4/15/14 Report - Key and Ring Find, Keys From the Margarita, Portuguese Man-O-War & Beach Conditions

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



Treasure Coast Beach Around Low Tide This Afternoon.

I went out to look at a couple of beaches this afternoon.  Here is a photo of the first, that as you can see, had a little cutting and also a little scalloping.

The cuts here were less than two feet at the highest.  What is worse, is that the sand in front had filled up to the cuts and was mushy.

You can see how there were some scattered shells along in front of the cut.  I didn't bother detecting here.



Same Beach Just a Little South.

This is the same beach, this time looking from the flat beach towards the water and out over a dip.  Maybe you can see where the dip is in the middle of the picture.  Here it was more scalloped than cut. 

I went to one other beach and it was less cut and scalloped than this one.  It also had scattered shells and was very mushy along the water line.

There were targets at the second beach near the water line, although not things like coins -  pieces of copper and stuff like that.  Also there were some larger items that couldn't be recovered because they were deep and close to the water.

Portuguese Man-O-War

I saw a couple of these.  They normally show up seasonally.   They were pretty big and capable of delivering a good sting.

The stinging tentacles can be feet long.   I've got some good stings from those while in the water.  Try to avoid them.  When there are a lot of them in the water you might want to wear a wet suit or something.

Meat tenderizer seems to be a good thing to apply to affected areas to reduce the pain.  I've heard of other people who use other applications.  Some apply alcohol, but I haven't found that to be very effective.

Key and Ring.
Finds and photo by Dan B.

Here are a couple of finds from Dan B, and here is what he said.

At the top of the broken one, it says Allegheny, and is stamped in the middle with the number 16 and says County PA on the bottom. Not sure how old the key is, and the ring was found at the beach and appears to be modern. Go At Pro. Found two of these with low sensitivity just to reduce interference's from deeper objects.



The key is modern but it got me thinking that since there are a lot of keys found, you might want to be able to recognize older keys.   As a start I'll show some 17th Century keys from the Margarita, which sank in 1622.

The keys found from the Margarita and Atocha mostly look very much like those shown in the picture below, which is one of many pictures of keys from the Margarita and Atocha shown in the Mel Fisher artifact database.

Here is the source link for the picture of the keys. http://www.melfisherartifacts.com/

Keys From the Margarita.
Source: Mel Fisher artifact database.

Tomorrow on the Treasure Coast the surf is supposed to be a bit bigger - up around four to six feet.  Also the high tide will be pretty high.  


I'm still not expecting much improvement in detecting conditions although we might have a few hours of North winds on Wednesday.   There is a lot of sand that needs to be moved.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/14/14 Report - Sanford Railroad History, The Copper Freight Tag, Flue Thimbles, Poll Results & What Really Matters

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


Here is what James F. has been able to learn after researching his copper railroad freight tag that I showed in my 4/9/14 post.

Well, I've been researching the old copper freight tag and have found some interesting information concerning it. It is a freight tag from the original South Florida Rail Road Company which was established in Sanford, Florida in 1879, built in 1880 and run from Sanford to Orlando from 1880 thru 1886 before becoming, in 1887, the "Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Line," until becoming the "Plant Line" from 1889 until 1905, then the Atlantic Coast Line until from 1905 until 1969 then finally CSX, the current Florida railroad. So the tag can be dated somewhere between 1880 and 1886. The tag itself denotes a shipment of perhaps 127  "8 IN FLUE THIMBLES" which is the piece of hardware used in a building that is fixed to the inside to allow the smoke or stove exhaust to exit to to the outside. An interesting look at life 128 to 134 years ago :-)

Jim made a great historical find and made it all the more significant and interesting by doing the research.  Thanks James, and congratulations!

Below is a picture showing a flue thimble. This one shown below is for a wood burning stove.

Source:http://www.woodstove-outlet.com/woodstove/Insulated-Thimble-Wall-Pass-Though.htm

That would be an important piece of hardware back then.

This picture from the Florida Memory Project shows the scene in 1886. 

And here is a paragraph from the Florida Memory Project.

1886:  Rail Service Reaches Central Florida Rail service was completed between Jacksonville and the central Florida town of Sanford, on Lake Monroe. Although steamboat travel was just reaching a pinnacle of popularity, with seventy-four vessels running out of Jacksonville, the penetration of railroads into central Florida spelled the beginning of the end for the steamboat era.

