11/30/14 Report - Up To Ten Foot Surf Predicted For Treasure Coast. Beach Coin Accumulations. GoPro Drones.

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

Here is the tide prediction chart for the Fort Pierce area from Magic Seaweed.  They are predicting 6 - 10 feet a week from Monday.  Now that should do the job if the wind direction is at all favorable.

See the main page in this blog for the Magic Seaweed link to the surf prediction charts.

Trouble is, the seven to ten-day projections are not very accurate.  From what I've seen of their predictions, there is only about a 10 percent chance that the large surf predicted for Dec. 8 will actually be that large.  But if it is, combined with what has been happening and assuming nothing real negative happening before then, it could get good.

For now I'm sticking with my level 2 beach conditions rating.  I'm now calling level 2 "transitional."  It isn't poor, like summer conditions, yet it isn't good enough to call good. 

I'll be reassessing my beach detecting conditions rating tomorrow.  And I'll also be watching to see if the surf predictions from Magic Seaweed changes.

-----------

Southern Digger has been metal detecting for a long time.  I've posted some of his emails before.  Here are some tips he recently sent me.

I have experienced these repetitive coin wash-ups on wet sand/dry sand beaches and have done well in the coin take. I have learned to read the beach vs wind direction and wind strength to locate these places. First, if the wind is blowing about 20 mph out of the NNE to NE or from the SSE to SE; and if the tide is incoming; I look for where the waves hit the cut. If the wind was NNE to NE, I follow the bluff southerly until it gradually discontinues into a sloping beach. Most coins that ht the base of the cut are quickly pulled back into the roiling surf and pushed in a southerly direction. Once the cut ceases into a sloping beach, the coins are free to be pushed up the slope and quickly covered by sand. The same holds true on a SSE or SE strong wind and the coins are deposited on the north end of a discontinued cut. My last experience occurred at Ft. Lauderdale Beach. I found coins on the washed beach slope some 50-75 feet south of the cut. Soon as I clean out the coins; I wait 5-10 minutes and all is replenished. I worked this continually-producing bank deposit for some 45 minutes until the rising tide and diminishing winds altered the physical conditions that initially provided the deposit. I don't recall how many coins I recovered that day but it was a net bag load.

Thanks for sharing S. D.

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This from the Fisher organization in Key West -  Although inclement weather has kept the boats in port through the last couple of weeks, the crews have been staying busy with preventative maintenance and up keep.

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GoPro Drone
Source: wsj.com link found in this post.

C Man sent me this link about GoPro developing a line of consumer drones.  I've talked about GoPro before.  They are used on some of the metal detector TV programs.  They can be mounted on headgear or on a detector rod.

These drones could be used to check out a long stretch of beach or other things.  Could be very useful.


http://online.wsj.com/articles/gopro-developing-line-of-consumer-drones-1417020883?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp

Thanks C Man.

--------------

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/29/14 Report - Big Cuts On A Few Treasure Coast Beaches This Morning. Level 2 Beach Detecting Conditions On Treasure Coast.

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

The main topic for today is the erosion caused by yesterday's North winds.  There is good erosion on some beaches, but not all.  Nonetheless, I'm not expecting much in the way of centuries old stuff showing up yet.  It just doesn't seem to be quite enough, yet you might be able to find a very few spots where conditions are affected by some local feature that produce something very old.

 The top picture shows a cut that is about five feet high.  It was photographed this morning near low tide.

The top step of that cut was created a few days ago, and the bottom step was created late yesterday or last night.

While some spots did erode last night, beach conditions did not change a lot last night.  The beaches were generally not much changed since yesterday except for a few short areas.

This morning I saw two beaches with cuts up to five feet high.  As I said, that was not all new erosion.

Notice the different layers shown in the last photo.  You can see part of a shell layer near the toe of the cut.  It was composed of large shells.

That beach also had a lot of shells near the water line, along with a few fossils.

There is still a lot of sand on the beach front, and the slope in front of the cut is not firm.

When you see the cuts it looks good but when you investigate the sand in front of the cut, not so good.

I'd give this a level 2 beach conditions rating.  In the terms that I have been using I'd call it a minimal two - almost here but not quite.

I've been struggling with the terminology  for a level two rating.  I think I'm going to start calling it "slightly improved" or "transitional."  It is definitely better than a level 1, but not yet good either.  And the word "fair" doesn't seem quite right either. 

Well that is the main thing for today.  You might be able to find an isolated spot where something centuries old will pop up but that will be rare at this point.  In general beach conditions are just slightly better than poor despite the relatively big cuts. 

On the Treasure Coast we're supposed to have a 3 - 5 foot for at least a few days.  Unfortunately, the wind direction will be more Easterly later today.  That is not encouraging.  I'd rather have continuing North winds.



Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comast.net

11/28/14 Report - Very Nice Button Find and Some Great Web Sites About Buttons. National Button Society. Stone Henge Artifacts

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

Find and photo by Dan B.

Here is a great button found by Dan B.  We need your help to identify it.  I've done a little research and haven't come up with the ID yet. 

As you can see it appears to have a violin and sword on he front. 

Very ornate and in very nice condition.

Great find Dan!


Here is a picture of the back of the same button. 

Find and photo by Dan B.

I guess his is what you would call a two-piece flat button with a wire shank.  Please correct me if I am wrong about any of that.

I haven't found he specific button yet (I am sure one of you will be able to ID it.) but while looking I did find some really great web sites about buttons that I am sure many of you will find useful.

