6/10/20 Report - Christopher Columbus Statue In the Lake. Trade Relations Between Spain and Indigenous. On Missing Items With Your Metal Detector.

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

A Christopher Columbus statue in Richmond Viginia was torn down, torched and thrown in a lake by protesters.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/christopher-columbus-statue-torn-down-thrown-in-lake-by-protesters/ar-BB15hVGk

I suppose you can find a lot of interesting things in lakes, especially where there have been wars and uprisings.

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Speaking of Columbus, you might find Trinkets (f)or Treasure? The role of European material culture in intercultural contacts in Hispaniola during early colonial times, a 260 page thesis by Floris Keehnen interesting.  It describes trade between the Old World and New World in the early contact days along with much history and analysis.

Below are a couple brief excerpts discussing the objects of trade.

 European exchange commodities furthermore included “horses, saddles, and stirrups; cloth, caps, and hats; saffron, wine, wheat, and salt; and lead, iron, steel, copper, and brass” (Phillips and Phillips 1992, 55). Next to slaves and gold, the local African rulers offered “animal skins, gum arabic, civet, cotton, malagueta pepper, cobalt, parrots, and camels” (ibid.). Not only Portugal, but also Castile profited from the African gold that reached their markets in high quantities where it contributed to a flourishing economy. The Iberians were now making good profit from the trade in gold and slaves and this would continue for a couple of centuries more (Bovill 1995; Thomas 1997; Thornton 1998)...


In the above fragment of the first documented exchange, the things mentioned by name to have been
traded are red caps, glass beads and bells by the Spanish, against parrots, cotton and javelins by the
Indians. Indeed these were among the items that were most frequently bartered between the two
cultures. But also tableware, like “pieces of (clay) bowls” and “broken glass cups” (Dunn and Kelley
1989, 71, 107), “fragments of dishes and plates” (Chanca in Parry and Keith 1984, 87), as well as coins, clothes and lace-ends, were swapped. At one instance it is mentioned that some of the Spanish sailors had caught a sea turtle, of which the ship’s boys traded pieces of the shell, the size of a fingernail, for which they were given javelins in return (Dunn and Kelley 1989, 197). The exchange is remarkable, since the Spaniards here trade a local and, for the natives, familiar (though rare) commodity with the Taíno, assuming the presence of a certain ethos of hospitality or social strategy with strangers. As regards gold, this was not traded in the first couple of days of contact. Though, upon seeing some pieces of gold a Lucayan Indian was wearing as ornamentation, Columbus was covetous to find all there was. This he made explicitly clear to the local people by dangling gold, but also pearls, in front of them, asking where to find it (e.g. ibid., 133).79 As appears from the ethnohistoric accounts, the people of the Greater Antilles soon perceived the Spanish enrapture of the material, often before their actual arrival (cf. Mol 2008).

And here is the link for the entire lengthy thesis.

https://www.academia.edu/4804086/Trinkets_f_or_Treasure_The_role_of_European_material_culture_in_intercultural_contacts_in_Hispaniola_during_early_colonial_times?email_work_card=title

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Last night confederate statues were being torn down in Portland, and a statue fell and critically wounded one of the participants, so the protestors slinked off into the night.

Same type of things is going on in other countries. See  https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/statue-slave-trader-toppled-threw-in-river-edward-colston-bristol-england-1.5602443

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Detectorists like metal detectors.  If they find something they often credit their trusty detector, and if they fail to find something, the metal detector is one of the first things to be blamed, but there are a lot reasons you might miss objects.

I remember back many years ago not long after I began metal detecting I was detecting Hollywood beach and a fellow asked me if I could detect his watch.  Of course I said yes, but he wanted to test me.  He buried his watch under some sand as I looked the other way.  Then I used my detector.  I walked right over the watch without getting any signal from my metal detector.

I suppose that my sweep pattern wasn't very good.  I was probably moving too fast and leaving space between sweeps, but it could have also been that I was using discrimination.  Either one of those could have been the case, but I know that a Fisher 1280, properly used, should detect any watch.  I am certain it was not the fault of the metal detector.

I do remember that in those days I was using discrimination, so that could have been the reason I missed the watch.  In fact, at first I was finding a lot of men's rings, but few women's rings.  I remember thinking  that men must lose more rings than women.  Of course later I learned that if I turned my discrimination down I found just as many women's rings.  It wasn't the metal detector's fault that I was not getting the valuable women's rings with diamonds.  It was my fault for not using the detector well.  Of course you need a metal detector that works, but you also need to use it well.

I've often said, if I was depending upon someone finding me my next meal, I'd trust a wise old hunter with a bow and arrow over a novice with the best gun ever.   There is more to hunting game than shooting it.  It helps to know the habits of the game and where it can usually be found.  It helps to know how to track it and get in position to get a good shot.

