7/6/20 Report - Tropical Storm Edouard. Beach Zones. Density and Specific Gravity of Things.

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

Yesterday I discussed liquefaction, which can occur on a beach under certain circumstances that cause sand to act much like a liquid.  I showed a couple photos of liquefied sand being moved by big waves.  Of course, most of the time that occurs near the front of the beach, but when the tides and swells are big, it can occur on the back of the beach.

Before delving more into the physical forces that move sand and other objects, this morning I thought it would be useful to mention the various beach zones of interest to the detectorist.  

Starting off-shore in the shallow water, there can be a sand bar.  That can be a good place to metal detect if there are a lot of bathers using the bar.  That happens a lot down in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area.  It can be a very good place to detect for modern finds or what I call recent drops, but don't forget that the bar will move, and one side or the other, depending upon the direction the bar is moving, can be good detecting.

Inside of the bar, is often a dip, which can also be good detecting.  In fact some of my best detecting ever was in a cleaned out dip.  The dip can be full of sand and shells, but it can also be cleaned out down to bedrock, which of course is when the detecting can get very good.

On the beach front in the wet sand can also be good detecting, but it can also be poor, depending upon what is going on.  This area can be good or poor, depending upon a variety of factors, especially whether the sand is building on the beach front of eroding.  In either case, good water action can wash up good targets.  In the wet sand below the berm you might be able to find the coin lines or coin holes that I've mentioned many times.  They can also have other good targets beside coins.

The fourth zone is the dry sand area, which of course can be good if people have been using it.  Hunting the dry sand is very different from hunting the wet sand or water because the water does not do as much sifting and sorting there.  Detecting in the dry sand depends more on where things were dropped.  In the wet sand things gets sifted and sorted more, so you are often looking more for where targets ended up rather than where they were lost.  The water does however hit the wet sand area on some occasions and can definitely affect the distribution of finds.

The fifth zone is the dunes, where you will usually not be allowed to hunt.  Very old items will typically be buried a foot or more in the dunes, but when the water hits the dune face, items can be washed out and onto the flat beach.  

It can get a lot more complicated but those are some of the basics of the five zones.

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We often talk of where you might find heavy items like gold.  As I've said many times, it is really not the weight that we are concerned with.  A ton of Styrofoam will float.  It is more a matter of density, rather than weight.  Other things are important too though, such as the shape of the object.  Bend tons of steel into the shape of an ocean liner and it will float.

Here are the densities of some of the metals you might find.  That helps explain why you can find aluminum when beach conditions are not very good, and why lead is a good sign if you are looking for beach gold.

Again, shape is also important.  Shape a super tanker out of steel and it will float.  Thin sheets present more surface area for the water to push around or lift.

Specific gravity is the density of an object relative to the density of a reference substance, usually water at a specific temperature and salinity.

Having a specific gravity of 19.32, gold is over 19 times more dense than reference water.

Sand has a specific gravity of somewhere around 2.65 to 2.70.   So being more dense than water it sinks in water.  There are a variety of other forces at work on the beach sand though, and the shape and constitution of the sands makes a difference too.

Notice the specific gravity of aluminum is very close to that of sand, so it is no surprised that you can find it in sand that is building on the beach.

Another generality is that it will take a lot more water force to move gold than either sand or aluminum.

If you understand these things it will help you figure out how things are moving and that will give you a better idea of where they might be found.

One of the things about gold rings is the relative lack of a flat surface area for the force of water to act on.  A copper coin on the other hand, will move differently than a gold ring not only because of the different density of the material but also because of the shape.  Likewise the movement of a zinc coin will be determined in part by the adherence of materials to the surface of a corroded coin.

That will provide some background for future discussions.

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As I said yesterday, the National Hurricane Center map is starting to light up.  There is now a tropical storm :Edouard.  Edouard will not affect us, but there is a new system down by South America to watch.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

It is the time of year to start watching for storms.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/24/20 Report - More On Beach Dynamics and How Various Objects Move On The Beach. Remembering.

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

I'm going to put some things together today.  Back in 2015 I did a post on five ways I've seen coins move on a beach. I listed the following five ways.