Here is the link, which provides a nice time line of significant historical developments.

http://www.theriverreturns.org/explore/history/text/19/


I made a good many mistakes in yesterday's post.  I must of been half asleep or something.  Anyhow, I think I got them corrected.

For one thing I said that the second most frequently selected topic in the poll was Treasure Coast beach conditions, and that is correct.  However, I said that it got 15% of the votes, which is wrong.  It got 24%.

So the two most frequently selected "favorite" topics were Treasure Coast finds (36%) and T. C. beach conditions (24%).

Next in order was historical and archaeological information (15%), followed closely by beach dynamics (12%).

Both of those will help you be more successful.  For me, beach dynamics is a very important topic.  If you learn to understand a beach, you can really improve your time efficiency by quickly identifying and spending your time on the most productive areas.

Detecting and recovery techniques were not far behind getting (10%) of the vote.  I don't present a lot of that.  I prefer to not cover a lot of stuff that is common knowledge.  Sometimes I have to give some background, but normally I try to add to what is common knowledge rather than repeating a lot of it.  I think you'll find some of my rough-water working techniques to be relatively unique, for example.

Only one person selected non-metallic finds as their favorite topic and no one selected big treasure finds from around the world.

The poll asked people to select their one most favorite topic.  That is entirely different from asking what topics people are interested in and allowing multiple responses, and it has to be interpreted differently. 

To me it was surprising how many different topics were the "most" favorite topic for different people. 


On the Treasure Coast the tides are a little bigger.  It looked like near a full moon last night.

Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox.

We have only about a three foot surf today.  The wind was fairly strong from the South today.

The surf is expected to increase Thursday, after a North wind on Wednesday evening.  That might be worth checking out.  We'll see if the surf gets up to its predicted size Thursday.


I've been going through some old 8mm family movie film from the 50s and looking for whatever I might want to have converted to DVD.  I showed one small piece of family film in this blog back some time ago.   But what struck me is that after going through reels and reels of film, the only thing I really want to have copied and preserved are movies of the people.  Many of them are now gone, while others are 50 or 60 years older.  I don't much care about the places and things that they thought were neat enough to capture on film.  The only stuff that I care about preserving now, all these years later, are the people.   I'm glad that I have some of that captured on film.   All the other stuff doesn't seem to matter much.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/13/14 Report - Treasure Coast Half Reale Date, Iron Cannons and Poll Results

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

Mexican Half Reale Found In Nov. 2013

They say that time heals, but you could say it also reveals.  That is one reason I like holding onto things.  It often takes a good bit of time to learn about some things.

Just yesterday I was browsing through the Sedwick Coins auction listings.  I was looking at Mexican half reales.   I have a special interest in those since they have been frequently found on the shipwreck treasure beaches of the Treasure Coast.  But while looking through the auction listings I noticed a half reale with an O to the right of the monogram.  Hmmmm.  Where had I seen that before?

A little later when I was looking through some half reales, there it was -  the big round circle to the right of the monogram (See photo above.).

I then went to Sewall Menzel's book, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins, and looked through the Mexican half reales of the appropriate time period.  And there it was on page 108.   Menzel shows a cob that matches the one in the photo extremely well.

The book says that in 1705 there was a transitional half reale design that showed the common mint and assayer mark of "OMJ" to the left of the monogram and an"O" to the right of the monogram.  The O was the mark of an assistant assayer.

The match between the one in the Menzel book and the one in the above photo was one of the best matches I've seen.  There is the same lop-sided V, and on and on, detail by detail, making for a very excellent match.

Since the transitional design started in 1705 and ended by 1719, or maybe earlier, I now have a better date range for this cob.  If it came from a 1715 Fleet wreck, as I'm confident that it did, the date range would be 1705 - 1715. 

My point is that it was a combination of  browsing through numerous examples, in this case including the auction listings, and taking yet another look at the real thing that made it all come together.  Not only do I now have the date for the cob narrowed down to between 1705 and 1715, but this cob might be from the same die as the one in the Menzel book, or at the very least, a very similar die.

