12/4/18 Report - A Pot of Gold Coins Found. A President Laid To Rest. More Lady Liberty Coins.

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

Cache of Gold Coins.

Source: See BBC.com link below. 

The rare cache was found - along with a single gold earring - in a bronze pot between stones in the side of a well.

The hoard of 24 coins appears to have been hidden by someone who hoped to retrieve it, but never returned.

Archaeologists say the owner may have died when the city's inhabitants were massacred by a Crusader army in 1101.

The discovery was made during an excavation and conservation project at the Caesarea World Heritage site...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46429990


Many caches are found during construction projects. I think I forgot to mention that when I listed ways they are often found.

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Yesterday the nation's attention was focused on a flag over a coffin in the rotunda of the Capital Building.  Despite the strong feelings, thoughts and memories of those who gathered around the coffin or watched it on TV, George Herbert Walker Bush was no longer there.  The spirit of  life was drawn to and illuminated by its mirror image.

It was mentioned that George Herbert Walked Bush went to war at 18 to serve his country.  I thought of the many thousands of young men who did the same, including those who died on foreign soil only a short time later; as well as those that came back to live long lives never speaking much of the matter again.

While my mind was with those who gathered at the Capital building yesterday, my mind was also drawn to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the many silent cemeteries around the country, as well as the families those silent nameless soldiers created, protected, supported and left behind.

Without at all lessening the honor and respect deserved by the former president, I thought of the nameless or forgotten men and women, who lived well, gave much, were perhaps unfairly judged, and lived honorably out of the public light doing the best the could where they were planted.

Every person is unique, but in some ways we are also the same.  All men begin their journey at a different place, and travel a different path, but end up at the same narrow gate.

May we seek and find understanding, judge as we would like to be judged, and respect and honor others to the best of our ability.

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Yesterday I posted some information about Lady Liberty as seen on our coins.  Warren D. sent me a couple examples along with the following message.

1781 Coin or Token

One I believe is a Gaelic (Irish) token which is copper and was given to Irish immigrants who came to North America probably Canada at the time.
It is dated 1781. I think it was given to them as a form of currency, I'm not sure if it truly was. It looks like lady liberty seated on one side and a sailing ship on the other side.

The other is a US large cent dated 1816.

1816 Large Cent.

Thanks Warren.

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There were over a thousand page views of this blog yesterday.

Last night I observed a lot of lightening in the distance over the ocean and this morning we got some rain.

The high tides are still fairly high.

The surf will be increasing later in the week, but only up to about two or three feet.  That won't help much.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/3/18 Report - Air Tests and Why To Use Them. Large Cent and Foreign Coin Finds.

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

ce

Two Large Cents.

In Florida you find a lot of foreign coins.  Here are a couple of British large pennies.  They are the same diameter as a US half dollar.

Two Large Cents.

As you can see, one is dated 1903 and the other, 1967. The 1903 has a heavy dark patina.

The 1903 might be worth a couple dollars since it is not in great condition, and the 1967 just a few cents.

I have found other large cents from the US and Canada.  It seems like it would make a nice start to a collection of large cents.  I like them better than a lot of other coins.

Hollywood Florida always produced a lot of Canadian coins.  The modern Canadian coins are pretty boring, in my opinion.

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Good Uses For Air Tests.

Before I begin with the proper uses, there are some ways that people commonly used air tests that should not be used.  Air tests do not necessarily provide a good measure of a metal detector's field performance, so they should NOT be used to determine the depth a buried object can be detected in the field or to determine which of two detectors will provide the best performance in the field.

Here are some good ways to use air tests.

- To learn the language of the metal detector.  Learn to recognize the different sounds and readings and what they mean.

- To learn how the metal detector responds to a wide variety of types of targets.  Learn to identify changes in the signal and readouts to different types of targets.   The choice of test targets is very important, and there should be a variety of the kinds of targets that are found in the field, including those that the detectorists really wants to find.  Use test targets that are the same or very similar to what you would most like to find and those that are likely to be the biggest obstacle.

- To learn how different modes and settings affect the detector's response to various targets.  For example, at what setting does the detector eliminate bottle caps and at what setting does the detector lose various good targets.  Settings like discrimination and sensitivity should be varied to observe how that affects the signal and readouts to a variety of targets.

To map areas of coil sensitivity.  Identify the area of maximum sensitivity and how much sensitivity decreases as you approach the edges of the coil.  Where under the coil is maximum depth obtained and how quickly does it decrease as you move out from that area.

