8/17/15 Report - Detecting With Beach Movements. Mystery Token. Marks On Silver Cross.

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

Markings On A Found Silver Cross.

Can anyone help me identify the markings on this silver cross.  If you can idnetify them please zip me an email.

The cross is about one and a half inches high.  I think it had a loop for a pendant.  The loop is missing.

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Found Token

This token appears to be copper or brass and appears to be just a touch bigger than a quarter.  It is the same on both sides.

I'd also like help in identifying it.  Thanks.

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The above illustration shows the shallow water area and a front beach.  I wanted to discuss detecting in the shallow water a bit today.

I put the orange lines in to divide off some areas.  From left to right, you have the deeper water outside the bar, then the bar, then the dip inside the bar, and then the slope.

You'll often read or hear people say different things like, Check the dips in front of any cuts.  Nothing wrong with that. It is good advice.  I'd check that area if it looks promising, just like I would check any area. The dips will be good sometimes, but sometimes not - depending upon what is going on. Its a very dynamic system and the best thing is to be able to read the flow.

It is never a bad idea to check any area.  But checking doesn't mean spending a lot of time.  Check and make a decision base upon what you see.

Checking can help you not only determine if there are any targets there, it can also help you determine how things are moving.

A couple of thing you might want to learn is what kind of material is in the dip and how much of it there is.

Some types of areas definitely produce much more than others.  No doubt about that.  No area produces all the time though.  And spots will change between hot, neutral and cold, and sometimes very quickly.

Any one of the four areas I mentioned above can be the best place to hunt. Those areas are always changing.  They change as the tides go in and out, and they can change whenever the wind and waves change.

A local thunder storm might not last an hour, yet it can change the situation substantially.  A thunder storm can pass by, whip up the waves and create small cuts in a matter of less than an hour.

There are changes that occur over decades, years, months, weeks, days, hours and even minutes.  The past couple of years, for example, we've been in a sustained period of small surf, and the beaches have changed, but mostly in one direction.   What we've been seeing is a bit unusual.  I've never seen such a long period of time with nothing but small surf.

Even within that time, though, there have been times when things changed significantly on a very short term basis.  One day the front slope was loaded with coins.  The next day that was entirely changed.

My main point today is that things change constantly.  Maybe not large changes, but changes that affect where you will want to spend your time.

The area outside the bar might be the place to be at times.  That would be when swimmers have been hanging out and playing on the bar before the bar moved in.

The bar will move in and out.  I like to check the side of the bar that is losing sand.  For example, if the bar is moving in, check the outside of the bar.

When the bar is moving in, if it goes on long enough, the dip will eventually get filled and objects in the dip will get covered up.

There are times when the dip is a good place to find things like watches.  That often occurs when there coarse shell sand and lose material filling the dip and the coins and similar things are covered up.

The dip can get really good when the front of the slope is cut away and things are dragged down into the dip, especially when the sand gets moved out to deeper water.

Recently on the Treasure Coast, and I'm sure neighboring areas to some extent, there has been very little movement and change.  Things have remained relatively stable for quite a while.  Despite how stable things have been there have been times when certain areas got hot for a short time.  There have been days when it was best to detect the wet beach and other days when the zone just in front of the breakers was good.

It is a dynamic thing.  Don't get stuck in a rut. It's more of a dance.  Get in tune with it and move with it.

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I'll probably continue with this some other time - maybe tomorrow.

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/14/13 Report - Good Finds and Bad Finds Both Tell You Things & Hurricanes.

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

Gold Ring Beach Find

This ring is sort of unusual.  Modern jewelry is the best bet right now with the current beach conditions being so poor.  

This particular ring has a lot of surface area but is thin and not as heavy as it looks.  As compared to the small gold chain that I showed not long ago, this is an easy target.  

As far as quality goes this ring is not high quality but nevertheless is gold and worth a little.

The amount of surface area on this ring will keep it from sinking as fast as a more compact gold ring of the same weight and density.  The surface area will also produce a good strong signal if not too deep.

Humberto and Ingrid are still out there.  Humberto looks to be headed north into the Atlantic, while Ingrid is headed to Mexico.

Gold and silver fell to a new low for the month on Thursday, but gold recovered a little on Friday.


I picked up a wheat penny the other day on a heavily hunted beach in the dry sand.  It wasn't deep at all.   That is a bit of a mystery.  It had enough corrosion on it to suggest it wasn't a newly lost item.  Sometimes you find things where you just wouldn't expect them.   Not long ago I found a centuries old button in near the same type of location.  Just leaves me scratching my head.

Junk Finds From Another Beach.

The above junk was found at the edge of the water.  I don't know if they go together or not.  It's possible.

Always evaluate finds.  Continually evaluate beach conditions, and besides reading the beach, see what the finds are telling you.

