8/13/19 Report - How Well Do You Know Your Metal Detector? Steel Cents and One Previuosly Unidentified Coin. Sorcerer's Treasure Trove.

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

1943 Steel Penny Finds.

If you've been with me very long, you know that my preference is to detect everything and dig everything.  I know there are good reasons and times to use discrimination, but generally speaking, I'm more interesting in finding things than skipping things, and using discrimination will increase the chances of missing something good.  Good things are made of different materials and come in all different forms and combinations.  In short, discrimination is not perfect, even though it can be helpful when used properly.  There are times when you will need it.

I've started to explore the Minelab Equinox metal detector.  I'm not far along in that process.  I believe in really getting to know a detector, and that means a lot of testing and experimenting.  You'll never know everything about a detector, and you might not want to.

Anyhow, I want to know how my detectors respond to various objects under various circumstances.  I want to know what they will miss as well as what they will find.

Different metal detectors have different strengths and weaknesses.  As a result, one detector will be the best choice of one job, and another the best choice for another job.  But you have to know enough about them to choose the right one, and to know what you are gaining and giving up.

I found the object shown below.  I've had it for a while and thought it might be either a corroded steel penny or a German coin.  I decided to test the conductivity of it with the Equinox along with some other steel pennies (shown above).

Unidentified Coin.

I don't really know the Equinox very well yet.  I've spent less than an hour with it so far.  So I took the steel pennies out in the yard along with the unidentified coin or whatever.

I was originally thinking of doing some more extensive testing, but decided to quickly test the steel pennies first thing this morning before I did anything else.

What I found out is that in the main detector modes, none of the steel pennies produced ANY signal.  That might make you happy if you want to miss small steel objects, but you aren't going to find steel pennies unless you know how to make some adjustments that I don't yet know about.,

I did switch to pin-point mode, and the Equinox did what some of the detectors I used heavily years ago did - it nulled over the steel penny.   By nulling, I mean that when the coil was moved over the steel penny there was a signal on each side but when the coil was directly over the penny, the signal went silent.

Those other detectors were always in an all-metals mode and nulled over iron.  I didn't have to pay attention to iron, but knew it was there because of the nulling.

I wanted to find out if the unidentified coin might be a corroded steel penny so I wanted to see if the conductivity was the same as my other steel pennies.  Well, I didn't get a conductivity reading for either my known steel pennies or the unidentified object.

Now here is the funny part.  After taking the magnified photo of the object for this post, I noticed the letters just left of the six o'clock position near the rim of the object.   I assume that is part of IN GOD WE TRUST.  If  I'd seen that before, I probably wouldn't have done the test this morning, but in doing the test I learned that the default modes on the Equinox are not going to detect steel pennies or other similar objects.  Maybe there are some settings other than pinpoint mode that will do it, but I haven't found that out yet.

I've always said that if you haven't found certain types of objects and wondered why, it MIGHT have something to do with your detector and how you detect.  That is why you should thoroughly get to know your detector.  And, as I've said before, the best way to do that is with systematic extensive testing and experimentation.

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Archaeologists found a box full of what they called a "sorcerer's treasure trove."

The trove was found in what remained of a wooden box. The wood itself had decomposed and only the bronze hinges remained, preserved by the volcanic material which hardened over it.

In it were crystals, ceramic, amethysts and amber. Scarabs (beetle-shaped amulets) from the Middle East were identified, along with various gems, including a carnelian with a craftsman figure and a glass bead engraved with the head of Dionysus, the Roman god of wine, fertility and ritual madness... 

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49325627?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science_and_environment&link_location=live-reporting-story

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After I mentioned yesterday that I've been doing this blog for over ten years, one person commented on how fast that time went. Very true! Time flies. And in that time a lot has happened. We've lost some fine folks, but a lot of you are still with us. I've lost some family members.

The blog has evolved too. I'm better informed.  All of the submissions have been a big part of that.

And I think we've raised the level of the hobby.  I think we have inserted a lot of information into the discussion and raised the general level of understanding.  You don't always have to be right to do that.  

I've noticed that more people are now doing what I might call binge reading. When people newly discover the blog, they have tons of posts to go through, and people are going through a bunch of old posts at one sitting.  When we are getting storms, erosion and changing beach conditions, people don't want to miss a single day, but the beach conditions haven't been changing much lately.

I just got an email from one person (Paul M.) who evidently just discovered the blog and said, best treasure site on the internet. i am so so glad i found it Blessings paul

Thanks Paul! Glad you found it useful.  I get a lot of help and information from others.

I'll give you all another day to provide your thoughts on the two unidentified items I posted on 8/11.  I'd like to give everybody a chance to give me their ideas on those objects.  All thoughts and opinions are appreciated.

