3/17/20 Report - Scrap Silver and Reworked Metals and Other Items At McLarty. Two Mystery Items. Palm Beach Beaches.

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

McLarty Museum Display

Submitted by JamminJack

I received these photos from JamminJack a week or two ago.  I had a lot of news to cover, so held these for a while.  Below is a closer look at some of the display items.

Reworked Silver and Gold Items

Photo by JamminJack.

Some of the Leftovers.

Photo by JamminJack.

Not long ago I showed you some small melted bits of silver found on the beach.  They looked a lot like some pieces found at the Winter Beach camp.

Nice Four-Reale

Photo by JamminJack.

It would be a good education for any detectorist to visit the museum to study the items on display.

Thanks for the photos Jack.

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There are a lot of opinions on the glass-looking mystery items that I posted not too long ago.

Here are the ideas that I've received.

Decorative glass for flower vases and beach weddings.

Shattered safety glass.

Fluorite crystals.
Meth crystals.  TM says it is definitely not that.

Now here is what Bill G. said.

Regarding the glass pellets:

I helped start a fire table company (Firetainment) and those pieces of glass look exactly like what we put in our burner pans. Here is a link to some on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=fire+pit+glass&ref=is_s

Thanks Bill.  Looks like we're not going to settle this one, but maybe the reader ideas gave the finder enough to narrow it down.

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Here is another mystery find - this one from John B.  John said

Here’s a strange looking find… I found this a week ago on the beach near Vero

I thought it was lead, but i see silver in places on it.

Mystery Find.

Photo and find by John B.

To me it looks like Santaria Yamana items, which I used to find a lot in South Florida.

Here is a link to an old post I did on that.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2015/02/21415-repor-mystery-item-positively.html

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Jerry P. sent the following.

I thought you and your PB County readers would like to know about Mid-Town Beach’s status. I decided to go there for some wet-sand and surf detecting this morning since I had limited time and it’s close for me. I was quite surprised when I got there. There is a Major Renourishing project going on using pumped in sand from offshore. I had not heard a word about it happening. Looks to me like they are close to completing the work and still have lifeguards in the stands as well as the beach open to the public. Even though there is heavy equipment, dredge pipes etc. still being moved about on the beach, there was a good number of folks enjoying the Sun and water. Needless to say, detecting where I like to search was very lean. I also learned when I got home, that starting tomorrow (3/17) all Palm Beach Island beaches will be closed due to restrictions from the Covid-19 virus. Although they are saying that the PB County beaches will remain open to the public for now.

Thanks Jerry.

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If you are worrying that Coronavirus in the U. S. will spread like it did in Italy, you might be interested to know that northern Italy has a lot of sweat shops in which a very large Chinese population works, many of which come from an area not too far from Wuhan.

It might also help to put things in perspective if you consider that the N1H1 virus killed around 12,000 people in the U. S. in one year, 2009 - 2010.  So the Coronavirus has a long way to go to reach those numbers.

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Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

2/20/19 Report - Current Beach Renourishment on Treasure Coast. Encrusted Object for ID. Southeast Winds.

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

McLarty Museum Observation Deck Looking South.

Photo by Dale J.

Thanks Dale!

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I'm ashamed.  I often mention how difficult it is to identify an item from a photo, and then I go and post two sides of an object without any indication of depth or the contour.  That is what I did yesterday, so I hope to correct the situation today with some additional views of the object I showed yesterday.  

Edge

Angled View

The metal has dissolved and the encrustation appears hollow.  The diameter of the round part is about seven inches and the edge or rim is barely over an inch.  One can assume that the object was somewhat smaller than the encrustation.

As you go from the outside of the round area towards the middle, it first become more thin and then bulges out in the middle.

Angled View of Other Side

And below are the same photos that were shown larger yesterday.

Thanks to those of you who already gave me your opinions without really having a fair shot at it.  I hope the new photos help.  I'm still looking for any and all ideas.

I have one idea, but I'd like to hear what others have to say first.

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Last night I ran across a metal detecting TV show that was produced in 2013.  I think I might have watched it before, but I barely remembered any of it.  The name is Dig Wars and it was on the Destinations network.

Three or four pairs of  detectorist formed teams and hunted various historic locations.  At the end of the day, they had finds appraised to see which pair of detectorists had the highest total.  I think I remember seeing it years ago.  They seemed to find old and interesting items going back centuries most of the places they hunted, even though they only hunted each site one day and didn't turn the site upside down with heavy equipment -  just detectors and some small holes that were filled, or course.

