11/14/19 Report - Some Erosion and Beach Conditions Improvement. 400 Mapped Wrecks.

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

Turtle Trail Thursday Afternoon.

I took a look at some beaches in the Vero area today.  When I arrived at Turtle Trail there were already six or maybe seven detectorist working the beach.

As you can see, the bags were exposed.

There was a good bit of black sand.  I saw three layers of sand in one hole.  The good old layer of orange sand was under two other distinct layers.

Turtle Trail Thursday Afternoon.

Then I visited Seagrape Trail, which didn't look as good.

Seagrape Trail Thursday Afternoon.

And then on to Wabasso.

Wabasso Beach Thursday Afternoon.

I'd be surprised if nothing old was found.  I don't know what I have yet.  I'll have to do some cleaning first.

From what I saw today, I'd rate beach conditions as a 2 on my 5 point beach conditions rating scale.  A 2 is what I call transitional.  There is definitely some improvement.

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Image From ROV.

Source: IcelandReveiw.com (See link below.)

An abundance of shipwrecks off the coast of Eyrarbakki, South Iceland, suggest it was likely Iceland’s largest trading post until the 20th century, RÚV reports. Archaeologist Ragnar Edvardsson is working to map shipwrecks in the shallow waters around Iceland’s coast. Ragnar has mapped 400 large shipwrecks that occurred between 1200-1920, but believes there could be as many as 1,000 since the island’s settlement.

“I am of course first and foremost trying to get an idea of the number of large ships which I do through working with written sources. Icelanders were of course so good at writing so they often describe the damage to the ships, how many died, and also gave a geographic location,” Ragnar describes...

Here is the link.

https://www.icelandreview.com/news/sunken-ships-reveal-icelands-trading-history/

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Looks like there could possibly be some more improvement in the next few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/7/19 Report - Some Sand Moved By Yesterday's Front. Huge Historic Hoards. Big Artifact Database.

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

John Brooks Beach Today Near Low Tide.

I didn't get out to look at the beaches yesterday, but I did today.

The cold front moved a little sand.  At John Brooks there was a little erosion in front of the old bigger cut.

John Brooks Beach Thursday Near Low Tide.

There were a couple detectorists at John Brooks today.

There were lots of people down by the water in Fort Pierce.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.

Another View of John Brooks Beach Today.

Frederick Douglas Beach Thursday Near Low Tide.

The sand was not firm until you got close to the water line.

Frederick Douglas Beach Near Low Tide Thursday.

There was one detectorist in south of Frederick Douglas.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Thursday Near Low Tide.

There were no parking spaces at Fort Pierce South Jetty.  The snow birds are in town.

They also had some heavy equipment and large rocks at the nest entrance to the south.  I don't know what they are getting ready to do now.

I didn't get to any other beaches so have no idea what the cold front did to any of those beaches.

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Location of One Hoard Discovery.

Source: See the GovMint.com link below.

I found an article on the GovMint.com web site that summarizes seventeen hoards that were discovered from around the mid nineteenth century up until near the present.  These are large hoards and are probably not representative of the average hoard, if there is such a thing. Some of them are huge.  None of these hoards were discovered by a metal detector.  Most were discovered before metal detectors were used.

I went through the summaries and tried to see what I could learn from that.  The areticle doesn't provide a lot of detailed information, so it would require more research on each hoard to do a thorough study.

The hoards were large.  One consisted of six tons of bullion and 100,000 coins.  Another was 600,000 coins, and another was 100,000 coins.   One was wooden boxes full of coins.  Some were in kegs or bags.

Two were associated with railroad stations.  One of those was under a loading dock. One was in a specially constructed underground vault.  Two or three were in old bank vaults. Some were in basements.  One was dug up in a farm field.  The Saddle Ridge Hoard, as you know, was exposed by erosion.

You might want to visit the web site and do more research.

Here is the link.

https://www.govmint.com/coin-authority/post/discovered-buried-treasure/

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I received this email from Scott S.

Not sure if you have seen this database on artifacts, but here you go. I use it sometimes to try to identify a mystery object or just to see other finds from our friends across the ocean. Takes a little time to go thru all they have but its pretty helpful. Just thinking you might enjoy.

https://finds.org.uk/database

This is a super database published by the Portable Antiquities Scheme.  I think I mentioned it some years ago and I thought I put it in my reference list, but I couldn't find it there, so I I just added it along with the manual for cataloging buttons that I mentioned a few days ago.

Thanks Scott!

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It looks like we'll have a two or three foot surf for a few days.  The tides are moderate.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/17/17 Report - 1715 Fleet Finds From the Treasure Coast This Week. Half Reales and Other Things.

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

Two Half Reales Found This Week On The Treasure Coast
Finds and photo by Jerry P.

Here are some finds made by Jerry P. this week.  Above are two uncleaned half reales.

Here is another sheet of lead.  Just a few days ago I showed a similar one found by Darrel S.  This one also has the cloth imprint that I discussed in a recent post.

Below are a few more finds made by Jerry at the same location.

