12/3/18 Report - Jewelry in Burial. Returned Overseas Engagement Ring. Lifetime Metal Detector Warranty. Evolution of Lady Liberty on US Coins.

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

Fort Pierce South Jetty Park Saturday

Photo by Gaylen C.

Thanks Gaylen.

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Jewelry Found With Bones in Grave.

Source: See Msn.com link below.

Jewelry was found buried with a 1500-year-old skeleton.

Here is that link.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/wonder/lavish-jewelry-found-in-1500-year-old-anglo-saxon-graves/vi-BBQ9Koi?ocid=spartandhp

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Maybe you saw this one on TV.  It was on Fox Business this morning. A fellow proposed to his fiancé in New York City.  The ring fell into a sewer grate.  The police were not able to get it out that night and the couple gave up on it and flew back home, leaving no address.  The next morning the police looked for it again and got it out but didn't know how to contact the couple.  The put it on Twitter and a friend of the couple saw it and told them, so they got the ring back.

Here is the link.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news/police-find-man-who-lost-engagement-ring-while-proposing-over-a-times-square-grate/ar-BBQnqKL?ocid=spartandhp

Nice work by the police.   It also shows how the world is very connected now by social media.

To those of you who don't detect, if you lose something don't give up on it right away.  At least leave a contact phone or address.  Sometimes things do turn up.

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I read where someone was going to buy a Tesoro metal detector because of the advertised lifetime warranty.  I've mentioned this before, but Tesoro won't honor the "lifetime" warranty when they determine the detector is obsolete.  I have two "obsolete" Tesoro detectors, which they won't repair under warranty.  So "lifetime" doesn't mean to them what you would think it does.

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Here are the major steps in the evolution of Lady Liberty on U. S. coins as excerpted from a recent U.S. Mint press release.

With the recent celebration of the 225^th anniversary of the United States Mint, we will also be celebrating the 225^th birthday of the ever-present Lady Liberty. Throughout the past few centuries, we’ve seen her on our coinage as a constantly evolving emblem. Lady Liberty has been depicted sitting or standing, with an axe or sword, her hair flowing behind her or pinned back, and more. Despite her many forms, we always recognize her as the symbol from which she began...

1794: The First Lady Liberty Coin

Her first silver dollar is now commonly known as the "Flowing Hair" dollar...

1795: The Next Coin With Lady Liberty

The Draped Bust dollar...

1836: The Year Lady Liberty Starts to Evolve

The “Gobrecht” dollar and the "Seated Liberty" dollar that followed departed from the profiles and busts of past coinage...

1878: The New Face of Lady Liberty

In 1878, Lady Liberty reverted back to a bust in profile view with the "Morgan" dollar...

1916: The Naked Lady Liberty Coin

... With an olive branch in hand, this depiction was meant to represent peace, but the 1916 quarter showed her standing between two pillars with one breast exposed...

1921: Lady Liberty Makes Peace

The Peace dollar...

2017: The New Face of Lady Liberty

,.. Last year, the United States Mint announced that a commemorative hundred-dollar coin would be released to celebrate its upcoming 225^th anniversary. One side will again feature Lady Liberty’s proud profile, but this time she is African American...

Here is the link for the rest of that press release from the US Mint.

https://invest.usgoldbureau.com/news/lady-liberty-american-coinage/

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On the Treasure Coast we're getting some warm air from the south.  The MagicSeaWeed predictions show nothing bigger than a two foot surf for the next week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/20/18 Report - New Technology to Detect Paper Money. Diamond Ring Find. Engagement Ring Found and Returned. Royal Scotland Dock Yards.

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

New Diamond Ring Find.

That ring is heavier than it looks. 

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I'm always interested in new ideas and different ways of solving problems.  Here is an article about a different approach to finding large amounts of cash.  

