6/18/16 Report - Lost and Returned Times Two: Class Ring and Keys. Lightning Danger Along Treasure Coast Lately. Increasing Surf.

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

Facebook Post Thanking Warren D. for Finding Matthew's Class Ring.

Here is what Warren told me in an email yesterday.

I went back to the beach today and recovered a set of keys that I was looking for yesterday when I got sidetracked to recover a lost school ring.

I didn't know the losses were connected. I found the ring yesterday when the mother and son were on the beach. I found the keys today and returned them to the other mother. Turns out the boys and their mothers all knew each other. The boys were at a big beach beer pong party.

Now they're BUSTED. 

Thanks much Warren!  We need to share good deeds like this.

Keys Returned by WarrenPhoto submitted by Warren D.

In the past I've talked a lot about what types of events lead to things being lost on the beach.  Beer parties, of course, are one of those things.  They involve relatively young active people getting drunk. That is the type of thing that leads to things getting lost.

When you hear of a loss, pay attention to how it occurred.

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Lightning Hitting Water At Beach.
Source: Weather Channel

I saw a lot of lightning yesterday. Below is what the National Weather service says about lightning striking the water.

If you are in the sea and a thunderstorm looks likely in the area, there are two ways to cut the risk of getting hit - get out and find some shelter, or swim deeper...

Most of the electrical discharge spreads horizontally rather than vertically. This is bad news for people, who tend to float or swim on or near the surface.

... "If you get out of the water and can't find shelter, it's best to crouch into a ball, rather than lay flat on the floor, as this also raises risks. If you stay in the water, you could try to go deep, but it's unlikely you can hold your breath for long enough to avoid the danger."

Metal detectors can provide early warning.  You can often hear static caused by lightning while it is still a good distance away.

Sudden rain storms also lead to things being lost at the beach, as people hurriedly get up, shake off their blanket, gather their goods and run for cover.

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Getting old is a pain in the neck...and the back... and the knee and elbow, and almost everyplace you can think of from time to time.  I've said that the only good thing about getting old is that it is better than the alternative, but there are some other things. 

There are physical challenges, but there is also an accumulation of experience, memories and a certain appreciation for things like youth and family and precious moments, both past and present.

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“I hereby find that the unrestricted immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens who meet one or more of the criteria in section 1 of this order would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and I hereby suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of such persons.” 

Guess who said that?  The current president of the U. S.

Many claim that a ban on a class of immigrants would be unconsitutional, but it has been done dozens of times in modern history, including by the current president who issued the above ban on April 23, 2012 to exclude people from Iran and Syria who use computer technology to commit human rights abuses or threaten U.S. national security interests.

Source: https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/trumps-muslim-ban-not-the-first/

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The recent shooting at the Pulse night club in Orlando has deep roots in Fort Pierce and White City.  There have been news agencies from around the country and around the world in Fort Pierce lately.  They've been lined up along Midway road in White City and doing interviews with residents down by the inlet and other places in the area.

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There is a disturbance over Yucatan that has a 40 percent chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.

The surf will increase on Sunday up to as much as five feet and as much as seven on Monday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/17/16 Report - Increasing Antiquities Research and Knowledge: A Case Study. Open Access Movement. Lifetime Achievement Award To T C. Salvor.

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

Mel Fisher Days will be held July 15 and 16th this year in Key West.  The Mel Fisher Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded to John Brandon. Congratulations John!

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In the Feb 3, 2011 CoinWeek there was an interesting article bearing the title Dancing with the Universe – The Infamous Wanborough Hoard of Atrebates Coins, a reprint from Wayne Sayles' Blog Ancient Coin Collecting.

Not long ago I expressed my pleasure that so many privately held cobs were available for study.  You can see many of those cobs, complete with photos and detailed descriptions in auction catalogs or on online retail sites.  As you know, I also receive pictures of finds, many from Treasure Coast salvors, that I post in this blog for all of you to see.

The Wanborough Hoard provides a very interesting case study and illustrates how private ownership of ancient coins can stimulate study and promote dispersal of information about those coins.

I will now post a few excerpts from the CoinWeek article.

The Wanborough hoard, at least the parts of it that got away, went around the world and worked their magic. People started buying metal detectors to find even more, and what do you know? They did! The little coins inspired me and many more, Some of us started to collect and write about them. The literature and the research ballooned. Before all of that there were only a few people working on this stuff — Sir John Evans in the nineteenth century, then much later, Commander Mack, and the very great Derek Allen who was a friend of two friends of mine, a smallish assortment of lesser known scholars and a few collectors who could wait for the occasional British Celtic coin to show up at Seaby’s...

