10/5 Report - Gold, Shipwrecks, Cobs & Watching for Erosion

Early Mexican Minted Cob.

It's not likely that you'll find one of these Juana and Carlos cobs on a 1715 Fleet beach, but you can find them at the SedwickCoins auction.



Archaeologists are learning more about the 18th Century ship that was discovered at Ground Zero. They also have a nice photo of the timber at the following web site.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39500174/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Some of the richest investors are buying gold by the ton.

Her is the link for more of the story.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6932NR20101004


I found an article about a man that found a Neolithic tomb in a garden under a big slab of rock. He said, "There is a big slab of stone about eight foot by eight foot and I had always wondered what was underneath it. I had a bit of time at the end of the summer and I thought I would take a look."

The fellow "...pushed a piece of wire down a hole at the side of the stone and discovered a cavern underneath it. He then pushed down a rod attached to an underwater camera he used for looking at wrecks and discovered a chambered cairn with skulls against the edge."

I believe there is a lot more treasure around us than we realize. Let's face it. We aren't the first people to walk this earth and trample the ground we live, play and work on. It's all been here for quite a while.

But the technique mentioned in this story is why I posted it. Mr Mowatt used a video camera on a pole. That is something you can easily do today with all of the new small video cameras - including waterproof. You don't have to stick your head into every nook and cranny. I think that is worth remembering.

Here is the link to the rest of that story.

http://news.scotsman.com/news/Neolithic-tomb-found-in-garden.6561782.jp?articlepage=2

Forecast and Conditions.

We are close to a new moon and the high tide will be unusually high. The seas are predicted to be highest on Wednesday. The prediction now is for 7.5 feet. Combined with the tide and northeast winds, I'm hoping and have good reason to expect some improvement on the beaches.

I got a quick look at a couple local Treasure Coast beaches, and it wasn't very exciting yet. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera along.

There was some slight improvement. At spots where there was some erosion in recent weeks, like the spot that I recently showed that was undercutting the bank, there was a small amount of additional erosion but not enough to really do a lot of good.
There were cut at some places up to about a foot on that beach.

On another beach there were places here there was a cut almost two feet high, but the cut was only a few feet long. It was more like a scalloped beach with the front edge of the scallop cut off.

As I said, I wasn't really excited by what I saw even though there was some improvement. I am not increasing my beach conditions rating yet, based upon what I saw.

The good news is that there were some small cuts and they were pretty high on the beach. The bad news is that the cuts weren't very significant, and the waves seemed to be hitting the beach straight on.

Maybe when the seas get up to 7.5 feet, if they do, we'll see a more significant improvement.

There is a tropical disturbance down by Puerto Rico that has a %50 chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.

Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/4 Report - Lima Star Half Real & Labeling Finds

Clump Containing Several Cobs.


This clump is described in the catalog of the upcoming SedwickCoins auction as holding several cobs. I posted the photo because I think you should always be aware that clumps can hold a variety of things. The auction catalog also shows an eight real that is stuck in a clump along with a small shipwreck spike.

You can learn a lot by browsing auction catalogs.

One thing I highly recommend is labeling your finds. When you find something worth keeping, particularly old coins and artifacts, make sure to record when and where the item was found. Not only will that information help you in the future, because you can look back and see what places have been productive, but it can also help you identify the item, and it can the added information can actually add monetary value to the item.

When I began detecting, I kept detailed records of all of my finds. I wrote down the location, number of various types of coins and other interesting finds. I could then look back over my records when deciding where to detect next.

Sometimes you don't know if an item came off of a shipwreck or what. By keeping records and being able to review what types of items have been found at a particular location over time, you might start to see some patterns and be able to figure out something about the history of the beach and the source of the items.

An artifact is an artifact, but it becomes more interesting and valuable if you can document where it came from and if it can be associated with a particular shipwreck. Provenance is important. Even a musket ball is more interesting if you know it was associated with a particular battle or shipwreck, for example.

Over the years you might forget where an item came from. If you carefully sort an store and label the item, that won't be a problem. And the information might help you or other experts eventually figure out the identity of previously unidentified items or their source.

If you have the information, you can also mount and attractively display some of your nice finds complete with attractive labels. Informative labels makes any display more interesting.

Well, those are some of the main reasons you should clearly label your finds, even if you positively identified them yet.

One story I read said there is a lot of interest in bags of 90 percent U.S. silver coins. One dealer, for example, was selling bags containing $1,000 face value for close to spot melt price. The dealer said he would sell a $1,000 face value bag of quarters for $15,600 and a bag of $1,000 face value halves for $15,700.

Here is the link for more of the story.

http://numismaticnews.net/article/Veteran_coin_dealer_sees_gold_at_1500/

Another Photo From the SedwickCoins Auction Catalog.

You might recall that in the past I posted photos of a Lima Star half reale found on the beach near Jupiter Inlet that looks very much like this one. It is not from the same die, but the design is very similar.

This example shows the star to the right of the "S" in the monogram. I had been looking for examples like that.

Again, you can learn a lot from browsing the auction catalog.



Forecast and Conditions.

The surf is about four feet today with winds out of the north. 7 foot seas are still predicted for Wednesday. I don't like how the predictions are shaping up and am afraid that they might be dwindling. Hopefully, we'll actually see those seven foot seas. Combined with high tides and north/northeast winds it still looks promising, even if I am a bit worried about those predictions holding.

There is a storm in the northeast Caribbean. I suspect that is what is supposed to cause the rough seas as it heads this way. It doesn't look like it will develop into anything much stronger.

The next couple of days should tell the story.

Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/3/2010 Report - 1715 Fleet Gold Chain & Medallion & Picking Through Junk

1715 Fleet Gold Chain and Medallion.
This is lot number 2445 in the upcoming SedwickCoins Treasure and World Coins Auction. The starting bid is $35,000.

Although precious metal prices are now high, you might consider keeping unreturnable gold and silver finds as a long-term precious metals investment. Here is what one financial analyst says.

"The US supremacy as the top world economy will end sooner than many people believe, so gold is a better investment than the dollar despite it hitting a new record..."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39376706

Yesterday I talked about detecting more junky locations. When you find a location that is heavily littered with junk, it has probably not been well detected. The junk actually protects the location from most detectorists because not too many people are willing to put in the effort to properly detect a place like that. Unfortunately, places that have seen centuries of human activity are often junky.

When you find a junky place like that, there are a few things you can do to find the hidden goodies.

First pick up any large pieces of metal that you see. Then in order to remove the smaller pieces, you can use a magnetic rake or a magnetic sweeper with wheels. Maybe you've seen a roofer use a long-handled magnetic sweeper to clean up a work site after a job. A magnetic rake like the one shown here, will often work better for working some places. If you don't have one, a regular garden rake will help you pick up some of the medium sized pieces. A rake is also good for finding gold chains that have been lost - sometimes better than a detector. You can use a rake on a beach or volleyball court too if you know where a thin gold chain has been lost.

Another technique is to use a sifter. You can construct one that you can pull through the top layer of dirt. It should be constructed with a wire frame that will sift out an debris larger than a dime. Mount the frame with handles and wheels. Lawn mower handles and wheels can be used. A sifter can also be used on beaches where detecting is not permitted. It's a lot of work, but it works.

Water can help. Naturally moving water (flowing, tidal or rain), or water that you can dump or spray on the surface to wash debris away or simply uncover debris can be effective.

Of course, one thing that anyone with a detector can do is simply exercise great patience and detect and remove the junk one piece at a time. Or, you can try to discriminate out the junk, but you will undoubtedly miss some good targets that way. As I've mentioned in the past, target ID is not totally accurate, and good targets will often be masked by junk when you use discrimination. I've talked about that a lot in the past.

