7/31/18 Report - Invasion Currency of World War II. Wildfires Uncover Tons of Artifacts.

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

1944 AMC

Other Side of Same Bill

Do you know what this is?  I didn't.  I thought it was fifty french francs.  That is what it  looks like, but it was actually made in the U. S.  It is one example of Allied Military Currency.

Military currencies are issued strictly for the use of troops; they are prepared by a (military) power or Government and declared by the overall commander to be legal tender for use by civilian and/or military personnel as prescribed in the areas occupied by its forces . ‘Military Currency’ should be of a distinctive design so as to be able to distinguish it from the national (i.e. official) currency of the country concerned, but it may be denominated in the monetary unit of either .

In the frame of the overall preparation for the invasion of German-occupied Western Europe, the Allies planned to print and issue special currency, denominated “French” currency, (aka “Invasion Notes”, or “Invasion Currency” ), which were supposed to help support scarce and devaluated current French banknotes and serve as a means of payment by Allied troops and citizens stationed in France . It should be noted that the above type of Allied currency had already been introduced in Italy in 1943 .

This ‘Allied Military Currency’ (aka AMC) was printed in the United States under strict security conditions by the Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company, Boston, Massachusetts and transported to Britain . For D-DAY, 19 trucks were required to deliver 3 billion French Francs, which were needed to change the British money held by American servicemen into French Military Currency and to cover a partial payment of US$ 4.03 per serviceman ! It should be noted that prior to D-Day, Allied servicemen also received, apart from the new ‘Invasion Currency’ current French banknotes, in circulation on the continent .

Source: See Skynet link below.

Here is the link for more about Allied Military Currency.

http://users.skynet.be/jeeper/currency.html

---

Source: See CBC link below.

Wildfires have exposed camps, paths and artifacts in Canada.

"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity," Perry marvels. "What the fire has done for us is it's eliminated all that vegetation on top and, wow, can we see stuff."

Suddenly, the size and scope of more than 250 Blackfoot camps are visible.

Archeologists knew most of them were here, but have never had such clear and direct access to what the Blackfoot people left behind at these camps within the last 300 years.

"We're finding so much that we're starting to rewrite what we thought we knew about Waterton history and Indigenous camp history," Perry says... Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kenow-fire-blackfoot-archeology-sites-1.4765349

Anything that can cause a change in the landscape can reveal treasure.  On the beach, it is often erosion.

---

Yesterday I posted a link, and I didn't remember who sent it to me.  It was Brain B.  Thanks Brian!

That's all I have time for today.

I'm still watching for something to pop up in the Atlantic that will improved beach conditions, but nothing yet.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/30/18 Report - One Find. Database of Ancient Finds. How To Identify Valuable Modern Coins.

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

1899 Barber Dime
Found on the Treasure Coast

Silver 19th century coins are often heavily worn like the one shown above.  It seems they were kept in circulation a long time.  As you might guess from its appearance, although it is a Treasure Coast find, it was not found on the beach.  

In this condition it might be worth around four dollars.  If it was in much better condition, it might be worth over a hundred dollars.  That doesn't seem like much when you consider how long it was lost and the difficulty of finding one in the field.  

---

Here is an interesting British metal detecting club web site including a database of interesting ancient finds.  There are many individual finds along with some hoards.

http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/H/hoardandtreasure.htm

I think someone sent me this link back a while ago.  Sorry I forget who now.

---

I found a very good pdf document about how to identify valuable coins.  You can find them in pocket change or in your goodie box.

Here is the introduction just to give you an idea what it is about.

Almost everyone has a box, can, jar, or piggy bank full of spare change. Who knows what treasures might be found in this change? And how do you tell the difference between ordinary change and a collectible coin? Is it possible to find something worth more than face value? Yes, it is! Even better, you might be able to make some money from your pocket change.

Numismatics is the study and collection of various forms of money throughout history. It is an intriguing and rewarding hobby. Numismatists can do well given the opportunity by examining many different coins to notice differences — including comparisons among coins with the same denomination. There are subtle variations — even among coins with the same year and mintmark — and recognizing these distinctions can pay off handsomely.

A numismatist becomes skilled through years of study, but eventually the effort becomes worthwhile and it’s possible to find real treasures in your change. New collectors may become discouraged if they don’t make exciting finds right away, but patience has proven to be a valuable trait toward becoming a successful collector. Many treasure hunters say it’s not about having the treasures, it’s about finding them – the thrill of the hunt.

The guidelines provided here are intended to assist the beginning collector.

Here is the link if you want to read the rest of the 26 page document.
https://www.money.org/uploads/treasures/TreasuresPDF.pdf

___

The mind is amazing thing.  There are rare occasions when you can recall the smallest details from the most distant times.  As crazy as they might seem, dreams seem to play an important roll in taking you places in thought and feeling that you don't normally go in normal waking consciousness.  I often awake and see things differently or feel differently about things after reflecting on my dreams.  Sometimes I'm motivated by dreams, like when I wake up from a dream of finding a lot of treasure of one type or another.

