8/1/12 Report - Tropical Storm Forming & Book Treasures

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

The tropics are heating up.   There is now a 60% chance that this disturbance in the Atlantic will turn into a cyclone in the next 48 hours.   It is now well east of the southern windward islands, so it will be a while before we feel the effects, if we ever do.  It is something to watch though.

On the Treasure Coast now, we have southwest winds and flat seas.   Low tide will be around 2 PM.
I'll keep you up to date on the storm situation and anything that might affect beach detecting conditions around the Treasure Coast.

I recently talked about book treasures.   Today I'll give you an example or two.

Here is one book that from the cover you can easily tell is not modern.  

It is a mid 19th Century travel book that was published in 1854.   There are a lot of good clues in books like this.  And the book itself, is worth a little.  I've seen modern reprints of this book listed for upwards of $50, which seems silly, but that's the market.

Old books, as well as new, often have the owners name written on the first pages somewhere.  And often a date.  Books were treasured property in past centuries, and the owner's usually marked them. 

You can sometimes find inscriptions by the author or other famous people.  Books signed by the author or other famous people can be worth more.   If a book has a name written in it, it can be worth the time to do the research to see if the person was famous. 

Below is an illustration in a more recent book that shows the type of information that you might hope to find in your researches.  It shows a fort that no longer exists, tells where it was and what was on that site in more recent days.   You can't ask for much more than that.

I saw an amazing find by one person that decided to go off beach while the beaches were sanded in.  I don't have permission to show it though.


I've mentioned Ruck's Pit before.  You can pay a fee for the day and dig their world-famous crystalized fossil clams and whatever else you might find.  It might be fun.

Here is a web site that tells you more about that.

http://www.dreamworlds.org/ruck's_crystal_mine.htm

One of this blog's readers sent me an email and told me he took home a lot of unsearched material from Ruck's and is willing to sell it because he now needs the money.   I don't know the person and haven't seen the material, and although I don't usually do this type of thing, if you want the email address, I'll let you hook up and go from there on your own.   He is in the Cocoa/Canaveral area.  If you are interested, send me an email  and I'll give you his.  


It is storm season.   Stay alert.  Be prepared.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net