One of the best is buttoncountry.com.   It is by the National Button Society, which I did not know about prior to this.




Here is the home page link.  http://nationalbuttonsociety.org/Home.html

Here is a link describing a large number of back types.  This is a very detailed listing.

http://www.buttoncountry.com/WorkSheets/Glossarys-FF.pdf

And even better, here is a link to a gallery of pictures of back types.  Really great!

http://www.buttoncountry.com/BackTypes2.html

As you will see if you browse around, this site is not limited to metal buttons or one type or age of buttons.

 Here are a couple examples from that section just to show you the kind of thing they have on that web site.

The web site also has a list of links and a bunch of other information.  Check it out and browse around.


Here is another button web site link.  This one deals with civil war buttons (which I thought Dan's might be.).

http://www.civilwarbuttons.com/cwcol



And here is yet another web site.  This one by the Waterbury button company.

http://www.waterburybutton.com/cart/pc/home.asp

Well, I haven't found Dan's button yet, but in the process did find a lot of good web sites.  I hope you can find Dan's button for us.  We all benefit from helping each other.

----------------

Here is a nice article about some of the intricate gold work found on artifacts associated with Stone Henge.  They conclude that it is so small and intricate that it could have only been done by children working on the task.

Take a look.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/stonehenges-most-intricate-archaeological-finds-were-probably-made-by-children-9738993.html

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I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Many people are alone or far from friends and family, and other families have more than their fair share of troubles and conflict.  Be thankful for what you do have and focus on that and sharing with the less fortunate.  May your troubles be light and your blessings many. 

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On the Treasure Coast the wind on Friday will be from the North while the surf is around three feet.

For next Friday they are now predicting somewhere around six foot seas.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/27/14 100 Plus Year Old Thanksgiving Day Greeting!



100 Plus Year Old  Used Thanksgiving Greeting Card.

From me to you.

Here is the back, just in case you are interested.

Earl is my grandfather.

Be blessed!

11/26/14 - More On Beach Metal Detecting Coin Distribution Patterns. NOT Your Mummy's Jewels. Cache Of Ancient Roman Jewelry.

Written by the Treasure Guide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.



Part Of Discovered Cache.
Source: archaeology.org link shown here.

A collection of Roman jewelry, including three gold armlets, a silver chain necklace, two silver bracelets, a silver armlet, four finger rings, a box containing two pairs of gold earrings, and a bag of coins, was discovered during the renovation of a department store in Colchester, Britain’s oldest recorded town. The cache of jewelry had been buried in the floor of a house that had been burned to the ground...

Here is the source link for more about that.

http://www.archaeology.org/news/2487-140904-england-colchester-roman-jewelry

---------------

If you are blind you can get  a free currency reader.

http://www.coinnews.net/2014/11/21/bep-accepting-applications-for-free-currency-readers/

I didn't know there was such a thing.  Makes sense though.  It also reminds that there is much to give thanks for, including such things as decent eye-sight.

---------------

Yesterday I posted an illustration of a coin distribution pattern that I recently dug at a Treasure Coast beach.  Often when you find such a cluster of coins, the distribution of denominations will tell you whether the source of the coins is the cut or the water.  To put it another way, it can tell you if the coins are washing up out of the water or out of the sand.  It can be either.

When the coins wash out of the sand and there is a slope, the heavier items will often be near the top.  Therefore you will find more quarters high on the slope followed by nickels, dimes and pennies, then copper then zinc pennies.  And if the coins are coming out of the water you will sometimes find the reverse order - quarters near the water, and zinc pennies farthest from the water.

These are some of the things that can help you define the area of a coin hole and lead you to gold.  It will also help you make productive use of your time by spending your time in the most promising area. 

If the coins are being uncovered and it is a good mature hole ( one that has been subject to good wave energy for a good amount of time) the less dense objects will tend to be farther from erosion.  If the source is the water, then the less dense objects will tend to be farther from the water.  If the hole is not mature (the erosion or washing up just beginning) then the distribution pattern will not be so well defined.

If coins are washing up, the first that you will find will be the zinc pennies near the water line.  If the water force is not strong enough, the other coins will still be in the water and may not make it out of the water.  Therefore zinc pennies along the water line can be your first indication of something beginning to happen.

Like the pattern I illustrated yesterday, lead and gold will tend to be towards the far boundary of the hole.  Very often they will be either near the water line or still in the shallow water.

--------------

Spanish archaeologists digging in Egypt have unearthed a female mummy still wearing her jewels.  She tried to take it with her.

Here is the source link for more of the story.

http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/ancient-egyptian-mummy-wearing-jewels-found-141121.htm


---------------

While this Thanksgiving Day the Treasure Coast prediction is for a aroud a two-foot surf, a week from Thanksgiving a 5 - 8 foot surf is predicted.  Now that could be interesting, but as I've pointed out many times, surf predictions made that far in advance are not real realiable.  Time will tell.

The wind is out of the West right now, but the wind will be coming from the North later and for a few days.  The surf will be building a little daily.  The North wind might make it interesting.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/25/14 Report - Metal Detecting Target Distribution Patterns and Search Strategies - One Excellent Example. Sedwick Auction Results Online.

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



Simplified Illustration of What I Found On One Treasure Coast Beach Saturday.

I mentioned that I found a lot of coins Sunday.  I hunted the slope of the beach from the face of the cut down to the water line.  First I scanned part of the beach for maybe three hundred yards.

