Written by the treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Recently Found Pot Shard.Seems like a good time to remind you that when conditions are poor for one thing, they'll be good for finding something else.
The southeast winds have been piling shells up on some beaches. When that happens, cob hunting is generally poor, but lighter materials such as pot shards can be found then.
Here is one shard that was found by one of this blog's readers at one beach where shells have been piling up recently.
I saw a couple programs of the American Digger last night. If you don't already know, the main character (detectorist) is former wrestler Rick Savage. I didn't care for the way the show was done. Too much put-on drama for me. But what do you expect from a pro wrestler?
If you are not a relic hunter or specialized collector you probably would not have known that many of the items they were finding would bring such high price - hundreds of dollars for antique saws, augers, wrenches, and rusty things that some people might have just thrown away. That to me was probably the most worthwhile part of the program.
It always helps to have a broad familiarity with a variety of types of hunting and variety of types of finds. I bet most people have discarded something that was actually worth some good money. They just didn't realize it at the time.
The show might give some people the idea of going out and buying a detector only to find that it isn't actually all that easy.
Kovels Komments says, A copper fountain in San Francisco by Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997) has been stolen and probably sold for scrap value. Falkenstein was an artist who made large metal architectural pieces, including the doors of a museum in Venice, Italy, as well as unique metal jewelry. Her fame and the prices of her works are both increasing. Thefts of outdoor art are becoming a major problem.
The price of scrap metals is good these days. I wouldn't scrap expensive pieces of art, but don't pass up junk that has scrap value.
Sometimes when I post something on a topic, I happen to run into other things on the same topic. I was talking about fake cobs the other day and happened to run across this article on a fake 1799 8-reale. Unfortunately the quality of the counterfeit is pretty darn good. Too good, in fact.
The article is by Michael Fahey and published in the Expert Advice section of Coin World.
Here is one quote from the article.
Fake silver dollar-sized coins have become a specialty of the counterfeiters operating in Asia. U.S. Trade dollars, Bust dollars and Seated dollars have been targeted, as well as Spanish Colonial 8-real coins, European talers, Japanese yen and Trade dollars, and a huge variety of Chinese dollar coins.
If you have a technical interest in counterfeit coins, you'll want to read this article.
http://www.coinworld.com/articles/fake-1799-mo-fm-8-real-coin/
Treasure Coast Beach Conditions and Forecast.
Beach detecting conditions remain poor for the time being.
The wind will be out of the west tomorrow and the seas down to around one foot. That should make the water inviting. Too bad there is so much sand in the shallow water.
But the good news is Saturday. The wind will switch around and be coming out of the northeast. Seas are predicted to be up to seven feet or so. If it actually happens that way, there will be a good chance of seeing some cuts. Too bad there is so much sand that needs to be moved.
It might take more than one day to improve conditions very much.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
