5/17/14 Report - Beaches Fill, Wreck of the London, Huge Carved Rudder and Largest Fossil Ever

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

One Treasure Coast Beach Just After High Tide Today.

The front beach changed shape since yesterday.  This is the same beach I showed yesterday. 

The cuts filled in some.  Now the cliff here are at least a foot less high.

Also the beach in front of the cut got straightened out.  As I showed yesterday there was a hump in front and then a small dip in between the hump and the cliff. 

Now the beach is pretty much straight up at an angle from the water (a couple of hours after high tide) to the cut. 

Here is a quick video of the surf.  Not very big.

Despite the wind today and the high tide, the beach conditions did not improve at all since yesterday.


The high tides are going to be nice and high, but the surf is still pretty small.  In a couple of days, though, a five or six foot surf is predicted.  That might help some.


Here is link to an article about a nice old 17th Century wreck that has remained in pretty good shape due to being covered with silt and being in cool water.  It is the wreck of the London in the Thames.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/may/16/divers-emergency-thames-shipwreck-climate-change-London

It has a picture of the wreck and some artifacts.


A huge carved rudder from a 17th shipwreck washed ashore after 400 years and is being preserved.

This is an older article but interesting.

Carved 17th Century Rudder.
Source: link immediately below.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/20/poole-wreck-rudder-comes-ashore

Wood from wreckage will occasionally wash ashore.  A couple of years ago, I think it was, a lot of wood from old shipwreck washed up on Treasure Coast beaches.

You can see pictures of some of that if you go back in this blog.

You can use the blog search box.


And here is an article about the largest fossils ever found - 80 tons, from Argentina

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/may/16/largest-dinosaur-unearthed-in-argentina

Pretty amazing.


Only a couple of hours remaining to respond to the blog poll.

That is it for today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/16/14 Report - Recent Cuts on the Treasure Coast, Beach Analysis, Couch Cache, Religious Statue and Dry Beach Finds

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



Three to Four Foot Cut on Treasure Coast Beach This Afternoon.

I missed it, whatever it was.  I went to the beach this afternoon and saw some recent cuts.  I know it wasn't the last high tide that caused the erosion.  I could tell that the last high tide filled the front of the beach instead of cutting it.  So I don't know exactly when the new cuts occurred, but it wasn't too long ago, and it was before the last high tide.

I was out of town yesterday and not paying attention to beach conditions like I normally do.  I don't know if a front came through yesterday or if it might have been a local storm.  I've seen local storms cause cuts.  This isn't anything I would be concerned about missing anyway.  I doubt that it was enough to cause an upgrade in my beach conditions rating.  And, as I said, it has started to refill already.

Another View of the Cut Beach

I added some lines to this photo to show you some things.

At the right, notice the cliff face and then the slope at the bottom of the face.

The new sand piled in front of the cut is emphasized by the arced arrow.  Sand was in the little dip between the new refill sand and the slope down from the cliff face.

Another thing I noticed this afternoon is the beach behind that is starting to slop upward as it goes back.

The front hump created by the new fill contained some light targets on the front face.  Mostly aluminum junk but also some clad.   On the new hump, under a few inches of sand was a layer of shells. 

If we get more erosion before this fills all the way back in, this erosion could still be a help.

Where I scribbled the lines along the face of the hump is where there were a lot of targets.

Dry Beach Finds
Finds and photos by Dan B.

Dan B. said he tried out some of the tips I recently gave on hunting a dry beach and had some luck.

Here are some finds from doing that.

Thanks for sharing Dan.



Kovels Komments says, Forty-nine percent of Americans carry less than $20 in paper money and 9 percent go without cash entirely, according to a recent survey.

Fewer people conduct cash transactions these days and that of course means that there will be less to find on the beaches.  There was a time when many parks charged for entrance, and often the entrance fee was something like $1.50, which meant most beach goers would be carrying both cash and coins, some of which would be lost.  Not so much now.

There were some underwater dips next to some resort beaches where lost bills collected.  A lot of people only use credit cards at resorts now, so that will cut down on cash and coin finds.

Also fence lines along fair grounds after fairs were often good for producing a few bills. 

Bills also occasionally show up in sea weed lines on the beach. 


Students found $43,000 in an old couch they bought for $20 and returned the money.

Here is the link for that story.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/students-find-43000-cash-in-old-couch-return-it-to-owner/story-fnixwvgh-1226919577145

People hide things in different places.  Remember that.


A rare statue of the Virgin Mary, probably from somewhere around the 13th Century, was found buried under a church floor.

