Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Meg Tooth.The last two days I showed some of the items that brought high prices in the recent Sedwick Coins auction. Included was a gold 8-reale, gold bar and gold and emerald cross. Those are the types of items that people hunt and would identify almost immediately if they found them, but there are other items that are interesting and valuable but which might not be identified when found. In fact I don't doubt that some of you have found these other items and tossed them aside thinking that they were nothing interesting.
I've made my mistakes in the past and know that it is easy to not take some finds seriously enough.
Today I'm showing some items that you might not realize the value of or might not correctly identify if you dug them up.
Above is a Megalaodon tooth. Megalodon is an extinct shark that was one of the largest and most ferocious predators to ever live.
Meg, and other shark teeth, are collected. The value is determined partly by size and condition.
The one shown above is about five inches long, in good condition, and sold for $380 plus premium. That isn't something to throw away.
Sharks teeth are found on Treasure Coast beaches.
Some of the best hunting for Meg teeth is on the west coast of Florida.
Copper Hull-Pin.Here is a hull-pin that sold for $80 plus premium.
You could easily find something like this and think that it is nothing more than a piece of trash. You might even dig it up and throw it away.
My wife almost threw away the first piece of silver that I found from the 1715 fleet. I still remember it clearly. I dug it up and she took it out of my scoop and was about to toss it. I told her to keep it and took it home.
I wasn't sure what it was until I cleaned and tested it and found it to be silver. It turned out to be a piece of a silver chalice or cup but was entirely black when dug.
It is easy to misidentify some types of items in the field - especially when they are corroded or encrusted. Some artifacts are difficult to tell from modern items. That is another problem.
I once dug an enameled gold ring on a shipwreck beach and at the time thought it was modern. I didn't know then that they used enameling back hundreds of years ago.
So my point is, be aware that artifacts and different things can be as valuable as coins. You will be more successful if you learn to identify a lot of different types of items and know the value of things.
I'm not just talking about economic value either. Artifacts can tell you something about the beach and where you are hunting. They can tell you that a shipwreck or other items might be nearby.
Cannon Raised From Queen Anne's Revenge.The clipped photo here comes from JDNews.com. Here is the link to the article and additional photos.
http://www.jdnews.com/sections/article/gallery/?pic=1&id=96613
As you know, I like to recognise first finds, below is one.
Daniel B. found his first shipwreck spike. Congratulations Daniel!
Broken Iron Spike.Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
The prediction is still for something for around 6 foot seas Sunday and staying pretty high for a few days.
6 to 8 foot seas are about what I consider the minimal height for a good chance for improving conditions, although it can happen with less.
The fact that it is predicted for a few days is good. That gives it a chance to be high when the wind shifts to just the right direction.
Hopefully we'll get north/northeast winds sometime during that period.
The beaches are improving a bit, but not enough to significantly improve the changes of finding cobs. The cuts are in the wrong places and are generally in areas where there has been an abundance of mushy sand. That doesn't mean that nothing will be found. Conditions are good enough for a cob or two to be found, but the probabilities aren't good enough to raise my beach conditions rating to a 2 yet. It wont' take much more though. Maybe Sunday if the waves hit our treasure beaches just right.
Rina is a tropical storm now and headed back south towards South America. We'll still be getting some rain this weekend, and there are a couple other tropical disturbances to watch. It looks like this year might be better than last.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
