Indian - New Years Eve Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Report

Happy New Years! It sure is a beautiful day to be on the beach. It's much nicer than those 99 degree 90% humidity days that we get in the summer. Unfortunately the beach isn't eroding. In fact, its building. Still tons of shells and lots of sand.

One thing I like to do when the conditions are like this is to do a little eyeballing. Yes I swing my detector, but my focus is different. I focus on the shelly areas where light materials might wash up. Today I have a photo of some of the types of things that you might find in or close to shell piles. The musket balls weren't meant to be in this picture, but the light materials like the pottery shards, shell tools, bone implements, or glass just might be found on a day like this. This morning I was at one of the less frequently hunted beaches where I found a nice piece of black glass. It was partly encrusted. It could well have been from a treasure wreck, or maybe it was from a later time. In either case, it provided a clue that some other old stuff might be in the area and suggested that it might be a good place to look again.

In my photo today, you see some things that might be found on the beach when light things are washing up. At the top right you see going from right to left a bone point, a shell tool that was shaped to use as a sharpener, and then a shell that was shaped to use as a punch. On the left, you see pottery shards. The one next to the piece of china is decoratively incised. There is also a piece of lead sheeting in the picture and what I think would be called buck and ball.

At any rate, my point is that when the conditions are not ideal for finding gold and silver coins, you still might be able to find other things, especially non-metallic. They might not be valuable, but they can provide helpful clues.

I don't seem to stick to a topic very well, but one day soon I plan to talk a little about the Indian's that salvaged some of the Spanish shipwrecks.

Again, Happy New Year!

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Cleaning - Tue. Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report

Here we are with another Treasure Coast day to treasure. The wind has shifted around once again and is coming from the north or northeast, but we're not expected to have much in the way of waves until the end of the week, so conditions have not improved yet.

I wanted to go ahead and write this report because I got some good information that I wanted to share. The readers of this blog include a number of divers, writers, and other talented and experienced treasure hunters. I got some good information on cleaning coins that I wanted to share. It was written by Bill P., a contributing writer to Florida Sportsman. You can probably tell from the following that he is a writer. Bill is the person who submitted the picture of the excellent Maravedis that you saw on this blog a few days ago.

Before I get into what Bill had to say about cleaning coins, the above photo shows what I think might be a chisel. It was found at one of our local treasure wreck beaches. It seems to be bronze and is about 8 inches long, rectangular and tapers at one end. I don't know how well you can see that in the photo. When it comes to artifacts, I always like to hear if you have any other ideas on what it might be or if you've seen a similar one before.

Now for Bill's tips on coin cleaning. Bill said...

"I use swimming pool acid. Muriatic is also known as hydrochloric acid. Ask your local chemistry teacher...silver is NOT affected by muriatic acid unless it is heated. Copper is only slightly affected, as you saw from the pic I sent. That coin was encrusted and was treated one time back in the 90's. There has been no further corrosion. I took that picture last week without polishing or buffing it. It was in a cardboard coin holder though. I usually cut the acid in half. It normally is around 30% dilution as it comes from the store. 15% is the approx. strength I use. You can dilute it as much as you wish. My brother is a jeweler and advised me to use copper tongs (or forceps) to handle the coin in the acid, since the copper tongs or the coin won't be harmed. You can get them at any jewelers supply for a couple bucks...maybe even Ebay. Try taking a regular US silver coin and dropping it in muriatic acid, then observe. Nothing will take place, only corrosion (not tarnish though) will be removed. (a few sentences removed here for brevity)

Here's my procedure:
IMPORTANT: ALWAYS pour acid into water...NEVER pour water into acid! There WILL be an undesirable reaction. Remember this saying: AAA, Always Add Acid.
Pour your desired amount of diluted acid into a small GLASS container. Carefully place the coin into the solution with your copper forceps. It will immediately start fizzing. Do this outside as there are some fumes to deal with. This may sound like a silly statement but, Don't Sniff The Fumes. They will hurt you.
Let the coin fizz a while. Depending on how badly the coin is encrusted, check it occasionally by removing it and rinsing with cold freshwater. Repeat until the fizzing stops or only an occasional bubble rises.
The coin will be a dull gray color. Take a small amount of baking soda (not baking powder), make a paste out of it using clean freshwater. Then rub the coin with your fingers until it is shiny. This does 2 things. First, it removes the gray substance and polishes the coin. Second, but more importantly, is that the baking soda neutralizes the acid. Repeat until you get the desired result. I would add one final step. Dissolve as much baking soda in water as you can, then soak the coin for several days to get it deep into the coin. This is to insure all the acid is neutralized.
This method is for a few coins at a time. It would quite cumbersome to treat large quantities with this method.
REMEMBER, when you're done and cleaning up, pour enough baking soda into the used acid to neutralize it. Do this until the reaction of the acid and baking soda ceases.
One final trick I learned from a guy I met during a cut, is to take your encrusted silver cob, wrap it in tin foil, then drizzle freshwater from the faucet into it. It will get hot and start removing the crud. This doesn't work every time (and I don't know why) but it's worth a quick try."