I'm reminded of that old song, Just One Look, which says that's all it took, but one look is seldom enough for me.  I really like how old things seem to reveal their secrets over time as you add one fact or detail after another.


Bill F. ran across some iron Spanish cannons in a marine consignment store.  The asking price was about $2000 each.  They were reportedly found in the Bahamas in the 1930s and were in a yard in the Sewall's Point area for some time.  Bill says they were in good condition.


The most recent blog poll has concluded and the results are in.  The sample size was good, especially considering the time of year and everything.

One thing is for sure - this blog has a heavy Treasure Coast focus even though a good number of its readers are from other parts of the country and other parts of the world.  The two most favorite categories were Treasure Coast specific.

According to the poll results the top "most favorite" thing in the blog is Treasure Coast finds.  I guess that shouldn't be too surprising.  Over one third (36%) of the poll respondents selected that category.

The second most favorite topic is Treasure Coast beach conditions (24%).   That is what I started this blog to be.  That part has become a smaller part of the blog simply because Treasure Coast beach detecting conditions don't change real often and I got tired of giving the same old ratings everyday.  I still make every effort to stay on top of things and warn you of any changes in beach conditions that result in a beach conditions upgrade.  I actually spend a lot of time monitoring beach conditions, even if I can't issue an upgrade or downgrade very often.  I really stay on top of things and give daily conditions ratings when I can issue anything other than a 1 (poor) beach conditions rating.  As you know most of 2014 has been poor this year and there have been very few upgrades.

I'll talk about the poll results some more some other day.


On the Treasure Coast we still have poor beach detecting conditions.  The wind picked up a little today, but we still have something like a three or four foot surf and the wind is coming from the East.

It doesn't look like it will get much better in the next few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/12/14 Report - $20,000 Diamond Found, 100 Year-old Log Canoe, 1915 S Nickel & Non-metallic Finds

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



3.85 Carat Diamond Found by Teen
Source: AP video.

A young girl recently found this diamond of over three carats at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, the only diamond mine in the US where you can go and for a small fee spend the day prospecting for diamonds.  The diamond she found was sold for $20,000.







http://xfinity.comcast.net/video/teen-sells-diamond-she-unearthed-in-arkansas/223095875702/fanNews/newest/?cid=hero_sf

I've told the story of the Crater of Diamonds before.  Here is a bit of it.

One day in 1906 pig farmer, John Huddlestone, noticed something sparkling in the mud of the pig farm that he bought for a thousand dollars, giving his mule as down payment.  Not knowing what it was, he picked up the shiny stone and kept it.  He eventually sent it to a gemologist in New York.  It turns out the shiny stone was a diamond.  John sold the first diamond real cheap, but before the story is over, farmer John's pig farm turned into a diamond mine now know as the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.  

That story teaches a great lesson and has been as an illustration for counteless sermons.  Good things can sometimes be found in the muck and mire of life.

Here is more of the story of John Huddleston and the founding of Crater of Diamonds State Park.

http://murfreesboroark.com/johnhuddlestonday.html

An old log canoe was found in Lake Minnetonka 80 years ago when the water level was down and a dock was being constructed.   The canoe was thought to be nothine special  until testing was done that estimated the canoe to be nearly 1,000 years old, the oldest of its kind in Minnesota.
 

“We’ve always thought it was 200, 300 years old,” said Russ Ferrin, a retiree who runs the Pioneer Museum. “And then they came back and said it was 1,000 years old. It totally shocked us.”

Here is the link for more of that story.
 

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/254654311.html?page=1&c=y


One of the coins that Russ found and was shown in the coin photos recently was a 1915 S nickel.

Here is a good summary on that.

http://www.coinstudy.com/1915-nickel-value.html

This site gives a good description on how to evaluate the condition of Buffalo nickels.


There have been a couple of themes in my recent posts.  One is construction.   Russ' coins were found at such a site as were the finds of James F.  

Keep your eyes open for new construction that might be unearthing old items.  Make sure you are allowed to be there though.  Many construction sites are off-limits.


On the Treasure Coast today, the surf will be only about two or three feet.  The tides will be average.  The wind is from the East/Northeast.   That won't help.


Less than a day remains for responding to the blog poll.   We have a good number of responses so far.