Here is that link.

http://cphpost.dk/news/rare-statue-of-virgin-mary-found-buried-under-church-floor.9554.html


Tonight's high tide is going to be pretty high.  It looks like the wind is supposed to be out of the North.  It looks like the swells will be pretty much out of the East until late tonight.  Unfortunately the surf is only supposed to be round two feet.  I don't think we'll lose much sand as a result of that and the sand in front of the cut, but I'm not totally sure.  Time will tell.

Not much time remaining to give your poll response.  Thanks!

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/15/14 Report - Personal Drones, Pirate Maps and Fun for the Kids and More

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



One of Several Maps You Can Get
at The Pirates Recruitment Headquarters.
More info below.

In the past I've mentioned that I would like to be able to send a drone up and down the beach to get a view of beach conditions.  That would be nice. 

It seems like personal drones will be practical before long, and those that they are talking about are projected to cost a few hundred dollars. Personal drones are being talked about a lot now, although I don't know if those would be much better than toys.

Something more professional might run in area of something more like $1500. 




It don't know if those would stand up to the kind of breeze they would often face along the coast.

I've also often thought about an RC vehicle that would have a detector coil under it that you could run back and forth over the beach.   That would take some good engineering.  I think it could be done.  There are several problems to solve though.

So much for the wild ideas.

It does seem like detector manufacturers are in a rut.  I haven't seen any improvements in detector technology that I really care about for at least two decades.  As far as I'm concerned, the detectors that I had a couple of decades ago are better than any of the newer models that I know about today.  There have been some improvements, but not any that I really care about much. 



It is a copy cat world.  Everything is being copied.  I watched a TV report of how Iran reverse-engineered a downed US drone.  No doubt helped by China, who copies everything and anything of any value, from coins, to watches, to dolls - just anything.

I've talked before about how many counterfeit coins there are out there, but is isn't limited to coins.  Like I said, paintings, aircraft or anything of value is copied.

Crafts people who make unique and sell their own personal crafts on places like Etsy are finding that their crafts are being copied and manufactured by large companies.

It is a lot easier to copy than create something new and unique.


Artifacts including a jet bead necklace dating back as far as 2000 years were discovered during a road construction project in Scotland.   Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/dunragit-road-works-unearth-ancient-treasure-trove-1-3410720

That is one more reminder to check where ever and when ever earth is being moved. 


What caused a 1300-year deep freeze?  That is the title of an article which claims that a hypothesis blaming the big freeze on a meteor or comet striking the earth was debunked.   The article says, The study “pulls the rug out from under the contrived impact hypothesis quite nicely,” says Christian Koeberl, a geochemist at the University of Vienna. Most evidence for the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis, he says, was conjured up “out of thin air.”  

In my opinion, that type of science is not exactly unique, especially when it comes to discussion of climate change.

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

 

http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2014/05/what-caused-1300-year-deep-freeze

Just a Little Fun for the Kids.



A Few Replica Artifacts and Maps in the Pirates
Recruitment Headquarters.

Do you ever take the kids or grand kids to Disney?   If you do you might want to stop in at the pirate enlistment headquarters.  It is between Splash Mountain and Adventure Land. 

You might find some things to look at yourself too.  They have some nice replica maps and artifacts.

They have a number of different "treasure maps" which you can get, and the kids can follow the clues on the map to activate some secret displays that can be found around the park.  One, for example, fires a replica cannon near the Pirates of The Caribbean ride.  

You have to register at the pirate headquarters and get a talisman to operate the secret interactive displays when and if you find them.




Replica of One Very Old Map of Florida
Found in the Pirates Recruitment Headquarters

There are a number of different maps which will lead you to a variety of different interactive elements around the park.


Only one day remaining for the most recent blog poll.  Your responses are appreciated.


On the Treasure Coast the wind is from the South, but will be changing.  We are supposed to get at least one day of North winds.

The tides are nice and high now.

By Wednesday we might get something like a five or six foot surf.




Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

 

5/14/14 Report - More On Detecting Shallow Water Dips, Finding Watches, WW II Ration Book and Odyssey Results

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



Watches Found in Shelly Dip
With Zinc Pennies.

I told you yesterday about a dip containing a lot of zinc pennies.  Obviously those zinc pennies weren't very old but neither were they recent drops.

Here are the watches that were in that same dip.  One is a higher-end Seiko, and the other is an Orient.   It is fancy looking, but I never heard of that type of watch.