Sniffing Out Billions in US Currency Smuggled Across the Border to Mexico

Criminals are smuggling an estimated $30 billion in U.S. currency into Mexico each year from the United States, but help could be on the way for border guards, researchers reported recently. The answer to the problem: a portable device that identifies specific vapors given off by U.S. paper money...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

http://www.labmanager.com/news/2014/08/sniffing-out-billions-in-us-currency-smuggled-across-the-border-to-mexico#.WwDGmUxFzTg

I guess you could call it a cash sniffing machine.

$30 billion dollars could be used a lot of ways in the federal budget.

It reminds me of the time many years ago when I arrived at a Treasure Coast beach and found huge wrapped bails.  The bails must have been four or five foot cubes.  It was very early in the morning and no one was around.  One bail was down by the water, and one was up behind the dunes.  I wondered if it was cash and took a look.  It was pot, heavily wrapped so it wouldn't be damaged by water.

That is back in the day before cell phones.  I wondered if anyone would be returning for it.

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Here is a great story about an engagement ring that was found and returned by a metal detecting police officer.

May 16 (UPI) -- A Texas woman is praising a police officer who spent hours on a beach to find and return her lost engagement ring...

Jaradi used a metal detector and the pair searched together for hours before giving up for the night.

Haelen said she received a message from Jaradi about 4:30 a.m. saying he had found the ring...

And here is that link.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/05/16/Officer-searches-beach-for-hours-to-find-lost-engagement-ring/9661526490844/

I like to post found and returned stories.  If you have any new ones let me know.

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Archaeologists may have found Scotland's Royal dockyards.

https://www.falkirkherald.co.uk/news/environment/airth-archaeological-dig-sheds-more-light-on-royal-dockyards-connection-1-4740727

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After a good soaking is always a good time to check out old hunted inland sites again.

Happy huntng,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/21/18 Report - Railroad Metal Detector Finds. Stash of Gold and Silver Coins. Ringless Engagement Rings. Psychics Find Stuff.

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

Finds and photo by Dan B.

Here is the message Dan B. sent with this picture of his finds.

Another visit to a hunted out area. One of my favorite RR spots near the river. The dune has a pretty steep slope from the RR tracks out and down towards the west. It must get wind blown and with some rain it seems to reveal some new goodies every year or so depending on weather. Always a nice surprise to come back and find just a bit more. I found many RR era targets. These were the best for the day.
You can go back to the same location time after time and continue to find things, especially when the surface is eroded a bit.

Cool finds.  Thanks Dan.

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Now people are having diamonds embedded in their finger and not bothering with a metal band.

Here is that link.

http://www.wnd.com/2018/03/forget-engagement-rings-now-diamonds-embedded-in-fingers/

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A stash of gold coins found last week is the latest piece of evidence that a shipwreck 40-plus miles off the North Carolina coast is that of the steamship Pulaski, which took half its wealthy passengers to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1838.

Divers found 14 gold coins and 24 silver coins in a spot “no bigger than a cigar box.” All predate the ship’s sinking and include one British coin that experts say could be worth $100,000. Other gold coins in the collection are valued in the $10,000 to $12,000 range, officials said...

This article is from January, but I don't remember posting it before.

Here is the link.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article196911119.html

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A good number of treasure hunters follow their intuition and a good number believe in some type of psychic ability or leaning. I once did a poll on that.

Here is an article about our intelligence agencies used psychics.

...Angela Ford was with Project Star Gate for nine years. She calls herself a medium; the Defense Department preferred "remote viewer." "I was good at finding people," she said. "I was good at locating things."

Moriarty asked, "In a sense, were you hired as a psychic spy?"

"I guess, yes!" she laughed.

Her assignment?  To look for missing hostages and fugitives without ever leaving a building at Fort Meade in Maryland...

Here is that link for more about that.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/esp-inside-the-governments-secret-program-of-psychic-spies/

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A cool front came through and we have a west wind and small surf - only one foot or less.   The surf will remain small for at least a few days.  The tides are decent.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/21/14 - Lost and Found Rings, Super Bowl Ring, One Ring Not Found Yet, Sebastian Inlet History, and A Couple Rut Busters

 

 

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

A Tiffany engagement ring was lost in the water at Jacksonville Beach.  A year later it was found by a detectorist.  The detectorist noticed the serial number inscribed inside the ring and took it to a Tiffany store, which was able to identify the owners, who then got the ring back.



