6/5/20 Report - Road to Sevilla de Oro Found. One More Mistake to Avoid. Seminole Silver.

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

1977 Silver Jubilee One Crown.

Reminder of Mistake.

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Aurania Resources Ltd. is pleased to report that vestiges of an old road have been found in the central part of its Lost Cities – Cutucu Project (“Project”) in southeastern Ecuador.  The road was discovered by Aurania’s field teams while searching for Sevilla de Oro which was one of two gold mining centres described in historic manuscripts from Ecuador, Peru, Spain and the Vatican.  These records describe the Colonial Spanish operating the two gold mines between approximately 1565 and 1606.  The road discovered by Aurania’s exploration teams is believed to be the one that linked Sevilla de Oro to the other gold mining centre ‘Logroño de los Caballeros’ as described in the historic manuscripts...

Aurania’s Chairman and CEO, Dr. Keith Barron commented, “The historical record names the Treasurers of the “Caja Reales” – the Royal Treasuries – in Sevilla and Logroño, so we know that the gold produced was cast into crude ingots for transport to Quito...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://resourceworld.com/aurania-finds-first-field-evidence-of-colonial-spanish-activity-at-its-lost-cities-project-in-ecuador/


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A couple days ago I mentioned that I had been thinking back over some of the mistakes I made.  I was thinking of mistakes that were made after the item was located, and in some cases recovered. I talked about one of those and plan to talk about the others.

We all know that we should be careful when digging up an item, but we can still get careless.  We can get careless because we dig up a lot of coins that don't matter much, and we can get in a hurry, and a single scratch can dramatically reduce the value of a fine coin.  

In my first year of metal detecting, I found one very nice coin that would be graded in near mint condition if it did not have a single big scratch that I caused with my scoop.

It was in the habit of hurriedly digging up modern coins, when I was surprised by seeing a silver 1977 Isle of Man Silver Jubilee crown (shown above) in my scoop.  It isn't anything real valuable, but it was the most interesting coin that I had dug up to that time.

That was back in the day when I was trying to find as many coins as I could.  I showed some of my records from those days in this blog before, and remember telling Jerry at the Pot of Gold, the store where I bought my detector, that I more than paid for my Fisher Aquanaut with the modern coins I found in just a few months.  I was finding a lot of coins, but I never expect to find something like the silver crown and still wonder what it was doing on Hollywood Beach.  Judging by the conditions, it couldn't have been there very long.

For those of you who know Hollywood Beach, it was found just a few feet away from the shower in front of the Pizza shop by the handball courts.  The handball courts weren't there then, but that is where this coin was found.  It was such surprise for me at the time that I remember it well to this day.

The coin is almost perfect except for that one big scratch from my scoop, which to my surprise, doesn't seem to show in the photo.  I still have that coin,, which should act as a reminder, but I'll probably still get careless at times.  I've scratched more and better coins since that one.

My main point today is that you never know what you might be digging up, so be careful while doing it.  A pin-pointer is a good idea, but a pin-pointer won't guarantee not scratching or breaking finds.

I could tell a lot of stories about items ruined by careless digging - not all of them by me.  For example, in Fort Pierce at the site of the old fort, Kevin Reilly (now deceased) of Reilly's Treasured Gold, stuck his digger right through a nice silver Seminole head band.

See http://www.nativetech.org/seminole/silverwork/index.php  to see some nice examples of Seminole silver ornaments.

A lot of items are damaged when the detectorist get in a hurry, but hopefully this reminder will save one or two good finds.

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We had a strong south wind yesterday.  Today the wind is calm and the surf is down around two feet.  However the tides are nice and big.

The weather forecast is showing only a 40% chance of precipitation today.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/8/19 Report - Another Old Button for ID. Prisoner of War Camps in Florida During WWII. Megalodon Tooth Find. Viking Boat Burials.

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

Unidentified Button Find.

As you can see, this button has a crown on the front and the back is too corroded to show much of anything.

I haven't done the research on it yet, and would appreciate any help.