1. Fall out of an eroding cliff, cut or dune.
2. Slide down the face of a cliff or dune.
3. Move within a rush of water.
4. Roll down a slope.
5. Flip.

There is another I did not actually observe on the beach, but I've seen demonstrated in a wave tank.  Under the right conditions coins will do what I will call "step."

When a coin is on a slope and the flow of water is up the slope, sand on the downhill side of the coin will be gradually eroded until the coin slips down one step, stop, and then take another step when the sand erodes from the downhill side again.  A step is not more than a coin length. 

People often talk about the weight of an object determining how objects move on a beach, but weight is only one factor.  And coins seldom really sink.  Usually they fall into areas where the sand has left. That might sound like the same thing, but to me there is a big difference.  Normally coins are not drawn by gravity through stable layers of sand.

To illustrate something important, as I've said several times before, a ton of Styrofoam will still float even if it weighs a ton.  Its weight does not cause it to sink in water.  Density is more relevant.  But the density of the object is not the only characteristic that determines how much an object will be moved by a given force of water either.

Four Sinkers Used In Experiment.

I once did an experiment and showed that the shape of an object will have a lot to do with how an object is moved by water on a beach.  I took four different lead sinkers (See photo above.).  There.were three different shapes.  Two were disk-shaped.

I then used a bucket of water to simulate a wave hitting the them.  They all moved different distances.  As predicted, the oval shaped sinker moved the farthest, followed by the fish-shaped sinker, then the small disk, and the large disk moved the smallest distance.

Here is the link to that post.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2013/08/8513-report-what-actually-determines.html

When the density is held constant, weight will have some effect, but so will the shape of the object.  The larger disk moved less far than the smaller disk, but neither of those were moved as far as the fish-shaped sinker or the oval.

That experiment concerns horizontal movement - movement on a relatively stable surface of sand.  But when you have erosion, the sand is moving, and possibly other objects as well.  Most of the objects that we are most concerned about will not move as much as the sand, which will be moved by the water more easily and quickly than most of the objects.

Take for example the sinkers shown above.  If it was actually a wave, there would be a lot more water, and the sand would be moving too.  While the sand was being washed away, items that move less easily would not move as much as the sand.  In some cases, those items would remain in the area vacated by the sand.

In other cases, both the sand and other items might move, but some other items will not move as fast as the sand.  And some items will move farther than others.  It is a matter of the relative movement.

If you've ever noticed, fairly dense coin lines near the water will often show an ordering or classification of coins by denomination.  Quarters will be one distance from the water and define one edge and zinc pennies will be on the other side.  With the coins having a similar shape and more or less similar density, that is determined by the different weights.  However irregularly shaped miscellaneous objects of different metals will be scattered through in a more unpredictable order.

Here are some of the densities of common metals in kg. per cubic meter.

Aluminum  2712
Brass  8400 - 8700
Copper  8940
Gold  19320
Iron 7850
Lead 11340
Platinum 21400
Silver 10490
Steel  7850
Titanium 4500
Tungsten 19600
Zinc 7135

A gold ring is not only dense, it is also round and open.  I've seen gold rings roll down the slope.   The opening presents little surface area for the water to push against, which is one reason in addition to the density that gold rings tend to be low on the beach if they have been in the area affected by moving water.

Copper sheathing, on the other hand, despite the relative density, being flat and relatively thin will end up much higher in the sand and on the beach than would be predicted by the density alone.

That is all I'll do today, but there is a lot more to it.

How objects appear to sink over time is another fairly detailed discussion that is not as simple as it might seem.  While weight has something to do with it, it is a more about the movement of objects relative to the force of the moving water and the movement of sand.

You'll see a lot of people who will tell you to look one place or another for certain kinds of objects, but they won't explain how they got there,  I believe it will help if know how and why those objects ended up where they did.

Here is the link to the post on the five ways I've seen coins move on a beach.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2015/07/7115-report-five-ways-coins-move-on.html

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I am lucky - very lucky.  Long before sunrise I often wake up and smile.  It's not that a lot of really good stuff happened to me.  I think it is more that I remember good things.  They are little things - many from my childhood - when a neighbor kid said or did something nice, for example.

