7/31/19 Report - Latest 1715 Fleet Treasures Found by Salvage Crews on the Treasure Coast.

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

Intricate Gold Pieces of Rosary Found by Sea Trepid at Corrigans.

I just received an update on the salvage season from JaminJackUSA today.  The Salvage Crews are making amazing finds.

All the treasure shown today was found in the last few weeks.

You've heard people say that it has all been found.  Here is proof how wrong that is!

All of these photos were submitted by JaminJack.  Thanks much for sharing!

Levin Shavers on the Sea Trepid with Beautiful Gold Pieces.

Silver Bowl Found by SeaTrepid at Corrigans.

John Brandon and Jimmy Parker With Reason to Smile.

Mike Perna on Mighty Mo Showing GRAT Gold Coin Find

More Ornate Gold Rosary Parts Found by Sea Reaper at Corrigans.

Gold Nuggets Found by Hitting Bottom at Rio Mar.

Three Figures Found by Capitana at Corrigans.

Congratulations guys!

If that doesn't get your juices going nothing will.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves today.

We do have a tropical wave moving in our direction, but it probably won't be much.  I'll report on that tomorrow.  Nothing urgent.

Happy hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/2/19 Report - Part of Rosary Found Off Shore by Sea Reaper. Lead Shot Found. Revolutionary War Records Free. Spear Point.

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

Salvage Boat and Tender Working North of John Brooks Monday Afternoon.

The salvage season has started well.  The weather has been good for salvage work, and most of the crews have found some gold, along with other items.

For the beach detectorist, things have not been so encouraging.

John Brooks Beach Monday Aftternoon.

There was just a faint strip of shells along the waterline.

Wherever there were people at the beach, there were people in the water seeking relief from the heat.

John Brooks Beach Monday Afternoon.

Most of the salvage vessels on the Treasure Coast have already found some gold this year. I already talked about one piece - a probably religious item. More recently, part of a gold rosary was found by captain Josh Fisher-Abt and the crew of the Sea Reaper. That item was farther from shore than most, and it was speculated that it may have been from a passenger that went overboard before the ship  broke up

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Musket Balls, Lead Shot and Melted Lead From Turtle Trail Area.

Most of those shown above, as well as other pieces not shown. came from just a few feet north of the Turtle Trail beach access a few years ago.

Among the items are a lot of small caliber bullets that look like they were shot into the dunes or sand.  As well as on the beach, I've found them sliding down the cliff in front of the dunes.  There are more than those shown.  I always wondered if someone was shooting birds or just doing target practice.  They are flattened out and look almost like buttons.

There are a few musket balls in the mix.  One larger one and a few smaller ones.  Note also the melted lead bits at the bottom.  Also there are a few larger caliber bullets.

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Here is something you might find interesting.  Ancestry.com is giving free access to Revolutionary War records for a limited time.

Here is the link you can use to register.

https://go.fold3.com/revolutionary-war?xid=2388&utm_source=content&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=odp-revwar-july2019

I've found at least six ancestors that served in the Revolutionary War through my wife's research, beginning with Nehemiah Day who served in New York and New Jersey to Captain John Wetzel, on the Western Front.

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Putin's net worth shows how socialism solves the wealth inequality problem. 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/what-is-russian-president-vladimir-putins-net-worth

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I'd like to see photos of Native American artifacts found on Treasure Coast beaches.  If you have any points or other finds. send them in and I'll post a good selection if I get enough.

Here is one to start you off. It is a broken spear point.

Broken Spear Point.

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No change in Treasure Coast beach conditions is predicted for the rest of the week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/1/18 Report - Tips and Techniques for Finding Paper Money and Other Valuable Papers. News on the Atocha And Santa Margarita Sites.

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

Unidentified Paper Money Found in Pages of Old Book.

After Thanksgiving I told about finding a ten dollar bill on the floor of a restaurant.  I remembered that when I woke up this morning and started thinking about other times I found paper money.  There were actually quite a few, and there were even times when I set out to find paper money.

Of course, you don't do that with a metal detector.  There are, however, things you can do that will increase the probability of finding paper money.  One is being generally alert.  But there are also specific strategies for different times and places.