Your metal detector does make a difference.  Some are better than others, but if you have a decent detector, and know how to use it well, there are other important factors, including knowing how to use it.

I know darn well that I miss a lot of things.  I expect to miss things.  You can't cover the entire beach.
Remember that your detector coil only covers a few inches at a time.  And if you are doing a normal sweep, you are probably skipping some ground in between sweeps.

I often do a lot of checking around using a very loose pattern first, and then if I find a spot that looks more promising I'll slow down and cover it more tightly.  I can't go into all the signs that indicate it is time to slow down and tighten the pattern now.  There are quite a few of those. Some involve the lay of the land, and others include other types of clues.

As I've said before, unless I have reason to believe one particular area is worth inspecting well, I'm not going to slow down, and I know I might miss some things.  I'm looking for an area that looks like it is a better area than most other areas and then I'll slow down.

If an area looks very promising, I'll not only cover it very tightly, but I'll cover it multiple times, and perhaps with more than one metal detector.

Yes the detector makes a difference, but if you have a decent detector for the job, how you use it is just as important or more important than the detector you are using.  If you aren't finding anything or if you miss something, don't jump to the conclusion it is the metal detector's fault without checking to see if your settings, sweep speed and pattern and other things are good.  Those things can make a huge difference.  A poor detector used well can perform better than an excellent detector used poorly.

You can find coins without a metal detector if you know where to look.  It will only be a fraction of the total you can find with a metal detector, but you can often find coins laying on the surface if you know where to look.  If you do find coins laying on the surface, you can bet there will be a lot more just beneath the surface.

There is a lot more to say, but I'll stop there for now.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/6/20 Report - Pre-Columbian Beer Keg. Victoria Cross Analysis. Stolen Treasure Dug Up.

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

Pre-Columbian Beer Keg Found in Mexico.

Source: MexicoNewsDaily.com (See link below.)

Below is a bit of the story of the jar shown above.

Naturally the archaeologists decided to check their assumptions and as soon as they began digging beneath the surface, they discovered that a 10-square-meter section of the new museum site was unusually rich in artifacts. Within a few months they unearthed bowls, jewelry, figurines, six burials, five ovens and six big urns, one of them a meter high by a meter wide...

It is interesting to note that the big jar found in 2008 weighs about 100 kilos empty, so that when it was full of liquid it must have weighed around 200 kilos (441 pounds).

“It may seem surprising,” Esparza told me, “but it appears that jars of this size were commonly used in those days and every home may have had not just one, but two or three jars this size. I should mention, by the way, that in our excavations we have normally found these pots all in pieces, not well preserved like our big jar, which we found 85% intact.”...

Here is the link for the rest of the story.

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/mexicolife/after-12-years-a-giant-pre-hispanic-jar-tells-its-story/

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The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces.

Victoria Cross
Source: TheGuardian.com (See link below.)

There was some question if they were made from the cascabels of captured guns.  That was investigated and here is the answer.


“While it’s unlikely that even the earliest medals came from the ordnance captured at Sevastopol, it is clear that most of the VCs awarded since the first world war have plausibly been sourced from the cascabels of captured guns – an important and symbolic fact for those who have received the honour in recognition of their bravery,” Marriott said.
Here is the link for more about that.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/03/show-your-mettle-victoria-cross-not-made-of-captured-russian-guns-after-all


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A Mexican drug lord's property seized and sold at auction.

The auction, held at the Los Pinos cultural complex, also offered 77 cars, five airplanes, five homes and 107 lots of jewelry, among other seized goods. In total, more than 130 million pesos, around US $5.3 million, was collected...

He is estimated to have amassed a fortune of around US $25 billion by transporting drugs, mostly cocaine, from Colombia and Mexico to the United States, often using his fleet of jets, which is how he earned his nickname...

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ex-drug-lords-mansion-goes-for-49-million-pesos/

While all of the focus is on Covid, the death and devastation of drugs continues.

I've found bales on Treasure Coast beaches in the past.  I'm sure others have too.

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Every once in a while you dig up something and wonder how it got there.  Sometimes you know, or at least have a good idea, and sometimes you can only imagine.

Some things were buried by the rightful owner, but sometimes thieves bury stolen goods.  Unless you are looking for a known treasure, you might not know which it is.

Here is a story I ran across about stolen goods that were buried.

Huge Stash of Stolen Goods Uncovered Long after Prolific Thief Is Apprehended

Los Angeles: On Feb. 25, 2008, LAPD Burglary Special Section detectives received a map leading to stolen goods buried in the ground near the 118 Freeway at White Oak Avenue. The unearthed treasure may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and is yet another chapter in the arrest and conviction of Roberto Caveda...

