3/13/18 Report - Two Simple Inexpensive Techniques To Help Determine the Nature of a Find.

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

Small Raw Unpolished Gem Stones As Found.

One of my favorite diagnostic tools is a black or ultraviolet light like the inexpensive ones used for black light posters.  A black light can help you find or identify some gem stones.  Above are a few small gem stones that I found a number of years ago.

The round one that looks like a ball at the top actually has many flat sides something like a geodesic dome.  I believe it is a pyrope garnet.

The six sided red one to the left of that is a ruby.  There are other rubies or pieces of ruby in the group.

The above photo shows what they look like in normal daylight.  Below is what they look like under black light.

Same Gem Stones Under Black Light.

 Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep them in the same position while holding them and taking the photo.  The rubies fluoresce under ultraviolet light.  The pyrope garnet does not  You can see a touch of the red fluorescence on the big piece on the far right.

You can easily find tables that tell which gem stones show fluorescence.  This is one easy way to test to see if the red stone in your ring might be a ruby.  Using a black light will also help you see rubies in dirt or matrix.

It actually gets more complex.  Jewelers use both shortwave and longewave ultraviolet lights for diagnostic purposes.  Some gems respond differently to each.

I've talked about other finds that fluoresce in the past, including vaseline glass, depression glass, and my favorite; a nice piece of red sea glass that was treated with uranium.  I believe it came from an old buoy. Only one side of the sea glass was treated and glowed.  The sea glass is shown below as photographed in daylight and then in ultraviolet light.

One Side Of Piece of Sea Glass Treated With Uranium To Glow.

Another very simple diagnostic tool is a simple magnet.  I often receive photos of iron flakes that look something like cobs.  You can test those with a magnet.  If the object sticks to a magnet, it isn't a cob.  In fact it isn't silver or gold or any other kind of nonmagnetic material.

A couple days ago I posted a little video using the Ace 250 to detect three one-cent coins.  Two of those coins stuck to a magnet.  The magnetic coins were the Euro cent, which was copper coated steel, and the U. S. steel penny.

Three Coins Sticking To A Refrigerator Magnet.

The photo above shows the U. S. steel cent, the Euro and one other unidentifiable corroded coin sticking to a small refrigerator magnet.  The copper coating does not prevent the Euro coin from sticking to the magnet.  Many foreign coins will stick, but few U. S. coins.

If you are wondering what metal a find might be made of, a simple magnet can quickly help you narrow it down.

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Tuesday we'll have mostly a north wind.  The primary swell will be from the north, but the surf is only two or three feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/10/14 Report - Emerald City, Battle of Blair Mountain, Gem Stones, Vintage Costume Jewelry & Bigger Tides Today

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

Artifact From Battle of Blair Mountain
Source: See link below.

As you might know, investors in the Mel Fisher operations down in the Keys are allowed to go out and dive with the salvage crews.   Investors that were diving with the crew of the JB Magruder in an area called Emerald City recently found 8 emeralds. 

You might remember the emerald from the Treasure Coast that Captain Jonah recently showed us.


 Here is a good article about gem stones.  It talks about which gems are popular and how prices are determined.

http://www.gemselect.com/other-info/gemstone-prices.php

Vintage costume jewelry can bring surprisingly high prices, sometimes hundreds of dollars.  Unfortunately, like coins, vintage costume jewelry found on a beach  has often been there a while and is probably in poor condition.  

Here is a great web site for researching old costume jewelry.  It gives information on designers, makers marks, patents, etc.

http://www.illusionjewels.com/costumejewelrymarks.html#art


Here is an article on a dig at a Revolutionary War prison camp site. 

http://www.eveningsun.com/local/ci_26412077/eighteenth-century-artifacts-including-british-half-penny-found?source=rss


Some of you will consider this off-topic, however I thought it was interesting.  It seems that mysterious cell phone towers have been appearing and no one seems to know who they belong to.  Are they being built by criminal organizations to hack or obtain information or is a covert government operation?  No one seems to know.

http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/02/who-is-putting-up-interceptor-cell-towers-the-mystery-deepens/


Unless you are from West Virginia or are familiar with the history of labor relations, you might not know about the the Battle of Blair Mountain, which occurred near Charleston WV in 1921.   The Battle of Blair Mountain involved more than 10,000 men and was the country’s largest civil conflict besides the Civil War. Though the battle is little known outside of union and historian circles, it was a key moment for the American labor movement.

Detectorists helped to determine where the skirmishes actually took place by scanning the area for gun shells and artifacts.  Now the historic site is in danger of being destroyed by mining operations.

Here is an article about the second largest civil conflict in US history.

http://archive.archaeology.org/1201/features/blair_mountain_coal_activism_west_virginia.html


If you ever had the opportunity of detecting a battle site, you might have found that the artifacts really speak to you.  Things like buttons, bullets, or gun parts all seem to make you wonder how they got lost and what happened to the person that once used them.

The first time I had a chance to hunt a battle site it was like that.  I found my first military button there, my first gun flint, my first musket part, my first grape shot, and a few other firsts, however, each and everyone of them seemed to be accompanied by an image.  I thought about sailing ships, soldiers and sailors hundreds of miles from home landing on a strange island, and attempting to climb up a very steep embankment to reach the fortified canon emplacements while being shot at.  There was evidence of hand to hand combat on that steep cliff.   I thought those images were nothing more than my imagination, but could they have been something more.  I doubt it, but it sometimes felt like a faint ghostly reenactment materialized in the air.



Seems the weather is finally getting a little cooler.  It has been one hot and rainy summer on the Treasure Coast..

There is a little weather system over the Bahamas that is headed our way.  Doesn't look like it will cause the surf to increase much though.  Also a system crossing the Atlantic headed towards the West Indies.  That won't affect us this week.

The tides are nice a big now.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@Comcast.net