11/3/15 Report - Blog Poll Results On Finds Made Last Half Of October.

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

The most recent blog poll has concluded and the results are in.

This poll was conducted in part to validate my beach detecting conditions rating scale.  I upgraded the beach conditions rating to a 2 back in mid-October.

The rating scale is a five point scale that goes from 1 to 5.   A 1 rating indicates poor detecting conditions and a 5 rating indicates excellent beach detecting conditions.

The rating indicates the chances of finding a cob or treasure coin on the Treasure Coast ocean beaches.  The rating scale does not indicate the chances of finding modern items.

Although the rating is for the Treasure Coast in general, different beaches will vary.  It is possible for one Treasure Coast beach to be a "3" while another might be a "1."  Although different beaches will be different, there will generally be some correlation.  When one beach changes, it is likely that others will change in a similar manner.

The poll results are based upon the sample of people who read this blog and responded to the poll.  For this poll, the sample is additionally limited to those who actually detected on the Treasure Coast during the last half of October.  The sample size is therefore smaller than my usual poll.  Not everybody who reads this blog lives close to the Treasure Coast.  Many of those people will not make the trip to detect every time beach conditions improve, especially when conditions do not improve a lot.

Now, to the poll results.  70 people responded to this blog poll.  As I said, that is a smaller sample size than usual,  This poll was only for those who actually detected Treasure Coast beaches during the last half of October.  That excluded those who were not on the Treasure Coast and those who did not have the opportunity to detect the beaches during that period of time.

Of those 70 who did detect the Treasure Coast beaches, about 87% did not find either a treasure coin or artifact.  This was not a highly productive period for detectorists.  It was, however, better than what would be expected when there is a "1" (poor) rating.

The beach conditions looked better than that.  There was a good amount of erosion and fairly large cuts along much (not all) of the Treasure Coast.

I heard of a small number of cob finds that were not reported in the poll.  Evidently a few people who found cobs either do not read this blog or did not respond to the poll.

Among the reports of finds that I received was a half reale found by a lady who did not realize she had a cob in her hand until she was told what it was.  Evidently she does not read this blog or she probably would have been able to recognize the cob.

There are many examples of lucky first timers, including one lady who found an escudo on her first detecting outing.  It happens, but rarely.  For most detectorists it takes a lot of time before they find their first treasure coin.

Two people reported finding cobs in this poll.  One person reported only finding a treasure coin, while another reported finding both a treasure coin and an artifact.  That would be slightly over 1.5 percent.  That is not a high percentage.  Despite all the big cuts and how good conditions looked to the eye, this was indeed a small improvement in actual beach detecting conditions.  I attribute that to two things.  First is the large amount of renourishment sand on many of the Treasure Coast beaches.  The renourishment sand would cover and protect items from washing out from the dunes and older layers of the beach and shallow water.  I also believe that the large amount of sand just in front of the beach was also an obstacle.

I know of one cob that was found, which was found away from the renourishment sand.  I don't know if that was the case for others.

About ten percent of those who responded to the poll reported finding an artifact of some sort.  That is not bad. It appears that there was a much better chance of finding an artifact than a cob.  That is something you might expect when the beaches improve a little.  Some items, such as copper sheathing, china, or pot shards, will tend to appear before cobs.

I don't know what types of artifacts were found, and invite those who found one to let me know by email.  With blogspot, the poll option are very limiting.

One person reported finding both at least one cob and at least one artifact.

I don't know how many cobs or artifacts were found by those who reported finds in the poll.  All I know is that they found at least one.

As I've shown from past polls, if you find one the chances of finding more than one are fairly high.

I would not have been surprised if a few more cobs were found.  As I said, I did receive reports of a few additional cob finds.

Overall, the poll results seem to make sense to me.  They also give me some idea of how accurate my beach ratings are.  There were slightly fewer cobs reported than I expected.  The poll results definitely support the idea that my rating should have been no higher than a "2."  I feel that I gave the right rating, since it seems conditions did improve enough for finds to be made, but there was not enough found to justify a higher rating.

Thanks to all who responded to the blog poll.  I believe this kind of information helps us all.

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Here is an interesting story about a sudden crack that appeared in the earth in Wyoming.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/10/31/huge-crack-discovered-in-earth-in-wyoming/

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Next week I'll have a post on Native American artifacts found on Treasure Coast beaches.  Some were found by people hunting sea shells.

I also expect to have some more information on heart-shaped cobs.

That is all for today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net