The above illustration is not totally accurate but gives a good picture of what it looked like.  First, the coins were found in one area running from close to the toe of the cut down to near the water line well before low tide.  The coins did not appear to go all the way to the water line though.

In the above illustration black dots represent coins.  There are not as many black dots as coins found in the coin hole area that spread about fifty yards along the beach.  The coins were on average about five yards apart. This was not a densely packed coin hole.

The grey dots out to the right represent aluminum targets that were found about a hundred yards or so to the north.  They were up against the toe of the dune in a white shell packed sand which was distinctly different from the sand the coins were found in.

Although there were more coins found than shown, the illustration shows he correct number of dots for the other types of targets dug on that day.

To the South of the coins no targets of any kind were found for a hundred yards or so.

Red dots represent lead finds, and orange represents gold.

I only spent between one and two hours checking this stretch of beach.  I did not cover every inch of the beach.  Some areas were detected much more thoroughly than others.

I first used a very lose search pattern to identify different areas that I would more intensely search.  I try to find the most promising areas where I should spend most of my time.

I quickly hit a few of the coins in the coin hole as I walked along the beach, then nothing as I went north until I hit the aluminum junk area.

I've explained before some of the scan patterns that I use to identify hot spots. The zig zag pattern is one of those.  That is not what I used Saturday.  I simply followed the contour of the beach near the face of the cut at first.  Since I quickly discovered a few coins up near the cut, on the return I went down closer to the water to get an idea of how wide the coin bearing area might be.

Here is an important point.  Look at the illustration.  The black dots represent coins, the grey dots aluminum, the red represents led finds, and the orange iron.  What do you notice about the distribution?   The targets of different metals were grouped without exception.  This was a well developed distribution pattern. 

The coins were not real old, but were not recent drops.  They were all, except one, colored and crusty.

If I was using discrimination, I might not have detected the aluminum or iron targets.  I would have had a less complete picture of what was going on.

The two round lead sinkers helped to identify the lower boundary of the coin hole.

I certainly did not need discrimination in the coin hole because there was no junk in with the coins. The aluminum told me that the area to the north was probably not a good place to waste time, so that information was helpful too.  There is simply too much beach to cover equally and completely, so you need to focus your time and efforts on the most promising spots.

The distribution of targets led me to the most likely location to find gold.  Of course, sometimes the areas aren't so well defined, but in this case the targets were not new and had been well classified and distributed by type.

This illustration shows a number of things and explains why I use some of the techniques that I often talk about.  I can't get into all of them now.

Here is one thing I will advise.  Sample different areas of a beach to try to identify the area where you want to focus your efforts.  Don't use discrimination, especially at first, until you get some idea of any distribution pattern. 

Distribution patterns are not random below the high tide line.  This particular example is a very well developed pattern and makes an excellent illustration.

I probably spent about eighty percent or more of my time in the area of the coin hole.  It was located quickly.

-------------------

You can go back and look at the completed Sedwick Coins auction catalog on the icollector site to see what prices were realized by the various lots.

Here is the link.

http://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Treasure-and-World-Coin-Auction-16_as34049

Sedwick also sent me an email to say that new items were added to their online store.

-----------------

Don't expect any Thanksgiving storm this year.  The surf Thursday will be calm.  

They are predicting a bump in the surf out another week, but the long range predictions are not very accurate.


Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/24/14 Report - Watching Surf And Sand Movement. LIDAR Discovers Roman Gold Mining Nework. Beach Detecting Conditions Rating Downgrade.

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

Breaking Wave As Seen Saturday Morning Near High Tide

Notice where the wave in the above picture is breaking, and where the water is flat in front of that.  That is where the water is moving over sand in front of the beach, and the rough water near the bottom of the picture is where the water meets the bottom of the slope and the water coming back down the slope.

There are three things I want you to watch in the following video.   First, where the waves are breaking.  Second, where the water surges over the sand in front of the beach after breaking.  And then something you didn't see in the above illustration, how it surges up the slope until it hits the cut and then back down again.

Here it is with lines and arrows added to show the area where the waves are breaking, surging across the bar and where the incoming water hits the water returning down the slope near the bottom of the slope.



You can clearly see where the wave is breaking (top horizontal red line).  That is where the water gets shallow enough  for the wave to break.

Then the surge across the sand in front of the beach (from the top red line to the blue line).

Then the rough water where the incoming water hits the water returning down the slope.

When you see waves breaking way out, you know the water is relatively shallow that far out. 

The waves at this beach were breaking fairly close to shore.  You can get an idea of where the water is deep and where there is a lot of sand from where the waves are breaking.  

The illustration immediately above is from six seconds in on the video.

Here is an illustration from sixteen seconds in where you can see the slope better.

The top line shows general area where the sand builds up and the waves are breaking.  The second line shows the approximate beginning of the slope.  And the arrows shows the slope where the water goes up and returns.

The angle of the video and perspective makes this difficult to diagram and illustrate, and I know that I didn't explain it very clearly.

One of main points is that you can tell a lot about where the sand is and how deep it is by where the waves are breaking and how the water is moving.  That is useful information.  Always figure out as much as you can about how the sand is moving. 

There is a lot more that you can see in this video, such as the angle of the waves as they hit the beach.

Here the waves are breaking closer to shore than some of the other beaches.  The sand in front of the beach will have to be moved or at least stirred up to uncover the older materials before they can be washed up. 

The next day (Sunday) a good number of coins were found on this slope in front of the cut.

