Charles II Cob Found by Metal Detector on Treasure Coast Beach.Most of the cobs that I've found on the Treasure Coast have come from 1715 Fleet beaches. And most of those cobs have been Philip V cobs. But there are also a good number of Charles II cobs found on the 1715 Fleet beaches.
Charles II reigned from 1665 through 1700, and so those cobs are older than the Philip V cobs that were minted from 1700 up until they were loaded onto the ships. Of course there are also older cobs with the Philip monogram minted under the reigns of kings Philip III and IV.
You can easily identify the Philip half reales, which have the monograms featuring a big P and S. I recently posted a photo of a Mexican Philip V half reale that showed the obvious P and S on the monogram.
Stylized Philip Monogram Design.
The Philip monogram varies in a myriad of different details on different coins as different dies were produced under the different kings and at the different mints but they all show some very similar features.
The Charles II monogram features a big C and A, which I've found to be the most distinctive features of the monogram that appears on the Charles II half reales that I've found.
You usually can't see the entire monogram on most half reales, but you can usually see enough to easily distinguish between the Philip and Charles monograms.
Stylized Charles II Monogram.Like the Philip cobs, Charles II monogrammed cobs differ in a variety of details. Although there are differences produced by the different dies, the Charles II monogram is usually easily identifiable.
In the photo of the Mexican minted Charles II half reale above, you can see the A overlapping the C. The S is not apparent at all.
After looking at a variety of these monograms you can learn to identify them easily even when very little of the monogram shows.
It is more difficult to identify which of the various King Philips a particular half reale was minted under. To do that you have to look at other details. Sometimes you can see the assayer's initial or other details that will indicate when the cob was minted. Sometimes, but much less often, you can find a date on a half reale.
On another subject - the ship's bell, belonging to a ship found off of St. Augustine during the summer of 2009,has not yet given up the name of the ship. Conservators are removing encrustation from the bell with the hope of finding a clue to the identity of the ship. While the bell hasn't spoken yet, there is still some hope that it will, as about one quarter of the bell is still encrusted.
Here is the link to that story.
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-01-23/clues-ships-id-elusive
Forecast and Conditions.
The seas are up around four feet and the wind is out the southeast. I haven't been out but wouldn't expect much change. After today the seas will be decreasing and becoming very calm by the weekend.
If you are set on finding shipwreck treasures, your work is cut out for you. It won't be easy. Conditions just aren't that good.
As I've suggested, there are other things to hunt until conditions improve.
But if you are dead set on shipwreck treasures, I would be either trying something different, maybe hunting a land or other less commonly hunted site, or hitting the low tide zone.
View From SebastianInletCam.com
It looks like a little scalloping up there from what I can see from the web cam.
Looks to me to be pretty much the same as the beaches down south.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
