Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Erosion Photo by Gaylen C. |
You might remember Gaylen's find that looked something like a Marlinespike or maybe an engraving tool. Galen sent a message and some photos from his hunt yesterday. Here is what he had to say.
Went back to the same area as my relic find. Found another nail or spike, but it may prove to be fairly modern. Lots of signals. Picked up a few things. The dunes look like this from the south jetty for a long way and then gets a little more slope. High tide was within a foot or so of dune. Really undercut in some places, with lots of sand falling to the foot. Several different layers showing. The piece I got was among larger rocks at the base.
The following photo shows how high the cliff is and the various layers. Note the rocks at the bottom of the cliff.
Thanks for the report and photos Gaylen.
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Brain M. sent the following Ole Timer Talk.
Here is a quick little treasure story that happened to an old friend of mine 20 + years ago on the treasure coast. He was out metal detecting after a storm . Big cut on the beach and if I remember correctly it was at night. He noticed something that stood out as strange. There partially exposed in the wall of the cut was a stack of dishes. He told me when he saw it he figured that someone had a pic-nick back in the 1930’s and must have left them on the beach. He didn’t mess with them he was looking for coins and metal. Days later he was talking to another treasure hunter and was told of Chinese porcelain dishes were cargo. I don’t remember what dynasty he said it was from. He told me they looked like they were stacked and the crate must have rotted away and left the stack of dishes in the wall of the cut. From what he told me they were worth a fortune had he only known what he was looking at. When he went back the sand was in and the cut was gone. We wonder if they are still there waiting to be found intact or did the incoming sand and surf knock them out and smash them to bits.
We most likely will never know.
Thanks Brian.
A stack of well preserved Kang Hsi porcelain would indeed be worth a lot.
I've been very much surprised by how often I already know something about these accounts that go back twenty years or more or the people involved.
I knew the fellow who found the eight escudo in Clint's account, for example, and I also heard about these plates. I don't remember now when or where I heard about the plates, but I think I might have even posted something about them in this blog years ago.
The lesson Brian's account provides is that you should get to know as much as you can about various types of treasure so you will recognize them and their possible significance when you see them in the field. There have been a lot of times when I failed to recognize something good. I regret some of those failures to this day.
One example that came to mind yesterday was the time when I was on Pigeon Island at a battle site from right around 1800 when I dug a rusted twisted piece of metal that I later realized was the hammer from a flintlock. Right beside that piece was a squared piece of flint. I can see it in my mind's eye today. I was hanging on the side of a steep cliff, with an old Tesoro detector, which I fitted out with a short board as a rod stem. ( The short stem helped since the face of the cliff was right in front of my face.) I was using a screw driver as a dig tool.
I didn't pay much attention to either the rusted metal item or the flint when I dug them. I wish I had realized their significance and kept them. If I found the same items today, I know I would have kept them, and better realizing their significance, I also would have hunted the immediate area more thoroughly to find other pieces of the musket or other items.
It is easy to get so focused on coins or some other particular kind of target that you miss other types of items that can actually be more valuable, not to mention being significant clues.
Those dishes, as Brian pointed out, could have been worth a lot, but they were ignored because of a lack of that realization. They could have also been a clue that other good things might have been buried in the area.
I didn't know what my first fossil find was, but I kept it. I just kept it out of curiosity. I didn't find out what it was until probably at least ten years later. I undoubtedly passed up other fossil finds before that one, not knowing what they were.
I also failed to recognize the first enameled ring I found from a 1715 Fleet wreck site. I thought it was modern because I incorrectly thought that enameling was a modern process. Even though it was gold and very attractive, I didn't pay very much attention to it when I dug it. I just slipped it into my pocket not thinking much of it because I was targeting shipwreck items. How wrong I was!
Enameling is actually a very old process. In fact it is believed to go back to at least the 13th century BC. (See https://www.ganoksin.com/article/earliest-cloisonne-enamels/)
I used to hear people say that if something is plated, it is not hundreds of years old because plating is a fairly modern process. That might be true of some types of plating, but gold and silver gilding is a very old process.