One result that is showing up is the two least favorite topics: non-metallic finds and world treasures.

There are several reasons that I talk about non-metallic finds.  One is that I like them just as much as metallic finds.  Non-metallic finds can be just as valuable and sometimes more valuable than metallic finds.  And perhaps more importantly, they can serve as signs or pointers.  Ceramics and glass, for example, will often be one of the first signs of a historic area or a shipwreck.  Signs like that are important to me.   I seek out any possible signs that can point me to treasure.  they are made of.

My system is based upon following any and all type of signs that might give any clue to treasure spots.  I'm sure that if you do not use non-metallic items as signs, you can become more effective by learning to read what they might tell you.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/11/4 Report - Old US Coin Bonanza Including 21 Over One Hundred Years Old Taken From One Site

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

Barber Quarters, Dimes, Mercury Dimes, Indian Heads, Buffalo Nickles, etc.
Finds and Photo by Russ P.

I received an email from Russ P. who shared about finding one of those sites that detectorists dream about.   In the process he recorded several big personal firsts!

Here is Russ' description.

I thought you might like this story, though it involves a mainland site.

I happened upon a site next to a building that used to be an old A&P.  The concrete parking lot had been removed at least a week or so.  I was disappointed to immediately notice that someone had been there first, as there were a few scattered holes down the middle of the site with the dug metal junk beside.  I was not very optimistic and debated even pulling out the detector, especially since it seemed the prior detectorist had left without finding much.

What followed was the most thrilling few hours of detecting time that I've had as I realized that I had found, for the first time in my experience, a nearly unsearched site with access to much older coins.  I had a taste of what it must have been like for those detecting in the 1970's and early 1980's. 

I spent five hours the first day.  It was not a large site, probably just 30 by 100 ft, but I go slow and there was a lot of iron.  I actually moved faster than I would have liked towards the end, but still I felt like I covered the ground fairly well.  My coin totals blew me away, with 45 coins earlier than 1945 and twelve silver coins.  One was a 1915S Buffalo.

I returned a second time for just one hour and worked a few of the planters and other poorly accessible areas and found six more pre-1945 coins including an indian-head.

Taking some advice from your blog, I switched to a smaller coil and returned for a third time.  I then covered the ground by swinging the coil at 90 degrees to the angle of my initial coverage.  I only had two hours, so spent them in the areas of previous highest yield.  There had been no further disruption to the site, so I was stunned to find eight more old coins, including three silver.

Then it got really interesting.  I returned for a last time after final preparations had been made for the new pavers.  Excess concrete from the newly poured curb (which was poured prior to my first visit) had been scraped from the edges.  I covered the entire site again, finding twenty-three more old coins, with six silver.  I found my second Barber quarter at the site in a spot that I am certain I passed over with the coil twice in earlier searches.  

I learned so much in those few days. It was an area small enough that I could cover well, but I now believe, because of this experience, that there are truly no completely cleaned out sites.  I would work that site a dozen more times if I could as I firmly believe there is a lot left.  Unfortunately, it is now covered with pavers so I'll have to be very patient.  Maybe in a couple of decades I'll have a second chance!

There were many first finds for me at the site, including these highlights:  first Barber quarter (I found two), first double-digit silver day, first V-nickle with legible date (I found nine). Twenty-one coins were older than one-hundred years. 

In hindsight, there were several techniques that led to additional finds: extreme persistence once the site is known to be productive, covering the same ground repeatedly from different angles, switching coils, removing surface iron.  All of those techniques have been mentioned in your blog, so thanks for those tips.  I would have liked to have dragged a magnet and used a different detector but just ran out of time.  I'm convinced that I would have made additional finds had I done so.

I've included a picture of my uncleaned finds from the first day.  I'll send two further pictures of the finds cleaned.

Russ P.

I showed those two photos of the cleaned coins that Russ sent.

Thanks for sharing Russ!

 

More Silver Finds by Russ P.

 

There are several lessons that you can get from Russ' experience.   Here is a big one.  Don't give up on a site when you get there and see holes where someone has already been and found junk.

Many detectorists have no tolerance for junk and give up on excellent sites way too soon simply because they find junk.

