1715 Fleet 8 Escudos.This escudo is the first item listed in the upcoming Sedwick Coins TREASURE AND WORLD COIN AUCTION #9.
I just received this press release and decided to let you read it all here.
Scheduled for April 26-28 (Tuesday-Thursday), in six sessions LIVE on the Internet, our Treasure and World Coin Auction #9 is ready for viewing online (click here). You can also view the lots, register and start bidding at www.iCollector.com/sedwick. Note you will need to register for this auction even if you already have an iCollector profile and bid with us in the past. The first 30 bidders to register and place bids online at www.iCollector.com/sedwick will receive a FREE collector's edition disk of all of our auction catalogs to date (#1-9)! For those who missed the lot viewing at the Whitman Baltimore Coin & Currency Expo we will be showing all the coin lots again at the Chicago International Coin Fair (CICF), April 14-17. In addition, all lots will be available for private viewing at our office in Winter Park, Florida by appointment only. Printed catalogs (424 pages, full color) will be available starting Monday, April 4. If you are not a prior bidder or on our mailing list already, please click the button on our website to order the catalog.
Treasure and World Coin Auction #9 is perhaps our most well-balanced world coin auction so far, with interesting offerings from all the regions of the world, as well as significant sections of ancient, medals and tokens, and even paper money. Once again there is something for everyone. The highlight of this auction is The Dr. Frank Sedwick Collection of Colombian Republic Gold Coins. Dr. Sedwick (father of Daniel Frank Sedwick) wrote the first definitive book on the complex Colombian Republic gold series (The Gold Coinage of Gran Colombia [1991], available upon request for this auction only at the special price of $10) as an outgrowth of two decades of collecting the coins. Along the way he gathered several of the most important coins in the series, some of which are appearing at auction here for the first time ever.
In addition to the rarities, Dr. Sedwick's collection features dozens of coins that are the finest known graded by NGC, and each coin in the collection has been encapsulated by NGC with the pedigree stated inside the slab. There has never been an offering of Colombian Republic gold coins like this before, and we have already been told this sale will be THE reference for the future.
But let's not overlook all the other important "treasure" items in this sale, including several "Hearts" and "Royals," a Cuzco 1 escudo cob 1698, a Brazilian 12800 reis (dobra) 1730-M, a Chilean 2 escudos 1758, and a Cuban proof peso 1915. There are also significant selections 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).
Here is the link for the online auction.
http://www.sedwickcoins.com/treasureauction9/catalog.htm
There is a lot to study there.
How do you know whether to hunt in the water, in the wet sand, or in the dry sand?
It comes down to prevailing conditions. All other things being equal, which they never are, my first choice would be water hunting, and my second choice would be either the wet sand, if there are any coin lines or holes. But some very good things are found in the dry sand, just not as often.
If you have a bunch of the right people frolicking in the surf, it is definitely a good place to be. That is even more true when the sand is moving and you can find a good dip that has trapped and uncovered heavy objects.
There might be times, though, when water hunting is very difficult. And there might even be times when the best conditions are found in the wet sand. And there are times to hunt the dry sand - mostly when the other two aren't developing well.
Sampling is always a good strategy when you want to determine where to spend your time. I am not at all in favor of picking a spot before you go out and hunting it tirelessly regardless of what you do or don't find. Assess the situation and adapt.
One way or another, to make the most productive use of your time, you have to find out what is going on in different locations. Consider where is the sand moving? Are any coin lines or holes developing anywhere? Where are there a lot of people with nice things acting carelessly? What areas are over hunted and when? Those are things you need to consider. (See my previous post on evaluating tourist beaches.)
The Results of a Quick Hunt Monday Morning on a Tourist Beach on the Treasure Coast.As you can see there was a good number of coins on this beach, and a little junk jewelry. Some places you'll find junk jewelry while other places you'll find good stuff. Where you are and where you hunt makes a huge difference.
As I've said before, I know some places where you can almost always find some gold, but it will be low karat, and other places where you'll find less, but it will be much better quality. If you want the better quality finds, you'll have to go where it is. That often means driving a little further.
I think we all need to go by hunch or instinct from time to time. I don't know how effective it really is, but it seems to work some of the time, and it is simply natural for many people.
In Florida there are so many detectorists that you'll sometimes have to stretch a little. Do something different from what everybody else is doing. There are a lot of over hunted beaches, but if you go one step beyond the rest of the pack, you'll usually find success eventually.
I can't give you specifics on that or so many people would be doing the same thing that it wouldn't work. You'll have to figure that out for yourself.
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
The wind is from the southeast now. Where I was the shell piles had disappeared. Although shell pile do not indicate great conditions for hunting cobs or other shipwreck items of precious metals, it is often worth looking through shell piles for other kinds of things.
The seas are running about three feet today and will stay in that general range for a couple of days. That means conditions won't improve much.
It isn't a bad time to hunt the tourist or Spring Break beaches. There are a good number of coins out there and a few scattered good things in between.
It looked to me that the beaches were building a little again, but I only saw a couple of beaches, so I can't say much about the rest of the Treasure Coast.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
