3/11/20 Report - Some of The Oldest Coins Found On The Treasure Coast.

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

Maravedi Found by The Capitana Crew During The 2019 Season.

On 3/7 I posted a photo of a find by Terry S. and asked if it might be the oldest coin found on the Treasure Coast.  JamminJack sent me a photo of this maravedi found by the crew of the Capitana during the 2019 salvage season.

From my research it seems to match a maravedi pictured in Monedas Espanolas Desde Juana y Carlos A Isavel II 1504 a 1868 by Calico et al.  From that, it appears to be a four-maravedi from the mint of Santo Domingo and from the reign of Juana and Carlos and would also be early 16th century, like the coin found by Terry.

I should say that as far as I know, Terry's coin has not yet been authenticated, but if it is authentic and my match is correct, then both the maravedi and Terry's find seem to be from the same general time period.

Below is the other side of  the maravedi.

Other Side of Same Maravedi Found by The Capitana Crew During the 2019 Season.  

And below is a scan of an illustration of a similar four-maravedi from Santo Domingo shown in the Calico book. (Sorry about the lack of clarity of the scan.)

Four Maravedi from Santo Domigo Shown in Calico Reference.

But that isn't all.  JamminJack also sent me a photo of a very old coin which he described as "found on the Winter Beach camp site before development covered the site."  It is in his possession.

Photo of Holed Carlos y Juana Mexico One-Reale

Find and photo by JamminJack. 

This type of coin is also illustrated in the Calico et al reference book on page 30.

Here is the tag coin's tag.

Tag of Above One-Reale.

Submitted by JamminJack.

My reference book, like the tag, dates that coin to the early 16th century.

On 3/7 I asked if Terry's find might be the oldest coin found on the Treasure Coast.  Without being able to put an exact date on any of these coins, they do appear to be from the same period.  Two examples were shown today.  Each one could be the oldest of its type.   If not the oldest, they appear to be among the oldest.

I intended to check out the coins in the Florida collection too, but haven't done that yet.

Isn't it interesting that one of these old coins was found during the 2019 salvage season and then another in early 2020.  Just coincidence?   Or could there be some connection?  Maybe a hole or area containing older items was exposed.  I don't know.

There are always new and interesting questions.

I've been planning on talking more about the Winter Beach camp for some time now, but there has been a lot going on.  Maybe I'll get to it soon.


Thanks to the expert readers of this blog for helping me to bring you such interesting content.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1//6/2011 Report - Maravedi & More Wet Sand Hunting

Maravedi Found Around Corrigan's.

Yesterday I asked about the crown on the Jupiter half reale that I showed. Bill P. said it reminded him of the crown on a Maravedi which he found up around Corrigan's. Here is a photo of that cob.

I noticed that a tripod boat is working off of the FPL nuclear power plant outlet again. It had been at the Port of Fort Pierce for a good while.


The dredging operation has started at Jupiter. Take a look.

http://evsjupiter.netfirms.com/zoo001.jpg


I wanted to add to yesterdays discussion. I was talking about the sifting action that takes place in the wet sand areas. The more wave energy that hits the area, the more sifting there will be. Also the longer the force is expended, the more complete the sifting will be. If heavy wave action hits an area of the beach over a long period of time, items will be sifted more completely.

When items are sifted, density is one factor that will be determine where the oobjects will end up. Heavier items will be separated from lighter items. (Density and weight aren't the same. I'm simplifying a bit.)

Even in a very thoroughly sifted area you can sometimes find a mixture of types of items. One way that can happen is that after much of the sifting action has taken place, items can be dropped into the area. Or, different layers of sand and the items associated with that layer, can be deposited over another layer. As a result, you can have various layers on top of each other, each containing a different type of obect.

When you dig an item, notice what type of sand it is found in. You will often notice that items of a particular age are coming for one specific type and layer of sand.

If you have a nice coin hole one day, and if it is not cleaned out, the next day, a thin layer of new sand containing light materials such as aluminum can be deposited over the coin hole. If the new layer is thick enough, it can appear that the coin hole disappeared when in fact it is just a little deeper. If the new layer is not very thick, it can appear that two different types of items are coming from the same layer.

Learn to identify the different layers. They will often be apparent. I've seen quite a few different layers on the beaches lately. And the same layers can be found in the same relative position many miles apart.

Yesterday, I noticed that on more than one beach where the sand was piling up, there was a thin layer of brown course sand over a layer of shells, which was over another dense harder layer of sand. Each layer produced different types of materials.

I said that density is just one factor that determines how objects get distributed in the wet sand areas. Some of the other factors are the shape of the objects and surface of the object.

Some objects adhere to sand more than others. Objects that adhere to sand will often be deposited with less dense items. A corroded zinc penny with sand adhering to it, will often be found higher on the slope than zinc pennies that have not yet corroded.

Watch how objects move in the surf at the bottom of the beach. Some objects will roll easily and quickly move up and down the slope along with the surf. Some will tumble and some will hug the surface and resist being moved.

Well, I think I've rambled long enough on that topic.

I guess I'll mention one more thing. Sinkers often accumulate in the same places where heavy gold items accumulate. However on the Treasure Coast, and many other beaches. There is so much fishing that a lot of the sinkers are recent drops and won't be associated with accumulations of gold. But if you find accumulations of old sinkers, there is a good chance that you will also find a big old class ring in the same hole.

The heaviest class ring I ever found was found in a hole with about six sinkers of about the same weight out in the middle of nowhere.

That's it for today.



Forecast and Conditions.

It's a nice cloudy rainy day. A front went through last night and the wind is now out of the west. The seas are flat.

I like the clouds and rain, but if you still go detecting, watch out for lightning. I am hearing thunder even as I write.

Sometimes a local thunder shower will cause enough wind to cause some cuts when you would not otherwise expect it.

After today, the seas are predicted to increase again up to about three feet, which of course is usually not enough to change conditions significantly.

The thunder is increasing here and the wind is starting to blow pretty good. It actually looks like a real storm out there right now.

We can certainly use the rain.

I would rate the beach hunting conditions as poor right now.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net