7/19/20 Report - Unidentified Treasure Coast Fossil Tooth. Historic Backyard Meteorite. Tropical Wave Over Hispaniola.

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

Sunday Morning
nhc.nooa.gov

It is that time of year when storms can quickly form in our area.

A tropical wave located over Hispaniola and the adjacent waters of the southwestern Atlantic is expected to move west-northwestward over the next several days and enter the southeastern Gulf of Mexico by late Tuesday, and then move across the central Gulf on  Wednesday and reach the northwestern Gulf on Thursday...

If the predictions are correct, it looks like this one will not be a big deal Treasure Coast.

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A space rock, which weighs 66 pounds, was discovered more than 30 years ago in a garden in Blaubeuren, in southern Germany. “In 1989, a homeowner was digging a cable trench on his property in Blaubeuren, in the German region of Swabia, when his spade hit a rock,” explains the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in a statement. “Upon lifting it half a meter [1.6-feet] to the surface, he found that it was remarkably heavy.”

The rock, which is a chondrite, or stony meteorite, measures 11 inches by 9.8 inches by 7.9 inches...

Thanks to DJ for the link.    https://apple.news/AmlLMv3YcST2L92_BHwbFmw

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I found this sweet little fossilized tooth yesterday.

Fossil Tooth From Treasure Coast Beach.

After looking through some books, I think it is probably from something in the camel line, but I'd be happy to hear from anyone who knows.

It is small and very sharp.  Obviously not worn down much by wear.  Maybe an unerupted tooth.  

Another View of the Same Fossil Tooth.

On the Treasure Coast beaches you can find things that are hundreds of years old, but also thousands or even millions of years old.

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On your recent post you mentioned folks wanting to keep secrets to themselves and questioned whether or not you should share what you have learned along the way. Personally, I applaud you. I’ve been treasure hunting for nearly thirty years and have learned at least 75% of what I know about beach hunting from you. Mostly I go offshore with my guys to do the known sites of the 1715 fleet, but when the weather is not cooperating I do the beaches.

The reason for me posting this is to say that the Treasure Hunter’s Cookout was started by me 12 years ago because I wanted to get all these secretive hunters to open up to each other. I’ve accomplished my goal as I’ve seen rivals actually team up and create a more friendly atmosphere in the community. I always thought that scenarios like "I have a boat but no divers, magnetometer, sidescan, money, location etc. could cure itself if we all got together, met in a non formal, party like place and get to know each other. It appears to have worked. ...

Thanks much John.  I know your cookouts have been a big success.  Over the years I've received many glowing reports people who attended.  The cookouts have helped many, and the comradery has been a big positive for the treasure hunting community.

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And I received this email from the other side of the Atlantic.

... I have been reading the treasure beaches for years now and appreciate your blog very very much.

Your blog also brings back fond memories of living in southern Florida during the early 90s.

I always enjoy the photos of the beaches posted too.

I am located in Europe for now and mainly detect in central Europe and the northern Mediterranean.

The links about the "Dead water phenomenon" are not directly detector related,

unless you are towing a PI coil on a sled through the sea of course ...

With kind regards from across the big pond, Bjorn

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-dead-water-phenomenon.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzcgAshAg2o

I can tell from the Google stats that the blog is read overseas, but it is always nice to get an email and links for study. 

I'll be studying the links more thoroughly.   It is always good to add to your understanding.  You never know how it might help something fall into place.

Thanks Bjorn.

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The new blogger editor is slow.  I should make a transition to the new blog before long.

It looks like the Treasure Coast surf will remain in the two or three foot range for about a week.  We'll have a bit of a negative tide.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@com.

1/27/19 Report - More On Melborne, Florida Artifact Find Reported In Some Sources As An Ican Funerary Mask. More Surf Tomorrow.

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

Find Reported As Incan Funerary Mask.

A couple days ago I reported on what was said to be an Incan funerary mask found on the beach somewhere near Melborne, Florida.  As I said then, a lot of it didn't seem to make sense to me.  It turns out that I was not the only one that felt that way.  The ancient-origins.net web site also found the stories confusing and offered some corrections.  It seems that the artifact is not as old as reported and is does not included metal from a meteorite.

