2/2/14 Report - Modern Gold and Treasure Coast Fossil Find

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

14K Ring Find

Conditions on the Treasure Coast have not been good for metal detecting lately, but the water has been smooth so water hunting has been fairly easy a lot of the time along the Florida coast.  It is also the time of year when the snowbirds come south.  They swim at lower temperatures than most Floridians prefer.


On a quick trip to South Florida it didn't take hardly any time to pick up a few pieces of gold, including the 14K ring shown here.

Being Super Bowl day it reminded me of the championship rings that I found down that way in the past.

It surprised me to find that my old holes are still producing just like they were decades ago.  Some have changed very little and evidently aren't being worked.  I always did go for the more out-of- the-way and less-popular less-worked spots.  It is good to know that you can still go out and do well in a short time down there.

On the Treasure Coast it isn't so easy.  There are far fewer high-end tourists up here and quite a few detectorists.   And, of course, much of the water is covered by leased salvage areas.  And you simply don't have the big world-renowned resorts that have been hot spots for decades.

While you can find modern gold on land, it takes considerably longer than in the water.  Of course there is a knack to finding modern gold on the beach too.  It is slower, but you can improve your efficiency by using all of your knowledge and tricks.

While my largest total ring find for one hunt was on the beach, my highest number of gold finds for a single hunt was in the water.   That is the way it is.  Generally speaking, for a given unit of time, you will find much more gold in the water.

Small Treasure Coast Beach Fish Vertebrae Fossil

I've been telling you that there has been some small fossils and sea glass on some of the Treasure Coast beaches lately.   The fossils are generally small and broken, however there are some very small complete fossils.

You can often find small items when you can't find larger items.  For one thing, whether it is a fossil or glass, smaller items don't seem to break as easily.

If you look through piles of broken fossils or glass you can often find a few small unbroken fossils or bottles.

The pin-point hole on this one is open all the way through.

The fossil shown in this photo is just over a quarter inch wide.  It is small enough that it survived and also small enough that most beach combers would not notice it, especially when in a pile of shells or whatever.   From a standing position, it didn't look much bigger than a bead to me as I walked the beach.

Same Fish Vertebrae Fossil From Another View.

Here is another view of the same fossil.

I'm quite pleased with the photos.  Not only do they show small detail, but I also have a ruler so you can see the size.  What more could you want?

I asked Fred D. and he says it told me it is a fish vertebrae, probably from a tail section.

Many Treasure Coast beach fossils will be black like this.  Some are tan or beige.

If you do enough eye-balling you will become tuned-in enough to notice small items like this.

The ring is worth more, of course, but of the two, the fossil was the more difficult find.  And of course, the fossil is probably thousands of years older.

I really wasn't planning on doing a post today but did find the time.

The surf is running around three feet along the Treasure Coast, but there has been a change.  Now the waves are hitting from the southeast instead of the north like it was doing for quite a while.

I've also some more off-beach finds and reports to post.

Happy Super Bowl day and happy Ground Hog Day.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net