6/8/16 Report - Treasure Coast Treasure History: Cobb Coin VS Unidentified Wreck. 2000 Year Old Cache of Hasmonian Coins.

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

Cache of 2000-year-old Coins Uncovered.
Source: Times of Israel.

Cache Being Uncovered.
Source: Times of Israel.

A treasure trove of 2,150-year-old silver coins excavated in the central Israeli city of Modiin apparently belonged to a Jew who had to leave the nearby house but never managed to retrieve his hidden cache.

The 16 coins from the Hasmonean period (2nd-1st century BCE) were concealed in a rock crevice up against a wall of a large agricultural estate, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday.


Below is the link.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/cache-of-hasmonean-era-silver-coins-uncovered-in-modiin/

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Here is an interesting piece of treasure history.

COBB COIN COMPANY, INC., a Florida corporation, et al., Plaintiff, v. The UNIDENTIFIED, WRECKED AND ABANDONED SAILING VESSEL, etc., Defendant. No. 79-8266-Civ-JLK. August 31, 1982. United States District Court.

I pasted four excerpts below.  You might want to read the entire document though.

In the summer of 1963, Mr. Mel Fisher, owner of a scuba diving shop, came to Florida from California and became associated with Mr. Wagner and Real Eight. Mr. Fisher formed salvaging groups named Universal Salvage Co., Cobb Coin Co., and Treasure Salvors, Inc. Between October 1963 and August, 1972, Mr. Fisher's companies and Real Eight worked some of the sites of 1715 wrecks pursuant to various agreements, under authority of Real Eight's State leases. Under these agreements, they divided their recoveries 50-50 after deducting 25 percent for the Division of Archives and Records Management. The combined effort yielded large quantities of gold, silver, and other valuable artifacts.[2] See Plaintiff's Exhibits No. 8 and 9 and State's Exhibit No. 68. Although the State's archivists admit to having received these artifacts, none could testify with certainty what the State now has, nor are there any records of precisely which of the artifacts it received came from the Corrigan site or other wrecks of the 1715 Fleet...

 Real Eight terminated its contract with Fisher's company in 1972. At that time, Mr. Fisher was apparently devoting more of his attention to the search for the treasures of the Atocha and Santa Margarita, which sank in 1622 40 miles west of Key West. Mr. Fisher testified that he gave up on the east coast wrecks because the State officials were slow in sending field agents to accompany salvage vessels and in returning the salvors their share of the recovery... 

Mr. Kenworthy stated that his company recovered sixteen (16) silver coins from Corrigan's *547 in its two years of salvage under the exclusive State lease. Tr. at 92. The State's representative testified that Quest found nine (9) coins. The coins were turned over to the State for safekeeping; they have since disappeared.

 In 1980, the plaintiff recovered 734 individual silver coins, two gold discs, 10 clumps of inseparable silver coins, and 300 pieces of "encrusted objects." In 1981, it recovered 25 or 30 "encrusted objects," 300 silver coins, and 12 Royal Eight Escudo gold coins. The Royal Eight Escudos are in "fairly good shape." Tr. at 806. Many of the silver coins are pieces of eight, minted in 1713; the value of one is now estimated at $500.00 to $600.00. The value of a Royal Eight Escudo is estimated to range between $5,000.00 and $12,000.00, depending on the quality of the coin...

Here is the link if you want to read the entire document.  Some of you might be interested in the legal aspects of the case.

https://coast.noaa.gov/data/Documents/OceanLawSearch/Cobb%20Coin%20Co.%20v.%20Unidentified,%20Wrecked%20&%20Abandoned%20Sailing%20Vessel,%20549%20F.%20Supp.%20540%20(S.D.%20Fla.%201982).pdf?redirect=301ocm

Did you notice mention of the 12 Royal Eight escudos?

I wonder how the coins disappeared from the State's safekeeping.

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On the Treasure Coast we'll have a couple more days of flat surf.  The wind will be out of the west.  We'll also have some negative low tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net