Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
You can find almost anything almost anywhere. When I hunted the shallow water of South Florida I found some strange things. One thing I found a lot was glasses, both sun glasses and eye glasses. I'd say hundreds
The eye glasses I often donated. The Lions Club had collection boxes around the community and if you donated used eye wear, they would recycle them and give them to people who really needed them. That was a good thing.
I never liked to find eye glasses in the surf, knowing that someone's day was probably ruined when they lost their glasses, especially if they belonged to a tourist from out of town.
I remember finding a few pairs for people who asked me to look for their's.
Sometimes I told people wearing glasses in the surf that they needed to be careful. Some resented me trying to help them. I never really understood why some people were so insulted when someone tried to help them.
Sun glasses were found even more often than regular eye glasses. Some were expensive brands worth a hundred dollars or more. Some were destroyed. Often they looked ok at first glance, but the lenses would be terribly scratched by being tumbled in the surf.
The ones shown below were found recently. If you were to buy them new they would run near $100.
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| Costa SunGlasses |
Glasses were common finds, while other things were more unusual. Some of the less common finds included things like dentures, pool balls and bowling balls, brass knuckles and guns. I actually found a few of each of those in the surf.
Why there were pool balls and bowling balls in the surf, I don't know. I guess you can imagine some different scenarios, but none of them seem real likely.
Very little would really surprise me now. You might find almost anything. The surprises can be fun.
I remember finding a silver casino chip enclosed in a clear plastic case at the water's edge. Why would someone carelessly carry around something like that?
You can find almost any kind of coin on Florida beaches. Finding an old coin doesn't mean it was lost long ago. People sometimes carry around old, collectible and valuable coins, and occasionally lose them on a beach. I've found a number of old coins, some of which were obviously recent drops. It is sometimes difficult to figure out how and why they ended up where they did. There were some that were lost in a shipwreck hundreds of years ago then salvaged, sold, and lost and found again.
Bullion coins are one good example. One silver bullion coin I found not long ago was found on a very deserted beach. I could only imagine what happened there and why it was lost.
Things can end up on a beach in various ways. Years ago, early in the morning, three huge bales of of marijuana were found on a 1715 Fleet beach.
That brings up another point. Items found on a beach can be intermixed with items from thousands of years. Million-year-old fossils and Native American artifacts can be found in the same shell pile with space debris.
Those are just a few examples of common and somewhat unusual finds that you might or might not expect.
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As you know, the Super Bowl is Sunday. Sunday the surf will increase but not much.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