Bill's instructions were so written that I presented them almost exactly as they came to me. One thing I will add is always remember, acid is acid. It will burn and damage a lot of types of things. It will burn fingers, eyes, clothes, or almost anything you might spill it on. Don't leave it where pets or children or anyone might accidentally or unknowingly come into contact with it. Years ago, I was using muriatic acid to clean some artifact - I don't really remember which now - but I do remember that I got some on the cover of a dining room chair, and it wasn't a good effect. So if you choose to use acid, always handle it very carefully.

Until next time,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

Mon. Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

It's a beautiful day out there. The holiday activities are pretty much over and my foot injury that handicapped me for about a week has pretty much healed, so I got out to take a look at the beach this morning and found that what cuts there were had pretty much filled in already. The beach front has a lot of mush and shells. Great day for a shell collector, but not real great for the detectorist. I'm downgrading the beach to a 2.

No wind or waves today, but another cold, or should I say, cool front, is expected soon. Still, I'm not expecting much from that front. These types of days you might want to be a little creative if you want to do any detecting (which you undoubtedly will). I like to use times like this to explore new areas.

Back on December 20th I posted a photo of a 2-reale, which was found in 2008 on one of the heavily hunted treasure wreck beaches. I mentioned that the shield showed that it was a coin minted during the reign of King Phillip rather than Carlos (or Charles). Today I';m showing a diagram of a rather typical shield like what you might find on coins from the 1715 fleet wrecks. You see the fleur-de-lis in the center of the shield, which is something you can use to easily distinguish between Phillip and Carlos shield-type coins. On smaller coins, like the 2-reale shown earlier, the fleur-de-lis will be less detailed than the one shown here.

When you pick up a shield type coin, look above the top left corner for the date and below that the mint mark and assayer initials. To the right of the shield you might see the denomination, again, like that shown on the 2-reale photo. If you look closely at the photo of the 2-reale you will see a number of features that are shown in the above diagram.

This year I did better at the beginning of the year than the end. We still have a couple of days left in 2008, but maybe 2009 will start out with a bang.

In the future I'll be showing additional artifacts and coins and trying to keep you up to date on beach conditions.

Keep looking down,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

PS: Thanks to all of the readers that have sent a note or photos.

Condition Upgrade Alert - Treasure Coast Beach Report

Just a quick report to issue an upgrade. I am upgrading from a 2 to a 3. There are some eroded spots around. With Christmas and all the family activities, it looks like I missed something at some point. Anyhow, today I found that there are some promising spots out there. Some of the main beaches haven't changed significantly in weeks. But here is a look at the area just south of the Ft. Pierce inlet which is pretty much eroded. I don't know exactly when that happened, but I am sure there are other similar spots around, especially in areas like this where there is an obstruction on the north side. If I didn't have other things that need to be done, I would be checking out the areas south of Jupiter inlet and Sebastian inlet and maybe some of the beaches that run at a southeast to southwest direction. There are undoubtedly some good spots out there. It looks like I missed some over the holidays.

Just a bit south of the spot shown in the photo is the wreck that lies across from Archies. It looks to me like it would be a good time check that and similar sites out.

Maravedis - Weekend Treasure Coast Detecting Report

One reader found this nice detailed Maravedi at Corrigans. The coin was cleaned with Muratic Acid. It's said to be from around 1658 and minted in Seville. I've seen a very similar one from a similar date but minted in Segovia. On the one side you see a crown and the letters RX. On the other side the monogram for King Phillip. This would be Phillip IV. Similar coins have the denomination to the right of the "S" and I think you can see a bit of that on this coin. It appears to me there might be a 2 in Roman numerals just to the right of the upper part of the S. There were a lot of Maravedis produced under the reign of Phillip IV. One good source book is "Monedas Espanolas Desde Juana Y Carlos a Isabel II, 1504 a 1868," roughly translated, "Spanish Money from Jean Carlos to Isabel, 1504 to 1868." Books like that are very expensive, but you might find it in your library.

There is actually a group that is restoring the Segovia Mint. If you'd like to learn more about the Segovia mint, take a look at http://www.segoviamint.org/index_engl.html.

We have some nice wind, but they are ESE winds. The seaswell is about 5.5 feet and its not expected to get any bigger. In fact, it is expected to decrease over the next week. There is still a lot of beach to detect even though conditions are not all that great, and there are some tricks you can try under these conditions. I don't really want to get into all of that today. One thing to remember is that some of the good finds come from beaches that are not all that heavily detected.