I hope you got something out of that even though I didn't couldn't make it real clear. 

I advise watching the video a few times after reading this.

----------------

The most "google plused" post of October was the 10/4/2014 Report -  Tuning A Pulse Induction Metal Detector For Gold.  Permit To Take Photos In Florida.  Higher Surf Coming.

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Hidden under the vegetation and crops of the Eria Valley, in León (Spain), there is a gold mining network created by the Romans two thousand years ago, as well as complex hydraulic works, such as river diversions, to divert water to the mines of the precious metal. Researchers from the University of Salamanca made the discovery from the air with an airborne laser teledetection system (LIDAR).

Here is more about that.

http://www.agenciasinc.es/en/News/Laser-from-a-plane-discovers-Roman-goldmines-in-Spain


---------------------

I got out to take a look at the beach this morning, and I am downgrading my beach detecting conditions rating back to a 1 (poor).  Beaches that eroded are filling again.

On the Treasure Coast the wind will be from the South for a couple of days and the surf will be slightly reduced.

Wednesday we'll have another front coming through and the wind will shift again and be coming from the North again but at the time the surf will be only around two or three feet.

I'll probably be going back to a "1" rating on my Treasure Coast beach detecting conditions rating scale before long.  I'm actually surprised that the beaches haven't refilled more already.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/23/14 Report - At Least Two Beaches More Erosion This Morning, Long Lost Stumps Resurfacing, Coin Hole Found, Wasting Time With Target ID

Written by the Treasure Guide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.

Sticking Out Of The Surf This Morning As The Tide Receded

I went out this morning before low tide to do a little detecting.  I dug more coins on a treasure beach than I had for a very long time.   I was really surprised., but mostly clad, and a pendant.  An entire pocket full.  ( I have a funny story about a pocket full of coins, but I won't tell it now.)  I'll talk about the distribution pattern some other time soon if I don't forget.

I saw this stump (photo above) in the surf, which reminded me of a time back in the eighties when there was a line of pine stumps along the water line towards the North end of John Brooks Park.  They disappeared for two or three decades.  I'm wondering if this is one of those resurfacing.  It was just to the beach side of the where the waves were breaking on the front of the sand in front of the beach.

I wonder what else might be getting washed up.

Since I was there yesterday, some additional erosion occurred, followed by a touch of refilling.  Notice the sea weed in the following  photos.

The cut was about three or four feet running for hundreds of yards.  I think there will probably be more filling since the wind is now coming from the South.

 I miss the cooler air already.

The snow birds are back in numbers now too.

Three To Four Foot Cuts This Morning Before Low Tide.

I always like to dig coin holes like the one I found this morning.  It tells you a lot about what is going on at the beach and how things get distributed.  Clad coins are not a good indicator of cobs though.  Most often I've found cobs when there are very few or no clad coins.

-------------------

I learned a long time ago that it is not easy to convince most people of anything.  Most people have
their mind made up and the longer they have held an idea or opinion, the harder it is to change them.  Instead of evaluating new information or alternate opinions, people generally begin by defending what ever they have believed.  The longer they have believed whatever it is, the more examples they have to prove their belief because what they have seen in the past was always interpreted in terms of those beliefs.

I'm in the market for a new detector and so have been looking around for what I can learn about a couple of models.  I keep running into detectorists who say that target ID helps save time because you don't waste time digging as much junk. That is something that sounds like it would be true, but if you actually evaluate, observe and measure, you'll find that is not always as true as it sounds.

Here is an example.  I was watching  a video comparing target ID on two sophisticated and highly regarded detectors - the CTX 3030 and Whites Vi.   Those, by the way, are not the detectors that I am interested in.

The fellow went around a grassy public park with one detector and marked questionable targets, about half of which seemed to be in the nickel/foil range.  He then went back over the undug targets with the other detector to see how the second detector identified the same target.  After getting the readouts from both detectors he then dug the target to see which of the detectors was correct.

Here is what I noticed.   He took longer getting the readout than digging the target.   On one example that I timed with the timer on the video, he took 26 seconds to determine the target ID using the various displays.  He took less than half that amount of time to plug the grass and retrieve the target.  That time was using a single detector, of course.  How much time was saved?  About minus 13 seconds.

And to make matters worse, that was in grass.  It would normally take less time to recover a target in sand.  And most junk targets in sand will be near the surface.  If you are skilled and have good equipment, it should take you even less time to recover the average junk target in sand.

I know that there are people that just don't like to dig junk.  That is OK.  No problem.   If you are one of those people, "To thine own self be true."  But don't be fooled into thinking you are saving a lot of time by using target ID.  Take into account the time you spend getting a good stable reading and looking at the various readouts before you dig.  You might be saving effort or frustration, but you are probably not saving much time.  In fact, as I just showed you might be wasting more time.

If you really want to save time, perfect your pinpointing and your scooping and sifting skills.  Learn to interpret your detector's signals.  Learn about layering.  And most of all use search strategies that lead you to good target areas rather than junk intensive areas.

------------------

The surf today was a little smaller than yesterday.  It was about 4 - 5 feet.  The waves seemed to be hitting almost straight on.

The surf on the Treasure Coast will be decreasing the next few days down to something more like 2 - 3 feet. 

I'm not decreasing my beach detecting conditions rating yet though, although I am back to a minimal 2.   I expect a decrease in the next couple of days but will be watching to see what happens.

