Thursday, March 10, 2011

3/10/11 Report - Fort Capron & Upcoming Sedwick Coins Auction



Map Showing Location of Fort Capron.

You'll find Fort Capron mentioned below so I thought I'd show you where it was.

Some guys from South Florida detected around that site a number of years ago and found some nice Seminole Indian artifacts.

I'll probably comment on the treasure of Fort Capron in the future.

Here is a link for more information.

http://search.aol.com/aol/afe?query=http%3A%2F%2Fo.aolcdn.com%2Fos%2Fwindoid%2Fcwindoid_2010.html&s_it=DNSERROR


As you may have noticed, I added a survey to the main page of this blog. I haven't used this feature before and am experimenting while collecting data. This particular survey asks what your favorite detector is. You can make your choice and then view the results as votes accumulate. The survey will run a few days and then I'll report of the final tally.

Results after less than a day shows Minelab to be the favorite, but I'm sure there will be a lot more votes coming in, so that might change.

In the future I will conduct surveys on other questions such as what an item might be, or I might ask about reader finds. I'm sure there are other questions that will come up that I haven't even thought of yet.

It will be interesting to learn more about the readers of this blog and what they think. It will also give you chance to weigh in on different issues.

The data will be more meaningful when if a lot of people participate.


The most recent Kovels Komments had a lot of information that I wanted to pass along today.

They gave one example of how experts make mistakes too. They told how an Antiques Roadshow expert was fooled by a fake stock ticker. There are a lot of fakes of every sort out there.

Did you know that it is a crime to sell eagle feathers, some tortoise shells, and body parts of any endangered species even if they are just part of the decoration of another antique item. And firearms, swords, liquor and other things can't be sold in some states without a license.

Kovels Komments reports that an antiques dealer in Massachusetts was sentenced last week to almost three years in prison for selling sperm whale teeth and narwhal tusks. The whale parts were imported between 2001 and 2004,.

You'll often see bones from sea turtles along the Treasure Coast. Seme people don't know what they are and take them, but it is a crime to even possess sea turtle parts.

I don't think you'll get in trouble if you happen to have a bone or two that you picked up not knowing what you had, but it is illegal.


I just received this press release from Sedwick Coins. I'll just post the entire document.

SEDWICK COLLECTION OF COLOMBIAN GOLD TO BE SOLD

Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC announces their Treasure and World Coin Auction #9, to be held live on the Internet April 26-28, 2011. Individual highlights include several “Hearts” and “Royals” (presentation-issue cobs) from the Mexico, Lima and Potosí mints (dated in the 1600s and 1700s), a Cuzco 1 escudo cob 1698, a Brazil 12800 reis 1730-M, a Chile 2 escudos 1758, and a Cuban proof peso 1915. But most of the trophies in this auction are contained in a single collection of 233 pieces: the Dr. Frank Sedwick collection of Colombian Republic gold coins.

“I have been looking forward to this for years,” says Daniel Sedwick, son of the late Dr. Frank Sedwick and principal of the auction firm. “Selling your own family’s collection presents pressures beyond the norm. The ability to delve into pedigrees and utilize the collector’s personal notes compels us to put out a catalog that will be a reference for well into the future.”

Dr. Sedwick wrote the first definitive book on the complex Colombian Republic gold series (The Gold Coinage of Gran Colombia [1991]) as an outgrowth of two decades of collecting the coins. Along the way he gathered some of the most important coins in the series, all of which will be offered in this auction, including:
• Popayán 8 escudos 1838UR, XF-45, unique, estimated at $15,000.
• Bogotá 20 pesos 1859, AU-50, famous single-year, largest coin of the Confederación Granadina and one of about six known, estimated at $7500.
• Medellín 5 pesos 1863-M, MS-62, estimated at $10,000.
• Full set of Medellín 2-5-10 pesos 1885/74 and 1886/74, sold in individual lots but the only known set in existence, total estimate of $20,000.

In addition to many other rarities, Frank’s collection contains dozens of examples that are the finest known graded by NGC. Each coin in the collection is encapsulated by NGC with the pedigree stated inside the slab.

“But treasure coins are still the biggest part of the auction,” says Sedwick’s assistant Agustín “Augi” Garcia, pointing to a selection of US gold coins from the “Fort Capron treasure” of 1857, several large silver bars and emeralds and over 230 coins from the Atocha (1622), over 130 1715-Fleet cobs from the State of Florida collection (Bamberg division), a collection of more than 40 dated Mexican cob 8 reales, and dozens of top-quality Lima cob 2 reales. Rounding out the auction are significant offerings of general world coins (including ancients), artifacts (including fossils), documents and books (both antiquarian and modern).

Coin lot viewing will take place at Sedwick’s booth at both the Baltimore Coin and Currency Convention (March 31-April 3) and the Chicago International Coin Fair (April 14-17). Catalogs for Sedwick’s Treasure and World Coin Auction #9 will be available around the end of March. For up-to-date information, go to Sedwick’s website at www.sedwickcoins.com.

For registration on iCollector go to: www.iCollector.com/sedwick

To order the catalog send an email: auction@sedwickcoins.com


There will be a lot of good coins and things for study in that auction.


Forecast and Conditions.

Treasure Coast treasure beach detecting conditions remain poor. And it doesn't look like that will change real soon. The wind is now out of the west and relatively calm seas are predicted for the next several days.

Water levels are way down on our rivers and lakes. That is something to consider.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcastnet