6/22/18 Report - Mexico Minted Half Reales. Atocha on TV. Digging Woodstock.

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

Philip V Mexico Half Reale Beach Find.

Yesterday I was talking about a December 1, 1990 beach hunt at John Brooks, and I showed two cobs from that hunt.  Here are another found during the same hunt.

Mexico Half Reale Beach Find.

The one above looks like it might be a different type of Phillip monogram. 

And below is another.

Mexico Minted Half Reale Beach Find.

This one shows the left side of the P and the mint mark M.

Mexico Minted Half Reale Beach Find.

This one shows a good part of the cross and a castle in the upper left quadrant.

In the past few days I showed finds from two December hunts, one in 1989 and one in 1990, and the results were very similar.  Five half reales were found in one hunt, and four in the other.  Besides all being half reales, all were minted in Mexico.  I think all except one or two comes from the reign of Philip V.

The 1989 hunt I remember in great detail.  The 1990 hunt, I don't remember at all.  It was fortunate  that I labeled the finds and when and where they were found for the second hunt, otherwise I would have had no idea.

None of these cobs were cleaned and they look pretty much as they did when they were found nearly 30 years ago.  You probably noticed that some still had bits of shell attached.  I wish I had labeled the artifacts too.

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Maybe you saw National Geographic drain the ocean over the Atocha on the 18th.  If you missed it, here is the schedule for other airings.
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I noticed a coin I got in change the other day and it still had bits of shell attached to it, like many of the cobs I show.  It was obviously on the beach at one point.  I've often wondered how many millions of coins are returned to circulation by detectorist.  I have no idea, but you see obvious examples of cleaned coins in circulation all the time.  We save a lot of money for the U. S. by returning coins that would otherwise have to be replaced.

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Can you believe Woodstock is now an archaeological site?

Archaeologists scouring the grassy hillside famously trampled during the 1969 Woodstock music festival carefully sifted through the dirt from a time of peace, love, protest and good vibes.

Perhaps they would find an old peace symbol? Or a strand of hippie beads? Or Jimi Hendrix's guitar pick?

The five-day excavation did reveal some non-mind blowing artifacts: parts of old aluminum can pull tabs, bits of broken bottle glass. But the main mission of Binghamton University's Public Archaeology Facility was to help map out more exactly where The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker wowed the crowds 49 years ago...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://phys.org/news/2018-06-archaeologists-scour-woodstock-concert-field.html

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Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/6/17 Report - Valuable Reales With History and Provenance. Ribault Fleet Link.

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

Here is a four-reale that had an auction estimate of $1250 - 2000, but sold in the recent Sedwick auction receiving a bid of $14,000.

I highlight and discuss things that sold for a variety of reasons.  Usually they are exceptionally interesting.  You can also learn something about how things are valued by looking at those that did extremely well and those that did not do so well.

This example sold for way above the auction estimate.  As you can see, it was displayed extremely well.  It also had an interesting history and provenance.

Here is the Sedwick listing.

Mexico City, Mexico, cob 4 reales, Philip V, assayer not visible, extremely rare and popular provenance. 21-3/4" x 13-3/4". A typical 4R cob (toned, no corrosion) with off-center shield visible (mounted upside down) centered in its own niche below a drawing of a ship model and above its original certificate signed by Barry Clifford and other company officers, one of very, very few coins to have been released by Clifford (and not intended to be re-sold), and only the fourth we have seen, perhaps even more popular this year (2017) as it is the 300th anniversary of the sinking of the Whydah! Mounted in a matted picture frame with original Barry Clifford certificate #57501 and color picture of a ship. Recovered from: Whydah, sunk in 1717 off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

For a little background on the Whydah, Here is a paragraph from a good National Geographic article.  I think you might like reading the entire article.

