11/12/18 Report - Broken Old Medallion. Repaired Wooden Artifact. Robert Marx Lecture: Archaeology of the Abyss.

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

Old Broken Praying Hands Medallion.

Find and photo by John C.

Take a close look and you'll see the praying hands on this broken medallion.  Below is what John C. had to say about it.

Well sorry I know I'm a little off topic again, because as you can see from the picture it's not a drilled coin, but a religious medallion that at some point was purposely drilled.

It has to be over 20 years since I found this medallion, but I still remember it clearly, I think mainly because of how disappointed I was that it came out in three pieces. I'm sure there are other Beach Hunters out there that can remember a time when you attempt to dig a target only to find out that your shovel or scoop will only go down two or three inches at a time because of the thick layer of shell that's just below the sand. I hate that when that happens. Fortunately those conditions don't happen too often, so as you can see The Medallion broke at its weakest point where it was drilled,, makes you wonder why someone would drill a hole and ruin a beautiful medallion, but I sure would love to know the history and the story behind this medallion, but it looks like the original bezel ring at the top may have broke off long before it was drilled, so maybe it was lost and found several times,?

But I think what really inspired me to share this photo the most, was not so much the drill hole, but the image itself on The Medallion, "praying hands."

It says in Scripture that we should "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances"

So I think some will agree, that if there has ever been a time in the past say 50 years when our great country and all the movers and shakers of this country need prayers, it's now, but it's always encouraging to remember that God has a plan and a purpose for everything, and no matter how dark things may seem he's still in control.

Thanks again, for all your hard work an effort, that you put into your blog. JC 

Thanks for sharing John.   Fascinating medal.

The hole in the body of the medallion could have been created after the original loop broke.  People were not so quick to throw broken things away in days gone by.  They would often repair or repurpose broken items.  When trying to identify and date an artifact, you have to take into account that the item may have been used over a period of many years and could have been repaired or repurposed.

Hard to tell how old that medallion is but it certainly looks old.  I'd like to see some research and history on the motif of the praying hands.  Maybe someone will be able to provide that.

Back to the subject of repaired items.

Archaeologists found a 2000-year-old wood bowl that had been repaired with rivets and staples.

2000-Year-Old Repaired Wood Bowl.

Source: See BBC.com link below.

Here is the link to the article.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-46124211

And here is a wood bowl that is probably a hundred or more years old, but certainly not thousands of years old.  It is 17.5 inches in diameter.

Antique Wood Bowl.

It is badly cracked and was repaired a long time ago.  I added some wood glue to it, but before that it was repaired with wire.

Two Sets of Holes and Wire Used to Repair Cracked Wood Bowl.

Below is the other side.

Wire Used to Repair Crack Exposed.

On this one the wood chipped off exposing the wired used to repair the crack.

It can be difficult to determine the age of old items like this because they can be repaired and used for a very long time, and then repurposed and used for something else yet again.

A piece of an old copper kettle, for example, can be cut and turned into any number of things.

There isn't a huge difference between this wood bowl and the 2000-year-old bowl discussed in the article.

---

SIR ROBERT MARX LECTURE SERIES

ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ABYSS

Shipwreck Treasures from the Deep

By Sir Robert Marx

At the bottom of bodies of wa

SIR ROBERT MARX LECTURE SERIES

ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ABYSS

Shipwreck Treasures from the Deep

By Sir Robert Marx

At the bottom of bodies of wa

SIR ROBERT MARX LECTURE SERIES

ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ABYSS

Shipwreck Treasures from the Deep

By Sir Robert Marx

In this lecture Sir Robert, a pioneer in deep water archaeology, talks about early robotic

equipment and recoveries he made on deep-water shipwreck sites and submerged

settlements. He will take us around the world, from Singapore to the Azores, to

FOR MORE

fascinating sites that he and others have explored.

---

The surf on the Treasure Coast is supposed to be about four to six feet today, slacking off gradually through the rest of the week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/5/14 Report - Barber Dime, Small Gold Ring, $40 Million Chicken Cup, Wood Butter Bowl & Multi- Million Dollar Chicken Cup

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

As you know the beaches haven't been great lately, but like I said yesterday, things are still being found. 

