why not?!  It's so nice having these parks so close.

And what a beautiful day it was, too!  I was down to just a hoodie and jeans...and almost took my hoodie off due to being so warm!

I like parks.  Parks=people=money.  That's basically how it works.  My first find was actually not money, though!  I found my first automotive key!  It appears to be a mid-to-early 1990's Chrysler product.  Someone had a bad day after the softball game.  ha!

My first car key!

My real focus today was a ring, though.  That was just my goal for the day.  In a park, someone is bound to lose a ring while playing frisbee...or football...or softball.  I just walked back and forth across the baseball outfield.  Various coins kept popping up...with the tricky foil and pull-tabs, too.  They register the same frequency as gold, so it's either bypass all the pull-tabs and miss out on gold...or pull up all the pull-tabs and be left with...well, pull-tabs!  I hate those things!

But I was searching for gold today!  I would dig up the foil and pull-tabs.

The ball diamond ended up giving me a decent amount of clad coin.  I would end up finding another key, as well.  Someone was locked out of his house that night!  Probably the most unique find was a lipstick container...at least that's what I think it is.  It appears pretty old and has a funny conical top.

Another key!

A rather odd contraption I pulled out.  I think it's a lipstick container?

From the ball diamond, I started to head to another part of the park when I noticed a horseshoe area.  Hey, it makes sense...when you throw a horseshoe, you might lose a ring, right?  I kid you not, no sooner than a minute inside the horseshoe area, I had a beep.  I dug up the fairly shallow hole to find my favorite sight ever...A RING!!!  I couldn't believe it!!!  I was nearing the end of my day, and I was pretty sure I was only going to come up with coins and foil.  But I found my ring!  At first I thought it had a stone on it, but it is just a heart-shaped ring with an "M" in the center.  But a ring is a ring!  I couldn't wait to clean it up!  That's now my fourth ring already!!!

I found a ring!!!  Woo hoo!!!

It's a heart with an "M" in the middle.

The location of the ring.  A perfect flinging distance from throwing horseshoes!

I didn't find anything else in the horseshoe pit, although I sure dug up every beep!  I then moved to the swings area but found nothing in either place...fairly disappointing.  I was ready to call it a day.  I had a date to get to!

The finds from the day...

I hate pull-tabs and foil!!!

And now for the interesting and valuable finds of the day...

2 keys, 11 pennies, 4 nickels, 2 dimes, 1 quarter, 1 ring, 1 lipstick container

My first order of business when I returned home was to clean up the ring.  I was eager to find some sort of marking on it!  The color was interesting to me, too.  It looked kinda silver, kinda gold!  But the more I washed it, the more golden it became.  But I could still see silver color underneath.  It didn't clean up all that well, either.  And I never did find any markings on it.  So I think best-case scenario, I have a gold-plated ring.  Worse-case, it's a worthless ring.  I'll try cleaning it again sometime to see if I can see any letters.  I really need to purchase a magnifying glass to help out!

The "cleaned-up"ring.

It has a tinge of gold-colored covering on the outside.

The supposed lipstick container is a different story.  I was able to find markings on the bottom.  It reads, "House of Westmore Inc. Distributor, Hollywood, Made in USA."  After a quick Google search, I learned that the Westmore Family is renowned in Hollywood for their make-up connections.  From George to Michael, the Westmore's are the go-to people for make-up in Hollywood.  So I really have no idea what I have here, only to say it's tied to famous people in Hollywood.  I'm sure they sold a product line at some point, though, and this is tied to it???  Whatever the case, it's a very unique piece.

The unique and antique lipstick holder!

In terms of money, today was pretty dismal.  I found only 76 cents in three hours.  In terms of satisfying, I must say I'm very happy to have found another ring!  It makes me so eager to search more parks!  I tell you, this hobby can be so up-and-down.  A bad day is followed by a good one.  A boring couple of hours is followed by an exciting find.  You just never know what you will dig up next.  I really don't think the ring is valuable, but it's satisfying, nonetheless.  I'm now up to four rings in just over a month!  That's incredible.

I was glad I headed out today.  Three hours is perfect, too.  Not too short, not too long.  Just a nice way to spend an afternoon.  As far as the coins, the oldest find today was a 1962 nickel.  Nothing special.  My first silver coin remains elusive, but I really didn't think I'd find one today at a modern park.  But I'm quite happy with the ring!  A good day indeed.