Wanborough was our salvation. The commodification of Celtic coins eventually created even conferences about the things!...

So what would have happened if the restrictions preceded the hoard? The site would have been excavated and the report, if it was ever published, might have been read by a few inhabitants of boxes, but two weeks later, the world would have forgotten about it and the hoard, itself, would be in its own box in the bowels of the British Museum, soon to be forgotten. A few might have gone on display as entertainment, or something to look at before the rain stopped.

Don’t believe me? I have worked at a museum. Get permission to randomly look in their storage cabinets and boxes to see what you might find. It will amaze you to see what has been forgotten and is sitting in boxes while the universe dances on...

Analyze the dates and their frequency, plot it out and compare it to metal detector use. People found coins, they asked about them, Those they asked started to look more and write. Some of the collectors turned to scholars and wrote more...

Some academics see commodification as a bad thing. A few of them look at coin dealers as maggots, but without maggots, dust mites, and dung beetles we would soon be buried in our own muck. They do not know that many of these coin dealers and collectors sometimes make amazing discoveries — they are dancing with the universe. Even more of them are inspiring others to take to the floor.

Here is the link if you want to read more of that CoinWeek article.

http://www.coinweek.com/ancient-coins/dancing-with-the-universe-the-infamous-wanborough-hoard-of-atrebates-coins/

For a great post on the same subject, you can use the following link provided to me by James F.

http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.com/2014/06/in-praise-of-metal-detecting-1-celtic.html

I am very much of the belief that disciplines advance more when the public is informed and allowed to participate.  The phrase that has been on my mind is "great cloud of witnesses." When information is made public and the public gets to see the existing objects and evidence, more discoveries will be made. It also results in greater accountability.

I am big fan of Open Access, which helps scholarly publishing achieve its purpose: spreading knowledge and allowing that knowledge to be built upon. Price barriers should not prevent the public from getting access to research.

The Right To Research, an organization promoting Open Access, says, "Open Access, and the open availability and searchability of scholarly research that it entails, will have a significant positive impact on everything from education to the practice of medicine to the ability of entrepreneurs to innovate."

Here is the link to the Right To Research web site.

(http://www.righttoresearch.org/learn/whyOA/index.shtml#The_Public)

And here are a couple more excerpts from the Right To Research web site that describes the benefits of Open Access.

Return on our investment: making research publicly available as soon as possible will allow other researchers to build on new ideas as soon as they are published, while in the current system these ideas might remained locked away and unable to advance to state of the field. To have the greatest possible impact, the research we fund as taxpayers must be made available to the largest possible audience to make use of and build upon new ideas.

Exercising our right to research: as taxpayers who pay for much of the research published in journals, we have a collective right to access the information resulting from our investment.

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Sotheby's spring sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts achieved a total of $2.67 million. An autograph leaf of the manuscript of Origin of Species led the sale and sold for $250,000. Also notable was a fine and bright copy of Cendrars and Delaunay's Prose du Transsiberien, which sold for $225,000.

Click here to view the catalog with realized prices.

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On the Treasure Coast, the surf will be flat Friday and Saturday, but start to increase Sunday.  The projected peak surf will be about 7 feet on Monday.  It has been a while since we had much of anything to move the beach sand.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/16/16 Report - Treasure Salvors Inc. Versus Unidentified Wreck. Gaulcross Silver Hoard. Irresponsible Detecting and Lessons From Orlando.

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

More than 170 years ago, Scottish laborers clearing a rocky field with dynamite discovered three beautiful silver artifacts: a hand pin, a chain and a spiral bangle. But instead of looking for more treasures, they followed orders to turn the field into farmland, squashing hopes of archaeologists for years to come.

Recently, however, archaeologists surveyed the field and uncovered a hoard of 100 silver items, including coins, and pieces of brooches and bracelets, all dating to late Roman times, during the fourth or fifth centuries AD, according to a new report of the find, which is now called the Gaulcross hoard. (In archaeology, a "hoard" is a group of valuable objects that is sometimes purposely buried underground.)...

Here is the link.

http://www.livescience.com/55058-gaulcross-hoard-scotland.html

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This week has been a terrible week for Orlando.  Both man and nature took lives.  First and foremost I want to express my sorrow and sympathies to all involved in the Orlando tragedies.

Some people thought there should be signs warning about the danger of alligators at Disney.  Maybe there should be, but I don't feel that way.  I heard there were something like 23 deaths to gators in Florida in 70 years.  That doesn't seem like many, even though one would be enough.

