11/25/18 Report - Some Ideas About Coin Caches. What Are Your Dug Coins Trying To Tell You?

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

Coin Found Friday.

Did you ever notice that most coin caches are found by accident? Very few coin caches are found as a result of a hunt for that specific cache.  You can prove that for yourself by doing a little research.  If you do a Google search, you'll find that most caches are discovered purely by accident.  Gardening accounts for a few. Some have been dug up by dogs or other animals.  Some have been found by spelunkers.  Very often someone is just searching a field or conducting an archaeological dig when they discover a cache.

A cache of gold, dollars and euros found in a garden outside of Gaddafi's stronghold.  

A cache is typically described in terms of the quantity of coins, dates, denomination and types of coin.  The earliest and most recent dated coins and distribution of dates is often significant.

The container is also significant.  It seems a good number of caches are buried in canning jars, others in metal or ceramic containers and many in bags of some type.  Cloth containers often deteriorate and disappear.  Most often they are not buried deep - at least not those that are discovered.

As with any find, it can be difficult to learn much from a cache if without information about the context.  Archaeological context  refers to the place where an artifact is found, including the soil, the site type, the layer the artifact came from, what else is found in that layer or area, including remnants of buildings and things.

I've talked before about how dates on coins can be misleading. I won't go over that again now.

I saw a new episode of the Oak Island TV show the other day.  I had pretty much lost interest, but was encouraged by the Seismic Scanning Survey.  Up until that time their search had been, with the exception of the sample holes, unfocused and disorganized.  The sample drill holes from last season and the seismic survey of this season are the two most reasonable things they've done.

As a scientist, I like to see defined goals and theories that give rise to hypotheses that can be tested.  I prefer a thorough systematic approach.  After a while, running around in circles and making wild claims about miscellaneous isolated surface finds deposited over the history of the island is at first comical but eventually becomes tiring.

 Hopefully the seismic scan will keep them focused.  I know they have to get enough video for a season of TV, and the miscellaneous surface finds do that, but the surface finds are misdirected energy and don't do much to answer the big question of what, if anything, is buried in the shafts or vault.

I'm not talking about a leisurely metal detecting outing here.  If you just want a leisurely hunt and there is no big question or puzzle to be solved, you can go about it any way you want, but when you have a specific targeted cache or treasure, a lot of research and a more scientific approach is wise.  Old maps that show the island in centuries past could be very helpful.

A few targeted caches have been found as the result of good thorough research.  Ron Pastore has reportedly found some of the smaller Jesse James caches, even though the big James cache has not yet been found.  Some criticize Pastore's book, Jesse James' Secret, which they claim is full of mistakes, but Pastore has appeared on the History Channel's documentary, Jesse James' Hidden Treasure ,and was also discussed at some length in Jack Myers' book Knights' Gold.

Here is an interesting web site presenting Pastore's materials on the James treasure.

 http://jessejamesphotoalbum.com/the-rj-pastore-collection/

When a random coin cache is found, it can be difficult to figure out where it came from and why it was buried.

Here is a brief excerpt about a Nazi cache find.

An amateur archaeologist in Germany has found a historic collection of gold coins worth around 45,000 euros, probably buried during the Nazi era or shortly after World War Two, experts said on Wednesday.

Armed with a metal detector, Florian Bautsch found 10 coins in a hollow under a tree near the northern town of Lueneburg and professionals then excavated another 207.

They are of French, Belgian, Italian and Austro-Hungarian origin and date from 1831 to 1910.

Two aluminum seals featuring swastika crosses, eagles and the words "Reichsbank Berlin 244" were also discovered under the field with the coins. Germany's central bank was called "Deutsche Reichsbank" during the Nazi era and an analysis of the metal in the seals suggests they were made some time after 1940.

"This was all found under a pine tree that is around 50 years old ... and that must have grown afterwards ... so we know it must have been buried in the last days of the war or shortly afterwards," Mario Pahlow, a local archaeologist, told Reuters...

And here is the link for more about that one.