The ancient-origins web site reports You are immediately forgiven if you have watched the News 6 video and are in a state of utter confusion, as was I. Sparvero’s introductory scene in the video confidently states the mask is “possibly 10 or 12,000 years old.” But in reality, the Inca formed in the Cusco area of modern Peru in the mid-12th century AD. Going with professor Torres’ suggestion that it’s an ‘Inca funerary mask’ it was forged no longer than 800 years ago, but other archaeologists claim “a native civilization smelted the mask possibly thousands of years BC” according to an article in Florida Today …

While Torres says the mask is Inca, right after that he says “it might be the first evidence of smelting” in South America. But that was thousands of years before the Inca formed. Searching for hard facts, clarity can be found in an excellent research paper, Metallurgy in Southern South America , written by three of the world’s leading scholars on ancient metallurgy; Colin A. Cooke, Mark B Abbott, and Alexander P. Wolfe. The scientists state , “The earliest evidence to date for smelting activity in southern South America comes in the form of copper slag from the Wankarani site in the highlands of Bolivia dating between 900 and 700 BCE (Ponce 1970).”

Thanks much to Dale J.. who sent me the ancient-origins link, which is probably closer to the truth than much of what has been said and reported about the mask.

Here is the link.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/inca-artifact-0011370

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Today was the first day this year that made me want to run out to the beach.  The weather was what I consider excellent metal detecting weather, as long as you have a metal detector that can take the rain.  It was exactly the kind of weather I love for metal detecting - too bad I caught the flu and decided to stay in.

I don't know what happened to the beaches today.  I heard there was both an on-shore and long-shore currents, making it even the more tempting.

As you can see, it looks like we'll have a four to six foot surf tomorrow, along with some north wind.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

If any of you went out Sunday, I'd like to see any photos you got of the beach.

That is all for today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/31/18 Report - Treasure: The Test of a Man. Peripatetic Find. Lotto Jackpot. Massive Meteorite.

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

I saw the movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre on TV a couple days ago. I don't think I ever watched it before. I decided to watch it partly because it is about treasure, but more importantly because it is a classic movie and novel. I wanted to see what made it such a classic.

Well, the treasure hunting (gold prospecting and mining) part wasn't totally realistic. The story turned out to be more about morality and human weakness and virtue, as treasure stories often are. It was accurate to the novel, but I think it lost something in the adaptation.

I guess what I took away from it is how often treasure stories have a moral, and that is often what they are really about.

If anything is a touchstone that reveals and proves the true nature of a man, it is treasure. When tested, some will be shown as fools gold, and others as pure. To put it another way, it is not the gold that is tested, it is man himself.

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Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  You've probably heard that before.

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Another classic you might want to read is Silas Marner, which is a real work of art. A solitary miser buries his hoarded fortune which is stolen. Again, it is really about another type of treasure.

Another treasure story you might want to read is King of Golden River.

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An Israeli woman walking near ancient ruins noticed a head sticking out of the ground, leading to the uncovering of two Roman-era busts, archaeologists said Sunday.

The life-size sculptures, carved in limestone, were found in the northern city of Beit Shean earlier this month, with the Israel Antiquities Authority dating them to the late Roman period, some 1,700 years ago...

Here is the link.

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/society/192073-181230-israeli-woman-stumbles-upon-roman-busts-amid-ancient-ruins

You never know what you moight see if you are out and about.

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A British man hit one of the largest lotto jackpots in the country’s history — but left the golden ticket unchecked for weeks in a pile of papers in his van, according to local reports.

Andrew Clark, 51, only checked the ticket because his partner and her niece badgered him after they heard about a local unclaimed prize, he told Sky News. “Trisha kept telling me to check the tickets, and her niece Louise, who I was building an extension for, was also in on it once she’d heard about the unclaimed prize in the news,” he said.

Here is the link.

https://spiritdaily.org/blog/news/british-man-finds-86-million-lottery-ticket-in-his-van

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Late-night (actually Dec. 20) stargazers in Cambridge, Minnesota and beyond may have noticed — or felt — a massive fireball that streaked across the sky earlier this week.

The meteor, which entered the stratosphere just after 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, passed over the city before heading east and going dark over Harris, observer and meteorite hunter Pat Branch, who works with the American Meteor Society, told the Star Tribune...

Here is that link for more about that.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/refrigerator-sized-meteor-zooms-over-minnesota-in-one-of-the-biggest-events-of-the-year

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I can remember sitting down and doing my first post of 2018.  Doesn't seem that long ago.

Some things don't change with the years.


Happy New Year,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/29/18 Report - Gilded Royal. Silver Bar. Meteorite Gun. Buried Treasure Imaged by Radar.

