Cool find!!

My friend was walking on the beach in Loreto and found this shell in piles of shells lining the shore. He picked it up to throw into the water and saw the numbers. It must have grown on a piece of metal, maybe a coin? It's indented not raised. Great find, one in a zillion!!! Edit~Nope not a coin. Now that it's bigger on the screen I can see another number or letter on the far left.
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[Edited on 5-22-2011 by goldhuntress]

Huntress...

Wow...that's quite a find....something very unusual for your friend to keep and share!

I believe that's an Oyster Shell. They're usually not much bigger than about 75mm, but the numbers look to large to be from a dog tag.

There appears to be a partial of something else above and slightly to the right of the dark spot.

I'd love to see some even closer-up pictures with better lighting and some from a different angle.

It will be interesting to see if any Nomad can recognize and identify what the numbers are from.


Miguelamo

Looks like a raised "C" from an indent in some object it grew on

[Edited on 5-22-2011 by ELINVESTIG8R]

Google "J880" to see interesting possibilities of what the shell might have grown against. Endless possibilities! Unless of course, oysters get tattoos! An escapee from the J880 oyster farm?

David...

The rest of the letters are indented and the 'C' is raised. I'm thinking maybe its not a letter at all but maybe is just be a worm tube. They're pretty common on some types of shells. Sometimes they appear to be open on the ends due to tumbling in the sand, etc. Other times they're closed as above.


Miguelamo

Really cool find I would say very rare, I think it would read from the other way the mirror affect (088 not sure if that is a J almost looks like another letter maybe a W or N kind of cut off by the raise in the conture of the hump and then continues into other letters? many possibilities......Send it to the Lab

I've decided that it must be a model number for the shell...

It was probably produced in China and purchasd in bulk by the Mexican goverment's tourism division. Maybe they're peppering the beaches with millions of shells to make them appear more interesting to tourists and gringo's!!!!!


Miguelamo

Quote:

Originally posted by AmoPescar I've decided that it must be a model number for the shell... It was probably produced in China and purchasd in bulk by the Mexican goverment's tourism division. Maybe they're peppering the beaches with millions of shells to make them appear more interesting to tourists and gringo's!!!!! Miguelamo

Winner for the best answer yet!