10/18/19 Report - Valuable Coins. Shipwreck Database. Wreck of Le Chameau. Browsing Auctions.

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

1893 Morgan Dollar With Estimate of Over $70,000

Source: coinweek.com (See link below.)

As you know, I've been following the current Sedwick Auction, which features a number of 1715 Fleet coins, but there are other auctions that might you might find both interesting and informative.

Legend Rare Coins will soon be offering an extraordinary array of coins in its upcoming Regency Exclusively Legend Auction, slated for October 24. The event, to be hosted at Harrah’s in New Orleans, promises to be an extravagant affair as Legend Rare Coins auctions typically are and buyers are already gearing up for intense bidding action, with the sale’s 184 lots posted online for pre-bidding.

The auction offers a gorgeous selection of proof and mint state type coins, principally selections of high-end Barber coinage, Morgan dollars, popular pre-1933 gold coinage, and other classic pieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries...

The auction features many rare and valuable coins including the 1893-CC Morgan $1 PCGS MS65 shown above that carries a presale auction estimate of $75,000 to $85,000.

Want to know what makes a coin so valuable?  Take a look at the examples in this auction. 

Here is the link.

https://coinweek.com/auctions-news/five-highlights-from-the-legend-rare-coins-regency-exclusively-legend-auction/

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Auction catalogs provide a lot of information.  That is why I like to look through them.  As much as I like looking through auction catalogs, I've never bought anything at an auction.  I just can't get excited about paying more than anyone else is willing to pay for an item.  I know there are times when people don't recognize the value of an item and you might be able to get a bargain, but I'd much prefer to find items rather than buy them.  I don't like spending money or buying things, especially if the particular item or a suitable substitute might be found.   It is no wonder then that I like metal detecting.

While looking through the current Sedwick auction listings, I noticed a coin from the wreck of Le Chameau.

On August 27th, 1725, in a storm off Cape Breton, while trying to make the mouth of Louisbourg harbour, Le Chameau was swept in upon the rocky shore...

For years afterwards, legends of the treasure lingered: glimpses of silver and gold in crevices and tales of lobster fisherman pulling up a few handfuls of coins. The treasure, however, was not
located at the time.

In 1961, a discovery of cannons scattered on the sea bottom alerted Alex Storm, a diver working part-time on a fishing trawler from Louisbourg. Braving the dangerous tides and freezing waters
at Kelpy Cove, Storm carefully mapped the wreckage of the Chameau to locate the treasure compartment. Storm's discovery triggered a rising interest in the wealth of shipwrecks off Nova Scotia's waters and brought legislation to protect them...

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.courseworld.com/wrecks/chameau.html

The Le Chameau is just a few miles north of …. you guessed it …  Oak Island.  It is just one of the many wrecks around Nova Scotia.  Below is a clipping that among other things shows a map of shipwrecks around Nova Scotia.

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It seems that if you spent a while searching it would be surprising if you never picked up something related to a wreck around there.

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Predicted Path of Tropical Storm 16.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

It looks like the Panhandle is going to get hit by Tropical Storm 16.

The Treasure Coast is on the wrong side of it and won't be affected much.

We won't have much surf for a few days.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

9/27/15 Report - History of "Money Digging." Tropics More Active. Rare Coins On Auction.

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

A Couple Fine Coins From An Upcomng Sothebys Auction
Source: See Sothebys link below. 

Have you ever heard of money diggers?  That is how they described treasure hunters in the early days of our country.

Treasure hunting was much practiced in the U. S. long before there was a United States.  Religious and other leaders of the day participated, as well as the common folk. Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints, was a money digger.

I found an article about the Joseph Smith's treasure hunting activities.  The article talked about Joseph Smith, but it also tells a lot about the history and superstitions associated with money digging.

Thetitle of the article is The Persisting Idea of American Treasure Hunting.  It was written by Ronald W Walker, and was originally published in BYU Studies, back in the 1980s.

Here is one paragraph from that lengthy paper.

From colonial times to at least the age of Jackson, Americans dug for magical treasure.  There were hundreds and probably thousands of these "money diggers," all seeking troves of fabled coins, mines, jewels and other valued prizes. They worked from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi hinterlands, and in a few localities heaped up tailings that rivaled those of the later forty-niners.  Yet for all this prodigious toil their finds were as rare as Merlin's transmuted gold.  What made them persist, relying on an immemorial but now forgotten world view, the money diggers placed faith in conjuring, elemental spirits, thrice spoken dreams, seeric gifts and enchanted treasure that could slip and rumble through the earth as easily as a fish moving through the deep.  The modern age will probably never fully understand the diggers strange compound of treasure seeking, religious feeling and intense psychological devotion to an old but fading way of life.  Theirs was another world which we can speak of but hardly enter.