Happy weekend hunting.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Christmas - Friday Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report

Christmas 2008 has come and gone. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. This was the first Christmas without my father who passed earlier this year. He was in our thoughts as we remembered all the wonderful memories he created.

I've been getting some great photos of finds from readers of this blog. You'll see more of them in future posts. Today's photo is of a copper ingot that was found near the low tide line at a beach that is not one of the more frequently hunted but one that I have briefly mentioned before. Many detectorists only hit a small number of the wreck beaches, but there are some really neat things found at some of the less frequently hunted wreck beaches. Dave, from Orlando, submitted this photo, along with photos of some other copper and a variety of other nice finds, including some from a recent trip to Cape San Blas. I might be showing you more of those in the future.

Another reader sent me a photo of a really nice Maravedi that was found at Corrigans. I'll probably be showing that to you in the near future as well. That reader also mentioned that he preferred cleaning his coins with diluted muriatic acid rather than electrolysis. That is a good topic and something you might look into a little further. You'll be able to see how nicely his Maravedi came out. My advice for any cleaning is to start out very conservatively. If you are unsure about electrolysis or using muriatic acid, do your research, and then start with a very weak mixture or power level. You can always increase things later, but if you start too aggressively, you might be sorry. I've held on to some finds for years before even attempting to clean them.

Not much going on in terms of wind, waves, and erosion the past couple of days. I'm actually glad of that, because I had family activities to take care of and could't get out to the beaches much anyhow.

We don't have much time left to make hay in 2008. Conditions don't have to be ideal to make that great find though. Just be a little creative and scout out some differnent spots and persevere.

Wishing you the best for the rest of the year and the coming year.
Treasureguide@comcast.net

Never Mind! Tue. Morning Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report

I issued a watch last night. There was a nice stiff NE breeze going that looked like something could develop, but by this morning it had already changed so that the wind was coming almost directly from the east. The waves didn't get big enough and did not come from the NE long enough to do much good. In this morning's photo you can see the double front created from the change. The scallops and cuts aren't even as good as they look in the picture. The highest are only about six inches high. So, it looks like this front passed through too quickly, just like the others we've seen recently. We need a Northeaster that hangs around for a few days. I'm not going to change the rating at all today, but you might look around and discover a small promising spot somewhere.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Changing Conditions Watch

We have some good stiff NE winds now, and expect something on the order of 6 or 7 foot waves for the next day or two. I may or may not get a chance to eyeball the beach and take photos. In case I don't get out there in the next day or two to give you my first hand observations, I want you to be aware that something good could be developing. It would be a good time to at least check out your favorite beaches if you get a chance. Maybe we can get some people to report in from various beaches. Normally I wouldn't miss this, but sometimes you just can't be there. I would expect one or two good spots for sure. I'll try to get a first hand report as soon as I can. Until then...

Happy hunting.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Week-end Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

Not really much new to report in terms of waves or erosion. I'm holding the beach rating at a "2."

I uploaded a picture of a 2-reale that was minted in Mexico and found on one of the 1715 wreck beaches. You can easily see the shield, which in this case is well centered. Even from this picture, taken through a coin holder, you can easily see a couple of important pieces of information at first glance. One is the denomination. To the right of the shield is a 2. That indicates the denomination.

Mexico silver cobs from the 1715 fleet, other than the half reales are generally of the shield type. You would find the mint mark and assayer mark to the left of the shield. You can tell that this cob is from the reign of Philip V rather than Carlos without that data because in the middle of the shield you see the Fleurs-de-lis. On the shield used under the reign of Carlos (or Charles II), you would see a lion and bird instead of the Fleur-de-lis. Of course, all the elements of the shield have some significance and say something about the king's ancestry.

If you read my post of two or three weeks ago concerning the free LARS/LIDAR data, I think you will find it fascinating to take a look at some of the images. There are some interesting things to take a look at on the Boca (B01) image, for example. I think that is the one that shows an area where the dredgers skirted around a load of magnetic anomalies (canon?).

If this is your first time to take a look at images like this, the first thing to note is that yellow indicates shallow water, progressing to deep blue (deep water). I think you will find a legend at the bottom right of the image that will give you further help. If I correctly remember, magnetometer hits are indicated by a little orange circle with an X in it, but take a look at the legend.

This plane-mounted laser technology gives a resolution of one to two meters. Pretty darn neat, huh?

I want to thank the ocean engineer who alerted me to this data and made it available to us. It's really great stuff. If I ever learn to use a computer, I might provide you with some addition images and video which he made available.

