3/22/18 Report - Treasure Beaches Around The Treasure Coast. Two Old Shipwrecks Found. Roman Settlement and Dice.

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

Wabasso Tuesday Afternoon.
Photo by Joe D.

Joe D. went by some of the treasure beaches yesterday and sent these photos.  You can see a lot of renourishment sand and generally sandy conditions.  Here is what he said.

... I saw that they put down sand at Wabasso and Turtle Trail! And Seagrape was closed because they were still working on beach! I stopped by one other beach; Rio Mar, and detected for a short while at low tide! I could see either a reef, or a wreck that was exposed between waves! 

Turtle Trail Tuesday.
Photo by Joe D.

Turtle Trail Tuesday.

Rio Mar Tuesday
Photo by Joe D.

Reef At Rio Mar Tuesday.
Photo by Joe D.

Thanks for the report Joe!

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Two additional centuries-old ships have been unearthed in Old Town Alexandria, not far from where an 18th-century vessel was unearthed a few years ago.

The discovery was made at a construction site where Robinson Terminal South was located, according to a news release Monday from the City of Alexandria. Early indications are that the two ships are from the same era as the ship that was found at the Hotel Indigo site in 2015.

Archaeologists believe that that 50-foot ship was built sometime after 1741 and ended up being used as landfill in the late 1700s...

Here is that link for more.

https://wtop.com/alexandria/2018/03/2-old-ships-unearthed-alexandria/

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Archaeologists have uncovered a Roman settlement that likely housed the family members of soldiers serving at a nearby Roman fort. The settlement, located in the modern-day German town of Gernsheim, holds countless artifacts, including an ancient dice and a game piece that the inhabitants likely used to entertain themselves.

Dice design has changed very little since Roman times. Researchers found a gaming piece and die during excavations of the Roman settlement.

Here is that link.

https://www.livescience.com/52227-photos-roman-settlement-germany.html

One reason I found this article is that I found two dice today along the Indian River.  Dice aren't so interesting, but I thought it was interesting how I found one die in the morning at low tide when I took a little walk, and then in the evening when the tide was low, I took a little walk in the other direction and found another one.

I can't recall finding die before, so when I found the second a couple hundred yards away from where I found the first, I thought that was very unusual.  One was bigger than the other and I'm not sure what the first is made of yet.

I've often said, "Birds of a feather flock together."  Moving water separates and sorts things.  When conditions are right, certain types of objects will be left on or near the surface.  If I ever found dice along the river before, it wouldn't have been so surprising to me, but they were such rare finds for me that finding two in one day seemed pretty remarkable.  It is not totally coincidence.

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Beach conditions haven't changed much.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/17/17 Report - History of a Few Changing Treasure Beach Names. More On Identifying Targets From Metal Detector Signals.

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

You've heard all of the names:  Anchor Wreck, Cannon Wreck, Unknown Wreck, Cabin Wreck, etc.  It can be confusing.  It can be just as bad with beaches.

Some beaches have multiple names.  Some names are left over from days gone by.  Some were informally named by locals before they had an official name.

You might have heard of Colored Beach.  That is a name that was used for many different beaches in many different communities in the days of segregation.  There were beaches that were used by Blacks when they were not welcome at the best beaches in the community.  Those beaches were often called "Colored Beach."

There was one such beach near Miami on Virginia Key.  I used to detect it often and found good numbers of silver U. S. coins there.  That part of Virginia Key, which borders Bear Cut, was nearly abandoned at one time, but the entire island got a makeover in more recent years.  Before it got renovated it was the site of a few movies and TV shows that required a tropical setting.

The beach south of Fort Pierce that is named Frederick Douglass Memorial Beach was once a "colored beach." It is named after Frederick Douglass, the famous African American abolitionist.

Maybe you've heard of the Christmas Tree that was north of John Brooks Beach.  It is gone now and has been gone since 2004.  It was nothing more than the remains of an old trunk or stump that stood north of the John Brooks beach access.  People used to decorate it with junk they found on the beach, such as ropes, buoys, or anything that happened to be nearby.  It was a landmark referred to in books and used by detectorists as a landmark.

One treasure beach that has a lot of different names is Bonsteel Beach.  Before it was known as Bonsteel Beach, it was referred to as Chuck's Steakhouse.  Chuck's Steakhouse was torn down, It  was north of the Bonsteel Beach Access. 

