Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
 |
| Rat Tail Spoon Photo submitted by Dan B. |
Dan B. has been reading and researching while recovering from surgery. One of the things he learned is that his spoon (shown above) is called a "rat tail" spoon. You can see why. It is because of the supporting ridge that extends part way down the bowl. Dan says he has found mostly pewter examples.
The rat tail helps date the spoon. Here is a couple paragraphs from the Queen Anne's Revenge web site.
Of particular interest to us in dating our spoons is the evolution of the spoon during the second half of the 17th century. During this period, the bowl became wider and eventually the join of the bowl to the stem was reinforced with a spinal rib extending down the bowl. This feature is called a rat tail and can be seen not only on the backs of the spoons pictured here, but also clearly in the X-ray. (See original article.)
All four of the bowls we have at present have the rat tail. Though this detail helps us with a generic dating of the spoon, it is difficult to identify them more specifically as their handle is shortened or missing entirely. Furthermore, we have not determined if our spoons were shortened intentionally or broken before or during the wrecking of the QAR; however, this modification is a historically and archaeologically documented practice among sailors in the late 18th century. Why? So sailors’ personal spoons would more easily fit within their pockets. Could this be why we find so few spoons – they simply left the ship in the pockets of their respective pirate owners? Granted, its only one answer among many possibilities, but it does make one think how different shipboard life was 300 years ago.
Here is the link.
https://www.qaronline.org/blog/2019-04-03/artifact-month-pewter-spoon
The evolution of silverware is well documented, making it fairly easy to associate examples with a particular time period. Many items are much more difficult.
That is an interesting example of how shipboard culture results in discrepancies between finds from shipwreck sites and land sites. There are some interesting unanswered questions having to do with apparent discrepancies between submerged shipwreck finds and shipwreck beach finds.
There was a rat tail spoon from a 1798 wreck listed in the recently completed Sedwick auction with an estimate of between $500 - $700.
A silver fork from the 1715 Fleet was listed at a much lower estimate - $100. Tjhere have been quite a few of them found. They aren't much different from the spoons you use. Although forks started out with two tines, the one in the auction had four, which it seems became the most common.
---
 |
| Mystery Item. Photo and find by John E. |
John E. found this item Saturday.
It seems to show a trident over water.
In Ancient Greece, the trident was a symbol of abundance and that’s why it was depicted on coins and talismans to attract wealth. It symbolized the unlimited treasures of the sea.
John thought the item might be an earring.
It looks like an earring to me, except it looks like it would be very difficult to put in. That part just doesn't look right to me.
What do you think?
---
Jacksonville, Florida.
Eric Wagner said he was taking his boat from Delray, Florida, to New Jersey when he found the teens about two miles from shore...
That is a reminder to watch those rip tides.
---
I was looking at a Peace Dollar the other day. It wasn't struck very well. That is common with Peace Dollars. Most of them aren't worth a lot. A lot of peace dollars in average circulated condition aren't worth any more than nineteen or twenty dollars. I would have expected more appreciation. Peace Dollars were made from 1921 through 1935, so they are nearly a hundred years old.
As investments that doesn't seem very good. Due to inflation, a dollar in 1920 is equivalent to about $12.50 in today's money. So the majority of the gain in the value of your average condition Peace Dollar is mostly just inflation.
If you put a dollar in the bank and let it accumulate interest over the last hundred years, I think you'd have a lot more. I won't look it up right now, but you can if you want to.
Of course if your Peace Dollar was a rare example or in much better condition, the story could be different. In MS60or 60+ condition, the values are in the hundreds of dollars, and a 1934 S could be worth over a thousand dollars.
What I'm saying is that you can't just take any coin and put it away and expect it to be a good investment in the future. Like with so many things, rarity and condition are very important, and if you want to pick a good investment, it helps immensely if you can select those examples that have a good chance of appreciation.
The value of silver has dramatically changed over the past hundred years. If you are dealing with common silver coins in average or poor condition, the price will be affected a lot by the bullion value, which varies wildly.
Here is a hundred year chart for the price of silver.
That is amazing to me. The dollar value of silver has varied from down around $5 up to around $116 per ounce. If you decided to sell such coins at the peak when the Hunt brothers were manipulating the price of silver, you would have done well.
---
The surf will be only one to two feet for a couple of days, increasing some around Thursday.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