I highly advise doing a lot of air testing.  Most people run out to the beach or where ever and hope to learn while detecting.  It's my opinion that spending more time learning to understand the metal detector would be time very well spent.

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There is still no storm activity in the Atlantic.  I'll bet that we get some storms before summer is over.

The surf is up a little to around two - three feet.  The wind is coming from the east/southeast.

Happy hunting@comcast.net
TreasureGuide

6/13/18 - How Shipwrecks From Penobscot Expedition of 1779 Found. Vintage Diet Soda Bottles and Carrier. 1917 Penny.

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

After spending considerable time scanning coins for errors, my eyes grew tired and I wanted something easier on the eyes, so I decided to go out and photograph some bottles.  Here are three types of vintage diet cola bottles - some filled- in a vintage cardboard carrier.

It isn't often that you find a surviving cardboard carrier or filled vintage bottles, but I had found these in an abandoned building years ago and put them aside.

Coca Cola produced TAB in 1963 to compete with Diet Pepsi.

Not often you find a full vintage bottle.  As you can see on the TAB bottle, it was a product of Coca Cola.

The Coca-Cola Company introduced Diet Coke in 1982 and this product has since been the principal competing product to Diet Pepsi.

Too bad the caps rusted.  Florida heat and humidity is hard on things.

A 1970s TV commercial spokesperson for TAB was a lady that later lived on Indian River Drive for a while.  If you are old enough you might remember those commericals.

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On July 24, 1779 the American naval and land forces--known collectively as the Penobscot Expedition--entered Penobscot Bay and laid siege to the British fort. However, just as victory appeared to be within their grasp, the Americans were forced into a disorganized retreat up the Penobscot River by a British relief squadron that arrived at the entrance to the bay approximately one month later. The British vessels rapidly overtook the fleeing American forces, causing the latter to abandon and scuttle most of their ships to prevent their capture.

During the mid-1990s, Brent Phinney, the owner of a sawmill and steel fabrication shop in Brewer, Maine, discovered the remains of a wooden shipwreck in shallow water immediately off the Brewer (eastern) side of the Penobscot River. Shortly thereafter, he discovered a scatter of colonial-era cannon and other artifacts in the river just offshore of downtown Bangor. In June of 1998 Phinney contacted Dr. Warren Riess, Research Associate Professor of History and Marine Sciences, University of Maine (Darling Marine Center), to assist in recovering artifacts from these and other archaeological sites. Riess in turn contacted the Naval Historical Center's Underwater Archaeology Branch. Naval Historical Center representatives then met with state officials in Augusta to discuss Phinney's discoveries. Among other things, the meeting addressed the shipwreck site's preservation and protection, as well as the removal of artifacts. The mutual interests of the Navy and the State of Maine and their overlapping responsibilities for the Navy's ship and aircraft wrecks in Maine waters was also discussed...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology/sites-and-projects/ship-wrecksites/penobscot-expedition-archaeological-project.html

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GoldNugget send a nice email that included the following.

Seems Impossible


During the 3-1/2 years of World War II that started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and ended with the surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945, "We the People of the U.S.A." produced the following:
            22 aircraft carriers
              8 battleships
            48 cruisers
          349 destroyers
          420 destroyer escorts
          203 submarines
            34 million tons of merchant ships
   100,000 fighter aircraft
     98,000 bombers
     24,000 transport aircraft
     58,000 training aircraft
     93,000 tanks
   257,000 artillery pieces
   105,000 mortars
3,000,000 machine guns and
2,500,000 military trucks

Thanks Gold Nugget.

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I'll be getting back to looking at some cobs someday soon, but first here is another cache coin.

George V Large Cnet Coin.

Reverse of Same Coin.

A lot of cache coins are in good shape.  This one probably grades Very Good to Fine.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/25/16 Report - A Lot of Beach Finds From GoldNugget. A Web Site For Identifying WW II and Aviation Finds. Restoration of LaBelle.

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

Really Nice Beach Finds.
Finds and photos by GoldNugget.

My 6/23/16 post provided a link to a North Carolina beach photo showing a beach as it appeared after the April storms.  The video was made by Gosports1, also known as GoldNugget. You might want to look at the post and video again to see the conditions that produced the coins and buttons shown today.

More Great Finds By GoldNugget.

Closer View of 1853 Half Dime by GoldNugget.

