6/5/19 Report - North Carolina Pirates Copyrighted Images of Black Beard's Ship. Scientific Dating. Sun-Purpled Bottles.

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

Source: See MSN link below.

Interesting case coming up in the Supreme Court.

The case, to be heard in the court's next term beginning in October, pits North Carolina against a video production company documenting the salvaging of the shipwreck Queen Anne's Revenge, which ran aground in 1718 and was discovered in 1996.


The state, which owns the pirate ship and its artifacts, has posted video and photos shot by Nautilus Productions as part of its tourism efforts. It enacted a statute, known as "Blackbeard's Law," to convert the salvage effort into public record...

"After Nautilus spent nearly two decades creating works by photographing and filming (at considerable risk) underwater excavation of Blackbeard’s famed Queen Anne’s Revenge, the state brazenly pirated them," the company protested.

Here is the link.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/blackbeards-famed-pirate-ship-grounded-three-centuries-ago-sails-toward-supreme-court/ar-AACkqrG?ocid=spartandhp


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New tests were conducted to date the "Kula Footprints," once thought to be 250,000 year-old Neanderthal footprints.

The results showed that the footprints were made 4,700 years ago, meaning it couldn't have been Neanderthals (who went extinct about 40,000 years ago), but rather modern humans, who left them.

"The two independent dating approaches showed internally consistent results and collectively suggest that the volcanic eruption was witnessed by Homo sapiens during the prehistoric Bronze Age, 4,700 years ago and 245,000 years later than originally reported," study co-researcher Martin Danišík, a research fellow in Earth and planetary sciences at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, said in a statement.

https://www.livescience.com/65609-ancient-volcano-rock-art.html

I tend to be skeptical of such dating techniques.

That is a huge difference -  250,000 years compared to 4,700 years.

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Three Sun-Purpled Found Glass Bottles

Here are three sun-purpled glass bottles.  Some clear glass bottles will turn purple with exposure to the sun.   Not too many of mine have turned.

The two in the back are more purple than is apparent from the photos, but the front one is definitely the most purple.

Purpled bottles can be more desirable, and artificial treatment is sometimes used to make them turn.

The Corning Glass Museum web site provides the following information.

Many glassmakers through the centuries have attempted to produce clear, colorless glass. Impurities, especially iron oxide, in the batch ingredients that were melted to make the glass often resulted in glass that was greenish instead of the desired "water clear."

An interesting characteristic of colorless glasses which contain manganese dioxide as a decolorizer is their tendency to turn different shades of purple when exposed to the rays of the sun or to other ultra-violet sources. It is a photochemical phenomenon that is not yet perfectly understood. It is generally accepted that the ultra-violet light initiates an electron exchange between the manganese and iron ions. This changes the manganese compound into a form that causes the glass to turn purple.


Here is that link.

https://www.cmog.org/article/solarized-glass

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Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/6/19 Report - Mystery Find. Old Rat Tail Spoon. Shipwreck Silverware. Silver Coins As Investments.

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

Rat Tail Spoon
Photo submitted by Dan B.

Dan B. has been reading and researching while recovering from surgery.  One of the things he learned is that his spoon (shown above) is called a "rat tail" spoon.  You can see why.  It is because of the supporting ridge that extends part way down the bowl.  Dan says he has found mostly pewter examples.

The rat tail helps date the spoon.  Here is a couple paragraphs from the Queen Anne's Revenge web site.

Of particular interest to us in dating our spoons is the evolution of the spoon during the second half of the 17th century. During this period, the bowl became wider and eventually the join of the bowl to the stem was reinforced with a spinal rib extending down the bowl. This feature is called a rat tail and can be seen not only on the backs of the spoons pictured here, but also clearly in the X-ray.  (See original article.)

All four of the bowls we have at present have the rat tail. Though this detail helps us with a generic dating of the spoon, it is difficult to identify them more specifically as their handle is shortened or missing entirely. Furthermore, we have not determined if our spoons were shortened intentionally  or broken before or during the wrecking of the QAR; however, this modification is a historically and archaeologically documented practice among sailors in the late 18th century. Why? So sailors’ personal spoons would more easily fit within their pockets. Could this be why we find so few spoons – they simply left the ship in the pockets of their respective pirate owners? Granted, its only one answer among many possibilities, but it does make one think how different shipboard life was 300 years ago.

Here is the link.

https://www.qaronline.org/blog/2019-04-03/artifact-month-pewter-spoon

The evolution of silverware is well documented, making it fairly easy to associate examples with a particular time period.  Many items are much more difficult.

That is an interesting example of how shipboard culture results in discrepancies between finds from shipwreck sites and land sites.  There are some interesting unanswered questions having to do with apparent discrepancies between submerged shipwreck finds and shipwreck beach finds.

There was a rat tail spoon from a 1798 wreck listed in the recently completed Sedwick auction with an estimate of between $500 - $700.

A silver fork from the 1715 Fleet was listed at a much lower estimate -  $100.  Tjhere have been quite a few of them found.  They aren't much different from the spoons you use.  Although forks started out with two tines, the one in the auction had four, which it seems became the most common.

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Mystery Item.
Photo and find by John E.

John E. found this item Saturday.

It seems to show a trident over water.

In Ancient Greece, the trident was a symbol of abundance and that’s why it was depicted on coins and talismans to attract wealth. It symbolized the unlimited treasures of the sea.
John thought the item might be an earring.

It looks like an earring to me, except it looks like it would be very difficult to put in.  That part just doesn't look right to me.


What do you think?










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Jacksonville, Florida.

