4/16/11 Report - Upcoming Auction and Fort Capron Treasure

Overhead View of Turtle Trail to Seagrape Trail From Google Earth.

You can see the two beach access in this picture, one very close to the top and the other very close to the bottom. That has been a very good stretch for shipwreck coins and artifacts over the years.


Here is the latest press release for the upcoming SedwickCoins auction.

Scheduled for April 26-28 (Tuesday-Thursday), in six sessions LIVE on the Internet, our Treasure and World Coin Auction #9 is ready for viewing online (click here). You can also view the lots, register and start bidding at www.iCollector.com/sedwick. Note you will need to register for this auction even if you already have an iCollector profile and bid with us in the past. The first 30 bidders to register and place bids online at www.iCollector.com/sedwick will receive a FREE collector's edition disk of all of our auction catalogs to date (#1-9)!

For those who missed the lot viewing at the Whitman Baltimore Coin & Currency Expo we will be showing all the coin lots again at the Chicago International Coin Fair (CICF), April 14-17. In addition, all lots will be available for private viewing at our office in Winter Park, Florida by appointment only.

Printed catalogs (424 pages, full color) will be available starting Monday, April 4. If you are not a prior bidder or on our mailing list already, please click the button on our website to order the catalog.

Treasure and World Coin Auction #9 is perhaps our most well-balanced world coin auction so far, with interesting offerings from all the regions of the world, as well as significant sections of ancient, medals and tokens, and even paper money. Once again there is something for everyone.

The highlight of this auction is The Dr. Frank Sedwick Collection of Colombian Republic Gold Coins. Dr. Sedwick (father of Daniel Frank Sedwick) wrote the first definitive book on the complex Colombian Republic gold series (The Gold Coinage of Gran Colombia [1991], available upon request for this auction only at the special price of $10) as an outgrowth of two decades of collecting the coins. Along the way he gathered several of the most important coins in the series, some of which are appearing at auction here for the first time ever. In addition to the rarities, Dr. Sedwick's collection features dozens of coins that are the finest known graded by NGC, and each coin in the collection has been encapsulated by NGC with the pedigree stated inside the slab. There has never been an offering of Colombian Republic gold coins like this before, and we have already been told this sale will be THE reference for the future.

But let's not overlook all the other important "treasure" items in this sale, including several "Hearts" and "Royals," a Cuzco 1 escudo cob 1698, a Brazilian 12800 reis (dobra) 1730-M, a Chilean 2 escudos 1758, and a Cuban proof peso 1915. There are also significant selections of US gold coins from the "Fort Capron treasure" of 1857, several large silver bars and emeralds and over 230 coins from the Atocha (1622), over 130 1715-Fleet cobs from the State of Florida collection (Bamberg division), a collection of more than 40 dated Mexican cob 8 reales, and dozens of top-quality Lima cob 2 reales. Rounding out the auction are significant offerings of general world coins (including ancients), artifacts (including fossils), documents and books (both antiquarian and modern).

email: info@sedwickcoins.com
web: www.sedwickcoins.com
telephone: 407.975.3325


The catalog is a good resource for simply browsing treasure items.

You might remember that I did a few posts on the Fort Capron Treasure. If you missed that, you can look it up in this blog by using the search box. Just enter "Fort Capron."

And here is a good article on that find of gold coins which was made just north of the Wedge Wreck area near the old Fort Pierce inlet.

http://www.sedwickcoins.com/treasureauction9/ashley-gordy.htm

That is a really cool local treasure story. I once read that they made the initial find when they were hunting lobsters. I don't know if that is true. Their accounts got a little messy.

As you might have noticed, some of those coins can be found in the auction catalog.



Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

The platform boat moved off of the Power Plant site a few days ago. It was in port for a while and then I think I saw it going south.

The recent rains uncovered some old items along the Treasure Coast, including some Ice Age fossils that I eye-balled yesterday. Wind or rain is often enough to uncover some old things on a beach. Of course they normally have to be close to the surface, but not always. Sometimes rain will cause bits of the cliffs in the back dunes to fall in, and that can release old things, and sometimes some of the cliff falls in when it gets dry. But sometimes rain or wind is all you need to blow the sand off of surface items laying anywhere on the beach.

