2/13/20 Report - One Beautiful New Find and A Variety of Miscellaneous Non-Metallic Finds. A Good Reference Link.

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

Beautiful Carved Columnella Shell Artifact

Find and photo by DB.

Here is one beautiful find by DB.  From what I can see,  it looks like a carved Native American columnella artifact.

Shell Artifact.

Find and photo by DB

This is one nice find.  I think it is the most beautiful Native American shell artifact I've ever seen.

DB said he was hesitant to drive all the way to a spot where he had previously found numerous bottles, shell artifacts, pottery, etc., but had a feeling that the conditions were right so did it anyhow.

He would like to know what you think it was used for.  Send me your thoughts and opinions.

 

Sometimes you have to go a little farther than you really want to or do something that is not the easiest thing to do, but when you have that feeling, it can pay off.

In my younger and more intense years one guiding principle I often repeated was, "If you don't want to do it, do it."  And that was a key to a lot of my success.  Of course, there are times when better judgement says you shouldn't do it, but the point is that if you are really driven, you'll push yourself to go a little farther and do a little more than the easy thing.  I tried to find those spots that were overlooked or frequently avoided by others.  It depends upon where you are in life, and what you want to accomplish at the time.

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I've been picking up a few easy finds lately when beach conditions haven't been good.  These are just some miscellaneous finds I picked up within walking distance of my house.  

Sometimes just a little walk will take the edge off the urge to search.  

Now that is an odd one.

A Couple of the Stopper Top Bottles I picked up.

Two Views of Recenlty Found Cone Carter's Ink Bottle.

There wasn't much the day I found Carter's cone ink bottle, I was surprised to find it.

Below is a photo of a partially submerged old Gordon's Dry Gin bottle.

Partially Submerged Gordon's Dry Gin Bottle

And here is a metal find -  a short aluminum arrow.   Seems too short for a standard bow.  I wonder if it had anything to do with the pig.

Aluminum Arrow.

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Below is a link to a thesis you might like to browse - Prehistoric Shell Artifacts from the Apalachicola River Valley Area, Northwest Florida, by Eric Eyles, University of South Florida.

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2025&context=etd

There are a lot of good examples to look at.

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The surf is nearly flat but will be increasing up to four to six feet this weekend.  The tides are high too.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

6/1/16 Report - Walking Around and Saving Cast-offs of Local History.

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

Old Brown Carter's Cone Ink Bottle

First, a little information on the bottle.  Embossed on the bottom is "CARTER'S/1897/MADE/IN U.S.A."  This type of cone ink bottle was produced from 1897 into the 1910s.  Earlier bottles are most often aqua and the later ones are clear glass.  There was a paper label that no longer remains.

Brown is a less common color and appears to me to be an earlier bottle.  One of the first old ink bottle that I ever found was an aqua ink bottle.  I sold the aqua bottle years ago.

I just picked p this bottle from an area where nice old bottles have been showing up occasionally for several months now.  They are surface finds.

I've been checking this area about once in a while for several months and continue to come up with bottles ranging from the late 1800s to the mid or late 1900s.  Previous to this year the same area never produced any old bottles, but several months ago, the area eroded and started to produce.

The past couple of months the area has filled in a bit.  The erosion is not as deep as it was, still older bottles continue to show up.  I did a little probing to see if there were bottles deeper, and there did not appear to be.  It seems that the bottles are now moving in with the sand.

On the same day I found another ink bottle at the same location, but it was not as old.  It was a screw top.  

The same area has produced soda bottles, mostly mid 1900s to 1970 or thereabouts, milk bottles, and assorted cork top bottles.

For the previous ten years or so this spot produced virtually nothing in the way of old bottles. I think this shows again how much is out there.  In my opinion, only a very small part of what is out there has been found, whether you are talking about treasure from shipwrecks or old bottles.  

The people that wrote to me seem to agree that James Miller was wrong.  One person pointed out the technological advances and new techniques that contribute to new finds, including the big treasure finds made by the Capitana crew last year.  Another person pointed out that most detectorists are hunting the same sites and only scanning the first few inches on land sites.

Below are a few more bottles from the same site.  Immediately below is an embossed Boutwell Dairy milk bottle.

Boutwell Milk Bottle Surface Find.

In the 1940s William Boutwell was in the dairy business in Lake Worth and invented the process that produced the product, "half and half."  He purchased the Jupiter Dairy in 1954.  His son, George H. Boutwell, was also involved in the dairy business.

And here is another dairy bottle found at the same location, I think, but at a different time.  It is an older round bottle.

Round Breakstone's Painted-Label  Dairy Bottle.

And below are just a couple more examples of bottles coming from the same old spot.

Random Bottles From The Same Spot.

None of these bottles are worth a lot, but the brown ink bottle could bring $20 or more.  For me, it is more about the local history and the fact that there is still a lot out there to be found.  Remember, these are surface bottles.  You can find old things just walking around.  It doesn't even take a metal detector. Knowing where to look helps.  If you think about it, the top bottle is about 100 years old and the 1715 Fleet is just over 300 years old.

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