You will often find the junk first.  Junk is often big and often is close to the surface.  As a result, if you are not an experienced detectorist, you will find the junk first.   If you give up after finding the junk, you won't get to the good stuff.

Many good targets will be masked by the junk.  It can be worth the time to remove some of the junk to see what might be in between the junk or under the junk.

An inexperienced detectorists will often leave a lot of big holes and dig a lot of junk while a lot of good targets remain.   Don't be fooled by those holes.  Check to see what remains.


Another good tip that this story bring out is to watch for special opportunities.  They usually are times when the soil or sand has been moved a lot, either by man or mother nature.   Always keep your eyes open for those special opportunities.  And when they occur, take advantage of them.  You never know how long they will last or what will end them.  The window of opportunity can close as quickly as it opened. 

I remember one particular time when Mother Nature slammed the door shut.   I had spent a little time on each of the two previous days at one water site, when the second evening the wind changed direction and the targets that were all over the place disappeared by the next time I visited.  The change in weather took a site that had hundreds of targets and completely shut the door.  In retrospect, I realize that I should have worked the site harder while it was producing. 




Online bidding has begun for the Sedwick Coins auction # 15.  Some lots already have bids.

http://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Treasure-World-U-S-Coin-Auction-15_a20264?p=1&ps=50&m=all&ca=860000&so=1



The tides on the Treasure Coast have been close to normal lately.  The big tides that we had a while ago are over for the time being.

The wind Friday will be directly out of the East and the surf will be down around two or three feet.  That won't do anything to change our poor beach detecting conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/9/14 Report - Old Railroad Freight Tag, Setting The Record Straight On The 1715 Fleet Diamond Ring & Returned Wallet

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

Old Copper Railroad Freight Tag Find.

To start off today I have to say thanks to this blog's readers for all the help I get.  You can probably tell that I often do my posts in a bit of a hurry.  Heaven knows that by the time I enter the material and then try to edit it a time or two or more, I sometimes end up with something messed up.  I try to get it right but make mistakes.   I think most of my errors are simple things like typos that you can figure out or work around, but it isn't always that way.  In any case I have to thank you all for the help you do provide in providing photos, reports, links, information and corrections.

Above is a find from James F.  And here is the story of the find as described by James.

Well, due to some ongoing road work, I've been finding artifacts in a very old town north of Orlando...so old in fact, that when the roads were torn up, large amounts of what was left of the original 19th Century brick road (which had been paved over in the 20th Century with asphalt (who knew?) was found scattered all over the site, so we have been locating some very old coinage and artifacts which have lain under the brick portion of the road for quite some time. Here is one artifact I discovered which is apparently (after I spent literally days using electrolysis and good ol' elbow grease, scrubbing toothbrush and toothpaste and baking soda and hot water (the list goes on :-)  Seems to be a 2" diameter solid copper railroad freight tag identifying a load of "8 IN FLUE THIMBLE" shipped by the S.F, R.R. with an identification mark of "A   127" I don't know if this indicates the number of items shipped, the order, or waybill number...anyway, it's pretty cool...just thought I'd let you know we are still finding cool items underground as opposed to under-sand and water.

Thanks for the report James.  Great find!

If anyone can answer any of James' questions, shoot me an email. 


I got an email from Christopher P.  who said he had no problem with the video that I posted.  I'm glad to know that.  It might help me narrow down the problem. 


Bruce Beck, who you might know from his diving courses or salvage work, was able to offer some first hand information concerning the 1715 Fleet diamond ring that I mentioned in my 4/7/14 post.

Here is what Bruce said about the find.   Actually, my dive partner and friend, Christopher R. James found the gold hole on his own about seventy-five yards from the Pandion, Bob’s boat.  ... Christopher first found the butterfly brooch and then the rest of the crew of the Pandion, including Bob Weller, blew holes in an area about the size of a pickup truck and uncovered the rest. I wrote a feature article about Christopher’s recoveries on different sites in the June 1997 edition of Lost Treasure magazine. I was an investor of Bob’s in 1994 and Christopher and I began our partnership in 1995.

If you can find the June 1997 issue, I'm sure you would enjoy reading that article getting even more of the details surrounding that find.

Thanks much for the information Bruce!  I really appreciate it.


Did you know that you can tell the type of beer from the shape of old ring style pull tabs.