Otherwise not much has changed. We still have some very sandy beaches, mostly building, and some beaches where renourishment continues.

Shipwreck items on the beach will be harder to find than hens teeth. Use your head, scout around some different places, and try some different things.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/11/11 Report - Fort Capron Treasure Coins

Half Reale From Cabin Wreck Being Sold on EBay.

This half-real was found on the Cabin Wreck site and is now listed for sale on eBay. It is a good example of a Treasure Coast cob find.

The current bid is less than $6.00 and it has a reserve that I would guess is way above that.

Here is the link.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1715-Treasure-Fleet-1-2-Reale-Coin-/250785032487?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a63f3e927

Notice the P mint mark to the left of the Philip monogram.


Did you know that ancient Chinese items are bringing in very high prices these days. It seems that rich Chinese were bit by the collecting bug and are trying to bring Chinese antiquities back to China.

Kovels Komments reports, A cardboard box with six pieces of antique Chinese jade inside was stored in a Florida home's closet for over 30 years. Manor Auctions of Tallahassee recognized the value of the jade collection and offered to auction it. The owners took the jade to others who offered to buy it for $2,000. Manor Auctions offered to buy it for more but recommended that the collection be sold at auction. Good advice. A censer (it is used to burn incense) auctioned for $18,000, a jade teapot for $12,420, a ram for $6,210, and a white jade ship for $57,500. Interested Chinese buyers paid a total of almost $100,000 for the family treasures.


Yesterday I posted a press release from Sedwick Coins that mentioned that coins from the Fort Capron treasure would be sold in the next Sedwick Coins auction. The loss of the payroll is reported in a 10 page article by Carl Clausen in The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 1. You might be able to get the full article through the library.

You can see the first page and some good information on the loss through the following link.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/30147407

If you noticed, the article said the fort was opposite the inlet. That is not now the case, because the old inlet is closed and the new Fort Pierce inlet is south of the old inlet.

The above article also refers to silver coins in the first paragraph, but in 1965
two local young boys diving for lobster found a number of gold coins that were thought to be part of the payroll that was lost in 1857. It seems that treasure stories always have some contradictions or missing details.

I'm eager to see the Fort Capron treasure coins that Sedwick has listed in the next auction.

Reminds me of Fort Lauderdale. The old fort was near the old inlet there, which is now closed, and the new inlet is south of where the old inlet was.


Forecast and Conditions.

The wind is out of the northwest this morning. The air is a little cool. It's nice.

The seas are still running three to four feet. I saw no cuts or erosion or anything else that would suggest an improvement in beach conditions.

I was finding copper sheeting in shell piles. One was a nice size and had a couple nail holes in it. Some other metal was also found in shell piles.

I never expect to find cobs in shell piles, but when the shells are large and there are stones in the shell piles, you can often find some neat junk or artifacts there.
Also keep your eyes open for fossils, shards, and Indian points.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/10/11 Report - Fort Capron & Upcoming Sedwick Coins Auction

Map Showing Location of Fort Capron.

You'll find Fort Capron mentioned below so I thought I'd show you where it was.

Some guys from South Florida detected around that site a number of years ago and found some nice Seminole Indian artifacts.

I'll probably comment on the treasure of Fort Capron in the future.

Here is a link for more information.

http://search.aol.com/aol/afe?query=http%3A%2F%2Fo.aolcdn.com%2Fos%2Fwindoid%2Fcwindoid_2010.html&s_it=DNSERROR


As you may have noticed, I added a survey to the main page of this blog. I haven't used this feature before and am experimenting while collecting data. This particular survey asks what your favorite detector is. You can make your choice and then view the results as votes accumulate. The survey will run a few days and then I'll report of the final tally.

Results after less than a day shows Minelab to be the favorite, but I'm sure there will be a lot more votes coming in, so that might change.

In the future I will conduct surveys on other questions such as what an item might be, or I might ask about reader finds. I'm sure there are other questions that will come up that I haven't even thought of yet.

It will be interesting to learn more about the readers of this blog and what they think. It will also give you chance to weigh in on different issues.

The data will be more meaningful when if a lot of people participate.


