Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report - Military Buttons

Military buttons found on a rain eroded cliff. The wind and waves have been calm lately and haven't caused any erosion, but the rain has. You don't often think of rain causing beach erosion, but it does - not on the front beach in the wet sand area, and not on the flat dry sand area, but rain does cause erosion on the front of the dunes when there is a cliff. Areas like Corrigans, where there is a steep cliff on the front of the dunes, erodes when there are heavy rains like those we have had the past week or two.

I was at a beach down by the St. Lucie inlet today, and noticed how the rain had washed the front of the dune away. In most spots the erosion was rather insignificant, but in some areas there were small gullies where the rain poured over the the top of the dunes and down the cliff. When the dunes contain coins or other artifacts, they can be washed partly down the face of the dune or completely down to the bottom of the cliff. When looking for erosion of the dunes, look for roots that have been freshly exposed by the sand being washed away. Detect below any spots that you see like that.

Rain erosion is generaly much more localized and limited than wave erosion, but it still can release coins and artifacts. Even wind can, to a limited extent, erode the face of the dunes and release coins. The wind can have a drying effect that loosens the sand, and then, of course, it can blow away a small amount of sand.

The photo above shows two British military buttons that I found on a rain eroded cliff. Unfortunately, I didn't get a great picture of the one on the right, which is a really neat button with an elephant on the front. One of the nice things about these types of buttons is that you can look up the military history of the military units and find out where they were and when. These buttons came from a battle between the British and French in the early 1800s. The same military unit was also in India and fought in the West Indies. Maybe I'll get a better picture of those buttons for a future time.

Here is a little information on the 56th Foot taken from Wikipedia. "On 4 January 1762, Britain declared war on Spain in the Seven Years' War, and began preparing for an expedition against Spanish possessions in the Caribbean. The 56th was assigned as part of the expeditionary force, and sailed from Portsmouth on 5 March, arriving off Havana on 6 June and landing the following day. The regiment numbered a total of 933 officers and men, and was brigaded with four companies of the 1st Foot and a battalion of the 60th Foot."

You can read a little more about the 56th by going to the following.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/56th_(West_Essex)_Regiment_of_Foot#West_Indies_campaign

I also found French buttons, grape shot, musket balls, a piece of a musket and other artifacts near where I found these buttons. The cliff and base of the cliff was littered with artifacts from the battle. While I was finding these things, it was like I could almost see the battle on that hill-side as troops stormed the emplacements at the top of the cliff.

On the Treasure Coast right now, you'll have to settle for rain erosion and other tricks of the trade to locate older finds. The wind and waves are not doing anything for us right now and beach hunting is about as challenging as it gets.

The NOAA satellite images show the season's first tropical depression to be northeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. At least the guys up there might get some good hunting. We'll just have to wait and watch for a while. As this one showed, they can pop up rather quickly. I'll keep watching.

On another note, just this morning I was reminded of one thing that I often tell people. I started detecting and after going a short distance, noticed a surprising lack of targets. I glanced down and noticed that I had been detecting with the discrimination setting on a very high setting - much higher than I would ever intentionally use. The other day when I did my air test, I turned the discrimination setting to 15 to observe the effect, and I hadn't reset it to 0 before beginning to detect this morning. That was a simple mistake, but it can happen. It was just good that I discovered the mistake before the day was over. If I would have followed my own advice and tuned and tested my detector on the type of object that I was interested in finding before I began, I wouldn't wasted time going back over ground that I had already covered.

One person sent in the correct answer to the coded message that I recently posted already. Has anyone else cracked it. There will be more.

That's about it for now.

Have fun.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report - Cipher 1

The first tropical depression of the season is already forming in the Atlantic. That is the type of thing we'll be watching for to improve our local treasure beaches. This depression probably won't affect us though, but it might help the guys up in North Carolina. I won't be watching this depression that closely unless it starts to head this direction. As you probably know, our local beaches have not been in the best shape for producing shipwreck treasures lately, but this unexpected and sudden early tropical depression is a reminder that things could change rapidly, and you need to stay on top of the changing conditions. Sometimes the best conditions will last only a day or two, so you have to stay on top of things.

New readers often join this blog. One email I got was from some relic hunters from North Florida that decided to give the Treasure Coast a try. Being new to the area, they asked where to start. I'd recommend Wabasso beach, Corrigans, off of Turtle Trail, and the area around McCarty Museum. If you are new to the area, or just don't know where the shipwreck coins can be found, one of my Treasure Coast treasure beach maps are up for auction on ebay at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=110394149172. Roy Volker gave me a brief map of five Treasure Coast treasure beaches back in the eighties and that was a big help to me, just knowing where the top beaches were.

One thing I should have mentioned concerning yesterday's air test is that when I first started the air test, I was getting a signal at only about half the distances reported in the post. It seems that it took the detector a little while to ground balance or set the auto sensitivity. For whatever reason, after that initial period the results were much better. There are a lot of things to take into account, including ambient interference.

Not too long ago I posted a photo of a fake piece-of-eight that I found on one of our local beaches. It was the third fake that I found, but not the most disappointing. I recognized this last one as a fake rather quickly. One other fake that I found was so encrusted that it took me a while to clean it off before I could see enough to start to research it. After all of my pains-taking effort to clean it properly, that one was really a disappointment. As I've mentioned before, just a few yards from where I found that fake, I found a genuine silver cob some time later.

I mention fakes because they are very frequently found these days. Many of the items on ebay are fake. There was a good article in ScienceDaily in which an archaeologist explained how the growing plentiful supply of fakes has actually decreased looting. Evidently with ebay and other similar sites, people are finding it easier to manufacture and sell fakes than loot archaeological sites. Here is some of what the article had to say about that.

"When he first started tracking eBay's sales of antiquities, Stanish focused mainly on objects related to his field. At the time, the ratio of real artifacts to fakes was about 50-50, he estimates. About five years later, 95 percent were fakes. Now, he admits, he can't always tell, because the quality of the fakes has improved so much.

He estimates that about 30 percent of "antiquities" currently for sale on eBay are obvious fakes... Another 5 percent or so are genuine treasures. The rest fall in the ambiguous ... category."

Here is the address if you want to read the entire article. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090504193641.htm

In yesterday's post, I did an air test using the Minelab Excalibur on four small silver cobs of various sizes. I recommended that you become familiar with your detector by doing similar experiments. It is important to know what your detector is telling you. Get to know the sound of cobs and other items. The photo today (above) shows a platinum ring found on one of our Florida beaches. I am showing that ring simply because it is made of platinum and gave a different signal that most other types of targets. Platinum, from my experience, tends to give a softer signal, but very steady and very distinct signal. My point is that different objects and metals sound different and it will help you if you learn to identify the different sounds. Of course, you won't learn to identify targets that you are discriminating out, and it would be very easy to discriminate out a small platinum ring. I often mention how I very seldom use discrimination, and that is one more reason. I'll also remind you again, to keep your good finds in a safe deposit box instead of at home.

Before I quit, I want to do what I have been promising to do for some time. It seems I always run out of time, but today I want to get you started on the clues to finding the token that I have hidden somewhere in Florida. First, I'll give you a picture of where you will find the token and then a coded message to give you a clue about where it is. The code used is a little more complex than the simple code that I used for the first coded message.

First, here is the picture.



Now, here is the coded message.

GSV GLPVM RH WRIVXG FMWVI GSV IRTSG UVMXV KLHG.

This message can be decoded by using some of the same techniques that would be used to solve the previous coded message.

Well, have fun. There is a lot to find out there even if conditions are currently far from ideal. The tropical storm season is starting off early, so keep an eye out for one of those days when the cobs seem to jump out of the ocean. Sometimes a plain old storm creates more erosion than a hurricane, so you have to be ready. All we need is strong north/northeast winds to churn out there for a while.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/28 Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report _ Minelab Excalibur Air Test

Excalibur II Air Test. I did a little air test using a Minelab Excalibur II on various smaller sized silver cobs. As you can see from the table below, the cobs ran from .6 grams up to 4.3 grams. You can also see the approximate weight of the cobs in ounces. I measured the maximum distance from the coil at which the signal was clear and unmistakable when moving the cob past the coil at nearly optimal speed. The settings first used were, a. soft threshold sound, b. about 2/3 loudness, c. auto sensitivity, d. discrimination mode, but e. no discrimination. There was possible ambient interference from a number of sources, most notably power lines less than a 100 yards away. I'll give you these results first followed by the discussion. Here is the table for that simple experiment.






