7/13/18 Report - Mexico Half Reale With P Assayer and Nice Monogram. Coin Patinas and Crust.

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

Mexican Half Reale With Mint Mark.

Yesterday I showed a very small half reale. Here is one that is closer to normal size. It was found during the same November 2013 hunt as the small one.

If you look closely at this one, you will see the mint mark and assayer initial. Just to the left of the bottom half of the big P is the M mint mark over the assayer initial of P. This is not the most common assayer initial for the 1715 Fleet. More common would be the OMJ mark, which I showed some examples of in the past few weeks.

This cob does not show a date,but we can narrow it down to somewhere between 1634 to 1665, when this assayer initial was used. It would have been minted during the reign of Philip IV.

According to Sewall Menzell, "Assayer P worked as a lieutenant for Sebastian Carrillo Madonado and possibly others." The name of assayer P is unknown.

Here is the basic design of the monogram during this time.  

Source: Sewall Menzel's
Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins.

You can also narrow down the date of a half reale from the monogram.

This particular cob gives a good view of much of the monogram but the crown is missing.

Here is the other side of the same cob.

Other Side of Same Mexican Half Reale.

A good part of this side is covered with a thin encrustation.

I'll show another half reale with nice monogram from the same hunt as well as a one reale in the near future.

That is the second of four cobs found during a November 2013 hunt.

---

I've started thinking about patina's and how they can be classified.  So far it seems to me that useful descriptions would include color, thickness, coverage, and coarseness or consistency.

The two sides of a coin can have very different types of patina.  I believe that happens when the coin remains in place for a long time in the same position.

When I get a system of classification developed, then it might be possible to correlate the patina with some variables about a coin's composition and history.  I already believe that I can tell a little about where a coin has been from it's patina.

Some coins are covered by a very hard thin layer such as that seen on the left side of the above cob, others are covered by a crust composed of pieces of shell or sand.  The cob above has a few of those.

I'd like to hear what you might add to the classification scheme.

Here are two coins with different color patinas.

Patinas of Different Colors.

And here is a thick patina composed of coarse sand and shell.

Thickly Encrusted Coin.

---

Chris is now gone and what is left of Beryl is out in the Atlantic up by North Carolina.

On the Treasure Coast we'll have a one to two foot surf for a few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/5/18 Report - Spanish Officer and A Kid From Reign of Philip IV : Paintings For Research. Treasure Dive in the Great Lakes.

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

This painting is one of fifteen from a Sotheby's exhibit of Golden Age Spanish paintings. Since you'll never see a photo from the 8th century or earlier, you can learn a lot by looking at paintings from the time period.  This one from the reign of King Philip gives you some idea of what the best dressed child of the day might wear.  Notice the scaled down sword and pike or whatever.

And here is a fellow of the period identified as a Spanish officer.

Painting of Spanish Officer

Old paintings can be valuable for research.

Below is the link if you want to see the other paintings from the Sotheby's Auckland Castle group.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/slideshows/2018/spanish-paintings-from-auckland-castle.html

---

Here is an interesting and instructive account of a treasure dive in the Great Lakes from Steve in Sebastian.

Anything is possible to those who dream! When everyone and I mean everyone...the best of the best...veteran divers up on the Lakes... would still basically just swim along slowly (the more experience the slower you went) remember at 150+ feet of depth, no matter how well your mind is conditioned...you still were not even close to being 100%. You found yourself locked in patterns of behavior that worked. Example... I'm working a debris pile on the aft deck (that not in the least was by accident on my part, knowing that the original plans showed the Purser's Office was located originally directly above. Now long gone, because the upper decks ("hurricane deck" was always made of lightweight wood to keep the CG low. Often the hurricane deck totally tore off from the collisions and air pressure in the hull. Some were found floating down the lake a hundred miles away, weeks later!

I came across a heavy wood box, but no bottom, heavy like 1" thick, or something tumbled out... hardwood, 12" long, 6" wide, 6-8" high. I grabbed at it... (quite excited... purser's gold box?...why such heavy wood?) but only some engine parts, heavy bearings rolled out. Odd...but that was it. Move on.

How simple at the end of any of my dives (making 2 per day, for 30 days, weather permitting.) to simply tie on my hand reel to these "engine parts" and pull it up and see what it really is! The "hand reel" is a plastic spool with 200' of 5/16" poly line on, with a cut 1/2 through 3' up the bitter end riding up my arm with fishing net floats wire tied to the sides to tie anything heavy on, or to tie to the wreck anywhere for an emergency decompression line. (Although I had mastering holding 10' in free water...for 15 minutes to do all my decompression. You gently slip down to 12-13' constantly holding the depth gauge in front of your face literally, then a couple soft kicks of the fins, then carefully drift to a halt because you are always fighting the quick change in buoyancy that will occur... as the bubbles will expand rapidly in the last 10 feet in your suit, even a dry suit of the type we wore back then. Problem is I often came up at the end...1/2 mile from the boat! Later with the line half cut through at 3' off the tied end, you could cleat it on, and power the boat up, and snap it off when leaving for the day...only losing 3. (:

Anyway back then in the late 70 and 80s, there were really only a couple dozen "good" divers who dove the really deep ones, up to about 210.' So the word got around fairly quickly. Well sure enough I hear the grapevine and it tells me some lucky diver "just looking over the debris in the stern" found the SHIP'S TICKETING MACHINE all in brass with all the brass rollers and thumb wheel amounts and ports of call, etc. A fine, fine nautical steamship 1865 piece I'm sure. I almost wanted to leak it out that he go back and find the hardwood case for it!!! (;Thanks much Steve! 

---

I'm still thinking of the stupid Super Bowl this morning.  I don't know how we elevate a game to such importance in this world, but I guess it is entertainment.

Anyhow, the Eagles were penalized more than the Patriots 6 to 2, but there weren't as many penalties as I expected and no big game changers.  There was one important non-call that in my opinion went in the favor of the Eagles.  That was a real surprise.  Anyway, Nick Foles is going to Disney World and my prediction was wrong.

---

The tides are a bit more moderate now and the surf is only about two to four feet. 

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net