Of course all of this requires work an patience. Those are two things you can use to take your hunting to the next level if you are willing.

Forecast and Conditions.

The seas are still relatively calm today, but will be increasing to about 7 feet early Wednesday if the surf web sites are correct. The high tides are still relatively high and the wind is out of the north. That all could make for a good combination. At this point, next week looks promising.

Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/2 Report - Detecting River Banks and Other Out of the Way Places

I just received an email from SewickCoins giving notice that the October Treasure and World Coin Auction is now online.

You will find the link below.

Believe it or not, if you live in a place like the Treasure Coast where there are a lot of detectorists but not a lot of tourists with big flashy rings and chains, you might not always find a lot. Finding good stuff is not as easy in an area like this as it is in a major metropolitan tourist area that draws the wild and glitzy crowd. Of course, there are the shipwrecks to provide some nice finds, but you usually can't detect in the water where they are, and sometimes the beach conditions very poor, so you might want to try something a bit different at times.

If you have been having trouble coming up with finds, one reason might be that you are doing the same thing all the time, or the same thing that everyone else is doing. There are actually some good spots where few other people ever detect in any county.

Watch this video and then I'll comment on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wTDSLpY3hI

I like that video. I'll use it to illustrate a number of points.

First, if you drove by that spot today, would you stop and detect there? Maybe I should have asked that before you saw the video.

I know there are no places exactly like that on the Treasure Coast, but there are places that are similar in many ways.

What makes a place like that a good spot, and why don't people genrally detect places like that?

What makes it a good spot is that it has a long history of human activity, it is along a waterway, and you can see where there was erosion. Remember, waterways were the highways of the early days, and that is where people often settled, traveled or congregated.

Notice the banks that are undercut and the tree roots that are exposed. Both are very good signs. Also the rocks. They indicate that heavy items have been washed up or uncovered.

If you look around the Treasure Coast, you will actually find some places that look very much like that not exactly, but very much. Few other people will detect those spots, and if they do, the next time erosion occurs, there is a good possibility that something else will be washed out of the bank or brought into detecting range.

What keeps other people from detecting spots like that? One is that they never see anyone else there and it doesn't look very promising. The second, is the amount of junk. Many detectorists will put away their detector and leave when they see how much junk there is.

There are a number of ways to deal with the junk. I don't have time to talk about that now - maybe that would be a good topic for some other time.

The thing to know is that you can deal with it and if you do, you'll have a good spot for yourself.

Don't be afraid to spend some time working through junky areas. If the beach isn't any good and you haven't been doing very well, you might spend some time looking for a promising spot like this and work it until it is cleaned up.

Once you clean out an area like that, you can return whenever there is a little more erosion to expose new items.

One good place to check is under the undercut banks and around the tree roots. Even if someone has already detected there, there is a good chance that they'll miss things in those areas.

You might also want to move rocks or big pieces of junk and detect where they were.

In summary, you might want to find some new and relatively undetected spots to hunt. If they aren't heavily hunted, there is probably a reason, but you can often overcome the obstacles if you are willing to put in some hard work.

Following everybody else on the same old over-hunted beaches is not the formula for frequent success.

Here is the link to the SedwickCoins Auction.

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=imkgftcab&v=001TEa7HUw8hRH3byB5HbypAC52lUh60JxWVv4InsJkNC98mJdB9r0iS3T8xZQGA_wYK0ZfzXqNLUct5OFbmmkho2rpBPW2tzYn3dWFsEfPXxyfs5HBfnzshw%3D%3D

Forecast and Conditions.

The wind is now from the northwest. Seas are relatively calm. But there still is hope.

The surf web sites are predicting increasing seas next week, with a height of 7.5 feet being reached by Wednesday. That is a slight decrease from the previously predicted 8 feet, but not bad.