I felt rich, even though we didn't have a lot.  Back then I didn't know people who had a lot more.

It must be how you remember things.  Or what you tend to remember.  I remember the time one neighbor boy stood up for me.  The time another chanted my name as I sat on the bench at a high school football game.  The time another neighbor boy asked the gym teach to let me stay and play with the older kids.  I look back on those things as kind acts, and plan to look up those boys and thank them if I can.

You see, my fond memories aren't of really big things, as most people would judge, but they populate my memories like stars or Christmas lights on a silent night.  I'm lucky I remember those things.

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Concerning coronavirus -

Large numbers of people normally die from the flu every flu season, but from what I read, this flu season has been unusually light.  Could the unusually light flu season be due to the social distancing and other measure put in place for the coronavirus?  Possible, but those precautions have only been in effect for a very short time, and flu season began in Oct.

And the same source said that of the flu and coronavirus deaths, only about 2 percent were due to the coronavirus.  I assume that those statistics are based upon comparable time frames, but at this moment I am not sure.

Www.health.com says, While everyone is in a panic about the coronavirus (officially renamed COVID-29 by the World Health Organization), there's an even deadlier virus many people are forgetting about: the flu.

Flu season is hitting its stride right now in the US. So far, the CDC has estimated (based on weekly influenza surveillance data) that at least 12,000 people have died from influenza between Oct. 1, 2019 through Feb. 1, 2020, and the number of deaths may be as high as 30,000.

The CDC also estimates that up to 31 million Americans have caught the flu this season, with 210,000 to 370,000 flu sufferers hospitalized because of the virus...

Just some context, however statistics are not yet complete on this flu season.   

I'll try to get you good statistics and references on this.

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The predictions are for a small increase in the Treasure Coast surf - up to three or four feet this weekend.

Enjoy your quiet time as well as your metal detecting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/15/19 Report - How To Recycle and Get More Out of Your Junk Finds. Crafts and Classes.

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

Crude Sea-Seasoned Dug Cross Displaying "PAX"

If you metal detect very much, you'll get some pieces that can no longer be worn.  They might be broken or corroded or both, like the cross shown above.  You might accumulate a collection of corroded or broken rings, chains, coins, etc.  So what do you do with those broken silver or gold items that can no longer be worn?  One option would be to sell them for the value of the metals, but there are also some other options.  If you take jewelry making classes you might be able to use your salvaged materials from broken jewelry to make new jewelry.

Many years ago I took a lost wax casting class at a local community college.  The class not only provided instruction, but also access to expensive equipment for melting and casting newly created jewelry.  I also sold some of my scrap metals to fellow students who did not have their own supply of scrap silver.

The silver cross shown above is too corroded to be cleaned, but it could be melted and made into something else.  It doesn't look like something that was sold at a jewelry store.  It could have been made by somebody as a craft project.

Here is a warning:  Before selling or melting an item be sure you know that it isn't anything you want to keep.  Once you melt it down, it is gone.  The cross above needs to be researched.  I don't know how old it is.

Here is a ring that I always thought was probably made by an unskilled person like myself.  I really doubt that it is anything old or interesting.  It doesn't appear to be either old or well made.

Crude Dug Silver Ring.

I have no interest in cleaning or trying to sell this ring, but it contains nearly half an ounce of silver that could be melted and reused or sold for scrap.  There is no silver marking on the inside even though it tests as silver.

Here is another piece I found that I always thought could have been made by an amateur.

Silver TJ(?) Ring.

The TJ ring looks a crudely made but also lacks a silver mark.

You can also find other types of jewelry making courses, such as silversmithing and wire wrapping.

Let's say you found a nice fossil shark tooth fossil and want to wear it.  You can either pay someone to make a pendant for you or you can make your own.  Most of the shark's teeth I've seen made into jewelry are wire-wrapped, which is an easy technique.

Here is one example from the internet.

Of course it helps if you are a little artistic and have a knack for the craft, but you'll never know until you give it a try.

You can purchase all kinds of wire and other materials, as well as jewelry making equipment, from Rio Grande.  They sell a tremendous range of jewelry making supplies and equipment.