Last night I dreamed I was at grandmas house, where I spent my first five years before my dad and mom built their own house.  It has been a long time since I was there and grandpa and grandma are long gone.  Grandpa and grandma were there, of course.  I hadn't seen them in quite a while.  A couple of their friends that usually visited on holidays were also there and sitting on lawn chairs in the back yard, as they often did.

It wasn't one of those real crazy dreams - just a nice visit with the past and some of the people I miss the most.  It was a little strange - but not very, as dreams are judged.  More than anything, it brought back memories.   It is surprising how much detail is stored away deep down in your brain somewhere.  You normally just can't recall a lot of what is there.

As I entered their house, I went to turn on the light over their driveway.  There were two light switches beside the cellar door.  At first I hit the wrong switch and the cellar light came on.  That is the exact position where those two switches actually were.  I remember that now even though if you asked me before the dream, I would never have been able to remember that.

So what does that have to do with treasure hunting?   No matter what the task is, you have more knowledge than you realize.  Some of it is unconscious.  You can use that.  Some people call that intuition.  It is based upon unconscious or subconscious knowledge.  There is a difference between the two, but that isn't important now.  My point is that your dreams can provide deeply moving experiences and provide greater access to knowledge and provide insight and intuition.  And secondly, you probably know more than you think you do if you can only access it.

---

Nothing new with the beach conditions.  I'll keep watching for storms or changes.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/29/18 Report - Florida's Most Collected Gems. Time to Consign. Louisiana Tax Token.

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

Fossilized Seashell with Calcite Crystals Found on a Treasure Coast Beach
Photographed in Black Light.

I've shown other fossilized shells from the Treasure Coast in the past, but this is a particularly nice one.  This picture was clipped from a video of the shell taken in black light.

Calcite crystals represent the most commonly-collected mineral from Florida. As most of Florida is underlain by Tertiary to recent marine limestones, the potential for crystal finds exists just about anywhere these limestones are exposed – most prominently in active limerock quarries. 

A handful of localities have historically produced the bulk of collector-quality Florida calcites. These localities occur within specific regions, including the area around Marianna in the Panhandle, the Lecanto – Brooksville area in West-Central Florida, exposures of Miami Oolite in the Broward / Miami-Dade region of Southeast Florida, and scattered East-Central Florida exposures from shallow excavations. These excavations notably contained calcified mollusks, from localities in the Orlando area, south Brevard and central Indian River counties, and of course, Rucks Pit in Okeechobee County. Many other occurrences have been documented, including calcite replacing corals from Key Largo, a number of shallow occurrences from dredged canals and rock pits the Everglades and Southwest Florida, and even from limestone dredged from about 60 feet beneath the St. Johns River in Jacksonville. The “flos-ferri” variety of aragonite (polymorphic with calcite) has been found in a quarry north of Ocala...

The text from a site that sells fossilized shells where most prices are in the hundreds of dollars.

Here is the link.

http://www.apalachee-minerals.com/florida-calcite

I always remind people to notice other things that they see when they are on the beach detecting. You can find quite a variety including but not limited to ancient artifacts, sea glass, fossils and valuable sea shells.  When conditions aren't ideal for finding one type of treasure you might be able to find another if you are alert and aware of the possibilities.

---

If you want to sell some finds, a new Sedwick auction will be held in November.  You can consign now.

---

Jorge Y. did some great research and found the identity of yesterday's mystery item. It is a Louisiana tax token.  Here is what he found.

I am surprised by how old it is.  And they were only used for two years.

Here is the link of the listing found by Jorge.

https://www.louisiana-trade-tokens.com/taxtokens.html

Thanks Jorge!

---

There is no tropical activity in the Atlantic of interest.

No big changes in beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/28/18 Report - Metal Detecting Wet Sand on Beach. Mystery Find. Before Clovis? .

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

Mystery Object.

This is about the size of a quarter and made of a light metal such as aluminum.  I don't know what it is and would appreciate any ideas or information you might be able to provide.  I think it might be a token, but can't find any remaining design on it.  Could be just a washer or something, but I'm leaning more towards token.

That is a triangular hole in the middle.

---

In the 1920s, archaeologists dug up a trove of ancient artifacts near Clovis, New Mexico. What humans had known about their past was changed forever. These artifacts were the oldest man-made objects found on the Western Hemisphere, and the discovery led to a theory that the first humans to set foot in the Americas did so around about 13,000 years ago, and that they made and used tools like the ones found near Clovis.

Now a group of archaeologists from Texas State University are offering some of the most convincing evidence yet to challenge this “Clovis First” theory. They’ve recently discovered about 150,000 artifacts near at the Gault Archaeological Site near Killeen, Texas. What they’ve found could change what we know about the timeline of human history...

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/archaeologists-say-humans-may-have-come-to-texas-earlier-than-previously-thought/

I never trusted archaeological dating techniques too much anyhow.

Just a reminder - arrow heads and other stone or shell artifacts occasionally show up on Treasure Coast beaches.  I've shown a few in the past.

---

I once talked to a guy at the beach who was using a very high end gold detector.  He told me that the detector detected deeper when he walked along the beach north/south than when he walked in and out from the water.  He said he thought it had something to do with the magnetic fields.  He was observing something real, but it had nothing to do with the earth's magnetic fields.