Button Find by GoldNugget

Besides coins and buttons, GoldNugget also found some other things.  Here are some shell casings he found at another beach.  50 caliber Browning shells show up regularly along much of the Florida East Coast, but I haven't seen many of them on the Treasure Coast for some time.

WWII Shell Casings Found by GoldNugget.

As most of you know, WW II training exercises were held along the Treasure Coast.

GoldNugget said,  "The imprint stamped on the brass casings are SL 43 and TW 45

As with most Old  Beach  Coins from the 1700-1800's it's hard to get a date,

One of the Large Cent was laying on top of the sand ( Note Eye Spy ).  This happens when the water pushes over the top sand level and will leave some coins on top. I have found a lot of coins like this. , Easier than finding shark teeth.

Three of the best coins were found from 8;00 PM until 12:00 AM - my 1st time Detecting the Beach after dark in over 20 years, not that I won't do it again if I can fill up my finds pouch.

Notice the fishing weights were the old round style.  I only found 2 that were pyramid shape with the leaders."

Thanks for sharing GoldNugget.  And congratulations on great finds.

I talked about shell casings in my 2/17/12 post and gave information telling what the marks mean on those types of casings mean.

The shells marked SL 43 were loaded by the St. Louis Ordnance Plant in 1943, and those marked TW 45 were loaded at the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant in Minneapolis in 1945.

Below is a web site that gives the markings for all of the ordnance plants as well as a lot of other interesting WW II information.  You might want to take a look at that link.

http://www.nebraskaaircrash.com/

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La Belle was one of four ships under the command of French explorer La Salle.  It sank into the muddy waters of the Gulf where it remained until archaeologists discovered it in Matagorda Bay, about 100 miles south-west of Houston.

It took 17 years to restore the La Belle, which left France on the orders of King Louis XIV in 1684 to establish a new colony.  The ship was full of cargo when it sank, including everything required to start a trading colony.  Cannons, three dozen long guns, swords, Jesuit rings, combs and clothing, glass bottles and beads, brass tins, casks and pewter plates were among the artifacts recovered.

Here is the link if you want to read more.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/21/la-belle-france-ship-restored-texas-colony

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Nothing new about Treasure Coast beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/25/15 Report - Great Beach Finds: Large Cents, Half Disme, Shield Nickels, Three Cent, and Reales.

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

If you saw the beach hunt video by Gold Nugget that I posted yesterday  you know what the beach was like where the coins shown today were found.  If you didn't see that, you might want to take a look.

Here is GoldNugget's first silver three cent find.  Very nice coin.

Congratualtions!

But that isn't all.  Below are some more of his old coin finds, including some reales.

These coins are shown after GoldNugget spend a couple of days cleaning them.

Beach Finds By GoldNugget.

Next are some shield nickels that he found.

Notice the holed large cent.  I think I'll probably be talking about "holed" coins more tomorrow.

Very impressive finds.  Congratulations to GoldNugget.

All of the coins appear to be worn and have suffered considerable corrosion.  They are also  all

The coins are a good sign that artifacts should be in the area too.  It appears to be an 18th Century site.  It would be fun to unravel the history of the place.

Once you locate a site like that you can hunt it over and over whenever the conditions are right.

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I received emails about the excellent web site link that I posted yesterday.  You'll find it listed on my blog as Wind, Swells, Waves.  I'll be using it a lot.

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On the Treasure Coast we'll be having a three foot surf for a couple of days and then next week up to four feet.

There is no tropical action to be concerned about right now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/18/14 Report - Which Is Most Important: Search Strategy or Detector Capabilities? How Beach Detecting Is Similar To Detecting In The Mountains. Crucifix & Large Cent.

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



1823 Large Cent Find

A few days ago I did a post about some views concerning metal detecting and metal detectors.  At the time I said I would talk more about strategies in the future.  I'll do that some today.  

Yesterday I told how I used an inexpensive metal detector in an old yard and in a woods and found a few wheat cents, an 1829 Large Cent, a brass relic and a ring in a few hours of detecting with a brand new detector that I had never used before. 

It is important to know your metal detector very well and metal detecting experience can be a big help. My previous experience with other metal detectors helped me quickly learn how to use the new detector fairly effectively.  I am still a relative novice when it comes to knowing this new detector.  It takes a while to learn all the ins and outs of any detector.

What helped me most, I believe, is my search strategy.  You might find it surprising that there is a lot about hunting a beach that can be directly applied to detecting a heavily wooded mountain.  Those two types of environments are very different, yet there are some commonalities when it comes to search strategies.