I'm afraid they decrease that prediction in the next few days as they often do. But if it sticks, there is still a very good chance that the beaches will finally improve significantly.

The wind is predicted to come out of the north next week too. That is very encouraging.

Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/30 Report - Hope on the Horizon

Photo Showing Small Cut Found This Morning on a Treasure Coast Beach.


First, I have a couple interesting news items from Kovels Komments today. First, a single copper Lincoln Penny was sold for nearly 2 million dollars.

Here is what Kovel's says.

"A 1943 zinc-coated steel Lincoln penny is worth less than 10 cents today. But a 1943 one-of-a-kind copper alloy Lincoln penny struck at the Denver Mint was recently sold by a New Jersey coin dealer for a record $1.7 million. The anonymous previous owner donated the coin to a charity before the sale so the charity would get the proceeds. The new owner also owns bronze 1943 pennies struck at the Philadelphia and San Francisco mints, and will show all three pennies at a coin show in Tampa in January. (Bronze is a copper alloy—but people always refer to the pennies as "copper.") It is thought that fewer than 20 of the bronze error pennies were made, and the coin that just sold is believed to be the only one minted in Denver. A few fakes have been discovered."

So it's possible to pick up a copper penny worth more than a gold coin. Instead of of getting tired of picking up pennies, check them out. And watch your pocket change.

I've recently mentioned how well silver is doing. It seems that the price of silver is causing additional interest in silver antiques that are now considered bargains and are being purchased by weight.

Here is that story from Kovel's.


"Antiques that were very collectible in the 1950s, like Dr. Wall Worcester cups and saucers, were bargains at a charity sale held last weekend. But sterling silver buyers, mostly antique dealers, were crowding the silver tables. Many had their own scales and weighed each tray, bowl or spoon to figure the meltdown value as well as the price they would pay. Since the items were weighed and priced a few days ago and silver has gone up, they may have found some bargains. We thought the silver jewelry was priced low and the gold high. It's strange for us to think about judging an antique tray by its weight. We haven't seen that since the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market in the late 1970s. Thousands of antique coin silver spoons and sterling trays were melted as the price of silver went higher than the price of the antiques. Silver went from $1.95 an ounce in 1973 to about $35 in September 1979 to a high of $54 in 1980. It fell to $21.62 over the next two months and millions of dollars were lost. The Hunts went bankrupt. This week silver is selling at about $21.47 an ounce; last September it was $16.68."

That's good news if you find or collect silver.

A Typical Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.

Forecast and Conditions.

As you can see from the photo to the right, Nicole didn't do much. Most of the beach that I saw, looked about like this. Not as mushy as yesterday, but still not cut.

The photo at the top of the post shows a cut that I did find. It was about a foot high on average and ran about fifty yards. It was about a mile from the beach access and not near any houses or condos or much of anything. Yet I found a number of modern coins in front of the cut. I always wonder how coins get to be in places like this which see only a few walkers with no reason to have coins out.

The main point here today is that even though conditions are not good, if you are willing to work for it, you might be able to find a spot or two that produces a few things. I have to wonder how those coins got there.

One other point worth bringing out is that these coins were under about seven inches of nice brown course sand which was over top of a layer of black sand. The coins seemed to be laying the black sand.

With the coins in a buried layer of black sand, I found that the discrimination mode on my detector, with a minimum setting of discrimination, was more effective at detecting these coins than pin point mode. Under normal conditions it seems that my pin point mode is as effective as discrimination mode, but it seemed that the discrimination mode handled the buried black sand layer better.

Nicole passed is pretty much gone and the wind is now from the northwest.

If you check the surf web sites you'll see that they are predicting eight foot seas for Monday and Tuesday. That is pretty good and with any luck at all should improve conditions. I would say that after the peak seas would be the best time.

Well, at least I am encouraged today. It looks like something could finally happen next week.

