12/3/17 Report - Sphinx Found in California. Get Your Ark Ready. Anchoring Information. Mystery Find and Museum Engraving Tool.

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

An Egyptian sphinx was uncovered in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in California.

"The Ten Commandments" film was a masterpiece in its day. Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille had Paul Iribe, a French artist known as "the father of art deco," create 21 sphinxes for the movie. DeMille placed the sphinxes in the movie's biblical Exodus set, where he filmed scenes of the Jews toiling under the Egyptians and later escaping through a parted Red Sea. DeMille filmed the Exodus portion of the movie in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, because it looked like sandy Egypt, Jenzen noted.

The Exodus set was enormous. It had pharaohs, sphinxes and colossal temple gates that, in all, reached 12 stories high and spanned 800 feet (240 meters) in width, Jenzen said. But legend has it that DeMille realized two things when he was done filming: The set was too expensive to move and too valuable to leave behind for rival filmmakers to steal, Jenzen said.

DeMille solved his dilemma by having the Exodus set buried in the sand...

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

https://www.livescience.com/61045-hollywood-sphinx-found-in-dunes.html

Like I was saying the other day, it can be difficult to identify an item.  There are different ways that items can end up somewhere, and sometimes those ways are unexpected and surprising.  And there is also the problem of copies or reproductions.  I've posted some of those in the past.  I've found reproduction coins that were actually made of silver and gold.   They should be marked as such, but aren't always.  

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Get your ark ready.

Sea-level rise in this century may threaten Jamestown in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas; the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which launches all of NASA's human spaceflight missions; and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, a new study finds.

These iconic locales are some of the more than 13,000 archaeological and historical sites on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the southeastern United States that rising sea levels will endanger this century, researchers in the new study said.

Global warming may lead sea levels to rise by about 3.3 feet (1 meter) in the next century and by 16.4 feet (5 m) or more in the centuries afterward, according to research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and others. These rising sea levels could have severe effects, as more than 40 percent of all people worldwide currently live within a 60-mile (100 kilometers) distance from a coastline, many in low-lying areas vulnerable to sea-level rise, according to reports from the United Nations and others...

That comes from another LiveScience article.  Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.livescience.com/61063-rising-seas-may-destroy-archeological-sites.html

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Concerning the found anchor that I posted yesterday, Captain Jonah said, The anchor is most likely not Hartmans. They didn't use stern anchors. Instead use to use rims with tires attached to crown lines. And would have the guys dig deep holes burying them up to the crownline. They are still there every once and awhile we come across one. Just to clear up.

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Concerning the mystery find that I posted on 12/1, Galen went back to McLarty Museum and found a good comparison piece.

Tools On Display At McLarty Museum.
Photo by Gaylen C.

Below is a photo of the engraving tool shown in the middle of the above photo (left) beside the point of the item Gaylen found (right).

Engraving Tool Point Beside Point of Mystery Find.
Photo by Gaylen C.

Here is what Gaylen said about that.

Went back to McLarty yesterday with grandson. Saw something I missed on the first trip in the display donated by Douglas Armstrong regarding the very early french explorers in FL.  This is an extremely similar piece. As displayed it could perhaps explain what I thought looked like wood remains. In an article I was reading it was reported to Menendez that some of the French escaped the slaughter and had traveled at least 75 miles to the south. We need some historians to address that. But the imagination can use that as the reason I found this in Ft Pierce. If it indeed is an engraving tool it fits into the activities in this area in these times. It could very well be Spanish as well as it could be French. I am curious as to who identified the piece on display. Is Douglas Armstrong still in the area? If so perhaps he could offer some insight. As I said, unless this is determined to be a positive ID, it kind of expands the realm of possibilities:

1. It is an early French tool, and even older than thought.

2. Frenchmen carried it south?

3 Spaniards acquired it by raiding the French.

4 It's really Spanish.

5 It is something totally different.

Last photo shows the two items in comparison. What think ye mateys?

For me - they sure do look alike.

Gaylen is cleaning the item and thinks he might see remnants of a wood handle.

Thanks Gaylen.

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On the Treasure Coast we have beautiful weather - if you like beautiful weather.  I prefer windy and rainy.

The moon is beautiful too.   Good high tides but small surf.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/2/17 Report - Art Hartman's Anchor? Tools From the Age of Sail. Fid or Marlinspike. Difficulty of Identifying Some Finds. Big tides.

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

Recovered Rusted Remains of Anchor
Find and photo by Darrel S.