Bullet Finds.
Find and photos by Jerry.

John Brooks Yesterday.

This is how John Brooks looked yesterday.  Frederick Douglas looked about the same.  There seemed to be a lot of sand in front of the beach that was keeping the waves from doing much to the beach.

John Brooks Beach Yesterday.

Near low tidea a small dip was developing on the front of the beach and some shells were being exposed.

Erosion Control Bags At Tuttle Trail.
Photo by Darrel S.

I had a few photos of the Turtle Trail area and also Seagrape Trail, but it seems my computer won't open them right now.  This beach started filling and was more filled today, especially in front of the bags.

There were a good number and variety of finds made there.  Jerry's were made I think Wednesday.  I saw pictures of several others, including more cobs, lead, pieces of spikes and a variety of other pieces.  I also heard of a high karat gold ring being found.

Although Turtle Trail seemed to be filling, it wouldn't take too much, if the conditions were right, to freshen it up again.

I had more pictures, hopefully I'll get them working again before long.  I might have to ask some of you to resend photos if I can't get them opened.

The surf will not be as big tomorrow.  On top of that the wind will be shifting.  We had a nice period of north wind, even if it didn't affect too many of the beaches.  Most of the activity seemed to be in the Turtle Trail area.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/24/15 Report - Contraband Treasure and Signs To Look For. Shipping Containers for Treasure. Danny Disappeared.

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

Active Atlantic
Source: National Hurricane Center

As you can see Danny fell apart.  That is the end of him.  However, there are two more systems coming off of Africa.

The one behind Danny has an eighty percent chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.  It seems to be on a similar path.

Here are some more fresh escudos that were on display Thursday.

Three More Of The Escudos Displayed At Thursday Press Release.

I'm not absolutely sure, but from what I can see of the two shields, it looks like they might be from Bogota, Columbia.

Correct me if I'm wrong about that.  As you know, I'm not any kind of expert on numismatics.

We are fortunate to see so many fine examples.  It gives you an idea about what was on these wrecks and what could possibly be found.

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Yesterday I started talking about the recent finds and how they might have ended up where they were found.   In my opinion there would be very little chance of the cobs that descended to deep cracks or tight crevices would ever be washed up on the beach.

I think I mentioned yesterday that I didn't know of any evidence of any bags or boxes associated with those cobs.  The   treasure chests that held the cobs on the Atocha were simply plain boxes nailed shut.  They weren't ornate at all, and didn't have a lid that flips up.  While the dimensions varied, the tops and bottoms were around 57 by 22 cm., and the sides were 57 by 16 cm.  There were no hinges or hardware.  Below is a picture of one such unexcavated box as found on the site of the Atocha.

Source:  http://www.melfisher.org/pdf/The_Treasure_Chest_Defined_Atocha.pdf

One chest of silver reales held 2,225 cobs of various denominations, and weighed just over 130 pounds.

As you probably know, a lot of the treasure on these galleons was contraband.  I found a very good article about contraband treasure.  The title is Talegas and Hoards: The Archaeological Signature of Contraband on a 1725 Spanish Merchant Vessel, by John Foster, Matthew Maus and Anna Rogers. The authors attempted to identify common characteristics of contraband treasure.  The paper is base upon observations of contraband treasure found on the site of the Nuestra Senora de Begona.  I think you'll find the article interesting.

"Talegas" are bags.  While they did not discover intact bags, that article did show pictures of the clumped contents of such bags (Shown immediately below.)

The primary purpose of the Foster paper was to help identify contraband.  Here are their conclusions.

Contraband treasure tends to consist of coins of highly diverse origin.  They would be stored in containers of different sizes and shapes, mostly smaller, rather than being shipped in standard size containers such as the shipping boxes and bags like those I mentioned.  They tend to consist more of small denomination coins.  Contraband coins tend include a wide variety of dates and show a good amount of wear from circulation.  They also may include clipped coins.  Of course they are unregistered and may be unstamped.  They also may show evidence of having been concealed in barrel bottoms or other methods of concealment.

If you compare the finds recently made by the Capitana guys, you won't find much to make you think those escudos were contraband.  In fact the unusual group of 1711 Mexican royals were about the opposite of what you would expect of contraband.

Is it possible they were wedding gifts meant for the Isabel Farnese, the new wife of Philip V.  They were married in 1714.  I guess it is possible.

At one time the newly found escudos were probably in a shipping chest like those described above. What happened to the chest is unknown.  It could have been broken at any point.  If it remained in the sea, it probably disintegrated long ago.

I think you'll find the Foster paper to be very interesting reading.  Here is the link.

http://www.academia.edu/9270986/Talegas_and_Hoards_The_Archaeological_Signature_of_Contraband_on_a_1725_Spanish_Merchant_Vessel

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I heard the other day that a device that repels sharks is being sold for surf boards.  It emits some sort of signal.

Here is a link about that.

http://surfsafe.net.au/

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I'm not expecting any change in beach detecting conditions now that Danny has disappeared.  We'll get a storm some day for the Treasure Coast.  It is long over due.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net