If you recall, not too long ago I talked about how some beaches have better quality items than others.  The first thing I thought of when I dug the axe, which was dug before the junk chain, is that this could be one of those low-quality beaches.  I didn't give up on that beach right away though.  Sometimes there are exceptions and sometimes you need a bigger sample.    But when your sample gets bigger and you are still finding a lot of junk, you might be better off moving to a beach that on the average produces better stuff.

I'm always evaluating a number of factors and will move on or stay a while depending upon what is being dug.   Not only will items like this tell you something about the people that visited that beach, but they will also tell you something about beach conditions and where the heavy and lighter materials are located.  These are on the light side.

**  Remember that when I say "light," I don't mean exactly that.  As I've explained before, there are other factors beside weight or density that determines where items will be found.

Anyhow, items like this even if not desirable finds, do provide some good information.  Sometimes they tell you to move on.   They can also tell you to move to another zone of the beach where you might find better materials.
'

We still have the all too common 1 - 2 foot surf on the Treasure Coast.  That, however, will be changing a little.  The surf will increase to a peak of about 3 - 5 feet by Wednesday.   That is not a lot, but it is something.

Overall, beach conditions for hunting older items remains poor on the Treasure Coast.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/7/11 Report - Metal Detecting and the Splash Zone.

Beach Showing Splash Area.

I looked and looked but couldn't find any of my best photos of the splash area. This one does show the splash zone but not as well as I would have liked. You can see it if you look closely.

The blue line shows the approximate border of the back of the splash area which is between the blue line and the top edge of the cut. Where the arrow is you can see a bunch of shells. The shells run along the entire splash area, they are just more visible in the area that I am pointing to.

As I mentioned in my last post, the splash zone is where the water splashes up and over the face of a cut and deposits shells and other light materials behind the cut. There will usually be a lot of small shells, some sea weed and other light junk in the splash area. Splash areas do not form behind all cuts.

When a clear splash area does form and there are a bunch of shells behind the cut, there is also a good chance you will find a small cob or two there as well. They will be small cobs.

As I've mentioned, I don't know exactly how those cobs end up in the splash zone, but have observed old US coins flipping up over cuts.

As you can see from the survey results, the splash area is one of the areas where only one cob was reported found in the survey results. I didn't take the survey myself, and if I did, that number would have been a little higher, because I have found cobs in that area. In fact, my personal experience verified much of what the survey said.

I also know some other heavy duty detectorists and have observed some that hit the splash zone very heavily - too heavily to have never had success there. You just don't focus on an area that often unless you have found something there in the past.

Below is a cob that I found in the splash zone. It is typical of the type of cobs that are found there.

King Carlos Monogram On a Corroded Half Reale.

If I correctly recall this cob was found in 2010 on a 1715 Plate Fleet beach. It is a Mexican half reale. As you can see it is very corroded and is pretty light. It is fairly typical of the type of cob that you can expect to find in that type of area.

The assayer mark looks like a "C", but I think it must be a "G", which means the assayer would be Geronimo Bercerra, and would make the date somewhere in the 1665-1677 range.

I show the cob because it is so typical of the type of cob that would be found in a splash zone. As you would suspect, these small light cobs do not produce a real loud signal.

Here are some reasons why not too many cobs are found in the splash zone. First, splash areas do not form above all cuts. A number of conditions must simultaneously exist. Second, from my own personal observations, not too many people hunt that area, although as I mentioned I have observed some serious detectorists that hunt that area frequently and heavily. Third, the cobs found there tend to be smaller cobs that I am sure are missed by some detectorists.

Overall my personal observations support the survey results. The splash zone is not an area to be dismissed, but don't expect to find any eight reales there.


I hear that there are beach clean-ups this weekend for Fort Pierce and Martin County. I didn't really hear the date, but assume that they were talking about this weekend. They'll provide T-shirts, water, gloves, bags and a free lunch. You might want to look into that. It might not be too late if you want to look into that.

I also heard on the the Swap Shop on WPSL this morning that someone was looking to buy a metal detector. If you have one for sale you might want to call the show tomorrow.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.


Typical Beach On the Treasure Coast Friday.

Current beach conditions for finding shipwreck cobs or coins on the Treasure Coast remain poor. There is a lot of sea weed and a lot of loose sand piled up on the beaches.

If you aren't familiar with this blog, I use a five point rating scale to rate beach conditions for finding old shipwreck cobs or coins on the beach. I haven't gone over that for a long time now.

The five point scale goes from a 1 to a 5, where 1 means poor conditions and a 5 rating means excellent conditions.

Below you can see how the new sand at Fort Pierce inlet has already deeply eroded. It might be worth taking a look along the bottom of the cut although I don't expect much there. The sand came from out west of town.


New Sand Leaving Already.

The wind is from the west northwest today. Seas are running two to three feet, and will remain at those levels for several days. That doesn't look good for the weekend.

You'll have to work for finds on the Treasure Coast.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net