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Nazi-gold-cache-buried-at-end-of-war-or-after-found-in-Germany-409096

You might want to take a look at that one.  It provides some good hints and tips.

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Dime Found Friday.

The past couple days I went out to see what was going on at the beach.  On Friday I did a few minutes of detecting at a couple beaches.  At the first beach I found the dime shown above.  It was discolored but otherwise looked in pretty good shape.  Just a clad find.  I was surprised by the date when I got it home and took a look.  Only one year off being silver.  It looked pretty much like the other coins that I was getting at that particular beach.  Nothing real old.

I then moved to a beach that had been renourished probably about a year ago.  The coins there looked different.  You can see one of those at the very top of this post.  It is a heavily encrusted and worn quarter.  It had more crust on it when I dug it up.  I just brushed some of the crust off, but still can not see a date.

As you can see beside being encrusted it is heavily worn.

Closer Look At Edge of Same Quarter Shown Above.

You can see how worn the edge is.  You might think it has been out there a while.  It sure looks like it.

Here is another coin found at the second beach.  I found it after the quarter.

Penny Found At Same Beach As the Quarter.

The penny is also encrusted with similar color shell bits, but the discoloring and encrustation is not as complete as on the quarter.

Also unlike the quarter, you can see that the lettering on this coin is still sharp.  It must have been lost nearly new.  The penny, however, is at least as recent as 2008.  I can't make out the third digit at this time.  So even though it is encrusted fairly heavily, it has not been out there a very long time.

These shield cents deteriorate in regular circulation, but this one has held up well even though it is encrusted.  It doesn't look like it took long to become encrusted.

While I can't say for sure, it looks like the encrusted coins from the second beach might have been dumped with the renourishment sand.  I'll have a better idea of that when I clean the penny enough to see the remaining digit of the date.

My point here is that you can sometimes get some useful information from the condition of the coins you find.

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The Treasure Coast surf is supposed to be around two to four feet today.  

The wind continues out of the west and the tides remain high 


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/20/18 Report - Eight Foot Surf Predicted. Gold Reliquary Cross Found. Knights' Gold. Popular Posts.

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

Source: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com

A 12th century cross, which is a reliquary (engolpion) containing a particle from the Holy Cross from Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, and is the first known artifact of its kind that is made of pure gold, has been discovered by archaeologists in a recently found medieval church in the Trapesitsa Fortress in Bulgaria’s Veliko Tarnovo.

The previously unknown 13th century church was discovered earlier this fall in the Trapesitsa Fortress, one of the citadels of medieval Tarnovgrad (today’s Veliko Tarnovo), capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396/1422)…

Here is the link for more about that.

http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2018/11/14/world-first-medieval-gold-cross-reliquary-with-holy-cross-particle-discovered-in-trapesitsa-fortress-in-bulgarias-veliko-tarnovo/

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I posted the ten most popular posts of the past year.  You'll see them on the left of the first page of the blof.  The most popular post of the past 12 months was posted last December and featured the Farleigh Dickenson Jr. ring that was lost decades ago and then found and returned.  Great story!

There were a few from December, which you'd expect because they've been out there longer and people continue to look at them.

The second most popular post of the past year was about proposed Florida legislation that was believed to restrict access to Florida beaches and who to contact to stop that legislation.  I don't really know what happened with all of that.

The third was one of a series of posts that I called Ole Timer Talk.  It was about a fellow who saw a pile of' possibly plates (possibly KangHsi) uncovered by erosion.   It was one of those that was posted in December of 2017.

Fourth was a post that really got a lot of attention in 2018 even though it was originally posted in 2015.  It was about fossilized sea shells with beautiful calcite crystals that were found on the Treasure Coast.

Fifth was a December 2017 post that featured a Viking hoard and what appeared to be an old sailing needle found in North Florida by Chris N.

Sixth was a post that described a hunt resulting ten gold items being found in the water during a single four-hour hunt.  That was one of the Ole Timer Talks.

