The Nickel Guy

The colors look unusual to me, I am glad to have found two in superb condition but what these are exactly and who made them is not apparent to me. Believe me, I looked and watched a bunch of Stephen B. youtubes again but no luck. ( I learn more every time I do of course ) Please help and thank you! Aren't they neat?

Oh my! This is good news. AND thanks so much for all the comments. I had a feeling maybe the white base and black base could also be in the mix. Here I placed them on the game board. There are some patches and corkscrews up top that I haven;t assigned yet. I am mainly focused on the CAC swirls. I might have more in other places from long ago in my original collection. I have all the time in the world to play with these.

Nice story and advice Fire! Thanks

Went to the YMCA pool today, ( like I do every day ) same guy I bought from last week brought a small box today and I bought them. There are some nice ones in the bunch. I washed them and sorted them and they are safe and sound but they'll be getting a further review real soon and relocated with their like kinds. I feel I paid a fair price both last week and today. In this box I pulled out an early 1900's Zack Wheat Brooklyn Dodger Baseball pin in very nice condition and gave it back to him. It was worth more than I paid for all the marbles but I like sleeping with a good clean conscience at night. He was thrilled with the button. Hope he finds more marbles for me. Got em like this They look like this now.

These seem to be old. They look as though they were made the same way basically by a same company at the same era but just using t colors. They are very pretty, at least to me and appear to be good quality. They are a fair portion of a buy I made today. They were dirty and mixed in with others. I sorted them and I could just picture this bunch coming in the same bag many years ago. Thank you!

Some corks from last weeks score I didn't get to post.

I think sometimes people lurk because they just don't know what to ask or where to begin. Marbles is not an easy study but we all start someplace. I have very little knowledge compared to the old timers. In antiques and coins, I can say I'm advanced in knowledge but the marbles are quite a jungle at first. People here are very patient and helpful. Thanks to that, I have come a long way but I have a lot to learn. This is a fun hobby and I don't think how much a marble is worth is the point. There are so many cool looking marbles out there. Also what one person thinks is a real beauty, the next person might not see it the same. Just like when I was a kid, I thought cats eyes were the neatest marbles of all. Turns out most all of them are quite common and have little monetary value. There are some better cats but they are usually far from top shelf. Yet . . . I still like them, just like when I was a kid. Right now I am learning about Jabo marbles. I am taking the learning seriously I suppose, and it still hasn't quite clicked for me but I am enjoying the education. They are beautiful, and often very affordable so I am having a blast. Lurkers please post. You'll find a nice welcome and don't worry about what to ask or write. There are no dumb questions.

I sure do appreciate that well written response Alan. It will be read several times by me for sure but I can see the obvious effort you put into writing this to help me understand these better. Thank you and thanks to all who took the time to read and think about this and for your added posts too.

Not to worry. Oh, I think I'm familiar with the handful of links. It would cost a fortune to collect small batches of all the runs that might be available, Fun yes, but awful expensive. My point is that the samplings are just that and really don't always represent the bigger picture.

Marbles in soup

First off, I just think they are cool bean marbles. However, I am totally lost when it comes to identifying them by run. For one thing, they seem to start out as one kind of marble and thousands later they have morphed into something completely different. The first marbles in the making look absolutely nothing like those at the end. ( At least quite often ) So they get a name for the day, not so much for what they look like I suppose. We see a group of perhaps 15, 16, 20 or 25 of a run packaged together from a particular run and are identified but another box from the same run could look like a completely different assortment. Here's my issue, I wish somehow, I could just put them all in a bag, all mixed up, regardless of the runs and years etc and say here's my Jabo collection. And over here, these are my Sammy's, and these are Dave's in this box. But . . . it seems taboo to mix them up. They must reside together forever in their little pigeon holes, identified and boxed up forever as such and such. If I ever did let them loose, and then herd them up together they would be free and actually, I would not know the difference anyhow. To me they all look pretty neat and different than the next. I would actually rather collect these individually, rather than by a small sampling from a run. It was just my thoughts.

Sortitallout You sure have some nice marbles.

I could never sell those personally. Funny, I just bought some marbles and there were some jacks in the mix. I often see dice amidst marble collections. I have a small lot of those too.

Thank you Alan. Excellent pictures and info. You're a rock star!

Probably found in Pennsylvania. I could just see a little kid picking it up with some better rocks that were in the balast along the tracks. ( I did get a few other rocks with it) I do think it might be Ferrosilicon after reading a thread on a rock tumbler thread. In PA we have had steel mills and foundries and that particular alloy is used in the making of diverse steels. Just a guess as pictures are pictures. It is quite light as the silicons are. These were found by others along RR tracks in that forum and we have many RR tracks going to mills with hopper cars. I am Sgt. Shultz, I know nothing. But I bet that it is a silicon now. Wish it were platinum.

Maybe it's graphite or silicon. Just tried that image search thing on google and it is showing similar stuff. I have loose graphite which would make a mess just touching it but this does not make my fingers black. Thanks for your response. Don't work too hard on pictures Alan just for this thread unless you want to.

I have never seen pieces of this mineral and have no idea if it is common but I did get a small rock collection mixed in the marbles. I got a nice pieces of turquoise too and some huge prehistoric jacks and a no longer bouncing ball that probably went with the jacks. But here are 4 substantial size minerals that are shiny and have little facets all over the surface as if they were crystals. It very much resembles aluminum foil that is crinkled up and crushed or pyrite but this is very silvery. My best guess is they are Mica and this might be the stuff makers use that we see in handmade marbles.

.64 inches approx in diameter and a solid opaque black base.

Thanks a lot but did you see the link Akroorka? Uncanny how it almost looks like my marble. That is a CAC. Here's a pic of a Poison Dart Frog I found. NOT MINE (off etsy) Yes, my first image looks a lot like that but the newer pics are much more refined.

A tiny bounce off the table surface (not enough to cause any damage) tells me it is not clay but has a glass or china porcelain feel to it. The smaller blue and clear Germans could have been easily tossed as damaged clearies with the lack of decoration here in these which is not easy to see in hand under room lighting. The image really brought out what is going on with the design. The larger is in quite nice condition.

That is all news to me that I have learned in the last couple days. Previously I had thought that Jabo made unnamed classic 5/8 marbles and later Jabo, D.A.S., and SMM etc. produced named runs. Now I know Jabo had production marbles for sale everywhere with no named runs initially. I also learned a little while back they made all kinds of sized marbles. I suppose that Jabo evolved into making special contract runs. Quite creative and smart marketing. Things are starting to "click" for me. Thank you!

updated images in previous post.

LATE EDIT: and here's some pretty good pictures.

Looks like a sharply defined swirl. Caramel colored or peanut butter on solid black base. First picture shows sharpness and it has design on one side only. My picture isn't all that great. LATE EDIT: I think I identified this with some looking a bit ago. Compare LINK I had titled this A Better Ravenwood swirl? But changed it at edit. Much better images in a few posts below. I Second image shows it is actually a two or even three toned stripe. Wonder who made it? Thanks!

Transparent green base. I have 4 or 5 that look like siblings. Looked around at all Stephen Bahr's videos w/o any luck These really jump out in the crowd. As always, Thank You!