Dated Sea Glass Find by State Abbreviation FLA 1963

by Mike Antonelli
(Pennsylvania)

West Palm Beach FLA 1963

West Palm Beach FLA 1963

Dated Sea Glass Find by State Abbreviation FLA 1963

My 11 year old Son and I were swimming in Delray Beach Florida and he was bitten by a small Spinner Shark on the foot. The bite left long shallow scrap marks as he pulled his foot out of the shark’s mouth.

It seems that Lucas always is the one to get attacked in the Ocean. He has been stung or bitten by Jelly Fish, Man-of-War, Crabs and Fire Coral on previous trips to Florida, The Florida Keys, Myrtle Beach & a few Islands in the Caribbean.

After the Shark bite, Lucas was reluctant to return to the Ocean, so I encouraged him to come metal detecting with me a few days later (early morning) at Delray Beach which was only a short walk.

We found common coins and cosmetic jewelry and as we were agreeing to go home, Lucas & I stumbled on a piece of sea glass and did not really look at the find closely.

My wife is an avid Sea Glass and Shark Tooth Collector so we just figured she would be happy to receive this piece.

After examining the piece with Terri, we found that the abbreviation for Florida was 3 letters (FLA) and all capitalized. A quick search on Google showed that Florida incorporated the 3 letter abbreviation FLA in June of 1963 and then changed to FL in October of the same year and FL is still in use today. It was also interesting to see the words West Palm Beach in full detail.

That being said, the Sea Glass is dated for 50 years which is a really exciting find for us and also educated my family with the history of abbreviations that started in the US in 1831 when Florida was abbreviated as Fl. T. until 1847 and changed to Fla that lasted 90 years until 1963… the year of our Sea Glass.

We currently display this piece inside a clear glass lamp that contains only Sea Glass that we have found over the years.

The Sharks teeth are displayed next to the lamp and my metal detecting finds are not allowed to be displayed because they are not very impressive... so she says.

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Comments for Dated Sea Glass Find by State Abbreviation FLA 1963

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Oct 29, 2017
 I know more about your find.
by: Anonymous

I just found a peice like this on the shore of Lake Erie. I sent a pic to a bottle specialist. It’s from a hobble skirt Coca Cola bottle. Here’s what I found online: Town Names:
Until the early 1960s, the town where the drink was bottled was embossed on the bottom of contour bottles. Many of us remember playing the "distance game" when we were younger; the person whose bottle carried the name of the most distant city was the winner. Many collectors are intent on getting every variant of those bottles. Veteran collector John Thom of Woodstock, Ga., has accumulated bottles from 1,200 of the 1,450 different towns he has identified that bottled Coca-Cola. So yes, a cool find. I plan on posting mine here as soon is I can figure out how to do it. Lol!

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