7/13/12 Report. - Storm Shipwreck & New Technologies Paying Off

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

Not Exciting Treasure, But Useful Stuff.

Some of you are probably wondering why I'm showing you a flashlight and the other thingy.  Well, they were among my finds this morning, and the funny thing is that I was going to buy one of those thingies, whatever it is called, because I had a couple of nice drills without the keys.   But there it was.  And it fits my drills.   That saves me a few pennies and a shopping trip.

Like I always say, you can find almost anything on a beach.  This find was well-timed pleasant surprise for me.

I don't mind having the flash light either.  Despite being dug from down about a foot in wet sand, it still works fine.  I was surprised to see that it still works.

I'll talk more about some other things I found this morning some other time.



A conglomerate containing a musket, sword and neck of a wine bottle was recovered from the Storm Wreck near the St. Augustine lighthouse.  It is thought to be a late 1700s wreck.

Here is the link to that article.
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2012-07-12


Computer tomography has been used to examine coins while still concealed inside pots or  other archaeological artifacts. 

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

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120710093520.htm




Some think that a LiDAR survey  has identified the location of the fabled White City of Gold in an overgrown and remote Honduran jungle.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2156900/Legendary-lost-White-City-gold-discovered-dense-Central-American-jungle-advanced-laser-mapping.html?ito=feeds-newsxml


Yesterday I posted a link to an article about a gold cache found in an air conditioning unit.  Here is a link to a story about a man who found a baseball card collection possibly worth $3 million in the antic of his grandfather's house.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/baseball-cards-found-ohio-man-worth-millions-article-1.1111592



Here is a tip for mothers who have boys who have sports memorabilia collections.   Don't throw the collection away when the boys go away to college or whatever.   Boys with sports memorabilia collections probably hope to become men with sports memorabilia collections.   Sports collections are not considered to be  toys and, despite what you might think, the boys probably won't grow out of it.

One of the things I like about doing this blog is hearing from a lot of very nice people.  There are a lot of kind considerate helpful people involved in treasure hunting. 

I feel like I know some of you very well even though we've only exchanged emails and we've never met.

Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions and Forecast.


Conditions haven't changed much.  The beaches and shallow water are mostly still very sandy.

The seas are a little rough today.   The wind is from the east/southeast.  

The seas  will be a little rougher, reaching a peak of about four feet on Sunday and Monday.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/12/12 Report - Cache Hunting & More

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



The St. Lucie Metal Detecting Club will meet at 6 PM Saturday at Bernie's house at 1256 SE Palm Beach Road, Port St Lucie.  Bring your beverage and finds.

For more information contact Bernie at twiprod001@att.net.



An air conditioning repair man found 180 ounces of gold in an air conditioning unit.

People sometimes hide things and then either forget where they put them or they are discovered before the owner removes them. 

Here is the link to that story.  Thanks to Plat2pus.

http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-man-finds-gold-stash-in-ac-unit-20120709,0,991043.story?hpt=us_bn10

The stock photo of the gold bars had nothing to do with the story.


Talking about caches - 

One day a number of years ago while I was sitting in a detector shop waiting for the tide to change, in came a fellow that I had recently got to know a little.   I had been running into him out at the beach.  
I didn't know him well.  I could tell that he knew what he was doing, but I didn't know the half of it yet.

He had been working some South Florida beaches, which is where I ran into him.  I knew he was finding a good amount of gold jewelry. 

Before arriving in South Florida, he was down in the Keys for a while.

Well, one day I was sitting in a local detector shop shooting the breeze and waiting for the tide to change, and in came this fellow.  I'll call him Bill.

He had a large silver bar with him.  And I do mean large.  I could see the Spanish markings on it.  When he saw me, he tried to tell me that it was lead.   I knew better.

After I got to know him better he eventually confessed that it was silver and that it was one of several that he found in a large cache.  The one I saw that day when he came into the shop, he brought to sell.

That was not the only large cache that he had found.  He took his detecting to the next level.  

When you target and recover large caches (plural), that takes detecting to an entirely different level.   When these guys go out and detect like most of us, picking up one coin or ring at a time, they are doing it to fill time or seek additional clues to a specific cache, but they are always on the trail of one or more specific caches.  Like, I said, that is a completely different ball game.  To me it is much more difficult than simply detecting the beach or shallow water, no matter how well, and being fortunate enough to pick up a few particularly valuable finds.  Cache hunters target big ticket caches.  It takes a lot of research, focus, commitment and patience.

Bill  wasn't the only successful cache hunter that I've known.  You will seldom know about these types of guys.  They aren't seeking publicity.  They don't have their picture on web sites.  They don't want to call attention to themselves.  They just go about their work.  They are too busy for all the other stuff.