Darrel S. dug this anchor years ago.  One of the all-time top treasure salvage guys of the Treasure Coast got excited when he saw this anchor because he remembered the time when Art Hartman lost an anchor in the same area.

If you know much about Treasure Coast treasure salvage, you probably know something about Art Hartman (deceased Dec. 24, 2015, sorry to say).

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The dating game can be very difficult. I'm not talking about trying to meet a member of the opposite sex.  I don't know how you know what is the opposite sex any more.  According to what I've been hearing, there are a dozen or more other sexes.  You've probably heard about the LGBTXYZ... whatever.   Anyhow.  In the past things weren't thrown away like the are today.  Broken objects were repaired or the parts or materials were reused.  A tea kettle, or example, would be repaired time and time again, and then when it was beyond repair the copper would be used to make other things.  I saw pictures of finds from one old fort site that yielded at least twenty different types of items made from the copper from old kettles.  Items were repaired so many times and were used for such a long time that it could be especially difficult to put a date or age on the item.

I often remind people that old items are being lost everyday.  That is another thing that can be confounding.  I've found coins just after they were lost that were hundreds of years old.  People still wear or carry old stuff at times.

Deciding what a thing is can be difficult too.  Some things could be used for a variety of different purposes.  Just think about a rock.  It could be a building material, a weapon, a weight, a hammer.  How it was actually used, can be a difficult thing to determine.  And some items were used in more ways than one.

How about the item found on the Treasure Coast by Gayle C that I showed yesterday?  John L. thought it might be a fid.  That was one of my first thoughts.  It could certainly be a fid or something very similar.

Brian M. sent this photo of a similar item he once found at a land site.  His is a bit longer and thinner.  Note the eye at the one end of Brian's item.

Find by Brian M.

The fid was the traditional tool of the sailor from the dawn of sailing all the way into the beginning of the last century.  It was used to loosen and tighten knots.  It was used to separate the strands of rope for splicing.  The fid was used as a club and a temporary pull handle.  It was used to shape hand sewn grommets in sails and clothing.  After the knife, it was the sailors most important tool.  The fid was often a handmade affair and was sized according to the size rope that was being worked.  Wood, bone and antler being the predominant choices.  Its an easy tool to make for yourself and can be made from just about anything you have available.   This simple tool had a good long run and is still of use to those who work with traditional ropes and cordage.  As ships began to transition to mechanical power and rigging was replaced with wire cables, the fid fell out of favor.

That text is from the pirateking web site.  Here is the link.

http://www.thepirateking.com/historical/marlin_spikes.htm

It seems that some people use the terms "fid" and "marlinespike" interchangeably, but I think "fid" more often refers to an object made of wood and used to work with ropes, while "marlinespike" more often refers to a metal object which is used to work with wire cables.

Here is a description of a Marlinspike.

Below is a picture of a variety of pointed sail-making tools.

Variety of Sail Making Tools.

I lost the sources for the last two pictures.  If you know where they came from, let me know.  I'll post the sources as soon as I find them.

I once posted a similar find that I made (See following link.).  I thought it could be a fid or an awl.  Hard to tell.  There were a lot of good uses for pointed objects on sailing ships.

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2016/08/81216-report-south-hutchinson-island.html

And here is the link to a very good web site that shows a wide variety of old sailing ship tools.

http://www.ageofsail.net/aosbt.asp

I think we have yesterday's mystery find narrowed down as well as we can.  Gaylen now has the job of cleaning and preserving his find.

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I can tolerate cold weather and snow when putting up Christmas decorations, but I find mosquitoes and fire ant bites especially annoying and something one shouldn't have to put up with at this time of year, but that is what I got.


We're getting close to a full moon and the tides are now big.  The surf will only be 2 - 3 feet though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/1/17 Report - Devil Dogs: Mystery Solved. New Mystery Find. Skeletons on Ghost Ships.

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

Recent Find.
Find and photo by Gaylen C.

Other End of Same Item.
Find and photo by Gaylen C.

Point of Same Object
Find and photo by Gaylen C.

I received the following message from Gaylen C. who found the above object.

