11/8/19 Report - More Reales Being Auctioned. New Book on Coin Hoards. The Great Southern Treasury Hoard. Bigger Surf.

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

Lots from Bruce Ward Estate Auction

See Cargileauctions.com link below.

The Sedwick Coins Treasure Auction no. 26 has concluded, but many silver reales from the Bruce Ward estate is being auctioned by Cargile Auctions.

Online bidding has begun, but bidding will not close until Dec. 9.

Here is the link to the Cargile Auctions site.

http://www.cargileauctions.com/auction/350594/the-estate-of-bruce-ward/

And here is the link to the online auction catalog.

https://cargileauctions.hibid.com/catalog/189905/1715-spanish-fleet-coins-and-artifacts---the-estate-of-bruce-w/


Many of these are said to be in their original uncleaned condition.

---


Q. David Bowers tells CoinWeek about his new book, Lost and Found: Coin Hoards and Treaures.

Here is a brief excerpt from the article.


In numismatics, there are many stories of coin treasures that have come to light, most often under circumstances a bit less exciting than written in buccaneer lore, but often quite intriguing. Typically, notices of such finds have been reported first in newspapers or other popular periodicals, often with incomplete or inaccurate information. Then, if a numismatist were consulted, the facts might have been recorded.

Found coins were usually spent, sold, or otherwise scattered without any inventory being made of them. I have reviewed thousands of news accounts of robberies, finds of buried coins, losses of ships laden with coins, and the like, but only a tiny percentage of such narratives have any interesting or important numismatic information. The exceptions form many of the stories given in my book Lost and Found Coin Hoards and Treasures, now in its second edition...

You might want to read more of this.  Here is the link.

https://coinweek.com/coins/supplies/books-2/coin-hoards-treasures-and-troves-separating-truth-from-taradiddles/

I'm sure you will be able to get it through the library if you don't want to spend the money.

---

Talking about hoards, did you ever hear about the Great Southern Treasure Hoard?


Near the beginning of last month, CoinWeek traveled to NGC headquarters in Sarasota, Florida, to get a first look at the Great Southern Treasury Hoard of 13,000 New Orleans Mint Morgan dollars.

Coin dealer Jeff Garrett was instrumental in bringing this numismatic bonanza to the market, negotiating a deal with a family of hard money advocates to trade 13 U.S. Mint-sealed bags of Morgan dollars for approximately $1 million in gold bullion.

The family purchased the coins in the mid-1960s for an estimated cost of $1.30 per coin. That investment returned an estimated $76.92 per coin in 2019...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://coinweek.com/video-news/coinweek-video-jeff-garrett-and-the-great-southern-treasury-hoard-of-morgan-dollars/


$1 in 1965 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $8.15 in 2019, a difference of $7.15 over 54 years.  Not a bad investment, but without figuring it out exactly, I think you would get more if you put your money in the bank in 1965.  Interest rates at one point were up around 20%, if you can imagine that in todays near-zero interest rate environment.

Maybe you still would have enjoyed the coins more.

Interest Rates Over the Years.

---

When you see all of the cars on the road, it seems like nobody is where they want to be - otherwise they wouldn't be going somewhere else.

---

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Tomorrow the surf is supposed to be five to eight feet.  The tides won't help much though.

But look farther out.  A six to nine foot surf is predicted for next week.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net.

12/10/18 Report - Always Some Where To Hunt and Something To Find. Don't Overlook Valuable Modern Coin Finds. Amazing Buried Things.

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

One thing I've repeated often is, "There is always some place to hunt and something to find."  That has been as true this year as ever.

It has been a slow year for finding old shipwreck items on the Treasure Coast beaches.  We haven't had any big beach-ripping nor'easters.  We've had a little erosion, but not much.  It was usually a day or two of small cuts that quickly refilled again.

Like I said, "There is always some place to hunt and something to find." My favorite finds this year were from inland hunts, which resulted in a 1914 ten-dollar gold eagle coin, which was my favorite coin find of the year, and a couple dozen Morgan and Peace dollars, which were my second favorite coin finds of the year.

As you know, hunting shipwreck treasure depends on conditions a lot.  Sometimes conditions don't cooperate and you have to be creative, or at least flexible.

There are always the modern finds.  Better beach conditions will definitely help you find more of those, but you can always follow the crowds and pick up whatever was just lost.

Not only were Treasure Coast conditions not good for finding shipwreck treasure, conditions weren't good for finding beach fossils or sea glass either.  Beach fossils are most easily found during the same kinds of conditions that produce shipwreck finds.  Sea glass is most easily found in big shell piles, and there have been few good shell piles this year.

My local bottle hunting spots have not been good lately this year either.  I miss that, because when conditions are right I can take a little walk and often pick up a nice bottle or two.

One of my better glass finds this year was what I now believe to be an antique fly trap (below).

I posted that find before and there were other opinions about what it is, but I recently saw one somewhere almost like it.  I forget where I saw it now, but that one was suspended by a string from the top.

The year isn't over yet, and usually some of the best Treasure Coast beach hunting comes during the winter months, so there is still the possibility of some good 1715 Fleet finds this year.