The Whydah's story begins in London in 1715 when the hundred-foot [31-meter] three-master was launched as a slave ship under the command of Lawrence Prince. Named for the West African port of Ouidah (pronounced WIH-dah) in what is today Benin, the 300-ton [272-metric-ton] vessel was destined for the infamous "triangular trade" connecting England, Africa, and the West Indies. Carrying cloth, liquor, hand tools, and small arms from England, the Whydah's crew would buy and barter for up to 700 slaves in West Africa, then set out with them on three to four weeks of hellish transport to the Caribbean. Once there, the slaves were traded for gold, silver, sugar, indigo, and cinchona, the last being a source of quinine, all of which went back to England.

Here is the link.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/whydah/story.html

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Darrel S. is selling some things.  I'm not going to turn this blog into Craigslist or anything, but you might like looking at these 1715 Fleet cobs, each of which has a noteworthy history.

Photos submitted by Darrel S.

Here is what Darrel said about these reals.

4 Reale belonged to Kip Wagner and was displayed in museum that burned before relocating to McLarty.

Purchased a few from Steve Hodge who purchased a collection from a friend of Reale 8, and investor.

Asking at least $400 due to photos and paperwork showing these coins on display and from Kip's personal collection. Will be included with coin.

8 Reale not for sale. Was in National Geographic.

If you are interested in these coins or any of the iron items that Darrel has for sale (see 8/23/16 post) , you'll have to contact him yourself and deal with him directly.  He says he'll be down this way before long.

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After doing some more thinking about the mystery item that looked something like a belaying pin, I'm thinking it might be something else.  I had a few emails.  Some people thought it looked like maybe a break handle or something.  I'm sure there were a variety of types of handles that it could be. If it came from a ship, one type of handle would be a bilge pump handle.  I'm sure there were others.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts on it.

Thanks to all who have sent ideas.

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I know a few of you are very interested in Ribault's French fleet.  I think I've mentioned this before, but it might be helpful to some of you now.

Here is the link.

http://www.staugustinelighthouse.org/LAMP/Research/FrenchFleet/frenchfleet

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A front came through and the wind is from the west today.  No change in beach conditions.  The surf remains small.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/2/14 Report - PCGS Top 100 Modern Coins, Century of Gold & Silver Prices, National Geographic's 10 Fascinating Metal Detector Finds

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

Hundred Years of Gold and Silver Prices.
Source: http://www.macrotrends.net/1333/gold-and-silver-prices-100-year-historical-chart

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One of the pages provided by the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) web site, is a page showing what they consider to be the top one hundred modern era coins.

Here is the intro.   The modern coin era began in America in 1965, the first year the U.S. Mint produced copper-nickel "clad" coins as replacement for silver coins, ending an unbroken, 173 year tradition. For many collectors, this was the death-knell for collecting, as the coins would no longer have any intrinsic value and mintages would be huge. Collectors perceived the modern coinage as a vast desert of ultra-common, mundane, unattractive and boring coins. So without further adieu, here is the TOP 100 MODERN COINS.

http://www.pcgs.com/top100/details.aspx

While many of those are so rare there is very little hope of finding one, some are possible.  It is always good to be aware of coins that could be worth considerable more than face value. 

Really inspecting coin finds can add both fun and value to the hobby of metal detecting.

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Gold prices moved sharply lower Tuesday, giving back nearly half of the prior session’s gains and returning to below $1,200 an ounce.

Gold for February delivery dropped $18.70, or 1.5%, to end at $1,199.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange

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If you want to get the most out of your gold finds you need to sell at the best times.  The price of both gold and silver has varied widely over the last hundred years.  (See chart above.).  Silver has gone up and down pretty much along with gold and both have huge spikes that would be very difficult to time.

In the early eighties the Hunt brothers monopolized the silver market.  You can see on the chart how it peaked at over $110 per ounce and then plummeted to around $15 dollars an ounce.  Few people that ride an investment to a peak are able to sell while prices are still high.

Over the last few decades the price of gold has been a really wild ride.

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Here is National Geographics list of 10 fascinating metal detector finds.  You won't want to miss this.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/diggers/articles/10-fascinating-amateur-metal-detector-finds/

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It looks like we'll be having a somewhere around a four to six foot surf for a few days on the Treasure Coast.  The trouble is that the wind will be mostly out of the East.  I'm not expecting any real improvement in beach detecting conditions for a few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net