Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
This thin gold band got bent. I've shown quarters and dimes that were bent at ninety degree angles before. Items are exposed to a lot of force when buried under a lot of sand and rock under the front beach.
I received an email from Philip I., the seller of the eBay item that I showed yesterday, and he said the item was found inside a heavy crust and was told it is made of copper and bronze.
Not long ago I talked about how objects are moved by the waves, and despite what you might often hear, I stated that there are factors that are more important than weight in determining how an object is moved on a beach. I also discussed density and specific gravity, which I consider to be more important than weight, but still there are other important factors. Those other factors include the shape of the object, which I consider to be very important, surface characteristics, and other materials that are part of the object.
Concerning shape, solid spheres, unlike thin sheets, sink quickly to lower layers of sand and are not easily moved by the waves. A thin gold sheet will be moved totally differently than a sphere of similar composition. A thin gold sheet presents a lot of surface area for the waves to work against, while a gold sphere would not be as affected by the movement of water. Of course a sphere or other shape that presents little resistance (such as a gold ring) would also sink into the sand more quickly.
You've undoubtedly seen rocks that were cast up on a beach. You might have seen heavy rocks that appeared to heavy to be moved by the water. Here is an article that explains how rocks weighing up to 78 tons were moved onto shore and over land by the sea. Some people would think that impossible. The following article gets into the dynamics of that.
Here is the link.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430164357.htm
Very informative article. Very applicable to metal detecting.
When figuring out the distribution of objects on a beach, remember to take into account factors other than weight and density.
Here is a great web site for finding values of US coins. It presents a lot of great information.
It appears that the Lost Colony has been found. No one knew where the 16th century settlers moved to after leaving Roanoke Island until a reexamination of the 425 year-old Virginia Pars map revealed some clues.
Here is the link to that story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/lost-colony-of-roanoke-re_n_1474199.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D158325
Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Forecast and Conditions.
The wind is from the West and the seas flat. The tide will be low around 3:30. Conditions remain pretty much the same. Still easy low tide and water hunting.
Seas will be slowly increasing up to about four feet on Wednesday.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide @comcast.net
