Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Silver Ring Found by Leonard G. Photo by Leonard G. |
Not long ago I mentioned errors or anomalies that you might find on cobs. I talked about transpositions of the lions and castles but didn't continue with that topic. I'll address one more type of cob anomaly today and others in the future.
In numismatic terminology a mule is a hybrid made by mismatched dies. A mule would be made by using a die on one side of the coin, or cob, that does not match the die used to create the other side.
Dies wear out at different rates. Sometimes one of the two dies would be used into the next year while another of the pair is replaced. As a result one side of the cob might have a date that is a year earlier than the date on the other side of the cob.
In Sewall Menzel's book he shows a couple of examples of Potosi cobs like that. On one side one cob has a date of 1708 while the other side has a date of 1709. Another example shows the dates of 1736 and 1737.
Unfortunately beach cobs often are missing a lot of detail. You are lucky to find one with a single date, let alone two dates.
Above is a find by Leonard G. I normally would have cropped a find photo like this, but this one is both a find photo and a beach photo. You can see the mushy beach conditions and small surf in the background.
Congratulations Leonard.
Here is a good article on a topic that I've discussed before. It is a reminder to make sure you know what you have before you sell it. It is easy to make mistakes unless you know the market for things like coins and artifacts, or any collectible for that matter.
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/junk-or-antique-the-difference-means-cash-2.aspx
Here is a postcard that was mailed around 1914 (100 years ago) to my grandfather. I'm a few days late with this, but here it is.
The photo doesn't do it justice. Before people had telephones and email, cards like this were a convenient way to send a greeting. Post cards like this acknowledged Christmas, Easter, New Years, Birthdays, Valentines Day, and as you can see, even the 4th of July. I'm pleased to have some of those that were used by my ancestors.
I'm interested in various types of treasure, not just coins and gold or silver. That includes fossils, artifacts and even ephemera.
A variety of non metallic treasures can be found on beaches and overlooking them can be a big mistake. For example, one really neat treasure that was found on a Treasure Coast shipwreck beach near the water line is an actual wax seal.
It wasn't in great shape, as you would expect from being nearly 300 years old, but you could see an eagle or big bird embossed on it. I showed it once in this blog. It isn't made of metal, but to me it is a indeed a treasure as much as any coin or jewelry. That is why I tell you to keep your eyes open when you detect. It was found at the water line on a 1715 beach.
I was on a Treasure Coast beach this morning near high tide. Conditions were still poor so a good number of finds were recent drops. I'll have pictures of some of those in the near future.
The surf was a touch bigger this morning, I thought. The web sites are predicted a little bigger surf for the rest of the week, but only around two feet. We've had something close to a one foot surf for quite a while.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