If you missed the beaches I showed yesterday, you might want to go back and take a look at that post.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/22/14 Report - Big Waves On Treasure Coast But Beach Detecting Conditions Rating Stays At Level 2. A Few Beaches Are Eroded. Olive Jar Shard Found.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of Treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.


I took a look at a good sample of the treasure beaches this morning to see what was going on.

Wabasso Beach This Morning Just a Little After High Tide.
 

Wabasso Beach was among the most promising of the beaches that I saw this morning.  I did a little detecting to check it out.  Most good targets, including mostly modern era coins, were down the slope a ways from the cut.  The cut was not a long cut, but was about a foot or a little more in some areas.  It might be worth checking at low tide.

Seagrape and Turtle Trails had almost no erosion.  In fact it seemed to be accumulating for the most part.



Turtle Trail This Morning Just After High Tide.



Sea Grape Trail Looking South This Morning Just After High Tide.



John Brooks This Morning Near High Tide.

John Brooks was still cut and the waves were bigger now but most of the erosion there happened back Tuesday or Wednesday when the front first came through and we had the North winds.  The higher waves have not done much of anything since then.

The wind has now shifted and the waves are hitting pretty much from the East along theTreasure Coast.

There was scattered rain along the coast this morning too.

The wind and waves will be shifting soon and the waves will be hitting more from the South.  That is something important to watch.  The sand will shift, filling or making new cuts, as the waves hit at different angles.

Pepper Park was not cut at all.

Treasure Shores and Golden Sand are closed.  They decided to do beach renourishment just before the winter erosion season.   I guess they don't want the new sand to stay more than a few weeks.

November is often a good treasure detecting season.  You might recall the much talked about and celebrated Thanksgiving storm when a lot of treasure washed out of the dunes.

The peak months, from my experience, are November through February.


I'm not changing my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions Rating.  I'm sticking with a minimal 2.

A few beaches account for the 2 level rating,  Many have no erosion at all.

The waves are crashing on the shallow sand on the front of the beach.  That area will have to change to uncover the old stuff.




Olive Jar Shard.
Find and photo by William M.

William M. found a piece of olive jar a few days ago after the front first came through.  It matches the olive jar neck that he found before.

Congratulations William!

This lighter stuff will show up first.  Look through any big shell piles.


Expect up to about a six foot surf Saturday and Sunday.  Unfortunately the wind direction will be coming more from the South, so I'm not expecting much more improvement.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

 

11/20/14 Repor - Small Mystery Copper Find. Some Tips On Cold Weather Clothes That Are Good For Beach Detecting

Written by the Treasure Guide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Big Diamond Ring Found
Find and photo by Robert H.

You never know when something really nice will pop up.  Here is a diamond ring (estimated at 1.5 to 2 karat) found by Robert H.

Congratulations Robert.  Great Find!

Thanks for sharing.

Small Copper Object Found Yesterday

Yesterday I dug a few small items in addition to coins.  Here is one very small copper item.  It appears to have the remains of a little silver gilt on it.  I have no idea what it is and will probably never know.

When I dug it I thought it was a percussion cap, which I've found at that beach in the past.

There were a lot of slivers of iron at the same beach.  It helps to know how to identify those if you are using a pulse detector.  I showed how to identify pieces of iron like that in previous posts.

More Concave Side of Same Object

When I went out to the beach yesterday there wasn't anyone out there.  It was a little chilly, so I had some cold weather gear on even though it wasn't really all that bad.

I thought I'd recommend some of my favorite clothes for cooler weather.

First, there are pants made for fishing that are really great.  They are made by Reel Legends.  I got mine at Bealls online.

They have a lot of pockets.  I mean really a lot.  But the best thing is that the pockets are different sizes and some have a zipper, others have Velcro, and there are attachments where you can clip things, such as key chains or whatever.

I love those pants for detecting.  They are light weight and have a zipper on the legs, so if you get hot, they can be converted to shorts.  The zippers are nylon and do not corrode from salt water.

You can stick finds of different types and sizes in the different pockets, also cameras, cell phones etc. and keep them securely.  I love the variety of pockets.


When it is cold I also like to wear a hoody with a large enough hood to get both ear phones and a hat inside the hood.  That cuts down on a lot of the wind chill.   On many hoodies the hood isn't large enough to fit over ear phones.

Gloves are a good idea.  Your hands can get nipped by the wind especially after you get them wet.

I generally don't bundle up much.  It seems I can take cool weather better than most Floridians, and even a of of snow birds that are accustomed to a warm house and warm clothes.  Our wind and humidity makes it the cold go right through you.

The wind is still from the North today.  I'm sticking with my minimal "2" Treasure Coast beach detecing conditions rating.

I'm sure you will be able to find some good spots for modern era items at some of the busier tourist beaches.  I wouldn't be surprised if a few older items might pop up.




Happy hunting
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/19/14 Report - Cold Front Brings North Winds and Cuts Some Treasure Coast Beaches. Minimal Beach Detecting Conditions Upgrade.

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

Global warming strikes again.

As the front came through yesterday the wind picked up and is now comiing from the North.  Yesterday I said I expected some sand to be moved, and this morning I went out to check it out.  Below is what I found.

One Cut Treasure Coast Beach This Morning Looking South

Same Treasure Coast Beach This Morning Looking North

Three Foot Cut At Same Beach

 The beach above was cut for hundreds of yards.  The cut was from about one foot to just over two feet.  The front beach was not firm.  There were not many targets of any kind here.  The swash was only about ten yards in front of the cut.

