1/8/17 Report - Improving Beach Conditions. Colonial Coins Book and Web Site. Iron Spikes.

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

Beach Looking South Towards John Brooks This Morning.

The big news this morning is the cold front that came through.  The wind was from the north at a good rate for part of yesterday and through the night.

I took a look at a few beaches this morning.  They all had lost some sand.  The cuts were not impressive though.  You can see some of the bigger cuts that I saw in the photo above.

Beach conditions are improving, although not to the extent that I would be ready to give a level two beach conditions rating if I used my old standards.  It is close if I use my newer reduced criteria for the level two rating, which is a kind of transitional rating.  There could be a few cobs found somewhere, but I didn't see many beaches this morning, and the ones that I did see were not impressive yet.

Perhaps we'll get some continued erosion and conditions will improve more.

The predictions are still for something like a 4 - 6 foot surf this morning and a slightly increased surf for tomorrow.

If you go out today, you might want to wear a good jacket and pair of gloves.

The weather kind of reminds me of one very good detecting day I had on the Treasure Coast a couple of days before Christmas back sometime in the eighties.  There were a number of cobs, but it was near freezing.  In fact after I left the Treasure Coast on my way north, there were some frozen spots on I 95 over the bridges.  Very chilly!

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Two Views Of The Same Dug Spike With The Two Views Take At a 90 Degree Difference. 

Here is a little quiz.  See if you are smarter than an "expert."

Is this a shipwreck spike or a railroad spike?

I'll post the answer near the bottom of this post.

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Here is a fascinating book on rare coins written in 1889 by William von Bergen that you can read for free on the internet.  Not only does it present a number of very rare and interesting coins.

Not only does the book present a number of interesting coins, but the facts accompanying those coins provide some great clues to history.  Here is the most of the lengthy title.

The Rare Coins of America, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, and Spain ...: A Complete List of and Prices Paid for Rare American ... Coins, Fractional Currency, Colonial, Continental and Confederate Paper Money; a List of All Counterfeit U. S. Treasury and National Bank Notes and Canadian Banks Notes, and how to Detect Them; the Market Value of All Nations' Coins and Bank Notes in U.S. Money; a List of and Prices Paid for Rare English, Irish, Scotch, French, German and Spanish Coins...

The section on colonial American coins is fascinating.

Here is a little clipping from the book concerning Spanish reales.

$1.00 for a Philip II 2-reales!  Remember that was in 1889.

Here is the link if you want to look through the internet version of that book.

Click here to read the free internet ebook.

You can find many of the same rare coins presented in the above book also discussed on the coinfacts web site, which will give you some great additional facts, as well as photos and information on current values.  You might find it interesting to compare the collector coin values given for the mid 1880s with the current values.

https://www.coinfacts.com/colonial_coins/colonial_coins.html

A very good web site.

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The object shown at the top of this post (no surprise to many of you) is a railroad spike.  I've found them in the Indian River as well as along the train tracks.

There is a hilarious thread concerning the spike found in the swamp on Oak Island during a recently aired epsiode of The Curse of Oak Island TV show.   Here is the thread.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OakIsland/comments/5kp0lq/im_99_sure_that_is_a_railroad_spike_they_found/

It seems that the spike incident really hurt the credibility of the show in the eyes of many people.

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That is all for now,

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comast.net

3/20/15 Report - Great Colonial & Early American Coins. New Way You Can Find Out More About Your Ancestry Through DNA Testing. My Very First Metal Detecting Outing.

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

New England Shilling To Be Sold March 26.

If you like old coins you'll love looking at the article linked below.  On March 26 Stack’s-Bowers, in conjunction with the Whitman Baltimore Expo, will be offering a collection of colonial and early American coins such as those shown here.



Confederate Half Dollar
A Real Rarity

The auction starts with one of just eight Noe 1-A NE Shillings in private hands, graded PCGS EF45. The coin is a high-quality example of the earliest coinage struck on the North-American continent in what today is the United States.

To the left you see another great example - one of just four original 1861 Confederate Half Dollars struck in April of 1861.

The article shows a number of truly great coins like those shown here, but if you'd like to see even more, go to the auction catalog (See link below).

Here is the link or the article.

http://news.coinupdate.com/henry-p-kendall-foundation-collection-preview-4740/


And here is the auction catalog or some very enjoyable browsing.

http://media.stacksbowers.com/VirtualCatalogs/2015/Stacks-Bowers-Galleries/Mar2015-Baltimore/SBG_Mar2015_Balt_Kendall_Catalog_LR.pdf


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In the past I've encouraged researching your family roots.  I've found that by doing that not only did I learn more about who my ancestors were and where I came from, but also in the process learned a lot more about local history and located good new detecting sites, some of which were on my ancestor's properties but also some that were not.

The first place I ever did any metal detecting was at the site of an old house where my grandmother once lived as a child.   There was a standing stone chimney and some other remains of the house, but not much.   I remember seeing the well.  That was over fifty years ago.  I hadn't thought of that much, but it was my very first metal detecting outing.  It was a great site too, even though I didn't fully appreciate it at the time. 

The detector, as I remember it, was maybe a Radio Shack model.  I don't think it would detect much more than iron.  And we did find some iron pieces, but not much else.  I'd love to be able to go back in time and do the same site now as it was then with a good detector and with a lot more knowledge.

Funny that I never thought about it much before, but that was the very beginning of my metal detecting.  I didn't get seriously into detecting until years later.  We didn't use that old detector much after that one outing.  I don't think it would detect coins, and we gave up on it.   But thank you grandma!  She never knew what a journey she started me on.

Anyhow I've encouraged you before to dig into your family tree, and if possible, go hunt some of the sites where you grew up or where your parents or grandparents lived.  Digging up a piece of personal history can be very meaningful.

It is now possible to dig into your roots in another way.  Ancestry.com offers a DNA testing service.  For $99 you receive a kit in the mail.  Follow the instructions, mail it in and then receive the results back in the mail.

The kit comes with a tube which you fill with spit.  It takes a good bit.  Then you ship it back to be analyzed.

The results include data such as the following example from their online ad.

They will also connect you with others who share your genetic line if you want them to.   You can specify how private you want to be and if your name is to be made know to others or not.

They will, however, if requested by law enforcement, provide your DNA to them.   Even if you haven't committed a crime or anything, you might not want your results out there.  I guess it is also possible that you might learn something that you don't care to know.  Think about it before doing it.  If you do decide to do it, it might be a lot of fun.

Read more about here.  Otherwise browse ancestry.com DNA.

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We have a two to three foot surf today but a really nice tide.

Happy Spring,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net