Various Size Cobs
Cob 1 Cob 2 Cob 3 Cob 4

Oz. 0.02 0.035 0.08 0.15
Grams 0.6 1.0 2.3 4.3
Inches 7.0 8.5 9.0 11.0

As you would expect the distance detected increases with the size (weignt) of the object. I did not measure the surface area of the cobs, which might have some, but probably a negligible effect. Here is the plot. The vertical scale shows inches detected and the horizontal scale shows cob size in grams.



There appears to be an S shaped curve. The smallest cob was detected at 7 inches while the next larger cob with less than double the weight was detected at 8.5 inches. After that the projected line flattens out pretty much until the largest cob was plotted. I wouldn't put too much faith in the S shape curve, but it might well be that there is a minimal threshold weight (or surface area) after which detectability increases rapidly, and another sizable increase in detectability after size increases a couple of times more. That might be drawing too many conclusions from too few data points. My first main point is that using these settings, a small .6 gram silver cob can be detected at nice depth, and as you would expect larger cobs are detected at increasing depths.

Before continuing, I have to make the disclaimer that on the beach under actual field conditions, results will most likely vary.

Now,considering discrimination. I turned the discrimination knob up to 5. In discrimination mode, depth was not noticeably affected on any of the four cobs by the small increase in discrimination. But turning the discrimination up to 15, made all four cobs virtually undetectable. In other words, if you use too much discrimination, you will miss good targets. That of course is not surprising, but I am giving you some specific numbers here. You should do something similar to determine the best settings for your own detector using the type of object that you want to detect. If you use discrimination, you should be aware of what you will be missing at various settings.

I also put the detector in pinpoint mode, and using the original settings found virtually no difference in detection depth between the discrimination and pinpoint modes. In the field it seems to me there are times when the discrimination mode is more effective and times when the pinpoint mode is actually more effective. There are times when I prefer one and other times when I prefer the other.

The photo today is what I consider an unusual jade ring found on one of our treasure beaches. It is carved out of one piece of jade and the gold is inlaid. There are no markings. I just thought it was unusual.

I'll soon start giving you a set of coded clues to where a token is hidden somewhere in Florida.

We'll just have to keep waiting for a storm or something to stir the beaches up. In the mean time, there are things like I've shown the past couple of days to be found. It is just not quite so easy.

It would be a good time to put your detector to the test and become a little more familiar with the settings and the effect they have. When you are testing, notice the optimal sweep speed for your detector. It makes a significant difference.

Have fun,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/27 Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report - gold medallion

Mystery chain found on a treasure beach. As you can probably see, this is a gold chain with a religious medallion. The mystery part that I wonder about is the piece cut off. At least it appears to be cut off. It is not bent or rough in any way like it suffered stress. It appears to be a straight clean cut. That makes me wonder. Was it cut off to pay off a debt in gold? Was the missing piece given to someone that needed a piece of a religious medalion to boost faith in a time of trouble? Was it given to a lover or partner? I guess I'll never know. For all I know it just broke off cleanly and plainly. Like I said, I don't know.

Fascinating things are being found. With the summer conditions setting in and the flat seas, we don't have big cuts and everything that goes with that, but there are still finds being made. Of course, the flat seas make water hunting easier, and that produces some nice finds. Unfortunately, on the Treasure Coast you can't water-hunt many places due to the salvage leases. But there are a lot of places that you can go not too far away if you want to take a dip. The South Florida area provides a lot of great water hunting as does the West Coast of Florida. But you can manage to find some good places almost anywhere without traveling too far.

There are a lot of spots besides the ocean to water hunt. There are parks with beaches where you can detect. There are small beaches hidden here and there, like those on the causeways. Some were swimming beaches or watering holes in the past, but now are abandoned.

There are always new places to explore. You might have to do some extra work in some of those places, but it can be worth it. Some of the causeways are trashy, for example, and you'll have to either pick through the trash or clean the area up. If you do it over time, it's not difficult, and the end result can be rewarding for a long time to come.

I guess, my main point today is, with the summer conditions setting in, you might want to consider some alternatives that you haven't really explored before - maybe some new areas, or maybe some new strategies or techniques.

I believe that every detectorist falls into certain habits or patterns. Just yesterday morning, for example, I stopped at a beach that was undoubtedly heavily visited by beach-goers on Memorial Day. The beach, as I expected, had been thoroughly detected. Even most of the trash was gone. The last time I was there, I found a number of pull-tabs, nickles, and deeper targets in the dry sand. I could quickly tell that the whoever normally detects that park, uses discrimination and leaves some things behind. When I find a beach like that, I don't mind picking up the left-overs. Often the best things are left behind.

Sometimes I'll look for the borders of an area that has been thoroughly detected. You can almost always tell where the other detectorists stop. Usually they will detect to a certain landmark in each direction and stop there. Once you find the borders of the detected area,which is not that difficult because there will be signs, you can detect the area just outside the over--detected area. I've mentioned before how I stopped at a beach where I had never been before in the Pensacola area, quickly determined that a well-defined area had been thoroughly hunted, detected just outside that area, and quickly found three gold rings. You can often do that. Determine how the previous hunters hunted, and take advantage of what they left. It's not difficult and usually pays off.

I didn't mean to run on so long, but that is the type of thing you might want to think about as summer sanded-in conditions firmly set in. Bust out of some of your own habits and patterns and explore new areas. I was always amazed to find how many productive unhunted areas a person could find when there are so many detectorists and so many over-hunted areas. Some of my favorite spots are just a mile or two away from some of the most over-hunted beaches. There are some great spots, yielding both old artifacts and modern jewelry, where virtually nobody hunts even though those spots are just a mile or so away from heavily over-hunted areas. You just have to hunt outside the box. It might help you if you read some of the links that I have listed in my Treasure Links List. Reading might lead you to some of those under-hunted areas just steps away from the over-hunted areas. You can also use Google Earth or Maps Live to find new spots. And keep your eyes open.

Well, it looks like the seas will remain calm for the next week or longer. Like I've been saying, you might want to explore a little while we wait for a storm or something to stir things up. I think we've been in this E/SE wind pattern for months now. Maybe its not that long, but it seems like it. Still, there have been some nice coin lines that have developed from time to time. I always like digging coin lines even if it can get exhausting.

Enjoy yourself. There are things to be found, even when conditions are not ideal.

In case you missed it, I gave the decoded message a few posts ago. And I'll soon start to post a set of clues that will lead you to a token somewhere in Florida.

That's all for now.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/25 Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

We are expecting calm seas for at least the next week. That gives you a good chance to do some low-tide hunting or water hunting. Don't expect any new cuts real soon.

There are still some nice spots out there with a lot of targets even if those spots are getting harder to find. Existing spots that haven't been worked will probably be accessible for a while if you are willing to take a long walk to some out-of-the-way spots. Summer conditions have set in, and it's hot out there. I'm close to dropping my beach conditions rating back to a 1. Remember, that doesn't mean nothing can be found. In fact water hunting at some of the tourist spots should be getting really good about now. My Treasure Coast Treasure Beach rating is primarily for beach hunting on the Treasure Coast treasure beaches.

There were a lot of people at the beach on Memorial Day, in case you want to hunt some of the parks. You should find some coins and maybe some jewelry, and who knows what else.

There is a nice web site on Mexican coins. Most of the site discusses coins that were minted later, but they occasionally discuss colonial cobs and early Mexican coins. The home page is www.mexicancoinmagic.com.

There is one article that deals with the coins that are of more interest to the Treasure Coast hunter. It has a lot of photos of different varieties of early Mexican minted coins. Here it is.

http://www.mexicancoinmagic.com/01%2001%20Volume/10-%20mexican%20photo%20album%20V1%20I1.htm

There is also an article by Jim Sinclair on the Del Rosario (one of the 1715 fleet ships located at least partially off Sandy Point) that you might want to read. The article appears to be a several years old, but still good reading with good information for anyone interested in shipwreck archaeology or the 1715 wrecks. Here is the address

http://www.imacdigest.com/sinclair.html

That's it for now. I'll have more photos, articles and tips later.

Have fun.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/24 Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report - coin line

There are still some cuts, but they are old. I was right about low tide hunting. I went to one of those stretches where there are no buildings and where almost nobody goes and found a nice flat hard-packed front on the beach. Almost right off the bat, I found a nice tight line. By that I mean a line of coins (and a few other targets) that ran along the beach pretty much at an equal distance from the water. I wish I had my camera at the time, because I told someone that I would try to get a picture of a coin line, and that was a near perfect one. Anyhow, when there is a coin line, if you look back at your holes, and run a line through the middle of them, you would see that the holes generally didn't vary from the line by more than a foot or two in either direction. That is what I mean by a "tight" line. If you connect the holes by an imaginary line, it would come pretty close to making a line, although it would although it would zig zag a little.