The seventh most popular post of the last 12 months was about erosion on the Palm Beaches and shipwrecks you could see on Google Earth.

The eighth was about how to learn more about your detector.

The ninth most popular was about one reader's huge success sifting for silver at an old home site.

And the tenth was about a local cob find, among other things.

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I've been reading the book Knights' Gold by Jack Myers.  I've finished most of it.  There are over four hundred pages of text and I just have a few more to go.  It is one of the most interesting treasure/history books that I've ever read. If you are thinking about a Christmas present for a treasure hunter or history buff, this might be a great choice.

The primary focus of the book is on a cache of over 5000 gold coins buried in an old Baltimore row-house basement that was found by a couple of teens in the 1930s.  The author then investigates the history of that cache and ties it to the Knight of the Golden Circle who were accumulating a treasury to fund secession from the union to create a new slave-holding country that would include other geographical areas including places such as Cuba and Mexico.

The book provides a wealth of historical research and tons of references.  I especially appreciated the information surrounding the beginning and conduct of the Civil War and the various political factions.

Besides the cache found in the Baltimore basement, the book talked about other related caches and the huge Doc Noss treasure.

After finishing the last few pages, I'll be locating and reading some of the references listed in the back of the book.

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A big surf is predicted for the day after Thanksgiving.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Looks interesting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/14/18 Report - Hoards and Caches. Marx Pirate Lecture. Coca Cola Bottles.

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

Three Vintage Fort Pierce Fla. Coca Cola Bottles.

Until the early 1960s, the town where the drink was bottled was embossed on the bottom of contour bottles. Many of us remember playing the "distance game" when we were younger; the person whose bottle carried the name of the most distant city was the winner. Many collectors are intent on getting every variant of those bottles...

"The last 250 are extremely tough," John reports. "I bought one from Lancaster, S.C., and at that time nobody had ever found one from there. I paid $25 and today it's probably worth $400 to $500."

John started collecting bottles about 25 years ago when he was digging at a home site and found several old Coke bottles from the 1940s. His collection has grown to include some straight-sided bottles and even some Hutchinson Coca-Cola bottles. Several years ago, he came across a straight-sided bottle from the tiny town of Buena Vista, Ga., dating back to 1912 or 1913. The bottle was one of several that had been dug up near Warm Springs, Ga., and until that time there had been no record of straight-sided bottles made in Buena Vista. Finds like this add to the mystery and excitement of collecting.

See http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/collectors-columns-collecting-bottles for more.

Whether it is coins, bottles, or whatever, you always you have to know a little something to identify rarities.

The three bottles above are from Fort Pierce, but each one has a different letter embossed underneath the town name.  Left to right in the photo is A, C, then S.  At this point, I don't know what those letters indicate.  Please let me know what they are if you know?

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There are more large hoards discovered than you might think.  They come from very different times periods, consist of various types of treasures, and are discovered in different ways.  Here are a few listed on a web site by the Littleton Coins Company.

1. The Big Sky Hoard was discovered in 2011, weighed 5.6 tons of Eisenhower dollars valued at over $1 million in the basement vault of a bank.

2. The Frome Hoard was discovered in 2010 and consisted of over 52,000 ancient Roman coins that were buried in a large ceramic pot.

3. A hoard of $5 and $10 hand-signed and numbered Alabama Southern States Notes in mint condition surfaced in

4. In 2000, Littleton's purchased 171 uncirculated Confederate notes from an original brick that was stored in a piece of luggage for many years.

5. Montana Hoard was accumulated by an individual who hid 8,000 silver dollars and other coins in his house walls and buried in coffee cans under the floor of his shop.

That is just the beginning. There are many more listed on the following web site.


https://www.littletoncoin.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Display%7C10001%7C29555%7C-1%7C%7CLearnNav%7CFamous-Hoards.html

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Watch your change and bills.  Just the other day I pulled out a bill from some money that I recently got at the bank to pay for an item at the dollar store and the clerk pointed out the "old-fashioned" bill.  It was indeed, so I took out another bill to make my purchase.  I asked the bank clerk if they check for older bills and she said they didn't.

