6/14/17 Report - Mel Fisher Days Coming Soon. John Brown Bowie Knife. Gold or Silver. Tropical Disturbance.

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

You can take a tour of the conservaion lab for a small fee.

Here is a link for more information.

http://melfisherdays.melfisher.com/event-list-php/

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John Brown Bowie Knife
Source: See Sotheby's link below.

This knife sold for $22,500 in the Sotheby's auction held on 6/13.  Here is a bit from the auction listing.

[Brown, John]
A BOWIE KNIFE WITH A CONTEMPORARY ENGRAVED INSCRIPTION CLAIMING THAT IT WAS TAKEN BY BROWN FROM AN ATTEMPTED ASSASSIN

Coffin-handle Bowie knife, signed by maker joseph hawksley's celebrated, overall length 14 1/4 in. (330 mm), length of steel spear-point blade 9 5/8 in. (245 mm), nickel handle inlaid with mother of pearl. Accompanied by original brass-tipped gilt leather sheath; worn.,,

Nice artifact, but what made it so valuable?  The story.  It was John Brown's knife, and has inscription detailing more of its story.

If you don't know the story, you probably know the name.  John Brown had had a roll in a skirmish the led to the Civil War.

In 1859, Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry to start a liberation movement among the slaves.

A artifact is just an object unless there is a story that goes with it. A story is just a story unless it has heart.  A real story has meaning and depth; passion and emotion.

There is always a bit of a story that goes with a find.  Just listen to some one tell about when they found an item.  The story might not be a famous person or a historic event, like John Brown's knife, but there is a story nonetheless.  It is up to you, to discover and preserve the story, whatever it is.

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I've been informed by a good source that the conclusions below are wrong, but you might find it interesting anyhow.  The source of this excerpt is the McCauley source that listed yesterday or the day before.

I saw no gold ornaments. Gold, even gold money, does not seem to be considered of much value by the Seminole. He is a monometalist, and his precious metal is silver. I was told by a cattle dealer of an Indian who once gave him a twenty dollar gold piece for $17 in silver, although assured that the gold piece was worth more than the silver, and in my own intercourse with the Seminole I found them to manifest, with few exceptions, a decided preference for silver. I was told that the Seminole are peculiar in wishing to possess nothing that is not genuine of its apparent kind. Traders told me that, so far as the Indians know, they will buy of them only what is the best either of food or of material for wear or ornament.

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The rain is back.  We still have a one-foot surf on the Treasure Coast.  It looks like that will be the same for a few more days.

There was a tropical disturbance down by Mexico - one of the first of the new hurricane season.  It was no threat to us.

There is one new one coming off of Africa.

The water has been so calm that the water hunters should be making a few finds between thunder storms.

When I spent a lot of time in the water, I remember on more than one occasion being out when a rain started, and it appeared as though the rain actually tampered down the waves a little.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net