Recently, the case resurfaced with the discovery of the buried treasure, based on information Caveda relayed through his attorney. To safeguard it, Caveda stuffed it into a plastic pipe and placed it in the ground on a 118 Freeway right-of-way. As before, when detectives sorted through the stolen material, they discovered a lot of jewelry...

Here is that link.

http://www.lapdonline.org/february_2008/news_view/37637

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Looks like we're going to get some bigger surf before long.

Surf Predictions

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

5/1/20 Report - 22 Shipwrecks in a 17-Square Mile Area. Analysis of Chain Mail Links. Mystery Item.

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

A spate of shipwrecks recently found near a group of Greek islands has given researchers new insights into how trade routes and sailing technology evolved in the Eastern Mediterranean. And with more exploration planned, additional discoveries are still likely.

Over a stretch of two weeks in September, tips from local fishermen and sponge divers led a team of Greek and American archaeologists to the precise locations of 22 shipwrecks in a 17-square-mile area around the Fourni archipelago in the eastern Aegean.

The find is remarkable both for the sheer number of wrecks in the small area and the range of time periods the vessels came from.

The earliest wreck dates to the Archaic Period (700-480 B.C.), while the most recent is from the Late Medieval Period (16th century A.D.). Ships from the Classical Period (480-323 B.C.) and the Hellenistic Period (323-31 B.C.) were also found, though a majority—12 of the 22—sailed and sank at some point during the Late Roman Period (300-600 A.D.)...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/11/151103-greek-shipwreck-find-trading-route/

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Links of What Is Thought To Be Chain Mail 
Salvaged From The Site of The Mary Rose 

The artifacts shown above, which are thought to be links of chain mail from the wreck site of the Mary Rose, were analyzed using synchrotron X-ray diffraction.  The analysis provided detailed analysis of the composition of the links, and identified not only the main metals used, but also changes due to corrosion and preservation processes.

The links are 73% copper and 27% zinc.  The analysis suggested that zinc was lost from the surface of the links during corrosion.

Very small amounts of lead and gold were also found.  It was hypothesized that the minisciule amounts of those metals on the links could have been from tools used in the process of forming the links or pollution of the site.

Here is the link for more about that.

https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/x-ray_analysis_of

And here is the link to the original scientific article on the analysis.  Good reading.

http://journals.iucr.org/s/issues/2020/03/00/ok5009/index.html

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Since the beaches have opened and people are back on the beaches, we will be seeing more finds.  William K. found a couple of unusual sinkers.  The one shown below, and wondered if anyone had any thoughts.  I don't know the reason for the large amount of wire on the top of the item or the loop at what would appear to be the bottom.

What do you think?  Any ideas?

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In my 2/3/20 post I said, "Wouldn't it be better if our heroes were maybe scientists, engineers, or saints or people that do good things, rather than athletes and entertainers?  Its a crazy world."  

I don't know why I said that back when coronavirus wasn't yet being talked about - at least not much, if at all - but I wasn't hoping for anything like this.

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The Kentucky Derby is going to be virtual.  No real race.  Too bad.  I was there for a couple of them.  The University of Louisville was within walking distance of the Downs.

The surf is still a bit choppy on the Treasure Coast.  I'm hoping for some really flat seas for a short while.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

4/14/20 Report - Coal Miners Dig Up Roman Era Ships. Demand for Gold and Silver Coins. Counterfeiter Warning. Hiding In Plain Sight.

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

• on Twitt
• 
  

Coal miners in Serbia recently dug up an unexpected surprise: three probable Roman-era ships, buried in the mud of an ancient riverbed for at least 1,300 years. The largest is a flat-bottomed river vessel 15 meters (49 feet) long, which seems to have been built with Roman techniques. Two smaller boats, each carved out from a single tree trunk, match ancient descriptions of dugout boats used by Slavic groups to row across the Danube River and attack the Roman frontier.

The Kostolac surface mine lies near the ancient Roman city of Viminacium, once a provincial capital and the base for a squadron of Roman warships on the Danube River. When the Roman Empire ruled most of Southern Europe, the Danube or one of its larger branches flowed across the land now occupied by the mine. The three ships lay atop a 15-meter- (49-foot-) deep layer of gravel, buried under seven meters (23 feet) of silt and clay, which preserved them for centuries in remarkably good condition—or did until the miners' earthmoving equipment dug into the steep slope to excavate for the mine...

Although elements of the largest ship's construction are Roman, Korac says those same shipbuilding techniques may also have been used by later Byzantine or medieval shipwrights. Without radiocarbon dating or geological analysis of the sediment layers at the site, it's impossible to be entirely sure when the ships were built. Korac and his colleagues have sent wood samples from preserved oak trees buried nearby to a lab for analysis, but the COVID-19 pandemic has held everything up...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://medium.com/@yinonweiss/lets-visualize-state-by-state-shutdown-effectiveness-on-covid-19-e13a5cdb50ad

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The price of gold has been increasing daily lately.