One thing that I learned more about this year is modern error and variety coins.  That has kept me busy.  I wish I had learned more about that years ago.  I could have inspected many thousands of my earlier coin finds, but the information wasn't so easily available back then.  Now you can find so much more good information on the internet.  You can also get answers to your questions.   I like coincommunity.com, for example.  It is a very active site where many questions are posted daily, and questions are answered quickly.

A modern error penny can be worth thousands of dollars, yet people discriminate pennies.  I'm sure I must have let some valuable ones pass through my hands when I didn't know what to look for.

Just to give a few examples of one type of error -

1. there is a doubled die 2014 penny that can be worth $150,
2. a 1997 penny showing Lincoln with a doubled ear lobe can bring up to $200,
3. a 1995 D doubled die in good condition can be worth $800, and
4. a 1983 doubled die that can be worth over $2000.

I just picked out a few of the more recent ones.  There are hundreds.

There are many other types of mint errors besides doubled die errors.  Here is one that I found on a 1974 penny.  See if you can see it.  It is small.

Here is a closer look.

Notice the depression between the rim and the word "STATES."  That is what is called a strike-through.  A sliver of the rim, called a rim burr, was between the planchet and the die when the coin was struck, leaving the depression.

That is just to give you an idea of a few of the many thousands of valuable error pennies that can be found.  A coin doesn't have to be old to be valuable, but you do have to know what to look for.

Error and variety hunting is much more difficult than I ever expected, but it can be fun and worthwhile.  There is a lot to learn.  It is not easy to correctly identify some of the errors.  It can also be difficult to tell the difference between post-mint damage and a mint error, but you can find the information and get answers to your questions online.

I also got into paper money a bit this year, and have been inspecting the serial numbers.  That is fun and easy.

---

Amazing what is buried under out there!

Here is the link for the article.

https://inhabitat.com/man-buries-42-school-buses-to-build-north-americas-largest-nuclear-fallout-shelter/

---

According to MagicSeaWeed, the Treasure Coast will see a little bump in the surf on Wednesday.  Here are the predictions.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Looks like we'll have a northwest wind during the first part of Wednesday before it turns south again.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/25/18 Report - Complexities of Detecting Coins Buried in Jars. The Silver Picture Frame Treasure Surfacing.

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

Grant Surfacing to The Bottomline With Silver Picture Frame.
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez 

I posted a couple pictures of the frame yesterday, but here is one more.  Really great find!

If you didn't see the larger picture I posted yesterday, you should go back and take a look.

---

Coins have been around hundreds and hundreds of years  And they really haven't changed much.  The are usually round and flat with a design on two sides.   That is a basic design that has worked well and has remained little changed for centuries.

One thing that detectorists probably do not appreciate enough is the effect of the position of coins and other objects in the ground on the signal produced by a metal detector.  They usually assume that coins are lying with one face parallel to the coil.  That is how air tests are conducted and that is how depth measurements are usually taken.  But sometimes a coin can be on edge or at an angle, and that definitely affects the detector reading.

The amount of surface area presented to the coil is an important factor.  Tilting the coin (or the coil) affects that.

I gave some tips on cache hunting a couple days ago, and mentioned how you never know what metals or items might be in a cache.  The container itself might be what you detect, and the container will seldom be made of a precious metal.

Like I mentioned, canning jars or cans are sometimes used.  Not too long ago 23 Peace and Morgan silver dollars were found in a canning jar.  There are a lot of variables involved in how a metal detector might respond to that.  There were the coins and how they were positioned, but there was also a metal screw cap on the canning jar.  The position of the lid is another important factor.

I showed how the Ace 250 responded to a silver dollar not too long ago.  You'd think the signal would be much louder for twenty-three coins compared to a single silver dollar.  In this case, the silver dollars were stacked but not standing up.  They were wrapped in a rag and lying like a wrapped roll in the jar.  They were wrapped with a rag, but not as tight as they would be in a regular con wrapper.

The sound was louder than a single coin laying flat, but not as much as I expected.  They were standing on end next to each other, so the surface presented to the detector coil was nothing like it would have been if they were scattered out over the ground.

People often talk about the halo affect when talking about coins in the ground, but in this case, the coins were inside a glass jar, so there was no halo affect from the coins.  However there was a metal screw lid that was badly rusted.

Detecting the silver dollars lying in a row stacked on the ground without the jar, resulted in a signal that was somewhat louder than a single coin lying flat, but not by a huge amount. They were detected at about a foot.  That wasn't very much considering the amount of silver. The surface area presented directly to the coil is very important.  I should do a good demonstration and take some good measurements.

Another factor, as they were found, was the canning jar lid.  The jar could be buried standing up or lying down.  The lid could be facing the coil or on its side.  In this case the jar was lying, and the coins were in the position that I just described.

Here is a video showing how the jar full of silver dollars would sound if you sweep in one direction.

That was sweeping in one direction.

I advise sweeping at a 90 degree angle and observing the difference in sound when you are trying to figure out what the item might be.

Below is another short video.  This time the coil is moved 90 at a different angle.

