7/23/17 Report - Capitana's Mexico Escudo Find: A Closer Look. Turning Failure Into Success.

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

2-Escudo Found by Grant of the Capitana a Couple Weeks Ago.

I thought I'd take a closer look at the shield design on Grant's recent find today.  Unfortunately it does not show either the date of the mint mark or assayer initial.  It does show the denomination (II ) to the right of the shield.

When I first looked at it, I thought it would be a 1714 escudo.  After taking another look, I see at least one thing that makes me think I was wrong and that it might actually be a 1715 escudo. There are a number of signs that might help you determine the date.

The following illustration shows the design elements for a 1713 escudo.

Design Elements For A 1713 Mexico 8-Escudo
Source: 1977 Bowers and Ruddy auction catalog.

Notice that the middle panel does not cover the lower castle that appears in the upper right quadrant.

Below is the shield for a 1714 Mexico escudo.

Design Elements For A 1714 Mexico 8-Escudo
Source: 1977 Bowers and Ruddy auction catalog.

The middle panel now covers the lower castle entirely.  That suggests that the escudo is later than 1713.

There are a number of variations on the 1714 design, but they are mostly smaller things such as ornamentation around the denomination indicator.  Sometimes GRAT appears where other times the date is displayed.  That is another variation.

Below are the design elements for a 1715 escudo.  Take a close look at the shield.

Design Elements For A 1715 Mexico 8-Escudo

Source: 1977 Bowers and Ruddy auction catalog.

The red arrow points to what I missed before and why I now believe that Grant's find is a 1715 escudo rather than a 1714.  There are 2 rather than 3 fleur de lis there.  That is what I missed before and what makes me think it is 1715 instead of 1714.

 I can't see some of the other elements on the real escudo.  That is typical, but my opinion now is that it is a 1715 escudo.

I'm no expert on these things and there might be other things I'm missing, but you might benefit from looking at these designs and realizing that there are a lot of clues to the identity of a cob even when it does not display the date or other information.  It might take an expert to identify them all, but it is always interesting to take a good close look at your finds.

If I'm still wrong about the date, I hope you'll let me know.

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Almost anyone can deal fairly well with success.  You celebrate, congratulate yourself and feel good about yourself and whatever is going on.  Maybe you don't learn as much from your success as you could.   Maybe you give yourself a little too much credit and don't acknowledge all the factors that led to success.

Despite the pitfalls of success, it is usually even more difficult to deal with failure - especially a lot of failure.   How you react to failure can be extremely important.  It is during the difficult times that you can learn a lot about the task and about yourself. As Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”   (I don't know if he really said that.  They say he did, and it is a good thought anyhow.)

When you're not having success, strive to learn something from it.  Make use of the time and the experience.

I recently watched someone having trouble with a job.  He was having trouble doing something he had done many times before.  He became upset, and ranted and cussed.  The more emotional he got, the more mistakes he made.  He got stuck in a self-defeating spiral.  The more trouble he had, the more upset he got, and the more mistakes he made.

How you react when things aren't going well is very important - maybe more important than how you react to success.  Don't get to emotional.  Look at the situation analytically and see what you can learn or change.

Thomas Edison also said, “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”   There were a couple of 49ers that had no success.    They finally gave up and were headed home when one of the discouraged miners shot himself.  On that spot a large nugget was discovered by his partner who was digging a hole for the burial. He retired very wealthy.  ( I wish I could remember the names of those fellows.  Maybe one of you can tell me their names.)

If you are not an eternal optimist, you have one strike against you.  You'll have to work harder to keep yourself encouraged and moving ahead.  If you are afraid of work, you have another big strike against you.  Edison also said, “We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work."  

There are other factors, but if you want it bad enough to work hard and stick to it, you have a very good chance of success.  Don't give up  when things aren't going well, but make it a time to learn and grow.

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Regarding the ring inscription that I asked about yesterday, I received a number of replies, first from Bill A., saying that it referred to a date.  All agreed that Dic 22/87 probably was Spanish for Dec. 22, 1987. Thanks to all for the help.  

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I enjoyed watching the commissioning of the USS Gerald R. Ford yesterday.

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No big changes in beach conditions to report.

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