2/18/17 Treasure Salvage Opportunity With Top Treasure Crew.

Treasure Salvage Crew Opportunity Announcement.

I got this message describing a salvage opportunity from Captain Jonah Martinez of the Capitana. As you might know, Jonah's crew hit one of the biggest 1715 Fleet gold coin finds of recent history, including nine escudo royals in 2015.  One of the crew members involved with that find learned of a similar opportunity through this blog a couple of years ago and got to be part of that historic find.

As the captain says, this is not for everybody.  It takes a special person. Passion and commitment counts.  Jonah picks good men.

Below is how Captain Jonah describes it.

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Opportunity if you ever wanted to work looking for 1715 Spanish treasure. First off this doesn't happen often but due to a unfortunate turn of events. One of our brothers will not be able to make it out with us this season. So we are looking for a 4th to join our crew and share in the 2017 salvage season. This job is not for everybody but to the right person you know who you are. You need to be in good physical shape,have an open scheduled between May-September, have a place to stay in or near Sebastian Florida, need to have boat experience, also need to be good with a metal detector, most important have to gel with 3 other guys like minded. There is no pay just a percent of the find. Payed in treasure!!!!! This job is definitely not for most. So please think before you respond. There are no guarantees in this game. I can promise a unbelievable summer experience full of surprises and adventure. We work very hard but find a lot of treasure too. Feel free to give me a call. Thanks Capt. Jonah 772-215-4366

7/25/15 Report - New Treasure Finds Made By The Capitana! Possibility of Tropical Activity Developing Near Florida Next Week. New Poll.

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

Cob Found By Crew of The Capitana.

Captain Jonah Martinez and his crew continue to make great finds.

Here is one of the latest, a nice OM and maybe J cob.

For those of you who don't know, the OM indicated the Mexico mint.  The J would be the assayer initial.

Nice find guys!

But that isn't all.

One of Captain Jonah's Top Notch Divers
Showing Off Some Great Finds.

In the plate is a buckle, a button and some more cobs.

A closer view of those finds is shown below.

The last picture shows a close-up of some very clean reales and the button.

They are nice and clean showing good detail.

You can tell they are also from the Mexico mint from the style of cross.

Thanks for letting us get a look at your finds Captain!

All of these photos were sent by Captain Jonah Martinez.

Plate Full or Finds.

Nice View of Button and Cobs.

Lots of Musket Balls.

With the picture of the musket balls, Captain Jonah sent the following  message.

A couple weeks ago we got in to some musket balls so we went back skipping ground by about two days south here's what we found about 850 musket balls grape and pistol shot hopefully more at the end of this new trail. These balls appear to be from the green cabin but we find 1715 mixed in this area.  

Here are the densities of some common metals given in grams per cubic centimeter.

Aluminum 2.7
Copper 8.96
Gold 19.3
Lead 11.3
Platinum 21.5
Silver 10.5

Silver is just a touch less dense than lead, with gold being quite a bit more dense than lead.

Here is the link.

https://sites.google.com/site/chempendix/densities-of-pure-metals

Besides being the same density another thing that would group the musket balls together is their round shape, which means they will move easily, but down more than up.

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The same stationary front that has been causing afternoon showers along the Treasure Coast also provides conditions that could produce tropical activity near Florida next week.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/atlantic-tropical-systems-southeast-us-coast-danny-erika/50652073

Thanks for your poll responses.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/7/15 Report - More New Treasure Finds On The Treasure Coast! The Capitana Continues Hot On The Treasure Trail.

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

Recent Finds By the Crew of the Capitana.  Part 1
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez

They are still hot on the Treasure Trail.  Congratulations guys.

We are very fortunate to get to see these finds.  Most people don't get to see them as they come up, if they get to see them at all.  Some of these finds will go into the Florida collection and a few might go on display, but others will spend a lot of time in a basement in Tallahassee and will be viewed only by a select few.  Some might eventually appear in expensive books.   I'm very appreciative that Captain Martinez lets us get a look at them as they look when found and before they go into conservation.  He is doing the public a great service.  Thanks to the Captain and crew of the Capitana!