I had a cup with old button finds that had accumulated over the years.  Unfortunately I didn't label them, so I don't know when or where they were found.

The button I posted yesterday has the words "EXTRA FEIN" on the back.  In German that means extra fine. I thought it might have been produced in Germany for another country because I didn't think it was very likely that I would have found a German button, but I guess it is possible.  Susan E. thought it might be a WW II German button but hadn't found the exact one yet.

I started wondering where I might have found a German WW II button.  The first thing I thought of was the German spies that came ashore during WW II, but it seems extremely unlikely that would be the source.  It seems more likely to me that someone just lost a souvenir or something.

Then I remembered that I used to do a lot of metal detecting down south in an area where there was a WW II prisoner of war camp.  I found some lists of Florida WW II prisoner of war camps, and there were a few, but they didn't list any in the area that I was thinking of, so I started wondering if I remembered that correctly.  Finally I found that I was right about that.

Since the 1920's, the Detroit-based Miami Beach Heights Corporation (headed by industrialists Robert C. Graham, Walter O. Briggs, and C.T. Fisher) owned 245 acres of undeveloped, partially swampy land that stretched from the bay to the Atlantic. Mr. Graham assumed the duties as the developer for Bal Harbour. In the 1930's, city planners Harland Bartholomew & Associates were called in to design the Village. The company made several plans and they were submitted for review to Miami Beach Heights. In 1940, World War II began and the plans were put on hold. As a goodwill gesture to the government, Robert C. Graham rented the land to the United States Air Corps for $1 per year. The Air Corps used this land to train their soldiers and established a Prisoner of War camp. The ocean front area was used as a rifle range and the barracks were set up on the west side of Collins Avenue. The camp for prisoners was located where the Bal Harbour Shops are presently... 

(Source: https://activerain.com/blogsview/484718/the-history-of-bal-harbour--florida----paradise-found----miami--fl-33154)

I used to spend a lot of time hunting in that area.  If the button I posted yesterday is a German WWII button, there is a very good chance that is where I found it.

While doing the research I learned a lot.  Did you know, there were over 425,000 prisoners of war in the United States during WW II?

I found a few Florida POW camps listed on Wikipedia.  The Bal Harbour camp was not in that list or other lists that I saw.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_prisoner-of-war_camps_in_the_United_States

Once again I'll remind you to keep good records of your finds.

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A middle school girl stumbled upon a buried treasure while spending her spring break on a beach in North Carolina.

Avery Fauth and her family love to scour the sand for shark teeth whenever they’re on a beach. But Fauth attributes her recent prehistoric find — a megalodon shark tooth — on North Topsail Beach to luck...

Here is the link.

https://nypost.com/2019/04/19/girl-finds-megalodon-shark-tooth-buried-in-sand-at-beach/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_4028701

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Source: click2houston.com.

See link below.

Two Viking burial boats are being uncovered in Sweden.


In this sort of burial, the person was placed along with his or her riches in a boat that was then put into the ground.

The archaeologists also found a sword, an ornate comb, a spear and part of a shield in the intact boat.

The identity of the man remains unknown.

The other of the two boats did not hold up as well.  It was probably damaged during work on the land in the 16th century....

It's been 50 years since the last burial ship was found in Sweden...


Here is the link.


https://www.click2houston.com/lifestyle/2-rare-viking-burial-boats-uncovered-in-sweden


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Expect continued small surf on the Treasure Coast for at least another week or so.

Let me know if you find any information on the buttons I posed yesterday and today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/10/19 Report - What A Treasure Hunter's Dream Might Look Like. Coin Sites To Visit. Increase In Surf Expected Mid-Week.

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

Gold Crown - Part of the Sroda Slaska Hoard

Source: See the slavorum.org link below.

What would your dream treasure look like!  For me the Sroda Slaska Hoard is what I would imagine. The crown shown above is just one part of that hoard, which also includes the following items.

