8/20/15 Report - Nine 8-escudo Royal Beauties From Mexico. More On New Treasure Coast Discoveries. Brent Brisben on Fox News.

Written by the TreaureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachereport.blogspot.com.

Newly Found Royals
Photos submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez.

Here are nine newly discovered royal beauties for your viewing pleasure.  Mostly dated 1711, but also a a couple 1712s.  All are mint marked OXMJ, as I hope you can see.


Here is a Fox News Video interview with Brent Brisben, co-founder of 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels, talking about the new finds, which besides Royals, also included 300 2-escudos as well as other denominations.  I showed some of those yesterday.

Brent Brisben Being Interviewed On Fox News
Source: link immediately below.

http://my.xfinity.com/video/treasure-hunter-finds-over-1m-in-gold-coins-off-fla-coast/508582979985/Comcast/Today_in_Video?cid=hero_sf_TIV

As exciting as all that is, you might wonder what all of that has to do with the beach hunter.  People will get excited and get out on the beach wanting to find gold coins, but not a lot has changed for the beach hunter since the big find.  Beach conditions remain unchanged.

Beach hunters have been marching up and down that beach just yards away from where those coins were found for months now with little result.  Think about that.  Think about how close all that gold was. So close and yet so far.  The Capitana guys weren't a hundred yards off-shore. These finds were made in just a few feet of water in front of the beach.

Metal detecting, like horse-shoes is a game of inches.  As much as we love our super detectors, coins have to be right under the coil, and not only that, they can not be down very far under the coil.  You can miss a coin by an inch one way or another, either being to one side or down too deep.

Did you ever imagine that there was so much treasure so close to where you were walking?  Those things have been out there for three hundred years.  Some people have said, its all gone.  There's nothing left.  How wrong they were!

The main point for the beach detectorists is that you never know what is just below your feet or just a little over to one side or another.

Don't forget.  This isn't the norm for the salvage crews either.  This is a BIG hit.  It was years in coming.  It has been a long time since anything like this.  It took perseverance.  It took work.  There have been many hot frustrating days and dry holes.  Then the big hit.

It makes it all the more special that it doesn't happen all the time.  It is so hard to come by and so rare that the celebration is that much greater.

We don't have their feelings.  We didn't have their experience.  But we can relate to it in one way or another.  And we can all share in the celebration.

We all know what it is like to work and work and work with little to show for our efforts, not knowing when we might finally hit the big one, and then one day, there it is.

Let us all celebrate work and the human spirit, Let us all celebrate adventure and life itself, as we go through the ups and downs of life.  Let us all learn the lesson of perseverance too.

I've said before in this blog that there is a lot of treasure under the sand right in front of the beach. Some day we'll have a storm like the famed Thanksgiving Day storm that I wrote about a few months ago, and beach conditions will change.  The beach will be littered with coins.  Maybe you'll be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Not all of the coins will be gold or old.  But when discovered they will all be a part of the adventure and become a part of someone's life.

You might remember when I posted an ad for Captain Jonah in this blog before the salvage season began when he was looking for one more diver.  He found that diver through this blog.  And that diver, who had contributed to this blog from time to time before that, got to be a part of this big find. I'm really happy for that diver.  And I'm glad that this blog played some very small part - as infinitesimally small and remote as it was. And I'm happy that the captain and crew of the Capitana just became a big part of treasure history.

We are all fortunate to be able to see these newly discovered historic coins.  Thanks for sharing guys!

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Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.  Romans 12:15.

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Don't forget to look at yesterday's post if you didn't see it.  More coins shown there.

The Atlantic is heating up.  Besides tropical storm Danny, there are two other disturbances.

Keep watching Danny.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/27/15 Report - MILLION DOLLARS Of Treasure Recently Found On A Treasure Coast Shipwreck Site. The Difference Between Compact And Mushy Sand.

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

2015 Gold 1715 Fleet Discoveries
Photo source : FloridaToday.com link below

For a few weeks, the Schmitt family and 1715 Fleet — Queens Jewels LLC had a million-dollar secret on their hands. Last month, they recovered $1 million worth of sunken Spanish jewels off the Florida Coast.