Finding paper money is one aspect of what I call eye-balling. Years ago I wrote an article about that for a treasure hunting magazine.  It was either Lost Treasure, Treasure, or Western and Eastern Treasures.  I forget which one right now.

I once found a twenty dollar bill while driving through the parking lot in front of a Bealls store.  You can find stuff while driving.  I once saw a watch on the street while driving.  I drove up to it, stopped, opened the door and picked it up.

I won't mention all the bottles, rings and other treasures that I've found visually, but will get back to paper money.  There are some places where you have a decent chance of finding paper money.

I always liked to search the grounds after a carnival, circus or fair. You could always find a good number of coins right after they left, and most of them would be on top of the ground so you could find a lot of them visually, but also there was also a good chance of finding paper money.

The best place to check at a fair grounds was the fence line on the down wind side.  Usually the fence line would also have a bunch of weeds that would help trap blown paper money.

At the beach I've found paper money in the seaweed along the seaweed line.

A lot of wind or big surf helps you chances.

There aren't so many of them out there anymore, but people used to leave cigarette packages on the beach.  I would always check out packages like that for any money.  There would occasionally be a folded bill stuffed inside.

I've also found paper money while metal detecting in the water.  I remember one time when a bill came floating by about a foot deep in the water.  It wasn't real easy to see.

There was also a dip in about six feet of water in front of one beach-side hotel where bills often collected.

Of course, paper money can be found in with coin caches.  

I used to stop at a thrift store to buy old and collectible books.  I once found a ten dollar bill in between the pages of a book I bought.

A lot of good things can be found in between the pages of old books.  Old calling cards, autographed papers, tickets, etc.

One of my favorites was the business card of Hoagie Carmichael Jr., which was in a book written by him.  I purchased the autographed book on building a fly rod for a dollar and sold it for around $125, as I recall.

I've also found very nice old photos in books, including one showing a some people in the old long bathing suits at a New Jersey beach.  It looked like it was from the twenties or thirties.  Also some nice wedding and other photos.

Old Photo Postcard Found Between Pages of An Old Book.

The clown postcard shown above was found in an old book.  It has the typical postcard look with the space for stamp and everything on the other side, but it also appears to have the name of the person (Charles H...).

Another favorite book find included a religious card with a small cloth relic attached.

Outdoors, consider the wind and water and where paper will evntually be trapped.

Indoors, consider anyplace where paper can be stuffed away for safe keeping.  Old books are one of my favorites.

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Recent calmer weather allowed a lot of salvage activity down around Key West.

The crew of the Dare has been trying to determine if there might be another debris trail on the Atocha site.  In the process they found a couple silver coins and a few EOs.

On the Margarita site, the Sea Reaper was searching for a missing section of the Santa Margarita.  There are about 22 chests of coins missing, including about 80 thousand pieces of eight.  They found a silver coin, musket balls and lead sheathing while searching.

Doug Pope has made an agreement with the Fishers, and the Polly-L be working with the Fisher organization again on the Santa Margarita site.  The Polly-L worked on the Margarita site back in the early 2000s and found a 40 carat uncut Colombian emerald.  It was the only emerald ever found on the Santa Margarita wreck site.  It was found in a conch shell.

Source: email from the Fisher organization.

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Let me know if you can identify the partial bill shown at the top of the page.

It looks like we'll have south winds and less than a two foot surf for a few days.  We might have something bigger after that.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/21/17 Report - 92L Still Headed Towards Treasure Coast Area. Some Lima Escudos From Sea Reaper. Solar Eclipse Stamp and Pin-Hole Projector.

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

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

The cone shown in red is Harvey.  The orange cone is 92L, the one that has been headed our way.  At this point it is not a cyclone and has only a ten percent chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.  I'm thinking it won't change our beach conditions much unless it strengthens and hangs around off-shore for a while.

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Coins Found by Sea Reaper.
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah

Thought I'd take a little closer look at some of the escudos found by the Sea Reaper.

Here is the picture I posted yesterday, but I put a letter by three of the coins.

The ones marked A, B and C are from the Lima mint.  If you look at the upper left section of the tic tac toe, you can see the "L" mint mark on those three coins.  To the right of that you can see the "2" mark for the denomination.  The escudo labeled "D" is upside down in the picture.