On another occasion a guy using an Excalibur saw me using an Excalibur detector in the wet sand and shallow moving wate and asked to see what settings I was using.  A lot of people don't know how to detect in the wet sand.  This fellow was undoubtedly using discrimination mode and getting false signals when he was in the wet sand area.

I was using what I almost always used when detecting the beach with my Excalibur.  I used maximum sensitivity and pinpoint rather than discrimination mode.

What the first man was missing was the fact that as the salt water covers and recedes from the beach, it creates bands of mineralization.  Most of the dry beach in Florida has almost no mineralization, except where you have black sand.  But the ocean is salt water and the water and wet sand is mineralized.

When you are in the wet sand area, you have bands of mineralization.  The detector has to adjust to the different levels of mineralization.  If you are walking along the waterline, when you swing the coil, your coil crosses those bands of mineralization.  As your detector attempts to adjust, you will lose some sensitivity.  It can also cause false signals.

If you walk in and out from the water, your sweeps are not crossing the bands of changing mineralization so much.  You are sweeping with the bands instead of across them.  Therefore your detector does not have to adjust to so many changes.  That reduces false signals caused by changes in mineralization and gives what appears to be an increase in sensitivity and depth of detecting.

There are a variety of methods for dealing with the changing mineralization in the wet sand zone.  One is to decrease your detectors sensitivity.  Another is to increase discrimination.  And another is to ground balance your detector to the salt water, if your detector has that capability.

Decreasing sensitivity or increasing discrimination can both have negative effects.  You don't want to do either of those any more than necessary.  You have to weigh the positive and negatives of each method.  Your choice will be in part determined by the type of detector you use.

Another approach is to use all metals or pinpoint mode.  That is what I did more than anything else.  

In pinpoint or all-metals mode you can hear the changes in mineralization, especially at the line where the most recent water stopped, however you can learn to tell the difference between the sound caused by mineralization and a real target - most of the time.  If a target is deep or real small, it is more difficult, so you might lose some borderline targets that way, but not much, and you'll do better than with most other approaches.

With a detector like the ATX you can ground balance out the salt water mineralization and do very well.  Still, if you want every last bit of depth, use non-motion mode.  You'll hear some of the salt mineralization, but you'll still get that last bit of sensitivity to deep and small targets.  Non-motion mode in wet sand takes a bit of practice, but it works well once you master it.

I sometimes test and compare the different modes or approaches.  Go over an area with one mode and take out all targets and then use the other mode.  I've done that enough that I know how the different modes compare.  Of course you have to master each mode in order to make good comparisons.

---

There is no significant weather in the Atlantic right now.  We still have a two to three foot surf and moderate tides.

7/27/18 Report - Sunken Russian Treasure Ship Speculation. Prospector Finds Douglas Nugget. Die Crack Coins.

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

$65,000 Nugget Found by Prospector in Britain
Source: Kitco.com link shown below.

(Kitco News) - What has a higher probability of panning out — finding gold while lying face down in the river or winning the lottery? Well, one amateur prospector tried his luck with the former and struck gold in the form of an 85.7g (3.02oz) nugget.

The nugget, named the Douglas Nugget, is reportedly the biggest to ever be spotted in Britain over the last 500 years.

The amateur prospector, who is choosing to remain anonymous, used the “sniping” method to look for nuggets in the riverbed, which means employing the help of a snorkel.

The location of the find, which happened two years ago, is not being disclosed to keep others away from the site and avoid a gold rush.

“I was following a crack in the bedrock and found around 2g in fine gold,” The Guardian quoted the discoverer as saying. “This then led to a pocket, where I uncovered the nugget. I called over my friend to have a look and we both assumed it to be around 5-7g in weight. It wasn’t until I removed it that we realized just how big it was.”

Here is the link for the rest of the article.


http://www.kitco.com/news/2018-07-26/Snorkeling-For-Gold-Man-Spots-U-K-s-Biggest-Gold-Nugget-In-Scottish-River.html?sitetype=fullsite

---

Remember the Russian warship found by a South Korean company that was supposed to contain an incredible amount of gold?  I never paid too much attention to the reported value because they usually don't really know how much is there until they actually salvage it, and it is not uncommon for people to make wild claims, and my bet is that Russia will get it after a long legal battle that could last years anyhow. In any case, it seems that the reporting was way off.  One thing is that the numbers were reported in won, which accounts for some of the confusion.  At today's exchange rate, 1 million won is about 895 U.S. dollars.

Here is the beginning of an article from kitco.


SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean company that claimed to have found the wreck of a Russian warship holding $130 billion in gold said on Thursday it has not verified the existence of any gold, while a financial watchdog said it was probing possible unlawful stock trading.

Shinil Marine said last week it had discovered the wreck of the Dmitrii Donskoi, a Russian armored cruiser sunk in 1905 after fighting Japanese warships off South Korea’s Ulleung Island, and that a staggering 150 trillion won ($130 billion) of gold was on board.

