6/29/17 Report - Army Corps To Metal Detect Large Part North Hutchinson Island. Diagnostic Artifacts Web Site.

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

Area Designated for Study.

The area shown above will be the subject of a study to determine what materials might remain on the old amphibious training base.  Below is an excerpt describing the study.

A Tiny Tim was found in January of 2017 during a construction project.  Munitions were also found during a removal project in 1998 and munitions were removed in 2014 and 2015.

The Tiny Tim is a 1200 pound rocket or torpedo (I've seen it referred to both ways) that was detonated in the water off Vero.

Here is the link to that event.

http://www.wptv.com/news/region-indian-river-county/vero-beach/world-war-2-era-tiny-tim-rocket-dug-up-in-vero-beach-neighborhood

I saw them remove the obstacles from the shallow water a long time ago.  It must have been 1998, although it seems like it could have been longer than that to me.

It should be interesting to see what they find, military or otherwise.

Trez sent me a copy of the proposal prepared by the Environmental Science and Engineering Co. of Gainesville for the Army Corps of Engineers.  There goes our tax dollars again.

Thanks to Trez for the great info.

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I found a great web site just yesterday.  It is the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum website.

I commend them for putting it out there and making it accessible to the tax-payers.  Good example of other states and government organizations to follow.

The have sections on diagnostic artifacts, including projectile points, prehistoric ceramics, colonial ceramics, and other small finds.  You have to go two or three clicks deep in each of those to get to the individual examples.

Here is the link.

http://www.jefpat.org/researchtools.html

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On the Treasure Coast we still have a one-foot surf.  The tides are more moderate now though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/26/15 Report - Pierced or "Holed" Coins: Characteristics and Uses. Slight Beach Improvement. Sea Glass Again.

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

Pot Shard and Sea Glass Incidental Finds

Here are a couple beach finds from this morning, They were eye-balled while detecting near low tide.  The blue sea glass is well tumbled and has a nice elongated teardrop shape.


Before I get into my main topic for today, I wanted to mention that the high tides lately has done some good, but not enough for me to  change my Treasure Beaches Detecting Conditions Rating.

I should also say that I would bet that there will be a few small cobs found.  I suspect they will be very few and very small.  The high tides have been dropping shells near the high tide mark on some beaches.

There are some shells and pieces of fossils on a few beaches now.  More than I've seen in quite a while.

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If you've dug many coins you've probably found some that were "holed" or "pierced."  Over the years I've found everything from holed pennies to holed reales.  Probably most common in my experience are holed wheat cents.

You might have noticed the holed large cent in yesterday's post.  I pointed out the hole in one of the large cents dug by GoldNugget.

Holed coins are thought to have served a variety of purposes.  For slaves, it is said that holed coins were worn on a cord around the neck and served as a type of wedding band.

Holed coins may also have been used as charms.  You've probably heard of lucky pennies.  Some people wear coins bearing their birth year or other important years.

Some holed coins are simply used as a nice shiny trinket or adornment.

One coin found by archaeologists was punched multiple times and may have been used as a button.

Coins bearing two holes, one on each side, may have been strung together as bracelets or necklaces.

It is also said that coins were sometimes pierced to be sewn into clothing to prevent loss.

The practice of piercing coins may have been replaced to some extent  by the practice of mounting coins in a bezel.

One study looked at hundreds of "holed" coins offered on eBay.  Most had one hole, were holded at the top of the obverse (side bearing the main design) as if holed for hanging, and the majority were from the mid 1800s.

I think this survey of auction coins is great, but on a site like eBay, you never know how many might be copies, fakes or simply misrepresented.  Still, I think this survey is a good start.

The title of that study is Pierced Coins: Insights From eBay, by William B. Lees and Monica L. Beck of the University of West Florida.

Here is the link.  http://uwf.edu/wlees/SEAC2007.pdf

Here is something interesting on the subject found at another web site.

Based on my study of old coins excavated in Virginia, on average about eight per cent of the older coins have holes. Almost all are holed near the rim. Coins holed at center are unusual to dig. I understand coins used in West African rituals to be holed at the center and buried at the corner of structures. The tradition served to help spirits who could recognize objects they possessed in life, to find their way back to visit their living relatives when taken away from familiar surroundings...

That came from the following linked site.

http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v14n26a07.html

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Beach Near Low Tide Yesterday.

This particular beach has about twenty yards of flat sand out in the shallow water.  That sand came from the beach, which is now rather firm.  I chose to detect this beach rather than the steeper one with shells at the high tide mark.  This one had shells down near the water line.

We have a full moon tonight and will have another good high tide.  The surf will be increasing up to five feet in a couple of days, and the longer range prediction is for nine feet.  I can't get excited about the nine feet yet, because the long range predictions are not very accurate.

Nonetheless, it does look like we'll have some continued improvement in beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/7/13 Report - TC Magnetometer Survey, LiDAR, Marine Growth, and Latest Cold Front

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

Mangetometer Being Towed by Helicopter
Photo submitted by Hen Hayes,
Predisent, AquaSurvey Inc.

As you know if you've been reading this blog very long, it covers a variety of topics.  One day it might be about detectors, another day about pot shards or fossils, modern jewelry, relics,  bottles, or pieces of eight and Spanish galleons.  You just never know.  And that is something I like about metal detecting.  You never know.  You never know what you might find or learn on any given day.   There is always something new.  And it touches so many different disciplines and fields of study.