The line that I worked today contained mostly American coins, a few sinkers, some older coins, and a variety of other things. I really had fun digging this line because, first, it was out in an out of the way place where not many people detect, and second, it held a nice variety of targets - none of which appeared to be recent drops. That means there is a good possibility of some nice old targets.

The line was in hard-packed sand and most targets were from a few inches to a foot or two deep. A line like that can wear you out because of the near continual hard digging. Did I say I enjoyed it? You never know what you might find in a line like that, because it contains targets that have been sifted down to a particular area of the beach and sorted out, pretty much by weight. The fact that there were a lot of sinkers and quarters in the line, was a good sign. There was another nearly parallel line running a little closer to the water containing lighter materials such as aluminum. One of the reasons I don't like using discrimination, is that I like to see how things are sifting. Normally heavier things will be distributed pretty much along one line, with lighter things off one direction or another. I like to see sinkers and quarters though, because gold, being dense and heavy, tends to gather with those heavier things. Zinc pennies will generally be pretty close to the aluminum items.

Anyhow, I had a lot of fun, and feel that my advice to hunt low-tide areas for the time being was good. I'll offer that same advice for the next few days.

As I said, I wish I had my camera with me today to show you a near perfect example of what I call a coin line.

I have a variety of things to go clean, research and identify. I'll probably post some of those before long.

We still have the off-shore thunderstorms producing that might produce static in your ear-phones.




The other day at one beach I noticed that when I arrived and left (over an hour), two county employees were sleeping in their truck with the motor running. It sure made me glad that I paid my taxes. Why should I waste my money when someone else can do it so much better? Wish I could get a job like that. But sitting around doing nothing tends to get on my nerves.




Man time flies. It seems like I just gave you this message to decode a couple of days ago, but its been longer than I thought. Anyway the code was

sgd fnkb hr atqhdc tmcdq sgd azbj rsdor

Here is the decoded message. The gold is buried under the back stairs.
Actually there was one letter that I miscoded. That may have caused some difficulty, but the code is a simple substitution code. S is t. g is h, etc. Just a one letter shift. That code was a pure academic exercise.

I actually have a token hidden in a Florida location. I might start a series of clues and codes that will lead to that token. I'm not sure I'll do it yet, but I might.

Hopefully the rain will slack off and give you some nicer weather for getting out over what remains of the long Memorial Day weekend. The seas will be decreasing (according to the surf site), low tide will be around 2 or 3 o'clock, and the winds will continue from a E/SE direction.

Like I said before, my advice would be to hunt the low tide area. Look for an area with a broad flat hard-packed front beach. I't doesn't matter if nobody goes there because the targets are probably not recent drops but have accumulated over time and been deposited together for your convenience.

Have fun,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/23 Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

First a quick update this morning for the Treasure Coast. Thunder storms are just off-shore. Last night's high tide didn't get up as high as the previous one. Still there are some two-foot cuts that I found. The beach hasn't been changing quickly, but it has been changing inch by inch. Since I didn't see many of the beaches, I'll have to assume there are more of those around. From what I saw I am tempted to upgrade my rating to a three, but i can't quite do it. It just doesn't seem quite good enough. I don't think the cuts are generally productive because of the tons of sand on the front beach that had to be moved. I still think the best chance will be low-tide hunting.

Now for something different related to the above photo.

Did you ever go back in time by digging up your own childhood? It's something special. I once traveled hundreds of miles back to the old rural home where I grew up and where my young father and mother lived. It was home. It was and still is a magical place. It still is home inside me - a type of Never-Never-Land, still alive and real.

As soon as I arrived I was immediatley greeted by old friends - hills, trees, rocks, valleys,and springs. Some of those old friends only stood like ghosts in my memory, but still more real than anything I could see with my eyes. Some were represented by only the faintest remnants - maybe a depression in the ground, a hardened path where only weeds could grow,a fence line of rotted tree stumps, or a depression in the ground. Yet those departed objects and structures stood tangible and completely real in my memory of that other place and time.

Some saplings were now a hundred feet tall, yet I saw them as small and young, like I once was. Other trees departed, but I could still see them as they once were. Ghosts of young friends, making roads out of dirt with toy contruction equipment were still there, even though they were also somewhere else, somehow else. I could see the little yellow duckling that I won at the county fair and the toad stool that he ate before he died. But he was still there.

With trusty time-machine in hand, electronically connecting with times past,I dug up some of my childhood. It looked a little worn and aged. And sagging here and there. But somehow it was still brand new to me.

Yes I went back in time and took a photo of some remnants that I brought back. It won't mean as much to you as it does to me, but you no doubt, have your own.




Just something different today. I know its not what most of you come here for, and I'll get back to the beach finds, research, and conditions reports in my next post. But sometimes detecting is more peronally meaningful than at other times. And this Memorial Day Weekend seemed a good time for some reflection as I remember my father who served in WWII and passed away in 2008.

Best wishes.

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

I've already heard from some people that plan to hit the Treasure Coast beaches over the long week-end - some new detectorists and some from out of the area. The waves are slacking off and will continue to decrease over the next week. Low tide will be around 1 PM. With the calming seas I'd make sure to check down close to the water at low tide. Visibility in the water is not good. Check for any areas where the sand has been scooped out. Also keep an eye open for lighter materials that may have washed up. Sometimes materials don't have to be light if they have a lot of surface area like sheets of copper or whatever. Eyeball piles of shells, and keep an eye open for non-metallic materials, like glass or pottery. Notice when the sand is hard packed. Hard packed sand is usually a pretty good sign. Mushy sand is usually a bad sign. Listen for a crackling sound in your earphones and watch out for lightening.

The photos today are of a Mexican half reale. It's not a new find, in fact I've showed it before - I think it was sometime last year. But since there are a lot of new readers, and this is a good example of what you might find, I wanted to show it again. If you haven't found a cob yet, the most frequently found are small half reales like this. They can weigh somewhere near 1.5 grams or less. They are usually black, or at least dark grey. You might have to look closely for the markings, because the surface corrodes and wears away. I just don't want you to be throwing away your first cob simply because you didn't recognize it. Of course, you might find something bigger and nicer - maybe even something gold, but that doesn't happen everyday. Also look out for other types of artifacts like spikes, the buckles shown yesterday, or even pieces of glass or pottery. Don't throw anything away if you don't know what it is. And be careful how you clean things. It is easy to ruin, or at least decrease the value of an object, if you don't clean it properly. Don't clean anything until you learn how to do it properly. Back in a Dec. 2008 post, you'll find an excellent article by Bill P. on how to clean this type of coin.

Some time ago I showed you a photo of an Island in the West Indies where I like to hunt. It is called Pigeon Island. Many battles took place there and the pirate François le Clerc used the island as a base to attack Spanish vessels in the years 1553 and 1554. The Island has a high clear view of the sea and a protected bay behind the island. You can find our more about Le Clerc, as well as our local pirates Gilbert and Jennings at the following web site.

http://www.privateerdragons.com/pirates_famous4.html

I've read that Henry Jennings used the St. Lucie inlet at times and attacked Spanish salvage ships coming from the 1715 sites, and some speculate that he may have hidden some of his treasure inside the inlet. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might remember that the St. Lucie inlet was not always where it is today but has opened and closed and moved at different times. I've read that Jennings was most active locally in the 1715-1717 time frame, which makes sense.

Pirate Don Pedro Gilbert, who was hung in Boston, used the St. Lucie inlet in the 1800s. He supposedly had a hang-out at High Point on Sewall's Point. Gilbert and his crew would lure ships onto Gilberts bar and then rob them. There was a place called the Bleech Yard not far from the St. Lucie inlet where it is said he also hung out

Before Stuart was given it's modern name, it was called Potsdam for a short while.

If you look at a nautical map you will see that on the beach just south of the Jensen Causeway there is an submerged obstacle marker. Some say that after the hurricane of 1949 a lot of gold coins of the 1715 era were recovered on the beach near there. I only have one verbal source for that and don't really know if it is true or not. You might want to further research some of these things before investing much of your time.

