Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Starting with the utilitarian category, how could this item [possibly be used? Could it be a type of washer meant to hold something in place?
Political? Maybe someone was showing their contempt for King George when they drove a nail through his likeness.
Superstition? Maybe it was mounted it for good luck or something. A little reading might turn up something like that.
Recreational? Maybe a spinner, top or toy of some sort.
What do you think? Any good ideas?
---
Today I'll go over the top-ten most-read posts of the year.  |
Coin With Nail Through It.
Photo by NumisRob clipped from CoinCommunity.com.
|
I saw this coin impaled by a nail posted by NumisRob on CoinCommunity.com. It was found by a metal detector in a farm field.
The coin is a 1920 UK Florin. It is 50% silver.
One of my recurrent topics is the difficulty of interpreting isolated finds. When you have an item and you don't know its purpose, here are four categories to consider - utilitarian, recreational, political, and superstition or religious.
I think archaeologists too often use the recreational and religious categories when they don't know what an item might be. I've seen many items called "game piece" when there is very little evidence to support that conclusion.
The coin is a 1920 UK Florin. It is 50% silver.
One of my recurrent topics is the difficulty of interpreting isolated finds. When you have an item and you don't know its purpose, here are four categories to consider - utilitarian, recreational, political, and superstition or religious.
I think archaeologists too often use the recreational and religious categories when they don't know what an item might be. I've seen many items called "game piece" when there is very little evidence to support that conclusion.
Starting with the utilitarian category, how could this item [possibly be used? Could it be a type of washer meant to hold something in place?
Political? Maybe someone was showing their contempt for King George when they drove a nail through his likeness.
Superstition? Maybe it was mounted it for good luck or something. A little reading might turn up something like that.
Recreational? Maybe a spinner, top or toy of some sort.
What do you think? Any good ideas?
---
The most read post of the year I mentioned the other day. It is the April report giving the names of Florida congressmen to contact regarding proposed legislation that was thought to restrict beach access in Florida.
The second most read post of the year was posted in April. It is about experimenting with your metal detector to get to know it better. In this experiment three different one-cent coins were used. The
reason for the different read-outs for the three different coins was discussed.
This was an instructional post, and I'm glad it was so well received.
2. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/03/31018-report-experimenting-to-learn.html
Third on the list is a January report about the Palm Beach beaches being severely eroded, and also about finding shipwrecks using Google Earth.
3. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/11218-report-palm-beach-beaches-low.html
Seven of the ten most read posts of the year were posted in January. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, beach conditions were better then, and people were detecting a lot, and good finds were being made. Earlier posts have an unfair advantage because people continue to read old posts as long as they are available, which makes it very difficult for newer posts to have as many readers.
The fourth most read post was posted on January 21. It showed the several shipwreck finds, including among other things, an ornate silver cross and reales.
4. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12118-report-ready-to-be-excited-first.html
The fifth most read post was posted on January 23. It showed another Spanish reale find and some reflection on metal detecting back a few decades ago when I was in South Florida.
5. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12218-report-another-2018-cob.html
Sixth was the January 11 post, which discussed one man's success with sifting for silver coins. It also presented some other finds, including a spike and old bottle.
The posts on sifting, including this one, provides some very good information on a alternative technique that can be extremely effective. There are times when it is more effective than metal detecting.
6. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/11118-report-finds-sight-and-otherwise.html
The seventh most read post of the year was another January post. This post reported on another very old looking silver cross and a modern gold chain.
7. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12818-report-mystery-object-and-other.html
Eighth was a post about what the beaches and detectorists were doing.
8. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12718-report-what-beaches-and.html
The ninth most read was about an unusual pendant that looked like it could be a reale with loop attached. Also s modern dive-watch find.
9. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12518-report-treasure-coinpendant-find.html
And rounding out the top ten most-read posts of 2018 was a post about one man's winning ways at the Treasure Coast Archaeological Society Annual Hunt.
To sum it up, it was a good year and good finds were made, but it was not one of the better years for beach detecting.
Many of the most interesting beach finds were made in January. As I've said before, January and February are often the best beach metal detecting months. October through March is generally much better than the other months. Good hunting can occur in any month, but we often get some of the best beach hunting in January and February.
For me personally, I didn't get to do much beach hunting at all this year. That was due to a variety of factors, but I did mange to come up with some nice cache finds.
As I said, most of the top posts were posted in January, both because the conditions were good then, but also because the early months have the advantage of being available to readers for a longer period of time.
It took me quite a while to look through the stats to determine the most read posts. Maybe some of those that did not show up in the list because they were posted late in the year will get more viewers in the future.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
