6/21/17 Report - Tropical Storm Cindy To Make Landfall. Laws For Turtle Season. Sword Found. Old Jewelry Find.

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

Turtle Nesting On Treasure Coast.

The turtles are nesting.  I took this photo a few days ago and forgot about it until someone wrote and asked me about turtle nesting season.  I don't think it is too complicated.  Just don't dig in the nests or disturb the turtles.

Most of the nests are marked, so if you are a snowbird or don't know about that, there are stakes that mark many of the turtle nests.  New nests you can clearly see.  Penalties can be serious.

Florida state law provides protection against taking, possessing, disturbing, mutilating, destroying or causing to be destroyed, selling or offering for sale, transferring, molesting, or harassing any marine turtle or its nest or eggs at any time.

Federal law provides even greater protection (and criminal penalties as severe as $100,000 and a year in prison) if you “take, harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, or capture any marine turtle, turtle nest, and/or eggs, or attempt to engage in any such conduct.”

Here is a link.

http://thecotas.com/2012/01/sea-turtle-nests-protected-by-state-and-federal-law/

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Medieval Sword Discovered in Peat Bog.
Source: See ScienceInPoland link below.

Completely preserved medieval sword from the 14th century has been discovered at a peat bog near Hrubieszów. The finder donated the artefact to the local Fr. Stanisław Staszic Museum. "This is a unique find in the region" - said Bartłomiej Bartecki, director of the museum...

http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news,414626,lubelskie-medieval-sword-discovered-at-a-peat-bog.html

That would be a fun find.

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Some 2,500 Israeli pupils and volunteers from Modiin-Maccabim-Re’ut participated in an archaeological excavation in their own community, coming away with a new sense of history — and a treasure trove of 900-year-old Crusader-period jewelry...

Source: See TimesofIsrael link below.

I've been talking about jewelry and some ways to identify the date for them.  Here is some old jewelry.  Some of it is not very different from what you might find on a Treasure Coast beach.

Here is the link for more about that story.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/school-pupils-help-find-900-year-old-crusader-jewelry-trove/

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I have a lot more to post, but I'll wind it up for today.

With the hurricane season becoming active already, you'll want to keep up on the latest tropical weather activity.

Tropical Storm Cindy is about to make landfall near the Louisiana/Texas border.

It looks like Bret has disappeared.

That's all for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/20/17 Report - How To Determine How Old A Ring Might Be. Tropical Storm Near and Heading for the U. S.

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

Old Photo of Me Using an Aquasound Metal Detector.

The Aquasound was a good metal detector.  The photo must be from twenty some years ago.  I just ran across it.

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After Warren's amazing ring find that I showed a few days ago, I thought it would be a good time to look at some of the things that will help you get a good idea of a ring's age.  If you don't know what to look for you can easily mistake a ring that is centuries old for a new ring or vice versa.  In the past I mistook some very old finds for modern finds.  It can be tricky.  I remember one enameled ring found on a 1715 Fleet beach that I immediately concluded was modern because I thought enameling was a more modern technique.  I was wrong about that.  That is just one example.

Below is an old Roman ring.  Would you know right that it was old when if you dug it up.  And what would you look fo?.

There are some features on this ring that would make you think it might be real old as soon as you saw it.  First, the setting.  The setting is covers everything but the top of the stone.  The setting would be one of the first things that would suggest to me that it is probably an old ring.  Secondly, the stone is polished instead of cut like most of today's gem stones.

Rings looked fairy similar up through the middle ages.  As I explained the other day, gems were not faceted until later.

Here is a web site on antique rings.

http://www.langantiques.com/university/Rings:_Ancient_to_Neoclassical

Below is an example of an 18th century ring that is faceted.

You can see that the the diamonds are clearly faceted.  Now look at the settings.  The stones are surrounded by the setting.  They are not set with prongs like most of the diamond rings of today.

18th century rings will often be "foiled."  The gem will be surrounded on the sides and bottom with foil - sometimes gold.  Modern diamond rings are faceted and the setting is very open to permit the light to flow through the gemstone.

I"m not a jewelry expert, but those are a few things that might help you determine if a ring might be old or not.  There are other things to look for, but I'll have to get into some of those another time.