Rerturned Engagement Ring.
Source of photo and story: Link below.



Returned Super Bowl Ring
Source of photo and story: Link below.

A bottle of champagne was the reward given to the detectorist who returned the engagement ring.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/05/19/couples-engagement-ring-found-at-the-beach/20888344/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing11%7Cdl11%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D478272


One thing to notice in this story is that the ring was lost in the water and a year later found by the detectorist.  It is difficult to tell from the story, but it sounds like it was lost in the water but found on the beach.  That could man one of two things.  Either it was lost in very shallow water at high tide and found when the water went down, or it could have washed in from where it was lost.

Here is a story about a Super Bowl Ring that was lost AND found years and years before it was finally returned.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/05/19/couples-engagement-ring-found-at-the-beach/20888344/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing11%7Cdl11%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D478272

This one was originally found by eye while swimming.  I often remind people to keep their eyes open while detecting.  You can visually cover a lot more ground than you can cover with a detector coil.

Lost rings can be found a years or decades after they were lost.

Earlier this month I posted the description of a ring lost at Pepper Park.  I wanted to post that again since I have not heard that it has been found yet.

 It was lost Sunday, April 27, at Pepper Park.  The ring has 3 stones across the top, center stone is square and the stones on each side are round! White gold. If you find the ring please contact  crzy4stmpn@aol.com.


I heard a rumor that three gold coins were found a few weeks ago at Bathtub Beach.  That is all I know about that.


Here is a nice brief history of the modern-day Sebastian Inlet district.

http://www.sebastianinletdistrict.com/Inlet_History.html


One reader wrote and said they were in a rut. I suspect others are as well.  Conditions haven't been real good for quite a while.

Here is one rut buster.   Instead of going out to find the easy spots, go out and look for obstacles.   By obstacles I mean things that prevent most people from detecting a specific area and figure out how to overcome those obstacles.

I don't hold much back, but there are some tricks to this that I'm not ready to spell out just yet, but any beach has some small areas where nobody will detect, and those little areas continue to accumulate items day after day, year after year, while all of the other areas are cleaned out on a daily basis.  That is as much as I'll give on that right now.


Bruce Walking Turtle Nightingale?  It seems there were hermaphrodite nurses among the Native Americans in the 16th Century.  At least that was one early explorers interpretation.

http://floridamemory.com/items/show/254323?id=17

I've mentioned the Florida Memory Project before, but as I was recently reminded by one reader, it provides a wealth of interesting and useful materials.


Lights, Camera, Action!  Here is another but more obvious rut-buster.  When you are anywhere, especially at the beach, look to see where the action is.  The more extreme the action, the better.

Some of my best finds have come from places where there was concentrated extreme action, often of a commercial nature. 

For example, is there a place where jet skis are rented, and where inexperienced awkward people get onto and off of a jet ski for the first time and are doing all kinds of foolish things and falling all over the place.


That reminds me, I received another notice from a TV production company planning on doing a treasure hunting type of program.  I thought about possibly doing that one.  It is a bit different.


The surf on the Treasure Coast will be decreasing over the day and for the next couple of days.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/4/14 Report - 80 Pound Concretion Filled With Reales!!!, HELP Lost Engagement Ring & Sand Bars and Dips

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

First I want to post notice of a lost engagement ring.   It was lost last Sunday, April 27, at Pepper Park.  The ring has 3 stones across the top, center stone is square and the stones on each side are round! White gold. If you find the ring please contact  crzy4stmpn@aol.com.

The ring was lost when a ball was thrown to the person wearing it, and they threw up their hands.  It went flying off.