Also, thanks to those of you who are adding your profile data. If ever run across the pictures I have been looking for, I'll add to mine.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Cobs - Friday Treasure Coast Beaches Detecting Report

The beach is a little strange today. Its filling in some places and switching around a bit in others. I am going to down-grade it to a 2 for now.

Gary sent in the photos of the cobs that have been taken from the Treasure Coast beaches. I like to have a lot of examples to look at. You can clearly see the Philip monogram on some. Others are not so clear, but without really studying them, I would say they are all Philip IV or V half reales. If you think I'm wrong, let me know. It would take me a little study to offer a further opinion and it still wouldn't be an expert opinion. Gary pointed out that he often finds them in clusters.

I plan to show some 1 reales of the shield variety in the near future.

If you want to study your cobs, I can recommend Frank Sedwick's books as a good starting place. There are also some very expensive reference books that you can find online. I happened to find a great one for a dollar in a thrift store.

I'm curious about what produces treasure hunters. Treasure hunter's are a pretty homogeneous group in many ways. How did you get started? What was it that caught your interest?

As Christmas gets closer and closer, it's good to remember that the material treasures are not as important as the immaterial treasures of life. Nothing you can find means much unless you have the nine immaterial treasures of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Seek those with an even greater focus that you put into your search for material treasures.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


Added later: On second thought, the one on the far left might be a Carlos. I'll have to really take a good look at it to decide.

Carlos half - Thursday Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report

Not much at all in the way of waves now. And not much expected to change through the end of the week either. So we'll just have to hang in there and make due with the current conditions for a while.

I talked about half reales some time ago and I think had a photo of a Philip V Mexican minted half reale. They are common finds on Treasure Coast beaches. Not too many people collect half reales because they don't normally show a lot of information, but I like the puzzle that they present. When not a lot of the monogram is showing, it can be a bit of a challenge to really figure out what you have.

I don't have a really good picture of a Carlos II monogrammed half reale, but here is one that isn't too bad. At least you can see part of the C on the left and the overlapping A. Like I said, they are sometimes a bit of a puzzle.

This is a Mexican minted cob, so on the other side you would see the cross with balls on the end typical of the Mexico mint. If this was a Lima minted cob, I suspect that you would see some of the date under the monogram on a cob like this. The Mexican and Lima Carlos cobs are similar, but both sides are distinctly different. This style of Mexican half was produced from 1668 to 1697. The similar Lima minted Carlos II half, was produced from 1684 to 1701. Of course, the Carlos cobs are older than the Philip V cobs, and judging from my experience, a little less commonly found on our beaches than the Philip V half reales even though at least one very good coin book lists the Mexican cob as being worth a bit more.

If I were to collect some type of coins or cobs, I think half-reales might be my choice.

With all of the governmental regulations and threats to our hobby, I want to remind you that we all need to do some positive PR to keep the hobby alive. Jealousy, greed, and in-fighting will do nothing but put us in danger of losing the right to recover history before it further deteriortates and is destroyed by time and the elements. We all need to work together to keep the hobby alive. Artifacts don't last forever on our beaches. You've all seen things that have deteriorated until virtually unrecognizable just from being washed around in the sand and salt water. In the near future, I'll show you some more artifacts that have suffered but still provide some nice insight into the history of our Treasure Coast.

Find it before it's gone. An old slave proverb that I found in an antique Lousiana book says, "Coutin de stumps won't clear de field." That's for sure.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Return - Wed. Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report

I've been out of the area for a few days and didn't get to a computer so that is why I haven't done a report for a while. Saturday it looked like things were developing, but as I left Sunday I could see that the winds had changed and the beaches would probably not improve like I originally expected. That appears to be the case. This morning,as you can see from the photo,the sand has built up on the front beach and the cuts were not as defined as they were Saturday. Notice also the sea weed and shells. For the most part, the beach was mushy out front. Since the seas are predicted to decrease the rest of the week, I don't expect much good to happen in the near future.

The other photo I have for you today is a wreck find that I can't identify. Maybe someone else can. Its only about 3/8 inch across. I guess it could be a damaged button or just a little decorative piece off of something, or maybe, but not likely, part of a bale seal. If anyone has any good ideas on this item, I would like to hear them.

On my trip, I was randomly selected to particiapte in a little game treasure hunt to find a jade monkey that, according to the story which had something to do with some TV show, Kim Explorer or something,was stolen from the China pavilion in EPCOT. You might know more about it than I if you ever saw the TV show. Anyhow, I was supposed to find the location of the jade monkey with some help given over a cell phone by the characters of the program. It was a entertaining. Mostly, I was just amazed that I got selected for the game.

Well, I'll get back to more beach hunting as I catch up on things and get some more photos of recent finds to show you over the coming days.