William K. sent me a list of beer types and pictures of the corresponding pull tabs. 

Thanks William!


Maybe you heard this nice story.   A 16 year-old high school student lost his wallet at the stadium on opening day at a Marlins game.  Someone found it, and not only did they go to the trouble of returning the wallet anonymously, but inside the returned wallet was an additional $20 and a note telling the student that the student might see that the world isn't such a bad place.  The note also told him to pass the good deed along in the future.

Here is the actual story.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/04/08/miami-high-school-student-wallet-returned-anonymously-with-extra-20-and-special/


The blog poll seems to be going well.  Still a couple of days left to respond.

I was more hurried today than normal but managed to get a post done because of all the help I received.

I'll revisit some of these things in greater detail in the future.  That is all I'm going to be able to enter now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/8/14 Report - Drone Used to Discover Archaeological Site, Treasure Coast Beach Conditions & NOT 1715 Fleet Kang Xsi

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

Below is a picture of the beach at Pepper Park in the morning.  I finally managed to get a video uploaded into blogger.  It wasn't quick though.  Maybe I'll be able to do more videos now.

NOTE:  It appears that there may be some problem with the video.  It seemed to work when I first put it on, but now it seems that it is not always loading for some reason.

That doesn't look very promising.  You could tell that the dry sand had been kicked up by plenty of beach goers though.   I didn't bother detecting there. 

That beach usually gets covered well during the winter by snowbirds who park their trailers there.


A drone equipped with an thermal camera was able to find signs of a 1000 year old village in New Mexico.

Here is the link to that article.

http://westerndigs.org/hidden-architecture-of-1000-year-old-village-discovered-in-new-mexico/

There are a lot of new techniques these days. 

Have you heard about the Pocket Drone.

It is a small drone that can be folded up into a small package and then opened for use.  It costs less than $1000 and can be equipped with a good camera.  

Pocket Drone.

Quite a few have already been sold to hobbyists and people who want to get another angle for their photos.

My concern is how stable it would be on a breezy day on the coast.

I saw the creators showing it on the business channel.

Here is a link for more information.


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/airdroids/the-pocket-drone-your-personal-flying-robot


Yesterday or the day before I showed an ancient Chinese "chicken cup" which is expected to sell for millions.  I showed it because it was an example of fine ancient Chinese porcelain. 

In the Sedwick auction they have a couple pieces of Chinese porcelain.  This one

The upper estimation on this one is $375.

The graphics on this one didn't appeal to me when I first looked at it and didn't look like the K'angxi I've seen from the Treasure Coast.

It does have a couple of the typical characteristics.  The shade of blue is similar and it is a nice thin and very white piece of porcelain.

This piece was once evidently confused as being from the 1715 Fleet, but when I saw it, the graphics were definitely not like what I had seen of 1715 Fleet Kangxi.  It just didn't look like what I had seen.  And I didn't find it as appealing.

It is still very different from the more common domestic 18th century pieces you will see.

I was pleased that my opinion of the piece had some basis and that I was able to recognize the difference.

Here is the auction description.

Small, blue-on-white Chinese porcelain teacup, K'angxi period, ex-Ullian. 44 grams, 1-3/4" tall and 2-1/4" in diameter. Completely intact, with some glaze remaining, traces of red overglaze too, simple exterior design of three cloud-like panels with diagonal stripes. With original Real Eight Co. certificate signed by Lou Ullian, which says this cup was "recovered in 1963 by the Real 8 Co. from the Almiranta of the 1715 Fleet. It was one of 11 small cups found." Recovered from: Spanish 1715 Fleet, east coast of Florida. UPDATE: It has come to our attention that this piece was actually recovered from a suspected pirate wreck of the 1720s-30s in the Red Sea during an archeological expedition in the 1970s. The pattern on this cup is distinctive for the Chinese market and would not have ended up on the 1715 Fleet. The salvager subsequently sold it to Ullian, and we surmise that it simply got confused in Lou's estate.

So this piece was not from the 1715 Fleet.  I am totally surprised that my gut reaction actually had some basis.


The best way to learn to identify items is to look at many examples, preferably in person.


On the Treasure Coast we still don't have good detecting conditions.  Take a look at the video.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net