Escudo A, looks like it might be 1710.  I think I see the 7 in the bottom far left, and the 1 in the middle bottom section and then the 0 in the bottom left section.

B looks like it could be 1711, but I'm not sure of that.  And C 170 something.  I don't think the last digit of the date is readable.

Jonah says they've found coins from Bogota, Cusco, Lima and Mexico mints. 

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As you undoubtedly know, we'll have a partial solar eclipse today.  If you don't have NASA approved glasses, you can make a pin-hole projector.  It is easy and it works.  You can look it up.  You don't need much more than a cereal box and some foil.  I've done it before.

Here is something related to the eclipse that I thought was neat.  You can get Solar Eclipse stamps from the U. S. Post Office that change.  When cold, the stamp shows a total eclipse, but when warmed it changes.

Below is the stamp as it looks when it is cold.

And the next picture shows a stamp on the same sheet after it warms a little.

I didn't get the greatest picture, but you get the idea.  A pretty neat collectible, especially if on an envelope post marked today.

They are still available as of about noon Monday.

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If the surfing web sites are correct, it looks like we'll get a little surf from 92L.  The are predicting a 3 - 4 foot surf for Tuesday.

We're going to have some big high tides today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/20/17 Report - Crew of Sea Reaper Recovers 1715 Fleet Gold Coins Off Treasure Coast. Shipwreck Treasure of Rooswijk. Weather Watch.

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

1715 Fleet Gold Coins Found by the Crew of the Sea Reaper
Photos submitted by Captain Jonah Martiez

Captain Jonah sent me the above photo of the gold coins found by the crew of the Sea Reaper.

Those are some beautiful two escudos.  You can see the denomination on a couple of them.

I'll take a closer look at some of these later and maybe have a few comments about them.

Thanks to Jonah for sharing and a big congratulations to the crew of the Sea Reaper!

It isn't everyday that you get piles of gold.  Sometimes you have to work your way through some hard boring days to get there.  I always figured that the longer the dry period got, the closer I was getting to the next big hit.

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Treasure and intrigue: scientists unravel story of 1740 Kent shipwreck.

Excavation has brought up silver dollars, pewter jugs and a mystery chest from Rooswijk wreck in Goodwin Sands...

Here are some of the coins.

 Photograph: Zeeuws maritiem muZEEum/PA

And here is the link for the rest of the story.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/18/treasure-and-intrigue-scientists-unravel-story-of-1740-kent-shipwreck

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Yesterday I posted what I thought was a really useful video that shows a helpful trick that I learned only after a lot of years of detecting. The video didn't get nearly as many views as I expected and am wondering why.  I guess I didn't successfully make the point about how useful it is.  Maybe I told everything in the text, but the video adds a lot - in my opinion.

[UPDATE:  I got word that people were having trouble with the link to the video I posted yesterday, so I just went back, and I think I got it fixed now.  Thanks to those who let me know about that.  Hopefully it is now working for everybody.  I think this link will work.
https://youtu.be/Mu7sbkrLC1k ]

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I watched a couple episodes of the first season of Mine Hunters on the National Geographic channel Saturday.  Not my favorite, but an ok show.

Not treasure hunting related, but I watched some of Fifth Wave, a movie about how citizens were made to appear like enemy invaders and their own children tricked into killing them.  It was an interesting movie plot that made me think how the establishment could turn the right and left against each other so they can maintain power.  Might seem far-fetched, but with the media fed frenzy of today, totally imaginable and worth thinking about.

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The systems I've been watching on the National Hurricane Center map decreased in strength over night.  I"ll be watching and reporting on the one that might come our way.  Right now it looks like it won't be much, but there is still time for things to change.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/17/17 Report - New Margarita Finds. Industry Shipwreck and St. Augustine. SS Central America Search Strategy.

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

Beach Renourishment Begins At Jupiter Beach South.
Submitted by CladKing.

Thanks CladKing.

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The sea is usually rough in the keys in March, however the Mel Fisher organization reports some very nice finds were made recently during a calm spell by the Sea Reaper on the Margarita site.  Exploring a less explored area to the east, a variety of artifacts were found including a large encrusted iron pot.  A iron key and a sword handle was found the next day a little distance away.  These new finds added new possibilities to what is known about the distribution of wreckage.

