8/13/18 Report - Valuable Coin Collection Dug Up In Backyard. Famous Selby Gold Heist. Big Low Tide Today.

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

Beautiful Encased Proof Set Among Coins Dug Up In Back Yard.
Source: CoinWorld link below.

An eight-coin 1876 Proof set containing silver and minor coinage, buried by its owner in the backyard of his Chicago home more than two decades ago, was brought for authentication and grading April 27 to the Central States Numismatic Society convention in Schaumburg, Illinois, by the late owner’s son...

The late collector, who died in 1994 at age 84, suffered with Alzheimer’s disease the last five years of his life, according to his son. The son said there’s a possibility that his father may have buried his entire extensive collection of United States coins. The coins, which have been off the market for more than 50 years, were primarily silver and gold issues.

In a May 3 interview with Coin World, the son, who requested anonymity, indicated his father collected a lot of U.S. gold coins, focusing on his birth year of 1915. Asked how many coins he had dug up from his father’s backyard, the son indicated he didn’t have a firm count but he had weighed them all, and combined they weighed “in the pounds.”

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/2018/05/family-finds-1876-proof-set-buried-in-yard.html

---

Story of the Selby Gold Heist.

"I committed the greatest robbery of the century and I did it alone."

So bragged Jack Winters, a.k.a. Buck Taylor, after he stole gold bullion worth $283,000 — the equivalent of about $17 million today — from the Selby Smelting Works in Contra Costa County on Aug. 5, 1901...

"I made fourteen trips from my tunnel to the wharf where I lowered the bullion into the bay," Winters told reporters in an Aug. 12, 1901, Chronicle article. "I made a mark on the wharf where I dropped each bar, so that I could readily find them."

By then dawn was breaking, and Winters was running out of time. He left behind $130,000 of gold, and in his haste, dropped two bars on the beach. Still, he was able to submerge more than $283,000 in bullion in the bay and make his getaway.

When Selby employees opened vault the next morning, they found the hole in the floor and almost 900 pounds of gold missing. No one suspected a one-man job: the prevailing theory was that a gang of crooks tunneled to the gold, hauled it through a railroad tunnel and loaded it on a boat moored in the bay off Vallejo Junction...

For more of that article on the Selby gold heist, here is the link.

https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Sunken-treasure-Is-part-of-17M-Selby-gold-heist-10918863.php

Imagine strolling along and seeing one of those gold bars on the beach?

Is any of it still out there to be found?  Could be.

---

There is still a disturbance in the middle of the Atlantic, but don't expect it to affect us at all.

There is going to be an unusually low tide this afternoon.  Maybe you can take advantage of that.  The surf will be smooth too.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/26/17 - Colonial Era Religious Medallion Find. Metal Detecting Practice In The Park.

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

Nice Religious Medallion Find.
Find and photo by Bart B.

Here is what Bart said about the medallion.

I found this along the Old Spanish Trail in Texas and have had no luck determining how old it is. Based on your article it could be pre 1800 due to the direction of the hole at the top of the medal, any other insight would be greatly appreciated.

Near as I can tell the writing on this side says:

R or B*VIRGO*SINE*PECCATO*OR or B*CONC

The writing on this side is very worn, my best guess is:

SS*SAC L*S*LL or 11

Other Side of Same Medallion.
Find and photo by Bart B.

Virgo sine pecatto means virgin without sin.  IHS refers to Christ.  I think it is Jesuit.

Same Medallion From the Side.
Photo by Bart B.

Thanks for sharing Bart.  I hope the readers can provide more information on the medallion.

The wear looks a little strange to me.  Some of the low spots are as worn smooth as much as the high spots where you would expect a lot of wear.  Maybe that is from manufacture.

The surface corrosion (or lack thereof) sure looks different from the medals you typically find on the beach, but that is to be expected since it came from a different kind of environment.  A salt water beach is really hard on metal.

Thanks for sharing Bart!

---

I seldom post YouTube videos except for the few I've made to illustrate specific things.  I'll share this one though.  I have a variety of reasons for that.  One big reason is the message that Rick delivers.  It is an important message and something I would say myself, but Rick has already done it.  I also referred to this same video in another post a day or two ago.  Rick has often contributed to this blog.

Here is what Rick said in his email to me.

When you get out and practice with your detector you start finding what others have missed. Here are some of the finds (See video) that I had after hitting the local parks. I use the parks as practice and I will hit the same park many times changing settings on the detector every time that I hunt the same park!

