5/26/17 - Colonial Era Religious Medallion Find. Metal Detecting Practice In The Park.

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

Nice Religious Medallion Find.
Find and photo by Bart B.

Here is what Bart said about the medallion.

I found this along the Old Spanish Trail in Texas and have had no luck determining how old it is. Based on your article it could be pre 1800 due to the direction of the hole at the top of the medal, any other insight would be greatly appreciated.

Near as I can tell the writing on this side says:

R or B*VIRGO*SINE*PECCATO*OR or B*CONC

The writing on this side is very worn, my best guess is:

SS*SAC L*S*LL or 11

Other Side of Same Medallion.
Find and photo by Bart B.

Virgo sine pecatto means virgin without sin.  IHS refers to Christ.  I think it is Jesuit.

Same Medallion From the Side.
Photo by Bart B.

Thanks for sharing Bart.  I hope the readers can provide more information on the medallion.

The wear looks a little strange to me.  Some of the low spots are as worn smooth as much as the high spots where you would expect a lot of wear.  Maybe that is from manufacture.

The surface corrosion (or lack thereof) sure looks different from the medals you typically find on the beach, but that is to be expected since it came from a different kind of environment.  A salt water beach is really hard on metal.

Thanks for sharing Bart!

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I seldom post YouTube videos except for the few I've made to illustrate specific things.  I'll share this one though.  I have a variety of reasons for that.  One big reason is the message that Rick delivers.  It is an important message and something I would say myself, but Rick has already done it.  I also referred to this same video in another post a day or two ago.  Rick has often contributed to this blog.

Here is what Rick said in his email to me.

When you get out and practice with your detector you start finding what others have missed. Here are some of the finds (See video) that I had after hitting the local parks. I use the parks as practice and I will hit the same park many times changing settings on the detector every time that I hunt the same park!

You can't get any better at what you are doing if you don't practice what you are doing and what better way of doing it then hunting a local park or two. Now if you live by the beach, you need to go there at different times of the day to see where all of the activity is! One of the things that changing where to hunt is the new parking meters. Most are not using change, and let's face a fact, in south Fla. it cost a lot to park on the beach.  The only problem is that beach-goers are now paying for their parking by credit card.

So you are better off setting up for jewelry and hunting the beaches where you have a lot of beach goers that like to show off what they have in the way of jewelry! Do you have any beach bars where these kind love to hang out?

The main thing I want to repeat is "practice, practice, practice."  Trying different kinds of environments helps you learn more about detecting and your detecting too.  If you don't have the time to go where you really want to go, or you just want to practice, a local park (where they permit it) it just fine.  In a park you might have the challenge of surface trash.  You might learn how to overcome that.  You might have to worry more about target separation and target masking.  You can learn from that.  And even though you might not find the Queen's Jewels at your local park, if you keep at it long enough, I'll be you eventually get a pleasant surprise.

Here is Rick's YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZd6emKGasA&ytbChannel=Rick%20superrick

Thanks Rick!

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If you've been waiting for calm water and a good low tide, this might be your chance.  Take a look at this.  Just in time for the long weekend too.

Source: Magicseaweed.com.

Send me any thoughts or information you might have on Bart's medallion find.

4:31 PM Update:  I just received a lot of good information on the medallion from researcher and author Laura Strolia.  I'll post that tomorrow.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net