Larger Cut At Another Treasure Coast Beach

Shells Being Uncovered On Same Treasure Coast Beach

 The first beach is natural sand, but the second beach (last two photos) was also cut but only in renourishment sand.  Plenty of shells were just under the surface.  There were many iron targets here as well as a few coins.

One beach I looked at had no cuts.  In fact sand was accumulating there.

As you might know, the original purpose of this blog was to keep you up to date on the changing conditions of the Treasure Coast treasure beaches.   The conditions have been so consistently poor that I quit giving a rating when it was the same day after day.  I started to only comment on conditions when there is a significant change.

I use a five-point rating scale for treasure beach detecting conditions.  A "1" rating indicates poor conditions, which we've had a lot of this year and last year, and a "5" indicates excellent conditions, like you normally get only after something like a hurricane.

Today I'm actually going to issue a beach detecting conditions rating upgrade, but only to a 2.   It is a minimal 2 at that.  If I gave fractional ratings, this would be more like a 1.5.

The cuts are scattered.  And they are not real good, but there is the distinct possibility of one or two old pieces of treasure to show up on the beaches.  The probabilities are low though.  Like I said, I'm only expecting very few, maybe one or two to show up.

More sand will need to be moved to improve increase the probabilities.  It is worth keeping an eye on for the next couple of days.

Once again this shows that the direction of the wind and waves is as important as the size of the waves for creating erosion.


At Jupiter Inlet beach it looks like they are doing another project.  You can see the bull dozier at work. (Thanks to GoSports1 for pointing this out.)

http://evsjupiter.com/


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/18/14 Report - Treasure Coast Finds. Moccassins Found. Clone Wooly Mammoth

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

More 2014 Treasure Coast Finds From Michael E.
Photo submitted by Michael E.

Notice the label on the Tiffany ring.

The pin on the upper left is from a military institute.

Nice finds Michael!  Thanks for sharing.

---------------

Here is a cool article about moccasins found in a Utah cave.  A large number of those found were children's.   What does that have to do with metal detecting?  Read on.

http://westerndigs.org/utah-cave-full-of-childrens-moccasins-sheds-light-on-little-known-ancient-culture/

Did you ever notice the large number of shoes and flip flops etc. that you can find on a beach?  If you picked them up you would have a large collection.

A lot of those shoes are children's shoes.  Why?  It is not just because there are more children.  I think it is fairly safe to assume that children are more likely to lose their shoes than adults, especially little children, who can't wait to pull off both socks and shoes.  That is something to take into account.  You can't simply say that there were larger numbers of children simply because you find a lot of children's shoes.  There is more to it than that.  I can think of other things that might affect the relatively large number of children's shoes that you find on a beach.  Children aren't always concerned about losing things - even shoes.  Children might also be harder on shoes, and children's shoe might also be discarded when they no longer fit.

Thinking about who loses what, where and why can help you a lot when it comes to metal detecting.  This is not just about the shoes or moccasins.

----------------------------

Scientists plan to recreate a woolly mammoth from frozen remains found in Siberia.

http://qz.com/297637/scientists-plan-to-resurrect-the-woolly-mammoth-jurassic-park-style/

-------------------------

With the cold front moving through and the North wind some sand will be moved.  I don't know just where yet, but there surely will be a few small cuts.  The wind changed this morning, but the swells didn't change until this afternoon.

I'll be checking to see what happened, if anything.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/17/14 Report - Mystery Item Found. One Excellent Way To Break Out Of A Rut. 1000 Year Old Find. Mining Outer Space

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

Neat Find By Dan B.
Photo submitted by Dan B.

First, here is a mystery item.  The find is by Dan B. who thinks it might be a hair pin.  What do you think?

-------------------

About the U. S. Customs button that I asked about yesterday, here is what Michael said.

I looked up the customs button and from the information I found its mid 40s early 50s mine is intact which I thought wasn't the case until I found it online. Looks like it attaches over an existing button.

------------------------

Most detectorists approach sites pretty much the same.  They do pretty much the same thing and hit the same areas.

I told before about how I was traveling once and stopped at a picnic area on a bay.  I went into the water and could tell that the area had been hunted heavily.  

There were two posts (maybe from old docks) in the water right in front of the picnic area.  The area between the old posts and into the picnic area was cleaned out.  That rectangular area was very clean.  I decided to check outside of the rectangular area defined by the posts and shoreline, and quickly found that it had not been hunted well at all.   Yes it was junky, but in about a half hour I picked up three gold rings just outside the cleaned out area.

Detectorists tend to hit the same spots over and over.  They might be the places where the majority of targets are lost, but the targets get cleaned out so sometimes it is better to go to a place where fewer targets are lost but where more targets remain.

I was talking about a country path that I detected not long ago.  The main part of the path had been detected multiple times so that part of the path was pretty clean, so I went over to the side of the path on a slope and immediately started finding older coins.

My point is simple.  Sometimes all you have to do is do something a little different than what everybody else is doing.

If you visit an old home site.  You can look at it and tell where most detectorists would detect first.  They'll go for the obvious and easy spots.  Most won't bother to hit the more difficult spots.  All you have to do to find virgin ground is work through bushes or weeds - maybe do a little clearing.  Move rocks or logs.  Work your detector into tight spots. 

The same thing goes for beaches.  There are places everybody will hit, and there are places that most everybody will miss.  You might have to use a little more effort and use your head, but those kinds of spots are still out there.