That is only the beginning though.  Below are two more pictures that were originally part of one big picture.  I clipped the original into three pictures so that I could show them better.

Recent Finds By the Crew of the Capitana.  Part 2.

Notice the very neat fork size artifact on the right top of this photo.  I'll show another picture of that item below.

Also notice the three big eights at the bottom.  And notice the rust color patina, especially on the middle one.

That is something I didn't mention yesterday.  Coins will often attract a patina from other nearby metals.  In this case it appears to be rust.  The rust colored cobs might have been next to a cannon or some other iron object for years.

Otherwise you have a lot of the five shades of grey typical of silver found in sea water.

If you read yesterday's post, you might also note the similar appearance with the sand and shell pieces adhering to the surface of many of the cobs.  The cobs appear to be pretty chunky - even the half reales.  My guess is that they remained protected by layers of sand most of the time they were out there.

Recent Finds By the Crew of the Capitana.  Part 3.

In addition to the coins, this picture also shows some musket balls of various sizes.

Below is that close-up of the artifact that I promised.

Close Up View of Artifact Held By Crew Member of Capitana
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah.

And below is a close-up of three big cobs as they looked shortly after seeing the first light of day in maybe 300 years.

One thing that you beach hunters might want to know is that the Capitana is still working in real close to the beach.

Close Up Photo of Three Big Newly Found Cobs.
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah.

If you think you've seen it all, you're wrong.  There is more to see.  I'll post more soon.

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I occasionally receive photos from people showing flakes of iron that people have found with their metal detector.  I suppose if you don't know how to tell the difference, they might look a lot like these silver cobs.  One easy way to tell the difference, besides the lack of a cross or any of the design on the cob, is to use a magnet.  The iron flakes will be picked up by a magnet. Silver cobs won't.

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The most "google plused" post of June was my 6/12/15 Report -  Lost Ring Found & Returned Months Later.  Do Your Good Deed And Let Everyone Know.


And my most read post was my 6/19/15 Report - BIG NEWS!  30 Silver Treasure Coins Just Found Off Treasure Coast!   Beach Detecting Conditions Remain Poor.

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I think that is about enough for you to look at today.  I have some more of the Capitana's finds to show and some things of my own to say, but that can wait, there will be plenty of future posts.

I don't think I've ever seen such a long period of suck calm seas.  There is no change in the forecast for the Treasure Coast.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/24/15 Report - Captain Martinez and Crew of the Capitana Still On The Treasure Trail. Great Finds!

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

There they are.  That is a super bunch of reales, and if you look down around the middle of that bunch you'll see an escudo.

Congratulations to Captain Jonah Martinez and the crew of the Capitana!  Really great job!

Who said it has all been picked?

Treasure is still there.  The problem for beach hunters is getting to it.  We can't use blowers so we'll have to wait until Mother Nature uncovers whatever is out there and kicks it up.

Stormy weather is the time for beach hunting, and calm weather is the time for the treasure salvors.

These guys are already having a great year.  Who knows what's next?

You can see every denomination of reale there.

The escudo is a one-escudo.  The other escudo was incorrectly reported as a two escudo.  It is also a one-escudo.

Dan sent me the correction saying, The gold coin that we recently found is also a 1 escudo. Same as the first. And the 51 silver reales and gold coin was our earlier finds. Two day total.


Great two days, for sure!

It would be fun to study the entire group.

Below are close-ups of the escudo.   All of these photos were sent by Captain Jonah.

The Capitana Busy Finding Treasure.

You can't ask for flatter water and bluer skies.  Beautiful day for finding treasure.

Artifact and Escudo.

Bet that gave a screaming signal.

Thanks Captain for sharing your great adventure with all of us.

The Treasure Coast beaches are about as poor as I've ever seen.  Nothing real promising in the forecast either.

I've been doing some experimenting and scouting.  I can't wait for a something to move some sand.  I'm ready.



Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/5/14 Report - Gold Cob Found By Salvage Crew On Treasure Coast! Fascinating Clump of Artifacts Too. How Objects Sink In Dry Sand.

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

Gold Treasure Coast Shipwreck Coin
Photos submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez

The past few days I've given a lot of information on how objects sink on the beach, and I'm far from done with that.  I've only addressed a few factors so far and will continue with that topic in the future.

Today I wanted to take a bit of a break from that and show you some finds to drool over.  The finds were made by the crews working the shipwrecks off of the Treasure Coast.   Thanks to Captain Jonah Martinez for sending the pictures.

First, here is a gold coin they found.  Although this gold coin sure is pretty, they found a silver coin that actually might be much more rare.

I'm no expert on Spanish shipwreck coins - far from it.  So if you can correct anything I say here, feel free.

Notice the type of cross on the top photo.  Each arm of the cross is like a cross on the end.

That is not a real common type of cross, but that type of cross was used on some Mexican escudos,

On the left side of that coin, I think I can make out part of the "M" mint mark for Mexico.

I can not see the legend on this coin or the date.  They do not appear to be present.




Below is a photo of what I believe is a very similar escudo.

It is found in Monedas Espanolas desde Juana y Carlos a Isabel II 1504 a 1868, by F Calico et al, 1985.

Illustration of Similar Design Escudo from the Calico et al Book.

The following illustration more clearly shows a similar type of shield and the same type of cross although there may be some differences.

Illustration of Similar Escudo Design Elements.
Source: Cobs, Pieces or Eight and Treasure Coins book by Sewall Menzel

From what I've seen I would guess the escudo above to be an early 1700s Mexico two-escudo.  That is just m guess from what I can see from the photo.


Below are two pictures of a recovered clump.   Captain Jonah says this clump of objects was found by Mike and Gavin and ... if you look close you can see to buckles, two medallions, a silver spoon and maybe cuff links...

Photos submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez.

I always find clumps exciting.  You never know what all might be in them.  And I never know if I want to leave them alone or take them apart to find what is in them.  There is that conflict between wanting to preserve them and wanting to find out what might be in there.

They can be x-rayed or examined internally by using other technologies without taking them apart.

Those are just a couple of the photos that Captain Jonah sent me.  I'll show more of them in future posts.  Included are cobs, porcelain, and one very early and exciting cob.

Thanks for sharing Captain!


The last two posts that I did received  lot of +1s.  It seems they were very much liked.

I should explain that the did not discuss all relevant factors, but maybe it did help to put to rest some common misconceptions.  I still want to add just a little to that discussion today.

First of all, people might wander how objects sink in dry sand where the water does not hit if objects only sink through suspended or disturbed sand.   One big factor affecting dry sand is the wind.  Barrier islands and beaches in general tend to migrate away from the ocean as wind coming off the ocean tends to blow sand towards the back beach where it piles up as dunes and fills in marsh land.  You can find that fact in any number of books.

On our local beaches I've seen a lot of dune building over the past year.  Any plants or anything that serves as a wind break will cause wind driven sand to drop off and build up.  That causes items lost on the dry beach to be buried as the sand builds up.

If you go to the beach after a busy holiday, you'll notice how much the busy spots have been churned up by foot traffic, kids digging, etc.  That certainly disturbs the top layers of sand and causes items to sink or get covered.

Also, the water does occasionally come up over the dry sand and all of the way to the back dunes.

And they sink in when dropped, flung or thrown.

There are some ways that the dry sand is disturbed causing things to sink or get more deeply buried in the dry sand.

I'll discuss more details on how items sink on the beach and in the shallow water in the future, but I'll also be showing some more pictures of the Treasure Coast treasure finds that Captain Jonah sent me.


We still have a one to two foot surf on the Treasure Coast.  Beach hunters are tired of the consistently smooth surf this year, but it has been good for the salvage crews.

There is one disturbance coming off of Africa, but it is days out, and we'll have smooth water on the Treasure Coast for at least several days.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net