5/29/20 Report - Valuable Imitation Cobs Versus Modern Fakes or Copies. Beach Conditions On The Treasure Coast.

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

John Brooks Early Friday Morning.

We are into summer conditions now and the beaches are sandy.  Hurricane season begins Monday.

Walton Rocks Friday Morning.

This time of years there are other things to deal with in addition to the sandy beaches, especially if you go out in the morning after rain.  You might want to think of the insects.  

This morning I wasn't bothered by the noseeums or sand flies or whatever you call them, but at some locations the mosquitos were very heavy.  Insect repellant might be a good idea.

Walton Rocks Friday Morning.

There was a little chop and both the beach and shallow water was sandy.

Frederick Douglass Friday Morning.

Frederick Douglass Friday Morning.

As you can see, these beaches didn't look very good.

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One thing I noticed in Sedwick's treasure auction yesterday was a number of  "imitation" cobs.

You can use a lot of different words in addition to imitation, such as fake, counterfeit, or copy,  and you might think of all of them as being worthless, but that is not necessarily the case.

There were several good examples that sold for good prices.

For example, there was a Cartagena copper imitation 2-reales that sold for $6,545, including the buyer's premium.  Here it is.

I don't know what you'd think of it if you dug it up, but I suspect that you could think it is junk.  It really doesn't look very good.  

Here is another "imitation."  It looks very strange.   You might suspect right away that it is a fake, but it sold for over a thousand dollars.

Below is another imitation.  If you've seen many 1715 cobs, I think this one would immediately strike you as strange and probably fake.  But it is old, like the other two above, and was dated to the early 1800s.

And below is one more "imitation."

It looks strange too, but perhaps not as strange as some of the others.  It also dates to the early 1800s.

I've done posts on fakes, copies and counterfeits before.  There are different kinds.  Some are not meant to deceive.  They might be souvenirs.

Modern fakes should be stamped "COPY" but they are not always properly marked.  Sometimes they are marked but the mark can be removed or hidden.  I had one that was marked, but it wasn't easy to find the mark.

Here is one marked "COPY" I dug up down at Jensen Beach a few years ago.  It is a modern fake that isn't worth anything.

Fake Cob Marked "COPY."

Many fakes are often made of the wrong metal, as is the one above.  Fake escudos are often plated.

There were a lot of interesting curiosities in that particular session of the auction.   I never buy treasure coins or artifacts, but study the auctions.  You'll see more good examples in the Sedwick auctions than you'll likely see anywhere else, including museums.

One thing I say time and time again, is don't be too hasty.  It can take a quite a while to figure out the real story of a find.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/5/18 Report - Big Surf But Not Much Erosion Around the Treasure Coast. Mystery Find.

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

Mystery Object
Find and photo by Scott B.

Here is what Scott said about this find.

I attached a picture of a brass ( maybe bronze?) item I found in some woods near my house in Fernandina Beach. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it bows out (convex) toward the camera. This convex bend seems to be how it was made, but I might be wrong. The size of the nail holes also varies.

What do you think it is?  Send me an email with your ideas.

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John Brooks Monday Afternoon.

I went out to take a look at a few beaches this afternoon.  The water had been high on the beach.  In fact at Walton Rocks it had been up over the beach and into the parking lot.  Despite the high water, I found almost no erosion, and the erosion that I did find was only in renourishment sand.  Shells were very scarce too.  To sum it up, the South Hutchinson Island beaches that I saw were very sandy.

Above you can see a photo of John Brooks beach.  Too bad some idiot kept sticking his finger over the lens.

Another View of John Brooks Monday Afternoon.

Notice the pile of weeds that shows where the water stopped.

John Brooks Beach Monday Afternoon.

The above photo doesn't show it well, but what I wanted to show with this shot is how far out the waves were breaking.  They were breaking 60 or more feet out because of all the sand in front of the beach.

Even though the water was high, there were at least three things that kept the beaches from cutting.  One is the angle of the waves. In the above photo you can see that the white water is parallel to the beach.  The water was coming right up over the beach instead of slicing away at it.

Second was the amount of sand pile in front of the beach, preventing the beach from much of the water force.  The sand in front of the beach also protected any coins that might have been buried there.

The third factor is all of the renourishment sand that has been dumped on the beaches the past few years.  Some of it gets washed out, where it protects the front of the beach.  That sand will move south, so some of the sand in front of John Brooks probably came from the north where they keep dumping sand and it keeps getting washed away.  At other beaches the renourishment covers the front of the dunes so that the older material is not exposed.

DB sent in his observations too.  Here is what he said.

Thought I'd check in but looks like you know, it's terrible out there still. 

He also said Turtle Trail had been closed for some time and mentioned the millions of wasted dollars going into that project.  He continued as follows.

It was pretty funny but sad watching six dump trucks full of sand lined up there two days before a major storm would hit.

Anyhow, it's pretty poor all around, some dunes are cut but like you mentioned it's fill dirt and what I like to call kitty litter.

Hopefully something happens soon,

Thanks DB.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

As you can see, the surf will start to decrease over the next few days.  The wind will switch too.  The wind will be coming form the south for a day or so, and then switch again.  Then another front will come through and we'll have some north winds again.