Well that should get you started.
Have a fun and good luck.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

The seas are maintaining a level of just over seven feet, which isn't bad. The thing is, the wind is sticking to its too familiar E/SE path. That hasn't done us much good. The waves normally have to hit at a good angle in order to create significant cutting. There are still a few spots out there where you can find a little cutting, and there are some scallops with the potential for cobs or other small and light artifacts. The beach that I visited this morning was slightly improved over yesterday (just a touch more erosion), but not enough for me to upgrade my 2 rating.

There are also some thunder storms out there, so if you start getting static in your ear-phones or some falsing, you might be picking up atmospheric electricity. By the way, when that happens, it might be a good time to consider leaving the beach. You don't want to be standing out on beach in the middle of a lightening storm.

With the rain we've been having you might find a few spots where the cliffs on the dunes have actually eroded a little from run off. It might be worth checking out anyplace you see like that.

After the waves decrease, as they are expected to do over the next few days, you might be able to find some nice low-tide spots to hunt. The low tide area seemed to be shaping up nicely from what I saw.

I didn't take my camera today. It isn't waterproof like my detector.

The photo below is of a strange silver (acid tested) band that I found. It is about 7 inches long, and .75 inches wide, flat and thin. I cleaned it off a little. I don't know what it was used for, if anything, or how old it is. There are no markings on it.







The photo of at the top of the page was sent in by Gary D., who found the great silver buckles, button, and sword belt buckle. There are a lot of different types of things to find on shipwreck beaches beside cobs, and these are just a few examples.

I have a lot of good finds photos to show and stories to tell, but they'll have to wait for another day.

Happy hunting. Stay safe.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

As of this morning the beach was progressing just as I expected. The waves are higher this morning, and the winds are coming from the E/SE. We probably won't see much cutting until the winds switch around, and according to the surf site, which has changed over night, that is not going to happen now. We still might see some scalloping and maybe even some of the dunes might get hit on the more shallow beaches. I am not expecting much now, just some very small dispersed spots of possible minor erosion. From the way the waves are crashing on the front beach, there might, however, be some nice spots when the waves recede enough to get out into the low tide area. Overall, it looks disappointing right now, and I'm only going to increase my rating from a 1 to a 2. I'll keep a good watch to see what is going to happen.

I would be checking the high tide line today and tomorrow, and then after the waves subside, working down towards the water at low tide. I have found cobs at the high tide line when it looked just like this in recent months. Watch for copper pieces like you saw in the photo a couple of days ago, or lead patches, like below, as well as other signs of the presence of a nearby shipwreck. I'm pretty sure that there has been enough churning to turn up a few of those.



I think I gave you enough good web sites to check out in the past couple of days to keep you busy for a while. If you missed those, you might want to look back a few days.

I got a few emails from people who have correctly decoded the cipher. I'll give you the answer before long. Oh, and I also need to give you the info on Don Pedro Giblert and the treasure found after the 1949 hurricane, but that will have to keep for another day.

I'll be watching and hoping that things improve tomorrow.

Happy Hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

Special Watch - Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report

I am posting an alert. Keep watching. The beaches are progressing just as predicted yesterday. The waves are getting bigger. As of this morning, the waves were hitting the beach straight on, rather than at an angle.

If things keep progressing as expected, things might get better than what we've seen for quite a while. It looks like the waves will continue to increase tomorrow and Thursday. On Thursday I am also expecting a brief period of north winds, so we might get some nice cutting at different spots along the Treasure Coast.

The photo shows the beach this morning nearing low tide. Notice the nice waves, but also notice their direction and the lack of cutting. The front beaches were mushy this morning. There were some spots where scallops were developing. As I said, if things go as expected, we might see improved conditions Thursday. At this point I am maintaining my 1 rating.

I wanted to expand on one topic that I mentioned yesterday. I talked a bit about productive spots on the beach. When you find a concentration of targets in the wet sand, there is a good chance that that spot will continue to produce for years - not continually, but periodically. After cleaning out the area, come back the next day. The probability is that you will find a few more targets, unless the spot has either disappeared, or significantly improved. Spots like that will often replenish - sometimes quickly, overnight, or sometimes not until weeks later. But it is worth checking once in a while if you have found a productive spot like that.

Another point is that once you know a spot produces, you will most likely slow down and look at the area a little better than you otherwise would. At least that is what I would recommend. Tighten up your sweep pattern, slow down, and don't be afraid to cover the same ground again.

I ran across a nice web site that talks about Kip Wagner and the early days of treasure hunting on the Treasure Coast. I think you might enjoy it. Here is the address. http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Wagner_Kip_131833151.aspx

I also found a neat video on the finding of the pirate ship, Whydah. It's not the Treasure Coast, but interesting anyhow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZw4M1yHta8

As you probably know, Tom Guidus discovered the Espiritu Santo el Mayor wreck off of Indian River county. He has a nice site where you can read about some of his work and successes. You can check it out by going to http://www.wreckoverysalvage.com/page7.html

The main thing I want to tell you today, is keep watching for developments the next two days. I'll keep you up to date.

That's all for now. I'll have to find time to get back to some of those other topics later.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

You might be familiar with Gary D. and his finds, which I often post in this blog. Today's photo shows one of Gary's spectacular finds that I've posted before. I'm sure many of you have not seen it, because I have a lot of new readers. I provide that bit of introduction to bring attention to some of Gary's recent comments that I'm going to expand on today. By the way, Gary has recently been finding both old shipwreck artifacts and modern jewelry. But here are the comments I wanted to discuss.

Talking about some of his most recent finds, Gary said, "It is amazing how many times I have walked past this spot and never had a signal but now due to wave action it has been scooped out a couple of feet and that makes all the difference at low tide and it also helps when you know you have found items there in the past and the spot produces."

The first thing to notice is that an area may not produce for a long time. It might be, as we say, sanded-in, and the targets deeply buried, but then when things move a bit, either the sand, or the items, or both, suddenly they are in range of your detector. One point that I want to make is, don't forget about an area just because it hasn't produced before. As I've said before, it took me a number of trips to the Treasure Coast before I got my first cob. And often the hottest of hot spots will not produce for a while, maybe a long while, due to the prevailing conditions.

Second,you will become much more successful as you learn to identify the best conditions. Study how beaches move. Remember what they look like when you find things and when you do not. Recently I posted a web address for a beach erosion study. The information provided by that study can be very helpful. If you haven't at least scanned that report, I would advise doing that.

And third, it helps when you know what spots tend to produce good things. A spot that has produced old items in the past, probably will again when the conditions are right. You might think you got it all, but that is seldom the case.

Confidence is important for a detectorist. Many give up before finding anything of interest, and others give up when they get skunked one too many times. A detectorists needs confidence in his ability and his detector. But often the detector will be blamed when the lack of results is due to not looking in the right areas. That is why I say, first I hunt for an area to hunt.

Even though you can gain experience and vastly improve your probability of success, don't let your past experience narrow your focus too much. When you start looking in only one type of area, you'll never find things in other types of areas. Sometimes you'll be surprised where things show up. That is a good learning experience.

The last two cobs that I found came from very different areas. One came from the high tide mark and the next came from the low tide mark. A person after finding something in one area, might start spending most of their time in that type of area. That can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, if you don't believe you'll find something in one type of area, you won't spend much time looking there, and as a result you won't find things there, and you'll be led to conclude that your theory was right all along.

It takes a willingness to form hypotheses, but you also need to continually keep exploring and testing your hypotheses.

The online surf sites say that the seas will increase to about seven feet by Wednesday and we will also see a change in wind direction on the Treasure Coast that might do some good. We might see a positive change soon. Keep watching.

I expect to get around to giving you some more information on local pirate Don Pedro Gilbert and one local treasure find that made a local family very wealthy back after the 1949 hurricane.

One additional site that you might check to learn more about how the beach moves, is the following. You will get a limited preview of that book online. The book is Living with the East Florida Shore, by Pilkey. Here is the address.

http://books.google.com/books?id=CdHBnidN8Z0C&printsec=toc&dq=1949+hurricane+stuart+florida&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

I also recommend the shoreline study that you will find in listed in my Treasure Link List at the left of this page.

On another note:

I gave you a coded message a few days ago simply to give you an exercise in decoding. In this case, the message is a pure academic exercise. One person evidently had an easy time deciphering the message and emailed me the correct decoded message. I'm not going to give you the answer yet in case you haven't had a chance to try it yet or are still working on it. Here is the coded message again: sgd fnkb hr atqhdc tmcdq sgd azbj rsdor

I will give you the answer before long.