However, the company backtracked on those claims on Thursday and apologized for having cited unverified news reports saying the ship held about 150 trillion won ($130 billion) worth of gold.

“The reports said the Donskoi held 200 tonnes of gold but that would only be 10 trillion won at current value,” said Shinil chief executive Choe Yong-seok...

Here is the link for more of that article.
http://www.kitco.com/news/2018-07-26/South-Korean-Firm-Backtracks-on-130-Billion-Treasure-Ship-Gold-Claims.html

Thanks to RinkRat for the link.

---

Yesterday I mentioned die chips and die cracks.  Here is a 1946 George II Canadian penny that I once found on a Florida beach that shows a small die crack.

1946 Canadian Penny Obverse

1946 Canadian Penny Reverse.

Close-up Showing Die Crack.

This die crack is nothing spectacular but some can bring a premium.  You'd probably never notice this one unless you looked at it very carefully.  I have found some more interesting die cracks.

Did you know that Canada no longer makes one-cent coins?

---

Yesterday Facebook lost $119 billion of market cap in one day.

---


There is no tropical activity in the Atlantic to be concerned about.

On the Treasure Coast we'll be having a two to three surf for a few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/26/18 Report - Marine Corps Ring Found and Returned. Die Chips, Cracks and Breaks.

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

Marine Corps Ring Found in Florida by
Tourist Returned to Owner.
Source: WPTV News (See ink below).

SIESTA KEY, Fla. - A woman who found a Marine Corps ring on Siesta Key Beach over the weekend is thrilled she was able to locate its rightful owner only two days later.  

Suzanne Rogers was vacationing in Florida when she found the ring on Sunday. 

In hopes of returning the ring to its owner, who she believed was a marine who graduated from Parris Island SC on June 30, 2017 and was part of Platoon 1041, she shared photos of it across her social media.

Two days later — with the help of more than 1K shares on her Facebook post — Rogers and her husband met up with the ring's owner Jaime Andrade...

Here is the link.

https://www.wptv.com/news/state/woman-finds-marine-corps-ring-on-siesta-key-hopes-to-find-owner

Thanks to Jorge Y. for the link.
---

I added the tokencatalog.com site to my reference link list.  It is a great resource for researching tokens.

---

Die chips, die cracks and breaks are are some of the things you'll see if you closely inspect a lot of coins.  A die chip is a small chip in the die that leaves a small lump on the newly minted coins surface.

A die break is larger than a die chip.

A die crack is what it sounds like.  A die crack will leave a long thin raised line on the coin.

They can be found on both modern and antique coins.  Of course the production process has changed a lot over the centuries, but a die is still used to make an impression on a planchet.

Whether it is hand struck or struck by a machine, errors can occur.  While doubled die errors can demand a premium on the most modern coinage, much of the doubling you will see is referred to as machine doubling and is of little interest to the collector.   Machine doubling occurs when die bounces and makes a partial secondary impression.

You can occasionally see a second impression made by a die bounce on hand struck cobs from the Spanish colonial days too.

---

If you haven't checked in for a couple of days, you'll want to go back a couple of posts to see the shipwreck salvaged intact silver picture frame found recently on the Treasure Coast

There is no tropical activity in the Atlantic right now.

On the Treasure Coast the surf is running around two to three feet.  The tides are moderate.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/25/18 Report - Complexities of Detecting Coins Buried in Jars. The Silver Picture Frame Treasure Surfacing.

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

Grant Surfacing to The Bottomline With Silver Picture Frame.
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez 

I posted a couple pictures of the frame yesterday, but here is one more.  Really great find!

If you didn't see the larger picture I posted yesterday, you should go back and take a look.

---

Coins have been around hundreds and hundreds of years  And they really haven't changed much.  The are usually round and flat with a design on two sides.   That is a basic design that has worked well and has remained little changed for centuries.

One thing that detectorists probably do not appreciate enough is the effect of the position of coins and other objects in the ground on the signal produced by a metal detector.  They usually assume that coins are lying with one face parallel to the coil.  That is how air tests are conducted and that is how depth measurements are usually taken.  But sometimes a coin can be on edge or at an angle, and that definitely affects the detector reading.

The amount of surface area presented to the coil is an important factor.  Tilting the coin (or the coil) affects that.

I gave some tips on cache hunting a couple days ago, and mentioned how you never know what metals or items might be in a cache.  The container itself might be what you detect, and the container will seldom be made of a precious metal.

Like I mentioned, canning jars or cans are sometimes used.  Not too long ago 23 Peace and Morgan silver dollars were found in a canning jar.  There are a lot of variables involved in how a metal detector might respond to that.  There were the coins and how they were positioned, but there was also a metal screw cap on the canning jar.  The position of the lid is another important factor.

I showed how the Ace 250 responded to a silver dollar not too long ago.  You'd think the signal would be much louder for twenty-three coins compared to a single silver dollar.  In this case, the silver dollars were stacked but not standing up.  They were wrapped in a rag and lying like a wrapped roll in the jar.  They were wrapped with a rag, but not as tight as they would be in a regular con wrapper.