There is no significant change in weather conditions.  Expect more calm surf for the next few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/24/19 Report - Box of Old Pistols Found in Erosion. Interesting Ship Fasteners. Found and Not Found. Another Resource.

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

Do You See What Was Exposed By the Erosion.

Look just below the grass and weeds near the center of the picture.  You will see a box of WWII pistols that was found by a German beach-comber after some recent erosion.

A German man and his father found more than seashells along the beach after a storm in their coastal Baltic Sea town last week. Alexander Ladwig, 23, was out for a walk with his pop when he found a recently unearthed box in the sand that contained 30 handguns, reports German news outlet Kieler Nachrichten. The find, near the town of Waabs in Schleswig-Holstein, was quickly collected by the notified local authorities and destroyed– but not before Ladwig had snapped a few images...

Here is the link that was submitted by Brian B.  

https://www.guns.com/news/2019/02/21/german-beachcomber-finds-box-of-30-wwii-pistols-after-storm-photos?avad=55963_a1521345d&utm_source=AvantLink&utm_campaign=41227&utm_med


That is a good picture that illustrates how things can be exposed by erosion.  In this case, the item was not deeply buried.

Thank Brian.

On some of the most popular Treasure Coast beaches, items in the dunes are often down a foot or foot and a half.  Of course that varies from location to location.

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Interesting Curled Spike Find

Find and photo by John C.

John C. found both of these interesting ship's fasteners north of Wabasso in the area of the 1800s wrecks.

Large Staple.

Find and photo by John C.

Thanks John!

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Yesterday I was talking about ship's fasteners and wondered why I hadn't found more clinched spikes considering how commonly they were used.  There are several disparities that I've wondered about.  Why I've found so few clinched spikes compared to straight spikes is one.  Why silver rings are not found by salvagers on submerged wreck sites, as reported by top salvage guys, while they are rather routinely found on the beach.  It could be that those found on the beach are not from the wrecks or the same time period, or there could be some other reason for the apparent disparity.  Or why so many small denomination reales are found on the beach as compared to the larger proportion  of larger denomination reales found on the submerged wreck sites.  In my mind that one is easier to explain.

Some things are simply easier to find.  And people tend to target some things more than others.  People are often not as interested in iron objects and often discriminate them out of pass them over, for example.

Some things break down in the salt water and surf and disappear over time as compared to other things.  The EOs that I've been talking about were iron and have almost dissolved.  All that is left is the crust.

Here is an excerpt from the McCarthy book that I mentioned yesterday.

When you are talking about long time periods, the accumulated record of what is found will not be a completely accurate representation of what was originally there.  Some things are dispersed, disappear, or for some other reason are disproportionately found.

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Here is another good resource on Spanish shipbuilding in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

https://www.ltrr.arizona.edu/~cbaisan/Florida/A_Plague_of_Ships_Spanish_Ships_and_Ship.pdf

Thanks to Dale J. for that link.

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It looks like we'll have a four foot surf for a few days next week.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/10/12 Report - Gold Shipwreck Box and Way of St. James & Ambergris

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

Gold Tobacco Box.
Photo from Dec. 10, MailOnline.

The gold box shown in this photo is part of Odyssey Marine's Black Swan treasure.  It displays a scallop shell, which is a symbol of St. James, and was used as a badge by pilgrims to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela.

Here is one version of the origin of that tradition taken from wikipedia.

After James' death, his disciples shipped his body to the Iberian Peninsula to be buried in what is now Santiago. Off the coast of Spain a heavy storm hit the ship, and the body was lost to the ocean. After some time, however, the body washed ashore undamaged, covered in scallops.

Here is a link for more about that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James


It seems wikileaks revealed communications between the US and Spain tilting the case of the Black Swan treasure in Spain's favor in return for a impressionist painting.  I haven't found the wikileaks documents yet, but here is the article referring to it.

http://news.discovery.com/history/black-swan-bounty-deal-revealed-in-wikileaks-cables.html


A boy found $60,000 worth of what of what on the beach?   Ambergris.  What's that?

Whale vomit or whale poop.  Seems they can't make up there mind exactly what ambergris is.  But who would want to smell that?   It seems a lot of people do.

Just a unusual story about a boy that finds $60,000 worth of the stuff on a beach.

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/29/13552161-boy-finds-a-bonanza-in-whale-vomit?lite

After writing the above, I ran across this article.  Seems they wrote it up something like I did.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/08/120830-ambergris-charlie-naysmith-whale-vomit-science/


The surf is down around 1 - 2 feet where it will stay for a few days.  That should make it easy to o some low tide zone work and even shallow water hunting.

The wind is from the south, so expect some sand accumulation.

Low tide today is around 11 AM


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net