Happy Hunting,
Let me know what I missed over the past two or three days,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Upgrade Alert - Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Report

I am upgrading my beach rating to a "3." Early Saturday morning I found a cut that ran for probably at least 500 yards with an average height of about 2 feet. At about 8 AM it was still cutting, as you might be able to see in the photo. I would expect it to continue as the seas increase today and tomorrow. I only personally saw one beach this morning, so I can't give a beach by beach report. There is undoubtedly more than one beach cutting at this time, so I recommend that you check around today and tomorrow. Unfortunately, where I was at, the beach in front of the cut was very mushy and I did not find any shell layers under the mush although I only went down about a foot. I would not be surprised if an another upgrade will be issued tomorrow, but we'll have to wait and see.

Yesterday, I referred to glass and other materials that can be found in addition to metallic objects. I also referred to the plates that one poor fellow left after finding them sticking out of a cut. I think every Treasure Coast beach detectorist should become familiar with the type of Chinese porcelain that was carried by some of the galleons. You can of course find examples in magazines and books on the 1715 fleet, but you can also check out online resources. Some of this porcelain is quite valuable. There are a number of jewelers who mount pieces of this porcelain in jewelry, so even a small broken piece is well worth keeping. You can check out web sites like the following to become more familiar with this type of treasure. http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/How-to-distinguish-Kangxi-and-Guangxu-porcelain_W0QQugidZ10000000002441750 Of course, that is only one of many places that you can begin to learn about the Kangxi (sometimes "Kang Hsi") porcelain sometimes found on the Treasure Coast beaches. This porcelain is often blue and white, but that is not a very definitive distinguishing characteristic because so much of the antique and even vintage porcelain is blue and white.

Well, like I said, conditions are finally improving some and I do expect to hear of some finds this weekend.

Good luck.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Megalodon - Friday Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Report

The wind has shifted and is coming from the northwest. The water is pushed out giving you access to a little more beach. We're still waiting for that first good winter storm. Looking back over my records, my most productive months for coins on the Treasure Coast treasure beaches have been December and January. November and February weren't bad either. So we're getting into the time of year when I start to expect some better hunting.

My most productive coin day on the Treasure Coast was on a December 23rd, quite a few years ago. It was cold. I remember hitting an icy spot on one of the highway bridges after leaving the beach. One other detectorist got out of the car, hit the beach, got a good gust of the cold wind and promptly left. I had the beach to myself that evening and it was so cold the cobs were jumping out of the water. Actually, the water was the warm part. Anyhow that is one of the days that is still fresh in my mind after twenty years.

The photo above is of a Megalodon tooth. I wanted to remind you that if you have a day or two that you aren't finding emerald rings or gold coins, you might look for some different things. Just today, I thought I might possibly see a Megalodon tooth. The area looked right to me, and it was an area where I had found one before. I should stop to say in case you don't already know, that Megalodon teeth are supposed to be anywhere from 1.5 to 17 million years old. That's a bit older than our treasure wrecks. Well, I didn't find a Megalodon tooth today, but I did find an embossed old Red Rock soda bottle. Now that's not exactly what I wanted to find, but I like old bottles. I like finding old bottles, and fossils, and almost anything old and having some historical interest. I've found fossils in my scoop while digging for a metalic target. You can sometimes find them in areas where other types of things, including glass, gather. And some pieces of glass, China and pottery, like that carried by the treasure galleons can be quite valuable. I've heard of three whole plates being found sticking out of an eroded dune. The finder didn't know that they could be valuable and assumed they were nothing of interest. He left them where he found them, but after someone told him what they thought they were and how much they would be worth, he returned to find them, but was unable to locate them again. That could have been a huge mistake.


My main point today is when conditions are not ideal for finding gold coins, they might be ideal for something else. Go with the flow, as they used to say.



Happy hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net


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Thursay Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

The wind is still coming from the south and there is not much in the way of waves, so there is not much new concerning the condition of the Treasure Coast beaches. We'll just have to hope the next cold front brings some new erosion and wait for the higher seas later this coming Sunday.


Returning to the topic of silver coins, I think it was last Friday that I posted a picture of the above Lima 1 reale. Silver cobs coming from Lima and Potosi mints are similar, especially when it comes to the information presented on the tic-tac-toe side of the coin. Much of the information is duplicated, which of course is convenient when part of the design is missing from the particular coin.