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

Gilded 8-Reales.
Source: Current Sedwick Auction ( See link below.).

Here what is described as a Royal.  It is a Potosi 8-reales, but what I found interesting in the lot description is the "faint glint of gold color from old gilding."  See the entire lot description below.

If you found it while the gilding was still full, you would be faced with a silver reale that looked like gold.  I know how that can be confusing because I once found a fake treasure coin that looked gold but had the design of a reale.  I knew very little about cobs at that point, and it was confusing.

The interesting thing about it to me is the question of when and why it was gilded.  Sedwick's once said that it is unlikely that Royal's were made for royalty because there were too many made and many of them never left the New World.  It was not unusual for Royals to be holed and gilded.

This one has something else that caught my attention.  The assayer mark looks very much like a bulls-eye.  I've pointed out that little symbol on Potosi cobs before.

Here is the Sedwick auction lot description.

Potosi, Bolivia, cob 8 reales Royal, 1650O, NGC XF details / holed. S-P35; KM-R19b; CT-400. 28.20 grams. Die match with Lazaro #111 (R3), with choice and 100% full details on both sides enhanced by contrasting toning but inevitably holed (left of crown / right of cross), faint glint of gold color from old gilding. NGC #4690085-001.

And here is the link.

https://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Potosi-Bolivia-cob-8-reales-Royal-1650O-NGC-XF-details-holed_i29836099

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Among the higher bids in the auction so far are the bids for two big silver bars.  Both have current bids of $29,000.

Silver Bar Listed in Current Sedwick Auction.
Source: See link below.

Here is one of the two similar bars.

And here is the lot description for the one shown above.

Large silver bar #510 from Potosi, 74 lb 3.5 oz troy, Class Factor 0.9, with markings of mine/date Po1621, manifest IIIIUCCCCXCI (4491) and fineness IIUCCCLXXX (2380/2400) followed by cartouche of assayer Mexia, plus various owner/shipper marks and tax stamps, from the Atocha (1622). 13-1/2" x 5-1/2" x 3". Very well-marked and well-preserved specimen of slightly less than average size, with bold manifest and owner/shipper monograms (C. Sanchez and P. Morera), clear but weaker marks of fineness, assayer, tax stamps, date (to left of manifest number) and silvermaster (V), prominent double-scoop "bite" in center. The assigned Class Factor indicates that the Fisher organization must have missed the date on this piece, which should merit a 1.0 Class Factor. From the Atocha (1622), with Fisher photo-certificate.

Here is the link.
https://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Large-silver-bar-510-from-Potosi-74-lb-3-5-oz-troy-Class-Factor-0-9-with-markings-of-mine-date-P_i29835491

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Here is a nice but older article about using radar to get images of buried objects.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3923-satellites-hunt-for-buried-treasure/

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How about a $4.5 million gun made out of a 4.5 billion year-old meteorite?

That would be a nice and rare collectible.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/04/26/holy-grail-guns-made-company-sells-4-5m-pistols-made-from-4-5-billion-year-old-meteorite.html

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Tell me about your day at the Treasure Hunters Cookout.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/19/18 Report - Handy Ancillary Equipment. Incas Book. Meteorite Earthquake. Big Surf Predicted.

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

Inexpensive Light.

I decided to talk about some products that I've found very useful for metal detecting.  I've found all of them useful as well as durable and reliable.

I got the light shown above at Harbor Freight when I picked up some other things before Hurricane Irma.  I probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise, but it has proven to be very useful.  It has a directional torch that  you can see on the front as well as the lamp, but it also has magnet on the back and  a hook on the top so you can mount it in various ways.  The hook folds into the  back if you don't need it..   It has come in handy a variety of times.  It fits in a pocket and can be hung with the hook or attached to a metal surface. Stick it to your car trunk or garage door and you'll find it useful when you are holding your equipment and trying to find your keys.  Would also work well in a boat.

Headlight.

If you detect at night or search abandoned buildings, a headlight like the one shown above can be very handy.  Much better than a flashlight.

I've mentioned this one before, but I have an inexpensive battery tester that .I've used for about forty years and still works fine.  Very handy for checking detector batteries.

I recently got excellent Nikon binoculars.  Very good image at great distances.  I can easily look a mile or so up the beach and see any cuts or whatever.

I've also found rechargeable batteries very helpful.