– a gold woman's crown, which probably belonged to Blanche of Valois, one of the wives of the emperor Charles IV
– two gold pendants, dating to the 12th century
– two gold pendants, dating to the 13th century
– a medieval gold clasp decorated with precious stones

– a ring with heads of dragons

– a ring with sapphire

– a ring with moon and star

– 39 gold coins
– 2924 or 3924 (sources vary) silver coins.


Here is how it was found.

... Gold and silver coins were discovered during demolition of an old building in the town of Środa on 8 June 1985. The authorities secured the original find (a vase filled with approximately 3,000 Prague groschen), however, no serious archaeological study was carried out at that time. Three years later, on 24 May 1988, during another demolition in the vicinity of the first discovery, another, even bigger find was reported (including silver and gold florin coins). Most of this new find disappeared before the site was secured by the authorities. In the following days, as enterprising individuals scoured the municipal landfill where rubble from other recently demolished buildings was deposited, reports of more discoveries started appearing; those include the first reports of j.ewelry...

Here is that link.   https://www.slavorum.org/forum/topic/treasure-of-sroda-slaska/

And here is another link about the Sroda Slaska Hoard.

https://mnwr.pl/en/the-sroda-slaska-treasure/

Here is one account of how it might have been lost.

It is now agreed that the treasure belonged to the King (later Emperor) Charles IV of the House of Luxembourg. Around 1348, needing funds to support his claim to the King of the Romans, Charles pawned various items to the Jewish banker Muscho (Moshe, Mojżesz) in Środa. Soon afterwards, the black plague visited Środa. Muscho was not heard of again and it is believed that he either fled from the plague-struck town, died of plague, or perhaps fell victim to pogroms as Jews were blamed for spreading the plague. What is certain is that no one ever reclaimed the treasure, which was left hidden somewhere in the town for hundreds of years...

That comes from http://realmsofgoldthenovel.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-sroda-treasure.html

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I just found a site that lists 75 coin blogs and websites for coin collectors and numismatists.

The first few includes

Coin Week
Coin News
Numismatic News
Coin Update
Perth Mint blog]
Pocket Change
Coins: A Complete Value Guide
Mintage World
The Coin Show, and
Change Checker.

Here is where you can find those and the others.

https://blog.feedspot.com/coin_blogs/

Some require subscribing, but others don't.

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On the Treasure Coast you can expect an increase in the surf around Wednesday.  The tides will remain moderate.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/8/17 Report - Deep Water Galleon Salvage in 1950. Personal Flying Machine.

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

Diver Using Metal Detector
Source: Oct. 1950 Popular Mechanics
See link below.

I ran across this neat article in an old issue of Popular mechanics. The title of the article is Quest for a Galleon's Gold.

The article is about the salvage of a Ship of the Spanish Armada, which was sunk in 1588.   The salvage rights were granted by Charles II to local Dukes.  There is a report on a salvage effort conducted as early as 1683,  Salvage continued from time to time over the centuries.

Besides the metal detector and airlift, they probed with an air-supplied nozzle to find the buried ship.

The ship is believed to be either the San Juan or Florencia and could have contained pay for the entire Spanish Armada and a king's crown.

I don't doubt that this wreck has been explored in more modern times, but I found the 1950 article very interesting, especially some of the illustrations, a couple of which I posted here.

Source: Oct. 1950 Popular Mechanics.

Link below.

Click here to go to the original article.

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Flying Machine.

Sunday I saw a couple of guys at the beach with these motorized propellers that they wear while strapped to a parasail or whatever you call it and go flying.

I've seen people use these on the beach before.  It could be quite handy for checking out the beaches, but I don't think I'll try it.  

If I did ever try it, I'd probably be flying about ten feet off the ground.  

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Crumpled Copper Find.

I don't know what this went on or what it was for.  It obviously was attached to a surface (has a hole at both ends for a screw) and the round hole in the middle.

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There is not much time left to respond to the blog poll.  Thanks to all those that responded.

Yesterday there were a lot of boaters and beach-goers, as well as the men with their flying machines.

We still have a couple of days of one foot surf.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net