Needles, the Third

So, I had a run of ten days, ten glorious days in which I found something precious at almost every, single place I stopped my car.  Now it's been four days of nothing, a great sucking hole without even a decent piece of Taxco silver.  I was psyched last week - exhausted, but psyched.  And I decided I had to stop the group photos, if only because it looked so much like bragging.

Okay, maybe it was a tiny bit of crowing ... a soupcon of whooping ... a smidge of nanny-nanny-boo-boo ... But after my bout with Lutheran/Catholic hybrid guilt (which, like mirrors and candles, just magnifies it) I decided to spend the next few weeks doing the teaching thing exclusively.  Until I have another amazing week and cave to my baser, more gloaty id.

This week is about pins.

One of these things is not like the others.  Actually, each of these things is unlike the others (one has cultered pearls, one is single, one is hearts - ha!  I have eyes, too!) but my question is more about what it's made of.  Hard to tell, for the most part.  Okay, the single circle has really (really) deep grooves and it looks an awful lot like the circle pins I see at least twice a day, every day, everywhere I go.  But the others aren't too far off the pattern, right?  Right.  Plus, not one has a mark that's visible to the naked eye (or even one covered with a loupe, as mine was ... it's very well-hidden).

Tell you what - rank them.  What're they worth, least to most?  (No peeking!)  Got it?  Scroll down.

Ha!  That didn't help did it?  Not much, anyway.  Two of them have the telltale mark of my electronic gold tester.  However, only one passed.

Yep, the hearts.

Funny story about that one - it was in a basket in my favorite charity shop, nestled amongst pins very much like the other two for weeks and weeks, with a $3 (or $4?) price tag on it.  I must've picked it up a dozen times, and put it back, too.  Until one day, when they were in the process of moving and so discounting everything 25%, I picked it up and saw something on the back of one of the hearts.  Like the face of Jesus in a piece of wheat toast, I saw something that looked an awful lot like "14K" - blurry but it didn't scratch off with a fingernail.  And (I sneaked) it bent easily.  I decided I could handle $2.25 (or $3?), blessedly forgetting I'd picked it up and looked so often already.

When I went to meet the Lug for dinner, the "mark" flecked off.  I almost cried.  So while I waited in my car, I shrugged and folded it almost in half.  Then I looked for the inevitable cracked bits of plating.

Nothing.

Long story short(-er) I found the mark, hidden and faint under the pin clasp (really under it), but there.  I tested it, to make sure, but it was another of those "woot-woot!" days.

Don't pass something by just because you've seen it a million times.  Touch it.  Heft it.  Don't bend it unless you buy it - I did find out last weekend that plated stuff cracks really easily ... and visibly - but if you have an ice cube, it should test it just as well.

What?  You don't know that trick?  Gold is superconductive, so it gives up its heat faster than any other jewelry metal.  A piece of ice starts to melt almost immediately on a gold surface.  Make sure you're not holding it, though.  Or it's not summer.

Okay, so it's a great trick to use in winter.  Or in really, really strong air conditioning.  But it's still a great trick!

Next time, it's all about my favorite mismarked stuff - yep, the silvery stuff.

Nanny, nanny, boo-boo!