Also waterproof containers that hold a wallet and cell phone or whatever.  I use those when water hunting or beach hunting.  Better than leaving things in the car.

One other thing I sometimes like to use is a hoodie with a hood big enough that I can wear it over headphones.  Not only does it help keep me warm, but it also cuts down on wind noise.

Reel Legends Performance Clothing makes both pants and shirts that have lots of pockets and useful features.  They make sunblock clothing too, which is a good idea, especially if you don't like suntan lotion.

My Reel Legends pants have maybe close to twenty pockets of different types  and sizes.  They are ideal for carrying accessories such as a pinpointer or whatever, and the pockets can be secured in various ways.  Some pockets have Velcro or buttons and some are on the inside and hidden.  Excellent for securing finds.

For over twenty years I've used motion-activated security cameras around my house.  If the UPS person or anyone shows up when I'm not home, I have good video of them and their vehicle.  For example, since I sometimes ship my detector when I travel, I wasn't home one time when the detector was delivered, and I didn't find it even though I had a notice that it had been delivered.  I checked the video and saw the mailman place the package behind some porch furniture where I didn't see it.

The motion-activated cameras are not inexpensive, but I really like having them.  They are excellent and work well for a number of years in the weather.

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Earthquake-causing meteor leaves southeast Michigan residents awestruck was the ABC News headline, despite the fact that researchers said the meteor, which was seen over five states, did not cause the earthquake.

Click here for to read that article.

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You can preview the book, The Last Days Incas by Kim MacQuarrie free online.  If you like reading about conquistadors and treasure, click here.

I read part of it and found it interesting.

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The big news today is a prediction I noticed in MagicSeaWeed.  They are predicted a big surf for the 27th.

Here is the prediction for the Fort Pierce area.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

We've had some cold this year.  Some people say that Florida doesn't have seasons.  I think we definitely do.  The leaves might not change color but the license plates do.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/2/18 Report - Meteorite or Meteor Wrong? Meteorite Worth $30,000. Very Good Chance of Beach Detecting Conditions Improving.

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

Treasure normally doesn't just fall out of the sky and hit you on the head. although I guess it theoretically could.  Every once in a while I get a question about meteorites.  I might have dug one up at some time, but if I did, I didn't know it. 

Florida isn't a great place for finding meteorites and I know nothing about them, but there is a fellow that hunts meteorites and gold nuggets on a regular basis, and he also visits the Treasure Coast to detect, so I was able to ask him when I recently got a question about a possible meteorite being found on a Florida beach.

First, here is the question and a couple photos of the unidentified item that I received from Joe D.


Hi, my name is Joe from Merritt Island.  Your website I great.  I look at it every day  I purchased a metal detector about a year ago.  I haven't found anything worth a lot of money but I really enjoy the time on the beach.  Last week I was north of Sebastian when I came across what I thought was a rock.  My detector was going off on it so I took it home.  I figured it was a EO so I broke it apart where there was       a crack.  There was nothing inside.  A couple of days later I started thinking it may be a meteorite  Has anyone seen something like this?  Thank you.

3.5 by 2.5 Inch Unidentified Object.

Find and photo by Joe D.

Same Object Opened.

The fellow I asked about the item is a super guy who uses the handle SuperRick.  I posted some of his finds before, including a meteorite that I showed in my 5/31/17 post.

Below is SuperRick's response concerning the above object.

It's hard to tell from the photo but I would say no. There is only one type of meteorite that looks like charcoal and that is a  carbonaceous chondrite! Those meteorites are extremely rare!
I went to Sutter Mills when that meteorite came in and have a very small piece of it.

Here is a photo of the one that I missed because someone was cutting the grass in a park that we stopped to hunt! That part of the meteorite was found by a school teacher that sold it for over $30,000.00 Here is a photo of it.

https://s17.postimg.org/btbg5yfsv/IMG_20120426_162854.jpg

I hope that this helps you out.  I would throw it away without sending a small sample to a university if you can find one that will look at it because when you say that you found it on the beach it's going to throw up a red flag!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutter%27s_Mill_meteorite

Thanks for the help Rick.  I'm sure it helped the person that asked the question  It also helped me, and I'm sure it helped many of the readers of my blog.  It is always good to know something about different types of treasures

Thanks much for your help.  I'm glad I have so many readers who are experienced and informed in a wide variety of types of treasure and are willing to help others.