Found this item at the foot of eroded dunes on Sunday....  Have had no luck identifying it. Certainly looks to be very old. Sent photos off to U of F for help. Thought perhaps you might have come across something similar. Of course with sand being artificially moved around so much there's no telling where else it could have been. I found it buried in 6-8 inches of sand that looks like it had fallen from a vertical dune 6 or 7 feet above the beach. My guess, as well as some others, is that it is a needle or punch of some kind. It appears to be hand hammered, with a long taper. No idea if the curve in the opposite end is intentional or accidental. Could be an eye under the accumulation. Since this is only my 3rd beach detecting experience I don't know the advisability of chipping away at an artifact. . Probably would not be if I had found real valuable treasure first. 

Any help you may render in the identity and preservation of this thing would be greatly appreciated.

Gaylen told me the item is 13.5 inches long and no wider than .25 inches.   I sent Gaylen information concerning perservation.  

 What do you think it is?  Notice particularly the curved top, and what appears to be the bulbous shape on that end.

I want to comment on one of Gaylen's sentences.  Nor do I have knowledge about how to best conserve it. Didn't think finding little "treasures" would be so involved and such fun.

I often talk about how the find is often just the beginning.  Then comes the questioning, cleaning, and researching.  That is when you learn a lot.  You get into the history of the item, and it changes you to some extent.

That is not always so true of items that are obviously valuable, like a gold coin that a person might not think much more than its value.  They'd read the marks, and then look it up and find that it is worth X amount, and that is about it, other than the bragging.  

Those who do not detect for old items don't understand what it is all about.  They always ask, "What is the most valuable thing you found."  They often don't realize that a rusty artifact has any value at all.  That is the big difference between someone who hunts and cherishes rusty things and those who don't.

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Going from a mystery to an answer, I recently posted a USMC ring found by John C.  We couldn't tell what the image on the face of the ring was.  Thanks to Sherry Y., we now know.

The image is known as the Devil Dog.  Wikipedia says, According to United States Marine Corps legend, the moniker was used by German soldiers to describe U.S. Marines who fought in the Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918. The Marines fought with such ferocity that they were likened to "Dogs from Hell." The "Devil Dogs" nickname for Marines first appeared in newspapers in the United States in April 1918...

Super job Sherry!  Thanks much.

That also helps with dating the ring.  The image means the date of the ring is later than 1918.

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Ghost ships washed up on the shores of Japan with skeletons aboard.

Here is the link.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/asia/north-korea-japan-ship/index.html

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This might be the last of Darrel's beach photos for a while.  I'll miss that.  It was a big help to me.  I don't get around to all the beaches that much and like to keep you up to date on beach conditions.  He says he is off to other adventures for a while.  Thanks and good luck Darrel.

Turtle Trail Looking North Yesterday.
Photo by Darrel S.

Darrel said, Beaches are really leveling, but are dips near low tide. Low 10:40am.  

The photo was taken yesterday.

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The Treasure Coast surf is down to around two or three feet today, but the tides are increasing.

I have a lot more to talk about, but that is all for today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/30/17 Report - British Museum Acknowledges Contributions of Detectorists. Beaches on the Treasure Coast. Its a Small World.

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

John Brooks Beach Yesterday.

Frederick Douglas Beach Yesterday

Both beaches were pretty sandy.

Darrel S. sent the following beach photos, which were also taken yesterday morning.

Wabasso Beach Yesterday.
Photo by Darrel S.

Between Seagrape and Wabasso Yesterday.

Between Seagrape and Wabasso Yesterday.

Thanks for sharing Darrel.

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The British museum recently unveiled archaeological finds made last year by detectorists.  Among those finds is an very rare Iron Age Celtic helmet from the time Julius Ceasar first invaded Britain.   Below is a link to the article about that helmet.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/dec/03/detected-amateur-treasure-troves

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I got a very late start on the blog today so I'm going to keep it short.

I have the identity of the USMC ring and another new find to look at.  I'll post more about both of those tomorrow.

I heard from a lot of people that said they really enjoyed reading about Clint's experiences during the 1984 Thanksgiving Storm and the 1991 hunt.

It is a small world.  I think I know exactly who the fellow was that found an 8-escudo on the beach right beside Clint.  That fellow did find an 8 escudo on the beach there at that time, and he also told me the same story about the guys on the beach with a machete.  The machete story is what jogged my memory.

I'll wrap it up for now and be back with more tomorrow.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/29/17 Report - Help Identify and Date Ring Find. Tuesday Beach Conditions Report.

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

Finds From 11/14
Find and photo by John C.

In the middle of the finds shown above you can see a special find.  It is a very flattened ring.  That ring is shown below.

On the left side is "USMC" and the Marine emblem can be seen on the near side of the ring as shown below.