My wife turned some of my fossil finds into pendants and sold them online.

Here is an example of a piece of wire wrapped sea glass.  I just picked this one off the internet too.

Wire wrapping is a simple technique but you can be very artistic with it and make some very elaborate and beautiful items.

The price of a class will be very reasonable, especially considering the access you get to good equipment for making your own creations.  You can get good instruction for free on the internet, but when you take a class, you also can get access to good equipment.

I took my lost wax casting course many years ago at Broward Community College.

On the Treasure Coast the St. Lucie County Rock and Gem club offers courses on lost wax casting, silversmithing and wire wrapping and more.  The classes generally cost in the range of $35 to $65.  In many cases you'll also have to purchase supplies, like maybe casting wax.

Here is a link to a list of the St. Lucie County Rock and Gem club classes.

http://www.slcrockandgem.org/Classes.html

I've found a few rings that were obviously made by unskilled amateurs that used lost wax casting, but I've also found several examples of wire wrapping.

My wife does more jewelry making than I.

You can purchase any equipment you might need, but equipment and materials can get expensive so you might want to give it a try and practice using the equipment before you purchase it yourself.

You can purchase almost any kind of jewelry making supplies or equipment from places such as Rio Grande.  You can find them on the internet.

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Source: nhc.noaa.gov

There are still some systems on the map, but there are no immediate threats.

The surf on the Treasure Coast is now down around 2 -4 feet and will be getting smaller the next few days.

4/30/19 Report - Summer Beaches. Copper Bracelet. Cookout Fun. Increased UFO Sightings Concerns Military.

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

Frederick Douglass Beach Sunday

Photo by DJ

Thanks DJ.

Looks like we are getting into real summer conditions.  You might think about making changes to where and how you hunt.

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Terry S. found this bracelet and would like to hear your ideas about it. Here is what he said.

This was a beach find in an area that has produced ship wreck artifacts for me in the past. I found it quite a while back and had really forgot about it until today.  I attended the treasure hunters cookout and on a whim took it with me and showed it to a few people there. They all agreed that it was copper and old and they had some interesting ideas. I enjoyed and appreciated all the input I received on the gold pendant and even had people approach me at the cookout to discuss it...  I enjoy your blog and read it daily and appreciate the information that you pass along.  Sincerely, Terry Shannon

It has two faces on it.  Here are the photos.

Jerry also said it was totally encrusted when found, but it cleaned up well.

Send me your thoughts.

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2019 Annual Treasure Hunter's Cookout

Photo by Joe D.

Yesterday I posted an email from Chris N. telling about how good a time he and his son had at the cookout.  Here are a couple photos of the scalawags, pirates and other characters that attended.

2019 Annual Treasure Hunter's Cookout

Photo by Joe D.

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I added one suggestion by Bill P. to yesterday's post.  I added it a little late, so in case you missed it, Bill suggested having the white pieces of melted metal test by XRF analysis.  Good idea.

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The military has been observing an increased number of UFO sightings and wants them taken more seriously.  They are developing new reporting guidelines.

Maybe you'll find some previously unknown metals from undocumented aliens from space. 

Here is the link on the sightings increase and new guidelines.

https://www.navytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2019/04/25/aliens-ahoy-navy-developing-guidelines-on-reporting-ufo-sightings/

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Looks like we'll be having nothing but a two to four foot surf for a while.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/19/18 Report - More Treasure Displays. Metals That Coins Are Made Of. Bigger Surf Monday.

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

Finds by Sebastian Steve.

Here is what Sebastian Steve had to say about the bottles shown above.

… Nice assortment of bottles post Civil War.

The corked bottle was 1865 champagne that was wedged upside down in the piping on the steam engine of a Great Lakes passenger steamship.  

Amazingly it was very heavy glass and still sealed.  And yes... I did drink it with friends on my birthday.  Was still good...but lacking the normal effervescence of a champagne.  Still had some bubbling however and a pleasant flavor.  

More like a nice plum wine in character.  Almost glad it was not fully up to snuff...as this bottle would have brought a thousand dollars or more with documentation.  (:

Other assorted 1865 beer (brown) and whiskey(amber) and wine (green) bottles.  A  liniment bottle with contents that still feel good on an aching muscle! 

