5/18/13 Report - Bust Half Found on Treasure Coast, Be Flexible, French Warships, & Tide Charts

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

Capped Bust Half

William M. found this nice Capped Bust Half.   It had a hard black crust that William cracked open.  When the crust fell off a very clear imprint of the coin was seen on the crust (See below.)

I showed a mercury dime that had a similar crust back a couple of weeks or so ago.  I found that crust was not dissolved by muriatic acid at all, but did crack open.

You don't find old coins like that on the beach very often.

Nice find William.

By the way, I haven't received any information on the bronze spikes I posted recently for William yet.  Any comments?

Pete L. said,   Very cool article this morning (Thurs.) with those spikes and staple! Looks like those tread marks on the staple would act like a barb on a fishing hook, to help keep the staple from backing out after it's in place!  I too would maybe throw them out but watching more and more relic hunting vids on Youtube I seem to like this stuff more and more!  

Thanks for the feedback.

Crust of Bust Half Showing Coin Imprint.

I like to make detectorists aware of a broad range of types of finds.   When you are out there it doesn't hurt to know about these things and understand that what you pass up can sometimes be more valuable than some of the things you might target. 

The more types of treasures you know about, the better chance you have of being successful.  And there is a great deal of satisfaction in being able to attach the proper significance to an item.  That additional information can also help you to make more finds. 

I've hunted a lot of different things and a lot of different types of places.  I like it all, and it helps to be flexible.  I don't care if I am at a fancy resort, out in the mountains, on a beach, in a park, or in the ocean.  It is all fun.  You can find something anywhere.  And the more you try different things, the more you'll learn.

I say this frequently, but here it is again.  When conditions are not right for finding one type of treasure, conditions will usually be right for finding another type of treasure.  If you are targeting one type of thing and conditions are not right for that, you might consider adapting and doing something else.

In this blog I've talked about things like old bottles, pot shards, stone tools, shell tools, sea glass, fossils etc. in addition to the types of things we more often target.  You can find all of those things on a beach.  And, of course, you can go off beach.

You can use the search box on the first display of this blog to go back through old posts on any of those subjects.

Ten 18th-century French warships are being studied off of Nova Scotia.  They were sunk during the second siege of Louisbourg in 1758.

Here is the link for more on that story.

http://www.ngnews.ca/News/Local/2013-05-09/article-3242211/Underwater-archeologists-helping-tell-story-of-Louisbourg-siege/1



I mentioned a few days ago that I was looking at the tide predictions.  Here is a web site that I found that I like.  Give it a try.

http://www.tides4fishing.com/us/florida-east-coast/vero-beach-ocean

The chart is nice.

I showed Vero as an example, but you can also select other areas along the coast.

When I decide which tide site I like the best I'll list it on the blog.


Beach detecting conditions remain unchanged on the Treasure Coast.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

1/26/2011 Report - Flint Pocket Pistol Found on Treasure Coast & Charles II Half Reales

Treasure Coast Beach Metal Detector Find by Mike H. in 2009.

Mike, who submitted the photo said, "...included is a picture of a very small flint model pocket pistol, the rivets are still visible. I found this near turtle crossing north of Vero Beach."

That is an interesting find. Mike coated the pistol with Rust-oleum Clear Coat to preserve it and that accounts for the shiny appearance in the photo.

That is one interesting find. Congratulations Mike!


Yesterday I posted pictures of stylized Charles and Philip monograms as they would appear on half reales form the 1715 Fleet.

The design for many half reales of the period included a date. Due to the small size and irregular shape of half reales, the date is often not found. There are other clues help you narrow down the date though.

On the Charles II Mexican half reales, if you can see anything to the left of the monogram, you might see the mint mark and assayers initial, which would be an O over an M over a G. The OM is the mint mark (Mexico) and the G is the assayer's initial.

Mexican Charles II Half Reale Found on 1715 Fleet Beach.

On this example, I think you can see most of the assayer's initial (G) to the left of the monogram. And perhaps the "R" inside the "C" of the monogram. From the examples I've seen, the left side of the "A" in the monogram is more slanted than what you see on the Lima and Potosi minted half reales, which would also have the last three digits of the year directly under the Charles monogram.

On the Charles II half reale that I showed yesterday you couldn't see to the left of the monogram and therefore couldn't see any of the mint mark or assayer's initial.