The same beach is sometimes called Half Reale Beach.  That is because of the predominance of half reales found there.

The same beach is also called "Money Walk."  You can imagine how it got that name.

Since no shipwreck has been found off shore at that location, there are several theories about how the cobs got there.  I might discuss those some other day, including theories about why so many half reales are found there.

The Brevard County boundary was south of today's Sebastian Inlet until 1959 when the land south of the inlet was given to Indian River County as a result of the bridge being built.

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Yesterday at first I had the wrong link posted for the video about how a signal can change if the position of a target is changed.  After someone kindly informed me of the mistake, I corrected the link, so if you looked earlier and got the wrong link, which happened to be in Italian, here is the corrected link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L96xy9nRZo

The primary purpose of the link is to show how the signal will change if a coin or ring shaped object is on edge rather than laying flat.

Concerning that, Bill P. sent me the following email message.

Regarding your post from today (2-16-17), one of the most distinct sounds I hear on my Minelab is when I'm over a gold earring. 2 totally different sounds when the clasp is open and closed (specifically hoop style earrings). When open it can sound just like a bottle cap. I don't pass those up often unless I'm in an area where folks have had a beer bash. Watches also give funky junk sounds sometimes. Years ago I found a nice gold ladies ring next to a chunk of rusty iron. Talk about a funky sound. I'm glad I dug it anyway. Bill P...

Thanks much Bill.

I can always identify long thin targets such as nails from the signal even with detectors such as the ATX.

Bent thin targets such as fish hooks have a very distinctive signal.  A broken finger ring and unclasped hoop ear ring would be similar.

The signal from a broken gold ring will not be as strong as an unbroken ring.

I used a bent brass tag in my video.  Being bent, it will present a variety of surfaces to the detector coil depending on the various angles and the signal will change accordingly.

Those are general observations.  Different detectors and different settings can cause different signals.

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The weather is beautiful.  There is a touch of coolness in the morning air.

The surf is still small, but unfortunately we are no longer getting much of a tidal change, and no negative tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comast.net

4/17/16 Report - Up To Nine Foot Surf Predicted For Tomorrow. Survey of Some Treasure Beaches.

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

Wabasso This Morning Before Low Tide.

With the increased surf I wanted to look around to see what was happening.  Above you see Wabasso. Nothing very exciting there.

Looking North From Turtle Trail Beach Access This Morning.

I didn't see anything very exciting from the Turtle Trail access either.

The waves this morning were hitting the beach directly from the east.

South of Seagrape Trail Beach Access Looking North Towards The First Flag Pole.

There was some sand loss around the Seagrape Trail Access.  

To the south around the first and second flag poles the sand was reduced, but only to the level that the very top of some of the erosion control bags were visible.  Another couple of feet would be required to take it down to where it was at the end of 2015 when it was producing.

South of Seagrape Trail Access Looking South Towards the Second Flag Pole.

You can barely see a little of the erosion control bags in the picture immediately above.

John Brooks Beach This Morning Before Low Tide.

There was some additional erosion here today, but not a lot.  You can compare it to the picture I posted yesterday, which I mistakenly labeled Frederick Douglass.

The sand in front of these cuts is still pretty mushy here.  The maximum cut is about three feet.

That is about it for today.

To summarize, there is some additional sand loss, but very little.  It has not improved enough for me to issue a beach conditions upgrade yet.

Although the surf is bigger, the tides are not very big and the waves are hitting straight on.

Tomorrow the surf is supposed to be up to 6 - 9 feet.  That is pretty big.  I wish we would get a good change in wind and wave direction.  As I've said many times before, it takes more than waves.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/5/15- Continuing Wind But Little Erosion On Treasure Coast.

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

Here are pictures of three treasure beaches as seen this morning.  Despite the continuing wind, there was very little in the way of cuts.  Yet one spot that I could measure accurately lost about one foot of sand from the front slope since yesterday morning.  That was near a spot that was producing a week or so ago.  Since that time it had filled some, but was now about back to the level it was at when it was producing.  One big difference is that the tides are not as big now and the water is not getting up as high on the beach.  You'll notice the sea weed near the top of the slope.