I looked it up and found the web site for the Orient Watch Company. 

http://www.orient-watch.com/

 Below is the face of the dug Orient.  It has a multi-year calendar.

I just looked on eBay and found watches like that listed for anywhere from $110 to $350.

Of all the watches I've found, the one that I found most of are the ladies Gucci watches with the changeable plastic rings of different colors that you can select to put around the face.  It seems the clasp on that watch wasn't very secure.  And the band isn't flexible at all.

There was a German watch that I found and wore for years.  It came up out of the water running and didn't quit for I don't know how many years.  Don't remember the make now, but it served me well

Orient Watch.

Many watches found in the water will still be running.

The Orient is running just fine.  I personally hardly ever wear a watch anymore though.

By the way,  when hunting a place like the loosely pack sand and shell dip where the zinc pennies were found, if you know what types of targets to expect in the various layers and locations, that information along with the detector signal should give you a high percentage identification of the target. 

Take a few watches outside and run your detector coil over them to see what the signal sounds like.  It will vary some for different types of watches, but it is good to become familiar with the signal created by all types of finds.

I expect to find watches in that type of area and figured that was what it was when I heard the signal.

Combine knowledge of different types of sand, layers and situations with the detector signal and you will be able to identify the target a lot of the time without any fancy displays or discrimination. features.




I showed a picture of a pendant the other day and asked which flag it looked like.  I got a couple of emails.  They were divided between Cuba and Peurto Rico.

You can see how similar they are.   The pendant had a red triangle and three blue stripes, so evidently it is the Cuban flag.

Thanks to all who wrote.








Front Cover of War Ration Book.

A couple of days ago I talked about WW II  Florida.  Here is a WW II ration book.  I doubt that many of you can recall the days when sugar, nylon, rubber, oil, gasoline, coffee and different things were rationed, and you could only purchase them if you had the stamps. 

Below is a link to a good web site if you want to learn more about rationing during WW II.

http://www.ameshistory.org/exhibits/events/rationing.htm

Inside of Ration Book Showing Variety of Unused Stamps.

The common stock of Odyssey Marine dropped over 20% when they posted a first quarter loss of $.12 per share and total revenue of only 0.6 million as compared to analyst estimates of $1.2 million.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/13/14 Report - Reasons to Explore Zinc Penny Dip, Santa Maria Found, Bell of the Santa Maria, Space Race Archaeology

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



Pile of Recently Dug Corroded Coins.
 

Some think the wreck of Columbus' sunken flagship, the Santa Maria, has been found just north of  Haiti.  Permission is being sought to conduct an extensive archaeological survey.

Here is the link for more of that story.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/santa-maria-found-wreck-may-be-columbus-sunken-flagship-n103766


The bell of the Santa Maria, if that is indeed what it is, has been the subject of a battle between Portugal and Spain going back to 2003/2004.   The bell was supposedly being returned to Spain from the New World when the ship carrying the bell sank in Portuguese waters.

Spain claimed that the bell was stolen from them when it was recovered by a diver, and the bell was returned to Spain in 2004.  I haven't seen anything more recent on that. 

It seems there are questions not only about who should own the bell but also if it is indeed the bell of the Santa Maria.  That might be why there appears to have been no resolution to the issue, at least not that I can find.

Here is a link from 2004.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5257041#.U3GQGSDD8VQ

The story of the bell is old news but I never found out what finally happened to it or if it was proven to be the bell from the Santa Maria.



Archaeologists are surveying the deteriorating structures of the early days of the Space Race at Cape Canaveral.

http://archaeology.org/news/2101-140512-cape-canaveral-space



Above is a pile of coins recently recovered from the water.  It isn't hard to tell that they were exposed to salt water.  

That is the kind of thing you'll often find between a sand bar and the beach when the dip still contains too much loose sand and shells.  Most better targets will be deeper in a location like that.

You'll also notice some green encrusted coins in that pile, and a little junk flag pendant in the middle.

The pennies are not worth the effort, but they can provide important information.  These pennies were not recent drops but had accumulated and been sifted and sorted.  These pennies told me that there was a good bit of activity in that general area and as a result things were lost nearby in good numbers.  That is good information.  The question is then, how much deeper or in which direction would you need to go to get out of the pennies and into concentrations of better items.

Besides the information they provide about other possible targets, another reason to not ignore concentrations of finds like this, is that there can be better items in with the pennies.

Dips that contain loosely packed sand and shells and zinc pennies often also contain things like watches.  This one did - two in fact.

