8/15/16 Report - Flintlock Pistol From Treasure Coast Beach. Thoughts On Religious Relics. World Wide Web 25 Years Old This Month.

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

Flintlock Pistol Found After Hurricanes of 2004.
Photo submitted by Darrel Strickland.

Lately I've been showing some noteworthy treasures that were found a few years ago, especially after the hurricanes of 2004, which was some of the best hunting we've had since the legendary Thanksgiving Storm of 1984.  A lot of treasure was found by a lot of people after Francis and Jeanne. You've never heard of most of it, and I'm only showing a few pieces.

The flintlock pistol shown above was found by Tom K., who found the pistol "at Wabasso Beach going north towards Golden Sands in the wet sand near the water's edge."  Thanks for sending the photo and email Darrel.

I don't know if Tom ever got the pistol cleaned up or not, but he wasn't in a hurry to clean it at the time because he thought it might be damaged in the process.

Tom also found some rings that day.

Here is charm or rosary piece found back then too.

Photo submitted by Darrel S.

I've shown some of the famous religious pieces found by the salvage divers, and Laura Strolia has provided authoritative research on some of the most fascinating ones. Click the following link to go back to a post containing some of Laura's research on the Pelican of Piety.

  http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/search?q=pelican+piety

Before Laura's research was published, the gold Pelican of Piety was often mistakenly referred to as a reliquary.  A reliquary is meant to contain a relic.

I recently found an article about first-class relics being sold on the internet.  A first-class relic is an item or piece of an item directly associated with event's of Christ's life or the physical remains of a saint, for example bone or hair.

One person wrote an article about selling first class relics and wants the practice stopped. The author of that article, Ryan Scheel, had the following to say.

The listing of first class relics “is incredibly insensitive to the Catholic faith in way I doubt would be tolerated for other religions,” Scheel said. 

“But also...common decency should tell eBay that profiting off of the sale of body parts is ghastly and unethical, no matter who the remains belonged to in life.”That's why Scheel decided to launch a petition calling for eBay to remove the listings of the first class relics. He hopes to obtain signatures from at least 25,000 Catholics in order to alert the site of the illicit sales.”

Here is the link to that article.

http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php?id=14075

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Did you know that August 5 was the 25th anniversary of the first web site.  That web site described the WorldWideWeb project and said the following.

"The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents," the world's first public website reads, going on to explain how others can also create their own web pages.

"The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should be freely available to anyone."

I found that information on thehackernews.com, which is a good site for those who want to stay informed about computer security.

Many large corporations have been hacked by China.  Google admitted they were hacked.   If Google, who has all of those bright computer scientists, couldn't prevent being hacked, who can?  If you don't maintain the finest security practices and if you have anything that the major players might want on your computer, you probably have been hacked, whether you know it or not.

Computer security isn't all technical.  A lot of it is behavioral.  Hackers take advantage of natural and naive human behavior.

On a side note, the Stuxnet super-virus was created to damage Iran's nuclear centrifuges, and it did its job fairly well even though the controllers were isolated.  Somebody had to use a USB or some other portable storage device to install it the virus.   More powerful versions are now being developed.

I started this post talking about a centuries old flintlock pistol, and ended it with cyber warfare.  How things have changed!

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Here is one note on old rings that appear large enough to be worn by a giant or on a big toe.  They were made to be worn over a glove.

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There are no storms right now, and the surf will run around one or two feet for the next several days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/13/15 Report - Silver Heart Found On Treasure Coast Shipwreck. Mel Fisher Days Coming Soon. Not Le Griffon.

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

First off, more Treasure Coast finds.  Captain Jonah and the crew of the Capitana keep making great finds.

Here is a silver heart.  Notice the rectangle on the back of the convex heart (top).

Below the two pictures of the find is a

Dan B., of the Capitana crew, sent the two photos of the find.    He said, The sacred heart has been a symbol that pre-dates 1650, and votive offerings were common in the 18th century. 

Many are ornate, but some are blank hearts with ornate borders. The border may have been connected to the rear of the piece, hence the small rectangle bracket.

Dan also included picture (right) that shows what the complete object might have looked like at one time.

Thanks Dan!  Thanks to the Captain and crew of the Capitana for sharing.

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KEY WEST, Florida Keys — Shipwreck fans, treasure seekers and history buffs can commemorate the 30th anniversary of Mel Fisher's discovery of the sunken Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha Thursday through Sunday, July 9-12, in the island city closest to the fabled wreck site.

Fisher and his crew uncovered the $500 million "main pile" of the Atocha's treasure and artifacts in July of 1985 after an exhaustive 16-year search. The galleon sank during a 1622 hurricane in approximately 55 feet of water 35 miles southwest of Key West.

