2/12/20 Report - Nuestra Senora del Juncal Shipwreck. Havering Hoard Questions. Beach Renourishment.

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

Half Reale As Found (left) Compared to Same Reale Partially Cleaned (right)

I received some email thanking me for posting the coin cleaning instructions that I posted on 2/7.

The half reale shown above is only very slightly cleaned.  There are even still some visible pieces of shell attached.  I soaked it in a diluted solution of Muriatic acid an hour or two.  Still you can see some difference.  I could continue to clean it until all of the debris and corrosion is removed, but I don't see any need for that right now.  How shiny you like your cobs is a matter of personal preference.

When I saw the shape of this half, it reminded me of the heart shape that you sometimes see on the very desirable heart-shaped cobs of Potosi, but the little tail is very common on ordinary Mexico half reales.  Sone say it is due to twisting of the shears when the planchet was cut.

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Spain and Mexico will cooperate in a renewed search for a 17th-century treasure galleon, the Nuestra Señora del Juncal.  One goal of the project is to train underwater archaeologists.

The Juncal is thought to have been carrying between 120 and 150 tonnes of precious materials, dwarfing the 14 tonnes of cargo recovered from another Spanish wreck, the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, in 2007...

Here is the link.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/10/spain-and-mexico-renew-search-for-17th-century-treasure-galleon

See also

https://www.nauticalnewstoday.com/nuestra-senora-del-juncal-el-destino-final-de-un-barco-que-no-debia-zarpar/

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Yesterday I posted a bit from an article on the Havering Hoard.  Here are some questions they have.

… There are four theories about why so many objects would have been deliberately broken and meticulously buried.

• Was it a ritualistic offering to the gods?
• Was it to do with it being the late bronze age and start of the iron age, so the objects were no longer so highly valued or wanted?
• Could a powerful person have been trying to control the amount of bronze that was in circulation and being traded?
• Or was the location a kind of bronze age storage site? The total weight of the objects is 45kg, so they could not have been easily carried around.

All of the theories raise their own questions. If they were being stored, for example, why were they not retrieved?...

Interesting to think about.

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Pavo1994 sent his thoughts on beach renourishment.

Here's what I've been posting online about beach renourishment in Miami-Dade county, and writing to politicos, for whatever its worth, which is nothing, I suppose.

I don't think we've had any public debate on the massive amounts of quarry sand being dumped on our shell sand beaches, the environmental damage that may be causing, the cost, who pays and who benefits? I'm referring to the incredibly huge publicly funded and federally managed construction project going on along the entire beachfront of Miami-Dade County. By the end of 2020 the corps will have dumped almost 600,000 tons of sand on Miami Dade County beaches in 2019 and 2020 al one (continuing possibly into 2021). This isn't counting at least 285k tons in 2017-18. The price tag for beach renourishment in Miami Dade county for 2019 and 2020 will be almost $200M. These projects financially benefit primarily the beach front property owners. What is the value of that property in M/D county? I dunno...trillions? I would guess. How much are these extremely wealthy property owners paying to protect their investments and income flows from the encroaching seas? ZERO. They contribute nothing. 100% taxpayer monies. As usual, the middle class and working poor subsidize the billionaire beachfront property owners. Socialism has been our form of government for a few decades now, but its socialism for the rich, and it calls itself capitalism.

But, that's not my main beef. Being exploited financially is one thing, The destruction of the environment I find so much more disturbing. This quarried sand buries and kills every living thing on the shell sand beach and nearshore (only the turtles get protection, and we have no idea how they will really handle it). Does the beach ever really recover? I dunno.If once a population of critters along the beach is exterminated, does it come back? Has anyone researched what being buried under 10' of quarried sand...foreign to the living creatures in the local shell sand.... does to a living beach in South Florida? I doubt the folks dumping the sand have, and if they have, they haven't broadcast what they found out. I would guess the folks who want that sand protecting their hotels and luxury condos are not real interested in the ecology of the beach or nearshore ocean. If reefs get buried or silted, "What me worry?" As long as my condo appreciates in value. Have you noticed the water turns white on Miami Beach now due to the silt in the quarry sand? Scoop up sand and there are no worms, no sand fleas, no crabs, no nothing. Scan the water; there are no fish. The only seabirds feeding are a few garbage scavenging gulls. The Peeps who chase the waves up and down...not feeding any longer in the renourished beaches. 