In the top left and bottom right square, there would be either an L or a P, indicating either the Lima or Potosi mint. In the middle box on the top row, you will find the denomination of the coin, either 1, 2, 4, or 8. On the coin in the photo, you can see that it is a 1 reale. On the right side of the top line, you will find the assayer initial. On Lima coins this might be H, R, or M, while on Postosi coins F or Y. Running across the second row and across all three vertical divisions you will find PLUS ULTRA. The Us actually look more like Vs. And on the bottom row in the middle box, you will find the last two or three digits of the date. "88" would indicate 1688, for example. On the coin in the photo you see 705, which indicates 1705. Since Lima produced these coins from from 1684 to 1752 you don't need the first two digits. On the Potosi coins from the 1715 wrecks, those with the last two digits from 0 -14 will be from the 17 hundreds and 84-99 from the 16 hundreds. I'm sure that I probably made a mistake or two, but I think it helps even though I am not attempting to, and couldn't if I tried, address all the details. And I'm sure not an expert in this field.

Jumping to another topic, I wonder how many of you have run across the penny hole on the Colored Beach site. It has been there I would guess for about 4 weeks or so now. It seems that pennies periodically wash up in this one spot. Someone told me that someone threw a bunch of pennies there to distract detectorists. I don't really buy that since although many of the pennies are zinc, they are often encrusted and in addition to the zinc coated pennies, there are occasional copper pennies, some of which have been worn down to about half the original thickness. I think it took a while for that to happen. Just one of those curiosities that you occasionally run across out in the field. I've thought about doing some experiments to see how long it would take zinc pennies to corrode like that, but have never bothered.

Well, I finally got back to the topic of silver coins from our treasure beaches. http://www.imacdigest.com/ presents a lot of data on recovered treasure coins from the Treasure Coast wrecks, particularly for the years 2001 and 2002. Some of that data was related to me by a third party. You might want to check out the web site for yourself.

Happy hunting.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


Be not simply good: be good for something. Henry David Thoreau

Tack - Wed. Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Report

We're looking for the seas to increase to about 8 feet around Sunday morning and continuing for a few days. That might help us out. Right now the wind coming from a generally southernly direction isn't doing much for us. Hopefully things will begin to change.

The picture above shows two unrelated artifacts. One is a tack-like small nail of some type. I find it interesting because, as you might be able to see, around the top of it, there is a dried leather-like material, maybe a remnant of the material that the tack once held in place.

The identity of the other item is uncertain. I think it is pewter. It is rectangular and hollow with decorative engraved designs, which I don't think you can see too well in the photo. My current best guess on the identity of the object, is a fork handle. I've been told by a museum staff member that the pewter handle would have been filled with a type of plaster. If that is what it is, I must say I've never seen another like it. If you have any ideas what the item is, let me know. I'm sure the finder would like to hear what you have to say.

My guess is that an item like the fork handle, or whatever it is, might be found in an area where you would also find aluminum. You might at times avoid detecting those areas.

I took a good look at one of the images from the data sets that I referred to in yesterday's post. Those images are absolutely amazing. Resolution is around one meter. And magnetic anomalies are marked. Really interesting.

I need to make one correction to yesterday's post, the emerald ring and the religious medal that I presented were found by Gary, not Dave as I mistakenly stated.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net



"He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do any." Samuel Johnson

Religious medal found. Tues. Treasure Coast Treasure Detecting Beach Report

The wind shifted to a SE wind, so you can expect some build-up on the front, probably undoing the scattered cuts we got yesterday. But the thing to look out for is the weekend when higher seas are expected. They'll be getting up to levels where we could see some erosion. The direction doesn't look ideal, but we'll just have to wait and see. I think tomorrow (Thurs.)will pretty much give us a prediction on a small scale of what the weekend will bring.

I've been getting some great info for you via email. In addition to the types of things I've already posted, I got an email this morning from an ocean engineer who told me about some neat data that is available free. Here is what he said. "The website below seems to be going out of business and is giving away their LADS/LIDAR data (Miami Dade, Broward &Palm Beach, ) for free." He gave me a link where you can access that data. http://www.floridanearshore.com. Really neat images. I might have more on this some other time. Check it out if you are interested. I've only given it a brief scan so far and it looks really good.

The picture above is another one of Dave's finds ( 12/10/08 correction - it is Gary, not Dave, that found the ring and this item ). This is the same Dave that found the eye-popping emerald ring that I showed a few days ago. But, as you can see, this is a religious medal showing what appears to be Mary and the baby Jesus. A little of it might be broken off. Dave found this at the foot of a cut some time ago. It's nice to see the great finds that come from out Treasure Coast beaches.

In addition to the continuing beach condition reports, I show finds from time to time and discuss treasure coins from time to time. Thanks to all of you that have written and offered information. There is such a wealth of info out there.

"Help thy brother's boat across, and lo! thine own has reached the shore." An old Hindu proverb.

Again, keep an eye out to see what is going to develop this weekend.
Until then,
Happy Hunting.

Mon. Treasure Coast Beach Metal Detecting Report

Its a wonderful day on the Treasure Coast. Any day that you are alive and healthy is a wonderful day. Oh, you'll run into negative, critical and nasty people, but they have their own problems, so make your day something wonderful and help them out a little if you can.