The demand for gold and silver composition coins has gone ballistic. Demand is outstripping supply...

Precious metal coins are selling at a premium above their intrinsic value spot price regardless of the collectability of these coins. Truly rare coins are selling for surprisingly strong prices at auctions despite the decline in discretionary money and the consideration that all lot viewing and bidding must be done online. The times are changing for collectors just as much as they are for the general public. It’s a strong market, but be wary of speculation.

Here is that link.

https://www.numismaticnews.net/article/demand-for-gold-and-silver-ballistic

I'm sure you noticed that both of those articles mentioned coronavirus.

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Chinese counterfeiting operations today have the ability to produce hundreds of thousands of various types of U.S. coins per month, and as technology improves so do the counterfeits. In many instances, the quality of the counterfeits has even fooled dealers and seasoned collectors. Counterfeiters have leveraged the web and online marketplaces to sell their wares such as Alibaba.com, Wish, Amazon, and eBay. The ease of access has allowed black marketers and individuals with criminal intent to buy counterfeit coins in bulk quantities at a fraction of the true market value of genuine examples. The counterfeits are then marketed and sold to unsuspecting victims who think they are getting “a good deal.” ...

A “slabbed” (encapsulated) coin has long been the standard-bearer of authentication and certified grading of a coin. A coin slab is simply a hard plastic, tamper-proof case that protects a coin that has been authenticated and graded by a certified professional grading service. Counterfeiters have taken their craft to a new level and are now slabbing their own fakes, along with inserts that include barcodes and certification numbers. Counterfeiters utilize pictures of real slabbed coins from webpages and auction sites to produce exact replicas of key date coins and bullion coins that again can fool a dealer or advanced collector...

Here is that link.

https://www.numismaticnews.net/article/demand-for-gold-and-silver-ballistic

Interesting how things are connected.  Sometimes you don't see the connection.  Sometimes the connection is not obvious.  But in the words of an old song, "One thing leads to another."

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Yesterday I mentioned a little about my background to give you some idea of where I'm coming from.  My academic and research background affects how I look at almost everything - most certainly my hobbies.  So does my nature.

The reason I mention something might not always be obvious, and sometimes I don't point out the connection, but there is usually a reason relevant to metal detecting or treasure hunting that I post something.  There are also times when I just really want to share something that might be funny, touching or important, but those times are relatively rare.  Most of the time there will be a very relevant point.

I don't always point out the connections because I believe that treasure hunters will see the clues and be able to put it together for themselves.

I do want to share one secret with you today.  It is one of those secrets that has been hiding in plain sight.

While everybody is talking about the country being shutdown and opening it up, did you notice that the country is NOT really shutdown - a large part of it is open now.  That includes government, federal, state and local, including large organizations, such as the postal service, but also the military, airlines, railroads, grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, construction companies, pawn shops banks, utilities, internet providers, hospitals, nursing homes and healthcare providers to some extent, and others that I've personally observed such as car dealerships, lawn services and home painting and pressure washing, pest exterminators, etc. etc.  Most of those that are for remaining shutdown.  Maybe they made a few adjustments, but hey are going about their work.  If you realize that only a part of the country is shut down, that makes a huge difference.  Only a segment of the population bears the weight of the "shutdown."  And it is not like a light switch must be turned on.  It is more like a dimmer switch that will be adjusted.

There has been heart-breaking illness and death, and I express my deepest sympathies, but there is some small amount of good news too.  Breakthroughs are being made.  Stockpiles have been built up, and vaccines are being developed.

There are also smart creative businesses and people that are adapting and will come out of this better than ever.  Some businesses are seeing what is going on and doing what they need to do.  In some cases it takes only a number of relatively small changes, such as building plastic barriers for store clerks and modifying customer traffic patterns.  Increased remote working and shopping is obvious.  The world will be changed, much of it for the better.  Some people will benefit immensely, while others, unfortunately, will be left behind.

Here is the point.  Like many things, it applies to metal detecting and treasure hunting, but also has a wider application.  The world will not return to how it was before this happened.  It will affect you.  The world will be changed.  How will you change?  What is your vision of what is going on, and how can be you thrive in this changed and changing world?

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I hope you are not developing comorbidities from a new sedentary lifestyle.  But how could you not?

I saw a huge field being plowed up today.  It begged to be searched.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/1/20 Report - The After-Hunt. Monitoring the Cleaning of a Cob. Not a Heart Cob. Looking At a Mystery Item. Tobacco Comes To Europe.

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

Partially Cleaned Surface of Four-Reale Found on Treasure Coast Beach on 1/22/20

I'm going to focus on the after-hunt today.   The purpose of the "hunt" is to find objects, but after a successful hunt there is the "after-hunt," which has the purpose of learning more about the found objects.  The after-hunt often involves cleaning the object so that it can be better inspected.