I went out yesterday to Pepper to see if it looked like I might be able to find this ring for them, but it was almost a week after it was lost.  They told me that the person was standing in very shallow water and that the lady was coming in when the ring was lost.  They mentioned a sand bar.  That worried me, because that indicates a lot of sand in the shallow water area which might be moving.  We also just had a day or two of increased surf, up to about five feet.  Neither of those things help the chances of finding the ring right now.  Maybe someone found it earlier.

Talking about sand bars, sand bars can be good detecting areas when a lot of people have been on them.  Objects lost on a sand bar can remain in detecting range for a good while or objects they can disappear rapidly, especially when the sand bar is moving.

A moving sand bar can be a good thing or bad thing.  Sometimes you can figure out which way the sand is moving and detect a lot of objects on one side or other of the sand bar.

And of course there is the dip inside the sand bar.  That area can also be a place where the sand is either moving to or from. 

When the dip is filling with shells and sand and lightly packed material it can be poor.  Even then though, it can be a place to pick up watches and things like that.

I've found a good number of watches, dive knives and things like that in the dip when the dip is filled with a lot of loose sand and shells.

When the dip is filled with a lot of lose material, it can be difficult to recovery items that are buried.  The lose material can be moved in good quantities, but it tends to refill quickly and items can continue to get deeper and remain out of range even as you dig.  That means that there will be times when you will have to move a lot of sand quickly to retrieve deeper items.

In some ways it is like digging in the wet sand where the hole continues to refill.

Two techniques that I will sometimes use to remove a lot of lose material quickly is to fan the sand with my foot or put down my detector and use both hands to hoe the sand with my scoop as quickly as possible, almost like fanning, not stopping to check the target until it is surely uncovered.  Using the second method, you will then have to detect around to relocate the object.  If you got a good fix on it before you started moving sand, you will know about where it should be after you moved the sand.

If you put down your detector, that, of course, means that your detector will have to be completely waterproof. 

You will have to get a good read and a good estimation of location and depth on the object before you start to move sand so you will know how much sand you will need to move.  You will want to make sure to uncover the object without pausing.  The hole can refill partially or totally in the time you take to pick up your detector and recheck the hole.  You want to move enough sand but not too much before you stop moving sand.

The area in the dip between a sand bar and the shore can be hugely productive when a lot of the lose material has been swept one way or the other by the surf, leaving behind the less easily moved items.  That sometimes leaves a dip with a nice hard packed bottom covered with targets.

If the bottom of the dip is paved with rocks, recovery can still be difficult. The rocks can be packed together with sand acting almost like mortar in between the rocks.  A scoop does not work well when the bottom is packed with rocks like that.  My technique in that case is foot fanning.

Foot fanning will lift the sand from between the rocks loosening the rocks and then lifting the rocks out.  Foot fanning under those conditions takes a lot of energy.  Some targets will be on the rock surface, but others under layers of packed rock. 

Foot fanning in those conditions can be dangerous in more ways than one.  Rocks can fly up and hit your boney foot, you can step on rocks and sprain your ankle or worse, or a fishing lure can fly up out of the hole and stick in your foot.  All of those things have happened to me.  Foot wear is advised.




Here is a little more from Clint L.  You might remember that I posted some of his beach observations two or three days ago.

Clint said,

I thought I’d share this with you. I lived in Sebring from 1982 to 1985. I would drive 3 times a week to the Treasure Coast to search for treasure or jewelry.  I never found much of anything…except when I was there during the 1984 “no-name hurricane”. I found a 1 real piece when I could finally find the dry beach at Turtle Beach Access. Then my PI 1000 Died!!

I stood beside a guy that found a 1715 full 8 escudo and a pair of 1700’s pliers. He found the pliers first and a second scan and scoop brought up the gold. He was using a Garrett XL500 Pulse. A guy with a machete was rather threatening so we moved to an area with more hunters around.

