Critterhunter
New member
First the pic, then the short story. The pic is best I have right now, and the jade Buddha only looks funky with a clown face and such because there is grime in the carvings that I hadn't cleaned out yet. Maybe I got some good Karma from that 10K 2013 high school ring I returned the other day?Seriously, is Karma a buddha thing or not, because I really would like to know that? Even if it's not, here's hoping Karma has some good things in store for me...
[attachment 245773 BuddaPendantPic.jpg]
Water hunting with the GT chest mounted today. Hunted in disc most of the time because targets were fairly numerous. Got skunked for about 4 or 5 hours or so besides a few coins and a lot of junk of course. Almost ready to leave and heading towards the shore when I got a good signal in disc. Lower sounding tone. Can't remember if it was tab, nickel, or perhaps a bit lower in the foil range, but I think it was a tone below nickel.
Scoop it up and I see a green jade Buddha staring at me from inside my scoop. I thought "that's odd, junk pendant, until my eye left it's face and I see gold and "diamonds" framing it's head and at the bottom of it too! Flip it over and look close and I can only see a "92" number and three or four foreign letters I can't recognize (some kind of foreign language), or maybe it is the K value in English. Can't tell for sure because I can't find my loop.
Look closer at the "gold" and I see a few scratches but no different metal color underneath, so I *think* it might be real gold and not plated. The necklace (chain) is missing, so perhaps the K value was on that? Or perhaps the country that made it marks gold via those strange letters (if they are strange letters) and not with an English # and a K? I don't know, maybe?
Wish I could find my stinking loop to nail that down. I just can't say for sure what it is. Two friends who were with me looked at it and said it sure looks like real gold to them. If it is, then perhaps the 16 or so small diamonds on the head are real?
Anyway, looked on Ebay and found some jade/gold ones looking somewhat similar, most without "diamonds" or CZs, going in the $400 to $1500 range. But I noticed when I clicked on pictures of a few to look at the backside they had rather sloppy solder work or just a plain frame around the jade to hold it in place. As in the gold was just one piece from front to back, while this one has posts between the front and back separate sides of gold framing. It also has some fine webbing or spokes (about 16 or so of them) that span the back of the head like half a spoked wheel to hold the crown of diamonds in place, and they have no hint of sloppy solder work to them either.
That tells me that *perhaps* there was more skill and work put into this one, so I'm hoping it might be a more expensive piece, which might then mean the "diamonds" are real and not CZs perhaps. A big "maybe" here of course, because I'm not real sure about the whole thing yet. I just know the solder work looks invisible, and that the crowning spokes on the back of the head to hold all the diamonds in place above it look very well done. The back gold frame that outlines the entire body also connects to the front lower gold piece via fine looking work too with four posts at the bottom of the Buddha between the two sides. Those I can tell were soldered in put not because you can see any hint of solder or anything like what I was skimming over on Ebay showed.
We'll see how this pans out, because I'm taking it to one of my friends who metal detects in our circle of people and he's a gold smith. He repairs and makes jewelry for jewelry stores, so if anybody knows whats up here he will. I'm just hoping it's not some cheap knock off piece, and I'll be happy if it's a $400 to $1500 piece, but I'd be even more happy of course if it's a more expensive piece and all those diamonds are real. Even still, I'll just be happy if it's cheap and the gold is real here, and that at least looks like it may be.
[attachment 245773 BuddaPendantPic.jpg]
Water hunting with the GT chest mounted today. Hunted in disc most of the time because targets were fairly numerous. Got skunked for about 4 or 5 hours or so besides a few coins and a lot of junk of course. Almost ready to leave and heading towards the shore when I got a good signal in disc. Lower sounding tone. Can't remember if it was tab, nickel, or perhaps a bit lower in the foil range, but I think it was a tone below nickel.
Scoop it up and I see a green jade Buddha staring at me from inside my scoop. I thought "that's odd, junk pendant, until my eye left it's face and I see gold and "diamonds" framing it's head and at the bottom of it too! Flip it over and look close and I can only see a "92" number and three or four foreign letters I can't recognize (some kind of foreign language), or maybe it is the K value in English. Can't tell for sure because I can't find my loop.
Look closer at the "gold" and I see a few scratches but no different metal color underneath, so I *think* it might be real gold and not plated. The necklace (chain) is missing, so perhaps the K value was on that? Or perhaps the country that made it marks gold via those strange letters (if they are strange letters) and not with an English # and a K? I don't know, maybe?
Wish I could find my stinking loop to nail that down. I just can't say for sure what it is. Two friends who were with me looked at it and said it sure looks like real gold to them. If it is, then perhaps the 16 or so small diamonds on the head are real?Anyway, looked on Ebay and found some jade/gold ones looking somewhat similar, most without "diamonds" or CZs, going in the $400 to $1500 range. But I noticed when I clicked on pictures of a few to look at the backside they had rather sloppy solder work or just a plain frame around the jade to hold it in place. As in the gold was just one piece from front to back, while this one has posts between the front and back separate sides of gold framing. It also has some fine webbing or spokes (about 16 or so of them) that span the back of the head like half a spoked wheel to hold the crown of diamonds in place, and they have no hint of sloppy solder work to them either.
That tells me that *perhaps* there was more skill and work put into this one, so I'm hoping it might be a more expensive piece, which might then mean the "diamonds" are real and not CZs perhaps. A big "maybe" here of course, because I'm not real sure about the whole thing yet. I just know the solder work looks invisible, and that the crowning spokes on the back of the head to hold all the diamonds in place above it look very well done. The back gold frame that outlines the entire body also connects to the front lower gold piece via fine looking work too with four posts at the bottom of the Buddha between the two sides. Those I can tell were soldered in put not because you can see any hint of solder or anything like what I was skimming over on Ebay showed.
We'll see how this pans out, because I'm taking it to one of my friends who metal detects in our circle of people and he's a gold smith. He repairs and makes jewelry for jewelry stores, so if anybody knows whats up here he will. I'm just hoping it's not some cheap knock off piece, and I'll be happy if it's a $400 to $1500 piece, but I'd be even more happy of course if it's a more expensive piece and all those diamonds are real. Even still, I'll just be happy if it's cheap and the gold is real here, and that at least looks like it may be.
wear it around your neck on hunts you never know ? Jim