People used to talk only about big waves as the thing to watch for.  A lot of people now realize that it takes more than just big waves.  Angles and other things are important.  I've been talking about that in this blog for quite a few years now.

Sometimes the window of opportunity opens for an hour or so and then closes just as quickly.  You just have to be there.

It looks like Fort Pierce is turning into a tourist destination.  I never saw so many out of state cars down by the jetty.  The beach is busy (by Fort Pierce standards ).

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/11/16 Report - Local Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions and Photos. 19 Amphoras of Coins Found in Spain by Construction Crew.

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

Small Part of Hoard Found in Spain.
Source: See link immediately below.

Construction workers laying pipes in a park in southern Spain have unearthed a 600kg trove of Roman coins.

The bronze coins dating from the late 4th Century were found inside 19 Roman amphoras, a type of jar.

Here is the link.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36172538


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I went out to the beach this morning to do a little detecting.  I was surprised by how few people were at the beach this morning.  I've seldom seen fewer at this beach.  Of course, it was early and I would guess beach goers would be showing up later.

Another View of the Beach This Morning.

As you can see, it was near low tide.  The beach front was built up.  Beach conditions were poor.

With all of this small surf we've been having, sand and not much else, not even anything other than small shells, has been washing up onto the beach front.

The shallow water was also very sandy.  There was a little bit of a dip in front of the beach, but hardly any at all.  Even the dip was shallow and had a lot of fine sand in it.  It was very sandy and shallow for many yards out.

The entire beach had very few targets, including the dry sand, which had been well detected.  Although targets were very few, there were some good ones, which were deep and difficult to recover.

Wet Sand Area This Morning.

This sand is fine and very packed.  You can see the ripples in the photo above.  There was also some black sand there. Getting maximum depth required some adjusting. 

There were some targets in the dip where sand was accumulating at the water line.  Targets were difficult to recover there.  The silty sand made deep targets very difficult to recover.  I left a couple.

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Close-up Of Small Piece of Coral Found This Morning.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/9/14 Report- Big Waves Little Erosion This Morning. Beach Detecting Conditions Upgrade.

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



Big Waves This Morning.

The water got far back on the beaches this morning.  The water was almost as high as during Sandy.  At John Brooks there was a shell line back just in front of the dunes.  I got excited when I saw the waves and how far he water got back on the beach, but there was no erosion.  It was pushing the sand up and back.

The video below shows what it looked like at Seagrape Trail.  The water was hitting the face of the cliff and causing it to erode, but that was all renourishment sand. And the sand that was falling off of the face of the cliff was staying in front of the cliff instead of being washed away.

It was very mushy in some places.  I sunk in the sand up to my knees a couple of times.   Mostly the sand was piling up.  There will be a few places where you'll find some cuts, but you'll have to hunt those few places out.

Most of he beaches from Vero north still had a good bit of renourishment sand.  I didn't notice any places were the old sand was being exposed.



Wabasso This Morning.

You can see the renourishment sand in front of the dunes here.  That is the problem with most of the Vero/Sebastian area.

Golden Sands park was closed.  A renourishment project was taking place there.  Treasure Shores is now open.



Amber Sands Looking North.

At some places it looked very much like it did after Sandy. 

Notice that in the picture above there is no erosion, just a slope, and there is still renourishment sand protecting the dunes.

I'm upgrading to a level two Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions Rating, but that is all for now.

I suspect that a few shipwreck items will be found.  There might be a few things washed up.  The front beach is getting pounded.  It will be hard to get out on the front beach until the waves calm down. 

There might be a few cobs that appear on the flat beach, as they did after Sandy.



I'd like to hear from anyone who attended the Robert Marx seminar who can fill us in on any pertinent details or conclusions.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

12/1/13 Report - Submersible Robot, Comparing and Contrasting Sandy and This November & Warners Safe Bottles

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

Turtle-Like Shipwreck Robot
Photo from article linked below.

The recently concluded blog poll was very informative.  It gave us a very good idea of how many people found cobs or treasure coins and allowed comparison with other periods when cobs or treasure coins were found.

I just added a new poll to the blog to find out what types of things were found.  Thanks for your participation, which will significantly add to the overall body of knowledge of beach detecting.

I've thought a little more about the comparisons between Sandy and Nov. 2013.   They were very similar in some ways and very different in others.

One striking similarity was that exactly the same number of people reported finding cobs or treasure coins for both Sandy and this November - 15 for each.  The number of respondents for the Sandy poll was only 90, while the sample size for November was 100.   That could make a little difference, but still about the same number of people reportedly found cobs or treasure coins.  (I had a three beach conditions rating on both as the highest predominant rating.)

The water during Sandy came up very high on the beach - back up over most of the flat beach and near or to the foot of the dunes.  This November, in contrast, the water never got near that far back.

During Sandy the erosion was farther back on the beach but the producing cuts were not as big.  I believe the cobs found during Sandy came from a greater number of beaches.

The number of cobs found during Sandy was pretty high considering the relative lack of erosion.

