Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Sea Weed Beach. Photo By Michael E. |
Here is a beach photo by Michael E. showing a beach covered by a lot of sea weed. As I've said in the past, sea weed indicates that light materials are washing onto the beach and conditions will generally be very poor.
Beach conditions have been poor most of this summer on the Treasure Coast. It has been a long period of continued small surf and mostly southeast winds.
I changed my mind on what I was going to post today because I got some emails and some links that I wanted to post.
Below I posted a link to an article on how this is the slowest beginning to any hurricane season on record. That isn't what they started out predicting this year, but it isn't over yet either.
I was going to continue with the stream that I've been posting on about site selection. I felt like taking a bit of a break from that today though, especially since I got the following email from Bill P. It provides a good reminder.
I'll continue with my previous series of posts tomorrow.
Here is what Bill P. said.
Your post about old coin concentrations reminded me of a modern beach site
that unexpectedly gave up a couple handfuls of early 1900's US coins. Not long
after becoming addicted to metal detecting, I was walking from my car in the
parking lot to the beach where I'd only found modern coins and jewelry. This was
a very popular busy beach. I had turned my machine on at the car and as soon as
I reached the sand I lowered the coil and immediately got a loud, large target.
I kicked the sand and out popped a 1918 Walker half just below the surface!!
Somebody must have dropped this recently because this beach gets hammered daily.
I took another step and picked up another old silver coin, no way!! These were
so out of place I thought someone was playing a trick on me. I looked around to
see who was laughing and pointing at me but no one was there. Then I realized
that the city had recently installed outside showers for the swimmers to rinse
off after swimming. They were positioned a couple hundred feet apart but they
had dug a trench to bury the water lines between them. I was detecting the area
where the deep sand was dug up and placed during
construction then backfilled. If I remember correctly (I didn't keep records), I
found over 50 old coins and most were silver. I later found out that that area
once had a concession stand right on the spot where the old coins were found.
Unfortunately, it was next to the parking lot and the city wouldn't allow any
"deep" digging around their new plumbing. It goes to show a little luck and
research can put valuables in your pocket, but in this case, the research was
after the fact. -Bill
Bill's story does relate to what I've been talking about. At some locations on the beach there are layers of sand where older coins reside. On the beach we wait for mother nature to do the construction work and bring the old coins within detecting range. That is why those holes on the beach like those I've been talking about appear sporadically rather than continually. Mother nature will uncover the hole, or more likely part of the hole, and then cover them again, maybe later uncovering others.
Those types of old coin holes will be missed by detectorists who do not explore new areas and who are not at the right place at the right time. It helps a lot to be able to look at a beach and know by looking if an area is worth exploring or not.
I always check out newly exposed dirt in older areas unless I have a higher priority detecting site at the time, in which case I'll return at another time to the area where the old dirt has been exposed. One time that comes to mind is when I was driving from one beach to another and noticed where recent construction had taken place on Miami beach. I forget exactly what they were doing, but there was a long trench that was recently dug between the road and the beach. When I saw that, I pulled over, parked the car and took a look. It didn't take long to start finding old coins in the newly disturbed dirt. I think the first signal was a Buffalo Nickel. Be vigilant for those types of opportunities. It doesn't take long to notice construction like that, and it doesn't take long to check it out. There is little down side, and I always like to know what might have been exposed.
http://charlotte.news14.com/content/news/coastal/698823/divers-uncover-more-artifacts-from-blackbeard-s-shipwreck-site
This link was submitted by Christopher P. Thanks Christopher!
Here an article about this being the slowest start to a hurricane season on record.
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/slowest-start-to-a-hurricane-season-on-record/
On the Treasure Coast the surf is running about 2 - 3 feet, as has often been the case lately. It won't change much real soon.
There is a named storm, Fernand, which is over the coast of Mexico. I don't expect it to come this way.
From the charts I wouldn't expect a real low tide today.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