The most recent Kovels Komments had a lot of information that I wanted to pass along today.

They gave one example of how experts make mistakes too. They told how an Antiques Roadshow expert was fooled by a fake stock ticker. There are a lot of fakes of every sort out there.

Did you know that it is a crime to sell eagle feathers, some tortoise shells, and body parts of any endangered species even if they are just part of the decoration of another antique item. And firearms, swords, liquor and other things can't be sold in some states without a license.

Kovels Komments reports that an antiques dealer in Massachusetts was sentenced last week to almost three years in prison for selling sperm whale teeth and narwhal tusks. The whale parts were imported between 2001 and 2004,.

You'll often see bones from sea turtles along the Treasure Coast. Seme people don't know what they are and take them, but it is a crime to even possess sea turtle parts.

I don't think you'll get in trouble if you happen to have a bone or two that you picked up not knowing what you had, but it is illegal.


I just received this press release from Sedwick Coins. I'll just post the entire document.

SEDWICK COLLECTION OF COLOMBIAN GOLD TO BE SOLD

Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC announces their Treasure and World Coin Auction #9, to be held live on the Internet April 26-28, 2011. Individual highlights include several “Hearts” and “Royals” (presentation-issue cobs) from the Mexico, Lima and Potosí mints (dated in the 1600s and 1700s), a Cuzco 1 escudo cob 1698, a Brazil 12800 reis 1730-M, a Chile 2 escudos 1758, and a Cuban proof peso 1915. But most of the trophies in this auction are contained in a single collection of 233 pieces: the Dr. Frank Sedwick collection of Colombian Republic gold coins.

“I have been looking forward to this for years,” says Daniel Sedwick, son of the late Dr. Frank Sedwick and principal of the auction firm. “Selling your own family’s collection presents pressures beyond the norm. The ability to delve into pedigrees and utilize the collector’s personal notes compels us to put out a catalog that will be a reference for well into the future.”

Dr. Sedwick wrote the first definitive book on the complex Colombian Republic gold series (The Gold Coinage of Gran Colombia [1991]) as an outgrowth of two decades of collecting the coins. Along the way he gathered some of the most important coins in the series, all of which will be offered in this auction, including:
• Popayán 8 escudos 1838UR, XF-45, unique, estimated at $15,000.
• Bogotá 20 pesos 1859, AU-50, famous single-year, largest coin of the Confederación Granadina and one of about six known, estimated at $7500.
• Medellín 5 pesos 1863-M, MS-62, estimated at $10,000.
• Full set of Medellín 2-5-10 pesos 1885/74 and 1886/74, sold in individual lots but the only known set in existence, total estimate of $20,000.

In addition to many other rarities, Frank’s collection contains dozens of examples that are the finest known graded by NGC. Each coin in the collection is encapsulated by NGC with the pedigree stated inside the slab.

“But treasure coins are still the biggest part of the auction,” says Sedwick’s assistant Agustín “Augi” Garcia, pointing to a selection of US gold coins from the “Fort Capron treasure” of 1857, several large silver bars and emeralds and over 230 coins from the Atocha (1622), over 130 1715-Fleet cobs from the State of Florida collection (Bamberg division), a collection of more than 40 dated Mexican cob 8 reales, and dozens of top-quality Lima cob 2 reales. Rounding out the auction are significant offerings of general world coins (including ancients), artifacts (including fossils), documents and books (both antiquarian and modern).

Coin lot viewing will take place at Sedwick’s booth at both the Baltimore Coin and Currency Convention (March 31-April 3) and the Chicago International Coin Fair (April 14-17). Catalogs for Sedwick’s Treasure and World Coin Auction #9 will be available around the end of March. For up-to-date information, go to Sedwick’s website at www.sedwickcoins.com.

For registration on iCollector go to: www.iCollector.com/sedwick

To order the catalog send an email: auction@sedwickcoins.com

There will be a lot of good coins and things for study in that auction.


Forecast and Conditions.

Treasure Coast treasure beach detecting conditions remain poor. And it doesn't look like that will change real soon. The wind is now out of the west and relatively calm seas are predicted for the next several days.

Water levels are way down on our rivers and lakes. That is something to consider.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcastnet