Sunday, July 17, 2011

7/17/11 Report - Cobs, Maravedis, Odyssey Marine, LaSalle Shipreck, and Conditions



1731 Reale.

You'll find this cob, with many more examples, on the web site that I mention below.


Odyssey Marine common stock jumped over 10 percent Friday. That is pretty good return for a single day. You can't make that much on a ten year CD.

OMEX has been very volatile lately, increasing rapidly right before the issuance of millions of new shares, and then falling just as rapidly. If you are a short-term speculator and your timing was good, you could have made a lot of money quickly with this stock, but if your timing was wrong you could have lost just as much.

The big moves in the price of this stock have been happening before the news comes out. That probably means that some of the big traders inside knowledge have been making trading on information that most people don't yet have and making the big gains and leaving the loses to the amateurs.

This is neither a recommendation to buy or sell the stock. Buyer beware.


I found a nice web site showing a lot of Spanish cobs, especially a lot of small denomination maravedis and reales.

Maravedis are smaller denomination Spanish coins made of copper. In earlier centuries (14th and 15th) I understand there were maravedis that were made of gold and silver. In later centuries, they were made of copper and that is the type that would most likely be found on New World wreck sites.

You can find a lot of maravedis on sale on eBay relatively cheap.

Unfortunately that web site is in the Spanish language. If you have a little knowledge of the language, you can probably figure it out.

From the first display, select the name of the king for the time period that you are interested in. You'll then see photos and descriptions of coins. Click on aqui (here) to enlarge the picture of the coin that you want to see enlarged.

Here is the link.

http://www.maravedis.org/espa%F1a.html

I used the term coin and cob as synonymous, and as you might know, that is not entirely accurate.


I also found a nice shipwreck web site showing a cofferdam being used by archaeologists to excavate the La Salle shipwreck in Texas. You might be interested in taking a look at the artifacts and other pictures on that webs site.

Here is the link.

http://www.thc.state.tx.us/belle/lasbellephoto.shtml


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions


I have never seen a more prolonged period of consistently poor beach hunting conditions. It has to change sometime.

The wind has changed a little after two weeks of west/southwest winds. It is now out of the north/northwest. And the seas are predicted to increase up to 3.5 feet today and tomorrow.

I suppose that is due to the low pressure area that is now about a hundred miles east of Cape Kennedy. NOAA says there is some chance (30%) of development.

As I've said in the past, we don't need a hurricane to improve the beaches, but we do need a significant prolonged northeaster.

There is really a lot of sand to be moved right now.

Among the first places to erode, will be the spots where there has been beach renourishment. I'm not kidding! That new sand will be the first to go because it sticks out like a sore thumb where it isn't supposed to be and doesn't have the natural protection that a natural beach would have.

Anyhow, we will have higher seas today and tomorrow. That should help a little but probably not enough for me to change my beach conditions rating from a 1 (poor).


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net