You can't get any better at what you are doing if you don't practice what you are doing and what better way of doing it then hunting a local park or two. Now if you live by the beach, you need to go there at different times of the day to see where all of the activity is! One of the things that changing where to hunt is the new parking meters. Most are not using change, and let's face a fact, in south Fla. it cost a lot to park on the beach.  The only problem is that beach-goers are now paying for their parking by credit card.

So you are better off setting up for jewelry and hunting the beaches where you have a lot of beach goers that like to show off what they have in the way of jewelry! Do you have any beach bars where these kind love to hang out?

The main thing I want to repeat is "practice, practice, practice."  Trying different kinds of environments helps you learn more about detecting and your detecting too.  If you don't have the time to go where you really want to go, or you just want to practice, a local park (where they permit it) it just fine.  In a park you might have the challenge of surface trash.  You might learn how to overcome that.  You might have to worry more about target separation and target masking.  You can learn from that.  And even though you might not find the Queen's Jewels at your local park, if you keep at it long enough, I'll be you eventually get a pleasant surprise.

Here is Rick's YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZd6emKGasA&ytbChannel=Rick%20superrick

Thanks Rick!

---

If you've been waiting for calm water and a good low tide, this might be your chance.  Take a look at this.  Just in time for the long weekend too.

Source: Magicseaweed.com.

Send me any thoughts or information you might have on Bart's medallion find.

4:31 PM Update:  I just received a lot of good information on the medallion from researcher and author Laura Strolia.  I'll post that tomorrow.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/24/17 Report - Vero Area and South Hutchinson Island Beaches. Capitana Crew At Work.

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

Turtle Trail South Tuesday.
Photo by Darrel S.

Darrel S. sent in some recent views of Turtle Trail yesterday (Tuesday)  In the one above you can see the shell piles that will be of interest to some of you.

Besides shells, you might want to check the shell piles for things such as small fossils, sea glass or pot shards.

Darrel sent in another excellent report today.  Here it is.

Not much change in beach past few days. Low was around 12:30pm.

Deep trench between shells and sand bar. Too mushy to work water edge.

Capitana was out.

My new 12x13 NEL Tornado worked as expected. At first, worked better in the drier sand. Amazed that it found small objects close to surface. Most larger coils lose the top few inches to sacrifice for going deeper, and require lowering sensitivity to work properly. I was able to work wet sand after pumping coil, readjusting threshold, and lowering sensitivity.  I will stick to the 12x8 coil rest time down here. Always have the CZ21!

Turtle Trail South Tuesday
Photo by Darrel S.

A lot of sand below the high tide line here.

Capitana At Work Tuesday
Photo by Darrel S. 

Thanks much for the photos and report Darrel.

---

Things looked similar down on South Hutchinson Island Tuesday.

Walton Rocks Yesterday Near Low Tide.

Shells at Walton Rocks Yesterday.

Looked like the shell piles might have been heavier at Turtle Trail.  I would suspect similar shell piles at places like Ambersands, but didn't see it so don't know for sure.

---

In South Florida one diver died and two more died in a separate boating incident this week.

Take shelter from lightning too.

Here is a link to a story about what it is like to be struck by lightning - if you live.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170523-what-its-like-to-be-struck-by-lightning

---

A one foot surf is predicted for the next week or more on the Treasure Coast.  That means nice calm water.

We are also having some nice negative tides too.

I have some nice find pictures that I'll probably be able to post tomorrow.  A very nice diamond ring, a meteorite and some fossils.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/1/14 Report - New Tropical Storm in Atlantic. Diving Near The Wedge Wreck. Detecting a Treasure Coast Beach Today.

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

Diving North of Fort Pierce Inlet This Morning.

We have a new tropical storm heading this way.   Bertha is the second named storm of the season.  At present it doesn't look like it will be much more than a tropical storm and is supposed to pass well east of us.  They do a good job of predicting anymore, but there is always the possibility of some error.  I'll be keeping an eye on Bertha anyhow.

On the Treasure Coast we'll have a one-foot surf today, and then we'll have a one to two-foot surf for about a week.  So if the current predictions are accurate, Bertha won't affect us much.



Beach This Morning Near Low Tide.



This is the kind of thing we've been having nearly all summer this year.

On this beach a very fine compact layer of powder-like sand goes all the way to the dry sand.  Wasn't easy to dig deeper holes.  Really compact stuff.