And the blue ink well.  

Thanks Steve.

I like bottles, but they've become a bit of a problem for me.  They take up a lot of room.  I sold some and would like to sell some more when I get around to it.

Bottles and pottery can look nice on a book shelf or mantle.

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Finds Displayed by Terry T.

Photo by Terry T.

Terry said, The Cobs and escudoes are fake, but the fossils, shells, copper spikes, pottery, and a few other 
items are real... 

Thanks Terry.

You might have noticed that Terry and others used fake coins in their displays. That is not surprising.
Very fine rare and valuable coins in many cases should not be mounted.  It is easy to make a big mistake
by ever so slightly damaging coins.  You have to be careful about that.

I have a few posts planned on coins, including a method for making a nice but inexpensive coin display.

Here is a very informative site about coins and the many metals used to make coins.

http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/pics/metal.html

Make sure to scroll down to the text.

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I spent part of an evening watching a bold bobcat hunting my yard.  I saw his tracks many times
before, but this is the first time I saw him.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any pictures.

There is a big fish kill along parts of the Indian River.  The biggest I've seen in my area.

The Treasure Coast tides are flat and according to MagicSeaWeed the surf will remain small until
Monday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/10/18 Report - Answering a Very Common Question. Titanium and Space Debris.

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

Metal Glob Found On Beach
How can you tell if it is titanium?

There are a few questions that I get all the time.  One question that I get a lot is about those shiny globs of metal found on the beach that look like melted aluminum.  It could be aluminum but it could also be something else.

Sometimes space debris falls on the beach or in the ocean.  People often want to know if their shiny piece of metal could be a piece of space debris.

It can be difficult to say for sure,but there are tests that you can do to tell if a piece might be titanium or aluminum.  I once wrote about that a long time ago, but since I still get the question and have more information now, I decided to address the question again.

Here are some quick tips that can help you decide what you have.

There are some easy tests to get started.  Titanium is not magnetic, so if a magnet sticks to it, it is not titanium.  However, aluminum is normally not magnetic either.  So that is only a beginner.

When it comes to telling titanium from aluminum, titanium is about twice as heavy as aluminum and much harder than aluminum.  If you use a metal file, aluminum will come off in small globs, but titanium will not.  It is relatively easy to scratch a mark on aluminum.

If you file down beyond the surface metal, the newly exposed surface of titanium will darker than a similar piece of aluminum.

If you used a rotary grinder on a piece of titanium, the sparks will be a blue-white color.

Here is a link to a web site that will give you more detail on these and other tests for testing titanium and other metals.

http://mrtitanium.info/2008/03/17/how-to-tell-if-a-piece-of-metal-is-really-titanium/


Titanium is used for a lot of applications these days. Everything from wheelchairs and bicycles to parts for rockets and wedding rings are made with titanium. If you find a ring that doesn't test gold or silver, it might be titanium.

Titanium isn't a very expensive metal. You can find current prices online.

Big pieces of space debris are occasionally found too.  Here is a link to an article about space debris including the above tank from the space shuttle Columbia that landed in Texas.

https://www.space.com/12518-space-shuttle-columbia-debris-texas.html

In 2015 a large piece of what looks like a piece of a Galileo rocket was found on the beach in Fort Lauderdale.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-lauderdale-rocket-debris-20150802-story.html

And in January of 2018 a part of a SpaceX rocket was found in South Carolina.

http://www.ibtimes.com/spacex-rocket-debris-found-south-carolina-amid-zuma-payload-mystery-photo-2641243

You never know what you might find, so it always helps to be able to test it out.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

10/2/16 Report - Hurricane and Surf Predictions For The Treasure Coast. Metal Pieces Found On Island Paradise.

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

Beautiful Island Photo
Submitted by Alberto (see below).

The first thing I want to do today is give an update on Matthew.  The Sunday 2 PM shows the following cone.

Sunday 2 PM Upate
Source: nhc.noaa.gov

There have been a few updates since I last posted a picture of the cone.  There has been little change in the past day or so.