I think you get the point. Knowing something about a wide variety of types of objects can be very helpful. The failure to recognize items you see in the field can be a big mistake.
I'm sure I sometimes talk about items that a lot of people are not interested in. You might not have any interest in iron artifacts, for example, but those rusted old items might provide important clues to a site and other types of treasure. They might also hold more economic value than you think.
You might not be interested in sea glass, but a piece of black glass washed up on a beach might be a good clue to the presence of other historic items nearby. If you do a lot of reading, you might be better prepared to recognize various kinds of treasure when you see them and be better able to interpret what the item is telling you about the site.
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We're going to be getting a cold front. The wind will be coming from the north for a couple of days, but the surf will be small. The tides are pretty good yet.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
A stack of well preserved Kang Hsi porcelain would indeed be worth a lot.
I've been very much surprised by how often I already know something about these accounts that go back twenty years or more or the people involved.
I knew the fellow who found the eight escudo in Clint's account, for example, and I also heard about these plates. I don't remember now when or where I heard about the plates, but I think I might have even posted something about them in this blog years ago.
The lesson Brian's account provides is that you should get to know as much as you can about various types of treasure so you will recognize them and their possible significance when you see them in the field. There have been a lot of times when I failed to recognize something good. I regret some of those failures to this day.
One example that came to mind yesterday was the time when I was on Pigeon Island at a battle site from right around 1800 when I dug a rusted twisted piece of metal that I later realized was the hammer from a flintlock. Right beside that piece was a squared piece of flint. I can see it in my mind's eye today. I was hanging on the side of a steep cliff, with an old Tesoro detector, which I fitted out with a short board as a rod stem. ( The short stem helped since the face of the cliff was right in front of my face.) I was using a screw driver as a dig tool.
I didn't pay much attention to either the rusted metal item or the flint when I dug them. I wish I had realized their significance and kept them. If I found the same items today, I know I would have kept them, and better realizing their significance, I also would have hunted the immediate area more thoroughly to find other pieces of the musket or other items.
It is easy to get so focused on coins or some other particular kind of target that you miss other types of items that can actually be more valuable, not to mention being significant clues.
Those dishes, as Brian pointed out, could have been worth a lot, but they were ignored because of a lack of that realization. They could have also been a clue that other good things might have been buried in the area.
I didn't know what my first fossil find was, but I kept it. I just kept it out of curiosity. I didn't find out what it was until probably at least ten years later. I undoubtedly passed up other fossil finds before that one, not knowing what they were.
I also failed to recognize the first enameled ring I found from a 1715 Fleet wreck site. I thought it was modern because I incorrectly thought that enameling was a modern process. Even though it was gold and very attractive, I didn't pay very much attention to it when I dug it. I just slipped it into my pocket not thinking much of it because I was targeting shipwreck items. How wrong I was!
Enameling is actually a very old process. In fact it is believed to go back to at least the 13th century BC. (See https://www.ganoksin.com/article/earliest-cloisonne-enamels/)
I used to hear people say that if something is plated, it is not hundreds of years old because plating is a fairly modern process. That might be true of some types of plating, but gold and silver gilding is a very old process.
I think you get the point. Knowing something about a wide variety of types of objects can be very helpful. The failure to recognize items you see in the field can be a big mistake.
I'm sure I sometimes talk about items that a lot of people are not interested in. You might not have any interest in iron artifacts, for example, but those rusted old items might provide important clues to a site and other types of treasure. They might also hold more economic value than you think.
You might not be interested in sea glass, but a piece of black glass washed up on a beach might be a good clue to the presence of other historic items nearby. If you do a lot of reading, you might be better prepared to recognize various kinds of treasure when you see them and be better able to interpret what the item is telling you about the site.
---
We're going to be getting a cold front. The wind will be coming from the north for a couple of days, but the surf will be small. The tides are pretty good yet.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