As you might know if you've been reading this blog very long, I do not put much emphasis on the detector I use.  I put more emphasis on search strategies than any thing else.  If you are in the wrong spot, your detector, no matter how good it is, can't do much for you.  I believe that the most important thing is to find the right spot to spend your time and avoid spending a lot of time in the wrong spots.  You can not do that with 100% accuracy, but it really makes a big difference if you spend your time in the most promising spots whether it is on a beach or a wooded wilderness.  Both present huge expanses that will be highly unproductive.

On a beach there is the wet sand area where the water comes and goes and sifts and sorts things.  On a beach, heavier items tend to get buried deeper in some areas and get uncovered in others.  There are also areas where things get covered or uncovered on a wooded hillside.

I like to eye-ball.  I've talked about that before.  To find old things by eye-balling, you have to find things that have been completely uncovered.  You have to find those areas where old things, instead of sinking, either remain on the surface or have been uncovered. 

Of course eye-balling is more difficult, because even if you find an area where things are being uncovered, a lot of items will still be under a layer of dust or under a little earth.   But if you do enough eye-balling to learn to find old things that way, you have probably learned to find and identify those good areas.  Eye-balling provides a good test of your ability to identify the most promising detecting spots.

On a beach, there are areas where the sand accumulates and older and heavier items are too deep to be detected.  In a woods, there isn't sand, but there are areas, usually flat areas or slight depressions, where leaves accumulate and the cover items quickly.  The soil quickly builds in those areas and old items are quickly buried.  Pull tabs and other similar light junk will stay in the top layers of humus or leaves just like light junk is often found in the top layers of accumulated sand.  There are a lot of similarities.

On the other hand, in the mountains there are streams and run-off areas on the hills where erosion occurs and where old items remain near the surface or are uncovered.  In the future I'll show you a very steep hillside where old things were found near the surface.  I'll do that as soon as I can ge my pictures transferred to this computer.  Right now the devices are not working.

I've given this analogy before.   I'd bet on an old Indian with a bow and arrow who knows how to track game and knows where game can be found over a city slicker with the best gun ever made.  Metal detecting is much like that.  I believe search skills are more important than detector capabilities.  That is one reason I showed what could be done with a relatively inexpensive detector.  It seems people tend to think they need a better detector if they aren't finding much.  In my opinion, that is seldom the biggest part of the problem.

Whether you are hunting a beach or a wooded mountain, there are good areas and poor areas for hunting and you can learn to find the good areas where old items will be near the surface.  I'll give more tips on that in the future.

If you learn to identify those good areas, you'll be able to find old things that do not require you to detect real deep and you won't have to dig big deep holes.  Talk about a time saver!


Here are two views of a broken crucifix from 17th Century Newfoundland believed to be a part of a rosary.  You can see extensive wear from rubbing, which suggests that it could be from a rosary.

Here is the link for more of that story and the source of the photos.

http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2014-07-10/article-3794329/17th-century-crucifix-unearthed-in-Ferryland/1

The Large Cent has a diameter of between 27mm and 29mm. The first official mintage of the large cent was in 1793.  Production continued until 1857, when it was replaced by the much smaller penny.

When I dug the one shown above it was covered with mud and when I first saw it, from the size I thought it might be a half dollar.  After rubbing off some mud, I saw the faint image on the front of the coin and knew it was from an older era.  I was eventually surprised to see One Cent shown on the other side.

All Large Cents were minted in Philadelphia.

People complained that they were too big for pocket change.

While Spanish shipwreck cobs will be much older than a Large Cent, for a US coin, it is one of the oldest US coins that you will find.

Treasure Coast beach conditions haven't changed yet.

Hopefully I'll get more find pictures uploaded soon.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/17/14 Report - Testing A Good Inexpensive New Detector On a Yard and In The Woods. 1829 Large Cent Found

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

1829 Large Cent Found By New Ace 250 Detector

I'm going to do something today that I never do.  I'm going to give you a review of a metal detector.  It is the Garrett Ace 250, which just out of the box was able to detect various types of old and new targets on its first three short outings.   I was surprised by one find in particular (See photo.).

The Garrett Ace 250 is an inexpensive but very adequate metal detector.  For the price, it is an excellent detector.   Selling for just a little over $200 as compared to something more like $1200 for an Excalibur, it offers excellent performance for the price.  Don't, however, confuse it with something like the Excalibur, which has a totally different purpose.  As I've discussed before, a detector should be selected based upon what you plan to do with it, where you are going to hunt, and what you want to find, etc.