I nearly stepped on a gator once when I was out on a hunt.  He was submerged in sea weed.  It gave me quite a start when he suddenly thrashed about.  Gators are not unusual in Florida, and you always need to be aware of snakes and things.

Disney would undoubtedly be held liable for what happened, but do you know who owns the water and controls the submerged lands at Disney World?  If you know the laws that relate to metal detecting, you know it is the State of Florida - not Disney.  But the state, unlike Disney, is immune to legal responsibility.

(Here is the link for the Submerged Lands Act.  http://www.boem.gov/uploadedfiles/submergedla.pdf)

Disney, like many others that could potentially be liable for something similar, will undoubtedly take action to further protect their guests and themselves.  There will be more signs and more prohibited areas. No one will want to take a chance on being even remotely responsible for such a terrible event, no matter how rare or unlikely that event might be.

The next time you are disappointed by a no trespassing sign or are not allowed to go into the water or do something else, think about what happened.   Maybe that sign or prohibition is the result of some unfortunate event, big or small.  You might think it is unfair or unnecessary, and it might be, but that is what happens.

My position is that sometimes things just happen in life, and no one is to blame.  The more you try to make other people liable, the more they will have to protect themselves.  There are usually reasons for things, whether you know what that reason is or not.

The family that lost a child at Disney was not doing anything irresponsible.  That was just nature being nature.  It could have been a meteor falling on someone's head.  But irresponsible detecting will cause more signs to go up and more areas to be off-limits.

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Here is another interesting and important piece of treasure history - TREASURE SALVORS, INC. versus The UNIDENTIFIED WRECKED AND ABANDONED SAILING VESSEL.  It presents court findings related to the Atocha.  Looking at these legal cases, will give you a better understanding of the relevant laws and how they got to be the way they are.

Here is the link.

https://coast.noaa.gov/data/Documents/OceanLawSearch/Treasure%20Salvors,%20Inc.,%20569%20F.2d%20330%20(5th%20Cir.%201978).pdf?redirect=301ocm

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On the Treasure Coast we still have a smooth surf.  That might change late Sunday or Monday.  The surf is predicted to pick up to 4 - 6 feet then.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/15/16 Report - 1714 Mexican One-Escudo Found. Pewter Beach Ring. Antiquities Act 110 Years Old. Perceptions of Archaeology.

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

Eric Schmitt Showing Newly Recovered 1714 Mexico  One-Escudo
Photo submitted by Dan B.

This escudo is exceptionally nice.  Looks like a royal.

Congrats to Eric and the Aarrr Booty!

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Duane C. found this ring on a North Carolina beach and wondered if anyone could offer any information or opinions.  It seems to be Pewter and and he thought might be hand carved from a spoon.

Pewter Ring Found on N. C. Beach.
Photos and find by Duane C.

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Did you know the Antiquities Act is 110 years-old this year?  Here is a link to a National Park Service site about the act and what it does.

https://www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/antiquities/continuing.htm

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Here is an article by the National Park Service from 1999 describing their view of future of archaeology.

https://www.nps.gov/archeology/cg/win_1999/Pubarch.htm

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And here is a report on a lengthy survey of the public's perceptions of archaeology.  Conducted in the year 2000, it is a bit out of date too.

https://www.nps.gov/archeology/pubs/Harris/index.htm

Very revealing was the item on how people learn about archaeology.  Most people mentioned TV.
The survey failed to include the internet as a choice.  As I said, the survey was conducted in the year 2000.  The internet has become much more important in the last 16 years.

Here is one paragraph from the report.

The general public has a strong level of awareness regarding what happens to things that are dug up or found by archaeologists. Ninety-six percent (96%) of the respondents gave an answer to this question and the majority of the answers were accurate. A large percentage of respondents (77%) mentioned that the items are donated/ sold to museums/ museum researchers. This is an interesting finding considering that in questions later in the survey only 9% of the respondents said that they have learned about archaeology through museums, and yet, 88% said that they had visited a museum exhibiting archaeological material. This disparity may be a function of many factors such as that the reason(s) for the public to visit museums may not be to see archaeological material, and the amount and type of publicity that museums receive when they acquire archaeological objects.

If you are interested in the sample population use the link above to check it out.

Below is one of the charts.

Not only is the internet not listed, but neither is museums.  That seems to me to be an odd omission. If they want to do a better job of reaching the public, institutions will have to make better use of information technologies.  The world has changed.  