This November I believe fewer beaches produced, but those that did produce, produced greater concentrations.  And the cobs were more closely associated with cuts than during Sandy.

I've learned some things from that.   The beaches don't always show outstanding cuts when they are producing.  High water can do the job even when the beaches are not nicely cut.

It appears to me that high water conditions without big cutting produces cobs that are more spread over a larger area than the clusters that are produced near cuts when the cuts are bigger and closer to the front of the beach.  I'll be sure to observe and test those theories in the future.



Here is an article about a nice little submersible robot for studying shipwrecks.  (See photo above.)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2515099/Meet-U-CAT-robotic-turtle-help-archaeologists-investigate-shipwrecks.html



If you dig bottles, here is one more little tip that will help determine how old your bottle is.  The tip comes from Kovels Komments.

A very rare Warner's Safe Diabetes Cure bottle from Pressburg (Bratislava, Slovakia) has sold on eBay for $8,735. It was made for only a few years, 1888 to 1890. (See Bottles and Extras magazine, November-December 2013). Warner's Safe Cure medicine bottles are popular with collectors, and there are dozens of variations. I have a few Warner's bottles and a large, very odd poster that shows a Warner's Safe Kidney and Liver Cure box and a mermaid on a buoy near a sinking ship. The words on the poster say, "We guarantee safety by taking the right channel." A common Warner's Safe Cure bottle sells for as little as $35 to $200. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 required truth in labeling, and the word "cure" on bottles was replaced by "remedy." So "cure" bottles are over 100 years old.


I hope your Thanksgiving went well.  Only one more month to go this year.  Can you believe it?   It seems like just a few days ago I had to get used to writing 2013.


The wind has been blowing pretty good.  I'll have to get out to the beach soon to see what if anything is going on.


Today on the Treasure Coast we're supposed to have something like a 3 - 5 foot surf.  Yesterday it was a touch higher.  The surf is supposed to decrease steadily until next weekend until it is down around two feet.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/28/12 Report - Hurricane Sandy Delivers More Than Sand

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

Water Up In the Dunes Yesterday

I'm pleased that I made so many correct calls this time.   One thing I said is that Friday would be the key.  And it was.


The high tide on Friday got up into the dunes.  That is when we had the dune banger.  Actually the water hit the back dunes in some locations today too, but yesterday was the peak.

Above is a photo of one of the Treasure Coast beaches were the water got to the walkover and back dunes.  That hadn't happened for quite a while.

Some of our wreck beaches are broad and low like the one shown in the photo, and some are narrow and have a steep cliff at the back.  On beaches where there was a steep cliff at the back of the beach, it got hit and eroded to some extent.

I still have not seen a beach along the Treasure Coast that I would say was cut.  The only erosion was around the dunes, on beaches like that above, including John Brooks and Sebastian Inlet.  The reason we had high waves but no other cuts is that the water came directly up onto the beach and ran back down the same way it went up.  The cuts that bring cobs are caused by waves that hit the beach from and angle and create and arch, slicing away sand as it goes.  This up and down stuff doesn't do it.

Eroded Dune

Again, it takes more than high waves to create erosion.

The only time waves with out an angle will cut a beach is when there is an obstacle to the flow of sand like rocks or a jetty.

The shipwreck beaches in Indian River County were all closed this morning, from Amber Sands down through Turtle Trail.   It was only the wreck beaches that were closed.  Funny, isn't it?

There were cars waiting at all of those beach accesses this morning, including Wabasso etc., waiting for the access to open. 

A lot of people ended up going to the beach at the state park at Sebastian because they couldn't get in anywhere else.  I talked to locals as well as people that drove a long while to visit the wreck beaches and they weren't happy about it.   What a shame!

The story I hear is that the wreck beaches are closed so one person who works for the county can detect it himself.  I find it hard to believe that the county would allow that.  I'd like to find out for sure so I can put the rumor to rest.  If you can have details on the real story, let me know.

St. Lucie County beach parks remained open normal hours the entire time.  I don't know of any exceptions.

Tom Gidus sent me a couple of photos showing erosion down at Jupiter from the Carlin Park/Civic Center area.  See photo below.   Thanks Tom!

Hurricane Sandy, despite the lack of cuts, did deliver.  There were Spanish cobs that were found.  I know that for certain.

There were also other finds, some not cleaned and identified yet.  Plenty of clad coins, and even some silver US coins.

The wind is now out of the west and will continue out of the west for a few days.

The swells are decreasing, only being about five feet tomorrow and decreasing daily until they are down to about one foot by Tuesday.

As you know, it has been difficult to get out in the low tide zone lately.  As the swells decrease the next few days that should become easier.

Jupiter Area -  Photo by Tom Gidus

If you watched the waves crashing yesterday, you know that a lot of sand had to be stirred up.  And who knows what else.


I'm leaving my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions rating at a 3 for now.

It will be interesting to see what happens the next few days.

Sandy is well north of us now and headed towards the nations capitol.   Outer Banks get your equipment ready.

Sandy shows that it doesn't require a direct hit.  Sandy was pretty quick though.  A storm that just sits out there and churns can cause a lot of erosion.  Again, angles are important.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net