Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
That was the headline on January 6, 1777. The story read as follows.
CROSSING THE DELAWARE AND THE BATTLE OF TRENTON – Great News from New-York … His Excellency General Washington … in Person at the Head of Three Thousand of our Troops, crossed the Delaware, attacked the Enemy at Trenton … and after a brisk Action of Thirty-five Minutes, entirely routed them. Salem: E[zekiel] Russell, January 6, 1777.
This newspaper telling of Washington's victory is the only one known to survive and is being auctioned by Christies. The auction estimate is $40,000 to $60,000.
Here is the link to the fine manuscript and book auction.
http://www.christies.com/salelanding/index.aspx?intsaleid=26932&sitecoreguid={e70a5466-f441-4913-ba5f-035cc211c735}§ionname=auctions_nav&saletitle=
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Hurricane season has begun. As you know, most cobs and shipwreck artifacts that are found on Treasure Coast beaches are found after storms. Last year Matthew aimed at us but hit farther north. Some cobs and shipwreck items were found after Matthew, but nothing like some of the bigger treasure storms such as the famed Thanksgiving Storm of the last century.
Not all hurricanes come during the peak part of the season, which is August to October. Some tropical storms don't wait for hurricane season to start. That happened this year and the previous two years. Arlene, which had no impact on us, formed earlier this year. Alex formed in January of 2016 and Ana formed in May of 2015.
They are forecasting that this season will be more active than average.
The last hurricane having a category 3 or greater rating to make landfall in the U. S. was Wilma in 2015.
It take a hurricane to make the beaches productive. It has nothing to do with storm strength. Some strong hurricanes do not produce a lot of finds, while some storms do. What I'd like to see more than anything, is a storm that sits off-shore and sending us a steady stream of northeast winds and high seas.
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I've talked about the fact that there aren't as many coins being found on the beaches these days. People aren't using cash as much as in the past.
I've always found a lot of watches. There don't seem to be quite as many any more, but still they are common finds - more than I would expect.
I don't know why people wear watches these days. You can tell the time from your cell phone. Those big watches seem to be in style. People are now also wearing watches that do things other than tell the time, like the Apple watch and Fitbit.
I always found a good number of watches in the water - a lot of them worked, but a lot of them were ruined. My first Rolex find was drowned.
I was always surprised by how many watches were lost on the beach. You might not think something so big would get lost in the sand, but they do.
A lot of the lost watches are inexpensive, but some are nice or interesting, and some are valuable. The one that I actually wore the most, as I don't often wear a watch, was a German watch I found. I wore it until the battery ran down.
Gucci watches were common finds for me - both men's and women's but more women's. I found a good number of those ladies watches that have the different color plastic fashion pieces that can be changed. On the ones I found, more than half did not have the color pieces.
Dive watches were fairly common finds in the water. There was one place where I used to find a lot of dive equipment, including dive watches, knives and weights. It was where they took people for dive classes. I started discovering dive equipment at that location and wondered why, and then later I learned about the classes they conducted there.
I don't often target watches, but one good place to find a watch is in a dip in front of the beach, especially if it is filled with course shelly sand.
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These Pre-Columbian gold pendants, 1000-1500 AD, were appraised at $20,000 to $28,000 several years ago.
Here is that link.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/season/17/myrtle-beach-sc/appraisals/pre-columbian-pendants-1000-1500-ad--201202A17/
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Overall I have no changes in beach conditions to report. Even a passing storm can cause a spot of the beach to erode and open up a treasure window. You have to be alert and quick to catch those types of fleeting opportunities.
We'll soon be keeping track of tropical storms. No one knows how that will turn out this year. It might be a big detecting year or it might not. Only time will tell.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
