2/6/18 Report - Mystery Find. Regulated Joseph Edwards Lima Eight-Escudo. Surf Moderate.

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

Mystery Object Along With Eight-Reale Included for Size Comparison.
Photo by Steve in Sebastian.

Steve sent the above photo showing a mystery find (darker object) along with the following description of how it was found.

... So Ann and I hit the wet/dry divider line down on one of the Galleon Beaches. Get a fair but leaning toward weak signal on my CTX 3030. Pulled a big scoop, nothing still there. Did another, same result, (and I run a very big scoop with a feather light handle). 3rd pull, she’s out. Detected all 3 piles with no results, I flattened them down with my foot, nothing, carefully scanned the whole works for what I figured by then was a dime sized piece of “can slaw.” Nothing...enough, 3pm already, rain off to the South. Move on. I’m poor at moving on and cutting my losses. Must learn to “move on!”

Repeat the above “to a tee” about 30-40 feet along. Same wet/dry line. This time got down with my “Garrett Carrot” right away. Bingo...good signal but acted like can slaw. Finally had the scrap or “script” in my hand. What stood out was no magnetism, and a very, very low gold level 100% reading of only #12.2, the gold Italian 14 karat bracelet that was featured here was #12.4. Same kind of reading I had at the last spot. Had I considered the reading, I would have stayed put and found it! Period!

So...some alloy gold, took a Dremel knife to shave an edge and a thin curl rolled off that felt like butter. Very soft.

Now the perforations....??? The snips. I have seen and even believe that I have in the past recovered/discovered something similar. “Boss”, ever see that pattern of a trim shears before???
One of the other edges looks like it to was shaved or sheared with a plain conventional knife. Thin, easily bendable, but not magnetic. No discernable pattern on either side. Lucky me...don’t need in the least another Cuban 2 Centavos!!! Hee! Hee!!! (;

See pics and weights. Ideas appreciated. The pic with the 8 Reales coin, just for size comparison. About 7/8” of an inch long, 1.3 grams. •THANKS AND GOOD HUNTING•.

Same Mystery Item
Photo by Steve in Sebastian

If you have any ideas on the mystery object, sent me an email.

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Below is a coin that will be featured in the upcoming Sedwick auction.

You can see the mark of Joseph Edwards in the bottom left quadrant of the cross. Since coins were in short supply in the colonies, foreign coins were often used. This is an excellent example. How it got to Boston is anyone's guess - undoubtedly a fascinating journey.

I found the following notice by Joseph Edwards.

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I was told of a fellow that said he doesn't think much of this blog but he still checks it regularly to see what finds and reports there might be. That to me is high praise, since the original purpose of the blog was to issue such reports, and it has evidently achieved that goal, but while providing a little something for everybody, the blog has become something that even people who don't like it have to read. Being useful might be even better than being liked. The google stats say that the blog is getting very close to two million page views. I don't know exactly how that differs from the hit counter, but it does.

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

As you can see, the surf looks like it will be running around 2 - 4 feet for a while. The tides have also moderated. No more big negative tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/9/16 Report - Nice Silver Reale Find. Unusual Weather. Falling Into a Common and Dangerous Metal Detecting Trap.

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

Terry S. sent me this email with photos of his recent find.  He said, I sent you a picture of a couple reales I found last month. Well I got lucky again and put my coil over an 8 reale. ...

Find and photo by Terry S.

Same Cob As Found.

I can't see the date, assayer, or the denomination in the picture.

Great find Terry!  Thanks for sharing.

Note what appears to be a bent corner on the right side of the cob in the second photo.  Some say that they hammered sharp corners so that they wouldn't tear the bags.

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nhc.noaa.gov

Here is something unusual but not unheard of.

The National Hurricane Center says ...conditions could become conducive for 

this system to acquire some subtropical
characteristics while it moves 

east-southeastward into the eastern
subtropical Atlantic Ocean by the 

middle of next week.

I don't think it will affect us much.

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I saw eleven detectorists out at one beach two days ago.  Not so many yesterday.

When people are congregating at one spot like that there is usually a reason.  When you put that much man-power on a single beach, there is a good chance of something being found.

You know how when you find something at a particular location and then keep always want to check that location?  It makes it much more likely that you'll find something there just because you keep checking.

The natural tendency is to go back and hunt those spots where you've found something.  On the other hand, when you strike out at a location over a location a few times, the tendency is to give up on that location.  The result is that you can end up falling into a trap.