Most importantly, this concentration of pennies told me that better targets were probably nearby and, most likely, in good concentrations.  The better items would be deeper and perhaps off to one side or another.  If I was able to use a blower in that area to remove the loose sand, I'm certain a good number of better items would have been found.  As it was, I couldn't move the necessary amount of sand and am waiting for Mother Nature to do the job.  It might happen or it might not.  It depends upon which direction the sand moves.  In any case, I know there is one very promising spot if and when the window finally opens.

Junk Flag Charm.

I'll clean up the watches and get a photo of them.  Both seem to be in good working order.

The pennies went through a quick tumbling to remove some of the crust and corrosion.

I'm actually more interested in what is under all of the remaining sand.

Anyone recognize the flag right off?


On the Treasure Coast today we are near a full moon and the tides are more significant again.  The wind, however, is pretty directly out of the East, and the surf is up a little, to around three or four feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/12/14 Report - German Spy Cache, Florida in WW II and Civilian Watch Towers,

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

WW II Observation Tower at Ormond By the Sea.
Source: http://vintagedaytona.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/ww2-submarine-watch-tower/

You might not realize the impact of World War II on Florida.  If you live along the Treasure Coast you are probably aware of the amphibious training base that operated along the beach between Vero and Stuart. 

It wasn't uncommon in the past to dig up relics from WW II on our Treasure Coast beaches.   WW II dog tags, shell casing and bullets, and canteens and other WW II artifacts have been discovered on the beaches of the Treasure Coast.

My 2/17/12 post showed some dug Browning shell casings found on the beach, and I told how to identify them.  I'm sure a few more are still out there on the beaches and will be uncovered by future storms.

Here is that link.

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2012/02/21712-report-bullet-find-researching.html


I don't think most people today realize how close the war came to Florida.  The web site from the following link says, The Germans sank 24 ships in Florida waters during the war, eight of them off Palm Beach County between February and May of 1942. Half of those went down near Jupiter Inlet.

http://www.pbchistoryonline.org/page/the-enemy-presence-german-u-boats

I'm sure that there are occasional items from WW II wrecks that are still encountered at times along the Treasure Coast beaches.

It is known that German spies from one submarine landed on a Florida East Coast beach, buried explosives, went to the grocery store and generally surveyed the area while planning sabotage.

The one known case was at Ponte Vedra.  The article obtained by using the following link says,

Beachgoers crowd Ponte Vedra Beach now, many unaware of the World War II German spies who landed here 70 years ago.

"No one spotted them," said Taryn Rodriguez-Boedee of the Beaches Historical Society. 
 
She said in June 1942, a German submarine closed in on Ponte Vedra and four German spies came to shore.

"They sunbathed. Went swimming. They were in the swimming trunks," Rodriguez-Boedee said.

They buried boxes full of explosives on the beach planning to come back for them.

http://beaches.firstcoastnews.com/news/news/80070-german-spies-landed-ponte-vedra-beach-70-years-ago

Two of the four German spies were executed, and the two who revealed the plot to sabotage America, were returned to Germany.  The FBI dug up the explosives.

Those are the ones we know about.

There were 15,200 watch towers along the US coastline where civilians spotters monitored the coast for enemy planes and ships.  There was a watchtower about every six miles.   The photo above shows one of the few remaining watch towers at Ormond By the Sea.

Here is a link for more about that.

http://vintagedaytona.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/ww2-submarine-watch-tower/

There are still a few remaining signs of a couple of those towers on South Hutchinson Island.  One was just below the condos north of Douglass Beach. 

There is also what appears to be a WW II dump just back of the beach a few miles south of that.

As recently as 2013 the Army Corps was trying to find and remove any remaining scullies, which were placed along North and South Hutchinson island for WW II training exercises.  Scullies are those big crossed iron beam things that look something like huge jacks, if you remember that item that girls used to play with. 

I remember one big project to do that back in the eighties or nineties when they removed many of them from the shallow water north of the Seal Museum.

With the sandy beaches and poor conditions that exist on the Treasure Coast now it is not likely that you'll find much WW II stuff, but we lose a lot of sand some time in the future things like that might pop up again.

Right now on the Treasure Coast the tides are fairly flat, the surf is around two or three feet, and the wind is now more out of the East.

Can't find the find picture that I was going to post.  Maybe tomorrow.

Don't forget the blog poll.


I think I'll end there today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/11/14 Report - New Poll on Finds, Gold Ring, Interesting Relic, Dry Beach Tips and Give It a Chance

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



10K Gold Ring Find

Happy Mother's Day!


