1/20/2019 Report - Vero Coin Show Photos. Dug Reproduction Reale Example. Valuable Bottle Find. Bigger Surf Coming.

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

One Display At the Vero Coin Show

I visited the coin show in Vero and saw a lot of familiar faces and talked to a lot of nice people, both beach-detectorists and coin collectors. 

Above is one of the display cases.  As you can see there were coins, but there were also artifacts.

They raffled some very nice items.

Below are some of the items that were on display and for sale.  

Gold Belt Piece From the Maravillas.

Navigational Instrument and Some Coins.

The show was put on by the Treasure Coast Coin Club that meets one Wednesday per month at IRRSC in Fort Pierce.

There was no admission fee, and there were hard-copy out-of-date numismatic magazines free for the taking.

  

---

A couple days ago I gave an excellent web site that tells how to identify fakes.  I mentioned that they are often of the wrong metal and have plating that may be pealing.  Here is an example of that.

Fake Eight-Reale

This is an exceptionally chunky fake.  It is made of copper or some copper alloy and was plated.  You can also see that the plating is wearing off.

If I correctly recall, I dug this one down around Jensen Beach some years ago.

The other side of the same fake is encrusted.

Sane Fake Eight-Reale Showing "COPY"

Fake or reproduction coins are supposed to have the word "COPY" on them, and they often do, but sometimes it is not easy to see.  In this case, the word is large and right in the middle of the coin.  The "COPY" is very obvious in this picture, but when you dig up a fake, it can be covered with sand, encrustation, or corroded so that you may not see it.  This one shows up well now, but I didn't see it when I was at the beach and it was still wet and had sand on it.  

Sometimes the "COPY" mark is intentionally small and not at all easy to see.  Sometimes it has been removed by nature and sometimes by man.

Pealing plating on an artifact does not necessarily mean the item is a fake.  Medallions and other artifacts that were plated can lose some of all of the original plating.

---

Bottle Finds by One of This Blog's Readers.

Included are a nice straight-side Coca Cola bottle from Lakeland that is valued at a few hundred dollars despite a lip chip.

The middle bottle is a very nice Hood's Sarsaparilla bottle from the late 1800s.

Remember, when beach conditions aren't great, there is always some place else to hunt and other things to find.  I'll show you more of those in the near future.

---

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

We're having a west wind.  As you can see from the MagicSeaweed chart, on the Treasure Coast we're going to have an increase surf on Tuesday and Wednesday.  There is a chance of better detecting conditions, but I'm not expecting too much.  It will be worth checking out.

The tides now are big.  Tonight I think a lunar eclipse will begin after 9:30 or so.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comast.net

7/13/15 Report - Explanation Of Flip-Ups. Dating A Coca Cola Bottle. Palm Beach Island Detecting.

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

Straight Side Fort Pierce Coca Cola Bottle.

Yesterday I gave you a link to a web site that lists the start dates of various Coca Cola Bottling Companies.

Here is an old straight-side Fort Pierce Coca Cola bottle that I found over a year ago.  I just cleaned it up a bit.

Unfortunately the top is badly damaged.

A few years ago I found and sold a West Palm Beach straight-side Coca Cola bottle that was more damaged than this one, and it sold for over $100.

The reason I am showing this one today is to show you the relevance of the link I gave you yesterday.

That site says the Fort Pierce bottling company began in 1914.

KovelsKomments says, Straight-sided glass bottles were used by Coke bottlers from about 1903 to 1916-17, when the now-standard Coca-Cola bottle was introduced.

That narrows the date of this bottle down pretty well.

It would be 1914 - 1917.

That is pretty good for a bottle that doesn't have much else that would give you the date.








---

I was thinking about what Clint L called flip-ups.  Those are coins or other objects that get flipped up and over a cut and settle just behind the cut.

There are times, when I think it appears that objects have flipped up but when there might be another explanation.  There are times when a layer of shells is deposited, and a few other things might be in with the shells.  The beach then cuts through that deposited layer leaving some of the layer behind the cut.  That happens with some frequency.

I know one detectorist who has found most of his cobs by hunting a thin layer of shells laying right behind a cut.  He thoroughly hunted one such area daily and found a good number of heavily worn half reales.  I found a few in the same location.  These were small half reales about the same size as some of the shell pieces.

Actual flip-ups do happen though.  Clint described one case, as did Bill P., and I've seen it myself.  In the case I recall best, a coin was resting on a slanted slab of sand that had just been separated from the face of a small cut.  It appeared to me that the coin had been in the sand that was being eroded.  That could have left the coin in a very peculiar vulnerable position on a slanting and very irregular surface.  It was definitely not settled into the sand.  I can't recall it in any more detail than that.

