8/10/13 Report - Silver Dollars Found in Florida Cache & More

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

Cache Found Including Two Silver Dollars (upper right).
See link below for source of image.
Find by Rob B.  Submitted by James F.

Did you ever notice how many large farm fields have one large tree remaining somewhere in the open expanse of the field?   They very often do.  Maybe not on those huge corporate farms, but on the family farms that I'm familiar with up north.

Normally if the field is large, somewhere there will be one large standing tree.  I  hadn't thought about it much, but it could have been intentionally left for shade.   That is how we used them.   When it was time for a water break, we'd take a little break, sit for a few minutes in the shade of a tree, take a drink and feel the breeze.  Then back to work.

Those trees were also a place for children to gather and play, hang from limbs or do a little climbing.   It would also be the place to leave equipment so that it would out of the work area and not be in the way of the tractor or other farm machinery.

The lone tree was always a focal point that was distinct from the otherwise formless expanse of the field.

If you metal detect rural areas like that, it is often worth  detecting under trees like that.  I always do.  You are almost always guaranteed to find something.  Sometimes some old rusty farm implements or parts.  Sometimes a coin or two.  And sometimes something better.

The cache shown in the picture above was found at the bottom of a tree here in Florida.  It was found by one of James F.'s hunting buddies Rob. B.

Here is what James, who submitted the story, said.

Will, one of my hunting buddies (actually a newbie) Rob B. and I were detecting in an area that was once farmland with our Minelab E-Tracs. Under a rather old oak, he got a signal, but due to the very strange target signature was not sure if he would dig it. He scanned it from one direction and the next then scratched his head a bit and scanned it some more. He went off and dug up a few clad coins here and there, but kept going back to the spot. Finally he came over to me and said "You wanna' take a look at this? I'm not sure what it is."

I wandered over and scanned the area under the tree and also got odd, but consistent reading...on the E-Trac a 01-43 is interpreted as a silver dollar, which, you have to think must be a mistake...a silver dollar??? No way, right? The signal garbles from a solid 01-43 into a solid 44-36...steel or stainless steel...then garbles again into 45-45...iron/steel. These were consistent and solid from one sweep to the next. Finally, the we dug it and about 10" deep, Rob says "What is that?" A package wrapped up in cellophane (Remember CELLOPAHNE?) held together with some rotting string. The pinponter beeps again and digging a little deeper finds another cellophane pouch containing several squares of damp and soiled brown paper with an embossed circle ringed in dirt. His hands were shaking when he unwrapped the paper. A gleaming 1921 solid silver Peace dollar lay in his palm. Rob's hands were shaking so bad, he nearly dropped it! The second paper was unwrapped to reveal a soiled but solid silver 1922 Peace dollar coin. Heavy and solid, no telling how long they had been down there, but we had to cut through a two inch root to get down to it. Also, there was a German Army mess kit (Rob's wife is German and he is fluent in it...the mess kit was embossed with the German army,s moniker) as well as what looked to be a switchblade of French manufacture. There was a small packet of tools, machine bits, small saw blades and some random hardware in a smaller separate package pried out from under the roots. We had no idea who buried it or why...the various packages of different metals gave our machines a fit, but the readings were actually accurate. I did a short unlisted YouTube video on my channel and shot a few pics...here's the video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5wURlA6RNk

James followed up correcting the date of the silver dollars.  He said...

Well, turns out one of the silver dollars found in that under-tree cache I sent you the video about yesterday was a 1921 MORGAN Silver Dollar and the other was a 1922 Peace Silver Dollar...

Peace dollars can be worth good money, depending upon condition, of course.

This is a type of detecting that you might enjoy when the beaches aren't behaving.  You probably won't find so much gold, but an occasional gold item might pop up.  And some interesting finds of other types.  You might be surprised to learn how well  rusty farm implements and other vintage items sell.

Example of 1922 Peace Dollar.

Also some rusty items, like a tobacco tin, for example, could hold old paper money.  It has happened.  And I see no reason to pass up things like that.

Here is another thing you might expect me to point out.  When in doubt, dig.  Actually my advice is to always dig.  Rust does not mean the item will necessarily have no interest or value.

Great find Rob!  Thanks for submitting the story James.

As James discussed in another email.  When the cache was buried, the person who buried it probably didn't have a detector to recover the cache.  Therefore it would be buried by some landmark or something so that the item could be recovered without digging up half the field to find it.  Therefore when cache hunting, look around and figure out where you might bury something.  People think remarkable alike.  What makes sense to one has a good chance of making sense to another.   I guess there is a knack to reading any site, not just beaches.

I also think when our shipwrecks were originally being salvaged by the Spanish or Indians, there were probably a few people who decided to quickly conceal an item or small personal caches on the beach or back in the dunes.

On the Treasure Coast the wind is still mostly from the east/southeast.   The surf was up a little yesteray.  This weekend and for a few more days it will be running mostly around two feet.

There isn't any storm activity in the Atlantic.

There are a few spots where there is some erosion, but it is in beach renourishment sand, like down at Jensen Beach.

I've seen a good many turtle nests lately.  A lot of them were raccoon buffets.   I couldn't believe how many complete nests were eaten.  That is nature.

Happy hunting,
TreaureGuide@comcast.net