12/14/18 Report - More On Another Favorite Find:1670 Escudo. Areas of Detector Interference. Beach Conditions.

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

1670 Escudo
Photo submitted by Warren D

Captain Jonah mentioned one of his favorite coins finds being a 1670.  Warren D. provided the following additional comments about that one.

Your article about Jonah's favorite coin brought back the memory of the day that coin was brought up.

I witnessed it from the beach on July 29, 2015 and it was the only coin that came up as a single.

It made us all totally hysterical and I remember every word we said that day. Danny brought it to the beach and showed it to us close up. 

I went to the press conference and took these pictures. The crack in the coin is part of the story.

Warren Dennison

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Rio Mar Beach
Submitted by Dale J.

Dale J. sent the following.

Tuesday I walked Riomar and found an old cut (picture attached) but did not detect. I was hoping the higher surf and high tide Wednesday might create new ones. Been trying to learn from your blog. 

Wednesday brought the MD and turned it on just past the stairs. The thing went crazy with number jumping all over even holding the coil up in air. I rebooted it, factory reset, nothing worked. I was convinced it was toast. Another detectorist walked by headed to south beach and we talked a bit. When I mentioned the crazy behavior, he said that always happens here in front of the Riomar country club. He said he does not turn his on until far down the beach.  Sure enough, farther down everything returned to normal. The other guy was convinced something strange was buried  in the sand. I had a different theory, an undersea cable. And of course their is a website for that: 

Cable Map Submitted by Dale J.
Source: https://www.submarinecablemap.com/#/

The cuts in the picture I took Tuesday were gone and new 2-3’ cuts (about 50 ft. long) far down the beach on a section that is more NW-SE than north south. And that seems to support your comment on the winds and waves drive cut creation. The primary swell Wednesday was northeast as were the winds for a time.

Fascinating hobby!

Thanks Dale.  There are a number of spots like that along the Treasure Coast.  There is one south of the Rio Mar access that I've known about at least thirty or forty years..   Another one is south of Turtle Trail.  Some are stronger and more persistent than others.  I usually associated them with certain buildings and radio transmissions, but you might be right.  

There is also a source of interference at Pepper Park.  It is not as strong or as consistent.  There is a fire house immediately across from it, and I wondered if it had to do with that in some way, or perhaps marine radio transmission.  

What do you all think?

Here are some other recent beach photos from Dale J.

Wabasso Beach.

Seagrape Trail

Seagrape Trail

Turtle Trail

Thanks to Dale J. for sending these photos.

I was working on another post  but this material was more time sensitive, so I'll get to my other topic some other day.

The  surf was only two to three feet today and will be decreasing daily for a few days.

Happy hunting,

Treasuregujde@comcast.net

12/12/18 Report - Another Favorite Coin Find: Ferdinand VII. Ancient Hounds and Jackals Game. Looking at Metal Detecting Views.

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

1809 Escudo Found by Jonah Martinez

Photo by Jonah.

As you can see, this is obviously not a coin from the 1715 Fleet.  It is from a very complicated time in history.

It is listed in many numismatic books as belonging to the reign of Ferdinand VII, however Ferdinand, whose reign began in 1808, was jailed in May of 1808 after Napolean took over and Jose Napolean ruled.  Ferdinand later got out of jail and returned to power.

Other Side of the Same Coin.

Photo by Jonah Martinez.

Yesterday I showed a bunch of Royals that are naturally among Jonah's favorite finds, but this one is another of his favorites.

Jonah said, 1809 8 escudo is also up there. The most expensive rare coins I’ve found are up there but 1670 or 1809 are my favorites - not worth the most but the oddest of finds where you lease expected to find them. Love the history of their journey, where they started from to the end resting place. Love the odd ones.

Thanks for sharing Jonah.   


The coins I showed yesterday and today aren't the kind of thing you can expect to find everyday, or even every year for that matter, but returning to my recent theme, there is always some place to hunt and something to find - even while you are still looking for the pot at the end of the rainbow.