A second iron pot was found the next day nearly a half mile away, but in a direct line with the first.  It appears that a second scatter lies parallel to that previously plotted.

Here is a three-legged 18th century iron cooking pot from the Industry shipwreck off St. Augustine.

Source: TAMU Dissertation.  See link below.

The pot shown above is not one of those found on the Margarita site. The photo is from a 2005 dissertation by Marianne Franklin entitled BLOOD AND WATER; THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE WRECK OF THE INDUSTRY, A NORTH-AMERICAN TRANSPORT SLOOP CHARTERED BY THE BRITISH ARMY AT THE END OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR: BRITISH COLONIAL NAVIGATION AND TRADE TO SUPPLY SPANISH FLORIDA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. (More on recent Margarita finds below.)

Franklin's dissertation is something that anyone interested in 18th Century Florida will want to read. It gives a good history of St. Augustine (one of the best I've read) and especially how they were provisioned, both legally and illegally. The Lawrence family of New York was one big player.

The dissertation provides a lot of information on Spanish St. Augustine and how they were supplied by British ships, the Industry being one that sunk outside of the inlet to St. Augustine. Also covered are the artifacts. A good bibliography can be found at the end.

Here is the link.

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/pdf-files/Franklin-PhD2005.pdf

Picture of a Similar Iron Pot In a Ship's Hearth.
Source: TAMU  link immediately above.

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Here is another good read.  It discusses the search for the SS Central America.  It is not about what happened when the wreck was found - just search strategies prior to the location of the wreck.

Here is that link.

http://www.columbia.edu/~dj114/SS_Central_America.pdf

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Well the surf is still small along the Treasure Coast.  The tides have also decreased.  Not much hope for much improvement over the next few days.  It is however an chance to check the low tide area.

I expect a lot of beach renourishment this summer.  It has started, but there is more to come.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/25/16 Report - Invest 99-L Still Heading Towards Florida. Octant Find. Fisher News. IRC History Books.

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

Wind Prediction for Early Sunday Afternoon
According to wyndyty.com.

The biggest news for me is Invest 99L, a low pressure area, coming our way.  I ran the wyndyty.com prediction out to Sunday, and from that it appears that the storm could develop and come in around the Miami area, as shown above.

Notice that according to this prediction, the system has a nice tight center by Sunday afternoon.  Also notice that the strongest winds are to the northeast.

If this is what happens, we won't get very much wind from the north or northeast.  After it passes we'll be getting a lot of South winds.

Of course, this is just a prediction and things could change significantly.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Above you can see where things stand at the Thursday 8 AM update.  At this point, there is still just a 50 percent chance of the low pressure area becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.  

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Here is a really nice artifact found by Darrel S. years ago.  He said, I have found some late 18th century items. I found the part to an octant south of Turtle Trail. Image (bottom) is from Sedwick's auction for reference.

Part Of An Octant Found by Darrel S.
Photos submitted by Darrel S.

Below is a picture of a complete octant as shown in a 2010 Sedwick auction listing.  You can see a part like the one found by Darrel on that octant. 

Source: Sedwick Oct. 23, 2010 Auction Listing.

That is the kind of item that an inexperienced detectorist might find and discard as being of no value. As I often say, if you don't know what an object is, hold onto it until you are very confident that you know what you have.  .

Very nice find Darrel!  Thanks for sharing.

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Recently I showed a chisel that was found on the Treasure Coast.  The J.B. Magruder recently found an iron chisel along with some other items on the Atocha site.  The Magruder will be moving down to the Atocha Main Pile to look for emeralds.

The Dare continues to explore targets identified by Dolores an the EM metal detection system.  They might move North to the Lost Merchant site.

The Fishers are adding Captain Dan Porter and his Sea Reaper to their Key West salvage operations.

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Here is something really useful.  It is a listing of Indian River County local history books in the Indian River County library system.

You'll find many more related books (hundreds) by using the following link.

http://www.irclibrary.org/genealogy/irchistorybooks.pdf

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net