The following might help you out. It gives the frequency of letters used in English text. http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/frequencyanalysis.html

The most frequent letters in English text are the following, given in order of frequency. e t a o i n Knowing that will help you decode the most simple substitution codes. A substitution code is a code which simply substitutes one letter or symbol for another.

The most common letter pair in English is th. The most common three letter words are the and and. You can find information like that at the following site. http://www.deafandblind.com/word_frequency.htm#digraph-frequency

That will help you decipher simple substitution ciphers. When you look at the coded message at hand, you will see that there are two instances of sgd. Since one is at the beginning of the message, there is a good chance that it is the word "the" instead of "and." If that is indeed the case, then in the coded message, you would see that "the" is coded as sgd and you would be well on your way to solving the problem. Again, I'll give you a little more time to work on it if you want before I give the answer.

Stay alert for this weeks projected changes and more on some local treasure leads.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

The dredging is well under way here on Ft. Pierce beach. That is what you see in the photo. The sand that is being pumped in is a course brown shell sand. I think it is always worth taking a look at dredged sand. You never know what might be in it. I know that in the past there have been cobs pumped in, and I've also found fossils in dredged sand. Undoubtedly the new beach won't be in total equilibrium (you might have read about that in yesterday's link), and I suppose it will start to erode quickly. To me, it doesn't really look like the type of sand that will stick very well anyhow. When the front of the new beach starts to erode, you might want to see what pops up.

The beach on the Treasure Coast right now is pretty much the same - mostly sanded-in with a few spots that are slightly better. We're still looking ahead to Tuesday or Wednesday for increasing seas and changing winds. I'll maintain my beach rating of 1 (my lowest on a five point scale)for now.

As you can see, the Polly-L was sitting in the Ft. Pierce inlet Friday morning.

I received a story yesterday that reinforced a point I was trying to make a couple of days ago. I tell everybody to keep anything worth anything in a bank safe deposit box, like I do. I already told you about Dave, the guy that had a jar full of cobs stolen.

Mike W. sent in this story. I did very little editing on it.

Along time ago in mid 80's a buddy and I bought a pulse detector(used from a old salt). We started detecting down south of the Inlet. We would occasionally find an old rolled nail, as I believe they were called, and I think a couple of silver things,a broken cross etc. Then I go on vacation and come to work and he hands me a baggy with some stuff in it. Then I see a round old coin. He has a shitty grin on his face. It was(our)his first treasure coin. You could read the date 1734. I believe it had a letter after it. I Can not remember(but F comes to mind). It was worn thin with 2 pillars on 1 side.

Well get this, we go to the old detecting shop down in Melbourne where we were pretty good friends with one of the workers. He grabs a book to see what it was. It turns out to be a 4 real. He's never seen one. The book did not even show a price. So we were pretty stoked about it. He told us to drive by Robert Marx's house down in Satellite Beach. We get a phone book - it was way before google(lol), find his address and drive there.

More luck - he is home. A very busy man we found out. We say Hi and told him we found an old real,could he take a look at it? We showed it to him, and he invites us right into his home. He said DO NOT tell anyone were you found this or they will have bulldozers on the beach digging it up. He said that the coin has never been found in Fl. waters. I think he said it was the first year they nade a round coin and not many are around. We talk awhile. He is a very very cool guy. I think he told us look it up in Christies' Catalog. Holy crap there was one in there that sold the year before for $32k. Can you say holly shit?

We never did anything with it. My buddy keep it in a little display case at his home.
Years pass bla bla bla. We still detected a little. He got married yad yad yad. He comes to work one day and says his house got broke into.(you know whats coming) They got a lot stuff and the coin is gone too. You don't know how many pawn shops I checked, and even to this day I still keep an eye out for it.

Things can happen. Play it safe and keep your finds in a safe place. You might consider donating to a museum. They will display your find, give credit, and I understand that you can take a tax credit year after year for the donation.

One little detecting tip for today:when detecting wet sand, some detectors will give false signals or have an era tic threshold tone when going over where the salt water has just made the sand wet. In order to run smoother, instead of detecting along the beach, detect up and down the beach so the coil moves parallel to the waters edge instead of from wet to dry sand. Another thing that will cut down on erratic operation under these conditions is to move the coil more smoothly and slowly.

I started a number of topics in the past and never finished them. I'll have to get back to some of them.

Did you solve the cipher I posted yesterday yet? If not I'll give you a hint soon.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net


PS: In the very near future I will be beginning a hunt, in which a token is buried somewhere in Florida. The first one will be buried in a place visited by millions from around the world. I will occasionally provide clues after the close of my posts. Clues may consist of photos, maps, and ciphers. The first hunt will not be too hard, but may be in a place where you will need to collaborate to recover the token. I think this might be fun. The first finder to submit a photo of the token to me, will be named TCTBR Treasure Hunter First Degree.

Yesterday's cipher was a bit of a warm-up. It is a simple substitution cipher. I'll give you the answer to that one before long. One way to figure it out is by starting with a table of letter frequencies as typically found in English language text. You will find the technique used in Poe's The Gold Bug.

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

There are some things being found this week - even older shipwreck finds. I'll have more on that for you some other time. But the photo above shows the Colored Beach. If you compare it with a similar photo that I posted about a week ago, you'll see very little difference. There is a difference though. About six inches to a foot has been removed off the front of the recently deposited sand. That's not enough for me to change my rating yet. Things are still not too great on the Treasure Coast beaches.

As far as the prediction, it looks like the expected increase in seas won't happen until around Tuesday or Wednesday when we expect the seas to get up to around five feet and the wind to finally change direction. That might happen a little sooner in North Florida, but locally I don't expect much until Tuesday at the earliest.

Like I say, there is always someplace to hunt, and there are always things to be found. Here are a some shipwreck finds from south of the Treasure Coast found by Gary D. a few days ago. I posted this photo because I wanted to see if anyone had seen a spike like the short stubby bent bronze one shown in that picture. I'm talking about the one that looks a little like a pipe or trumpet. It's shown along with other shipwreck finds from the same area. If you've seen one of these before or can provide information on it, please let me know.



Its often hard to identify older finds. It helps when you look at a variety of examples. I found a nice digital book on American Silver of the XVII & XVII Centuries by Alphonso Clearwater that I think might possibly be of some help. Here is the address.

http://books.google.com/books?id=i28EAAAAYAAJ&printsec=toc&dq=colonial+silver+gold&as_brr=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

Have you ever heard of the Knights of the Golden Circle? Supposedly the Knights of the Golden Circle, in the late 1800s hid hoards of treasure at various places around the country in order to restart the civil war again and form a new economic community. There have been attempts (partly successful I understand) to unravel the clues and find the hoards. According to what I've read, information on the hoards has appeared in various books and treasure hunting magazines. I also have read that some of the treasure has been found, but not all. If you want to look into this, here is a link to get you started.

http://knightsofthegoldencircle.net/index.html?is Rebel Gold is one book on the subject.

You can read some of it online. You might find it interesting. I did.

I've decided to add something different to this blog just to see how you like it. I'm going to post different coded ciphers, maybe on a weekly basis, to see if you can solve them. I'll start with an easy ones and if I do decide to continue with this, I'll gradually make them harder. See if you can solve this one?

sgd fnkb hr atqhdc tmcdq sgd azbj rsdor

I'll give you the answer sometime in the future.

The dredging is well under way on Ft. Pierce beach. They are pumping in sand from far off shore. You never know what might be in dredged sand.

I wonder if anyone saw the article in SpiritDaily.com where I was extensively quoted? That came as a surprise to me.

Well, that's it for today.

Happy hunting.
Treasureguide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Beach Detecting report - erosion

One of the most important things to the beach detectorist, is the flow of sand. I found a good article that will help you understand how the sand moves. It is about California, but the same things apply here in Florida. The digital report is California Coastal Erosion and Storm Damage by Robert George. I found chapters four and five to be the most helpful. Notice in particular the figure, I think it is figure 20 on page 33, which shows the change in the beach profile as the result of a storm.

You might have heard me say, "Follow the sand," and "There is always someplace to detect." When the sand is building on the beach, it came from somewhere. When it is leaving the beach, it builds up somewhere. Find where the sand left, and detect there. Nature will move the sand. You won't need a blower.

At Jupiter, one day when the life guard was doing his regular morning swim, he saw signs of the wreck. He had been there many times before, but that was the first time he noticed signs of the wreck. Nature had moved the sand and things were now exposed.