Two teens swept out into the ocean prayed for help. Then along came a boat named 'Amen.'

Eric Wagner said he was taking his boat from Delray, Florida, to New Jersey when he found the teens about two miles from shore...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-teens-stranded-ocean-prayed-help-then-along-came-boat-n1001576

That is a reminder to watch those rip tides.

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I was looking at a Peace Dollar the other day.  It wasn't struck very well.  That is common with Peace Dollars.  Most of them aren't worth a lot.  A lot of peace dollars in average circulated condition aren't worth any more than nineteen or twenty dollars.  I would have expected more appreciation.  Peace Dollars were made from 1921 through 1935, so they are nearly a hundred years old.

As investments that doesn't seem very good.  Due to inflation, a dollar in 1920 is equivalent to about $12.50 in today's money.  So the majority of the gain in the value of your average condition Peace Dollar is mostly just inflation.

If you put a dollar in the bank and let it accumulate interest over the last hundred years, I think you'd have a lot more.  I won't look it up right now, but you can if you want to.

Of course if your Peace Dollar was a rare example or in much better condition, the story could be different.  In MS60or 60+ condition, the values are in the hundreds of dollars, and a 1934 S could be worth over a thousand dollars.

What I'm saying is that you can't just take any coin and put it away and expect it to be a good investment in the future.  Like with so many things, rarity and condition are very important, and if you want to pick a good investment, it helps immensely if you can select those examples that have a good chance of appreciation.

The value of silver has dramatically changed over the past hundred years.  If you are dealing with  common silver coins in average or poor condition, the price will be affected a lot by the bullion value, which varies wildly.

Here is a hundred year chart for the price of silver.

That is amazing to me.  The dollar value of silver has varied from down around $5 up to around $116 per ounce.  If you decided to sell such coins at the peak when the Hunt brothers were manipulating the price of silver, you would have done well.

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The surf will be only one to two feet for a couple of days, increasing some around Thursday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/26/19 Report - Artifact Find Initiates Journey of Discovery. Cannon Aprons. Good Resources.

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

Folded Lead Find From Treasure Coast Beach

This lead find has been sitting around for a while and I never thought of it being anything but a piece of lead sheathing, however after seeing some examples of cannon aprons, I decided I should take a better look at it.  

There is more to the piece than you can see.  It is tightly folded over a couple of times, which isn't like the other lead sheathing that I've found,  It looks like it could have been deliberately folded rather than simply crumpled by the wrecking or surf.

I found some photos of a cannon apron that came from the Queen Anne's Revenge.   That started me on a journey of discovery and learning.

The qaronline.org website says,

Sheets of lead with “fingers” were used to cover the touch hole of a cannon, protecting the powder and the fuse from water spraying into the gun ports. Lead is malleable and could be formed to the shape of the cannon barrel, while the fingers could be bent to create a tight fit around the breech of the cannon. A hole on either edge of the apron would fit a lash to keep the apron tied in place.

See  https://www.qaronline.org/conservation/artifacts/arms-and-armament/cannon-apron

The same web site provides the following photo of a salvaged cannon apron.

'

In the case of the photo shown immediately above, the holes would be on the right and left sides. You can clearly see the hole on the right side.

You can also see what could be the "fingers" on the upper side of the apron in the photo. It looks like the middle finger is broken off or bent.

Although I'm far from concluding that my find is a cannon apron, I've at least learned that there is such a thing.

I discovered another very interesting resource.  It is a thesis presented to East Carolina University by Laura Kate Schnitzer - APRONS OF LEAD: EXAMINATION OF AN ARTIFACT ASSEMBLAGE FROM THE QUEEN ANNE’S REVENGE SHIPWRECK SITE.

This is a very interesting and informative thesis.  You might not want to read the entire thesis, but you will undoubtedly find sections that you do want to read.  It is well worth scanning.

The thesis presents the picture below showing a cannon apron in place on a cannon.

Cannon aprons come in different sizes and shaped depending in part upon the cannon.

The QAR apron illustrated above has a variety of scratched or etched markings on it.  Here is a picture in which those markings are drawn to make them easier to see.

Source: qaronline.org web site.

See link QAR link above.

The thesis discussed those markings and what they might indicate.  Some were thought to be superstitious marks for good-luck or protection.  That discussion makes for some interesting reading.

I recommend at least browsing the thesis for several reasons.  For one thing, it presents an evolution of artillery through the centuries.  It presents a lot of information in addition to what you'll learn about cannon aprons, including a very good bibliography.  It also illustrates a more academic approach to artifact interpretation that expands on some of my previous comments and criticisms of what I've called the "free association" method that you might have seen on TV.   There is a lot of academic jargon and maybe a lot that you won't find interesting, but you can skip the parts that don't like.  I'm sure you will find something that does interest you.

Here is the link.

http://thescholarship.ecu.edu/bitstream/handle/10342/3842/Schnitzer_ecu_0600M_10612.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Back to my find.   Even though I've had it for a while, I have not yet really studied it.  Right now I'm trying to decide if I want to unfold it.  Whether I do that or not, I plan to look at the object more closely.

Digging up an object is one discovery, but a found object can become much more interesting when you do the research and really study it.  

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I am highly supportive or archaeology, but have also commented on some of the problems created by some of the more radical members of the profession.  Here is a link to a post I once did on that subject.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/02/22518-report-problem-with-archaeology.html

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Jensen Beach As Seen a Couple Days Ago.

Photo by Mike A.

Mike said there was nothing but some crusty pennies.

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The surf is running around two or three feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net