The war on terror will have to be fought very differently if we are to win.  It is really a new ball game. I'm not going to say any more.  I don't want to give the bad guys any hints.

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On the Treasure Coast, it looks like we'll have a flat surf until Sunday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/14/16 Report - 1715 Fleet Copper Bracelet Find by Capitana Crew. How "Stray" Finds of Historic Items Are Made.

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

Three 1715 Fleet Artifacts Found Last Week by the Capitana Crew.

Photo by Captain Jonah Martinez

I talked about this silver spoon and the nested weight in previous posts.  Here is also a copper bracelet that was also found by the Capitana guys.

Notice the nice old wood too.

Copper Bracelet Find.

Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez

I once found a silver bracelet very much like this copper one.

Good finds, and thanks for sharing!

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James F. sent me a bunch of excellent links.  Several of those link to posts in a blog called Past Times and Present Tensions.

Here is a question for you.   What percent of stray coin finds of possible historic or archaeological interest are made by metal detectorists?  By stray, I mean to exclude those made as a part of a systematic archaeological excavations or salvage operations.  Just take a guess.  Try to come up with a number.

I found some numbers that might seem surprising.  I found those numbers in a post in the blog I just mentioned.  The author of the blog presented data that he found in the book, Iron Age Coinage in South-East England: The Archaeological Context by Colin Haselgrove, Oxford, 1987, p. 104.  It is data on "stray" finds of 286 British Celtic coins.

Here is how those stray finds were made.

Large scale earth-moving, including extractive industries and railway cuttings   4%
Building and construction works    14%
Cultivation and ploughing     16%
Digging and allotments, such as drainage trenches and pits    13%
Home gardening    10%
Coastal or riverine erosion    20%
Erosion or other disturbance to the grounds surface    13%
Archaeological prospecting (field-walking) and metal detecting    10%

To state the obvious, that means 90% were not found by archaeologists or by people metal detecting! Most of the finds are made in other ways.

The numbers are old, being from 1987, and they are limited to Celtic coins found during a single year. Those are serious limitations, but it appears that most "stray" historic finds are made during earth removal, construction projects, farming, gardening or just walking along an eroded beach or river.

It seems that the archaeologist's concerns about the detecting hobby is definitely misplaced.  The unfair characterization of detectorists as looters is not only unfair in the vast majority of cases, but detectorists are involved in very few finds of a historic or archaeological nature anyhow.  According to these numbers, home gardeners are every bit as likely to be involved in making such finds.  I suspect that it would be more difficult to villainize a petunia-planting granny, though.

Erosion accounted for about 33% or one third.  I frequently talk about erosion and we all look for erosion on the beaches.

Earth-moving, building construction and drainage ditches and the like, accounted for a little over 30% of the stray finds.

As I said, there are serious limitations to this data.  Nonetheless, it is eye-opening.  I don't know of any other similar data.  Maybe there is more somewhere.

Thanks for the links James!

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Fort Pierce makes national news as another terrorist has ties to the Islamic Center in White City.

http://www.wptv.com/news/region-st-lucie-county/fort-pierce/omar-mateen-second-muslim-behind-a-terror-attack-with-ties-to-islamic-center-of-fort-pierce

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We'll have a smooth surf for a few days.  There is no significant tropical weather activity.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/13/16 Report - $13 Million Worth of Shipwreck Gold Coins. Proof Coins Found in Change. Royal Escudo Rumored Found on Treasure Coast

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

Source: FoxNews Science.

Diamond miners recently discovered a ship that went down 500 years ago after draining a man-made lagoon on Namibia’s coast. While shipwrecks are often found along Africa’s Skeleton Coast, this one just so happened to be loaded with $13,000,000 worth of gold coins....

So who gets the gold? “The Namibian government – every single coin,” he said. “That is the normal procedure when a ship is found on a beach. The only exception is when it is a ship of state – then the country under whose flag the ship was sailing gets it and all its contents. And in this case the ship belonged to the King of Portugal, making it a ship of state – with the ship and its entire contents belonging to Portugal. The Portuguese government, however, very generously waived that right, allowing Namibia to keep the lot.”

The above excerpts were taken from the FoxNews story obtained through the link immediately below.


Dean R. sent me that link.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/06/07/500-year-old-shipwreck-loaded-with-gold-found-in-namibian-desert.html?intcmp=trending


David S. sent this link to the same story.

http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2016/06/bom-jesus-gold-shipwreck-beach-diamonds/

Thanks guys!

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Three Proof Quarters and One Regular Quarter.