The four-reale shown below was cleaned with a diluted solution of Muriatic acid.  I showed the pictures of that four-reale before, but you can see it as it was found compared to how it looked after a couple hours of cleaning.  One thing that was revealed by the initial cleaning is the Arabic numeral "4" to the right of the shield, which indicates the denomination of the cob.

Four Reale as Originally Found and After a Couple Hours in Muriatic Acid.

I cleaned it a little more in since then - maybe just an additional hour or so - and was thinking about how much more I wanted to clean it.  I don't usually clean reales to the point that they look shiny new.

I was thinking about how much more cleaning I would do when I decided to take a good look at the surface to see how much foreign material remained on the surface.  I looked at it under magnification, and saw there was still a good bit of foreign material on the surface (See picture at top of post.).  I didn't see that with the naked eye.  The picture shows quite a bit of encrustation remaining. I think you can see that very well in the photo.

I also noticed that when a small bright light made the cob sparkle when the light was shined parallel to the surface.  (I didn't see it sparkle when the light was shined down on the cob.)  I don't think it will sparkle like that when all of the remaining silica is removed.  That might be another way you can tell there if the surface is clean.

I'm glad I looked at this cob under magnification, and will use magnification to check the progress of any cob I'm cleaning in the future.

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Here is another photo of the same cob.  Does it look to you like the cross is debossed or embossed? 

Another View of the Same Coin showing Foreign Material To Be Removed.

For me it changes.  Sometimes it looks debossed and sometimes embossed.

The light is coming from the bottom of the photo, which is why the bottom edge of the cross is lighted and the top edge is in the shadow.

That is an interesting illustration of visual perception.

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Since one of my main topics today is the after-hunt, here is another example.  GC sent me this photo of an encrusted object and asked for thoughts about it.  I posted the object, but didn't get much input.  It is a tough one, but here it is again.

Encrusted Object Found and Photographed by GC.

Just to remind you, here is a little of GC's description.

Not at all magnetic. Checked again at home with stronger magnet. Nope. When I tried, perhaps too vigorously, to chip off some of the encrusted material it broke, pretty much in half. The inside material appeared to be carbon, maybe charcoal like substance, in all appearances. and properties.

If we stick with the "flask" idea that CG also mentioned in his email and combine that with the carbon or charcoal like substance inside, we might think of a powder flask.  Below are some examples.

Squares are one inch.

Those are in the approximate size range, might be expected to hold powder, but it seems they are not the right shape.

Treasure hunters think of pirates, galleons, swords and romantic swash-buckling types of thing, so weapons and weapon-related objects are among the first to be considered, but we must remember that there is a much wider range of possibilities for an unidentified object.  People must be involved in a wide range of activities, including the mundane.  They had to eat and drink and be involved in the mundane and ordinary activities of life as well as those more romantic things which we tend to think of first.

Containers would be used for a lot of different kinds of things, such as medicines or cures, habits, cosmetics, kitchen or food related, such as spice containers, etc.

Tobacco was first introduced to Europeans in 1492 when Columbus landed in the Americas. Columbus wrote in his diary, on October 15th, 1492, that he observed an Indian sailing in a canoe with water, food, and tobacco leaves.² Use of tobacco spread rapidly among the Spanish colonists and in 1531 its cultivation began in Santo Domingo. In 1526 Gonzalo Ferdandez de Oveido y Valdez noted that his fellow Spaniards were turned into drunks by tobacco. Bartolome de las Casas observed the following year that the colonists were developing a strong dependence on it and that it was hard to give up... 

The 17th century saw the organization of the tobacco trade and the implementation of new laws regulating the sale of tobacco. In 1614 Spain proclaimed Seville the tobacco capital of the world. All tobacco produced for sale in New Spain had to first go through Seville before moving on to the rest of Europe...

(See https://www.lib.umn.edu/bell/tradeproducts/tobacco)

Here are some examples of old tobacco boxes, which as you see are made of various metals, including brass, steel and silver.

This object presents a very daunting task.  There is little data, certainly nothing like definitive marks or engraving.  Our minds provide another important limitation.  We tend to only consider a very limited range of possibilities.  Yet, there are clues.  In this case, the small size of the object helps us narrow it down a lot but we are still left with just a few clues and a range of possibilities, some of which I'm sure haven't been mentioned yet.  One step that I would consider is an analysis of the substance.  Can it be determined to be tobacco, gun powder, or something else?

The after-hunt can be just as fun, challenging and rewarding as the hunt.