You can make finds on a daily basis.  Some will be better than others.  You will want to make the best of your time.   But that depends upon what you want to do.  Some people just metal detect for the recreation.  Anything they find is a bonus.

You can be more consistently productive you are interested in a lot of different kinds of things and become more knowledgeable about each of them.  There will be times when it is easier to find one type of treasure rather than another.

One of the things I've been trying to show lately is that some of the things you might overlook can be both interesting and valuable.  That is the case with things like modern error coins or paper money.  It can also be true of fossils or sea glass.  Some people are surprised to learn that sea glass can sell for good money.   That is if you find some nice pieces.

Of course it isn't all about money all the time.  Sometimes it is just about what you like or what you are interested in.

I know that some of my favorite finds are worth beans.  I'm not set on maximizing the economic value of my finds all the time.  For me, that takes some of the fun out of it.

Back in the day, I had some time to detect a lot, and I tried to prove to myself that I could make a living at it if I wanted to.  I found out that I could, but for me, I didn't want to do that.

It is about what you like and what you want to do.  I like figuring things out and learning about things.  That is what makes it interesting.

There have been several things in my life that I worked at until I pretty much figured it out, and then I moved on to something else.  That is just how I am.  Once I learn what I can do and what it takes, I might or might not decide to continue with it.

It is all about you, and what you want to do.  If you really want to accomplish something difficult, you know it will take a lot of effort, so then you have to decide if it is going to be worth it to you.

For most of us, I would guess that metal detecting is not what we want to do with our lives.  It is just something that is interesting and fun.

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A pattern of small holes cut into the floor of an ancient rock shelter in Azerbaijan shows that one of the world's most ancient board games was played there by nomadic herders around 4,000 years ago, according to an archaeologist who has investigated the find.

Walter Crist, a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, visited the rock shelter in a national park in Azerbaijan last year, searching for traces of the ancient game now known as "58 Holes."

The game is also sometimes called "Hounds and Jackals." British archaeologist Howard Carter found a game set with playing pieces fashioned like those animals in the tomb of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Amenemhat IV, who lived in the 18th century B.C....

Here is the link.

https://www.livescience.com/64267-ancient-board-game-nomads-discovered.html

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There was a cold northeast wind yesterday, but I won't get a chance to visit the beaches today.  Maybe someone else will give some reports.  I'd expect some small cuts.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/16/18 Report - Another Favorite Find. Gold and Silver Prices. Tropical Storm Ernesto.

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

A few days ago I talked about my favorite sea glass find.   That one piece of red uranium sea glass really sticks out as a clear favorite.  It is the most valuable and most unique.

My second favorite piece of sea glass is a distant second.  It is a piece of blue sea glass that is ideally shaped for jewelry making.

There are a lot of different kinds of thing you can find on the Treasure Coast beaches.  There are coins, shells, fossils, jewelry, artifacts, etc.  For most of those categories I have a favorite.  For some categories, there is a clear favorite.  For other categories, it is hard to pick a favorite.

It is difficult for me to pick a favorite jewelry find.  Jewelry finds can be divided into sub-categories.  There are Spanish colonial shipwreck jewelry finds and then there are vintage and modern jewelry finds.  It is hard for me to compare those.

There are also rings, watches and other things.  It is hard to compare many of those, especially the very good ones.

Some jewelry favorites stick out because of value.  Others stick out because of age or history.   And some are distinguished by the circumstances surrounding the find.

The ring shown above is one of my favorite jewelry finds.  It is not THE favorite jewelry find. There are so many good ones.

This one has seven quality diamonds, each of which is well over one carat.  It is a large man's ring.   But what makes it really stick out for me is the story of the hunt.  I told that story before, so I won't go into it in detail again.

To boil it down, I had a little time after work before I had to do something else.  I had my detector and gear in the car, and wanted to do a little detecting, but didn't have much time. I felt I didn't have enough time, but something kept telling me to go.  The traffic was heavy and by the time I got there, I only had about fifteen minutes to detect.  I got in the water,and right away hit this ring.  I then quickly packed up and left.

It was one of those times when I felt pulled to a find.  That is part of what made it so memorable to me.  It was one of those experiences that I remember well many years later.

