Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Some Nice Finds by Steve S.As you might know the Sebastian Inlet is being dredged. One person emailed me asking if there might be something in the dredged sand that is being dumped south of the inlet. That is a distinct possibility and worth checking out.
I do know that Spanish shipwreck coins have been found in dredged sand that was dumped on a beach in the past, but you can also expect a bunch of shredded aluminum cans and junk to be found in that dredged sand. Patience sometimes pays off though.
Here is a link to the story about the dredging.
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/feb/08/dredging-begins-at-sebastian-inlet/
If they haven't' already started, they will soon start to dump sand on the beach south of Fort Pierce inlet too. I know they were getting ready to do that. Most of the equipment was in place.
And of course they are talking about dredging the St. Lucie Inlet, which was pretty heavily sanded in.
Like I said, sometimes good stuff is found in dredged sand, but usually also a lot of junk.
The most recent blog poll has concluded and the results are in. There were over 100 readers who responded. That is about one out of four daily readers.
The results are interesting. There were more cobs found in January of 2012 than I expected. Eleven people, or about 10% of the respondents said that a shipwreck treasure coin or cob was their best find of the month. Like I said, that is more than I expected, but not way out of line with what I expected. I
The poll does not indicate the absolute number of cobs or treasure coins found, but I think it is a decent indicator. Most readers of this blog do like cobs or treasure coins. I know that from previous polls and emails that I received. There is a high probability that if a cob or treasure coin is found, it will be a favorite find. Of course, that is not always the case. Many other types of finds can be more valuable than treasure coins, however a lot of people especially like finding old things.
Considering the far less than optimal conditions on the Treasure Coast in January, the number of cobs found is fairly impressive. January has historically been one of the better months for finding cobs, and there were a few beaches that did open up this January for a while. All in all, not a bad number considering that this wasn't one of the better years.
Even though there were cobs and treasure coins found, three responses in the poll were chosen more often the the cob and treasure coin category. The largest number of respondents (32% of the respondents), said that their favorite find in January was a piece of jewelry. Jewelry finds are often more valuable than cobs or most anything else that is typically found on a beach or in the water even though it might not be old. With the high price of gold these days, jewelry items are even more valuable. I remember when the price of gold was less than three hundred dollars per ounce.
The category chosen second most frequently as the favorite find was US coins (29%). I suspect that most, or at least some of those were older coins - and possibly gold, but the poll did not provide that information. A lot of gold coins are found mounted in jewelry, so that causes overlapping categories.
For many beach and shallow water hunters, most gold coin finds are those mounted in jewelry. In fact, as you probably know, it is not uncommon to find silver reales mounted in ear rings and pendants. Occasionally escudos are found in jewelry too.
The third highest category chosen as a favorite find (12%) was "other." I don't know what that includes. Foreign coins is one good possibility. WWII artifacts is another. And it could include anything from a bowling ball to a surf board.
Then after the fourth highest category (treasure coins and cobs)was shipwreck artifacts (12%). I would expect a lot of spikes and sheeting and perhaps some pot shards to be in that category along with some miscellaneous things. Again, a favorite find doesn't have to be valuable.
Bottles and fossils were both chosen by some as a favorite find, but those categories combined only added up to about 6% of all respondents.
That's it for the most recent poll. I think I'll do a poll like this every month so I can keep track of monthly and seasonal trends in what people are finding. I think this type of poll provides some good information and will tell us more over the coming months. It will also help me to validate my beach conditions ratings.
This morning there was at least one beach with extensive over two-foot cuts. I'll give a Treasure Coast beach conditions rating of a minimal two.
According to the surf web sites, the seas will be decreasing until about noon Saturday and then increasing again, peaking up around six feet on Sunday.
You might want to check the low tide zone around noon Saturday before the seas increase again, and then after the peak, maybe Monday.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