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The other day I posted a photo of a half reale that was found on the 22nd of January.  It had a nice little curly tail and a remarkably centered and perfectly oriented cross.  I considered the possibility that it could have been created as a "heart cob", but after having researched it and considered how commonly Mexico half reales have that type of little tail along with the fact that there are no recognized Mexico heart reales, have for all practical purposes abandoned the idea that it might be a Mexico "heart reale."

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I hope to discuss the mystery object I showed yesterday some more in the near future.

I also plan to discuss some other topics such as long-term and short-term changes in beach conditions.

Happy Super Bowl Day,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/9/20 Report - Beach Conditions on the Treasure Coast With The Increasing Surf. Ring Find with Marks For Analysis.

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

Marks on Ring Found by Duane C.

Photos by Duane C.

I have a lot of beach conditions reports today, but I'll start with Duane's ring.  Here is what he said.

Found an old crusty silver ring the same day I dug a 1854 seated dime on a northern beach. The ring is stamped vertically and has no 925 or sterling marks. The makers mark appears to be a wreath with a crown on top circling two cursive letters inside. I found another picture of one online no ID. It maybe similar to one used by Premium Designs. That trademark has been bought & sold over the years by different companies. Last used 2016. I believe this has been around a long time. Wreaths are used on foreign coins as well as the crown. Possibly European origins? No purity marks?

Thanks in advance to anyone who may be able to help with the possible time period.

Duane

Ring Found by Duane C.

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I took a look at several beaches this morning.  The surf was building but coming too much from the east/southeast.

Starting on South Hutchinson Island, here is Frederick Douglass beach.

Frederick Douglass Beach Thursday.

Frederick Douglass Beach Thursday.

I didn't bother to stop at John Brooks. but I took a look at Fort Pierce South Jetty to see what it looked like.  It had eroded a lot since I had been there last, but a lot of sand washed in very recently.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Thursday.

I stopped by Turtle Trail.  Three or four detectorists were already there.

Turtle Trail Thursday.

The little cut and shells that were there recently had disappeared.

Turtle Trail Thursday.

There were two Ocean Rescue trucks at Seagrape Trail.  The entrance was closed.  I suspect that was only a very short-term closure.

Wabasso Beach, however, is closed Jan. 6 - January 20.  Gates were closed and a big orange sign stated the reason.  I should have read that but didn't.

There were a couple detectorists at Amber Sands.  That beach had eroded back since I was last there, but still it was just renourishment sand covering the surface.

Amber Sands Beach Thursday.

Amber Sands Beach Thursday.

North of Amber Sands there was road construction up past McClarty.

There was a lot of traffic in the Vero and Fort Pierce areas today.  I guess it is tourist season.

Overall, I didn't see anything to get excited about today.

Even though the surf is supposed to increase, it looks like we are going to have east/southeast wind all of that time.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Help Duane figure out the age and identity of his ring.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/29/19 Report - Vacation Metal Detecting. Pigeon Island. Coin Cleaning. D. B. Cooper Mystery. Reader Comments.

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

Pigeon Island, St. Lucia.
Photo I took from resort across bay.

It's the time of year when you might want to take a vacation and go somewhere else.  Above is a photo that I took back years ago.

I made a number of personal firsts on that island.  I don't know if it was in the eighties or nineties, but it was a good trip.

If it looks familiar, I talked about it before in this blog, but you might have seen it on the Sandals TV commercial that has been running lately.  They show the island from almost the same angle.

Pigeon Island is now a National Park and there is an admission fee.  When I was there it was virtually abandoned.

I found grape shot, musket balls, military buttons, musket parts, and some other neat stuff.

It always made me laugh to watch the crab pull in their legs in and roll down the hill.

At the resort, I didn't do as well as expected - a lot of coins, but not a lot of gold.

One lady at a restaurant refused to accept the coins I found.  She said they looked like they had been burned.  I did spend most of them though.

I found this picture on the internet and added arrows to some of the places of interest that I remember

Aerial View of Pigeon Island From St. Lucia Commerce Web Site.

I added the arrows.

A.  Fort Rodney.  There was only one at the time I was there.
B.  Trash dump over the hill.
C.  Steep hill where things were found showing evidence of battle.
D.  Cave with indigenous carvings, supposedly also used by pirates.  Must dive to enter.
E.  Remains of old stone buildings.
F.  Building now converted to restaurant.
G. Cannon emplacement on other side of hill.

The causeway was made in 1972.  The red roofed resort in the photo wasn't there when I was.

Here is a little of the history.