Here are a couple reference links that go with that.

https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/Article/1988847/corps-announces-contract-award-and-public-meeting-for-miami-beach-erosional-hot/

https://www.theguardian.com/.../surfside-florida-beaches...

Make your thoughts and opinions on the subject known.  You are funding the renourishment projects whether you like it or not.

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We are having high tides now.  The surf will increase Saturday up to around 4 - 6 feet.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

2/11/20 Report - Detectorist Finds Rare Gold Coins. Havering Hoard Surprise. "Spanish" Galleons.

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

Source: BBC.com (See link below)

A hoard of 19 gold coins from the Iron Age unearthed in Suffolk was a "really unusual" find for the area, an expert has said...

Archaeologist Dr Anna Booth said it showed "cross cultural interaction" between nearby counties at the time... 

A metal detectorist found the hoard within a 10-15m (32-49ft) square...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-51374440

As the old FIXX song says, "One thing leads to another."  There are usually "cross cultural interactions," and we need to remember that in regard to our local treasure wrecks.

Below is another article to consider.

French bracelet among surprises in mysterious Havering hoard 

One of the largest and most mysterious bronze age hoards ever found in the UK contains objects that have astonished archaeologists, including items more commonly found in France and the Alps.

The Museum of London Monday revealed new finds among the Havering hoard, a remarkable collection of 453 swords, axes, knives, chisels, sickles, razors, ingots and bracelets excavated from a quarry in east London over a period of three months and revealed last year...

There is also a bracelet believed to be from what is now north-west France, and copper ingots possibly originating from the Alps...

“These objects give clues about how this wasn’t an isolated community but rather one that fitted into a much larger cultural group with connections along the Thames Valley and across the continent.”...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/feb/10/french-bracelet-among-surprises-in-mysterious-havering-hoard


That is a good lesson, and one that should be remembered.  Events are seldom as simple as people tend to make them.  As inconvenient as it is, things tend become more complex the more you understand about them.  I have been thinking about that as it relates to the treasure wrecks along our coast and was glad I ran across these articles to help me illustrate the point.  The fleets were international events in more ways than one.

They are often called "Spanish" galleons with good reason, however did you know that they were constructed and provisioned with many materials from many countries.  By the sixteenth century Spain's shipbuilding resources were already becoming strained.  Tall timber for masts and spars, for example, were already used up so long timbers were imported from the Baltic.  Sail canvas was imported from Holland and France.  Powder and arms came from Belgium and wheat from the Netherlands.  Those are just a few of the most basic items.  The point being that a treasure fleet does not represent an isolated community in any way, and that should be remembered when finds are studied.  A fleet or a galleon is not isolated chronologically or geographically.  There are many important intermingled pre and post wreck events and many diverse countries, regions and communities involved.

I'll end there once again feeling like I'm trying to stuff the bobcat into the soup can.  As the old song by FIXX says, "One thing leads to another."

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Back a couple years ago it seemed that the MagicSeaWeed surf predictions had a systematic error in tbeir model.  Often a big surf was predicted for the future, but then it shrank as the time got nearer.  It seemed like they got that fixed.  They were pretty accurate with their predictions for the past year or so, but it happened again.  The big surf that a few days ago was predicted for up around ten feet has now shrunk down to 3 - 5 feet.  I'm disappointed.

Below are the current surf predictions for the Fort Pierce area.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

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You might want to read Six Galleons for the King of Spain by Carla Phillips, John Hopkins University Press, 1992.


Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

10/24/19 Report,- The Havering Hoard. Wood Find. Wheat Cents. About Cleaning Coins.

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

Source: BBC.com (See link below.)

The group of 453 artefacts found in Havering, east London, is the third largest ever discovered in the UK...

The find, which dates from between 800BC and 900BC, was officially declared treasure by a coroner earlier this year.

The discovery, dubbed the Havering Hoard, was uncovered last September, and will form the centrepiece of a major exhibition from April.