Back to the beach. I went out early this morning to take a look to see if yesterday's gusts did anything. It actually did cut a little. Nothing to get real excited about, and my photo doesn't show it as well as I hoped, but there are cuts along this stretch, running from about 6 inches up to about three feet high for short distances. You can see some shells on top and there were shells about a foot below the surface. I don't know how the Indian River and Sebastian area beaches are doing, but I would suspect they would have spots with a little erosion. Again, nothing real exciting.

I have some more photos of beach finds to show in the coming days, although I don't know of any that have been found real recently. I think its always interesting to see what the beaches have given up. And there are some real treasures as you've seen here.

One kind person anonymously wrote in response to my brief comments on the City of Vera Cruz back sometime ago that the ship rests miles out to sea. If you want to know the location, check out http://www.electricbluefishing.com/eb_sub_menu/shipwreck_list_of_florida.htm or any of a number of other sites that show the position. By the way, the same site also gives coordinates for a large list of additional shipwrecks. The anonymous writer also said there was no evidence that the ship ever tried to enter the inlet and that the wreckage that came ashore was further north. I don't suppose that exactly where the ship rests will be of much interest to most beach hunters, but you might want to check out what Frank Hudson says about the survivors camp and buried cache of gold coins. I don't know where Frank got his info or if it is right, but you might want to check it out for yourself. There is no shortage of information on this wreck. An article in the New York Times archive, says that some of those who did not survive were buried near Mantanzas Inlet, and the survivors, if I remember correctly now, it said came ashore around Daytona and Port Orange. It seems that a lot of information on this can easily be obtained through a quick google search, so if you are interested, check it out. It might be an interesting research/scouting project for somebody on an idle day, especially if there is any truth to idea of a survivor camp and a buried cache.

The primary purpose of this blog is to help beach hunters stay up on ever changing beach conditions. The primary focus, therefore, is the beach. I do mention other things at times when I ramble or just throw in something that I think might be relevant, helpful or interesting. The blog primarliy takes note of the conditions of the day, and usually throws in a few additional thoughts,pictures or ideas and then moves on. A blog, unlike a forum, is not designed for continued lengthy discussions of specific topics over a long period of time. Neither is it a structured formal presentation, like an academic journal or many web sites.

Well, like I said, we move on, and in the coming days, I do have photos of more nice finds to show, in addition to trying to keep up with the changing beach conditions.

Life itself is the treasure.
Until next time, Happy Hunting.

Feel free to email me at TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1-reale Friday Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Report

Not much to say again regarding beach changes. Still not much in the way of wind, waves or erosion to stir things up. I'm continuing to hold my rating at a two.

The picture today, is of a Lima 1-reale from the reign of Phillip V with what I call the tic-tac-tow design. There are a number of things to notice. First, you have a three digit date under the cross on the one side. In this case it is 705, meaning 1705. On the other side, you can see the date, 705, again. So on these coins you have two chances to get a dated coin. You can see the cross is distinctly different from a Mexican minted coin. This style of coin was minted form 1701 through 1747, so you can find them on 1715 wreck sites. The Potosi 1-reales are similar, having a similar tic-tac-toe design and the same style of cross, but there are distinguishing differences. For one thing the pillars have a different cap. I might get into smaller details at some later time.

Someone wrote asking if the emerald ring shown yesterday is a modern ring or a wreck find. It is a 1715 wreck beach find. It is very similar to other emerald rings found on the 1715 wrecks. I've seen that type of setting on a number of emerald rings of that era. If you want more information on the emerald ring find, you can get more of the story by visiting the following link. http://www.treasurelore.com/florida/treasure_news3.htm The story about the emerald ring is close to the bottom, so if you want to go right to it, go to the bottom and then scroll up a few stories until you see the ring picture.

If you have any Treasure Coast treasure finds that you'd like to share, you can let me know by writing to TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Emerald Ring - Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Report

As you know, the beaches are not ideal. In fact I would say they are not very good for the most part. That does not mean that nothing can be found. That is a message that I've delivered before and one that I got from a fellow detectorist that said that some of his best finds have come during sanded in conditions. I would go so far to say that that type of unexpected find,is doubly good. First you found something good, and second you have a chance to learn something. It can break you out of preconceived hunting patterns that limit you and that might be based upon faulty hypotheses. I've been surprised to find cobs in the sea weed line. I didn't expect to find them there and didn't believe that they would be there, but there they were. That forced me to reconsider some of my long held beliefs about how those coins end up where they do. I can say that I don't totally understand it, but I do have some beliefs which guide my searching. Occasionally though, I will search around where my beliefs would tell me that there probably won't be anything. Sometimes I am surprised. That's definitely good.