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Private companies are moving closer and closer to conducting mining operations in outer space despite the two rockets that blew up recently.  

Did you know that it has been estimated that a one kilometer diameter asteroid could contain about 7,500 tons of platinum, worth more than $150 billion?

Here is an article about that.

http://www.astronomysource.com/tag/platinum-from-asteroids/

------------

Here is an interesting find estimated by people that  know a lot about such things to be about 1000 years old.

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On the Treasure Coast we have West winds.  A front is coming through.  We'll have cooler temperatures for a couple of days, but around a three foot surf for a week or two.

I have more Treasure Coast finds to post.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/16/14 Report - 15 Million Year Old Shark Skeleton Found in Back Yard. More Treasure Coast Finds. Erosion Found On One T. C. Beach.

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



A Few More 2014 Finds By Michael E.\
Photo submitted by Michael E.

Here are some more 2014 finds from Michael E.  I showed some of his gold finds from this year a day or two ago.

Congratulations Michael!

Anyone know about the U. S. Customs pin?

Nice Indian Head!









----------------------

A complete skeleton of a 15 million year old Snaggle Tooth shark was found in the backyard of a Maryland home.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/video/rare-shark-skeleton-inbackyard/357579843922/Comcast/StrangeVideos?cid=hero_sf_weird


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Typical Treasure Coast Beach This Morning

Here is a typical Treasure Coast beach.  Sand has been accumulating on this front beach lately.

This photo was taken near low tide this morning.

The surf is going to around three or four feet until Tuesday.

I did find one beach that had some cuts.  As you might expect, the erosion was in renourishment sand.  One poor turtle was tricked by that and the eggs were being uncovered.

One to Two Foot Cut On One Treasure Coast Beach This Morning Near Low Tide
 

You can see a smattering of shells and a little black sand.  There were coins and thing below the cut.

Too bad this renourishment sand doesn't seem to hold much of anything any good.

A few older items evidently washed up onto the beach here.




Waves In Front Of The Cut Beach.

One of the most important things I've learned about in recent years is the effect of the trigger point.  I've explained a little about trigger points in previous posts. Maybe I'll expand on that soon.

It looks like the surf will only bump up a foot or two in the next week or so.  Too bad.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/15/14 Report - $587,000 Charles-Joanna Mexican 8-Reales, Beach Dynamics, Coins Washing Up On Beach

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

Source of photo:  http://www.sedwickcoins.com/articles/Rincon.pdf

This is the 8 reales that brought in over $587,000 in the recently completed Sedwick Coins Treasure Auction 16.

Maybe you'll be the one to find the fourth.

-------------------


Back close to twenty years ago (I can't believe it has been so long.) Jensen beach was eroded back into the Seagrape trees by the walk-overs at the back of the beach.  Since then sand has been dumped on that beach many times.

Back when we had the hurricanes in 2004 (I think that was the year.) John Brooks was eroded back all of the way to the walk-over.  That kind of erosion doesn't happen very often.

There are periods of years when a beach will continue to erode and wear away.  And then there are periods of accretion.

When a beach gets eroded way back, you will often see a different kind of sand.  When Jensen was eroded way back, there was a course brown sand.  That, of course, has since been covered by fine white sand.

You should pay attention to the different types of sand because it can tell you if old layers are being uncovered.

The same thing goes for Turtle Trail.  Recent renourishment projects covered the beach with a fine white sand.  It is being lost, but by the time the old sand starts to emerge they will probably dump more sand to cover it up.

Here is a simple sketch of a beach cross section.  The blue line represents the water line.

Simple Beach Cross Section Illustration.

This is a wide low beach such as the one at John Brooks.  A different type of beach would be the beach at Turtle Trail that is more narrow and has a high cliff at the back.

In this diagram, let's say A (black line) is the old beach.   Then B (reddish line) represents the beach after very big erosion occurred.

Then the beach refills, up to the thin green line (C). 

Back in 2004, for example, John Brooks eroded a lot, taking the sand down to a low level, something like B above.  Then it refilled.  Since that time it eroded and refilled time and time again more near the front portion of the beach.  Cobs were found in layers of sand well above where the level of sand had been eroded in the past and way too far to the front of the beach to have come from the dunes.

Old coins will be washed out of the dunes and down onto the beach and even into the water at times.  That occurs more often on narrow beaches with high dunes behind.

I have no doubt that most of the shipwreck coins found on John Brooks in recent years were washed up onto the beach from the water since they were found in areas that were previously eroded much lower and too far from the dunes and too high to have come from the dunes.

--------------------------------

On the Treasure Coast the surf will be a little higher on Sunday, something like 3 or 4 feet.  Out about a week an 8 foot surf is predicted.  The long range predictions often don't work out though.  We'll have to wait and see.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/14/14 Report - 2014 Treasure Coast Finds. 8 Reale Sells For Over Half Million Dollars. 19th Century Wreck Found. Valuable Explorer's Notebook Found

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

Some of Michael E.'s Favorite Finds This Year
Photo submitted by Michael E.

Here are some 2014 Treasure Coast finds by Michael E.

Conditions have been poor but if you put in the time and hard work you can still make good finds.

Congratulations Michael!






-----------------------

An Early Series Mexican 8 reale sold for over half a million dollars at the recent Sedwick Coins auction in Orlando.  Several 1715 Fleet coins and objects did very well.

Here are a few of the highlights.