In the mean time, if you are willing to work for it, you might be able to find a few interesting spots to hunt.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Notice: If anyone tries to contact you claiming any association with me or with this blog, it is a scam of some sort. Do not open or respond to such communications. Generally, do not open or respond to messages from people that you do know.

I will never ask for any personal information of the followers of this blog. I only respond to emails by replying to the emails that I receive. And as you've probably noticed, I don't post personal information of those that contact me other than first name and last initial unless I have specific permission or unless your name is already posted widely on the internet in other public web sites. I will always honor requests to not post any information that you send me in emails. Sorry for any inconvenience.

9/28 2010 Report - Broward Wreck Areas *Update added 6:00PM

Broward Exploration Contract Map.

As you saw in some of the previous maps, the Treasure Coast definitely has a lot of salvage and exploration contracts. There are wrecks all around the state though.

As you might know, old silver shipwreck coins have been found in numbers around the Hillsboro Inlet down to around the Pompano Beach pier. Beach hunters know of places where shipwreck artifacts are found from North Lauderdale up to and around the Boca Raton Inlet.

On the map above, showing the area of an exploration area, the Boca Raton Inlet is just above the north end of the map. The Hillsboro Inlet is about in the middle of the exploration area. I think you can see enough landmarks to figure out where this is.

One advantage of some of these areas outside the Treasure Coast is that not all of them are hunted as heavily. A lot of the detectorists in tourist areas like those in Broward and Dade can do very well targeting modern items.

On a side note, the Fort Lauderdale inlet was not always where it is now. It was once up close to the Yankee Clipper, if that is still the name of the hotel, below the Bahia Mar, which is also the area of the old fort. Musket balls and other similar artifacts have been found around there in the past. The area above there, across from the Indian statue has long been a favorite detecting spot for many detectorists, although not mine.

One area I would recommend down that way when conditions are right, is the banks of Whiskey Creek. That is as much detail as I'll give on that.

Years ago I hunted a lot down that way, and I'm smiling as some of the real reliable hot spots come to mind.

I always tell you to keep any valuable finds safely stored in a bank lock box. One story in the local news is of a 90 pound jar of pennies that was stolen from a house in Stuart.

Here is the link to that story.

http://fwix.com/wpalmbeach/share/200ca09913/90-pound_jug_of_pennies_reported_stolen_from_stuart_home

I also got an email from Jim M. who pulled into one of the Treasure Coast accesses and noticed broken window glass. He talked to the the local police man who said they try to observe those areas every half hour. The policeman said that more crime seemed to happen at the accesses when the surf is rough. His thought was that surfers would come down to surf and then try to get some easy money for the return trip. He mentioned that some people leave their car window open. You might not feel like that is a good idea, but often the biggest loss is the damage done to the car when the thief tries to get in. broken windows or locks are common. Don't get the idea that this type of thing always happens. In my experience it is relatively rare on the Treasure Coast, but you might want to exercise a little caution.

Silver has gone over $21 dollars an ounce. I think I started mentioning it in this blog when it was around 17 or $18 dollars and ounce. Of course, gold has done well too, reaching new highs recently (if you don't adjust for inflation), and is over $1300 an ounce now.


Kovels Komments says vintage jewelry is a very good investment. They say, "Estate" (pre-owned) and vintage jewelry is selling at better-than-ever prices. Dealers say buyers find it a good "hard asset" investment since gold has become so expensive and stocks and bonds so uncertain. Buyers also are afraid that new tax laws may regulate trading gold coins and bullion. (In 1933 President Franklin Roosevelt called in gold coins, bullion, and even gold certificates for a set price. The law did not have the result expected. Citizens with large amounts of gold transferred it to other countries.) The best investment jewelry has large precious stones, exhibits fine workmanship and is marked by a well-known firm like Cartier. Take a good look at any inherited jewelry. It could be more valuable than you think.