William M. has been off-beach and making a lot of very nice finds.  Here is one.

Photos by William M.

1907 O Dime Found by William M.

Good detail.  Nice condition.   Obviously circulated, but while that might reduce the price, the smoothing from handling makes it all the more charming to me.

Here is a good table of Barber dime values.

http://values.hobbizine.com/barber-dimes.html

It isn't nearly as old as some of the shipwreck cobs you might find, but it as valuable as some cobs.

Way to go William!




When the beach conditions are poor I often revert to hunting modern items.   That hasn't been too good on Treasure Coast beaches lately either, but when beach conditions are poor water hunting can be fairly easy even though the spots that aren't buried in sand can be hard to find.

Here is a very small 10K ring that was found yesterday.  It must be a child's ring. 

It is only 1 gram of 10K gold.  Gold rings that small are often missed by many detectorists, especially if they are using too much too discrimination, and it doesn't take much to be too much.

I like the nice delicate design.  As I've said before, I like finding the small items.  If you are finding the smalls, your detector settings and technique is probably pretty good.

The ring has a little sand encrusted in some of the depressions yet.




I ran across a web site the other day that I wish I could find again.  A fellow was showing a collection of old items that had been repaired long ago.  The repairs were old repairs and it was fascinating to see the old techniques of repairing things.   These days most things just get thrown away instead of being repaired.

If anyone knows the web site I'm talking about or a familiar one please let me know.

For example, they had a copper kettle and showed how it was repaired.

Below is an old wood butter dish.  I would say it is 19th century.  I really like it even though it is needs a lot of help.  In the picture it is sitting on an old sewing cabinet.

Old Wood Butter Bowl.

 Notice the cracks.  It has some gunk on it that needs cleaned off.

Below is a close-up of an old repair that was made to the bowl.

They drilled a hole on each side of the crack and threaded a wire through the hole and twisted it tight.  That was evidently done a long time ago.







Close-up View of Wire Repair on Cracked Wood Butter Bowl. 

When I grew up most of the local families out in farm country still had a butter churn even if they didn't use it anymore. 

I don't doubt that this bowl was actually used for making butter.

The fact that it was heavily used and repaired makes it all the more charming to me. 

You can see how it was worn by much handling over the years - more interesting to me than an unused mint item.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is a "chicken cup" being sold by Sothebys that was made in China just before 1500 AD that is expected to sell for tens of  millions of dollars.

The reason I mention the "chicken cup" is that people sometimes find shards on the Treasure Coast, including occasionally some Kang-Xsi porcelain which was carried on the 1715 Fleet.  You therefore might want to know something about how to identify items like that.   It can be difficult to identify shards, but there are some easy-to-identify features of fine Chinese porcelain.

Fine Chinese Porcelain "Chicken Cup"

There are only four authentic "chicken cups" known to exist and that is one reason they are worth millions of dollars.   There are many fakes.

When I saw the picture of this "chicken cup" I could immediately see many of the features that are common to fine antique Chinese porcelain including Kang-Xsi. 

If you study examples like this you will be better able to identify them if you see them on the beach.

Most of the pieces of Kang Xsi you might find will be blue and white.  Pieces with additional colors can be more valuable. 

Notice the shade of blue.  That is typical.  So are the flowing hand-painted lines.  They have a distinctive look.  Also, porcelain like this will be very thin and delicate looking and very white. 

With a little practice you can learn to identify pieces like this pretty well.  

Inexpensive 19th century pottery  is typically much thicker, of courser grain and if broken is yellowish or beige instead of white on the broken edges.

I'm definitely not an expert on this and might not be using the correct terms but from observation have learned how to tell the difference between common colonial ceramics and Chinese porcelain.

I did a few posts on beach dynamics.  I received some correspondence on that, but I don't know how helpful it was to you all.   To me it is very important knowledge and helps me to quickly tune into the hot spots on a beach.  It isn't easy to explain, but it is very important.


I also hope you appreciate the bibliography on Spanish colonial America that I posted.  That to me is very valuable.


On the Treasure Coast the winds will be mixed today.   The surf will be up around three or four feet this weekend, diminishing next week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net