Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com
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| Lima 8-Escudo from 1715 Fleet Source: Current Sedwick Auction (See link below.) |
Sedwick Treasure Auction number 23 is proceeding and some items already have very nice bids. I like to see how much things are selling for. The escudo above already has a bid of over$15,000 and will undoubtedly sell for higher.
Auctions provide some of the best information you can find on coins and artifacts. You can learn a lot by browsing. I'm often surprised by how much someone will pay for some of the kinds of things that I've found. I simply didn't know the value and didn't appreciate the item as much as I should. I look through the auction listings, particularly the artifacts, and too often remember the similar item that I found and didn't appreciate or worse yet, didn't even bother to keep. That happened in the old days more. These days I seldom leave or throw away an item that is in any way questionable. I've learned to not throw anything away until I'm absolutely sure about it.
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Another thing that continues to surprise me is how much there is out there in the world to be found. It might not seem that way if you are narrowly focused on one particular type of target or keep hunting the same place all the time, but if you are interested in different kinds of things and are willing to look around at different kinds of places, there is always something interesting to be found. I like finding everything from fossils, to seaglass, to indigenous artifacts, to coins an bottles, and all of those things I've found on Treasure Coast beaches. But you don't have to stay on the beach. There are other places where all kinds of things can be found.
Over the years I've changed a lot. I've detailed how when I began I was focused on coins and tried to find as many coins as I could. Before long I changed my focus and began hunting gold jewelry. I then kept extensive records on that and worked hard to improve my jewelry finds. Next I moved to the Treasure Coast, and although I hunted old coins and artifacts occasionally before moving to the Treasure Coast, my focus changed again after moving there. More recently I had some back trouble and took on some other family responsibilities that kept me from hunting as frequently or as intensely as I once did. I'm embarrassed to admit that now I take the easy way much of the time. In the old days, and it doesn't seem that long ago, I'd spend a lot of time and work really hard. You might say I'd leave no stone or bolder unturned. That has changed. Now I am much more selective and know that I leave things that I could get if I was only willing or able. I now also have more interest in the story an object tells. That makes the precise location and context of the find more important. Now it seems I'm as interested in the story of the finds as much or more than the value of the finds. That might go along with moving from a time of life dominated by working to make a living to another time of life, and moving from a time of life in which I was trying to test and prove myself to a time of life in which that is over.
I just remembered what Popeye the sailorman said. He said, "I am what I am, and that's all that I am." That's what I found too.
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3.6 million-year-old footprints show that those early humans walked upright like modern humans.
... David Raichlen, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Arizona, has studied the Laetoli footprints and compared them to footprints made by human volunteers in laboratory settings. He examined footprints of individuals walking normally and also those walking with bent knees and bent hips. (Scientists who study locomotion use the acronym BKBH). The Laetoli footprints more closely match modern human footprints.
“Upright, humanlike bipedal walking goes back 4 to 5 million years,” Raichlen told The Washington Post in advance of a symposium on the evolution of human locomotion, which took place Sunday at the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego...
Click here for more of that article.
It was just a day or two ago while on one of my little walks along a beach strewn with glass shards that I was thinking about how fortunate it is that are eyes point the same direction as our feet, yet it would still have been nice if over the millions of years evolution (if you believe in that sort of thing) we would have been gifted with a set of eyes in the back of our head too. While the paranoid might really appreciate such an extra pair of eyes, I could imagine an actual survival for those in danger of being eaten by sneaky predators or clubbed over the head.
I always find humor in evolution.
It was just a day or two ago while on one of my little walks along a beach strewn with glass shards that I was thinking about how fortunate it is that are eyes point the same direction as our feet, yet it would still have been nice if over the millions of years evolution (if you believe in that sort of thing) we would have been gifted with a set of eyes in the back of our head too. While the paranoid might really appreciate such an extra pair of eyes, I could imagine an actual survival for those in danger of being eaten by sneaky predators or clubbed over the head.
I always find humor in evolution.
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I found this item a couple days ago. I don't know what it is and don't have any idea how old it is. Seems to be the same kind of clay they make flower pots out of.
Any ideas?
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It seems that a lot of people went back and looked at the older posts on how coins move. I remember most of my posts, but not all of them, and find myself often going back to check older posts. I don't remember everything I've talked about or that I've posted in the past and find the blog search box very handy.
The surf will continue to decrease a little every day until next week when there is supposed to be another increase in the surf.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