I also find it difficult to difficult to pick a favorite artifact find.  Many of those favorites are firsts, such as my first 18th century military button.  Others are unique in some way.

Some favorites consist of multiple finds.   That would include two coin rings found on one of my birthday weekend.  Each one was a favorite, but the pairing of a ring containing a 20th century gold coin with a ring containing an 18th century gold coin on the same birthday weekend, helped to make them extra special.

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Silver Prices Six Months.

Gold Prices Six Months.

As you can see both silver and gold has been falling the last six months.

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Tropical Storm Ernesto is heading northeast and away from us.

The surf is around one or two feet today.  The low tide will not be quite as big today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/10/18 Report - New Beach Jewelry Find. My All-Time Favorite Sea Glass Find and The Secret That Made It Really Special.

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

10K Ring Find.

Even when beach conditions are poor you can still find things that have just been lost by beach goers.  This time of year it is good and hot and people are eager to get in the water for a little fun.

This recent ring find is 10K gold.  I  don't know what the stone is yet.

I haven't done much beach detecting at all this year due to a variety of factors beyond my control, but the few times I did get to the beach,  I did ok.  The last few months I spent more time on an inland site, which took a lot of time.  I couldn't just walk out and detect that site.  I could only do it at certain times, and the site was challenging in a variety of ways.  I posted several of the coins from that site recently.

Then I got into studying coin finds.  I never guessed how involved that could get, but I found out there is a lot of study that can go into coin collecting if you get heavily into errors and varieties.  There is really a lot to learn. I looked at coins and then had to go back and look at the same coins several times as I learned more what to look for.

My curiosity and interest has always been active and far-reaching.  I can always find something interesting to study.  I'm not one to stay on a narrow path or limit myself to one subject for ever.  As a result my finds are varied.

Some people are more focused.  They want to find Spanish colonial coins, or maybe valuable modern jewelry, or maybe Civil War or Native American artifacts.  It seems that I like all of that and more, which makes it easy for me to be an opportunist.  I'll hunt what ever is available and accessible at the time.  That might include sea shells, fossils, bottles, jewelry, coins or artifacts or whatever else I might be able to find.

In each category I have my favorite finds.  Two pieces of sea glass finds stick out to me, for example.  It seems that for every category and type of find, there are a few, perhaps only one or two, that seem more interesting or that I like more than the others for some reason.  It can have to do with value, but that is not often the case with me.  It often has more to do with the story - either how or when the item was found or what I learned about the item.

One post that was read by thousands of people and is the third most read post of this blog  is about one of those favorite finds - a truly exceptional piece of sea glass.  It seems that other people liked the find as much as I did even though it was not a metal detector find.

I originally posted about that sea glass on 1/9/14.  It is a remarkable piece of sea glass - something that I didn't appreciate for quite some time because I didn't know that much about sea glass and there was something remarkable about that piece that I didn't understand for quite a while. Not only was it a good sea glass find, being a rare red color and a particularly nice size and shape - it would be very suitable for a piece of jewelry - but what I learned later really set it apart.  Not only was it an exceptional piece of sea glass but it glowed in the dark.

When you are like me, you often find things you don't know much about.  And when that happens, you might not appreciate the find until after you've held it for some time.  Then you learn more about it and learn to appreciate it more.

Well over a year after I found the item, I learned that the piece of sea glass held a secret.  Not long after I found the sea glass, I noticed that on one side under normal light, there appeared to be small yellow speckles in the depressions on one side.  I eventually found out that it was not only a nice piece of sea glass, but it was uranium glass.  It was treated to glow in the dark.  Additional research revealed that uranium glass was once used with a lantern on top of a buoy.

There are several reasons this is my favorite sea glass find.  It is attractive, well-formed and by far the most valuable piece, but there is more to it than that.  It held a secret and a story.  It is a part of history, and it took me through a journey of discovery.

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There is no tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic.

The surf is small, and we'll have some big tides today.  There will be a good low tide.  That will give you some opportunities in the wet sand and shallow water.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net