 Here is the link if you want to read the entire article.

https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/BYUStudies/article/viewFile/5447/5097

Treasure hunting is an activity that inspires superstition.  Treasure hunters seek the unseen.  They depend to some extent upon luck, no matter how scientific and thorough they are.  Intuition can be a  big part of it,  Guesswork is also a part of it.  Despite all of the hard work and diligent effort, the outcome is uncertain, and success and failure begs for explanation other than pure chance.

Few of us share the superstitions common among the money diggers of the 18th century.  There are some that still use dowsing and other methods that do not have the support of science.  For the most part metal detectors have replaced dowsing rods, but many treasure hunters still experience the hunt as being somehow mystical, if not religious.

As Ronald Walker's paper details, treasure hunting has a long and deep history in America.  No wonder!  It is as instinctual as curiosity.  It is as natural as work and progress.

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If you watched TV the last few days it would have been difficult to miss the throngs of people that gathered excitedly to see the Pope.  It just goes to show how much of a hunger there is for the virtues characterized by the Pope and the Faith.

People of all faiths, as well as those of no religious faith at all, had good things to say about the Pope.  Many were moved to tears.  Congress, where leaders often rail for separation of church and state, seemed to have forgotten about their common cry for that separation.  Politicians of all stripes appeared to be deeply moved by the Pope's character and presence.  None had anything bad to say about him. News anchors, who usually are either hostile or at the very least show no friendship to religion, were also moved.  Nobody that I saw had anything critical to say about the man, including the aetheists, anti-religious, and those that are typically against religion.

It seemed to me that I was seeing a different side to the world.  Not in the Pope, He did not surprise me.  Nor did those of faith.  It was the politicians and media that surprised me.   It was those who make decisions for us and present the world to us.  It was also the unanimous, or what appeared to me to be the unanimous, interest, excitement and over-whelmingly positive reaction to this religious leader.

It appears to me that there is a deep world-wide hunger for authenticity and virtue and leadership. For a few days, on the TV news at least, conflict, hate and evil did not dominate.

Security was evident at every turn.  That shows that there is still evil in the world.  Maybe it was crowded out for a time - at least off of the TV screens that present so much of what we take to be the world.  Maybe what they normally present, with their continual emphasis on conflict and tragedy, gives us a lop-sided view of things.  I'm sure it does.  Maybe the imbalance swung the other way for a few days, and we'll soon be back to normal.  My hope is that it was not an illusion, and that in some small way we and the world were permanently changed for the better.

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I recommend spending some time with the https://www.windyty.com/?swell,30.477,-80.112,6 web site.  Not only will it give you a animated map showing the wind, but also the swell and waves.  Also if you place the cursor on any specific location it will give you detailed information for that location.  Give it a try.  Great  tool!

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Here is a site where you can see some great photos of some great coins.  The two coins shown at the top of this post are from this web site.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2015/stacks-bowers-rarities-auction-n09385.html?cmp=email_N09385_1015_2_CATexample1_event

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The past couple of days, I did a little detecting on a flat beach and found a good number of coins.  I didn't test any of the steeper beaches.

There are now two tropical disturbances in addition to Ida.  Ida doesn't seem to want to go away and is lingering out in the Atlantic.

There is one disturbance in the Gulf and one East of the Bahamas.  The one in the Gulf has a 10% chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours, and the one out East has a 20% chance.  Both are affecting our wind patterns.

For the next few days we'll be having something like a 3 - 5 foot surf.  There is a chance we will eventually get some significant beach improvement.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/2/15 Report - Treasure Map and Skeletal Hand Found In Box. An Old Pirate Cemetery. A Lot Of Discoveries Including Possible Reliquary At Jamestown.

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

Old Box Containing Hand, Coins, Photo and Map.
Source: http://fox13now.com/2015/04/29/man-discovers-coins-treasure-map-and-skeletal-hand-in-attic/

I just ran across this story.  A Florida man's sister found this old box containing what appears to be a human hand and some Maravedis and a map in an attic that was being cleaned out.

I don't know how all this proved out, but interesting story anyhow.

Here is the link.

http://fox13now.com/2015/04/29/man-discovers-coins-treasure-map-and-skeletal-hand-in-attic/

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Here is another interesting story.  I should have found these on Halloween.