The sound was louder than a single coin laying flat, but not as much as I expected.  They were standing on end next to each other, so the surface presented to the detector coil was nothing like it would have been if they were scattered out over the ground.

People often talk about the halo affect when talking about coins in the ground, but in this case, the coins were inside a glass jar, so there was no halo affect from the coins.  However there was a metal screw lid that was badly rusted.

Detecting the silver dollars lying in a row stacked on the ground without the jar, resulted in a signal that was somewhat louder than a single coin lying flat, but not by a huge amount. They were detected at about a foot.  That wasn't very much considering the amount of silver. The surface area presented directly to the coil is very important.  I should do a good demonstration and take some good measurements.

Another factor, as they were found, was the canning jar lid.  The jar could be buried standing up or lying down.  The lid could be facing the coil or on its side.  In this case the jar was lying, and the coins were in the position that I just described.

Here is a video showing how the jar full of silver dollars would sound if you sweep in one direction.

That was sweeping in one direction.

I advise sweeping at a 90 degree angle and observing the difference in sound when you are trying to figure out what the item might be.

Below is another short video.  This time the coil is moved 90 at a different angle.

I'm sure you noticed how different the signal was. 

If an object is round and the item is not made of different parts and the object is lying flat, you'll get the same signal no matter which direction you sweep your coil relative to the object.  That would have been the case if the jar was standing up and you swept over the lid of the jar.  In that case, you would be hearing the lid more than the coins inside the jar.

My point is that you can tell a lot about a buried object from the signal you get, especially when you sweep from more than one angle.  Mixed items or items lying at different angles can be more difficult to identify from the signal alone.  That can make cache hunting a tricky.  You are not looking individual coins or rings but mixed items that can be buried in a variety of ways.

----

There are no significant storms in the Atlantic and not much change in beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/24/18 Report - Amazing Treasure Found by Grant of The Bottomline. Who Will Salvage "World's Richest" Wreck? Investor Frenzy Over Russian Warship.

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

Great New 1715 Fleet Find by Grant

Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez

Yesterday I mentioned a few finds by the Fisher group down south, but the salvage season on the Treasure Coast is off to a great start.  Above is Grant displaying a unique complete gilded-silver picture frame fresh up from its resting place of hundreds of years.

Closer Picture of Solid Silver Picture Frame.
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez.

Notice the birds serving as feet.

Jonah said, Here a pic of our latest find: Grant aboard "The Bottomline." It appears to be a gold gilded picture frame made a solid silver with birds for feet. We had a late start to the summer working off a new boat to us. We started the summer finding silver coins ,pottery ,shipwreck material. And then this frame...

That is what I call a great find. The frame is whole and in such great shape! Congratulations Grant! And continued best wishes to the crew of The Bottomline.

Thanks much for sharing Jonah.

---

A plan to recover what may be one of history’s greatest treasure troves from the wreck of a Spanish galleon could be set in motion on July 23.

But then again, maybe not.

The administration of outgoing Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos has set a deadline of July 23 for prospective salvors to submit proposals for excavating the San José, a 300-year-old wreck off the Colombian coast.

Estimates of the value of the San José’s cargo of gold, silver and jewels have ranged from a few billion dollars to more than $20 billion...

For more: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/fight-for-worlds-richest-shipwreck-heats-up/ar-BBKYbTY?ocid=spartanntp

Thanks to Peter H. for that link.

---

According to the Huffington post, the South Korean company's find of the 118 year-old Russian warship carrying many tons of gold has set off an "investor frenzy."  

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/companys-claim-to-have-found-russian-shipwreck-sparks-investor-feeding-frenzy_uk_5b50bde5e4b0b15aba8ca564

---

I got some great feedback on the sunrise photos I recently posted.  Thanks!

Also, a lot of people were very interested in the cache post I published yesterday.

There is nothing new on the storm scene.

The surf will be increasing about a foot between today and tomorrow.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/23/18 Report - Cache Hunting: Tips and Misconceptions. Fisher Organization Salvage Activities.

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

I've written about a couple of Florida cache finds this year.  Caches are found, but not real often.

Hunting for a cache is different than hunting for individual coins or pieces of jewelry, and a lot of what you read about how to find a cache is wrong.

The first thing about cache hunting, is you have to have reason to be looking for one.  If you just go out and cover a lot of ground, you might eventually find one, but the odds are very long against it.

Caches are rare, so it helps if you have reason to believe there might be one.  Of course if you are hunting the right kind of place, for example a historic home site, you should be aware that there is always the possibility of a cache being present.  If you don't want to miss any possible caches, you want to alert to a variety of types of targets that you otherwise might discriminate out.

If you read most articles about cache hunting, you'll probably read about things like two-box detectors for detecting really deep targets.  For many caches, a regular detector will work just fine if you aren't using too much discrimination.  The idea that every cache is going to be buried ten feet deep just isn't true.  People don't have to dig down ten feet to hide a cache.  There are other things that will hide a cache as well or better than a few feet of earth.