Mel Fisher Days highlights include tours of the salvage boat J.B. Magruder that is used to seek still–undiscovered Atocha artifacts, an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of of the Fishers' private conservation lab, the rare opportunity to hear tales from the crew that found the Atocha's riches and a land-based treasure hunt whose prize is $5,000 in silver dollars...

There is a small fee for events such as the tours.  Registration is required.  Below is the link for more information.

http://melfisherdays.melfisher.com/

Proceeds go to charity.

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FRANKFORT, MI – Michigan state archeologists have completely ruled out the possibility a Lake Michigan shipwreck is the long-lost Griffin...

The two Muskegon men who discovered the wreck, Kevin Dykstra and Frederick J. Monroe, in late 2014 came forward with photos of the wreck, saying they thought it might be the Griffin -- the earliest known shipwreck on the Great Lakes, missing since September 1679.

Other divers and historians were skeptical.

Tuesday's dive confirmed to state archeologists it isn't the Griffin, even though they already had it wasn't from viewing Dykstra and Monroe's evidence...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2015/06/not_the_griffin_state_archeolo.html

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The single most read and most Google Plused blog post of May was my 5/25/15 post, which had no title other than Memorial Day Post.  I can't say I expected that.

That post had no tags other than freedom, liberty, life and Memorial Day.  I didn't think that would do much to attract readers, but I guess it was enough.  I heard from people who liked that post, and I now feel that maybe I should have done more to draw attention to it.

I don't give any attention to web site metrics or optimization or whatever they call it.  I just put things out there.  I don't try to convince anyone of anything.

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Along the Treasure Coast expect a week or more of very calm surf.  We're also having some nice low tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/15/14 Report - 300 Year Anniversary of 1715 Fleet. Valuable Coin Found In Roll, 1000 Year Old Coin Detected. Shark Feeding Frenzy

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

Coral Beads From Rosary Listed
In Current Sedwick Coins Online Auction.
Notice the barnacles.

Next year marks three hundred years since the 1715 Fleet disaster.  Some one wrote in and asked about any special events for the commemoration.

The first big event that I know of will be at the Florida United Numismatists Convention in Orlando.  The FUN Convention, which will be held at the Orange County Convention Center January 8 through the 11th, will include a display of 1715 Fleet treasures and artifacts from the State of Florida collection.

That will be the biggest display of 1715 Fleet items at the convention but undoubtedly there will be more.  I'd expect Sedwick Coins to be there too, for example.  They usually are at FUN Conventions.

The 1715 Plate Society will present a two-day seiminar July 28 and 29 at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. 

On Aug. 13, Indian River County Main Library will provide lectures and there will be a display or 1715 Fleet artifacts.

The McLarty and Mel Fisher Museums will undoubtedly also host events.

I'll try to provide more details when the time gets nearer.

Here is a link that talks about the anniversary year events.
 

http://www.coinworld.com/content/cw/global/en_us/insights/1715-fleet-society-plans-300th-anniversary-celebration.all.html



A man was searching through a roll of Kennedy halves looking for silver and found a coin that might be worth two or three thousand dollars.   He found a very special 1861-O Seated Liberty half-dollar.

Here is the link to that article.

http://www.king5.com/story/life/shopping/gold-coins/2014/07/28/rare-silver-coin-found-in-roll-of-half-dollars/14037182/



One detectorist was lucky enough to dug up a coin that is over 1000 years old. 

The article says, An extremely rare 1,250 year-old silver coin found by a treasure hunter with a metal detector in a field near Newbury last year, has sold at auction for £336.   [Around $500]

The Anglo-Saxon coin, known as a sceat, was struck between the years 710AD and 760AD and, although it was buried in the ground for more than 1,000 years, it is described as being in “extremely fine/very fine” condition according to London auctioneers Spink.

Here is the link to that article.

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/2014/rare-1250-year-old-coin-fetches-336-at-auction


Here is a cool video showing a shark feeding frenzy that brought them right up onto the sand.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/video/Shark-Feeding-Frenzy-Caught-On-Tape/342433859653/Comcast/CaughtonTape/?cid=hero_sf_caught_sharks

I've seen sharks in shallow water while detecting, but they never seemed much interested in me, which is good.

There was one barracuda that used to keep an eye on me so continually that it got on my nerves.

He was always around the same area.



Armour Listed In Sedwick Coins Auction.
Notice the dent.  Musket ball maybe.

Back a few days ago I was talking about wear and tear and encrustation and stuff that you'll sometimes find on items.  The pictures that I posed today are two items in the Sedwick Coins auction that show nice marks of character.


Gonzalo turned into a strong hurricane but is staying east of the Bahamas.

On the Treasure Coast it looks like we'll be looking at something like a 3 or 4 foot surf for a few days.

I'll keep an eye on the remaining disturbance in the Atlantic.



Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net