Found a few wheat pennies, modern coins, an old gilded brooch and my first ever "3 Merry Widows" lid.

It is a common find among dirt fishers but up to yesterday I had never found one myself.

For those of you who don't know…3 Merry Widows was a condom company in the 20's and 30's that sold their product in a small tin canister. You can google for an image.

I always thought the company name was…IDK, kinda wild…

Like this?

Tested???

You want to be sure don't you?

Haha
That is the exact match

Quote:

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This round tin held three Merry Widow condoms. During the early twentieth century, the term "Merry Widow" was commonly used to imply a sexually experienced and independent woman (the term "merry" traditionally had a sexual connotation). This Merry Widow tin names the three "Merry Widows" as "Agnes, Mabel, [and] Beckie." During the 1920s and 1930s, the Merry Widow brand was so popular that the term "Merry Widow" became slang for a condom.
Merry Widow condoms were tested to ensure that they had no tears or holes. Because testing was an expensive process, a tin of three Merry Widow condoms sold for a dollar. In contrast, untested condoms were often sold on the street for pennies.

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And that's how Canyon managed his brood!

KRamp90 said:

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And that's how Canyon managed his brood!

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My maternal grandparents married in 1918, 'their first child (my aunt) was named Mabel.

I guess that can failed the test

CanyonAg77 said:

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(the term "merry" traditionally had a sexual connotation).

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Let's all remember this come December.

Higher end detectors certainly are able to discriminate out ferrous metals from non-ferrous but if there was a detector that ONLY hit on precious metals, I would be first in line.

PI or Pulse Induction detectors pick up all metals and are not able to distinguish between different metals as well as a VLF (very low frequency) detector.

I currently use a Minelab Equinox 900 (VLF) and it is a pretty sophisticated machine but the problem is that aluminum and gold can and will give the same tone and VDI number many times. Pull tabs will hit around 30ish on mine and unfortunately, 10k rings hit right around that number also.

Aluminum foil will hit in the low teens and so do very thin engagement rings.

Silver registers low 90's every time and I can almost guarantee you a silver ring when I see the right VDI combined with the right tone.

So you simply have to learn your machine and unfortunately, you will have to dig the trash to dig the treasure, as they say.

The Garrett AT Pro is an excellent mid-level, user friendly machine and is waterproof for the river as well.

Never thought I would see anyone get excited over finding an empty condom container?

I have a family house in Bandera that has been there since the 1910s. Had a guy come by and ask if he could detect. The only caveat I had was that if he found something of sentimental value or of high value I could get it back (first point) or we split the profits 50/50 (second point).

Him and his partner found some random stuff and a gold earing. I don't know if it was real gold, but it wasn't enough to worrk about. Plus, I thought what he was doing was pretty cool.

The dude said he ALWAYS asks for permission and my request was more than reasonable (though I think he was surprised I didn't ask for money for the earing).

tx1c said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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(the term "merry" traditionally had a sexual connotation).

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Let's all remember this come December.

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