Monday, April 2, 2012

4/2/12 Report - Flat Water, Megan's Find & Mystery Item


Written by the treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.

Come on in, the water is fine. The water is very nice right now. Good temperature, and very calm.

The weather is as much as you can ask for, if you like nice weather. Me, I'd rather have cloudy rainy days with a lot of wind. But that's me.

Most people love this weather. And there have been a lot of boaters and beach bathers out lately. If nothing else, at least there are some recent drops to be found.

I found a good number of recent drops this morning. I went to a different area to do a litte exploring. Besides the recent drops, there was also a number of coins that were probably there for some time. They were fairly deep.

I found out that those kite boards don't really float. They are basically neutral buoyant. Didn't work for what I was trying to do.

Anyhow, even if conditions remain poor, you can enjoy the weather and the water.

I did see something interesting under the water at one location that I was exploring. Wasn't sure if it could have been a piece off of an old wreck or what. Worth looking into a little more.

I like to go out and scout out some new area from time to time.


Item Eye-balled by Megan.

Very good clear photo. Thanks Megan.

Megan was on her towel at the beach and noticed this in the sand.

Always keep your eyes open.

Unfortunately there are some fakes out there. A good number too!

There are some quick and easy ways to identify a fake.

One thing to do is test the metal. A reale should be silver, and an escudo should be gold, for example. If you can test your coin yourself or take it somewhere to have it tested, that is one of the easiest ways to identify a fake.

Another thing is to look closely for the words that will plainly tell you that the item is a copy. A lot of fakes will have "COPY" plainly visible. Many times, however, the words will be very small or obscure, and very often very near the edge of the coin. Sometimes the words are very faint, or only partially visible. If the coin is encrusted or corroded those words can be even more difficult to see. Sometimes you won't see it until you clean the coin and use magnification. Sometimes the word will be in a worn area, and sometimes only one or two letters, such as "CO," might be visible.

One fake coin that I ran into many years ago, looked more like silver than gold, but the coins design was that of a gold coin. That can happen when the plating on a fake coin wears off. The silverish metal that was originally plated over on that fake, wasn't even silver. I found that out after I tested it. I'm sure the fake was originally plated a gold color.

Another thing to look for is an edge that runs around the rim of the coin. That happens when the coin is made in a mold. Struck coins, like reales and escudos, won't have mold marks like that.

If you've found a number of cobs or have been studying them for a while, you can probably easily identify fakes, but there are some pretty good fakes that can fool you for a few seconds when you first dig them up and they are covered by sand or corrosion.


Artifact Found With Metal Detector.

This object was found by the same fellow that found the spikes I showed yesterday. Looks a little like a knee buckle, but different too.

From the photo it also looks like it could be silver, but I don't know about that.

The rosette looks similar to a design I've seen on a variety of 1715 Fleet artifacts.


The wind is still from the west. I'm expecting more good weather and smooth seas for this week.


Have fun,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net