Marine Ring
Photo by John C.

This is what the Maine emblem looks like.  The two-color one shown below would be an officer's.

Marine Emblem.Source: www.hqmc.marines.mil 

The question now is what is on the top face of the ring (See below).

Setting on Same Ring.
Photo by John C.

John says he can't make this out and would very much like to identify the ring and the timeperiod it comes from, and return it to the owner or his survivors., if possible.

There was a Marine emblem back in the 1700s, but the eagle, globe and anchor emblem dates back  no farther than 1868.  

The face of the ring probably shows a regiment, battalion, or group insignia.  Seebees is a common one, but I don't see that here.

Hopefully someone will be able to determine for Clint what is on the face of this ring.  Let me know if you have any ideas.

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Darrel sent the following report and photos from his Tuesday morning hunt.

7:30-10:30am. Low at 9am. Turtle Trail to Johns Island. No good hits. 1 nail, and some fragments. Ton of sand and seaweed. Surf and surge kept me from getting closer to the water. Heavy scallops, but too much dirt!

Portuguese Man-O-War

The Portuguese Man-O-War has tentacles that can give you a painful sting.  The tentacles can be long.  The long tentacles of a big one got wrapped around my leg years ago.  That didn't feel good.  I started wearing a wet suit when they were around.

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I showed some copper items found by Eric H. a couple days ago.  Here is the other side of one of those that I pointed out the other day.

Find photo by Eric H.

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The surf on the Treasure Coast is supposed to be around three to five feet today, but it doesn't look like the wind is favorable.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/28/17 Report - Ole Timer Talk: Clint. Amazing Beach Finds of the Legendary Thanksgiving Storm of 1984 and More.

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

Today I'm going to post an email I received from Clint.  I might do a series of similar posts from ole timers who are willing to share.  I'll call it Ole Timer Talk (OTT).  There is no specific age or time period I'm looking for.  I'd say at least before the 21st century, as a minimum.  I've done a few of these in the past, but just decided to make it a regular thing if I can.

One thing that was different when I started metal detecting is that there was a lot less communication and a lot more secrecy.  There were clubs, but no one was going to tell you much unless you were their trusted treasure buddy.  It is so much easier to get information today and the metal detecting community is much more informed because of it.  Ole timers could be just as skillful and successful in the past, but they generally had to learn a lot  more on their own. Even though they were very skilled, I don't think they were generally as broadly informed.  Maybe that is just my own perception, because I was a lone wolf and thoroughly enjoyed experimenting and learning on my own, but I know I made a lot of mistakes and still regret some of them.

Times change, and that is one reason that it is good to record the experiences of the past, especially those that were never widely shared before.  Anyhow, I'm thinking I will start a series of posts like this if their are enough ole timers that are willing to share their favorite or not so favorite experiences. I don't know if there will be many or few or if they'll be often or rare, but I'll start it off today.

If you want to know what it was like, here is how one man experienced it..

Hi.

I would like to relate to your audience remembrances of hunting the treasure beaches of Treasure Coast in 1984 and 1991.

In 1984 near Thanksgiving, I left sunny mild Sebring for a day of fishing at Vero Beach…I also carried my Whites PI1000 as a alternate in case fishing was lousy.

Halfway to Vero, It became windy and cloudy. Two miles from Vero and the Palm tree fronds were almost horizontal from the wind.

I decided to heck with fishing…headed to Turtle Beach Access. Upon arriving, I was blown away by the number of people who were trying to get down to the beach but the waves were crashing into the Berm and you could see debris ( dock parts, palm trees, large wooden boat trash) just flying south in the current as the tide rose and the waves got higher. Then some guys made it into the water but were being slammed into the berm and some were hit by debris. That ended hunting for a few hours.

Later that day, people could hit the beach but not really sure what was found. I do know that the berm was 4 feet high before I left to find a motel.

Next day, I made it to the beach and the berm was 8 feet high and the beach was flat. People were searching and I found my first Spanish coin…a 1/2 reale in very good condition. I will never forget the feeling when I turned it over and saw the cross.

No real finds yet so I returned to the Motel. Police were turning away people that did not reside on Johns Island but I had the motel info and I was allowed to pass.

The third morning, I made my way to Turtle Beach access again. It was a retreating tide but winds still avg. 57 MPH. tide was way out and there had to be 100 people on the beach.

