3/31/20 Report - Some Very Old New World Spanish Reales. A What? Sunken Submarine Found. The Importance of Good Questions.

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

Early Mexico Four-Reale Displayed by McLarty Museum.

Submitted by JamminJack.

Not long ago I did a post on some of the oldest coins found on the Treasure Coast.  The one shown above is from the period of Juana and Carlos.  It is a Mexico minted four-reale.

Monedas Espanolas Desde Juana y Carlos a Isabel II: 1503 a 1868 by Calico, Calico and Trigo, 1985, shows a lot of early coins from both old world and new world mints.

See if you can tell the denomination of the one shown below..

Three Reale Shown in Calico et al Book.

Look between the two pillars above the banner and letters that run across the middle of the pillars.  Do you see three dots?  That is the denomination.  Yes, it is a three-reale!

Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins by Sewall Menzel shows an illustration of the designs on a a three-reale.  Here it is.

Three-reale as shown in Menzel book, Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins.

This next one isn't real clear, but I think you can see the two dots between the caps of the pillars.  It is a two-reale.

Two-Reale Shown in Calico et al Book.

Menzel also presents an illustration for that type of coin.

Carlos y Juana Three-Three Reale as Shown in Menzel Book.

Similarly, the one-reale has a single dot between the pillars.  I won't bother to show that one.

Both the one and two-reale, as well as the three reales shown above were minted in Mexico.

Unfortunately coinage of this period was not dated so it is nearly impossible to determine the date, or even the order of the coins.

The Calico book contains many examples and variations even a ten-reale from an old world mint.

---

The crew of the USS Stickleback didn’t expect things to end this way—rising from the depths on May 28, 1958, only to be broadsided by the hull of a friendly American destroyer, the USS Silverstein. The Stickleback sank to the bottom, an 11,000-foot journey to nowhere.

Now, 62 years since the sub disappeared from any radar screen—and became one of only four U.S. Navy submarines lost since the end of World War II—it’s been found again...

Thanks to Douglas, here is that link.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/stickleback-submarine-wreck-found

---

Unfortunately you can't separate Covid-19 from metal detecting since it has resulted in the beaches being closed.

Checking the statistics this morning I find that there have been 3,170 Covid-19 deaths in the United States so far.

After looking at a sea of additional statistics, one of the things that sticks out is this Fortune Magazine report from 2018 -

The Flu is Killing Up to 4,000 Americans a Week

By 

Bloomberg

February 10, 2018 9:53 AM EST

So, if this headline is correct, and as far as I've been able to find, it is, then more people got killed by the flu in one week in 2018 than have been killed in the U. S. so far this year by the current Coronavirus.

Dr. Fauci, in the March 26 New England Journal of Medicine, gives a much less dramatic estimate of Covid-19 than he has been giving on TV lately, suggesting that it might not be much different than the normal flu.

CBS admitted the image they used to show an overcrowded U. S. hostpical was actually an Italian hospital.  I'm not saying that U. S. hospitals aren't crowded.  They usually are during flu season, but the media can be deceptive.

In another report I saw that the CDC said that up to 15 times more people die of the flu than is reported on death certificates.  Health statistics can be very unreliable.  You have to look at the details.

You always have to ask questions.  I once said that the question is more important than the answer, which seems like a stupid thing to say, but the question is important.  Asking the right questions is critically important, no matter whether you are talking about something like metal detecting or epidemiology.

I'm surprised by the high degree of compliance of the American people so far.  They've been conditioned by a deluge of threats ranging from the danger of riding a bicycle without a helmet and pads to the threat of monster plastic up to the apocalyptic threat of the climate killing us all.  Americans and citizens of the world have been drowned in a sea of experts and bad reporting and have surrendered their independence to those who are thought to know better.  An informed involved public is necessary.

I'm very suspicious of what is going on here.  It is time for a whole lot of good questions.  Not the type of questions that the media is asking, but penetrating questions that will put this whole thing in a meaningful context, resolve doubt and confusion and lead to good practical decisions.

Ask the hard questions.  Hold your officials accountable.  They aren't losing their jobs and businesses.  

---

The Treasure Coast surf will begin to build Saturday night.  We are supposed to have some good high surf on Sunday.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/5/20 Report - Wreck and Artifacts of the Erebus. Squire Pope Manor Explored. Too Much Cleaning Spoils The Coin.

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

Four-Reale Cleaned By Electrolysis

Photo by JamminJack

JamminJack has provided photos of some nice coins that he cleaned with Muriatic Acid.  Here is a four-reale that he cleaned using electrolysis.

Jack said, "When we used to find clusters or heavily corroded reales, most of the time they were sold as is. Back then, an encrusted coin would bring a higher value with the mystery of possibly having a date, full shield, etc. Now it seems a cleaned coin is worth more!"

 "This 4 reale was heavily encrusted. The smooth areas are very thin. Possibly, a "razor" coin, but exstensive electrolysis and scrubbing the coin removed more surface then needed." 

Same Four-Reale Cleaned By Electrolysis

Thanks Jack for reminding us of the dangers of electrolysis when over done.