At the same dollar store I once noticed some proof quarters that I received in change.

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The Gleason Performing Arts Center is located at 150 W. University Blvd., Melbourne, FL.

Click here for more information.

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The surf today is around 2 - 4 feet, along with a decent tide.  The surf will be steadily decreasing the next few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/16/13 Report - Treasure Coast Cache Found, Hunting Old Sites with Junk & More

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

Cache Recently Found on Historic Treasure Coast Property

There are a lot of books on treasure hunting, but there are few on cache hunting.  One that I know of was written by Glenn Carson.

Glenn, by the way, put together a treasure hunting group, I think it was in the eighties, that I was a part of, and some of the individuals in the group invested in a silver mine in Mexico.  There was a newsletter.  I don't know if I still have my copies.

Anyhow, cache hunting is very different from beach hunting.  There are caches that have been found on the beach - including a cache of cobs buried in an olive jar, and of course treasure chests, although the typical typical treasure chest is often not what you might think, but just as often the container is something else, like a cannon, for example.

I've seen some very impressive caches found by treasure hunters.  One cache was a number of large silver bars.  Another was a chest of cobs found down in the Keys.

Yesterday I gave a link to some good history on St. Lucie County.  There were a lot of clues to the history of the area on that web site.

I always recommend participating in different types of treasure hunting, since you always learn something when you do something a little different.

The cache shown above was found on a Treasure Coast land site along Indian River Drive.  It was on private property.

The cache includes twenty Kennedy half dollars and three Eisenhower dollars.  Obviously that cache isn't nearly as old as some of the early settlements of the area, but it does show that there are caches to be found.

The container is a Presto canning jar with metal lid.

Coins Found in Jar

The cache was found in a junky area where broken glass, iron and junk covered the ground.

Below is a photo of a place where there was once an old Cabin.  This photo isn't from the Treasure Coast.  In fact, it isn't even Florida.  It is in the Rocky Mountains.   But I like the photo and the stove and wanted to show how the ground can be littered with all kinds of junk that can make detecting difficult.

Old Cabin Site.

If you look closely, you can see the tin roofing and other metal scattered all over the site.  That would keep a lot of people from detecting.

The thing to do is clean up the site a little.  Pick up the big pieces of tin and stuff and pile it up so you can detect most of the area.

You can use different strategies to deal with the junk.

One is to use discrimination to detect between the big pieces.  Remember though, if you discriminate, there is the danger of passing over something good like a tin can filled with cash or something.

You can start out using a lot of discrimination and then as you get a good feel for exactly what kinds of things are there and what they sound like, you can gradually decrease discrimination.

I always recommend having a good magnet to pick up small pieces of iron at a place like this.  It can really reduce the amount of digging you do.  A rake can help too.

Personally, I would have loved to have taken the stove with me.  I think it is really neat.

Shot Gun Shells Found at Cache Site.

One of the secrets to hunting junky areas is to be patient.  You can increase your junk tolerance by trying to figure out what every piece of junk is telling you.

Junk provides information.  Some more and some less.  But if you are squeezing all the information you can out of the junk, it keeps you mentally active and helps you tolerate the junk until you find what you are looking for.

Another secret is to enjoy little finds, such as the shotgun shells shown here.

Let your imagination run.  Think about who might have been hunting or what they were shooting at. That can help you get a better overall picture of the site and help guide you to finds.

I think the shot gun shells are interesting and could see how a person could really get into collecting old shell casings.  They also help you date some of the activity at the site.

Junk will often be your first clue to a site.  Broken glass, pottery and iron or tin will be among the first clues that you will see on the surface.

I'll post more on the coins of the cache some other time.


Beach conditions are not improving.  We've been stuck with the same beach conditions, it seems like forever.

You really have to hunt or those few better spots, and none are really good.

It might be a good time to consider trying some different things while Treasure Coast beach conditions remain so poor.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net