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Continuing with my list of top ten most popular posts from 2017, number three on the list is the 4/27 post about the Cooper's Treasure TV show and the salvage lease process in the Bahamas.

You might remember the controversy caused by the TV show.  I don't know what happened to it.  They seemed to drop it.

The link for that post is immediately below.

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2017/04/42717-report-more-on-coopers-treasure.html

The top two posts of the year actually made it into the top ten all time list.  That is especially surprising because they were posted late in the year.  In fact the number two post of the year was posted in December, less than a month ago.  It was the post about the find and return of the 1937 class ring of Fairleigh Dickinson Jr. that was recovered on a North Florida beach by Chris N.  The same post also showed a silver reale found on a Treasure Coast beach.

Below is that link.

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2017/12/12617-report-ring-of-well-known-person.html

And finally, the # 1 post of the year, the 9/10 post about how the best conditions are not always caused by the strongest storms.  I talked about Irma and Jose.  The title of that post was For Metal Detecting You May Have Missed the Big Deal. More To Come.

Here is the link.

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/search?q=missed+the+big+deal

I didn't think it would take so long to do the top ten.

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There is a lot going right.  The tides are big;  the surf is going to be something like 6 - 10 feet Tuesday; the wind turned Monday evening and should continue from the north through Tuesday.  That all goes together to suggest a very strong chance of improved beach hunting conditions 

Here are the surf predictions.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to check some beaches tomorrow, so I can show you what is happening.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/31/17 Report - Shipwreck Sinking and Debris Dispersion Model. Detector Depth and Finding Cobs. 103 Gram Meteorite Find.

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

103 Gram Meteorite Found by SuperRick with Metal Detector
Photo by SuperRick.

We don't have great meteorite hunting in Florida, but they can be found.  I for one don't know if I ever found one or not.  I don't know enough about them to know for sure. Some Florida people have told me that they did find meteorites.

Rick thought the one above (which was not found in Florida)  was a "cold" meteorite, which means that it was not found in a known meteorite area, but then another fellow said he found one in the same area. When it comes to meterorites, a "cold find" is a find made where none had been found before.  It is something like finding a shipwreck cob where there is no known shipwreck and where cobs have not been found before.  That is very different from hunting on a well known shipwreck beach.  It makes the odds much bigger against you, and it makes the find potentially very significant.

Here is the link to SuperRick's YouTube video about the meterorite find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vva01ePYkg&t=14s

You might remember the big meteorite auction that I mentioned not long ago.  Some meteorites can be worth a lot.

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Here is an excellent scientific article on shipwreck sinkings and the formation of the debris field.

On the Hydromechanics of Vessels and Debris Fields During Sinking Events by Sean Kery.

Here is the abstract.

When a vessel leaves the surface and plunges to the seabed, a lot of things can happen that will affect its orientation and position on the seabed and the creation and distribution of the debris field. Crushing and catastrophic implosion due to the rapidly increasing hydrostatic pressure has been noted on portions of many wrecks. Extensive damage due to bottom impact and subsequent motions have also been observed and documented. This paper describes the successful numerical modeling of the sinking of several historic vessels. One was in deep water and another in shallow water. In both cases it was possible for the simulation to replicate important details of the debris field. Further work is planned to help explain some of the taphonomy observed as the wreck decays over time as it is acted on by bottom currents, benthic storms and in the shallow case storm waves. 

This is not light reading.

http://www.sname.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=a7f10ad9-1b65-03ed-757b-7be8daa49310

When thinking about how a ship breaks up and debris gets distributed, here are a few types of damage and debris dispersion to consider as presented in the article.

Damage unrelated to the sinking which occurred over the vessels service life prior to the sinking 
Damage which was causative in the sinking 
Damage which occurred during progressive flooding 
Damage which occurred in the water column on the way down including hydrostatic implosion, and unsecured objects falling off 
Damage due to bottom impact, including collision damage leading to hydraulic outbursts 2 
Debris dispersion due to objects which came off higher in the water column sinking at different rates through layered currents. Objects that fall slower are carried further by currents. 
Debris dispersion due to the sinking microburst plume and hydraulic outburst plumes 
Damage due to currents, waves, benthic storms, corrosion, and biodegradation in situ. 

That gives you some idea of the type of information you will find in that article.

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Depth is always the big question when it comes to metal detectors.  People usually do an air test and report that X detector will detect a coin at Y inches.  I've talked extensively about the limitation of air tests in the past and recommended some alternatives.  That isn't what I want to talk about now.