Bill left South Florida after a few weeks.  I think he moved on to the Gulf Coast next.  I haven't seen him since, and that was quite a few years ago.

If you want to take your hunting to the next level, you might want to target a large cache.  It isn't easy.  It's not for everyone.  In fact it is for very very few.  There is no guarantee of success, and most of us simply enjoy going out on a beach for some leisurely detecting.  And it is possible for anyone to stumble upon a large cache, even though that seems to be becoming more and more unlikely, but that is a totally different ballgame from being a "cache" hunter.




It seems there is always a new frontier.   Someone sent me this link to an article about deep sea gold mining.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/science/vast-deposits-of-gold-and-other-ores-lure-seabed-miners.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Sorry, I lost track of who sent it.


No change in conditions.  Slightly increasing seas, that's all.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/11/12 Report - Coin Weight, DeSoto in Florida, Odyssey

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

You might remember this object.  It was posted some time ago.  At the time I thought there was some possibility it could be a broken bale seal.  The finder tells me that after much research, the object has been identified as a coin weight and is the weight of  an eight-real.



Recent evidence has been found that helps to clarify the route of  DeSoto's march through Florida.  Ashley White, the archaeologist who found that evidence says, "Now, we know for sure he came up through the Black Sink Prairie to Orange Lake and looped around through Micanopy."

Here is a link you can use to learn more about this recent discovery.

http://www.ocala.com/article/20120707/ARTICLES/120709790&tc=ix?p=1&tc=pg


And here is another link with more information on DeSoto's travels in Florida.

http://www.ocala.com/article/20120709/MULTIMEDIA/120709871


Somebody mentioned to me that this blog isn't just about the Treasure Coast.  I do include lots of information from other areas, but almost all of that information is applicable to hunting the Treasure Coast.    The basic principles are general in nature.  Every beach is different, but the underlying principles are the same no matter where you go.

It is good to know the beaches that you detect very well.   Like I said, every beach is different.  There might be spots that tend to collect goodies.  You should get to know those spots.  Some spots will produce repeatedly year after year, sometimes seasonally, and sometimes under specific conditions that you should learn to recognize.

Despite all of that, detecting isn't rocket science.  The biggest determinant of success is the amount of time you spend at it.  After that, is where you happen to live.  You'll find a whole lot more if you hunt beaches that are visited by thousands of active wealthy people every day than if you live in some less populace area where a rope belt is considered high class jewelry.  In fact, where you live and hunt can be a bigger determinant of success than how much time you spend hunting.  Some beaches are tens or even hundreds of times  more productive than other beaches.  That goes for both modern jewelry and shipwreck finds.   There has to be stuff there before you can find it, and then you have to spend the time to find it.  Of course you will learn to make better use of your time as you spend more time and gain more experience, but the two biggest factors are location and time on task.



The stock price of Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. recently got very close to $4.00 a share, which would be a 3-year high. That is pretty good, but a few years earlier it was up to $7.00 a share.  I would still be thinking about taking .profits.  It could be a long time before it ever gets back up to $7.

Here is a good article (though mostly negative) on the financial prospects for OMEX.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/698191-treasure-in-the-sea-how-to-invest

People often fail to consider the costs of treasure hunting.  Even for the hobby detectorist there is the cost of the detector, gas, parking expenses, and quite a few little things that all add up.   Just think of all the expenses involved in a major operation like Odyssey Marine, and then you have to consider the amount of money that goes to the officers of the company and other major stock holders. 


Beach detecting conditions remain unchanged.   The wind is still from the southeast.   That means lighter materials will be common on the beach fronts.  I have received a couple reports of Native American pottery finds lately.  That fits with what I would expect given the conditions.

The seas will start to gradually build very soon, reaching three or four feet by this weekend. 


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

 

7/10/12 Report - Beach Conditions, Item Identities & Waterway Cleanup

There are a lot of topics I could talk about today.  I'll have to select just a few and let the others wait for another day.

First, I'll show what the beach looked like this morning on the Treasure Coast.  Just what you would expect for summer - lots of sand.   Also some shells, and nice calm water with good visibility.

It would make for some easy water hunting, even if the bottom is sandy.  With the recent holiday and the hot weather, there should be some recent drops anyhow.

As you would expect with the current conditions, there were some good shell piles, containing a few interesting items, such as sea glass, small pieces of fossils, a few shards, and even some pieces of sheathing and some conglomerates and iron items.

Medicine.man, who found the fake cob shown yesterday, also found these 50 caliber shell casings.  He found from the marks on them (D M 42) that they were made in 1942 by the Des Moines Ordinance plant.