Anyone who studies cobs knows that it is a vast field. There are so many variations and minor details that can be significant.

For example, one thing that will help you distinguish between Lima and Potosi half reales is that on the Lima Charles II half reales the circle around the monogram is composed of more circular or round dots while those on the Potosi half reale of the same period is composed of more comma-shaped dots.

I like to learn what I can about dug cobs, but it is really a bit overwhelming.


A nine-year-old stopped his grandfather from throwing away a Neolithic axhead. The grandfather was throwing stones for the dog when the boy recognized the flint tool.

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/news/Scout-s-honour-Neolithic-discovery/article-3115412-detail/article.html

I'm sure that a lot of you have discarded very nice finds. I've done it myself. That is why I say to keep anything that might be questionable until you get a positive identification.

Forecast and Conditions.

The low tide this morning was lower than usual. I was able to search out further than usual but still couldn't dig up that one object I've been working on.

Although conditions are still poor for finding shipwreck coins, the low tide area might turn up some artifacts. I dug some iron objects that were obviously old, but encrusted and unidentifiable.

One area that was cut very nicely a couple of weeks ago and yielded a number of gold items as well as coins was cutting again, but was not back down to the productive layers yet. That could happen if the same area keeps eroding.

There are a lot of scalloped areas out there, but they are so high on the beach and in such sandy areas that I don't think you'll find them very productive.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/25/11 Report - King Philip and Charles Half Reale Cob Monograms

Charles II Cob Found by Metal Detector on Treasure Coast Beach.

Most of the cobs that I've found on the Treasure Coast have come from 1715 Fleet beaches. And most of those cobs have been Philip V cobs. But there are also a good number of Charles II cobs found on the 1715 Fleet beaches.

Charles II reigned from 1665 through 1700, and so those cobs are older than the Philip V cobs that were minted from 1700 up until they were loaded onto the ships. Of course there are also older cobs with the Philip monogram minted under the reigns of kings Philip III and IV.

You can easily identify the Philip half reales, which have the monograms featuring a big P and S. I recently posted a photo of a Mexican Philip V half reale that showed the obvious P and S on the monogram.


Stylized Philip Monogram Design.

The Philip monogram varies in a myriad of different details on different coins as different dies were produced under the different kings and at the different mints but they all show some very similar features.

The Charles II monogram features a big C and A, which I've found to be the most distinctive features of the monogram that appears on the Charles II half reales that I've found.

You usually can't see the entire monogram on most half reales, but you can usually see enough to easily distinguish between the Philip and Charles monograms.


Stylized Charles II Monogram.

Like the Philip cobs, Charles II monogrammed cobs differ in a variety of details. Although there are differences produced by the different dies, the Charles II monogram is usually easily identifiable.

In the photo of the Mexican minted Charles II half reale above, you can see the A overlapping the C. The S is not apparent at all.

After looking at a variety of these monograms you can learn to identify them easily even when very little of the monogram shows.

It is more difficult to identify which of the various King Philips a particular half reale was minted under. To do that you have to look at other details. Sometimes you can see the assayer's initial or other details that will indicate when the cob was minted. Sometimes, but much less often, you can find a date on a half reale.


On another subject - the ship's bell, belonging to a ship found off of St. Augustine during the summer of 2009,has not yet given up the name of the ship. Conservators are removing encrustation from the bell with the hope of finding a clue to the identity of the ship. While the bell hasn't spoken yet, there is still some hope that it will, as about one quarter of the bell is still encrusted.

Here is the link to that story.

http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-01-23/clues-ships-id-elusive


Forecast and Conditions.

The seas are up around four feet and the wind is out the southeast. I haven't been out but wouldn't expect much change. After today the seas will be decreasing and becoming very calm by the weekend.

If you are set on finding shipwreck treasures, your work is cut out for you. It won't be easy. Conditions just aren't that good.

As I've suggested, there are other things to hunt until conditions improve.

But if you are dead set on shipwreck treasures, I would be either trying something different, maybe hunting a land or other less commonly hunted site, or hitting the low tide zone.

View From SebastianInletCam.com



It looks like a little scalloping up there from what I can see from the web cam.

Looks to me to be pretty much the same as the beaches down south.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net