The deepest seeking detector, no matter how depth is measured or defined, is not always the best detector for a particular job.  There are a lot of factors to consider.

People often want the deepest seeking detector, but then use their "deep seeking detector" in a way that achieves much less than the best performance.  The wrong sweep or settings can result in very poor performance.  There can be a big difference between the potential depth and the actual depth in field conditions and actual use.

The main point I want to make right now is that depth isn't as important as you might think when hunting cobs on a beach.  The vast majority of cobs I've found have been within and inch or two of the surface.

A few days ago, I provided a link to a video that showed a guy finding old silver coins on the surface without even using a metal detector.  That was because he was looking in the right place.  He was looking where coins had been exposed.  The most important thing in my opinion, is looking in the right place - which are the places where things accumulate and remain near the surface.  In those places they will be on the surface or very near the surface.

Besides eye-balling, another way to know when you are in the right type of place is by analyzing what is in the area, including junk.  That is one reason I don't discriminate a lot.  Junk gives you important information about how good the area is.  Junk can be a good sign or a bad sign, depending upon the type of junk it is.  Different types of junk will normally, on a beach, have a predictable relationship to good targets.  Good targets will tend to be closer to junk targets that are in some ways similar to the "good" targets.  Density is one of several characteristics to consider.  Junk and other targets aren't randomly distributed.  There are reasons they are where they are.  There are enough unknowns and enough complexity to disguise some of the patterns though.

I've eye-balled cobs laying on the sand several times.  And that was not back decades ago and it was not after any of the major hurricanes.

I'm not talking about cobs back in the dunes, where they will often be down a foot or so.  I'm talking about beach cobs, which as you know, most often show up during periods of erosion.

A couple days ago I showed what appeared to be a seawall and discussed how coins can work down along a wall or other things.  That is a little different situation too.  Still they are not going to sink until the sand moves from the area.  It can take a long time for them to sink very deep.  But that was a special situation and not the type of thing I am talking about now.  Coin traps are another matter that I'll talk about again some other time.

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On the Treasure Coast we're still having smooth seas.  The tides are more moderate.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/3/17 Report - Treasure From the Sky. Mystery Object Identified. $2.5 Million In Gold Bars Found In Unlikely Place.

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

Source: Christies' listing.
See link below.

I mentioned Florida meteorites yesterday.  Here are a couple meteorites that will be up for auction on 5/3 (Wednesday.

These treasures from the sky are part of a Christies' auction.

Source: See Christie's link below.

Christie's is proud to present its third online only auction of important and aesthetic meteorites.
Led by prized examples of naturally sculpted metallic meteorites, the sale features some of the oldest objects in the world - at 4.5 billion years old, they are a third as old as time itself.

This curated selection includes incredibly rare meteorites that originate from the surface of the Moon and the planet Mars, which are offered alongside a series of stunning slices and spheres of the most beautiful meteorites known to man...

Click here to learn more about the auction.


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Thanks to my readers, the mystery object I posted yesterday has been identified.

Beloe is a picture that was sent in by Dustin P. and also by Stan.

The item was on sale on eBay for $55.  It is a microscope lens with tube.  The tube looks almost exactly like the one I found.

Here is the eBay description.  This is an VINTAGE microscope objective made by the BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL CO. IT IS MARKED 16 mm - 0.25 NA & in its original brass canister.


Thanks guys!

I'm fairly confident that is what my find is.  Now I think I'll try to get it open without hurting the canister to see if the lens is still inside.

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An old Iraqi tank was purchased on eBay for $40,000.  When the tank arrived, $2.5 million worth of gold bars were found inside.

Here is how the article begins.

When Nick Mead purchased an old Iraqi tank on an auction on eBay, he was excited for the piece of military history to arrive at his home. But when Mead and mechanic Todd Chamberlain took a closer look at the large machine of war once it arrived, they were in for the shock of their life.

Not only were Mead and Chamberlain stunned at what they found, military buffs around the globe are equally shocked. As you’ll see in the video reveal below, as the duo searched the broken down tank, they expected to find rusty guns or other war-time items..

Click here to read more about that.

Thanks much to Linda C. who sent me that link.

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No significant change in beach conditions to report.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/16/14 Report - Couple of TC Beach Finds From Yesterday. How To Identify A Meteorite. 3000-Year-Old Sword Found In River By Teenager Washing Hands.