You will seldom find anything very old just north of the inlets. The jetties cause the sand to build up on the north side of the jetty and prevents the flow of sand and causes erosion on the south side. That is why you will generally find the older things south of the jetties. There are undoubtedly old items north of the jetties, but they are under tons of accumulated sand. Even when it does erode on the north side, it is only cutting into relatively newly deposited sand.

Read the article and learn how the sand moves. Here is the address for the report.

http://books.google.com/books?id=F1wrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA31&dq=beach+erosion&lr=&as_brr=1#PPA31,M1

People often want the deepest seeking detector, and that is OK. But if you hunt in the right spot, the targets will not be very deep anyhow.

I don't know how many of you are using the reference links in my links section. I find them very useful myself, so I keep them.

The surf report says that the seas will be increasing to about five feet over the next few days. That might be helpful. Unfortunately, the site doesn't show the north wind on Monday that was originally predicted. Too bad! It does look like the area up around St. Augustine will be getting a nice North wind in a few days. If you are up that way, be alert.

I found a story telling of the remains of a ship being uncovered for a few hours during the hurricane of 1949 on the Treasure Coast in a location that has not been widely reported as being a shipwreck site. I'll have more details on that for you in the future.

The local pirate Don Pedro Gilbert, I understand, hung out around High Point on Sewall's Point. Maybe more on that later too.

Don't keep your valuable finds at home. My advice is to keep them in a safe deposit box. I've mentioned before how a guy I knew had a whole jar full of cobs from the beach at Jupiter inlet. He had them in the trunk of his car at the beach and they were stolen. So keep your items safe.

I'll watch to see how the seas increase the next few days and if it does anything good to our beaches.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report - Emeralds

I mentioned emeralds a day or two ago, and I got some email questions. I'll try to answer some of those questions today. The photo to the left shows an emerald as we usually think of them - cut and polished, as mounted on this ring that was found on one of our beaches. But emeralds can be found in their uncut or raw state. In that case, they might look more like shown in the following photo. So if you see a green rock, on the beach, you might want to check it out. I'll get back to emeralds towards the bottom of this post.

The History of St. Augustine, Florida, is a digital book authored by Dewhurst in the 1800s. The book has several things of interest. On the same page that Ribault's shipwreck is discussed, the author mentions that the waves would sometimes deposit ships high on the beach and leave them there in good shape. I mention that because in one treasure forum there was considerable discussion of the possibility that ships were washed completely over barrier islands and into the lagoon. While this doesn't settle the matter, it does suggest to me the possibility. I think you will find other items of interest in this Florida history book.

Here is the address.

http://books.google.com/books?id=IjwVAAAAYAAJ&printsec=toc&dq=florida+shipwreck&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

The beaches are poor right now, but the seas will be increasing from now on through the week end. Unfortunately they will be coming primarily from the southeast until Monday. Beginning Monday the winds are expected to shift so that they will be coming from the North. I don't know if our weekend waves will help us out much, but the Monday shift in wind direction looks promising. Keep a close watch out for the weekend and beginning of next week.

The heat was relieved by some nice cool air this morning. And we actually got some rain by the beach. That provided some welcome relief, but we could use more.

I have to make a correction on something I said recently, I think it might have been yesterday. Emeralds USUALLY do not fluoresce in black light. Emeralds may on occasion show some fluorescence, but not usually. Rubies, on the other hand, exhibit relatively strong fluorescence under black light. Someone asked me the frequency of light to use. I don't know that. I simply used a regular black light like is used to illuminate posters.

The fluorescent effect in gem stones is somewhat irregular because it is caused by impurities such as chromium, manganese, etc. The impurities are not the same in all of a type of gem stone. Some gems react to only certain wave lengths, but that is getting well beyond my level of knowledge. I simply used the black light that I had and it worked, at least sometimes. I'll never know the ones that were missed.

Emeralds have been found at various spots along the Treasure Coast One is Pepper Park. Remember that finding an emerald is a real long shot, but it could be well worth the effort. If you are detecting you might as well keep your eyes open.

Hint: The specific gravity of emerald is around 2.65, which means that it is 2.65 times heavier than the same volume of water. That would be a little different I suppose, for salt water. Just to give you the idea, glass has a specific gravity of somewhere around 3.2 - 4.2. That tells you something about how the items might be distributed on the beach. The surf classifies material something like a gold panner would. If pieces of glass are washing up, so should the lighter gems.

Well, it seems like I got on an unusual subject today, but I wanted to make a correction and clarify things a bit.

Watch out for the weekend waves and the changing wind direction next week.

Treasureguide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report - four cobs

First, the forecast. The seas will probably increase this week, but not that much. We'll probably still be seeing under five foot seas. It looks like the winds will stay stuck on E/SE. On the other hand, it looks like North Florida will actually get a brief period of NE winds. In summary, I'm not expecting much change here. It will be a challenge to find older items.

I think I got Google Analytics working. I had it working for a short time before, but it quit on me. Anyhow,it really surprised me how many readers this blog gets from distant locations. I know from emails that many detectorists from out of state visit the Treasure Coast from time to time, but I was really surprised to see that some of this blog's readers are from the Netherlands, England, South America and other foreign lands. I don't know how many of the readers are new to detecting or how many have found shipwreck coins, so today I decided to show you a sampling of finds from the Treasure Coast.

At the top of the photo are American dimes for size comparison. Top left is a half reale the approximate size of a quarter reale. It was either undersized when minted, or more likely, worn down while in the surf. From my experience quarter reales are not often found on our beaches.

Half reales, on the other hand, are perhaps the most common silver beach finds on the Treasure Coast. The top right is a half reale of approximately the correct size. On the bottom left is a one reale, and on the bottom right is a two reale. All are silver and show the typical color of cobs that have been in salt water.

I remember years ago a couple of guys showed up on a treasure beach with a new detector and I told them what to do, and when they found their first cob they were somewhat amazed. They expected something bigger and something that looked more like a regular coin. I think they would have thrown the cob away if I hadn't showed them what to look for. I also think they probably would have gone away empty handed that day, because they were using too much discrimination until I showed them what to do. Come to think of it, those guys found their first cob a lot quicker than I did. They must have thought it was pretty easy. It took me quite a few trips to the Treasure Coast before I found my first.

I hope that helps those of you who have not yet found your first treasure coin, And my apologies to those of you who have boxes full of cobs at home.

One of my best reference books on cobs is Monedas Espanolas desde Juana y Calos a Isabel II 1504 a 1868. I found it in a thrift store for fifty cents. It shows almoste every major variety of Spanish coin minted between 1504 and 1868.

That brings me to another topic. Reference books can be purchased very inexpensively these days if you buy them used. Some used books are treasures themselves. Books that bring over $100 dollars can sometimes be purchased for under a dollar. Of course you have to know what to look for. I've written a few articles for treasure magazines on treasure books and book treasures.

A few days ago I mentioned where you might look for emeralds. Did you know that gem stones made of corundum will flouresce in a black light? If you do any serious hunting for gem stones, use a portable black light in low light conditions.

I intend to create an index of topics for this blog, but don't know if I'll ever get around to it. I also might point you back to some of the older posts that contain information that is still useful since I'm sure that many of the followers of this blog were not around at the beginning. How time flies!

When you send me pictures or information, I'll consider posting them, but I will always respect privacy and won't post your full name unless you want me to. And I will not post anything you tell me that you don't want me to. I'm glad to give credit, but I don't want to post names unless you say specifically say that it is OK.

Happy hunting.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

There have been a number of people working the park beaches pretty hard lately. There are still things left to be found. You can usually tell where people have already detected and what type of discrimination they were using. Sometimes you can see their foot prints, holes and other traces they have left, so you know where they have detected and maybe that will determine where you will look. Any detectorist will leave some things behind. There is simply to much beach to get it all. This morning I found deeper coins even in areas that are detected on a daily basis. There was a disproportionate number of nickels which usually tells you that the others were discriminating pull tabs. Every hunter has habits and you can take advantage of those habits if you know what they are. I once showed you a picture of a beach where I could quickly tell where it was heavily detected. I then just went around the borders of that area and quickly found three gold rings. You might be able to improve your results by noticing what other detectorists are doing.

The photos today are of a couple of finds. The obvious one is a musket ball. I took two views because I need some help in determining what the other item is. It is about one inch square, is made of lead but appears to have an iron piece in the center. It looks to me like the lead might have been used like a washer and had a spike or something through the middle of it. The photo is not the greatest. The item is sort of bent in and has like four edges or corners sticking up around the edge of the hole. It sorta looks like it has been shot through. I don't really know if the metal in the center is iron for sure. If you have any ideas on what it is, I'd like to hear them. I found a number of these items, whatever they are.