“The treasure was actually found a month ago,” said Brent Brisben of 1715 Fleet — Queens Jewels LLC. Keeping the news under wraps was “particularly hard for the family that found it. They’ve been beside themselves.”

Recovered:

• 51 gold coins
• 40 feet of ornate gold chain
• A single coin called a Royal made for the king of Spain, Phillip V, a news release states. Only a few are known to exist, and the coin — nicknamed “Tricentennial Royal” — is dated 1715. Brisben said the extremely rare silver-dollar-sized coin is worth “probably around half a million dollars itself...

Here is the link for the rest of the story and a video.

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2015/07/27/family-finds-sunken-spanish-treasure/30744269/


Take a look at that Gold Royal in the middle of the photo.  You can also see part of the chain to the left.

Thanks to Jorge and Doug for sending me this link.

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People that are passionate about certain activities learn a lot about those activities.   They put knowledge together that draws from different fields of study and may even add new knowledge.

I've been talking a lot about how sand and other objects move on a beach and in the water. I feel like I've learned a lot in the last few years and have been drawing from a variety of scientific disciplines but also from people who are very passionate about different recreational activities.  Some of what I've learned lately, I've learned from surfers.  I've shown Scott Little's photography, for example. Obviously, surfers are interested in waves and may know more about waves in some ways than oceanographers.  Today I learned something from another recreational group -  those who do sand sculpture.

You've probably stepped onto a beach and you sank in up to your ankles.  Another time you might have stepped out on the same beach and it felt like pavement.

We talk all the time about mushy sand, which is a very poor sign for beach detectorists.  Mushy sand is often composed of larger grains,  Fine grain sand obviously settles more, but that is not all there is to it.

Here is what the sand sculpture web site says.

In a word the big secret is "friction". More specifically, the sum total of all friction between the grains acting on each other. This is why compaction is so important. When you compact sand you increase the friction between the grains.

Uncompacted sand has relatively large pore spaces between the grains but compacted sand shrinks these spaces increasing points of contact between the individual grains and thereby increasing the friction between them. The more friction there is, the more resistant the grains are to separation.

One other important dynamic is "cross-linking", a term from soils engineering. Forcing randomly shaped grains tightly together causes many of them to naturally cross-link. Cross-linking is a common technique in masonry work where vertical joints between bricks, stones and block joints are intentionally staggered thereby vastly increasing the strength of the structure.

Friction is also why certain sands are better than others. Finer sands will naturally have smaller pore spaces and angular grains are most likely to tightly interlock and cross-link. Rounded grains will always have larger pore spaces between grains no matter how well compacted, and a naturally smooth surface further reduces friction. Beyond being merely rounded as the individual grains become more spherically shaped the grains also become incapable of cross-linking. Try to imagine stacking a pile of bowling balls. The advantages of a sand that compacts well are easy to see and will always make for a more enjoyable day when sculpting. 

Here are three illustrations from the same source.

To compact sand before sculpting they build a formwork (box) and fill the box with six inches of wet sand, then compact the six inch layer with a construction compactor. Then they add an additional six inch layer of wet sand on top of the compacted layer and compact the new layer, repeating until they have enough to begin the sculpture.

Here is the source link.

http://www.sandscapes.com/how_to/images/particle4c.gif

If you generalize from the above, you'll understand some of the differences between mushy and compact beach sand.

There is more to it, I'm sure.  I didn't take into account exactly how the sand was deposited.  Often it will be in layers as wet sand is deposited when the tide is up.

When you have compacted sand, it will take more to get it into suspension and moving.

I pay attention to the feel of the sand beneath my feet when detecting.  If I am walking along and feel the sand under my feet become compact, I would be sure to check that area for any good targets.

There is a lot more that I didn't get into, but that is as far as I want to take this today.  I got a late start.

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The surf on the Treasure Coast will be very smooth the next couple of days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net