The southern part of the path is a little more to the east than it was. Earlier they had it tracking over a broader area of Cuba.  Now it is just hitting the tip of Haiti and Cuba.  When it gets up by Florida, it staying a little farther east also.  I have no complaint about that.

As far as the strength, it is projected to be above 110 mph until it gets into the northern Bahamas, then it is predicted to weaken a little.

I'm making a lot out of very small changes.  There is still a lot of uncertainty in the whole thing.  Notice that the western edge of the cone of uncertainty still touches the East Coast of Florida.  We'll have to keep watching.

Source: Magic SeaWeed.com.

There are some slight changes in the surf predictions too.  Now Fort Pierce is predicted to get up to 9 feet.  That is less than was predicted the past couple of days, but it is still a good bit.  We'll have to see how it lines up with the tides etc.  I sort of expected these changes.  I've often commented on how big long-range surf predictions tend to moderate as they get closer in time.

Another change, though, is that now we are predicted to get four to six feet for a few days after the peak surf.  That could either help or hurt, depending up on the direction of the wind.  Without looking at that in detail, I'd suspect that it means that cuts will fill in not too long after they happen.  Again, that depends upon the direction of the wind and waves.

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I got an email  from Alberto S. that included the beautiful photo at the top of the post and the following message.

I have found over time items that look that at some point were pendants etc what I have not been able to figure out is the melted condition I find them in or at least they look like they have melted. One I even found in the San Blas Islands in Panama, while fishing in the area with my brother in law who is from Panama. I could only detect for about 45 minutes near one of the islands because my brother in law was nervous that the Kuna Indians still ruling these islands could get upset. Any feedback would be appreciated. I attached some pics of the items and the island I detected for a brief time. Beautiful place indeed. 

Great photo Alberto!

Here is a another photo Alberto.  This one from a plane.

Photo submitted by Alberto S.

And below are the metal pieces Alberto was asking about.

Pieces of Metal Questioned by Alberto
Photo by Alberto S.

I get a lot of questions about bits of metal like this.  The very smooth shiny ones look like melted aluminum to me.  We get those on the Treasure Coast too.

There are YouTube videos showing aluminum melting in camp fires.

On the Treasure Coast we also occasionally get bits of melted titanium from space vehicles.  Readers have contacted NASA and had that verified.  In my 2/23/13 post you can learn more about that, including tests that will tell you if the metal is titanium.

Some of the other bits look like slag to me.  Slag is a waste product of smelted metals.  I detect pieces like that more up in West Virginia.

I always recommend getting metals that might be either silver, gold or platinum tested by a jeweler or pawn shop of you don't have your own test materials.

Hope that helps.

Keep watching Matthew.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/25/16 Report - Things I Wish I Knew Then. Be Aware Of Your Surroundings When Detecting.

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

Old Silver Key Charm Corroded and Discolored
by Contact With Other Metals During Storage.

Another item from the  IIOKTWIKN (If I only knew then what I know now) department.  It looks a little like Greek.

I've been thinking of those kinds of things lately and mentioned one yesterday.  Yesterday I mentioned that I learned how important it is to store items, even metals, carefully.  Today I'll mention a few other things I wish I had known sooner.  Actually there are some things that I knew about but didn't take seriously enough to take the best precautions.

In the picture at the top of the post is an example of what can happen when a silver item is stored with other metals.  It looks like the one shown in the picture was actually fowled by at least two different types of metals.  Notice the white corrosion and the rust colored corrosion.  All that happened during storage.

One of the things I wish I knew before is how to identify various types of items.  In the early days I probably passed up a lot of things that were important and I didn't realize it.  It can be very helpful to identify the things you see.  Anything from a pot shard to a piece of metal in a heavy conglomerate can tell you something important about the site you are hunting.

I highly recommend reading broadly.  If you are a coin shooter, you probably won't miss many coins, but you might miss other things that you'll someday wish you had.

If you want to hunt a treasure beach, do a lot of reading.  Know what other kinds of items besides pieces of eight might be found.

I remember one person that I helped on a beach one day.  They found their first cob that day, a small black half reale, and they didn't know what it was.  I am sure that if I wasn't there they would not have know what they found.