Here is a dry beach find.  It looks like junk but is marked and was tested to be 10K.  Looks like an older style to me.   You can be fooled if you don't have items tested.  The marks are generally correct, but some are marked incorrectly, sometimes being marked as gold when they are not.

Dry beach hunting isn't my favorite, but I'll do it at times.  It can produce some good stuff.  My best Rolex find and a lot of very high quality jewelry has come from the dry beach.

There are two important things to know about dry beaches.  One is where the hot spots are, and the other is how to work areas that almost nobody else will.

Hot spots are not hard to figure out.  One area that everybody knows about is the towel line.  Being one of the more obvious areas, it is also one of the most worked.

I'll do a quick check of some of the obvious areas on a dry beach to determine if they have been worked much or not, then depending upon the results I might decide to move to either some of the less obvious spots or to some of the unworked hot spots that are almost never detected.

(I have heard from readers who made some very good finds as the result of the tips I gave some time back on volley ball courts.)

There are good areas on a dry beach that very very few people ever detect.  Those are areas that will be protected by some type of obstacle.  The obstacle might be layers of junk, other metal such as rebar in concrete or poles or beach chairs or something like that, or other things such as bushes or obstacles that make it difficult to get a detector coil into.

There are techniques for dealing with obstacles.  I'm not quite ready to tell you all of those right now.  Right now I'll just say there are ways to deal with them the obstacles that you find on dry beaches that will give you access to areas where heavily hunted beaches are seldom or ever hunted.

Here are a couple of photos of another very nice find by William M.

Interesting Relic
Find and photos by William M.

Way to go William!


There is a lot of talk about target ID detectors.  What can they really tell you?  What most of them can tell you, I don't really care much about.   I don't care if the thing tells me the signal is from a penny, nickel, dime or quarter.  That just doesn't matter much to me.

If you are going to target clad coins, or other common targets, that might be of interest to you, but that is not what I am most concerned about.

Target ID might be useful if it told me the target was a Rolex watch, a silver cob, cannon ball, gold monstrance, or Civil War button.  Then I might be interested.  Fact is I'm going to find out anyway unless I'm really tired or out of time.  And I'm not going to stand there and swing back and forth over a target trying to get a steady reading to figure it out.  The type of items mentioned above aren't going to be correctly identified in any case and I can pretty much tell what I'm detecting from the audio signal for a lot of the more common items.  What I prefer to do is use my brain to interpret the signal, and in the vast majority of cases, dig it no matter what it is. 


I added a new poll to the blog to see what people have been finding during this slow beginning to 2014.


Unfortunately there is some data that I can not gather by using a Google blog poll.   I'd like to hear what your least favorite detector of all time is, and what gave you a bad impression of that detector, and also what your favorite detector has been up until now and what you liked about it.

I know that some of the detectors that I have owned (two in particular) did not get a fair chance.  My first detector was ordered out of a Sears Roebuck catalog.  It got me started, but after a short while I sent it back.  That was back in the day when I was counting coin finds.  You have to go through the steps and stages of learning, and that is one of the common ones.   My problem with that detector, whatever it was, I don't recall now, could have been and probably was my own fault.

One detector that I never liked was a Garrett PI.  I had a few detectors before that one, but I sold it before long.  The detectors that I had before that one were different from that one, and I didn't really understand the PI at first.  If I had that detector today, I probably would not have any problem with it.  It would probably find a place in my arsenal and be used for special situations.

One thing I didn't like about the PI at the time was how hot it was to things like bobby pins.  I was accustomed to a detector that would null over iron, and I was digging a lot of modern gold back then.  Another thing I didn't like about it was what seemed to me like a very erratic threshold tone.  I was accustomed to a very steady threshold tone from my other detectors at the time.  If I had the same PI detector today the threshold tone would not be much of a problem for me.  I now am very familiar with detectors like that and know what to expect from them.

There are many situations when I do prefer to have ferrous/non-ferrous discrimination today.  I still dig a lot of the iron, but in some situations not, depending upon a variety of factors.

When you get a new detector, your previous experience will determine to a large extent what your first impressions are towards your new detector.  If you are accustomed to a rock solid threshold tone, for example, you might not like a detector that has a more erratic threshold tone.  It might take a while to become accustomed to the features and operating characteristics of the new detector.  In time you might find out that you like the new detector even better than the old detector even if you didn't like it at first.  You might want to give it a chance.


On the Treasure Coast we still have that same old South/Southeast wind and poor detecting conditions.   Too much sand.   Tuesday or Wednesday at least we'll get a little more surf.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net