A Gold Religious Medallion Found on One of Our Beaches.
I'll have more to say about this tomorrow.
I received one report of a gold nugget being found on the Treasure Coast two days ago. A number of months ago I mentioned another gold nugget that was found on a Florida beach. A photo of that nugget can be seen in my Feb. 27, 2009 post in this blog.
Both gold nuggets and gold dust have been found on the Treasure Coast. Attempts to recover the gold dust have been rather unsuccessful, as far as I know. It is sometimes found in the low spots in the water by some of the wreck sites, and people have tried to use a varous techniques, including dredging to recover it.
On another subject - Archaeologists are now using a new process to start the conservation of iron artifacts before they are removed from the water. Here is the link where you can read more about that.
http://www.jdnews.com/news/qar-78159-artifacts-work.html
A new technology (lidar) is being used by UCF professors to map a Maya site. Check it out.
http://today.ucf.edu/mapping-ancient-civilization-in-a-matter-of-days/
Here is an article about a dig at a civil war site in Kansas. Good article. Just thought I'd throw it in.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/10/1937634/archaeological-dig-gives-clues.html
I know that many detectorists don't sell their items, and when they do, they sell items that have no academic value - maybe things like silver dimes or other common items, but one of the questions that is often asked is, "How much is it worth." That is a surprsingly difficult question to answer. One good answer is, "It is only worth what someone will pay for it." That, of course, refers to an items economic value. There are other types of value that help determine what you can get out of an item. Understanding the various types of value will help you find the best buyer for your items.
Here are a few of the basic types of value.
Aesthetic value. An item tends to be more valuabe if it is considered pretty. I know that is a subjective thing and not everybody will agree on what is pretty, but all of these values are subjective to some extent.
Collector value. An item will be more valuable if it is an item that is commonly collected. Collector value is the result of increased demand. some people collect items on a certain topic or theme like dogs, cats, owls and pigs,trains or tractors. If you find a ring in the shape of a particular type of dog or cat, for exammple, you can get more money for it if you manage to find a buyer who is a collector of that type of item. If you list it in ebay for example, and simply list it under silver ring and don't mention the bull dog, you'll fail t attract many of the best possible buyers.
Reminisence value. People tend to like things that remind them of an earlier time in their life. That is one reason that plastic items from the nineteen seventies are often more valuable than items from the eighteen hundreds. People collect things like baseball cards and Robby Robot and will pay good prices to obtain the things they played with as children. A 1957 Chevy provides a good exammple of this type of value, and will bring a higher price than many older cars.
Historic value. An item will tend to be more valuable if is associated with a historic person, place, time or event.
Utilitarian value. Some items are valuable simply because they are useful. You might not personally use gold to manufacture anything, but a large part of gold's value comes from the properties that make it useful, such as conductivity, and maliability, and resistance to corrosion. Of course it is also considered pretty by many people and therefore contains aesthetic value.
Many items exhibit a number of types of value. Each of these types of value can add to the economic value of an item.
Of course rarity and condition cross all the above categories and contribute to the demand for and value of any item.
You can also often add to the value of an item by doing some research and providing information about the item, such as where it came from, who owned it or created it, and any historic associations. You can also add value to an item by properly conserving the item and making a nice display.
When I sell things, I enjoy finding buyers that appreciate the item and provide a good home for the item. When I first started selling some items on ebay, I sometimes had mixed feelings about letting some things go, but when I received emails from happy buyers about how much they liked the item and how they displayed or enjoyed it, I was glad that I found a good home for the item. In a way, when you sell something to the highest bidder, you are often finding the best home for the item. At the same time that you make an item available to the public it is also made available to museums and academicians, if they have any interest.
When you sell an nice item, it can be more than just an economic transaction. I know that a few items I've sold like some old prints of lighthouses on the Hudson River, are now being displayed in a museum. One old bottle that I sold appeared in a book on pharmacy bottles. I like the fact that items like that are viewed and appreciated by people.
You can, of course, also donate some types of items to museums or simply lend them for a specified amount of time and and a specified use. That can benefit you in a variety of other ways.
Forecast and Conditions. I took a quick look at the beach yesterday. It seems like the peak waves on Tuesday didn't accomplish much. Conditions didn't change appreciably. I still would rate the beaches as poor for finding shipwreck cobs.
The wind is out of the southeast again and the seas will be decreasing slightly for the next few days. That means no real changes.
I've given some ideas on what to do during conditions like this in the past and won't bother to repeat it again.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