Archaeologists believed the manner in which the weapons had been so carefully buried in groups close together suggested the site could have been a metal workers' former vault or an armoury recycling bank or exchange...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-50097646

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Wood Found by DJ Sunday

Find and photo by DJ

DJ said, "... it has several round holes and pieces of metal showing. The close up shows two pieces with the wood grain running at right angles."

Interesting.
--- I've mentioned recently about finding a wheat penny in change received at a Walmart a couple days ago. I was surprised to get another wheat penny in change just yesterday at a store about 20 miles away from the Walmart. That is two wheats in my last two shopping trips. Pretty unusual. Below are the two wheats I received in change. The one most recently received is on the right.

Two Wheat Pennies Recently Received in Change.

In a recent post I mentioned a few ways I think old coins end up in circulation. I thought of one more. Spome of the members of CoinCommunity.com mentioned that they sometimes return coins like that to circulation just to stimulate interest in the hobby. The coins shown above appear to me to have been harshly cleaned. You'll notice the very bright high spots that look like they have been really scrubbed. The 1950 D is in worse condition with surface pitting and also a strange patina on the depressed surfaces. It also has some green crud in tight protected areas. You can see that best in the photo on the right behind Lincoln's collar. In my opinion, it does not look like these coins were not owned by a serious collector, but perhaps dug. I doubt that any kind of serious collector would so harshly clean the coins. The one on the right with the surface pitting definitely looks like a dug coin to me. What do you think? Having received two wheats in change in such a short time span makes me wonder if there were a lot of wheats recently put into circulation by someone. Seems pretty unlikely to be coincidence, but it is possible I guess. If you are wondering how often it might happen by chance, I found a blog post where a fellow purchased 48 rolls of pennies in 2014 and recorded what he found. Here is what he said. I went to the bank and got $24 worth of pennies (48 rolls of 50) and sorted them.  On average there were 13.4 pre-1982 pennies in each roll, in percentage terms, 28.4%.  Some had as many as 20 and some had as few as 7.  There were also 5 wheat sheaf pennies in the lot and 10 Canadian cents.

Since that was done five years ago the odds might have changed some.

Anyhow the odds of finding a wheat cent in circulation, according to the experiment, is 5 in 2400 or 1 in 480 pennies.  Canadian cents were more likely than the wheat cents at a that time.  I understand that Canada no longer mints pennies.

Here is the link to that article. http://mattbussey.com/how-many-pre-1982-copper-pennies-are-still-in-circulation/ Here is an article about cleaning coins. Among other things, it tells how to tell if a coin has been cleaned, which they say should almost never be done.

Here is how they say you can tell if a coin has been cleaned.

A cleaned coin will have a dull, bright look – one that on a well-circulated coin would seem unnatural.

Old pennies that have been worn should not look bright orange and have flashy surfaces. Old, worn pennies should be medium to dark brown in color and have virtually no reflectivity on the surface at all. 

Old silver coins will look grey in color with darker patination around the devices, such as the lettering, date, and main design elements. A flashy, white silver coin that has clearly been worn is a clear giveaway that it has been cleaned. 

Uncirculated or about uncirculated coins should have lustrous surfaces and radiating lines that reflect shimmers of light in a cartwheel pattern as the coin is turned or rotated. 

The luster of a cleaned coin will be severely impaired, if not lost altogether. Therefore, if an uncirculated coin has been cleaned, the best way to tell is to see if it has any cartwheel luster. If it doesn’t, then don’t buy the coin.

Older coins that have been cleaned in the past may show evidence of a past cleaning in a few key ways:

Crud around design elements and lettering
Evidence of heavy, dark toning on some parts of the coin but not on others
Dull appearance in the fields

Here are a few occasions when they say it might be advisable to clean a coin.

(1) The coin has ugly and potentially damaging green polyvinylchloride (PVC) goo from an old plastic coin holder.

(2) The coin has loose dirt and debris on it. 

(3) An ancient coin needs cleaning for proper attribution or identification.

Here is that link.
https://coins.thefuntimesguide.com/cleaned-coins/ ---

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Not much going on except for one undeveloped system down in the Gulf.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Not much surf in the forecast either. Happy hunting, TreasureGuide@comcast.net