And here is a link to an article about archaeologists using ground penetrating radar (GPR).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/2010092/sc_livescience/undergroundpeepshowrevealsartifactsoflife

And here is an article about "upwelling." It talks about how ocean water is moved by surface winds. I take things like this into consideration when trying to figure out what is going on with the beaches.

Here is the link if you are interested.

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/0quest/background/upwelling/upwelling.html

Forecast and Conditions.

As you know, beach conditions have been poor along the Treasure Coast. There is a good chance for a change now though. There is an area down to the south of Florida that is likely to develop and then head north off of the East Coast.

They are predicting eight foot seas around next Tuesday. We might get what we need when that storm passes by us.

Until then, there will be some rainy weather, but not anything likely to change beach hunting conditions.

Tuesday Afternoon Update: The surf sites are now expecting up to 6.5 foot seas later Wednesday and also higher seas than originally predicted for a few days later.

As a result we might actually see some improvement for Thursday, depending upon the track of Tropical Storm 16 and the direction of the winds that we get on the Treasure Coast.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/27 Report - Galleon Galley Bricks

Brick Found on the Beach.

You might be wondering why I am showing a stupid brick. In one of my recent posts, I mentioned using your eyes and scanning the beach for non-metallic objects. Not only can non-metallic objects sometimes be valuable, but they might also provide important information about the site or what went on there in the past.

A brick could indicate an old home or other structure, or it could even indicate the presence of a shipwreck.

If you know what you are looking for you can often get an idea of how old a brick is or where it might have come from.

Bricks are often found on old shipwreck sites because they were used in the galley.

Of course not all bricks come from shipwrecks, but there are some signs that will help you determine if it might be.

Brick Shown in the Mel Fisher Artifact Database.


Here is a brick found on either the Atocha or Margarita site. I forget which now.

Notice the black areas and the course materials in the brick. It shares many features with the brick in the first photo. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show the first brick well.

You can see that the brick from the database has a broader and flatter shape

The Mel Fisher artifact database also shows some bricks that seem to be modern bricks that were mixed in with the wreck debris.

I wonder if the black areas could have been created by smoke from the galley. I don't know.

The Exploring Florida web site mentions galley bricks found on the wreck site of the San Pedro. The web site says, "A Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve is open at the San Pedro site for divers. The San Pedro is among the most picturesque of the 1733 wreck sites. She is located in a white sand pocket surrounded by turtle grass. Abundant marine life inhabits her grave. A large pile of ballast stones contains flat, red bricks from the ship’s galley."

That is another example.

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

http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/shipwrecks/shipwrecks.htm

I've mentioned the Queen Ann's Revenge before. It is a wreck that has been studies a lot. I found a pdf file containing information on the bricks and tiles found on that wreck site.

They also show a picture of a ship's galley. Here is the galley.



The study mentions a variety of types of diagnostic information that could help determine the source of old bricks. Some have quartz inclusions, for example. And the dimensions of sample British and Spanish bricks differ, as do French, I believe.

You might want to take a look at the study. Here is the link.


http://www.qaronline.org/techSeries/QAR-B-07-03.pdf

I understand that bricks in Spanish are called ladrillos, which is also a word sometimes used to refer to more flat and broad bricks.

In summary, some bricks come from shipwrecks. Keep your eyes open for possible clues like that.

On a different subject, researchers have found that the Biblical account of Moses crossing the Red Sea is possible. They discuss how the wind could have affected the water levels, which were considerably different back then, to create a land bridge across the sea.

If you'd like to read more about that, here is the link.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/research-bible-may-have-been-right-about-red-sea-miracle/

I don't know if you've ever seen the photos of what appear to be chariot wheels under the Red Sea. I think they were in National Geographic as well as other publications.

Forecast and Conditions.

Seas are relatively calm now with winds from the south. The high tides are still pretty high.

There is nothing much in the topics to watch.

Next weekend might have higher seas again. We'll have to wait a few days to see about that.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcase.net