Someone who buries a cache, will usually hide it where they think they can find it again.  That means that the cache will be near landmarks or features - perhaps a tree, wall, fence or walk.  That can cause a problem for the detectorist.  They will not be able to detect the area well either because of physical obstacles, like walls, or noise from rebar or buried cables.  You can't detect with a two-box detector in small areas or around other big metal items.

The caches that I'm most familiar with were buried in canning jars, not treasure chests.  One cache was distributed around a home site with individual jars placed in different areas.  And each jar contained different kinds of coins.  You don't know what the container might be so you don't want to discriminate iron or a lot of other metals

If you've been hunting very long, you can probably easily tell the difference between a small surface target and a deeper large target from the sound of the signal.  You can't pay too much attention to your meter.  Many caches will give mixed signals because there can be signals from the container as well as the coins or whatever else is in the container.  They can be quite a mixed bag.

---

A very dark two carat emerald was discovered on 7/11/18 while the Magruder was working Emerald City.

The Magruder will be going back to the site of the Margarita to dig the virgin area on the northern trail near where the gold chalice was found years ago.  They will be using an airlift to excavate holes in the bedrock.

The Margruder was finding Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain and olive jar shards on the Atocha site.

The Fisher organization will also be returning to the deep target site with Dolores.

---

I think it is amazing how little coins have changed over the past thousand years.  I guess they were well-designed for the job and worked well.  Mostly flat and round with designs on two sides.  It is fairly obvious what works well about that.

Anyway, I think coins will be going away before long.  Canada quit producing the-one cent coin in 2012.

Keys had a long run too, and are disappearing.

---

We had a nice west wind this morning, but there are no storms around, and the surf is only one to two feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/22/18 Report - A Different Type of Treasure: Sights at Sunrise. Value of Russian Shipwreck Way Off.

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

Treasure Coast Sunrise

Going to the beach over the years, I've seen some pretty sights.  I only wish I had a camera for some of the great ones that I missed, but I did catch a few nice ones at the beach or on my way there.

Early Morning Fishing on the River.

Dock on the Indian River.

I never changed the color or anything on any of my photos.  That is how it looked and how the camera caught it.

Jensen Beach From Across the River.

Sunrise on the Indian River.

In the past I sold some of my photos, but just being there to see it was another kind of treasure.

Hopefully I'll be able to find some of my better ones.

----

I provided a link a couple days ago to an article about a Russian warship containing a large amount of bullion and coins.  According to an article in NumismaticNews, the value of the treasure was way to high.  Here is a link to that article.

http://www.numismaticnews.net/buzz/sunken-gold-worth-billions-found

Thanks to RinkRat for that link.

I always try to give the link to any articles I post.  One reason is to give credit to the original author and publication, and another reason is so you an go and check out the story for yourself.

I once did a radio show and occasionally interviewed authors.  I got a lot of free books that way even though I wasn't interested in most of them.  Authors want to get as much publicity as they can.

I was once asked to do a post in a writer's blog so author's would know how to get radio interviews and publicity for their books.  Book publishers want to know that you have an audience or are able and willing to generate one before they will publish your book.

Back to the Russian shipwreck story.  My first thought was that the treasure was going to belong to Russia no matter who found it.  Too often the group that does the work and makes the discovery gets nothing for it.  I can't see that there is much incentive to even report such as discovery the way things are.

---

I was having such a hard time finding my photos that I about gave up on doing a post today, but just decided to post some of the nice pictures that I found.

Nothing of interest in the Atlantic right now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/21/18 Report - Exploring Sunken Swedish Warship. Hundreds of Years of Artifacts From Canals. H L Hunley.

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

Source: See ScienceNordic link below.

Cannons, hand grenades, and up to a thousand soldiers were on board the large Swedish warship when it exploded in the Baltic Sea, 454years ago.

The ship, known as Mars, belonged to the Swedish navy and was one of Northern Europe’s largest and most feared naval vessels used in the Northern Seven Years’ War.

The remains were discovered at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in 2011, near to the Swedish island of Öland.,,

“This year, we have come closer to the people aboard. We found more skeletal parts, including a femur with trauma around the knee which we believe to stem  from a sharp-edged weapon,” says maritime archaeologist Rolf Fabricius Warming, who is one of the researchers involved in the investigation.

“We also found large guns and a hand grenade. We can see from the wreckage that it was a very intense and tough battle. Between 800 and 1,000 men were on board. That is comparable to the population of an entire medium-sized town at the time. Most of them died in the explosion or when the ship sank into the watery depths,” he says.

Researchers had previously discovered silver treasure among the Mars wreckage...

This shipwreck is nicely preservered in the cold Baltic Sea.

Here is the link for more information and pictures.

http://sciencenordic.com/archaeologists-reveal-new-finds-legendary-swedish-warship

---

Coins, bones, toys and weapons are among the hundreds of thousands of artifacts recently surfaced from the canals of Amsterdam. Meticulously catalogued by location and organized by age, these finds span the Dutch capital’s 800-year history. Their rediscovery and display was made possible by a massive excavation project being undertaken to create a new metro line through the city, carefully orchestrated to operate alongside an unprecedented archeological dig.