The illustration above shows what I think probably happens.  An object is laying on or in loose sand in front of the cut.  A wave crashes at the foot of the cut and splashes forcefully up, throwing any vulnerable objects.

When beaches are cutting a lot, water will be crashing right on the cut.  Waves can hit a cut very forcefully, splashing up.  I'm sure you've seen it.  The loose sand near the foot of the cut will direct the water and force up and back.

I've decided to make a distinction between flip-ups, like those I'm talking about today in which an object must jump up at least a short distance, and coins or objects that flip over but do not really jump - not much more than the length of the object itself.

Flipping coins are very common, but most of the time they do not flip very far at once  I remember watching a coin flip the last time I was on the beach.  In that case, I had just dropped the coin.  Before it had settled into the sand a rush of water came by and it flipped over.  Immediately after that rush of water went by, it settled.  The next couple of very small waves put a thin layer of sand over the coin, after which it did not move.

Anyhow, I wanted to distinguish between flip-ups, which flip good distances (I might start calling them jumps or something like that) from flips, which are much more common and less surprising.

I think flip-ups, or jumps, might happen

---

Photos by Penzfan.

Tony (penzfan) got this nice photo while hunting on the Palm Beach island the other day.

He found, One .925 ring, One Copper Bracelet, One Snake Ring, One Russian Ruble and some clad.

Below is a photo of his finds.

---

I need to update my treasure site link list.  If you find a link that no longer works, please let me know.

---

No significant change in beach conditions on the Treasure Coast again.  Expect very smooth surf towards the end of this week.

We've been having some nice low tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.ent

1/15/14 Report - Surprising Value of Engagement Ring Napolean Gave to Josephine, Confederate Shipwrecks & Coca Cola Bottles

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

Engagment Ring
ABC News Photo

What would you say this ring sold for?

It is a diamond and sapphire ring.  Does that help?

Take a guess.

It actually sold for nearly $1 million.

Why?

Because of its history.  It was given to Josephine by Napolean.

It isn't the most expensive looking ring in the world.  You may have found a few that look a lot more expensive.  The materials aren't the only thing that determines the value.  In this case that is especially true.

The auctioneers weren't expecting much more than $20,000 for this ring, but the final bid was $948,000.

Just goes to show once again, an item is worth what someone will pay for it.  If you want to get a good price for an item, you need to find the person who wants it the most and has the ability to pay.  The one thing I like about that, and something I like about selling items, is if you find someone who will pay a lot, they either appreciate the item or will likely find someone else that does.

Here is the link to the source story.

http://www.batangastoday.com/napoleon-engagement-ring-to-josephine-1796-gold-ring-fetches-close-to-1m-at-osenat-auction/28143/

Different people like different things.  I like a lot of different kinds of things myself.  In this blog I talk about fossils, artifacts and relics, treasure coins, soda bottles, etc. etc.  I'm less and less focused on the price of the items.  There are things that aren't worth much that I like more than some things that are worth a lot more.  I get a little tired of all the TV programs such as Storage Wars or even Antiques Roadshow where the climactic question is always, "What's it worth?"  I'm often more interested in the items history.   Who made it, who lost it, how was it made, how was it used, how did it end up where it was found, what does it mean and what does it tell you.   Delve into those questions when you find something and you'll have more fun detecting and probably more success too.


Yesterday I talked about Legacy, the newsletter of the SCIAA and pointed out a few articles from the 2013 issue.  The newsletter goes back years.

Here is one article about the discovery of the wreck of the Gold Spike.  The article was published in 2002.  It tells about Confederate forces scuttling supplies and sinking the CSS Chicora, CSS Palmettor State, CSS Charleston, and the CSS Indian Chief, in Charleston Harbor in order to avoid capture by the Union forces.

Congress appropriated $25,000 for removal of the CSS Charleston many years later.  A clamshell bucket was used along with dynamite, saving much money.

Here is the link to that interesting article.

http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/sciaa/mrd/documents/golden_spike.pdf


As you probably know, I've been trying to better identify a straight-side Fort Pierce Coca Cola bottle.  It seems it could be from between 1900 to 1919.  Before that Coke bottles were Hutchinson bottles with the stopper top, and after that came the contour bottles.  Bottles of that period had paper labels, which could explain why this one does not have embossing that says Coca Cola more prominently.  More research remains to be done.

Here is a good overall article on Coca Cola bottle collecting that you might want to read.

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/an-interview-with-coca-cola-bottle-collector-and-author-doug-mccoy/


On the Treasure Coast we're going to get some colder weather.  The wind is out of the West.

The surf is low, only about two feet and will be that way for a while.  That means no immediate improvement in detecting conditions.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net