Well today, it looks like I'm going a little high tech. I received an email from the President of a company named AquaSurvey Inc.  The President, Ken Hayes, told what they have been doing along the Treasure Coast.

Here is what Ken said.

For the past three weeks we have been towing a new high-tech glider along the Treasure Coast to pinpoint most all shipwrecks.  The resulting maps will give us a bird’s eye view of several hundred years wrecking along the coast.  We don’t know what the charts will reveal, that’s why we did it.  However, we suspect that it will be a great help to private salvage small business entrepreneurs and the larger publicly traded salvage companies.  We were amazed that we were able to collect extremely high-quality data from an airborne potassium-vapor magnetometer glider being towed at 60 MPH.  Data gathered from a major survey like this one (perhaps the largest ever performed) will take weeks to process.



Back in my 12/22/13 post I reported on rumors of a strange helicopter that some people noticed flying up and down the coast.  I suspect that this might have been it.

Ken didn't mention any reality TV shows being involved.

Thanks for the information Ken.


Other technologies have been very productive for revealing land sites too.  Here is a National Geographic article on how LiDAR revealed features of lost 18th Century New England sites.

LiDAR Images
Source: National Geographic Magazine
Link immediately below.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140103-new-england-archaeology-lidar-science/

Good article.


When you find an item, see what the surface tells you.   It might give you some important clues to where it has been and where it came from.   Signs of marine live growth can tell you that the item was once in the water.  The extent of the growth can give you an item of how long.  So can the extent of corrosion.

Here is an article about how vases from sunken ships create a good base for many types of marine life.

http://www.livescience.com/42333-sunken-vases-biology-experiments.html


On the Treasure Coast today the wind is from the North.  The wind increased later this morning, creating white caps on the river pretty much like it did the last time a cold from passed through.  We got some erosion then.  I expect about the same thing this time.  Some small erosion, but not enough to improve detecting conditions much.

Unfortunately the direction of the waves will come more from the East tomorrow.  Again, that is pretty much what happened after the last cold front.

On Thursday a higher surf is predicted, but the wind will be form the East then.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/22/13 Report - Strange Helicopter, Large Treasure Coast Ordnance Removal Project and WWII History

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

Figure From 1998 NRL Project Report.
See link below for link to the report.

Have you seen the strangely equipped helicopter flying up and down the coast off of Hutchinson Island?

There have been many rumors recently about the helicopter with a strange contraption attached.  Some said it could be a government agency doing a study of the sand.  They can actually measure the amount of sand deposits in the water from the air.  Others thought it could be a magnetometer survey or photographic mapping.

One resident who spoke to the helicopter crew thinks they got the answer.  They say the helicopter is conducing a magnetometer survey for WWII items.

As you probably know a magnetometer by detecting differences in the magnetic fields can detect iron objects.

It has been determined that a Canadian company is performing the survey to locate the WWII items for a future reality TV program.

That reminded me of a large project to remove WWII items from the Treasure Coast beaches back in the 1990s.

I've talked about that a little in the past but you might be surprised by the extent and type of artifacts that were removed.

Figure From Same NRL Report.

Beginning in 1993, the project conducted by the Naval Research Laboratory removed everything from sculleys, to live bombs, "tiny tom" missiles, to railroad rails.  The 1990s project employed a magnetometer survey with a magnetometer array pulled by the vehicle shown here.

The strangest contraption though was a large barge-like amphibious vehicle on tracks like those used on tanks or other heavy equipment and equipped with a large crane that was used to remove large sculleys from the water.  That thing was huge.  I wish I got a photo of it at the time. I hoped they would show it in the report, but they didn't.

The fellows working the project were dressed like those shown below in black shorts and white Ts.

If you want to learn more about the project, what was detected, how the project was conducted, and what went on at our Treasure Coast beaches during WWII, below is a link to a report on the project.

Not a Cannon But a Rocket Being Removed From
a Treasure Coast Beach.

Anti-Tank Mines Removed From Beach.

Here is the link for the Navy report.  It is a PDF file.

https://www.google.com/search?q=navy+research+laboratory+ordnance+removal+fort+pierce+1998&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS536US536&oq=navy+research+laboratory+ordnance+removal+fort+pierce+1998&aqs=chrome..69i57.18867j0j4&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

You'll find a lot of information in the report and some useful hints.

Most of the items removed were larger - at least a half meter or more.  And as you'll read, there was a lot of "live" ordnance.

Many obstacles thought to be a danger to swimmers and
boaters like this Hedgehog were removed from the
water along the Treasure Coast.

Did you know, that Normandy Beach on South Hutchinson Island was named that because it was used to conduct training exercises for the invasion of Normandy?   The report says that area was used for bombing raid exercises.


I've been receiving a lot of email from readers from other states lately.  I'll post some of those and some ideas on the mystery item I posted yesterday.

I got one report of good erosion on the Alabama Coast lately.


On the Treasure Coast a lot of surfers were enjoying the Christmas break yesterday.  The surf was up to about four feet.

On Christmas the predictions are for a six foot surf.


Happy Hunting,
TreaureGuide@comcast.net