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We have a fairly strong southeast wind today.  I wouldn't be surprised if some spot opens up.  There is one in particular that might be expected to improve under these conditions.

The surf should be a little higher tonight and we are having some good high tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/3/17 Report - Sphinx Found in California. Get Your Ark Ready. Anchoring Information. Mystery Find and Museum Engraving Tool.

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

An Egyptian sphinx was uncovered in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in California.

"The Ten Commandments" film was a masterpiece in its day. Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille had Paul Iribe, a French artist known as "the father of art deco," create 21 sphinxes for the movie. DeMille placed the sphinxes in the movie's biblical Exodus set, where he filmed scenes of the Jews toiling under the Egyptians and later escaping through a parted Red Sea. DeMille filmed the Exodus portion of the movie in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, because it looked like sandy Egypt, Jenzen noted.

The Exodus set was enormous. It had pharaohs, sphinxes and colossal temple gates that, in all, reached 12 stories high and spanned 800 feet (240 meters) in width, Jenzen said. But legend has it that DeMille realized two things when he was done filming: The set was too expensive to move and too valuable to leave behind for rival filmmakers to steal, Jenzen said.

DeMille solved his dilemma by having the Exodus set buried in the sand...

Here is the link to that LiveScience article if you want to read more.

https://www.livescience.com/61045-hollywood-sphinx-found-in-dunes.html

Like I was saying the other day, it can be difficult to identify an item.  There are different ways that items can end up somewhere, and sometimes those ways are unexpected and surprising.  And there is also the problem of copies or reproductions.  I've posted some of those in the past.  I've found reproduction coins that were actually made of silver and gold.   They should be marked as such, but aren't always.  

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Get your ark ready.

Sea-level rise in this century may threaten Jamestown in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas; the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which launches all of NASA's human spaceflight missions; and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, a new study finds.

These iconic locales are some of the more than 13,000 archaeological and historical sites on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the southeastern United States that rising sea levels will endanger this century, researchers in the new study said.

Global warming may lead sea levels to rise by about 3.3 feet (1 meter) in the next century and by 16.4 feet (5 m) or more in the centuries afterward, according to research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and others. These rising sea levels could have severe effects, as more than 40 percent of all people worldwide currently live within a 60-mile (100 kilometers) distance from a coastline, many in low-lying areas vulnerable to sea-level rise, according to reports from the United Nations and others...

That comes from another LiveScience article.  Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.livescience.com/61063-rising-seas-may-destroy-archeological-sites.html

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Concerning the found anchor that I posted yesterday, Captain Jonah said, The anchor is most likely not Hartmans. They didn't use stern anchors. Instead use to use rims with tires attached to crown lines. And would have the guys dig deep holes burying them up to the crownline. They are still there every once and awhile we come across one. Just to clear up.

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Concerning the mystery find that I posted on 12/1, Galen went back to McLarty Museum and found a good comparison piece.

Tools On Display At McLarty Museum.
Photo by Gaylen C.

Below is a photo of the engraving tool shown in the middle of the above photo (left) beside the point of the item Gaylen found (right).

Engraving Tool Point Beside Point of Mystery Find.
Photo by Gaylen C.

Here is what Gaylen said about that.

Went back to McLarty yesterday with grandson. Saw something I missed on the first trip in the display donated by Douglas Armstrong regarding the very early french explorers in FL.  This is an extremely similar piece. As displayed it could perhaps explain what I thought looked like wood remains. In an article I was reading it was reported to Menendez that some of the French escaped the slaughter and had traveled at least 75 miles to the south. We need some historians to address that. But the imagination can use that as the reason I found this in Ft Pierce. If it indeed is an engraving tool it fits into the activities in this area in these times. It could very well be Spanish as well as it could be French. I am curious as to who identified the piece on display. Is Douglas Armstrong still in the area? If so perhaps he could offer some insight. As I said, unless this is determined to be a positive ID, it kind of expands the realm of possibilities:

1. It is an early French tool, and even older than thought.

2. Frenchmen carried it south?

3 Spaniards acquired it by raiding the French.

4 It's really Spanish.

5 It is something totally different.

Last photo shows the two items in comparison. What think ye mateys?

For me - they sure do look alike.

Gaylen is cleaning the item and thinks he might see remnants of a wood handle.

Thanks Gaylen.

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On the Treasure Coast we have beautiful weather - if you like beautiful weather.  I prefer windy and rainy.

The moon is beautiful too.   Good high tides but small surf.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net