If you look at the Sedwick auctions, you'll see some coins that were sold as clumps and brought good prices.

Jack, like the author of this blog, prefers coins under-cleaned rather than overcleaned.

---

Source: See CBC.CA News link below.

Here is a very nice article on the salvaging of the wreck of the Erebus complete with photos of recovered artifacts.

Here is a short excerpt from an article about the HMS Erebus.

Epaulettes that came from a lieutenant's uniform were found on the lower deck of Erebus in September 2019. The upper part of each epaulette is made of twisted, gold-plated silver wires over sheet metal. (Photo: Marni Wilson)

Items recovered included epaulettes from a lieutenant's uniform and ceramic dishes. The epaulettes, Bernier said, were found in a drawer filled with a lot of sediment but otherwise empty of artifacts, leaving the impression that they were abandoned.

"On the flip side, in the ship's pantry, there's barely any sediment, because the density of the objects is so big. You would have plates stacked up 13 high."

And here is the link if you want to read more about that.


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/erebus-wreck-exploration-franklin-expedition-mystery-artifacts-1.5469843

---

Local archaeologists believe they’ve uncovered remnants of the original Squire Pope manor at Wright Family Park, a discovery that would debunk a generations-old belief that all traces of the historic Bluffton structure were lost to time, erosion and the 1863 Union Army “Burning of Bluffton.”

Town officials say that last fall, Heyward House volunteers — representatives of the town’s historical preservation society — came upon very old bricks while metal-detecting on the Wright Family Park lawn at the end of Calhoun Street.

The breakthrough launched archaeological work on the property...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.blufftontoday.com/news/20200228/archaeologists-find-remnants-of-what-could-be-squire-pope-manor-in-bluffton

---

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

It looks like the surf will be higher this weekend.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/4/20 Report - Monitoring Cleaning of Silver Reale. Beach Conditions: Short Term and Long Term.

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

Four Reale After Cleaning and A Little Polishing.

I've been showing the progress as I clean a recently found four-reale.  I showed a few photos of that previously, including how it looked when it was found and how it looked after a little cleaning.

I cleaned that cob some more, and you can see above how it looks now.  I'm done with the Muriatic acid.  The encrustation has been removed, and I did just a little shining with a baking soda paste.

The details can be seen much better now.  I'm pretty sure that it is a Phillip V and dates to between 1700 and 1715.

Below is a close-up like the one I showed just a few days ago when I was not done with the cleaning.  If you compare this photo with the one I posted the other day, you'll see how much of the encrustation and foreign particles have  been removed by soaking in Muriatic acid.  You can also see how the high areas that have been shined actually look like silver now.

Close-up View of Part of the Same Four-Reale.

I also stumbled onto something else that might be helpful.  If you want to get a better look at the design before you are done cleaning it, you can use some wet baking soda spread thinly across the surface of the cob to bring out the design, as shown below.

Same Four-Reale With Baking

Soda Bringing Out the Detail.

With just the naked eye I could see the details of the design probably better than I could see it with magnification but without the contrasting white substance.  I was really surprised by how much it helped.  I took the above photo with a regular digital camera.  I probably should have used magnification so you could see the effect even better.

---

Steve and Paulette M. sent the following email and photos take yesterday (2/3) and commented on Bonsteel where the cliff in front of the dunes is about six feet high.  Below is the photo and email.

Bonsteel Park 2/3
Photo by Steve and Paulette M.

Today we were looking at different beach accesses north of Fort Pierce and we started at Indialantic and went South to Turtle trails.  Not much good looking erosion anywhere.  We went to Bonsteel knowing 3 weeks ago they dumped sand and bulldozed it a quarter mile north and south about 6 feet thick.  Today it was just about all gone.  Just a thin slice at the dune.  Beach was wider, but not too much. Steve and Paulette M.

Bonsteel Park 2/3
Photo by Steve and Paulette M.

Thanks Steve and Paulette.

---

Yesterday I posted a link to an article that discussed a method of monitoring long term beach trends of accretion and erosion.  You'll find that it provides some interesting clues.

Long term trends are obviously important to the treasure hunter.  A beach that has been building for decades will have a lot of sand covering up many of the kinds of things you would most be ooking for.  It can take a lot more to uncover treasure at a beach that has a lot of accumulated sand.

A beach that has generally been eroding over the years and decades, on the other hand, will give you a much better chance.  Although it will vary one way and then the other on a shorter term basis, it won't take as much to uncover the old stuff.

One Treasure Coast beach that was very productive back in the 80s and 90s has been much less productive in the past few years due primarily to frequent renourishment programs to the north and littoral drift.

The sand dumped by renourishment projects will generally eroded much faster than sand that has naturally accumulated.  For one thing it is out of place.  No matter how many hundreds of yards is renourished, it will normally be bordered by areas were the sand has been depleted.  That makes the renourished areas more vulnerable.

No matter how often they dump sand at places like the beach south of the jetty at Fort Pierce, it will erode very quickly because of the interruption of sand caused by the inlet and jetty.