Pigeon Island was first occupied by the Amerindians, mainly Caribs. The island was later occupied by pirates whose leader was a Norman Captain called Francois Le Clerc. He had a wooden leg and was known to the French as Jambe de Bois. The French who owned the island in 1778 declared war on the British, who retaliated by attacking them in Saint Lucia and capturing the island. The British then built a Naval Base at Gros-Islet Bay, heavily fortifying Pigeon Island. From there they were able to monitor the French fleet in Martinique which resulted in the defeat of the French at the Battle of the Saints in 1782. Pigeon Island was therefore a key factor in the Battles between the British and the French. In 1909 a whaling station was established at Pigeon Island. Legislation to control whaling in 1952 put an end to this operation. Pigeon Island was leased to Josset Agnes Hutchinson, an actress with the D’Oyle Carte Theatre of England in 1937. When the American established a Naval Base at Rodney Bay in 1940 she left the island. In 1947 she returned to establish a thriving yachting industry, entertaining many guests and giving the island the reputation of a paradise island. She relinquished the lease in 1970, finally retiring to England in 1976...

See https://www.slunatrust.org/sites/pigeon-island-national-landmark/

Here is a photo of a grape shot, which I left.  I wasn't about to take a chance it being considered an explosive.  It might still be snuggled between the roots of the tree where I left it.

Grape Shot Found on Pigeon Island.

54th and 74th Regiment of Foot and some other buttons were found.  I believe they came from the 1778 Battle of Morne de la Vierge, also known as the Capture of St. Lucia.

Pewter British Buttons.

I know a lot more about it now than I did when I was there.  I often find myself wishing that I knew then what I know now.  I don't care how much it has been searched or excavated, I know where I'd go to find artifacts, metal detector or not.

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Same Dime Before and After Additional Immersion in Acid.

On the left is the silver dime after about 12 hours in Muriatic Acid.  After two additional similar periods of immersion, once with a strengthened solution (right), I can see no significant difference in the appearance of the surface.  My conclusion is that leaving the dime in a Muriatic solution for a period of time will achieve results.  Continuing immersion seems to produce neither additional results nor damage.

The difference in color of the two photos is caused by lighting, not a change in the color of the dime.

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James F. added his thoughts on the article I posted about the "comtemporary archaeology" of Woodstock. 


Interesting to know that "Contemporary archaeology is a very big thing right now..," And I thought that I'd heard everything at this point. I have previously looked up the definition of archaeology in the past and find that it is defined as 1) the scientific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other such remains, especially those that have been excavated. or 2) Rare. ancient history; the study of antiquity. Apparently "contemporary archaeology" meets none of those conditions. I studied archaeology as a minor course of study in college, and none of this new take on the subject really complies with the study of ancient or prehistoric cultures.

I find this sort of thing by the archaeological community as waste of time and resources...50-years later collecting surface samples from the Woodstock Festival. Seems like they are really reaching here, their scientific findings reveal Woodstock "...took on a life of it's own."  All they really needed to do was watch a few documentaries in full color with sound on the festival, filmed by people who were actually there, most of whom are still alive today. Or type "Woodstock" in the little window on YouTube for all the sound and video you could stomach. This is the sort of thing that may bring about the un-funding of archaeological groups...and maybe it should!

James F.

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Here is an excerpt from a lengthy article on the D. B. Cooper skyjacking mystery.

… Eric Ulis has been researching the famous skyjacking for years. And like many amateur Cooper sleuths before him, he believes he’s solved the mystery. The Phoenix entrepreneur, one of the creators of the defunct poker-playing TV show “High Stakes Hold ’Em,” says he’s “98 percent” convinced that Peterson is D.B. Cooper.

That’s why he was hacking through thick foliage on Bachelor Island, near Ridgefield, Wash., last weekend. He believes the FBI misidentified Cooper’s “jump zone” and so searched the wrong stretch of forest in the weeks and years after the high-profile crime. This small isle along the Columbia River, most of which is part of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, offers pristine woodlands that have been largely untouched by humans for decades. Ulis has analyzed wind speeds, “free fall” data and other information that led him to conclude the skyjacker likely came down here...
Here is the link for more.

https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2019/06/db-cooper-search-leads-to-bachelor-island-ex-fbi-agent-says-suspect-will-get-away-with-it-unless-he-confesses.html

Thanks to Dean R. for that link.

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More of the same beach conditions.  A lot of thunder early this morning, but just a little rain.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

4/28/19 Report - Melted Beer Can or Space Debris? Some Answers and Tests You Can Perform.

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


I just received an excellent email from Jerry P. on those melted pieces of white metal that people find on the beach.  Here it is.


Aluminum or Space Poop by Jerry P.

It’s been called melted beer cans, space poop, space platinum, NASA trash. So is it space debris or beer cans? This is a debate that has been going on for years within our group of beach hunters. All I can do is add to the puzzle and maybe someone can put this dog to rest.

