1/22/19 Report - Google Maps and Changing Landscapes. Lunar Eclipse. Columbus Verboten. Bigger Surf.

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

Eclipse As Seen From Treasure Coast

and Captured by Alberto S.

I missed the eclipse, but Alberto sent me the beautiful images that he captured.  He said the last image was from about 12:10 AM.  He said it felt like it was freezing outside.

Great images Alberto!  Thanks!

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I've talked a lot about using old maps and the benefits of knowing the history of a place.  I'm amazed how seldom people reference old maps to check out shoreline and other topological changes.  Targets that were once on land might now be either in the water or more deeply buried under sand that has accumulated.

Recently I was talking about the advantage of having personal knowledge of changing landscapes.  Now it is possible to get GPS positions and compare those to images to see how things have changed.

Here is one example of what I was talking about yesterday.  The satellite map is from Google Maps.  It shows some of the changes I mentioned yesterday and illustrates how having a knowledge of the past can help you locate old treasures.

A View of An Area That I Was Very Familiar With Back a Few Decades Ago.

This area has changed a lot since the 1950s.  Where you see the bull-dozed dirt, there was an old barn (big rectangle) and a corn crib (little rectangle beside it).  

The house across the road with two cars out front was a small wash house, where several young local families got their start with housekeeping before getting their own house.  The rectangle behind that, was an outhouse, that later was filled with great old cork-top bottles, many with paper labels.

Across the road from that was a small dump in a little ravine by the current telephone poll.

The two blue arrows point to the winding creek where we threw bottles and shot them with BB guns.  Funny how toxic masculinity was fostered back when there was so much less crime.

Across the creek were no buildings or roads up until more recent decades.

The good old dump is the area indicated by a circled X.  It is right across the road from a three story farm house.

There is much more that I could show on this and neighboring maps, but that is enough of an illustration for now.  There were locations where arrow heads were routinely found and many other things.

I think you can see how knowing the history of the place would be a huge advantage for a detectorist.  There are many good detecting sites that would not be apparent to those who don't know the history of the place.

Although I haven't been able to spend much time, I have had a few short hunts there and quickly dug up some of the old metal toys that I played with as a child as well as some silver coins around the old ball field that is now hidden by weeds and trees, so I know those things are still there if only I was there and had the time to work them.

The same thing applies to the beaches.  I was not raised on the Treasure Coast, but I have been here long enough to observe some of the changes.

Here, for example, is the Blind Creek area.  The access road to the south of the lake has been closed for some time.  There was a parking lot where I drew the blue rectangle.  It washed over in the 2001 storms and kept filling in.  I think they eventually gave up on keeping it open.   Anyhow it has been closed now for quite a while.

Blind Creek Area As Seen With Google Maps.

Where you see the blue semi-circle, the beach was eroded back close to the lake.  Just a little more erosion and it could have opened to the ocean.  I don't doubt that it was at some time an inlet, although I don't know that for sure.

There is a lot more to know about just that little area, for example the Native American habitations, or where the WW II observation tower was, or the WW II dump to the south.  You can still find evidence of all of those today

Landscapes change and beaches change.  Some changes are rapid and permanent.  Knowing about those changes can help the detectorist in many ways.

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SOUTH BEND, Indiana - The University of Notre Dame will cover murals in a campus building that depict Christopher Columbus in America, the school’s president said, following criticism that the images depict Native Americans in stereotypical submissive poses before white European explorers...

Here is that link.

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2019/01/22/notre-dame-to-cover-up-murals-of-columbus-in-the-new-world/

I have so much to say about that but I won't.  It is just too much.

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Google Maps and similar web sites provide a convenient method for checking out sites that you haven't been to for a while or comparing to older maps.

The wind is out of the east at about 15 to 20 mph this morning.

I hope to get a chance to look at the beach some time today.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

The tides are still nice and big.

Looks like the Treasure Coast surf will be a bit bigger tomorrow, but the wind will shift to the south.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/20/2019 Report - Vero Coin Show Photos. Dug Reproduction Reale Example. Valuable Bottle Find. Bigger Surf Coming.

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

One Display At the Vero Coin Show

I visited the coin show in Vero and saw a lot of familiar faces and talked to a lot of nice people, both beach-detectorists and coin collectors. 

Above is one of the display cases.  As you can see there were coins, but there were also artifacts.

They raffled some very nice items.

Below are some of the items that were on display and for sale.  

Gold Belt Piece From the Maravillas.

Navigational Instrument and Some Coins.

The show was put on by the Treasure Coast Coin Club that meets one Wednesday per month at IRRSC in Fort Pierce.

There was no admission fee, and there were hard-copy out-of-date numismatic magazines free for the taking.

  

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A couple days ago I gave an excellent web site that tells how to identify fakes.  I mentioned that they are often of the wrong metal and have plating that may be pealing.  Here is an example of that.

Fake Eight-Reale

This is an exceptionally chunky fake.  It is made of copper or some copper alloy and was plated.  You can also see that the plating is wearing off.

If I correctly recall, I dug this one down around Jensen Beach some years ago.

The other side of the same fake is encrusted.

Sane Fake Eight-Reale Showing "COPY"

Fake or reproduction coins are supposed to have the word "COPY" on them, and they often do, but sometimes it is not easy to see.  In this case, the word is large and right in the middle of the coin.  The "COPY" is very obvious in this picture, but when you dig up a fake, it can be covered with sand, encrustation, or corroded so that you may not see it.  This one shows up well now, but I didn't see it when I was at the beach and it was still wet and had sand on it.  

Sometimes the "COPY" mark is intentionally small and not at all easy to see.  Sometimes it has been removed by nature and sometimes by man.

Pealing plating on an artifact does not necessarily mean the item is a fake.  Medallions and other artifacts that were plated can lose some of all of the original plating.

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Bottle Finds by One of This Blog's Readers.

Included are a nice straight-side Coca Cola bottle from Lakeland that is valued at a few hundred dollars despite a lip chip.

The middle bottle is a very nice Hood's Sarsaparilla bottle from the late 1800s.

Remember, when beach conditions aren't great, there is always some place else to hunt and other things to find.  I'll show you more of those in the near future.

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

We're having a west wind.  As you can see from the MagicSeaweed chart, on the Treasure Coast we're going to have an increase surf on Tuesday and Wednesday.  There is a chance of better detecting conditions, but I'm not expecting too much.  It will be worth checking out.

The tides now are big.  Tonight I think a lunar eclipse will begin after 9:30 or so.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comast.net