9/24/16 Report - Very Neat 4-Reale. Scale Weight or Assay Sample. Thirty Gold Bars Hidden On Beach.

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

Interesting 4-Reale
Find and photo by Darrel Strickland

This is an old find by Darrell Strickland.  Darrell said, I sold the shaped 4 reale to Hugh Mitchell many tears, ago. Really hated selling a lot of my finds, but needed the money back then.

Thanks for sharing Darrell.

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This is one of those artifacts I've lived with for a while and still go back and forth on its identity.  Sometimes I'm pretty confident it is a scale weight.  There are other times that
 I think it is an assay sample.  Right now I'm about 80% on the side of scale weight.

Find and Photo by Author.

It is about the same shape as a silver ingot that I showed in my 12/7/12 post.  What reminded me of it, though, is the scale weight I posted the other day shown below.

Scale Weight Found At The Luna Settlement Shown a Couple of Days Ago In This Blog
Photo credit: University of West Florida

Two features that I noticed are the "X" which is stamped very much like the "1" on the other item, and the circular marking in the center.  If you look closely you can see what appears to be a wreathe in the center of the silver item.

While the markings for both items are similar in some ways, the shape is different.  The silver item is not shaped well for stacking, which I would think would be desirable for scale weights.

I also never saw another scale weight made of silver. Some say they just used what they had.

I don't think the silver item is Spanish either, and I don't know why it is stamped with a "1" when the weight is 10 grams.

Well, I still don't have a firm conclusion, and I might be living with that mystery as long as I live.

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Here is a story from 2014 that I missed at that time.

A gold-rush has started at a beach in Kent where a German artist buried £10,000 worth of bullion as part of an arts festival.

Michael Sailstorfer has hidden 30 24-carat gold bars on Folkestone's Outer Harbour beach.
More than 150 people started digging for gold when low tide exposed the beach. Organisers say prospectors can keep any bars they find.

The Folkestone Digs project is part of the town's triennial arts festival...

Here is the link.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-28967848

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Karl and Lisa are still hanging around.  There is a new disturbance over by Africa.  Maybe it will come this way.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/6/14 Report - 16th Century Cob Found on Treasure Coast. Reales, Emerald & Porcelain Found Too. Biggest Dino Ever.

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

Very Early Mexico Four-Reale Found Along Treasure Coast
Photos submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez

I showed a great escudo and a very interesting cluster of artifacts yesterday.  Today you'll see that that was only the beginning.  You might consider this post to be continuation of yesterday's.

The crew of the Capitana has been busy this year.  It has been a good season.  Here are some more photos of finds sent in by Captain Jonah Martinez.

This is a very early four-reale.

You can see the denomination over the waves between the Pillars of Hercules.



You can see the legend running across the coin reading "PLUS ULTRA," meaning something like "more beyond" and referring to the New World.

Same Mexico Four-Reale
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez

Here is the other side of the same cob.

It would have been minted prior to the Great Shield era, which began in 1572.

Notice the M mint mark to the left of the shield.

In my 8/28/14 post I showed another old Pillars and Waves cob that will be auctioned by Sedick this November.  That particular eight-reale could possibly be a million dollar cob.

The coin shown today is probably just a bit later.







Below is a real handful of treasure.   Looks like about sixteen or seventeen reales and a piece of K'hang Hsi porcelain.  It is spelled in a variety of ways.

You can occasionally find pieces of the K'hang Hsi porcelain on the beach.

 

Handfull of Treasure
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez.

I've talked about Kang Hsi porcelain in this blog a few times, for example in my 12/29/13 post.

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/search?q=Kang+Hsi

You can use the blog search box to find specific topics by keyword.

There was a fellow who found a entire stack of plates that were uncovered by a storm.  He didn't know what they were.  When he found out that they could have been K'hang Hsi porcelain from a sunken galleon, he returned to find them, but never did.   They could have been worth a fortune.

It helps if you read a lot so you know what to look for.

The variety of cobs you see here ranges from small half reales on up.

If you look close you can see details on a few.  Those look a lot like what you can find on some of our shipwreck beaches when the conditions are right.

An Emerald Found On The Treasure Coast
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez.

Here is one more thing to keep your eyes open for when walking down the beach.

There are treasures that aren't made of metal.
This emerald is one more example.  You have to use your eyes to find these.

Well, you've seen a good sample of the kinds of treasures that are still out there waiting to be found.  And things like this will be found from time to time, occasionally showing up on the beaches.

Thanks to the Captain for letting us see all of these.  Keep it up guys.



The remains of the largest land mammal has been discovered.  They think it would have weighed something like 65 tons, about what a Boeing 767 weighs.

Here is a link to that very good article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/09/04/this-is-the-kind-of-dinosaur-you-find-in-hollywood/


We still have a small surf on the Treasure Coast, but there are two disturbances to watch.  One is over North Florida and one is just coming off of Africa.


I'll have more new information on how coins and rings sink on a beach soon.  I made a little video of another experiment which shows what causes things to sink quickly.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net