Back in my February 17, 2012 post in this blog, Kevin B. provided great information on how to identify these types of shells.

It seems there is consensus and some very good information on yesterday's mystery find.  Just after posting yesterday's post, it occurred to me that it looked a lot like a jig head.   "Barracuda" already made me think of vintage fishing equipment because I had found some Barracuda fishing items in the past. 

I was a little afraid that mentioning that information in the blog might influence other people and didn't know if I should have done that.  It seems now that it didn't matter. 

I received the following  photo from Michael T. 

Here is the photo sent in by Michael T.  

Good match, wouldn't you say?

Thanks Michael.

Thanks also to David S. and all of you who responded with information on this item.  Putting it all together makes me confident that we have the true identity.

The 5th Annual Treasure Coast Waterway cleanup will be on Saturday
July 21, 2012  from 8 AM to 1230 PM.  For information call 772-285-1646, or go to www. tcwaterwaycleanup.com.

I advise all  of you detectorists and archaeologists to get out there and clean up the waterways.

That's all for today.  I'll have to keep my other topics for another day.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/9/12 Report - Mystery Object & Another Fake Cob Find

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

My 7/7 posts showed up a day late because of a mistake I made.  Sorry about that.  It was supposed to be posted early Saturday.  Instead it didn't post until very early Sunday.

James F., who found the old bronze strap and ring that I showed a week or so ago, sent in the photo of this mystery object.  The object was actually found by Rob W.   They first thought it might be a plumb-bob, but experts in that field say it isn't. 

They very effectively used photo editing software to bring out what was embossed on the object.  That revealed the word "BARRACUDA."  You might be able to see where that is embossed on the object in one of the photos.    

That is a good tip.  Image processing software can be very useful in bringing out hard to see details for identifying an item.

You probably can't tell from the photo, but the object has a hole that runs through it lengthwise.

Can you identify this item for Rob?  Please let me know if you can.
Florida Fishing Tackle Mfg. Co. of St. Petersburg, FL made the Barracuda brand fishing lures and other fishing equipment from the 1920s through the 1970s.   I don't know if the mystery object is related to fishing, but it is a possibility.

As a side note, keep your eyes open for collectible fishing lures while you detect.  Old fishing lures and equipment can be very collectible.  I've found a large collection of lures myself, including some old wood lures.  The early Barracuda lures with glass eyes are rare.



When tropical storm Debby was over in the Gulf, I mentioned that they were having erosion over there.  Subsequently I have received reports of some older things popping up over there.

Medicine.man sent in photos of a couple of finds from the Gulf Coast.  One is a fake cob. 

I always show photos of fake cobs.  It can be a big disappointment to find a fake cob, especially when you first dig it up and at first glance think you got the real thing. 

This one is clearly marked "COPY" at the bottom of the coin in the photo.  Fake coins are supposed to be marked like that, but often the mark is intentionally small and obscure or gets worn off.   Some fakes are convincing and others not.

People often wonder why there are fakes like this on the beach.  One poll that I did in this blog, showed that you were about as likely to find a fake as a genuine cob.  They are not rare finds on the beaches.

Fake Cob Found on Gulf Coast.

I don't know why there are so many.  I suspect some are intentionally placed on the beach as a prank or game, but I don't know that.  I suppose they are often simply lost just like everything else you find on a beach.

Medicine.man also found a WWII era machine gun shell.  I've shown similar shells from the Treasure Coast and South Florida beaches.  I think they are found all along the Florida coastline - certainly almost everywhere I've been.

I once posted information that a reader sent in on how to read the marks on such shells.   If you want to see that post, use the blog search box.

My hit counter says that this blog blew right through the 400,000 mark sometime Sunday.

It seems that "Happy Hunting" has become a standard greeting in the treasure hunting community.

Treasure Coast Beach Conditions and Report

According to the predictions, it looks like we'll have one to two foot seas for most of the week as winds continue from the south and southeast.

That means no change in conditions is expected.


Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/7/12 Report - Found Ring, How to Determine Age of Cut Stones, & Old Maps

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

Photo Submitted by Bill M.

I sometimes receive questions about finds that people make.  People often need help in identifying their finds and want to know how old an item is.  Sometimes I can help with that if it is something I know a little about - maybe it is a type of item that I have personally seen and studied before, but when I don't know much about an item, I can sometimes refer them to a source or someone that does know about that type of item.  And sometimes, as you know, I'll post items here when I think that maybe the readers of this blog can help identify the item.  That works sometimes, but not always.

I'm always learning.  I wish I knew years ago what I know now.  I would have made fewer mistakes.  And I hope you continue to learn through this blog.

