Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Photos by Captain Jonah. |
Here is a neat Treasure Coast Potosi Pillar and Waves Eight-Reale.
You can see the Potosi mint mark. Also a three digit date in the bottom column of the middle row.
The picture below is the other side of the same cob.
I'm not certain I am reading the date correctly, but it looks like (1)715 to me. What do you think?
It appears to nicely match some examples that are in Menzel's book. That book shows a 1715 eight-reale that is also chunky and cracked like this one.
Menzel says that mint production for that decade was low and quality control was poor. The book said that is rare to find a well struck Potosi cob around that time period.
Another excellent Treasure Coast find by a Treasure Coast salvage crew.
You might remember my comment from a recent post indicating that in 1700 and after, Potosi Pillars and Waves cobs had a three digit date while earlier Pillars and Waves cobs had a two digit date.
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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA—A planned environmental clean-up of the Congaree River in South Carolina could recover Confederate munitions that Union troops, under the command of General William T. Sherman, captured in 1865. Sherman’s army burned a third of the city and captured 1.2 million ball cartridges; 100,000 percussion caps; 6,000 unfinished arms; 4,000 bayonet scabbards; and 3,100 sabers. The soldiers reportedly dumped what they couldn’t carry in the river. Since then, fishermen and swimmers have recovered some of the weapons...
Here is the link to read the article.
http://www.thestate.com/2015/01/17/3934680_exclusive-congaree-to-be-dammed.html?rh=1
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One thing I continue to be impressed by is the importance of the threshold setting on a pulse induction metal detector. A threshold that is either too high or too low will cause a loss of depth and signals. It is so important that I often test my threshold by using a well known gold test target so that I know I have the best threshold setting. In my opinion, selecting the threshold is too important to do casually.
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When learning a new detector learn first in a familiar test garden if that is possible. Then move to an easy setting such as dry sand. Then to wet sand, and finally in water.
I think if you become very familiar with a detector in a less challenging environment first, it will make it easier to move to a more challenging environment.
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When I was at the beach yesterday, almost all the targets I found were discolored, corroded, and deep. The recent surface drops had already been picked up, yet there were a good number of deep targets remaining.
It was also my observation that there is less junk out there these days. I think more people are removing the junk. There were a good number of bottle caps at some beaches. There are also some beaches with a lot of small iron.
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Just got the news that Tommy Thompson was captured. I did a post giving a link about him missing a few months ago. You can find that post by using the blog search box.
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On the Treasure Coast, the wind changed direction. It was coming from the North. Tomorrow the surf will be a little higher.
Happy hunting,
TreaureGuide@Comcast.net
