1/10/13 Report - Silver and Dumping Money in the Ocean

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

1.825 Ounces of Silver Dug Yesterday

If you really watch the beach you know that it changes everyday.  It constantly changes.  The casual visitor might not notice that, but it's true.   As a detectorist, it is helpful to notice the small changes that take place constantly.

On the beach front where the water is hitting, the sand is always moving.  It moves along the beach, north to south, and also onto or off of the beach.

The movement of a few inches of sand can make a big difference in the number of signals you hear.

Items get covered or uncovered all the time.  Sometimes when people think that items get washed in or out, those items are actually getting uncovered or covered.

What got me onto that is another of those beach projects that different agencies or organizations love to throw money at - mostly government but also some other organizations that have a near endless supply of cash.  FPL is moving sand again.

Sand Replenishment Project North of Walton Rocks

You might remember last year's project where they covered the end of a canal that had been exposed by erosion.  Not only did they move unknown tons of sand but they planted sea oats on the new bank.  Well, just a few months later all of that newly dumped sand and the sea oats are gone.  Not a trace is left.  In fact the sand is back farther now than before they started just a few months ago.

You can't dump sand on a beach and expect it to stay.  It won't.  In fact I believe there is something about putting sand where erosion has been occurring that actually speeds up the erosion.

Anyhow, they are at it again.  This time a little farther south - a little closer to the Walton Rocks beach access.

They are covering up and sloping the cliffs that were at the back of the beach.  Here are a couple of photos of that project.  We'll see how long that lasts.

The sand is being brought in from across A1A by dump trucks.  I don't know the source of the sand.
Maybe it is from the area of the rumored pirate ship sunk in the Indian River there.  Or maybe not.

As I've been telling you this week, there are a good number of signals out there.  I'm not expecting any cobs even though one might eventually pop up.  I'd say detecting conditions are poor for finding cobs.  But other things are out there to be found.

The "salt-water seasoned" chain shown above was one silver item dug yesterday.  It is obviously modern, and has been out there long enough to have blackened.

Note the broken claw clasp.  It isn't unusual to see a broken clasp when a chain is dug.

Silver at the close of yesterday's market was $30.40 per Troy Ounce.  As I've explained before silver and gold prices are given in Troy Ounces.  If you don't know about that you might want to look it up.

It seems that there are a good number of items on the beach fronts lately.

I've heard from people commenting on the usefulness of the link to the Smithsonian collection of anthropology papers that I recently posted.  I thought it was especially good and others evidently did too.


I recently mentioned that screws have been around since at least the 1500s.  Wikipedia says, The metal screw did not become a common fastener until machine tools for their mass production were developed toward the end of the 18th century. This development blossomed in the 1760s and 1770s.  


We still have a mild southeast wind, so don't expect erosion for a little while.  There will probably be a small amount of sand accumulating on the beach fronts.

The surf is running two to three feet.  It's a little choppy out there.  No real change expected soon.

Low tide today will be around noon.

Happy hunting,
TreaureGuide@comcast.net