I did take home an 80 Lb. concretion which yielded 270 ship spikes (some worked) and remnants of the bands and some mineral perfused cedar wood. They made a gorgeous display….BUT there were five 8 reales and 24 mixed 2 and 4 reale coins in the sludge. I went to Kellyco and bought an XL 500…started finding reales over the next 2 months at the two Vero accesses and Colored Beach.

 

After this Clint moved away from Florida for a while.  I'll post more of what Clint told me in the near future.

 

Thanks for sharing Clint!

 

How would you like to find an 80 pound concretion like that?

 

On the Treasure Coast the wind has changed direction and the waves are now coming out of the North.  That will continue through the day.   The surf will only get up to three or four feet.

The air is nice and cool.  The tides are pretty average now.


They are dredging or are going to dredge down at Fort Pierce again.  I saw the equipment from a distance.  I understand that not long ago they were dumping sand south of the Sebastian inlet as they dredge the inlet.  Lots of junk.

Last day to respond to the most recent blog poll.  Thanks


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


 

 

 

1/15/14 Report - Surprising Value of Engagement Ring Napolean Gave to Josephine, Confederate Shipwrecks & Coca Cola Bottles

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

Engagment Ring
ABC News Photo

What would you say this ring sold for?

It is a diamond and sapphire ring.  Does that help?

Take a guess.

It actually sold for nearly $1 million.

Why?

Because of its history.  It was given to Josephine by Napolean.

It isn't the most expensive looking ring in the world.  You may have found a few that look a lot more expensive.  The materials aren't the only thing that determines the value.  In this case that is especially true.

The auctioneers weren't expecting much more than $20,000 for this ring, but the final bid was $948,000.

Just goes to show once again, an item is worth what someone will pay for it.  If you want to get a good price for an item, you need to find the person who wants it the most and has the ability to pay.  The one thing I like about that, and something I like about selling items, is if you find someone who will pay a lot, they either appreciate the item or will likely find someone else that does.

Here is the link to the source story.

http://www.batangastoday.com/napoleon-engagement-ring-to-josephine-1796-gold-ring-fetches-close-to-1m-at-osenat-auction/28143/

Different people like different things.  I like a lot of different kinds of things myself.  In this blog I talk about fossils, artifacts and relics, treasure coins, soda bottles, etc. etc.  I'm less and less focused on the price of the items.  There are things that aren't worth much that I like more than some things that are worth a lot more.  I get a little tired of all the TV programs such as Storage Wars or even Antiques Roadshow where the climactic question is always, "What's it worth?"  I'm often more interested in the items history.   Who made it, who lost it, how was it made, how was it used, how did it end up where it was found, what does it mean and what does it tell you.   Delve into those questions when you find something and you'll have more fun detecting and probably more success too.


Yesterday I talked about Legacy, the newsletter of the SCIAA and pointed out a few articles from the 2013 issue.  The newsletter goes back years.

Here is one article about the discovery of the wreck of the Gold Spike.  The article was published in 2002.  It tells about Confederate forces scuttling supplies and sinking the CSS Chicora, CSS Palmettor State, CSS Charleston, and the CSS Indian Chief, in Charleston Harbor in order to avoid capture by the Union forces.

Congress appropriated $25,000 for removal of the CSS Charleston many years later.  A clamshell bucket was used along with dynamite, saving much money.

Here is the link to that interesting article.

http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/sciaa/mrd/documents/golden_spike.pdf


As you probably know, I've been trying to better identify a straight-side Fort Pierce Coca Cola bottle.  It seems it could be from between 1900 to 1919.  Before that Coke bottles were Hutchinson bottles with the stopper top, and after that came the contour bottles.  Bottles of that period had paper labels, which could explain why this one does not have embossing that says Coca Cola more prominently.  More research remains to be done.

Here is a good overall article on Coca Cola bottle collecting that you might want to read.

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/an-interview-with-coca-cola-bottle-collector-and-author-doug-mccoy/


On the Treasure Coast we're going to get some colder weather.  The wind is out of the West.

The surf is low, only about two feet and will be that way for a while.  That means no immediate improvement in detecting conditions.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net