I'm sure you noticed how different the signal was. 

If an object is round and the item is not made of different parts and the object is lying flat, you'll get the same signal no matter which direction you sweep your coil relative to the object.  That would have been the case if the jar was standing up and you swept over the lid of the jar.  In that case, you would be hearing the lid more than the coins inside the jar.

My point is that you can tell a lot about a buried object from the signal you get, especially when you sweep from more than one angle.  Mixed items or items lying at different angles can be more difficult to identify from the signal alone.  That can make cache hunting a tricky.  You are not looking individual coins or rings but mixed items that can be buried in a variety of ways.

----

There are no significant storms in the Atlantic and not much change in beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/11/18 Report - 23 Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars Found. Chris Moving Off.

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

Hurricane Chris and Remnant of Beryl
Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Chris is a now hurricane movng north/northeast away from North Carolina and well off the northeast coast.

Beryl is now only a remnant and is also moving north.  It does not look like we'll get any real effect from Beryl.

We're getting a higher tide than we've had in the recent past, but not anything extraordinary.  Expect more one and two foot surf along the Treasure Coast until another disturbance comes along. 

---

Recent Treasure Coast Area Find.

The silver dollars shown above range in date from 1880 to 1928.  There are four Morgan dollars.

Mint marks include O, D and S.

They are not collector coins.  They vary in condition slightly, but are all well worn from circulation.

The most frequent date is 1922, which is also the date of highest production, so that is not surprising and supports the idea that they were taken from circulation rather than purchased as collector coins.

One thing that struck me is that they are almost the same weight as an eight reale - maybe gram less than a proper eight reale.

I really like the looks of Morgan dollars a lot more than Peace dollars.  The only thing I like better about Peace dollars is the face of Lady Liberty.

Morgan dollars were minted from 1878 to 1904, and then again in 1921 before the mints ramped up and turned out tons of Peace dollars.  They were minted to use silver from the Comstock lode and circulated most widely in the West.  They are 90% silver and weigh 26.73 grams.

Also 90% silver, the Peace dollar was to commemorate peace after World War I.  They went into circulation in January of  1922 and was stopped after 1928.  They were produced again briefly in 1934 and 1935.

---

You can really benefit from asking good questions and talking to the right people. If you ask the right questions you have a very good chance of eventually getting the right information.  The right questions will lead you down a path of continuing discovery.

There is a lot of good information that is readily available over the internet, but a lot of it isn't very good.  If you aren't careful, it is as easy to be led astray as helped by it all.

When I post an article, I usually do it for a reason other than the fact that it is just something interesting.  There are usually some good clues to be found.

Did you notice all of the amazing finds that have been found in farm fields?  I hope you didn't just read that and think how wonderful it would be.   I hope you asked yourself why that would be.  Why are so many good things found in farm fields?  How are they found?  And what it means to you, if anything?  I hope you take the time to think about the articles as you read them.

Keep an eye on the Atlantic.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/26/14 Report - Officers Great Seal Hat Badge Dug. 300 Silver Dollar Cache. $50,000 Robert E. Lee Map. Nazi U-Boat Wreckage.

Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.



Example WW II Officers Cap With Badge
Sent by Christopher P.

Yesterday I showed a metal Great Seal of the United States.  I didn't know what it was at first.  After the item was cleaned I could see where two pins would have been.  That was totally covered by a encrustation before. 

I am now sure it is a officer's cap pin of the WW II era.

Thanks for the picture Christopher!




Other WW II items have come from that same area of the beach in the past.  Most of that, though, was when the beach was eroded way back - maybe a hundred yards from where it is now. 

I suspect this one was dredged up and dumped with the renourishment sand.  That happens occasionally.  It can be very helpful when you can figure out where things are coming from.

This one was found where WW II training took place, but I still suspect that it actually came from where the dredged sand was picked up.

Where Pin Was Attached To Badge.

Here is the back of the badge that was found yesterday after the encrustation was cleaned off. 

There were two pins attached - one behind each wing.

This photo shows where one pin was attached (red circle).






A cache of 300 1887 mint-condition silver dollars were found when plummers were digging a ditch.  That happened back a few years but still the story is worth looking at.   Good read.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/coin-cache-found-in-amarillo-backyard

You never know what you might find if you keep digging.



A map actually used by Robert E. Lee has a value of between 50 to 100 thousand dollars.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/10/21/antiques-roadshow-robert-e-lee-map-photo-worth-upwards-of/20981684/


More on WW II.   The wreckage of a Nazi U-boat was found off of North Carolina.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/video/WWII-Nazi-U-Boat-Wreckage-Found/346833475829/Comcast/TopVideos/?cid=sf_vidtray


On the Treasure Coast it looks like we're going to have nothing much more than a two foot surf for about a week.  Nonetheless, as I've been showing, we have been getting some decent sand movement - more than I would expect from such a small surf.  The wind was from the North, which at least partially accounts for it.

As I left the beach yesterday, the tide was coming in and the face of the cut was being hit, and that was knocking a little more sand off the cut.  At that time the waves were hitting straight on and the sand was not being swept away.

We have one tropical disturbance below Cuba now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net