I detected the area below the high-tide line.  This beach usually has a lot of pull tabs.   From the high tide line to the water this morning, there were NO pull tabs.  Only a good number of coins and couple rings and a fork.   That was very unusual.  I had to wonder what happened to all the pull tabs and bottle tops that are usually all over this beach.  There were still bottle tops in the dry sand, but the pull tabs were not there.

I took a Whites \Surf PI Dual Field detector this morning.  It turned out to be a good choice this morning -  no junk in the wet sand, but a good number of coins.  Except for one spill, most of the coins were down about six inches or so.

I have worked this beach in the past with an Excalibur.  I would have given the Ace a test in the wet sand, but I don't like to take two detectors to the beach in the summer.  It is too hot to leave a detector in the car.  That isn't really a good idea anyhow.  Don't leave anything of value in the car.

It is a good idea to check your detector before you leave home.  It can be a pain to get to the beach and find out that something is wrong.  It is also a good idea to have some spare batteries.

I really like to be able to switch detectors depending upon conditions. 

In the wet sand there were ripples and some black sand scattered about.  Again, I think the choice of detectors was a particularly good one today considering the conditions.

I got word of a platinum and diamond ring being lost a couple of days ago.  Things are always being lost.  I'll look for it.

The two rings I found were about six inches apart.

It seems that most beaches have one spot that is better than the others.  This one definitely does.


If you missed yesterday's post, you'll want to be sure to see that.


You have until August 20 to consign to the Nov. 5-6 Sedwick Coins auction.

Here is the link for more information.

http://www.sedwickcoins.com/consign.htm


And here is the projected path for Bertha according to NOAA.

 

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

10/28 Report - Flat Low Tide Areas & Cold Front Coming

Treasure Coast Beach Near Low Tide Today.

Notice all of that flat low-tide area that is now available for hunting. That area was difficult to get to, let alone detect, when the water was rough. Now, there it is.

That is the type of area that you also want to eye-ball when you detect near the water's edge. I once showed what appears to be a intact wax seal that was found at the edge of the water in an area like this.

One of the biggest finds on a 1715 Fleet site in recent years was the gold bird found by the crew of the Gold Hawg this past summer south of Fort Pierce. I think I posted about that in the past.

It takes a lot of hunting.

Skill is the process of improving the probability of success. You can skillfully improve the probability of success, and that will bear out over the long term, but a lot of luck goes into finding those once-in-a-life-time finds.

It seems that when I find a cob, I almost always find one within the first twenty minutes of hunting. I don't know why that is. Sometimes I think it is because I hit the most promising areas on a beach first, but I can't totally accept that because if I did, I would tend to give up too soon. Sometimes I think it is intuition. But if that were the case, why doesn't my intuition work better more often? The best advice is patience and perseverance. You never know when something will pop-up, but you can improve the probability of success by learning as much as you can about how to hunt more effectively.

As you know silver tarnishes. I'll bet that some people have picked up cobs and artifacts and thrown the blackened lumps away because they didn't realize that they were silver. There are stories about people skipping the black lumps back into the ocean.

Here is a link to an article about a new treatment for silver that conservators are using.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/materials-scientists-conservators-join-forces-to-preserve-silver-artifacts-and-art-105764868.html

Did you know that silver prices have increased more than gold prices this year on a percentage basis? Some are saying that because of the industrial demand for silver, silver will hold onto recent gains better than gold. Both have dropped back from recent highs a little, due to recent gains in value of the dollar.

Have you noticed that Odyssey Marine stock (symbol OMEX) has increased from its low of below $1.00 back in July to over $2.00 now. That is a very good gain. Who knows which direction it will go now?

Forecast and Conditions.

It was a beautiful morning to be out on the beach. As I showed in the photo above, the tide was out and a lot of low flat beach was exposed. I think I mentioned yesterday or the day before that the southwest wind would do that.

You could see where the sand from recent cuts had piled up in the water at the front of the beach. There is a sand bar now protecting much of the beach.

I did a little detecting in the low tide zone and found a variety of targets down in the flat area. I suspect they were dragged out of the beach above when the beach eroded a few days ago. You'll often find some nice big targets down there, but they can be hard to dig out when they are close to the water.

The surf web sites are saying that the seas will start increasing tomorrow and build to around six feet on Saturday as a cold front comes through.

That will be another chance to see some more erosion if things work out well.

The tropics are actually fairy active. There is one disturbance southeast of Bermuda that is expected to head towards the northeast and there are two others interesting areas out there.

It is that time of year when things should start to happen.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net