Some old things can be in very good shape (especially if they are gold) and look almost new.  And modern items can be in terrible condition, but that does not necessarily mean they are old.  It can be very difficult to tell the difference between old and new items.

Plain bands can be difficult since you do not have all the clues you would have with a gemstone ring. Crucifixes can also be tricky.

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We now have the two named tropical storms - the first of the hurricane season.  We had a named storm earlier in the year, but that was before hurricane season began.

Bret is heading west/northwest along the north coast of South America.

Cindy looks to be headed towards Louisiana.

Tropical Storm Cindy
Source: nhc.noaa.gov

On the Treasure Coast we'll have a 2 - 3 foot surf Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then it will decrease a bit for the rest of the week.

The tides are a little bigger and we'll have a nice negative tide Tuesday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/18/11 Report - Tropical Storm Bret & Beach Cutting Begins

Cut on Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.

Thanks to Tom H. for the photo.

I'll jump right into the conditions report today since there is actually a change, even though it is only a slight change.

The low pressure area off of Cape Kennedy that I mentioned the other day, did develop. It is now tropical storm Bret, and is still in roughly the same position.

Bret caused an increase in seas on the Treasure Coast, up to around three to five feet. And more significant than that, it actually caused some erosion.

There were some cuts this morning, although not great cuts. I got a report of two foot cuts on one beach, but the slope in front of those cuts was not very steep and it was very mushy.

From what I can tell, the cuts were not good enough to cause a change in my beach conditions rating. I'm sticking with a 1 rating, but if there is much more erosion I might be issuing a 2 rating.

My scale is a five-point scale going from 1 to 5, with 1 indicating poor, and 5 excellent hunting conditions for finding cobs and other precious metals from shipwrecks on the beach.

Even though we got some cuts today, there is so much sand to be moved that I think it will take some more erosion to improve hunting conditions. There is so much mushy sand out in front of the beaches that I don't think they will become productive real quick.

In a couple days you might find improved hunting in the low tide areas. The wave action is probably enough to freshen up the beach fronts.

I didn't hear of any shells in the splash zone and don't believe that the water got to the banks anywhere.

I believe you will find the cuts where the coast slopes more from northeast to southwest. I wouldn't expect much on the beaches that run directly north to south.

If you hunt long and hard or are just lucky enough to be in the right spot, you might find a surprise or two.


Gold and silver are doing really well. Gold is at about $1600 an ounce. Unless I'm mistaken that is a new high.

At the same time the dollar is strong this morning. Otherwise the increase in gold and silver prices in dollar terms would have been even bigger.

I'm still expecting continued dollar weakening and increasing precious metals prices for some time. But who knows? Certainly not I.


I've been cleaning some shipwreck items lately and noticed how quickly iron artifacts fall apart if they come from a salt water environment and are left in open air.

If you don't want your artifacts to deteriorate, start the preservation process right away.

I've given a web site in the past that tells how to clean and preserve various materials.

I really regret letting some things go in the past. There is a lot to do after you find an item. Don't let your artifacts sit and deteriorate.

When you find something and don't know what it is, treat it gently. Don't over-clean it or use the wrong cleaning process.

Special care should be taken with heavily encrusted objects and iron objects. You never know what might be under the crust.

Remove crust very carefully and very gently. Use the least harsh methods first even if it seems you aren't getting anywhere fast.

It can be disappointing to find out that you had a very nice item but damaged it somehow.

Learn about cleaning and preservation techniques and ask questions when you aren't sure.


Here is a great web site that might help you learn to identify old reigious items.

http://www.rosaryworkshop.com/MUSEUM-CRUCIFIXES-SpanishColonial.html


I have a correction for my 7/10/11 post. Laura Strolia conducted further research and found that the scapular showing a galleon on it was actually Carmelite.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast.

Seas are now expected to reach five feet on the Treasure Coast later today. That is more than I was expecting this morning.

The wind is from the northeast and the swells coming in from a direction that makes more cutting a distinct possibility. I would expect more cuts after high tide today, but nothing really major. Yet compared to what we've been having it is at least something.

I remember when people used to say that I was too optimistic. Well, I haven't given anything but a poor rating for a long time now.

After today the seas will be decreasing again, down to about two or three feet tomorrow, and then down to about one foot later this week.

Later this week should be a good time to get out to see if there is anything new in the low tide area and in the water.

I think that is all for now.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net