10/2/15 Report - 16th Century Santo Domingo Maravedies Found. Memorial Brick Found. Joaquin To Move North.

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

Maravedies Photo
Submitted by Jonah Martinez.

Yesterday Jonah M. sent me this photo of a recent land find.

It is a 4-maravedies.  You can see the IIII indicating the denomination.

The big bifurcated Greek Y indicates Johanna.  To the left of that would be the assayer initial.

The other side (second photo) shows the Pillars of Hercules with an S mint mark to the left.  The mint is Santo Domingo.

This coin is copper.

After some study I would say it is of the second series, which was from 1542 - 1556.  That is one old coin.

Sewall Menzel, in his book Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins has a very good section on the Santo Domingo mint and a several full pages on the copper coins of that mint.

Thanks for sharing Jonah.



---

This brick was found two days ago on Douglas Beach.

Along with the photos I received the email posted below the photos.

I have asked some people who I thought might know more about the brick but was unable to learn more about it.


It appears to be a memorial.  If you know more about the brick or who it refers to, please let me know.

The brisk was not removed but treated with the respect due a memorial.

Below is the email from the person who found it.

Hello,

I am a huge fan of your blog, and have been for years - even when I was stuck living in South Florida, far from the Treasure Coast beaches.  

I found something at Douglas Beach yesterday that I thought you might be interested in seeing.  Attached are photos of an inscribed memorial brick that was clearly left behind to honor a treasure hunter or detectorist.  The ink is in good condition, so I wouldn't imagine that it's been there too long, but it still makes for an interesting discovery.  The front says "Dave, we love and miss you" and the obverse says "Where's the treasure ?!!?"  I thought you might immediately recognize the name.  If not, I figured you might want to share it on your blog just to let the family know that their memorial is safe, and was admired by at least one passerby.  I once carved a memorial inscription into a boulder to honor a fallen friend, and I always wonder if anyone gives it a second thought as they pass by. 

Please let me know if you end up with any information!

Thanks again for an amazing blog.

-Zack

Zack Jud, Ph.D.

Director of Education and Exhibits

Florida Oceanographic Society

---


Today the Treasure Coast is having something like a 3 - 5 foot surf.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be up another foot and then another foot Sunday.  That will take it up to around 5 - 7 feet.  That is a pretty big surf.  Yet, as you've seen lately a big surf and big waves are not enough.  It takes some good angles to create cuts.

Most of the Treasure Coast beaches are not cut.  I've looked at most of the main treasure beaches the past couple of days and I only found on stretch of about 100 yards with a significant cut.  I found that this morning.

I dug some modern stuff and a couple old things.  The iron pin below is about a foot and a half in length.

Iron Pin Dug This Morning.

Joaquin seems to be heading north.  Reportedly both North Carolina and Virginia Beach are getting a lot of erosion.

The windyty.com site is really useful.

I'd really like to hear from you if you have any information on the memorial brick.

That is it for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/1/15 Report - Beach Conditions Along The Treasure Coast. Artifacts Of A Deep-sea 1622 Navio. Artifacts of The HMS Erebus.

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

The main thing I want to do today is present a survey of Treasure Coast treasure beaches.

Douglas Beach This Morning.

Douglas was mushy and relatively formless.  Only a few small scallops or dips.

Weed On Douglas Beach

The reason I'm showing the weed is that you can see that there is an inch or so of new sand that recently washed over it.  Just one of those things you can notice that will give you an idea of what has been going on.

Turtle Trail This Morning

There were some scallops that had some depth to them.  There was also a cut, but it was in renourishment sand.  Actually the most promising place I saw this morning, even though it was still poor.

Seagrape Trail This Morning.

Notice the six foot cliff.  It is still renourishment sand.

Wabasso

Amber Sands.

I also looked at Rio Mar.  It wasn't worth taking another photo.  The waves were a good bit smaller this morning than they were a day or two ago.

I think you get the picture.  I might have missed some good spot somewhere, but overall beach conditions are still not good.  Definitely not enough to increase my treasure beach conditions rating.

At this point, I'm betting that we won't get any beach improvement from Joaquin.

The wind was coming from the west this morning and as Joaquin heads north,  As Joaquin moves north, the wind will be pulled over the state from the west.

It looks like North Carolina could get some good conditions as Joaquin heads up past there.

Well, that is disappointing.  As I've been saying for so long, it has been a long time since we have had good beach conditions.  It will change someday.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.

---

After another season of searching in the cold waters off Nunavut for the ships of the Franklin Expedition, HMS Terror remains elusive, but new photos released today show some of the 39 artifacts recovered during the latest search of the HMS Erebus wreck site...

Here is the link for the rest of that story.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/erebus-terror-artifacts-1.3244303

---

The Deep-Sea Tortugas Shipwreck, Florida: A Spanish-Operated Navio of the 1622 Tierra Firme Fleet. Part 2: the Artifacts by Greg Stemm and Ellen Gerth of Odyssey Marine Exploration, Tampa, Florida, USA.

You might want to take a look at that paper.  The link is below.

It examines a broad range of types of artifacts.  There are a lot of good photos.

http://www.shipwreck.net/pdf/OMEPapers27-2013.pdf

---

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net