The associated website, book and documentary set titled Below the Surface has been years in the making. This project catalogues everything from bits of ceramic, metal and glass to fully intact artifacts. Some finds predate the city’s founding — there are medieval coins and even pieces of sharpened stone from as far back as 4,300 BCE.

“Rivers in cities are unlikely archaeological sites,” explain the organizers and curators of the project. “It is not often that a riverbed, let alone one in the middle of a city, is pumped dry and can be systematically examined. The excavations in the Amstel yielded a deluge of finds.” The resulting website is an amazing interactive museum, allowing visitors to dynamically connect various artifacts by type, material and time period...

Here is the link to read more about that project.

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/metro-archeology-explore-700000-artifacts-uncovered-in-dutch-canal-excavation/

Thanks to GoldNugget for sending me that link.

Here is the link to the searchable database.

https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/

This is a great project with a database of easily searchable artifact photos.  The best I've seen.  Take a look.  I think you'll be amazed.

---

H L Hunley in Conservation.
Source: See SavannahNow link below.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Scientists studying the world’s first submarine to sink an enemy ship said Wednesday that the doomed Confederate crew did not release an emergency mechanism that could have helped the vessel surface quickly.

The 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of what are called keel blocks would typically keep the H.L. Hunley upright, but also could be released with three levers, allowing the sub to surface quickly in an emergency, said archaeologist Michael Scafuri, who has worked on the submarine for 18 years.

Scientists who removed the century of corrosion, silt and shells from the submarine found the levers all locked in their regular position, Scafuri said...

Here is that link.

http://www.savannahnow.com/news/20180718/clues-to-confederate-mystery-subs-crew-never-dumped-weight

---

There are no tropical storms to watch right now.  The surf is running around two feet and will increase about a foot in a couple of days.  The tides have moderated.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/20/18 Report - 13 Year-Old Detectorist Finds Danish King's Hoard. Shipwreck Containing 200 Tons of Gold Found. Roman Hoard Found.

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

Source: See link below.

BERLIN — Hundreds of 1,000-year-old silver coins, rings, pearls and bracelets linked to the era of Danish King Harald Gormsson have been found on the eastern German island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea.

A single silver coin was first found in January by two amateur archaeologists, one of them a 13-year-old boy, in a field near the village of Schaprode. The state archaeology office then became involved and the entire treasure was uncovered by experts over the weekend, the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania state archaeology office said Monday...

Schoen said he and 13-year-old Luca Malaschnitschenko were using metal detectors on the field near Schaprode when Luca found a little piece that he initially thought was only aluminum garbage. But when they cleaned it, they understood it was more precious...

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/teen-stumbles-1-000-year-old-treasure-linked-danish-king-article-1.3936239

Did you notice the holded coins in the picture?

---

A South Korean salvage team has reportedly discovered the wreck of a Russian warship that is believed to still contain 200 tons of gold bullion and coins worth 150 trillion won ($130 billion).

The Russian Imperial Navy cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi, which was sunk in a naval battle 113 years ago, was discovered at a depth of more than 1,400 feet about one mile off the South Korean island of Ulleungdo, according to the Daily Telegraph...

Thanks to SuperRick for the link.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/18/wreck-of-russian-warship-found-believed-to-hold-gold-worth-130-billi.html 

---

Bronze and silver Roman coins have been discovered by a Polish-Georgian team of archaeologists conducting excavations in the Roman fort of Apsaros Georgia. According to the discoverers, this could be a small part of a larger treasure.

The oldest coins in the find were minted during the reign of Hadrian (117-138 AD); the youngest come from the last years of the reign of Septimius Severus (beginning of the 3rd century AD).

"All coins were found very close to each other in the Roman fort Apsaros"...

Here is the link for more about that.

http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news%2C30287%2Ctreasure-silver-and-bronze-coins-discovered-georgia.html

---

Nothing new in the Atlantic and no new beach conditions on the Treasure Coast to report.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/19/18 Report - Some Things You Should Know About Coin Collecting.

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

2000 D Zinc Penny

You'd think that metal detecting and coin collecting would go hand in hand, but there are reasons that they don't go together as well as you might think.

Here are a few things I've become more aware of in the past month or so since I began looking through modern coins for errors and talking with some serious coin collectors.

1. Coins found in the ocean are very often too corroded or deteriorated to show errors or other important features.  I  knew that before, but after looking through a lot of modern coins I developed a better appreciation for small differences and how easily they can be masked or removed.  Even if a coin is a rare doubled die coin, that might not be visible if the coin has been affected by salt water or otherwise corroded.

2.  Condition is so important to coin collectors, that even if you find a real rarity, poor condition can reduce the value to almost nothing.  Many dug coins are simply not in good enough condition to demand good premiums even if they are rare.

3.  Valuable coins are rare.  That is obvious enough, but it is worth stating.  You can search through many coins and find many interesting things, but real valuable finds are very rare.

4.  Everyone hears about doubled-die coins, but there are many types of doubling on coins and the coin collecting community is not interested in most of them.  It is not easy for a beginner to distinguish between some of the types of doubling that they will see.  I do not find it easy to distinguish between some types of machine doubling and doubled die errors.