I got the three proof quarters in change at a Dollar Tree the other day.  They really shine.  Even though the difference does not show really well in the picture, as soon as I saw them I noticed how different they looked - like nothing I ever got in change before.  They turned out to be proof.

Proof state quarters were sold in sets.  There are both clad and silver proof state quarters.  The silver proof state quarters have an S mint mark, but so do some of the clad state quarters.  You can tell the difference by weight.

The silver coins weigh 6.25 grams, and the clad, only 5.7.  The silver proofs would be worth around $11, but if they were certified to a high grade, they would be worth a good bit more.

Watch your change.  People sometimes spend coins out of their collector sets, either not knowing or caring what they have.

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I just received word that a 1714 Royal escudo was just found by one of the Treasure Coast salvage crews.  I have a photo, but don't have details or permission to post yet.

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Fort Pierce is in the news.  The Orlando shooter attended the Islamic Center on Midway Road in White City.  That isn't Fort Pierce's first terrorism connection either.  The first American terrorist to blow himself up in Syria was from Fort Pierce and attended the same mosque.  The shooter had discussions with the other terrorist.

Some of the local old-timers were bothered when the old church building on Midway Road was purchased and a chainsaw was used to cut the cross off of the top of the roof.

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Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

6/12/16 Report - Another Great Artifact Find by The Crew of the Capitana. Using Artifacts To Learn About the Past.

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

Bronze Nested Weight
Photo submitted by Dan B. of the Capitana crew.

The artifact shown above is a partially encrusted bronze nested weight.  It was recently found by the crew of the Capitana just off the Treasure Coast.

Notice the decorative rings.  That could mean it is the largest and therefore outer cup of the set.

Nested Weight Set.
Source: Artifacts of the Spanish Colonial Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500 -1800n by Kathleen Deagan.

The largest cup in a set would accept a lid, as shown above.  The outer cup would be equal in weight to the total of the smaller weights.  The smallest cup would contain a disk that weighs the same amount as the smallest cup.

Bronze nested weight cups have previously been found on 1715 wrecks as well as the Margarita. This one could be one of the more meaningful.

Two more views of the same weight.
These photos were submitted by Captain Jonah of the Capitana.

The one shown today is probably the largest cup in the group.  That would be the one that would be decorated.  Hopefully it is also the one that would bear the makers mark.

Most of those made in the sixteenth through eighteenth century were made in Nuremberg. Those produced in Nuremberg were required by law to be marked by the person who made them. There is a excellent catalog of marks, so it might actually be possible to determine who made this one.

Congratulations on the great artifact finds!  And thanks for sharing!

They found more items.  I'll be posting some of them in the near future.

I showed a silver spoon yesterday that they found.

At least one bronze nested weight was found on the Margarita and can be found in the Mel Fisher artifact database.


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Every artifact has a story.  If you do some research and explore the story, you'll learn and lot and have a lot of fun.

Below are a few excerpts from an article on a Smithsonian web site.  It is Looking at Artifacts, Thinking About History by Steven Lubar and Kathleen Kendrick

Artifacts—the objects we make and use—are part of American history. If we know how to look at them, they can be sources for better understanding our history. While textbooks focus on the great documents of the American past, or the important events, artifacts can show us another kind of history, another way of approaching the past...

..To  understand the past, we have to understand the artifacts of the past...

...They make history real. Moreover, it is a reality that can and should be viewed from different perspectives. When museums choose not to enshrine and isolate an artifact but instead open it up to new interpretations and different points of view, they provide opportunities to challenge and enhance our understanding of the past. Look at the artifacts on this web site, and around you, as reminders of the complexity of the past. To fully appreciate the complexity of artifacts—and of history—we must not only acknowledge their multiple and conflicting meanings, but embrace them.

As you look at the artifacts ...  think about them not as simple, unproblematic things—things with one story, one role to play in history. Rather, consider each artifact with its many stories as holding diverse meanings for different people, past and present. Think of them as bits of contested history. It is because of the contest and conflict they embody, and the way they combine use and meaning, that artifacts are such valuable tools for exploring the past.

Here is the source link.

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/idealabs/ap/essays/looking.htm

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The most read post of May was the  5/2/16 Report -  Old Beach Ring Finds and More On The Apparent Lack Of Silver 1715 Wreck Rings.

The most "Google Plused" post of May was the 5/14/16 Report -  Contributions By Amateurs, Hobbyists, Detectorists and Treasure Hunters.  TV Shows.  The Florida Collection.

You might want to go back and look at those posts or some of the most-popular posts listed on the main page.

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Like I said, I have more to show and more news to share.  I'll do that soon.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net