Written by the treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Brass or Bronze Artifact Metal Detector Find |
Here is a brass, or roughly cast bronze, artifact found by James F. up around the St. Johns River. He thinks it might be a cleat and ring off a early steamboat. The area is also where Seminole War battles were fought.
Notice the maker's mark in the closeup.
Any additional thoughts or information on the object would be appreciated. I'm sure someone can give some ideas on web sites or other resources for researching maker's mark.
Really nice find and great photos. Thanks James.
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| Maker's Mark. |
It helps to know something about a lot of different types of things. And it helps to keep your eyes open for all kinds of things. Don't just look for coins, silver and gold. Other things can provide important clue.
I've mentioned before that sometimes old shipwreck items will get pumped onto a beach by beach replenishment projects. That is exactly what happened in the following story. Old pieces of glass and ceramics started to show up on a freshly replenished beach.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredged up what appears to be the the Severn, which sunk in Delaware Bay in 1774 while bringing household goods and building supplies to the colonists from England.
Here is the link to the storey.
http://www.seaglassjournal.com/articles/shipwreck/severnshipwreck.htm
I guess the Corps pretty much destroyed the context of that archaeological site.
Some people like sea glass just because they like sea glass, but sea glass can also provide clues to possible shipwrecks. Glass and ceramics tend to remain near the surface and are visible when many other old items remain buried.
A shipwreck possibly containing 3 billion dollars worth of platinum was found.
Here is that link.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/03/uk-usa-shipwreck-platinum-idUSLNE81200T20120203
I was on the way to the store this morning and stopped at a local tourist beach. Although the beach is hunted by multiple detectorists daily there was a combination of new drops and deeply buried coins in the dry sand. People are evidently missing some things. It could be that they are moving too fast or using too much discrimination, thus missing the deeper targets.
Of course there is nothing wrong with missing some things if you are just doing a quick search, but the guys I usually see here are running a very tight pattern. I also see them using discrimination.
After quickly checking out the dry sand, I jumped into the water to see what was there. In less than 20 minutes I got three pieces of jewelry - only one nice piece but I was just checking to see what it was like.
In summary, I'd have to say there are still things to be found even though conditions remain poor for finding old shipwreck treasure coins.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
I was on the way to the store this morning and stopped at a local tourist beach. Although the beach is hunted by multiple detectorists daily there was a combination of new drops and deeply buried coins in the dry sand. People are evidently missing some things. It could be that they are moving too fast or using too much discrimination, thus missing the deeper targets.
Of course there is nothing wrong with missing some things if you are just doing a quick search, but the guys I usually see here are running a very tight pattern. I also see them using discrimination.
After quickly checking out the dry sand, I jumped into the water to see what was there. In less than 20 minutes I got three pieces of jewelry - only one nice piece but I was just checking to see what it was like.
In summary, I'd have to say there are still things to be found even though conditions remain poor for finding old shipwreck treasure coins.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