Even coins might not be easy to identify,  Don't expect them to all look like those nice cleaned coins you often see.  In this blog, I often post how they look as found, and then how they look after they are cleaned.  You might find a totally encrusted coin and throw it away because it looks more like a stone than a coin.



There are a lot of things I know now that I wish I had known before.  A lot of things don't catch up with you right away, and you'd never guess the long term results.  You just don't want to fool with a bunch of stuff when you younger, and you think it would never happen to you.  Well, one thing that I never wanted to do is use sun tan lotion.  Kids sit out and get sun tanned and sun burned and never think about it.  I did.  But in time the strong Florida sun will take its toll, especially if you are a fair skinned person.  I know detectorists who have had a lot of trouble with skin cancer.  I hate to mention that, but it is a reality, and supposedly it can be prevented to some extent by proper care.  I doubt that many people who have not had the problem will want to take it very serious until the damage is done, but I felt I should mention it anyhow.  And even if you don't have that serious of a problem with it, it will dry out your skin and make you look older.   Now that that much of the damage is already done, I do protect my skin better, mostly by using SPF clothing, and some sun tan lotion.



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I received some emails about an incident at Juan Ponce De Leon in Melbourne Beach,  

Always be aware of your surroundings.  If you have ear phones on and are focusing, you might not e aware of various types of danger including but not limited people.  Look up once in a while.  I usually know what is going on around me because I'm always scanning the area even if I appear to not be paying attention.  

It is also a good idea to hunt with a partner, especially if you are on an isolated beach or hunting at night.  I'd especially advise that of women, not because they can't take care of themselves, but because other people might think they are more vulnerable.

You might want to be aware of this fellow or others like him.  Check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100738567177822&set=pcb.10100738576074992&type=3

In the past I've also received a few emails about nudists on Treasure Coast beaches.  There are places where they congregate.  South Hutchinson Island has a couple of those areas.

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I've been meaning to give a plug to Lindquist Plumbing of Fort Pierce.  They installed a hot water heater at a great price and did a super excellent job.  If you are looking for a plumber I can recommend them.

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I've had back problems and had to cut down on my field time for a while.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/25/15 Report - New Treasure Finds Made By The Capitana! Possibility of Tropical Activity Developing Near Florida Next Week. New Poll.

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

Cob Found By Crew of The Capitana.

Captain Jonah Martinez and his crew continue to make great finds.

Here is one of the latest, a nice OM and maybe J cob.

For those of you who don't know, the OM indicated the Mexico mint.  The J would be the assayer initial.

Nice find guys!

But that isn't all.

One of Captain Jonah's Top Notch Divers
Showing Off Some Great Finds.

In the plate is a buckle, a button and some more cobs.

A closer view of those finds is shown below.

The last picture shows a close-up of some very clean reales and the button.

They are nice and clean showing good detail.

You can tell they are also from the Mexico mint from the style of cross.

Thanks for letting us get a look at your finds Captain!

All of these photos were sent by Captain Jonah Martinez.

Plate Full or Finds.

Nice View of Button and Cobs.

Lots of Musket Balls.

With the picture of the musket balls, Captain Jonah sent the following  message.

A couple weeks ago we got in to some musket balls so we went back skipping ground by about two days south here's what we found about 850 musket balls grape and pistol shot hopefully more at the end of this new trail. These balls appear to be from the green cabin but we find 1715 mixed in this area.  

Here are the densities of some common metals given in grams per cubic centimeter.

Aluminum 2.7
Copper 8.96
Gold 19.3
Lead 11.3
Platinum 21.5
Silver 10.5

Silver is just a touch less dense than lead, with gold being quite a bit more dense than lead.

Here is the link.

https://sites.google.com/site/chempendix/densities-of-pure-metals

Besides being the same density another thing that would group the musket balls together is their round shape, which means they will move easily, but down more than up.

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The same stationary front that has been causing afternoon showers along the Treasure Coast also provides conditions that could produce tropical activity near Florida next week.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/atlantic-tropical-systems-southeast-us-coast-danny-erika/50652073

Thanks for your poll responses.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net