My PI1000 suddenly stopped working (later found out the coil was soaked inside). I watched people scooping up all kinds of stuff and others digging up cannon. The beach had all kinds of ship wreck artefacts laying there. The Berm was now 12 feet high and possibly 20 feet back.

I cannot remember his name but I stood by a fellow with a Seahunter XL500PI who was trying to retrieve a signal in ankle-deep water. His second scoop netted a pair of pliers from the wreck. Following up on that signal he received another from the same hole and came up with a beautiful 8 escudo coin. I remember we both exclaimed an expletive at the sight of it.

Suddenly a wretched guy carrying a machete came up to us and said something to the effect that "a guy could get hit with a machete for that"… and we both made a retreat …fast!

I was bummed out because people were finding stuff everywhere and I had NO DETECTOR. I was watching two guys dig out a small cannon and someone named "Bull Durham" came buy swinging a detector and found a gold coin in the sand pile created by the two cannon retrievers. I finally decided to go home. As I was leaving, I saw three big lumps of concretion at the base of the berm. They must have weighed 80 lbs each. About the size of a beer keg.  I decided to take one home and struggled to get it to the car. Thought if it was something maybe I would come back in a few days and get the others (yea, RIGHT!LOL).

I took the "keg" home, soaked it in Muriatic Acid for 3 days and washed the material left in the plastic trash can. I Freaked out…there were 270 hand wrought ship spikes, 4 - 4escudo gold coins, and a handful of silver 4 and 8 reales. I made a gorgeous display of the ship spikes (some were in circles and some were S-shaped). This was the ships carpenter"s keg of nails. There were pieces of American Cedar and two pieces about 6 inches long of metal Banding. I went back to Vero 4 days after the storm and …yep…the other concretions were GONE!!

Since 12 feet of beach was washed out to sea, anything left at that level was covered over in 2 weeks. The only way any remaining treasure that was on that beach and out past low-tide could now be found is for the beach to erode further than 12 feet down which would probably be near rock bottom according to some old-timers I talked to.

I moved to Lake Worth in 1987 and started learning about beach and wave patterns. Watched how people reacted to waves and patterns of swimming and horseplay. I studied wave interaction at the tideline. and then I started finding lots of lost jewelry and coins. I even was able to find $20 bills floating just under the surface of the water, which led to me finding the metal bill holder in several instances.

I searched Jupiter Beach and Lake Worth beach exclusively and learned all the patterns there. I walked along the beach one winter day searching with my Seahunter XL500 and could easily recognize the sound of gold, but while I listened, my eyes roved. I spied a 6 inch portion of a pencil thick gold chain sticking up and moving about halfway between low and high tide mark. People were walking by it, oblivious to it. I pulled it up and it had a gold Maltese Cross as a pendant. I found gold nugget rings at the base of berms just laying there exposed.

In Winter 1990-1991, I met an old retired guy at LW beach and he was there every day. We were basically the only two working that beach on most days. In that particular time frame, a longshore current must have cut through from LakeWorth through to Jupiter Beach and for a month, He and I each filled a box with hundreds of old WWII era coins and (of course) modern coins. BUT…a case in point, one day we met at LW beach and the tide was rising with wind blown winter waves. We would meet at the beach center and walk in opposite directions for the length of the beach at the waters edge where the waves washed up, turn around and walk back to the center and show each other our finds, then turn around and repeat…for at least 10 times. I found at least 15 gold rings with stones and 5 wedding bands, 2 necklaces. He found near the same but I think he found more.

That easy picking abruptly ended when the cut out further finally filled in. One thing I noticed was on a sloping beach, sometimes I would see what looked like a yellow pencil rolling up the beach with a wave and rolling down the beach following a wave. I would grab these items (3 in my time in Florida - 3-1/2 years) and they turned out to be gold Herringbone necklaces. Apparently, the nature of a herringbone lends itself to be straightened out by tiny grains of sand filling in the spaces (joints) and then the necklace can follow a wave. Also, I learned that when there is seaweed in the surf on a rough day, that as the wave crashes into the beach carrying seaweed, any necklace that gets roiled in the wave- weed combo gets caught up in the weed and winds up at the high tide line as sea wrack. Always run your detector (and eyes) over the wrack line.

As for the coins I found…I sold them in Maryland to get funds to buy a home.

I retired from the VA in 2010 in SC and drove to all my favorite beaches to detect. I was shocked to discover that I could NOT search in the water within 3000 yards of a shipwreck. Most beaches were sanded with renourishment sand. I went to LW beach and searched in the water. I could not understand why the beach out in the water was full of potholes (thousands it seemed), then I realized that with gold prices so high, people had descended on the swimming beaches and wrecked havoc out in the water.

