2/2/18 Report - One Eroding Beach That Serves As A Good Illustration. Best Overall Treasure Coast Treasure Hunting Book. Pirate Fest.

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

Fort Pierce South Jetty Park.
Photo by Joe D.

I've posted a lot about the Fort Pierce South Jetty Park lately.  While it is not a place where you will find a lot of treasure coins, it is interesting as an illustration of beach erosion.  It erodes a lot!  It seems like they renourish it all the time but it just keeps eroding.

Joe D. sent me these photos along with the following email message.

Just wanted to show you what i saw and why i hunted South Beach Park the other day! This was the only beach i looked at that day that had both a mid beach cut, and a firm beach with shells and rocks! While i didn't spend a bunch of time there, at least i was able to locate some coins and such!

Also, the picture of Ft Pierce South Jetty Park shows a higher tide verson of what Gaylen C. Sent that you posted! I've hunted there before, but this time i noticed that MOST of the rocks that are exposed are not from lower beach erosion (older sand erosion) but from the fill that keeps eroding from the cliff! ( newer sand erosion) It is very rocky fill and can be deceiving, in that it looks older than it is when it runs out toward the ocean! I hope that makes sense! I know its hunted a lot, and i haven't found much there at all!

I was having few issues with my detector setup that day, and was wondering if it was hindering my hunt, or weather the combination of poor conditions, and the number of detectorists that hunt the area where some of the reason for so few finds! So I hunted a park near home with same setup to iron out the kinks! I was there about two hours and did ok, and fixed some issues! ( Pic) So my conclusion is that all factors are correct!...

Fort Pierce South Jetty Park
Photo by Joe D.

There are two steps on this beach.  This is the mid-beach cut that Joe referred to.  The larger cliff is at the back of the beach.

Notice also the small wind blown sand ridges by the footprints.  The ridges will run about perpendicular to the wind direction.

This beach isn't a good indicator beach.  It will erode when there is very little other erosion on the Treasure Coast.

Rocks and Shells Near the Water Line.
Photo by Joe D.

Although the rocks are coming from the fill, they are from very old material.  I think it was dug from the intercoastal near the port, but there is definitely some VERY old stuff in that fill.

Joe's Finds.

I always recommend that you pay attention to what is being found and what is not being found.  The first thing that jumps out to me is the lack of nickels. 

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I just read through Numismatic Archaeology of North America: a Field Guide by Akin, Bard and Akin, published 2016.  It might be OK for an archaeology student, but it didn't provide any real revelations for me.  There were a few interesting ideas, but it sure wouldn't be worth the purchase price, which is quite lofty.  There wasn't much about actual sites, and nothing about the Spanish Colonial sites or the Treasure Coast shipwrecks.  Most of the author's experience seemed to be related to shell money and Asian money found on the west coast of the United States.

One of the more interesting points was about the various uses of money.  Coins can be many things besides circulating currency.  That discussion was interesting.  A coin, as you know, can be sewn to clothing and used in fashion, or used as a votive or religious offering, and for various other purposes.

One thing they mentioned that caught my attention because I have long wondered how coins found on the beach get bent in half.   I read that coins were sometimes bent as a superstitious way of changing ones luck.  It could be that some were intentionally bent for that purpose, although I think there are ways that they can get bent by nature.  I've mentioned that once or twice before.

As is often the case, the bibliography of the book is the biggest value of the book.

If you want to read about Treasure Coast treasure hunting in general, there is one book that I recommend above all others.  It is The Rainbow Chasers Tricentennial Yearbook by T. L. Armstrong and Tommy Gore.  It is published by Sigmum Ops.  240 jam packed 8.5 by 11 pages.

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Pirate Fest starts today at Veterans Memorial Park in Fort Pierce.  It runs Feb. 2 through Feb. 4.

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... The FBI once sent a high-level official to Facebook, begging for some of its personal information — information on private citizens...

And now, besides having our phone numbers and addresses and birthdays and a list of our friends and our personal histories and our credit-card numbers (if we use it for Facebook “boosts”), as well as logging what we read and chat about, Zuckerberg’s company is ready to sell hardware with microphones and cameras that would be placed in your home. Meanwhile, both Facebook and Twitter send certain posts to target customers who they deem are extremists to counter their views....

Here is a link for the rest of that article.

http://spiritdaily.org/blog/commentary/little-big-brother

I don't use Facebook.  I very much resent how companies such as Facebook and Google try to get as much of your information as they can.  They don't need that second phone number, or any phone number for that matter, and they don't need your social security number unless you do a certain amount of business, but they'll get it if they can.  If there is anything to resist these days, I would rank that as being one of the top ones.

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I don't expect any real change in beach conditions today.  We are still having big tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/1/17 Report - Numismatic Archaeology. Literally Finding a Mint. Old Coin Blog. Educational Seminars Today.

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

Source: Numismatic Archaeology of North America: A Field Guide.

Here is an interesting book - Numiamatic Archaeology of North America: A Field Guide, by Akin, Bard and Akin, 2016.

The above illustration comes from that book.  I know it is a little hard to read the illustration but it starts on the bottom with ocho reales, or an 8-reale, and ends at the top with the small medio reale and then smaller cuartillo, or quarter reale.  The number on the right is the number of coins of that denomination in one peso.

Just thought it was useful to see a good comparison of the different sizes of reals.