It becomes a vicious circle.  The more you hunt a location, the more likely it is that you'll find something there, and then you want to hunt it more.

To put it another way, you'll find more at the locations you frequently visit and nothing at the beaches that you don't visit.  That might seem obvious enough, but it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the short term, going back to a location that has produced is a good strategy.  However, in the long run it can have disastrous results.

Beaches change daily to some extent.  There are long term changes as well as short term changes though.

A given spot might produce for an hour or a day and then quit.  However, if the spot doesn't change too drastically when it quits producing, it can quickly start producing again when things change a little in the right direction again.  As I've been saying it has been on and off for a few months now.

There are a few unique features at that beach right now that I hope to discuss in more detail some other time.

The important point that I wanted to make today, though, is that if a beach has NOT produced for months or years, that does not mean that it will not start producing sometime in the future.  Don't give up entirely on a beach because it hasn't produced in a while - even a long while.

It is also not uncommon for a hot spot to shift up and down the beach, so don't get locked in to one specific location.  At Frederick Douglas the past few years the most productive spot has moved probably fifty to a hundred yards south in the last decade or two.  It seems that another hot spot on the same beach has quit altogether.  I suspect it will start producing again some day or some year when the long term changes are right again.

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The surf is generally going to decrease a little for the next week or two, however the wind will be shifting back and forth, and we're supposed to get some good periods of north wind.  When a beach is close to producing, and maybe has produced in the recent past, it doesn't take as much to turn it back on.  Those wind changes might be all it takes.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/28/14 Report - Treasure Coast Eight Reale. What Civil War Artifacts Will Be Found On The Bottom of The Congaree River. Tommy Thompson Found.

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

Photos by Captain Jonah.

Here is a neat Treasure Coast Potosi Pillar and Waves Eight-Reale.

You can see the Potosi mint mark.  Also a three digit date in the bottom column of the middle row.

The picture below is the other side of the same cob.

I'm not certain I am reading the date correctly, but it looks like (1)715 to me.  What do you think?

It appears to nicely match some examples that are in Menzel's book.  That book shows a 1715 eight-reale that is also chunky and cracked like this one.

Menzel says that mint production for that decade was low and quality control was poor.  The book said that is rare to find a well struck Potosi cob around that time period.


Another excellent Treasure Coast find by a Treasure Coast salvage crew.

You might remember my comment from a recent post indicating that in 1700 and after, Potosi Pillars and Waves cobs had a three digit date while earlier Pillars and Waves cobs had a two digit date.


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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA—A planned environmental clean-up of the Congaree River in South Carolina could recover Confederate munitions that Union troops, under the command of General William T. Sherman, captured in 1865. Sherman’s army burned a third of the city and captured 1.2 million ball cartridges; 100,000 percussion caps; 6,000 unfinished arms; 4,000 bayonet scabbards; and 3,100 sabers. The soldiers reportedly dumped what they couldn’t carry in the river. Since then, fishermen and swimmers have recovered some of the weapons...

Here is the link to read the article.

http://www.thestate.com/2015/01/17/3934680_exclusive-congaree-to-be-dammed.html?rh=1

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One thing I continue to be impressed by is the importance of the threshold setting on a pulse induction metal detector.   A threshold that is either too high or too low will cause a loss of depth and signals.  It is so important that I often test my threshold by using a well known gold test target so that I know I have the best threshold setting.  In my opinion, selecting the threshold is too important to do casually.

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When learning a new detector learn first in a familiar test garden if that is possible.  Then move to an easy setting such as dry sand.  Then to wet sand, and finally in water.

I think if you become very familiar with a detector in a less challenging environment first, it will make it easier to move to a more challenging environment.

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When I was at the beach yesterday, almost all the targets I found were discolored, corroded, and deep.  The recent surface drops had already been picked up, yet there were a good number of deep targets remaining.

It was also my observation that there is less junk out there these days.  I think more people are removing the junk.   There were a good number of bottle caps at some beaches.  There are also some beaches with a lot of small iron.

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Just got the news that Tommy Thompson was captured.  I did a post giving a link about him missing a few months ago.  You can find that post by using the blog search box.

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On the Treasure Coast, the wind changed direction.  It was coming from the North.  Tomorrow the surf will be a little higher.

Happy hunting,
TreaureGuide@Comcast.net