If you detect the beach long enough you will eventually pull a piece of what appears to be aluminum or titanium melted by super high temperature. Aluminum has a melting point of 1,220.58 F or 660.32 C and titanium 3034 F or 1668 C. A bonfire, at it’s highest temperature, if constructed correctly, can burn as high as 2012 F or 1100 C plenty hot enough to melt aluminum but not titanium. You maybe thinking slam dunk, case closed it’s melted beer cans. Hold on the dilemma is not over yet. Rockets are made of light weight materials like titanium and aluminum. Rocket propellant, under a controlled manner, burns at around 5,800 F or 3,200 C. This is plenty hot enough to melt aluminum and titanium. This temperature is based on a controlled burn within the rocket engine. If the lunch had an unexpected “anomaly” then these propellant would be mixed in an uncontrolled burn/explosion which could result in much higher temperatures. We are back to square one!

I detect with an old machine (sovereign gt) and it just talks to me. Aluminum has a distinct sound on the sovereign and the one thing that I notice about these melted pieces is that they sound something between aluminum and silver. This tells me it’s not aluminum and must be another type of metal.

A bonfire test is in order. I stoked a fire in the backyard pit and waited for it to get good and hot before adding some aluminum cans. I let the fire burn overnight with the cans inside. In the morning I took my inland machine (AT Pro), pinpointer and a sifting screen to retrieve all metal targets. The cans did melt or at least they changed their form however they did not look anything like the pieces we pull off the beach. They did not melt into a blob and were very thin and brittle. The pieces we pull off the beach are rock solid and can hardly be dented with a hammer.

I was starting to believe the beach pieces could very well be part of our space program or military missile defense program of which one is still ongoing today.

There are other things to consider like the Untied States Air force. They have a restricted military training zone just off our coast and could be firing air missiles. We also have our poorly constructed beach renourishment program to consider. Much of this renourishment sand comes from the offshore bars around Cape Canaveral. This would most differently support a space debris theory.

What solidified it for me was when I started pulling specimen pieces. These were pieces of the melted metal that have unique items embedded in them. Items that you don’t see at your average bonfire, some kind of thick quartz or crystals, rivets, orange and red tile like fragments and my best piece has both quartz/crystal and a small stainless steel spring embedded in it. Would love to hear if anyone has looked into these pieces. JP

      

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Thanks much Jerry.  Great email!


Below is a related post that I did on 5/10/18.

Metal Glob Found On Beach
How can you tell if it is titanium?

There are a few questions that I get all the time.  One question that I get a lot is about those shiny globs of metal found on the beach that look like melted aluminum.  It could be aluminum but it could also be something else.

Sometimes space debris falls on the beach or in the ocean.  People often want to know if their shiny piece of metal could be a piece of space debris.

It can be difficult to say for sure, but there are tests that you can do to tell if a piece might be titanium or aluminum.  I once wrote about that a long time ago, but since I still get the question and have more information now, I decided to address the question again.

Here are some quick tips that can help you decide what you have.

Here are some easy tests to get started.  Titanium is not magnetic, so if a magnet sticks to it, it is not titanium.  However, aluminum is normally not magnetic either.  So that is only a beginning.

When it comes to telling titanium from aluminum, titanium is about twice as heavy as aluminum and much harder than aluminum.  If you use a metal file, aluminum will come off in small globs, but titanium will not.  It is relatively easy to scratch a mark on aluminum.

If you file down beyond the surface metal, the newly exposed surface of titanium will darker than a similar piece of aluminum.

If you used a rotary grinder on a piece of titanium, the sparks will be a blue-white color.
Here is a link to a web site that will give you more detail on these and other tests for testing titanium and other metals.

http://mrtitanium.info/2008/03/17/how-to-tell-if-a-piece-of-metal-is-really-titanium/

Titanium is used for a lot of applications these days. Everything from wheelchairs and bicycles to parts for rockets and wedding rings are made with titanium. If you find a ring that doesn't test gold or silver, it might be titanium.

Titanium isn't a very expensive metal. You can find current prices online.
 

Big pieces of space debris are occasionally found too.  Here is a link to an article about space debris including the above tank from the space shuttle Columbia that landed in Texas.

https://www.space.com/12518-space-shuttle-columbia-debris-texas.html

In 2015 a large piece of what looks like a piece of a Galileo rocket was found on the beach in Fort Lauderdale.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-lauderdale-rocket-debris-20150802-story.html

And in January of 2018 a part of a SpaceX rocket was found in South Carolina.

http://www.ibtimes.com/spacex-rocket-debris-found-south-carolina-amid-zuma-payload-mystery-photo-2641243

You never know what you might find, so it always helps to be able to test it out.

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I know of at least one detectorist who contacted NASA and got confirmation that his find was a titanium space debris.  Of course that does not mean that all specimens are.

You might be able to find the post reporting on the person contacting NASA if you use the blog search box.

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Bill P. just sent me an email suggesting XRF analysis.  I think that should do the job.

I did a post on XRF analysis recently but didn't think about it when I did this post.

Thanks Bill!

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net