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

Here are a couple of items found yesterday on the Treasure Coast. 

First a gold religious pendant, and below a silver ring.  They were found pretty close to each other.

Here is some good news.   A bump up in the Treasure Coast surf is predicted for  tomorrow - four to six feet.

According to the predictions, tonight the wind will shift and will be coming out of the northwest for a while, and tomorrow out of the west. 

As much as I'm eager to see something other than the one or two foot surf that we've had almost all summer, I'm disappointed to see that tomorrow the swell will be out of the east.   That doesn't suggest a lot of erosion.  Anyhow, it should be enough surf to move a little sand around. 

Another unfortunate thing is that the tides are getting flat again.    We just can't seem to get anything going this summer.   Surely Fall will bring some erosion. 




I've been playing around with a Dual Surf PI lately, and I'd say that a lot of people probably swing that one too fast.    If you use a pulse, or any detector for that matter, you might want to try slowing down your swing. You can fall into the pattern of wanting to cover a lot of ground and in the process miss some of the better targets.



Have you ever found what looks like an unusual stone with your metal detector?  I think all of us have.   Chances are that it is simply some sort of junk or melted metal, but there is a slight chance that it could be a meteorite.

Every once in a while I receive an email asking if some found object is a meteorite.  I'm not good at identifying meteorites, and would never attempt to do it form a photo alone, so please don't ask me to do that.


 Florida is not a great place for finding meteorites.  It is too wet, which causes meterorites to corrode.  It is too swampy and mostly covered by vegetation, which makes it difficult to find meteorites.   But they are occasionally found here.  I know of a few meteorites that have been found on Treasure Coast beaches.

They are difficult to identify - at least for anyone that doesn't have that experience or training.  There are, however, some things to look for. 

It should stick to a magnet.  It should be fairly heavy.  It might have a crust that was created by heat.  It should show evidence of melting and pock marks.   It should contain nickel, which is relatively rare on earth.

If you can't identify your possible meterorite, there is a place where you can send them to be tested and identified.

Here is a link to a web site that gives the basics for identifying a meteorite.  The company also provides a meteorite identification service and will buy meteorites.

http://www.aerolite.org/found-a-meteorite.htm

Like a always say, it is a good idea to keep mystery objects until you get them identified. 



A teenager was washing his hands in a river and hit a pointed object.  It turns out he found a 3000 year old sword.

Here is the link to that story.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2014-09/06/c_133625745.htm


Cabo San Lucas got hit by a big hurricane.   Cabo is a high-end resort for celebrities.  That would be a good place for metal detecting this week.   Hope everyone down there is well and they get their lives back in order soon.


That is all for today.

Happy hunting
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

 

7/6/14 Report - Two of My Top Three All Time Favorite Detectors, Flipping Coins, New Regulations On Taking Batteries On a Plane & Old Meteorite

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

One of my favorite all-time top three detectors.

A few of you might remember this detector.  It is one of my top three favorite detectors of all time.


Below is another of my top three all time favorites.




The one below is based upon Nautilus circuitry which was modified and put in a water proof case.

I had a few of these.  After trying my first one just a few times, I called the guy that made it and ordered another so I would have a backup of the same type.

Another one of my favorite all-time top three detectors.

This was my first modified detector.  Before I got it I was using primarily an out-of-the-box Fisher detector.

The first coil I had for this one was super hot.  The later ones, not quite as good.

I had an 18 inch coil for it that I used a little, but not much.

These two detectors worked pretty much the same.  The Nautilus didn't require ground balancing though.  Both nulled over iron.

These detectors were both very good on gold, were deep seeking, and would detect very small pieces of gold which is what I was targeting, and both worked well for that purpose.

When I first started detecting I kept track of my coin count, but after a while I targeted modern gold and wasn't much interested in coins or how the detector did on coins.  It seemed to me that the detectors that could detect small or deep gold exceptionally well also detected coins and other things fairly well too.  I didn't care much about finding other things, but did use other objects as information to point me towards gold.  Gold is often found near concentrations of other items, so if you know how things are accumulating, knowing where different things are will help point you to the gold.


Bill P. wrote in to say that when foot fanning, which I talked about yesterday, objects can get set on edge and therefore give off a more faint or no signal.   Certainly true!   Thanks Bill.

If you take a coin and lay it flat and then run your coil over it and then compare the signal with the same coin set on edge you will hear the difference in the signal.