Source: see link below.

Ile Sainte-Marie, an island off Madagascar's remote east coast has what the article describes as the world's  only pirate cemetery.

...In the 17th and 18th centuries up to 1,000 pirates reportedly called the rocky island home, including widely-feared brigands William Kidd and Thomas Tew. Thanks to its safe and secluded bays and location on the trade routes frequented by treasure-laden ships returning home from the East Indies, Sainte-Marie (known locally as Nosy Boraha or St. Mary's Island in English) afforded the perfect spot for shifty sailors looking for booty and a friendly place to live with like-minded looters...

Source: see link below.

Here is the link for the rest of the article and more photos.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kip-patrick/worlds-only-pirate-cemete_b_2754126.html

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...Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologists may have been busy identifying the four founders of the Jamestown colony who were unearthed in gravesites under the church for the past 20 months, but that did not stop them from continuing to dig elsewhere....


Since then, the team has discovered the fort and more than a million artifacts in the ground...
In the last month, the cellar has produced several noteworthy artifacts, including gun parts and rare coins...

The coins are what is known as Irish pennies. The English minted them in 1601 and 1602 and tried to introduce them as currency in Ireland, however the Irish rejected the coins and they quickly fell into disuse...


Here is the link for the rest of that story.

http://wydaily.com/2015/07/31/local-news-jamestown-unearthed-archaeologists-find-gun-parts-rare-coins-in-cellar-pit/

Here is a paragraph from another article on the Jamestown project.

...One of the four was Capt. Gabriel Archer, a lawyer and scribe. What intrigues researchers is that his grave contained a small hexagonal box etched with an “M.” The salt-shaker-sized box holds seven fragments of bone and parts of a small lead vial that may have held holy water, blessed oil or the blood of a saint. The bone fragments, about the length of a toothpick, appear to be human, said Kari Bruwelheide, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian...

http://www.aleteia.org/en/religion/article/jamestown-excavation-unearths-four-bodies-and-a-possible-catholic-reliquary-5788277718122496

Reliquary?
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There you have three very interesting stories to check out.  I got a late start today and that will be about it for today.

I know that the local guys have been putting in some good work along the Treasure Coast and you'll have to keep watching for the latest and greatest news.  As you saw last week, you never know when something amazing will pop up.

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The tropical disturbance that was out there in the Atlantic has disappeared.  Expect something like a two foot surf on the Treasure Coast most of this week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/31/14 Report - High Water and Shifted Sand On Treasure Coast. Rare Coin Sales. New Coin Laws.

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

One Beach This Morning Showing Shells On Flat Beach and Cut Back Near Dunes.

 I took a look at a few beaches this morning.  The water had been high recently.  You can see cuts back near the dunes.  And there were a lot of shells on the flat beaches back to near the dunes.

Here are some pictures from his morning.  Pardon the rain drops on the camera lens.

The sand had been shifted around.  There were some interesting beach features.

Same Beach Shown Above Showing The Front Slope and Small Cut In Front Of Shell Covered Flat Beach

Shells On Flat Beach

Surf Running Around Three Feet This Morning.

Another Beach This Morning Showing Small Cuts This Morning

The Professional Numismatists Guild said that in 2014, rare US coin sales topped 5 billion dollars.

A 1787-dated gold Brasher Doubloon sold for nearly 4.6 million dollars in 2014 and was one of a dozen United States rare coins that sold at auction for over one million dollars in 2014.


A bill has been introduced in the US Senate that includes a few provisions that would impact coin collecting.  If H.R. 5196: Unified Savings and Accountability Act becomes law, among other things, it would prevent the US Mint from producing coins that have a face value less than the cost to produce, which according to one article I read would include both pennies and nickels.  The bill also provides for a one dollar coin to replace the note.  Some say the bill has little chance of passing.

A Collectible Coin Protection Act was signed into law.  The law strengthen legislation against selling unmarked reproduction coins.  I doubt that really does much good. 

Here is a link for more on that.

http://news.coinupdate.com/collectible-coin-protection-act-becomes-law-4637/


Despite the fact that sand and shells were shifted a bit, I'm not increasing my beach detecting conditions rating.

Yesterday I posted the results of the poll concerning favorite finds of 2014.  Take a look if you didn't see it.

I got some interesting ideas on yesterday's mystery object.  I'll post them after I get some more.

Happy New Year!
TreasureGuide@comcast.net