I ran across some of my old records today. I couldn't believe how detailed they are. When I first started, I wrote down every place that I hunted, the conditions, how many of what type of coin, the dates of the coins, and other finds such as rings. I saw where on the second page that I was looking at where I reached 7940 coins. It was fun looking at those. You might want to try something similar. Those records are over twenty years old, probably close to thirty years. I remember that I paid for my first detector in the first year with clad coins alone. I can probably find the exact date that I reached that milestone.

I've mentioned a few times how the inlets are not where they were in days gone by. It just goes to show what I was saying the other day, that a beach is a dynamic system. On page 495 of the book The West India Pilot, which you'll find in my treasure links,the positions of the Treasure Coast inlets are given as follows.



It's sometimes handy for the beach hunter to have a wilderness GPS system to help find old locations like that. Notice also the change in location of the St. Lucie Inlet mentioned in the snippet.

You might also want to take a look at Exquemelin's classic book, Buccaneers and Marooners of America. Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin was a privateer and printed his first memoirs in 1676. Of course, what you read today is an English translation of the other earlier versions. Here is the link.

http://books.google.com/books?id=dNgXAAAAYAAJ&printsec=toc&dq=dubloons&as_brr=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

I hope you can help me figure out what the square lead thing is. I would assume that it is about the same age as the musket ball that was found near it.

We're still enduring poor beach hunting conditions. You really have to work for anything old. Hopefully we'll have some storms soon. We sure do need the rain.

In the mean time, happy hunting.
Treasureguide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

The seas are really smoothing out. If you dive, snorkel or wade it's a great time to get out in the water. (Remember to observe the salvage leases along the coast.) Unfortunately, or fortunately depending upon how you look at it, it looks like the seas will be calm all week. I guess summer conditions have arrived and the only thing that will break it, is a nice storm. You can still find a few decent spots on the beach if you are willing to look hard enough and walk far enough to find them.

The photo at the top of the page is the fake piece of eight that I found a few days ago. As I said, that is my third fake piece of eight. Years ago I found a fake that was heavily encrusted that looked very realistic. I took a lot of time carefully cleaning it before I could tell that it was a fake. What a disappointment. The funny thing is, some time later I found a real cob just a few feet away from where I found that fake.

The fake shown in the photo is a pillars and waves variety, for whatever that matters.

The locals are going to the beaches now and you should have no trouble picking up a few dollars in change in the dry sand at the parks if you just want some leisurely detecting. Maybe you'll find something for Mother's Day. For the dry sand at the parks you don't really need a deep seeking detector because for the most part you will be skimming recent drops.

During sanded-in conditions like we have now you can also look for non-metallic items, like glass for example. Here is a bottle that I found that sold for nearly a hundred dollars. It was eye-balled.

It is a West Palm straight-side Coca Cola bottle.

I got my start in bottle hunting when I was hunting silver coins after Hurricane Andrew and noticed some old bottles rolling in the surf.

If you are a beach hunter and do the dry sand at parks, that doesn't require a super detector. Here is a twenty or thirty year old detector that would do the job.

It has some very nice features, like surface blanking and notch reject and accept. It also breaks down nicely for air travel and can be easily reassembled and used without the metal pole if you don't want to be conspicuous. I won't get into all of that, but notice the nice little square control box that can be mounted in various ways. Once you remove the metal pole and add a short wood handle it is not very noticeable at all. I've used in the West Indies a bit.

I don't know if you've noticed but the McCarthy book Thirty Florida Shipwrecks has a nice section on the Georges Valentine that wrecked just off Hutchinson Island in 1904. The wreck site, in fifteen feet of water, is a Florida Preserve where you can snorkel or dive. It was an Italian Barkentine. Here is a link to that chapter.
http://books.google.com/books?id=tu4kXhKxKw4C&pg=PA86&lpg=PA85&dq=%22georges+valentine%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html

I think I'll stop there today. I have a lot more photos of finds to show and some more nice references and tips.

Happy Mother's Day.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report - Pulse Induction

If you've ever thought about buying a pulse induction detector or wanted to know a little about the Garrett Infinium Detector there is a little video on YouTube that you might want to look at. It will give you some idea of the operating characteristics of pulse induction detectors. Notice when they say in the video something like, "a pulse induction detector is "challenged" by iron trash." I think anyone who considers a pulse induction detector should be aware of that. If you are detecting on a clean beach or don't mind picking up junk, that is not much of a problem, otherwise it might be. It depends partly on you and how you prefer to hunt. Here is the video. If the link doesn't take you right there, just copy/paste it into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS-zHQ76igM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmetaldetectornr1%2Ecom%2F136%2Fgarrett%2Dinfinium%2Dls%2Dmetal%2Ddetector%2Dintructional%2Dvideo%2Dpart%2Dii%2Dfor%2Dtreasure%2Dhunting%2Dgold%2Dnugget&feature=player_embedded

Its getting warm out there. Lately low tide has been in the middle of the night and the middle of the day. Those aren't the best times for that as far as I'm concerned. It still looks like we will have increasing seas by Wednesday or Thursday. Until then I'm downgrading my treasure beach detecting rating to a one. If you look at the photo, you'll see the big pile of mushy sand on the front beach at the Nieves site. It was almost like a sand dune in front of the beach. Even some of the secondary beaches that were ok last weekend have softened up since then. Again, there is some possibility that things will improve next week. Keep tuned.

One more thing. It looks like they're getting ready to dump sand on South Hutchinson Island again just south of the jetty. The pipes, caterpillars, and dredge boats were all there. It will be interesting to see where they dredge the sand from. Unfortunately much of that sand will find its way down to the Nieves site. Nature was already in the process of piling up sand.

You could at one time find a lot of WWII dog tags a little south of the jetty when there was erosion. They military conducted landing exercises there. I knew one guy that sold newspapers back then. When he had some left he would go down to the beach and the wet and freezing soldiers would buy them and burn them to get warmed up.

Did you ever do any money laundering? I mean cleaning up those coins that are corroded from being in the ocean. If you have salt water seasoned clad coins, one thing I've done, is take those green or black or whatever color coins to a vending machine and put them in a coin slot and then push the change button. You'll get some bright shiney coins in exchange. I asked a vending machine operator about that one time and he said he didn't care.

That reminds me of another little tip. Vending machines and other machines like those that were used on the Florida Turnpike reject silver coins. If you check the change slots, you can sometimes find a nice silver coin. I used to find silver coins like that frequently when traveling the turnpike.

There were a few interesting leads in those Pirate books that I gave you yesterday.

Watch for the seas to increase next week and detect outside of the box until then.

Have fun,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report

The wind and waves have been from the east southeast it seems like forever. Too bad we didn't get the northeastern winds from one of the many fronts that passed through this year for that long of a time. There is a bit of a change projected for next Wednesday when the waves are projected to increase a bit. I'm hoping for something good. At this point I wouldn't mind seeing those increasing seas to continue coming from the same E/SE direction, but I don't expect that. It's really too early to say. Anyhow, we haven't had much of a change in the beach for a while now and it looks like it will be at least a few more days before anything does happen. i'm sticking with my minimal 2 beach rating.

Don Pedro Gilbert was a pirate that operated from Hutchinson Island near Stuart. He is often said to be the last pirate. I guess that was almost true for the 1800s, but of course we have pirates today, and there were others in the 1800s after Don Pedro. Some say that Gilbert's Bar was named after Don Pedro, but I don't know if that is true either. I have read other stories about that. You can read about Don Pedro by going to the digital book Twenty Florida Pirates by Kevin McCarthy. Here is the site address.

http://books.google.com/books?id=r82wzhld1EQC&pg=PA75&lpg=PA5&dq=trial+%22don+pedro+gilbert%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html


There is another digital book that you can either read online or download that you might want to take a look at. It is the Pirate's Who's Who by Philip Goss. It was digitized by the Gutenberg Project. That book has a brief mention of Captain Gilbert (Don Pedro) and many others such as Gibbs. I mention Gibbs as a good example because the book tells about him burying coins. There are a number of leads in that book if you search the book carefully. Here is the link.

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=262356&pageno=1

I'm reminded of one spot that I've been to a number of times and every time I found a ring. What is amazing is that not many people go there. No body swims there. And the people that do go there are not flashy. But I always find a ring there. The secret is that the bottom is very muddy. You don't see that until you are on it. It looks like sand and sea weed, but once you get in it, your feet sink to the ankles. And if your hand goes in the mud for any reason, it will return stripped of anything that was on it. The reason I mention that is that there are spots that don't look like good detecting spots, yet they are.