The Ace 250 is not a submersible detector.  In fact you should not get the control box wet.  So if you think it might rain, be sure to carry a cover or something with you. 

It is very compact and light weight.

It is very easy to assemble.  It came with batteries and headphones.  I assembled the entire thing and had it working in probably less than fifteen minutes.  It might take slightly longer if it is your first detector.

After quickly taking it out of the box and putting it together, I did a couple quick air tests  on coins in the house.  Everything looked good.  Then to the outdoors.

I took a penny, nickel, dime and quarter, threw them on the ground with a small distance between.  I  ran my coin over them and got good audio and display responses.  Again, no problem.

If this is a first detector for you, spend a lot of time on this step.  Also take a nail, pull tab and bottle cap.  The more time you spend practicing the better off you will be.

I'd start in coin mode.



Ace 250  Display and Buttons

The detector has five different modes that are selected by push button.   They are coin, relics, custom, jewelry and all metals modes,

You'll short change yourself if you don't spend good time practicing with known targets, but I've talked about that a lot in the past.

After some time, place some test targets very close to each other and on top of each other, like a nail and a coin.  The goal is to really get to know your detector and how it sounds when you encounter things in the field.

The settings and adjustments on this detector are easy to select and use.

Within an hour of first opening the box, I found a wheat penny along with a handful of other newer coins with this detector.  I was working an old yard that had been lightly worked before.

The one thing that you might find disappointing if you are new to detecting is that target ID is not as simple as it sounds.  It has both a graphic display, which is well organized and effective, and audio tones to discriminate.

When you first read about target ID you might imagine that it is clear cut and simple.  Just wave the coil over an object and read the ID.   It is not quite that simple though.  Many targets will cause the meter to jump around.  A target might read pull tab then nickel and the pull tab again, for one example.

In this yard there were a lot of roofing nails,  The display usually jumped back and forth between quarter and iron on those.  After a while you know how they display.

It does take time to get to know things like that though.

When a coin was detected it usually gave a pretty consistent reading.   Some cases were more complicated though.  For example when multiple targets were on top of each other or close to each other.

On the first day using this inexpensive detector in the first hour of operation in the yard I found several regular coins, including a wheat penny.

The next day I took the detector out on an old path where I found a 1909 wheat penny and some other clad coins.  Then back to the yard for a little more hunting.  I switched from the Coin mode to the All Metals mode. 

If you know me, you might be surprised that it took me that long to go to All Metals mode, but I wanted to explore the Coin Mode, so played with that a while first.  After switching to All Metals mode, one more wheat penny and a nice brass relic popped up.  I'll show the relic some time.

Then the next day a couple of hours in the woods resulted in finds which included another wheat penny, a 1829 large cent and an old inexpensive ring.

You'd never believe where I found those.  It was a very steep hillside in the woods.  A lot of the time I was following a deer path.  There was no obvious reason to suspect those items were there.  Also found was the metal end of a shot gun shell and a bullet casing.  Those types of finds were expected.  I'll show a picture of that woods area maybe tomorrow.

You can use the various modes together too.   For example if you are hunting in All Metals mode and get a signal that you want to check in Coin mode, that is very easy.  Just hit the push button with your thumb to change modes. 

I would use All Metals Mode a lot and then switch modes when I want to double check a target.

That shows what you can do with a detector that costs not much more than two hundred dollars.  I thought it worked well.  Part of it was my search strategy.  I'll get into that more sometime too.

One feature that this detector has that is better than the high-end detectors that I use is how easy it is to change the modes and settings.  Just use your thumb of your hand holding the detector without letting go of the detector rod or using your other hand.  That is a feature that I'd really like to see on my high-end detectors.

To summarize, the Ace 250 worked well inland, and I'm sure it will work well in dry sand too, although I do not know how well the few exposed metal parts will stand up to constant salt spray without some extra protection.

One reason I did this review is that a lot of people ask what they should get for their first detector.  I'm not saying this is it, because as I've explained, it depends on a lot of factors, but in many cases this would be a good first detector.

I highly recommend this detector as a first detector, especially if you are going to hunt inland.  It is easy to use and effective.  It would also make a good back-up or special purpose detector.  I thought it was a great value at a low price.

I did not test it on the beach and suspect that it is better choice for hunting inland.  I suspect that it might function well in dry sand.  I don't know how it would do in wet sand. 


On the Treasure Coas the surf is still small, but the tides are unusually big now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net