| Last June as I was weeding in my mother's tomato garden, I looked down
at what seemed to be a thin white game token. I picked it up and
brushed off the dirt and there was a star on one side and a Roman
numeral III on the other side. I went into the kitchen and ran it under
water, got a magnifying glass and discovered that I had found an 1853
three cent piece. I looked it up in a book and identified it by the
design that it was the silver, not nickle, variation. I thought it was
interesting that it was dated 1853 because the house where I found it
was built in 1953, 100 years later. Maybe this is the year I'll at
least rent one of those detectors and see what else is around the yard.
My other memorable find, without a metal detector, was one summer down
the Cape. A few friends and my self were at a beach that, during low
tide stretches out for about a 1/2 mile. When the tide comes back in,
it forms all kinds of tidal pools, and sometimes people's beach towels
etc. get taken away by the ocean if they aren't moved.
We were walking back to shore and all of a sudden we started seeing
dollar bills floating, then some pants. Must have been about 30 bucks.
One more... same beach. During Memorial day, my girlfriend and I were
having a nice picnic lunch in the dunes. I saw something glimmering in
the sun on top of one of the dunes. I picked it up, and it was a Notre
Dame class ring. I put an ad in a Boston newpaper but only got one
call from some guy that obviously wasn't a N.D. grad... I asked him
what year and what initials were on the ring and he said, "well,
actually it was my brother's." "OK ...", I asked him, "what are the
initials ?" , and he said, "..Well, he put his girlfriend's initials
in it." ya - right..
So I called Notre Dame, and they were able to the student track down,
by the initals and the year. I called his house, in New Jersey. His
mother didn't know he had lost it. She said he was working in
Manhattan and had recently been robbed ! So I sent him the ring,
and he was so greatful, he sent me a check for $50.
The guy had lost it in the sand, a year before.
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