The above ring was found with a few others in one of those unlikely spots.

Some people have asked me about the catch and coin lines that I've talked about in the past. I'll try to take some good pictures of those types of lines for future posting.

Welcome to new follower "Tab Hunter." Cool name. Wasn't he a movie star?

Well, we'll see what happens next week. In the mean time, do your research and have some fun.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Report

The photo shows Dave O's weekend finds. It just goes to show once again, there is always something to be found somewhere. Any day of the week someone is finding something good somewhere. I like to show finds by different readers from time to time.

As you know, we haven't had much in the way of wind or waves for a while and the beaches haven't changed much for a while except they might be getting more picked over. That makes it more important than ever to take every advantage of anything that will help you work smarter. This is the time of year when the cobs tend to become more scarce. If you take a look at one of the surf reports that I have linked on this blog, you'll see that we are entering the time of year when there generally isn't much surf. The peak surf for the Treasure Coast, again if you look at the surf report charts, seems to be November. There have certainly been some great hunting in November. There was a great one back in 1985 and there was just last year in 2008. I'm sure there were others, but those come to mind. November often brings us a nice blow from the Northeast. November, December and January have always been my best months for finding shipwreck cobs.

Having said that, it is not impossible to find cobs during the summer months. It is just not as easy. And if a good storm comes,who knows what might happen. But during the calm days of summer, you might have to change your hunting style a bit. Adapt to the changing weather and beach conditions.

I get a lot of questions about detectors. I've used about every major brand and some custom made machines, but I'm not really one of those guys that puts a lot of emphasis on the machinery. I feel like any major brand detector will do the job. Different detectors do have different strengths and weaknesses, so take that into consideration. The analogy I often make, is that detectors are something like gulf clubs. You would choose different ones at different times. But since most of use don't keep a bag full of detectors, pick the one that suits your hunting best. Too many people though think that the reason they aren't finding what they want to is because of their detector.

Let's say you were in the old west and you needed someone to hunt down a deer so you would have some meat. You had a fancy friend from the big city that had a new gun that would shoot further than any gun you ever saw, and you also had an Indian friend who only had a bow and arrow. Which one would you depend upon to get you some meat? It is something like that when detecting. It is not necessarily the deepest seeking detector that will get you the finds. There is more to it than depth. The trick is to put your coil over the high value target. It doesn't matter if you can detect to China if you are in the wrong spot.

You might say, well, detecting is nothing like hunting. Deers move around and you have to know how to stalk them. I'm going to tell you that you have to know how to stalk treasure. If you are hunting on a beach, you need to stalk the treasure. it won't always be wherever you decide to put your coil.

A beach is a dynamic system and it changes. Just watch the beach from day to day. It changes. Sometimes more and sometimes less, but it changes. And the targets move. And the sand that covers the targets moves. It's more like stalking prey than most people think. Learn to read the signs. Learn to be where the treasure is when it is within range. There are times that it will be close to the surface and you won't need to dig very deep. There will be times when it is so deeply buried that you'd have a hard time digging it up even if you could detect it. Of course, I'm talking about older items, and not the gold ring that was dropped ten minutes before you got to the beach. It's your choice on which type of item you want to hunt, but if you are going for the old ones, you need to stalk them. If I'm depending upon one or the other, I'd place my bets on the old Indian even though he doesn't have the gun with the longest range. I'm not telling you that a good detector doesn't help, all I'm saying is that too many people put too much emphasis on that and neglect other important skills that make a huge difference.

I didn't mean to go on so long about that, but it seems that once I get going on a topic like that it isn't easy to stop.

There is actually one advantage to the calm seas of summer. It makes it easier to work some areas. It is also a good time to look for emeralds and other non-metallic items.

I often find my self referring to sites listed in my link list. I would assume that those links are useful to you too. If you find any sites that you think I should include in my list, let me know. I might mention them even if I don't add the link.

If you haven't looked at the Singer book on Shipwrecks that I have listed in my link list, here is the address to see the listings for our area. You might have to copy/paste the address to your browser.

http://books.google.com/books?id=6j6kjZQReqkC&pg=PA133&lpg=PA&vq=contents&dq=florida+shipwrecks+singer&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html

There is a book called Treasure Coast Gold. It was written by a local author, McElroy. Although the story is fiction, it is based upon a real treasure find that made one Treasure Coast family wealthy. The names were changed and the story liberally embellished, but still it has some hints in it. The author showed me some photos of local spots where treasure was found. If I correctly recall, I think some of them were in the book, but I'm not sure now.

I had no trouble identifying the first person to email me after the site reached ten thousand hits. I logged on, saw the hit counter at 10,000 even and got an email immediately. That reader will get the first copy of my Treasure Coast Treasure Map.

Have fun, be safe, enjoy life.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Report - lines

Surprise! Surprise! As Golmer Pyle used to say. Yesterday I dug a bunch of coins and a fake piece of eight. The peice of eight looked good to me for a few seconds. Then I wiped off the sand and took a closer look and saw that it didn't look right. I was almost certain it was a fake. It was encrusted and looked old, but it wasn't old enough. On the other hand I found this little key looking thing. It just didn't seem very interesting, although of course I kept it. I keep almost everything unless I know what it is. People have thrown away some very nice things - even silver cobs. But I kept this key thingy without giving it much thought. When I got around to trying to figure out what it is, it got more interesting. It seems to me to be a watch key. I learned that from some time in the 1600s until around 1875 when the crown winder was invented, watches were wound by using a key. I never suspected that a watch could be found on an old spanish treasure ship, but according to what I read,watches do go back that far. Of course I didn't find a watch, but maybe a watch key. From what I've learned so far, it could be 18th or 19th century or possibly even older. I would guess it is probably one of the later dates if it really is a watch key. Even the later date makes it much older than what I ever suspected when I first picked it up.

Well, it needs to be further researched. I am not absolutely positive that it is a watch key. I've found several examples on the computer, and learned that they were carried on a watch chain with the watch and often with a personal seal.

Its funny how the first thing that caught my attention was a fake and the thing I paid no particular attention to, turned out to be more interesting. That is one of the things I like about detecting. There are a lot of unknowns. There are a lot of puzzles to solve. It is interesting, and very educational.

If any of you has seen an item like this,especially associated with a shipwreck, or can provide some information about this item's true identity or age, please let me know. I won't be disappointed if it is not what I now think it is. The search of the unknown is the fun of it.

Someone told me they couldn't find the lines I've been talking about. First, there are two different types of lines that I talk about. One is the "catch line," which is found most easily when the seas are calm. These lines occur near low tide when the incoming waves meet the backwash that comes down the slope. Where they meet and cancel out each other, at the bottom of the slope, things will sometimes gather. That is what I call a "catch line." You can see a picture of one of those a few posts back.

The other line that I talk about is just a distribution of coins and other targets that occur more or less in a line at a regular distance from the high tide line and low tide line. One of these type of lines can be high up on the beach or lower, but whichever is the case, they run parallel to the beach at nearly a consistent distance from the high and low tide lines. These lines can be very narrow and straight, or sometimes they are more in the shape of an oval. They occur in the wet sand area. You can only find this type of line when there are a number of targets. You will find that within these lines, or ovals if they spread out, are patterns of distributed according to the density or weight of the objects. This is the type of line that I was working yesterday. Yesterday's line was a little unusual in that zinc pennies were being added to a previous line and were found nearer to the water than the denser targets. More typically zinc pennies are at the high side of the line, but in this case much of the line was created days before and the lower tides and smaller waves were now dropping the zinc pennies lower than the older part of the line. I hope that made it more clear rather than more confusing.

I added two articles to my link list that you will find at the top left of this page. One is the collection of treasure coins from the Notre Dame Special Collectins Department and the other is Dave Simmons' great article on Carlos and Phillip half reales. I often refer to the Simmons article because of the illustrations of the Phillip and Carlos monograms.

That's enough for today.

Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

PS: The first person that emails me asking for a treasure map of the Treasure Coast treasure beaches AFTER the 10,000 hit on this blog will receive a map treasure map entirely free. It shows the treasure beaches, directions, and hunting tips. Please allow two weeks for delivery. If I am not at the computer when the 10,000th hit comes, which is likely the case, I will have to judge for myself the winner as well as I can. My determination, even if wrong and entirely arbitrary, is final.