--------------------------

Parts of a wooden ship were found on a New Jersey beach in October 2014 of this year by workmen building a sea wall to protect beach eroded by Hurricane Sandy. The ship could be a Scottish sailing ship that sank in 1850. Pieces of timber, a windlass, and other nautical parts were found. A marine archaeologist will examine the wreck to see if it's the historic ship that was the first to use a "life-car," a newly invented metal life raft that saved 199 people on the ship.

Here is the link to that article.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/post-sandy-construction-uncovers-19th-century-shipwreck-in-new-jersey/

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Some of the British explorers who accompanied Robert Scott on his 1910-1913 expedition to Antarctica died of starvation and cold. But others in the group survived by huddling in an ice cave and eating seals and penguins. A photography notebook kept by one of the survivors was found last summer (2014) encased in ice outside a hut used by the explorers. The notebook records information about photographs taken in 1911. The notebook has been restored and is being studied.

Here is a link to that article.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/28/world/antarctic-explorer-notebook/index.html

Melting ice or snow as well as receding shores, erosion and construction excavation can uncover history.

-------------------

On the Treasure Coast we'll have a calm surf for a couple of days and North winds.  The surf will bump up a little Sunday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

11/13/14 Report - Highest Price Gold Coin From Sedwick Auction. Usefulness Of Deep Seeking Beach Detector. Distinctive Signals. Searching For WWII Planes.

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

Gold Coin From Recently Completed Sedwick Coins Auction.

Here is the gold coin that received the highest bid in the recently completed Sedwick Coins auction.

The winning bid for this coin was over $28,000, about twice the selling price of any of the escudos.

------------------


I ran across a YouTube video showing a fellow trying out a borrowed ATX in bathtub calm water at Miami beach.  In a short time he dug a few targets, including three coins and two bobby pins.

You are going to hear bobby pins when using pulse induction detector.  Although PI detectors don't have much in the way of discrimination, those that I've used, including the Whites Dual Field, will allow you to identify bobby pins and other junk items if you use them enough to learn how to identify the distinctive signals.  (In a previous post I showed  once how the pulse delay setting on a PI detector could be used to discriminate out bottle caps.)  

I can identify fish hooks when using a PI detector.  Fish hooks sound similar to nails or other long thin objects, but yet give a signal that is different enough to identify.  I don't know how to describe the distinctive signal from a fish hook, but, like I said, it is a little like the signal given by a nail, yet different.

I've explained in previous posts how long thin objects such as nails can be identified by many detectors - not just PI detectors.  When sweeping over a nail or similar thin object in one direction you'll get a broken signal, while sweeping in the other direction you'll get a solid signal.  

You'll can learn to identify many types of signals by sound, but it takes time.  Sometimes when I don't use a particular detector for a while it takes a little while to relearn it, but relearning is fast.

Another thing I noticed in the video is that all of the targets were dug very near the surface.  It won't argue against a good deep-seeking detector, but depth is highly over rated in my opinion.  It is not nearly as important as many people seem to think.  That is my opinion and is partly the result of some of the search strategies that I use.

If you keep track of how many good targets are actually dug at a depth that is near your detector's maximum capability, I'll bet it is a very small percentage.  I'll also bet that if you ever dug cobs on a beach, the vast majority were found within the top two inches.  Keep track of that.  Figure out how much a couple more inches would actually help you.  It might surprise you - especially for beach hunting.   And some targets that seem to come from great depth, actually don't.  They slip deeper as the hole gets deeper.

People often talk about wasting time digging junk.  Digging deep holes can be a big waste of time.  You say that the good targets are deep.  That can be true, but a big part of my strategy is to find the areas where the good targets are near the surface.  I'm not so interested in digging a few deep targets as I am interested in finding accumulations of good targets that have been uncovered.  Of course, you can't always do that.

The fellow that was using the $2000 plus ATX dug only items that were near the surface during the video.  It only took a couple seconds to dig and sift each of them.  Once again, my point is that depth is often over-rated. 

Even more than good targets, most junk on a beach will be found near the surface.  It can take more time to ID junk items than it takes to simply scoop them up and remove them, especially if your pinpointing and recovery skills are good.

A detector that will detect deep gold will also detect small gold, such as gold chains near the surface.  That is more why I like a deep seeking detector.  It is not as much that I want to dig deep holes, but a good deep seeking detector will also do a good job of detecting small shallow targets.  Considering beach hunting, if I had to choose between getting all of the good small surface targets or the good targets found in the last inch of depth that I could get out of my detector, I just might choose the first. 

Keep track and try to answer that for yourself. 

------------------

According to the most recent issue of Kovels Komments, here is the order of most frequently used price search terms.

1) Fenton, 2) Coca-Cola, 3) Occupied Japan, 4) Stoves, 5) McCoy, 6) Wedgwood, 7) Bavaria, 8) Depression Glass, 9) Delft, 10) Capo-Di-Monte, 11) Lamps, 12) Pepsi Cola, 13) Hull, 14) Banks, 15) Belleek, 16) Scales, 17) Satsuma, 18) Trunks, 19) Haeger, and 20) Red Wing.

That tells you something about what collectors are interested in and what you could probably sell easily. 

-------------------

Here is a mesmerizing GoPro video Searching For Heroes, which shows top-notch underwater search technology being used to find WWII planes.  I should have had this one for Veterans Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wB6i7i7fKU

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The surf on the Treasure Coast will be near flat Thursday and Friday.  Then it will bump up a touch.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net