5.  Coins that have circulated are similar to coins that are corroded.  Many of the signs that coin collectors look for can be obliterated by the wear and damage.

6.  It is not always easy to distinguish between damage done by individuals after the coin went into circulation and mint errors. For example I ran into one copper penny that evidently was reduced by acid at some time for some unknown reason.  At first it simply looked like a weak strike.  After some detective work, it was concluded that it had been reduced by acid.

7. Many things that a coin collector looks for requires magnification.  There are many small but important features that aren't easily seen by the naked eye.

8.  I would not plan on saving zinc pennies for my children or grandchildren.  Pennies that are almost new and shown little or no wear are corroding.  You know how badly zinc pennies corrode on a beach, but pennies that have scarcely seen the light of day and show signs of beginning zinc rot.

The penny at the top of the post is a 2000 D.  There is very little evidence of wear.  Look at the surfaces.  They aren't smoothed out, and there are few scratches, yet zinc rot is beginning.

Spots of Zinc Rot Beginning On 2000 C penny.

I don't know the history of this coin, but I've seen some that are only one or two years old, and in my opinion were never on a beach or anything. and they are developing zinc rot.

I'll turn this same coin over and you can see how zinc rot develops.

Same 2000 C Coin.

It seems that zinc pennies are going to rot in most cases, even if they have been treated well.  That is why I would never collect zinc coins with any long term expectation.

I've seen newer coins than the one shown above with even worse zinc rot.

9.  There is a lot to learn if you want to become a serious coin collector - especially one that collects errors or varieties.

If you want to collect sets or if you buy coins it should be considerably easier, although it still helps to be informed so you can avoid being misled by unscrupulous dealers.

---

There is nothing of significance going on in the Atlantic right now.

We have a two foot surf, and will have for a few days.  The tides are more moderate than they were a few days ago.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/18/18 Report - Old Silver Ring Stolen. Test of Metal Detector On Silver Coins.

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

Stolen Ring Thought To Be 1700s Era.

I decided to do a little test using the Garrett Ace 250.  I'll use other detectors in the future, but decided to start with a common and inexpensive model.

For test objects I decided to use coins that were close in size, weight and composition to Spanish reales.  I used a silver dime, quarter, half dollar and peace dollar - all of 90% silver.

The diameters were 17.91, 24.26, 30.6 and 38.1 millimeters, which is close but not exactly like one, two, four and eight reales.  Just as an example, the silver dollar is 38.1 mm and the eight reales would be about 38 mm.  Pretty close.

The weight of the silver coins is 2.59, 6.259, 12.59 and 26.73 grams.  Again, that is close to the weights of the Spanish colonial one, two, four and eight reales, which varied to some extent for a variety of reasons.

The diameters and weights of the coins used in the test are highly correlated.

The vertical scale is diameter in millimeters and the horizontal scale is weight in grams.

The correlation is naturally high, but as you can see the relationship between diameter and weight is not linear.

The similarity of the modern coins and Spanish colonial coins in both size and weight is not accidental - the American coinage being pretty much based upon the Spanish.

I did what I would call a ground test in an area with virtually no mineralization but some amount of ambient electrical interference.

Coins were placed on the ground and the height of the coil that continued to produce a good steady signal was measured.

The dime was detected at approximately 7.5 inches, the quarter at 8.0 inches, the half dollar at about 8.5 inches and the Peace dollar at 9.5 inches.

Depth approximations were not highly precise.  Results were also specific to the location and environment.

Depth detectected relative to coin weight.

Depth detected relative to coin diameter.

Coin weight and diameter are highly correlated, which makes it difficult to tell which is most important, but I have previously found and stated that surface area is more important than the weight of the object in determining how deeply a coin will be detected.  The surface area of the coin, however, is not as important as the presented surface.  By that I mean a coin with a large diameter, if tilted or on edge will not have as large a surface area relative to the position of the coil and therefore will not be detected as deeply.

Given the number of variables and the lack of precise measurements, the results should be taken as only approximations.

All-Metals mode and maximum sensitivity was used during the entire test.

Spanish cobs are all so different that I thought the silver U.S. coins would be more useful as test objects and allow more comparisons and generalizations.  Beach recovered Spanish cobs are all of different sizes and shapes.  As I've reported, they can be less than half the minted weight and are of different shapes.

It should also be noted that the depth was measured when the object was under the center of the detector coil at near optimal sweep speed.  When the object was closer to the edge of the coil, depth was less.  And if a less optimal sweep speed was used, depth would have been less.

I've commented at length on the limitations of both air and ground tests.

In the future I will be conducting more tests with other metal detectors.

---

I received an email reporting the above ring stolen during a club meeting.  The owner would like it back.

That, by the way, is another good reason to keep good records on your finds.

Most detectorists go out of their way to return lost items, but like with any group of people, there are some bad apples that spoil it for everybody.

---

A lot of people are still reading my old Cooper's Treasure posts.  I don't even watch it.

There is no tropical cyclone in the Atlantic.  The surf is up a foot or two.  The tides are still pretty good, but lessening slightly.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net