The person that recently mentioned that you can find things on sanded in beaches, found the emerald ring in the above picture. I guess that is a pretty good find - what am I saying? That is an amazing find - something well worth hours and hours of of looking, wouldn't you say? All I can say is "Congratulations." And may everyone of you find something so exciting.

Talking about fantastic finds, a number of days ago, I showed a picture of a find that we thought might be a rapier. I am pleased to say that the finder has been in touch with an archaeologist who thinks the find might actually be a pike - which is a long spear like weapon used by soldiers in the front lines. The plan as I understand it is to have the conglomerate X-rayed and then make decisions about conserving the article.

Once again, things can be found even when the beaches are not looking just right.
I'll repeat a phrase that I've used before, "Hunt outside the box."

I'll leave you with that pretty picture to look at today. Happy Hunting.

1-reale - Wed. Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Report

At least it's cold enough that you won't have to worry about the mosquitoes. No improvement in beach conditions though, and since we're not expecting more than about 4-foot seas all week, I doubt if anything will improve. You'll have to use your wits and maybe explore some. I'll keep the rating at "2."

It pretty much amazes me that there is so much attention on the Treasure Coast beaches. Don't get me wrong, they are good beaches to detect on, but some of my favorite old treasure coin beaches aren't on the Treasure Coast. And two of my very favorite beaches, I have never seen another detectorist on. If you do a scan of the shipwreck books you'll find that there are a few areas more frequently mentioned than the Treasure Coast. One, of course, is the Keys. Another is Amelia Island. There are others. But if you are here on the Treasure Coast, you do have a lot to look for without making a day trip. But even on the Treasure Coast, certain spots are frequently hunted while some are seldom hunted.

My picture today is of a Mexican one reale. You can see the Mexican style cross on the one side. On the other side, there is a shield design. This particular coin is dated 1716, which makes it too late to be on a 1715 ship, but it is similar in design and is an unusually good example that shows the shield and legend better than any other coin of the type that I've seen. Of course, most found one-reales will show only a very small part of either side displayed on this coin.

The Lima one-reales have a tic-tac-toe design instead of the shield. I'll get a picture of one of those in the near future.

Happy hunting.

Tues. Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report - Wrecks

As I write, the wind seems to be changing again. There's always hope. I haven't heard any reports of treasure coin finds lately. Given the conditions, that isn't really surprising. There are opportunities though, even though the beaches on the Treasure Coast aren't looking too good. Sometimes its good to take a look at other areas and scout out some of the less frequently detected beaches. You can occasionally pick up something interesting almost anywhere along the Treasure Coast. If you have overlooked some of these wreck beaches, here is a quick list of some of them, including maybe one or two that you haven't hunted lately. I'll start from the north and go south. 1. Bent Anchor Wreck (old Chuck's Steak House), 2. Cabin Wreck, 3. Anchor Wreck 4. Spring of Whitby & Corrigan's Wreck, 5. Rio Mar, 6. Sandy Point, 7. Wedge Wreck, 8. 1810 wreck (just south of Ft. Pierce inlet), 9. Nieves, 10. Power Plant wreck, 11. Walton Rocks, 12. Jupiter Inlet. OF course that is not a complete list. I've mentioned a few others in this area before. And if you go outside what I consider the Treasure Coast just a little there are additional interesting sites to search, like around Ponce Inlet, for example.

In 1837 an Army supply ship named the John McLain carrying guns and ammo for the second Seminole War ran aground at the mouth of the inlet. The cargo was removed and buried just off the beach. The crew was killed by the Seminoles, but the cargo might still be there.

Another one in that area is The City of Vera Cruz, carrying passengers and cargo from Havana to New York sank before the captain could get the ship in the inlet. A camp was set up on shore by the survivors. One passenger salvaged his chest of 2000 U. S. gold coins and buried it on the south side of the inlet.

That is not what I intended to talk about today. I'll get back on the subject of coins at length in the near future. Just one note on coins right now. Some people tell you you can tell what denomination a cob is by the weight. And that I guess might be true theoretically, but in actual practice, found cobs vary widely in weight, even within a given denomination. For example, I have one half reale which weighs about half a gram. That is way to light for a half reale, and I thought it was unusual, but after conducting a very quick scan of a list of coins recorded by salvagers I noticed that half reales weighed anywhere from 1.2 grams to .5 grams. The range was probably even wider than that, but that is what I noticed by just quickly looking down the list. Other denominations revealed similarly large variations in weight. I guess that is not surprising when you consider the corrosion, wear and damage that can occur to coins over a few hundred years in an active salt water environment. The point, is you might find a eight reale the size of a four, or a half reale the size of a quarter reale.

Well that is all for now.
Keep looking down.