Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Yesterday I took a look at some of the the Sedwick Coin auction items that brought the highest bids. Even though they were great examples, those did not include any finds from the Treasure Coast.
Today I'll look at some of the top selling items from the 1715 Fleet. One of those, although not a coin or ingot, did bring a price that compares to those high-priced items that I presented yesterday.
All pictures today are from the SedwickCoins.com auction 13 catalog.
First, here is the second highest priced cob from the 1715 Fleet. It is an 8 reales from Potosi.
It shows two dates (1700), and assayer mark, F.
The winning bid on this one was $700.
It is not my favorite. The details aren't crisp and full, but it is a scarce cob.
There was a Mexico 1715 Fleet 4 reale that sold for more than the above 8, with a winning bid of $850. The four reale had a bold complete overdate (1713, 3 over 2).
Of the escudos from the 1715 Fleet, below is the one that received the highest winning bid. It is an 8 escudo, 1714J from the Mexico mint.
The winning bid for this escudo was $13,000. That is about 15 times the price for the highest priced 1715 Fleet reale.
And below is the highest priced item from all of the 1715 Fleet auctioned items. It was one of the higher priced items from the entire auction, but did not sell for as much as some of the items I showed yesterday.
As you can see this is an especially nice chain and religious medallion, complete with a lot of research and documentation.
It brought a winning bid of $35,000.
You can find the complete item descriptions of all three of these items by going to SedwickCoins.com and then going to the Auction 13 catalog.
Items similar to these have been found on Treasure Coast beaches, and I'm sure more will be found in the future. Items of this quality won't be found frequently, but it will happen.
Occasionally great finds are made by people who are simply very lucky, like the lady that found a gold escudo on her first time out detecting, but more often it will come after you have put in a lot of hours, if not years of hunting,
No matter how much skill you have and how much time you put in, some luck is required for these types of finds. There is a lot of sand out there, and it is always moving. You have to have your coil over that one spot at the right time.
I should add that most of these finds were made by salvage crews blowing sand. I also know that similar finds have been made on the beach. We just have to wait for mother nature to do her work.
On the Treasure Coast we still have a 3 - 5 foot surf today. That will be gradually decreasing, down to about one foot by next Monday.
The wind is from the West and the tides aren't changing much.
I'll get back to a couple of those targets I couldn't retrieve when the surf drops some more.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