You can preview a little of that book online.  It contains many illustrations.  I would say well worth reading.

Click here to go to the preview.

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... “We’ve come to a layer with material from the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century in which we have discovered slag and bellows for fanning up fire for metal smelting," lead archaeologist Veselka Katsarova from the Museum of Sofia History, has told bTV.

She adds that the layer in question contains coins from the time of Roman Emperors Gallienus (Gallien) (r. 253-268 AD), Claudius II (r. 268-270 AD), and Aurelian (r. 270-275 AD) up until the beginning of the 4th century AD.

“We are finding slag, and clay fragments from bellows… There are metal particles stuck to the bellows fragments," she has elaborated, as cited by BNT.

In addition to these latest finds, the archaeologists’ hypothesis that in the Late Roman era the building in question and the adjacent structures were turned into a coin mint is also supported by findings from excavations in the 1970s and 1980s by archaeologist Prof. Magdalina Stancheva of a large Roman public building underneath today’s St. Nedelya Cathedral...

Here is the link for more about that.

http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2017/10/25/archaeologists-may-found-mint-ancient-roman-city-serdica-bulgarias-capital-sofia/

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Peter H. from Wales recommended this blog about old and beat up coins.

www.oldcoinnecromancer.blogspot.co.uk

Take a look.

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The educational sessions and lot viewing for the Sedwick auction takes place today (Wednesday) in Orlando.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/15/17 Report - Numismatic Archaeology of North America. Ship's Store Tokens. Determining the Source of Silver Coins. New Weather In The Atlantic.

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

Here is a good book.  You can read a sample free online.  The title is Numismatic Archaeology of North America: A Field Guide.

You might want to look at some of the later chapters first because there is a limit to how much you can read as a free preview.

Below is just one of many illustrations from the book that I found interesting.

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Maybe you've found something that looks like a coin but you can't identify it.  I have. This is an entire class of coins or tokens that you should know about.  As the book says, such tokens might be found in port cities or where sailors live.

There seems to be a lot of good interesting information in that book.

Click here to take a look at the free preview.

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Researchers in Germany and Denmark analysed the chemical composition of 70 silver Roman coins dating from about 310 BCE to 101 BCE, spanning either side of the war.

"Before the war we find that the Roman coins are made of silver from the same sources as the coinage issued by Greek cities in Italy and Sicily. In other words the lead isotope signatures of the coins correspond to those of silver ores and metallurgical products from the Aegean region," said Katrin Westner of the Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Goethe University, Germany...

Later coins came from silver mined in what is now Spain.

Here is the link to read more about that.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/2200-year-old-coins-record-hannibals-defeat-start-roman-empire-1634912


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Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Gert is up by North Carolina now, but there are two more systems to watch out in the Atlantic.  Either or both of those could possibly come our way.  It will be a while before we know what happens to them.

That is all for today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/17/16 Report - Numismatic Archaeology. Underwater Drones. A Study of Two Early Shipwrecks.

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

Last month this blog had over 100,000 page views.  When I started this blog I never dreamed of those kinds of numbers.

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Here is the description of what sounds like an interesting book.

Numismatic Archaeology of North America is the first book to provide an archaeological overview of the coins and tokens found in a wide range of North American archaeological sites. It begins with a comprehensive and well-illustrated review of the various coins and tokens that circulated in North America with descriptions of the uses for, and human behavior associated with, each type. The book contains practical sections on standardized nomenclature, photographing, cleaning, and curating coins, and discusses the impacts of looting and of working with collectors. This is an important tool for archaeologists working with coins. For numismatists and collectors, it explains the importance of archaeological context for complete analysis.

Click here to read a preview.

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One of the big things in defense technology these days seems to be drones.  That is not real new and we've all heard about it, but the newest thing with drones is using them in swarms, which are groups of small drones that communicate with each other and act in a coordinated fashion to accomplish mission objectives.

If you like to stay up on technology - and I think any serious treasure hunter should -  Jane's would be good reading.  It will keep you up on defense and security intelligence.  See www.Janes.com.

Search underwater drones, for example.

As you probably know, metal detector were developed to detect mines and the internet was developed as a military project.  A lot of research and development is conducted for military applications.

Here is a test on the latest underwater drone technology.

 Click here to read about that.

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Jack sent an email and said the following.

I've been reading your site for years,.. Worked Ft Lauderdale for over 25 Yrs,  but that will come later, You are right on the ball in everything you  say. Keep it up, please. I Love it!  Regarding The article on Tommy Thompson,  It's reported that just B-4 Blackbeard was hung, when asked where he had buried his gold he said, "Only me and the Devil knows where it's at."  Maybe Mr Thompson is following suit with a grin on his face,

                                                                                                                                                  
Thanks Jack.

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The only people normally reflected in the documentary record pertaining to these fleets are European. Very little is written about the approximately 100 Aztec warriors who accompanied Luna and his men to Florida or about the common sailors of the Padre Island fleet. Archaeology has the unique ability to give a voice to the disenfranchised whose history and lifestyles were not chronicled in the historical record (Little 1996:42-78).

That is one paragraph from a lengthy masters theses that primarily compares the ceramics of the Padre Island and Emauel Point shipwrecks.  

Here is the link.

http://etd.fcla.edu/WF/WFE0000406/Sorset_Scott_Ryan_201306_MA.pdf

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The surf will be around 2 - 4 feet for a few days, but we will still have some nice negative tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net