I noticed a few minutes ago that the blog is nearing 400,000 hits.  I never dreamed that would happen when I started this blog a few years ago.  Thanks to all the loyal readers and especially those who contribute in one way or another from time to time.

The find shown above fits right in with what I talked about yesterday.  Yesterday I discussed how to test precious metals and gem stones and showed a couple examples of test equipment.

All you can really see in Bill's picture above is the stone, but if you know something about how stones are cut and how that changed over the years, you can get an idea of how old the item might be.

Here is a web site that gives a history of diamond cutting.  Scroll down a little to get to the history.

http://www.georgianjewelry.com/reference/antique_diamonds

Going by this web site and the photo above, it looks to me like the cut on this stone might be an antique rose cut, which the web site says was most common in the 18th and 19th Century.  

Of course, I could be completely wrong.  Let me know what you think.

In any case, this provides a good example of how you might be able to get some idea of the age of an item by looking at the cut of any stones.




A copy of one of  the first maps to show America has been found.  It is a 16th Century map by Martin Waldseemueller.

Here is a link to that BBC article.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18700489


There are, however, some who think that the Chinese discovered and mapped America before Christopher Columbus.

Here is a link that tells more about that.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4609074.stm


Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Forecast and Conditions.

Conditions remain poor.  The wind remains from the south, and we still have one to two foot seas.

It looks like that pattern will continue for at least a few days.

You might want to visually check through some of the lose material in the shallow water.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/6/12 Report - Testing Gold and Diamonds & Thought Control

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

Electronic Gold Test Equipment (riogrande.com).

If you've been detecting a while, you've probably found some things that you aren't sure about.  Maybe you're not sure what the item is made of.  Maybe you haven't been able to find the owner or the item is broken and not usable anymore.  If silver, maybe it is corroded beyond recognition.  In cases like that, you might choose to recycle the materials.  Scrap gold or silver can be melted and recast, but first you'll want to know for sure what you have.

I've mentioned acid testing before and discussed how to do that.    You can search past posts by using the blog search box to read about that, but there are other ways to test gold.  There are electronic methods.  Good electronic test devices are more expensive than acid test kits but can be bought for as little as $200.  The less expensive electronic test kits require use of a chemical that must be changed after every use.  More expensive electronic test equipment, up around $400, do not require any test chemicals.  Unless you are finding a lot of items that need to be tested, an inexpensive acid test kit will probably be good enough for testing gold, silver and platinum.

You can easily get your items tested for free these days.  Simply take the item to a pawn shop or jewelry consignment store or a place that purchases gold and you can probably get them to test your item.



Electronic Diamond Tester  (riogrande.com)



There are also electronic diamond testers.  Good ones start at around $100 and up.

A lot of the places that buy gold will simply pay for the gold but not give you anything for the stones.  I'd take any good stones out and keep them.

Here is one of those articles that gets me going.   A physician was tried for removing and attempting to sell antiquities from Italy even though the article says he was tried not because the coins were antiquities (they weren't) but because he "believed" the coins were antiquities.  Does that make sense to anyone else?


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

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018592771_apusitalylootedcoincase.html

One of several things in that article that gets me going is the issue of attempts by any legal system to determine what is in a person's head, and worse yet, to pass judgment on that.   How do you know a person's mind?  And even if you could know for certain what is in another person's mind, should thought be legislated?

You can say, yes, it is done all the time.  There are "hate" crimes, for example, which I would say might be better described as "thought" crimes.   And there are attempts to judge a person's mind in other ways, for example to determine intent or insanity.

To me, the most basic freedom is freedom of thought.  Not far behind that is freedom of speech.

Not only do I believe freedom of thought should be protected because it is the most basic of freedoms, but it is also near impossible to "know a man's thoughts."   I suppose the next thing is to judge a man's subconscious mind - things he doesn't even know he thinks.   Where does it end?

Thoughts may be fleeting occurrences, the result of mistaken observations, mistaken conclusions, creative artistic or scientific explorations, or the result of illness, drugs  or delusion.   Although we can detect brain activity in a general way, we can not see thoughts.   I believe that any attempt to make laws that judge or depend upon assessing the presumed thoughts of a individual are misguided and very dangerous.

Well, that was one of the things in that article that got me heated up.  I'll leave it at that for now even though there was much more. 



Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions and Forecast.

The wind is from the south today and the seas calm.   Not much change.

Tomorrow and for the next couple of days, according to the predictions, we'll have more of an east wind and slightly higher seas, but still not much more than two feet or so.

Conditions for finding old shipwreck items on the beach remain poor.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net