The top and middle of the beach was pretty clean.  There was some black sand.  Except for some big junk, most targets, and all the good targets that I found were down at the very front of the beach where you could only get at low tide.

One interesting thing I noticed was that down about a foot under the surface of the sand was another layer of black sand.  The deeper level was heavy and thick.





Although a lot of you have been reading this blog for years, some of you have not.  As a result I need to describe my beach detecting conditions rating scale.  The rating scale does NOT rate the chances of finding modern coins or items.  The rating scale is for old cobs and artifacts.  It takes better conditions to find the older materials, and it happens much less often.

You'll often find more modern items whenever the beach gets stirred up a little.  I've written quite a bit about coin lines and coin holes, which most often hold more modern items.  It takes much more to produce items that are hundreds of years old. My rating scale is not about finding pennies, nickles, dimes and quarter.

A "1" rating, as you probably know, indicates poor conditions for finding a cob or treasure coin on a Treasure Coast beach.

I have been pretty conservative with my "2" ratings and probably will be a little more liberal with that rating in the future.  I often found myself struggling over the rating when things were improving but I wasn't sure that cobs would be found.  I will use the "2" rating to indicate exactly that type of borderline or transitional situation when conditions have improved and probably will produce a a FEW cobs on at least one beach.  Most likely only some of the Treasure Coast beaches (maybe only one) will end up actually being productive. Some beaches will be better than others, and conditions will be such that they could change at any time, either improving and becoming productive or becoming unproductive.

A "3" rating indicates conditions that will definitely produce some small number of cobs on some beaches.  A "4" will indicate conditions expected to produce larger numbers of cobs and on more beaches.

A level "5" rating indicates conditions similar to those typically found after hurricanes or extremely good conditions such as those produced by the famed Thanksgiving storm.  Those will be rare.

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The wind and surf will be about the same tomorrow as it was today.  I'm sticking with my 1 rating on my beach detecting conditions scale.  I still wouldn't be at all surprised if a few cobs were found.  I only looked at a few beaches today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/19/14 Report - Cold Front Brings North Winds and Cuts Some Treasure Coast Beaches. Minimal Beach Detecting Conditions Upgrade.

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

Global warming strikes again.

As the front came through yesterday the wind picked up and is now comiing from the North.  Yesterday I said I expected some sand to be moved, and this morning I went out to check it out.  Below is what I found.

One Cut Treasure Coast Beach This Morning Looking South

Same Treasure Coast Beach This Morning Looking North

Three Foot Cut At Same Beach

 The beach above was cut for hundreds of yards.  The cut was from about one foot to just over two feet.  The front beach was not firm.  There were not many targets of any kind here.  The swash was only about ten yards in front of the cut.

Larger Cut At Another Treasure Coast Beach

Shells Being Uncovered On Same Treasure Coast Beach

 The first beach is natural sand, but the second beach (last two photos) was also cut but only in renourishment sand.  Plenty of shells were just under the surface.  There were many iron targets here as well as a few coins.

One beach I looked at had no cuts.  In fact sand was accumulating there.

As you might know, the original purpose of this blog was to keep you up to date on the changing conditions of the Treasure Coast treasure beaches.   The conditions have been so consistently poor that I quit giving a rating when it was the same day after day.  I started to only comment on conditions when there is a significant change.

I use a five-point rating scale for treasure beach detecting conditions.  A "1" rating indicates poor conditions, which we've had a lot of this year and last year, and a "5" indicates excellent conditions, like you normally get only after something like a hurricane.

Today I'm actually going to issue a beach detecting conditions rating upgrade, but only to a 2.   It is a minimal 2 at that.  If I gave fractional ratings, this would be more like a 1.5.

The cuts are scattered.  And they are not real good, but there is the distinct possibility of one or two old pieces of treasure to show up on the beaches.  The probabilities are low though.  Like I said, I'm only expecting very few, maybe one or two to show up.

More sand will need to be moved to improve increase the probabilities.  It is worth keeping an eye on for the next couple of days.

Once again this shows that the direction of the wind and waves is as important as the size of the waves for creating erosion.


At Jupiter Inlet beach it looks like they are doing another project.  You can see the bull dozier at work. (Thanks to GoSports1 for pointing this out.)

http://evsjupiter.com/


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net