When foot fanning in moving water it is easy enough for the object to fall out of the scoop and end up on the slope of the hole or back in the bottom of the hole on edge.   If you find that the signal has disappeared that is a good possibility.   If you've checked around the outside and inside of the hole and can not longer find the target, fan some more in the hole to uncover the object or flip it over or both.

It is always a good thing to experiment with your detector.   See what happens to the signal when you take an object and put it in various positions, including standing on edge.

Also, a broken gold ring will give a much more faint signal than a whole gold ring.


Things can get caught up in sea weed.  The other day an ear ring that I found was caught in sea weed which was buried under sand.  Chains will also get tangled in sea weed sometimes.



I've heard that TSA is being more particular about batteries and has some new limits on the batteries you can take through security.

Here is some of what one web site says about that.

...  As for exactly what you're allowed to bring onto the plane, it all has to do with the actual amount of lithium contained in the each battery. According to the new government rules:

The new lithium quantity limits apply to both your spare and installed batteries. The limits are expressed in grams of "equivalent lithium content." Eight grams of equivalent lithium content is approximately 100 watt-hours; 25 grams is approximately 300 watt-hours.

Under the new rules, you can bring batteries with up to 8 grams of equivalent lithium content. Most lithium ion batteries in cell phones and laptop computers are below this quantity threshold.

You can also bring up to two batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams, in addition to any batteries that fall below the 8-gram threshold.

For a lithium metal battery, whether installed in a device or carried as a spare, the limit on lithium content is 2 grams per battery.

The bottom line for travelers is most consumer-type lithium batteries are permitted. Very large, professional batteries are a different story. If you are unsure, contact the device's manufacturer

Here is the source link.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10396317/1/dont-lose-your-batteries-to-airport-security.html

Don't ask me to clarify that.

Just thought I'd make you aware of the issue.

It seems like extra laptop batteries and things like that are going to be a problem.  I don't know if that might cause a zealous agent to give you a harder time over detector batteries or not.


Scientists discovered a meteorite fragment at the site of a 9000 year-old hut.

http://www.naukawpolsce.pap.pl/en/news/news,400865,archaeologists-discovered-a-meteorite-fragment-in-a-9-thousand-years-old-hut.html

They figured some fellow fancied the unusual stone.

This is one of those types of things that I like to playfully think about.   Maybe the thing crashed through the roof of his hut one night.  That could have caused more of a stir than just stumbling upon a funny stone with the other finds of the day.  It could have either been seen as a sign from God, or, maybe the fellow just muttered, "What the heck," and casually went about his business and then one of the kids put it with the other stones.  Who knows?

In a few days the surf on the Treasure Coast is predicted to increase a little, but not much.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/4/12 Report - Super Moon Over Treasure Coast & $20,000 Meteorite Found


Written by the Treasure Guide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.


The Super Moon is causing some nice low tides.  Along with the smooth water, that makes for some easy water and low tide hunting. 

The top photo shows Walton Rocks near low tide today.   Good snorkeling.  Nice clear smooth water.  



Walton Rocks Near Low Tide Today



You could see some interesting things just wading.  

A lot of shells too.  And to the north, some nice dips between the beach and the near shore bar.

Also a few fossils to be found, along with a lot of iron and other miscellaneous metals.

Really nice weather for leisurely beach combing.

 Up at Green Turtle beach, there has been some filling.  You can see that in the second photo.  You could get out nicely into the low tide zone there too.  There was, however, a heck of a lot of sand at the foot of the cut and in the shallow water.  I think you can see that in the photo below.

There is a lot of beach to detect now but also a heck of a lot of sand.  I dropped my beach conditions rating back to a 1 yesterday.


The wind and swells are from the east/southeast.   I expect conditions to remain pretty much the same through the weekend and Monday.

Green Turtle Beach Near Low Tide Friday.

The peak Super Moon will be Sunday.






Out in El Dorado County in California, which you probably know as gold country, a mother found something more valuable than gold in a public park.  It was one of many space rocks that have been falling in Gold Country and is worth more than $20,000.



A meteor shower along with this space rock find brought hoards of scientists and treasure-seekers to the neighborhood.

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/brenda-salveson-meteorite_n_1473973.html?1336055521&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D157467

Looks just like any old rock to me.  I wonder how she knew about meteorites. 

I always say it's good to know about as many different types of treasures as possible.  Who knows how many people walked right by this meteorite, maybe even kicked it.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net