I left and never returned. I will soon relocate to NC and be closer to Virginia Beaches and DelMarVa (Coin Beach). I then can use my MineLab CTX 3030 and even search rivers in inland areas for lost stuff at river crossings (will require Library and Historical research).

Best of Luck to all who endeavor to the refrain of…"Today's the DAY" !!!

Thanks for sharing Clint!

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The surf tomorrow will just a little bigger - something like two to four feet.  The wind will be from the east.  Beautiful beach weather.

Send me your Ole Timer Talk.  I can't guarantee I'll post every one that I get.  I'll just exercise my own judgment, which can include a lot of different factors.   Its nothing personal if I don't post a particular submission.  I just post what I feel like talking about.  Remember this is just a fun volunteer activity for me.  Maybe I won't even get another submission.
.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

11/27/17 Report - Ambersands Report. Renourishment Sand. Copper Finds. Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach.

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

Ambersands Beach 11/26
Photo by Eric H.

Eric H. sent in a report with photos.

... I am relatively new to metal detecting but you can’t say I don’t work hard at it. I went to Turtle Trail at dawn this morning but it looked sanded in, so I went to Seagrape Trail but it looked the same. So I went to Ambersands and it looked better- some shell lines and low spots- so I got out my Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II (I incorrectly referred to it as a Garrett Surf Master in my last email). It’s a PI machine which explains all the junk targets I dig but I’m there to dig targets, not walk around lol. I hit it hard for several hours and found a great shell line right in front of the mcLarty museum but it only produced junk targets. I’ll send some pics in another email.

Thanks Eric!

You can see the erosion at the back of the beach.  I can't tell for sure from the photo, but that could all be renourisment sand.

If it erodes down to the renourishment sand that came from the Sebastian Inlet swimming area, there were some silver U. S. coins in that sand.  As I recall it was a darker sand than what was put on the last time.

I like Eric's attitude of being out there to dig - not walk around.  As you know I encourage people to dig everything.  I've gone over the several reasons for that in the past.  One reason is to see what is there and to identify the different zones. 

Similar types of items tend to be found in different areas.  There can be some intermixing, but if you find aluminum in one area, you might find denser items such as lead sinkers in another.  There will also be times when you find older items in one area and newer items in another area.  It is good to know where those items are.

I mentioned sampling not too long ago.  By sampling different areas, you can tell what types of items are accumulating in those areas, and that can tell you where to focus more of your time.

Very often the older items are associated with a particular type of sand.  You might find that the older sand is a more brown/red sand.  That is often where the real old items are found.

Most of the renourishment sand spread on the Treasure Coast in recent years is a light color - almost white.  It is good if you know where it came from.  That can help you tell if something old might be in it.

So pay attention to the sand and the different layers as well as the types of objects that are being found in different areas.

Eric also said, ... is a small shell line north of McLarty. I found a few better lines but didn’t pull out my camera until I had dug targets. I also forgot to mention that I met a nice young German couple on holiday here. They had purchased a cheap $80 detector and were asking me about the area. Oh yeah, one more thing- I did see a refurbishment bag exposed slightly south of Ambersands.

Targets Dug by Eric
Photo by Eric

Here are the targets dug by Eric.  As you can see there are lot of nails, some sinkers, a fish hook, aluminum, etc.

Among the more interesting items are the following copper items.

Copper Items Found by Eric.
Photo by Eric.

The copper finds look to have some age.  The bottom one looks like a lid.  The smaller round item is interesting.  Don't know what it might be.

Thanks for the report Eric.  That should certainly help everyone assess that beach.

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Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach.
Photo by SuperRick.

SuperRick was at Fort Pierce South jetty beach and found it cleaned out.  It gets detected frequently.  If you catch it right after it erodes you can find modern items there.

There are also a few fossil pieces being found with the larger pieces of gravel and shells.

Thanks for the report Rick.

There is a wreck in shallow water near the area shown at the top of Rick's photo, but it has been well picked over and whatever is left could be buried under renourishment sand.

I've also found WW II items on that beach in the past.  A lot of training exercises were done there.  One nice hat badge came out of the renourishment sand a few years ago.  If you get down to the older sand you might find dog tags, shells etc.

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Today the surf will be small.  It will increase to about three feet during the middle of the week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net