If a beach has been generally eroding over a period of time, new sand dumped on the area will not normally last long very long, but has a slightly better chance if it is dumped during the spring or summer when at least the short term trend is more favorable.  Of course a strong storm could change all of that.

One thing to keep track of is the long term trend of the beach.  Has it been eroding, building or staying about the same?  The bottom line is that a beach that has been eroding over the years will tend to become productive more easily and frequently than one that has been building over a long period of time.

---

The surf is small and the tides are small.  In a few days the surf is predicted to increase up to 2 or 3 feet, but that isn't very much either.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

4/12/17 Report - Rare Four-Reale Expected To Sell For Nearly Five Thousand Dollars. Recent Cuts on the Treasure Coast. Ghost Ship.

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

Source: See link below.

Here is one of the higher priced reales in the current Sedwick auction.  Said to be a rare variety, the auction estimate is $3500 - $5000.

Here is the lot description.

Lima, Peru, 4 reales, Philip II, assayer R (Rincon) to left, second denomination o-iiii to right, motto PL-VSVL-T, legends HISPA / NIARVM, extremely rare. S-L1; KM-10.1; CT-311. 12.45 grams. Broad flan with nearly full legends, bold full pillars and shield (the latter slightly doubled, slightly porous XF+ with nicely toned fields, full secondary denomination o-iiii to right of shield, a near-unique variety of which we have only ever seen one other (the Sellschopp and Heiss Plate Coin we offered in Auction #18, curiously made from a different pillars-side die).


http://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Treasure-World-U-S-Coin-and-Paper-Money-Auction-21_as47083?p=1&ps=50&ca=860005&so=1&q=&hi=0&vm=1


---

John Brooks Beach Yesterday Afternoon.

Above is what I saw at John Brooks Beach yesterday afternoon.  Below is what I saw at Walton Rocks just a little later.

Walton Rocks Beach Yesterday Afternoon.

 There is a lot you can see on this beach.  Towards the top just in front of the dunes is a little cliff that was created back some weeks ago.

Down the slope a little farther was a recent cut.  You can see it just above the heavy line of seaweed.

Then of course is the sea weed, and just below that you can see where new sand piled up.

Below the recent cut would be a good place to look wherever the new sand hadn't accumulated much.  It would have been better to be there before the seaweed and sand came up.

You can often see where new sand fills in after a beach cuts.  This is a good example.

Yesterday I mentioned how John Brooks has been cutting every other week or so,  It has been cutting and filling over and over, but not into anything old.

---

A 110-year-old ghost ship was found on a tributary to the Ohio.

Interesting read.  Lots of pictures.

http://www.viralforest.com/110-year-old-ghost-ship-in-the-ohio-river/

---

Looks like the Easter coin hunt isn't going to be as good as expected.  The predictions now are for four to seven foot seas instead of five to eight as earlier predicted.  

Looks like the prediction models are up to their old tricks.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/26/16 Report - One Exceptional Four-Reale. Beaches This Morning. Increasing Surf.

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

Nice Four-Reale
Find and photos by Darrell S. 

This is not a new find.  Here is what Darrell said about it.

... My machine was still on and started screaming! I thought scrap iron or aluminium, but to my surprise was a beautiful 4 reale. I showed to some local gurus and they believed it was shaped as if snipped off a bar or strip. Many square shaped coins have been found, but not showing both edges of a bar or strip. There is a faint "4" right of the shield on edge of coin. It is so smooth it is hard to see unless up close. 

Cannot say who bought it, but Kenny made several copies. This was the actual coin before sold. I thought would be cool to take with the book. Kenny didn't remove the material in the bottom left hand corner when he made copies. We believed to have been part of a bag coins were in!!!

That is one very interesting coin Darrell!  Thanks for sharing.

---

Surf This Morning Just Before Low Tide

Last night the wind was blowing pretty good.  The surf was supposed to begin increasing today as you can see from the MagicSeaWeed predictions.  You can see the surf as it looked this morning in the picture above.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Tomorrow the surf is supposed to be up to 5 - 7 feet.  We're supposed to have a few days of 4 - 6 foot surf after that.  The problem is, at least for the next couple of days, that the wind and waves will be coming directly from the east.  There are still places where the beach is eroding, such as around inlets or other obstacles to the natural flow of sand.

This afternoon I tested one swimming beach that was producing tons of modern coins - so many that with the incoming tide there was no time to get them all, so I actually started to pass over obvious coin signals.  I expected nothing exciting nothing but modern coins, but I was surprised to dig a wheatie before I shifted strategies.  I didn't look at them when I was at the beach.  I just stuck them in my pocket as fast as I could.  I wasn't expecting anything even that old.  It was a 1940 penny, so maybe I'll have to take another look at that beach.

I did find one gold band in a hurry, which is what I was trying to do when I decided to skip targets that sounded like coins or junk.  I seldom do that, but this time just had a short time to work as I got there late and the tide was already coming in.

Wreck Beach This Morning Before Low Tide.

You can see the mushy front beach in the above picture.  The wreck beaches along South Hutchinson Island aren't doing much right now.  Modern coins can be found at various places.  The water did not get as high the past few days.

That is all for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net