5/27/20 Report - Researching Silverware. Chronology of Nails. Lead Shipwreck Sheeting. Auction Goes Live.

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

Even if you do not plan to bid, you can still watch the auction.  When it goes live, the lots go quickly.

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A couple weeks ago I started to look at some of the tableware that I've found over the years.  I posted some of those and got some help with makers marks.  Today I'll post one of the larger and more ornate ones I've found.

Large Rose Pattern Ladle.

Makers Mark.

Looking at little closer, the marks are clearly visible.

Closer Look At Maker's Mark.

The makers is obviously Holmes and Edwards.  I'm not sure what the other two marks are.  It seems that most tableware show at least one number.  I assume it is the pattern number, but don't know that.

Here is what I found.

The Holmes & Edwards Silver Co began its activity in 1882 succeeding to Rogers & Brittin. The initial business was the production of low priced plated flatware using its own blanks or simply plating blanks of other manufacturers.

The qualitative leap in Holmes & Edwards production occurred with the acquisition of the invention patents obtained by William A. Warner of Syracuse for a technique of inlaying blocks of sterling silver at the wear points on the back of spoons and forks prior to plating them.

Warner went to work for Holmes & Edwards and his patents (December 9, 1884 and March 2, 1886) brought to the firm a gold medal at the Columbian Exposition in 1893 and a prominent place in silverplate industry.

The Holmes & Edwards plant was taken over in 1898 by the International Silver Company, continuing to operate in Bridgeport until 1931 when it moved to Meriden.

In 1956 the trademark "SILVER INLAID" was changed to "HOLMES & EDWARDS DEEPSILVER" and in 1960 to "INTERNATIONAL DEEPSILVER".

Silver inlaid production was discontinued in 1972 and later marketed by Wallace International Silversmiths Inc.

Trade marks used by Holmes & Edwards: STRATFORD SILVER CO, ORIENTAL MEXICAN CRAIG, HESCO, VIANDE, AZTEC COIN METAL. 

See http://www.silvercollection.it/HOLMESANDEDWARDS.html

I've not researched this particluar piece to the point that I can place its date.

That is a good web site that has a lot of information on maker's marks and silverware companies.

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If you hunted the Treasure Coast shipwreck beaches, there is a good chance you've found flat pieces of lead.  They come in various sizes and often have nail holes.  Often one side will show the imprint of a cloth weave.

Some have thought that the lead was nailed to the hull over a cloth undercoating.  An article published in 2001 issue of a Fisher newsletter throws doubt on that theory.

See

Here is the link.

https://www.academia.edu/4351205/Lead_Hull-Sheathing_of_the_1622_Galleon_Santa_Margarita?email_work_card=view-paper

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Another thing you'll find is nails.  An article in Historical Archaeology will help you learn about the manufacture of nails through history and identify the date of your nail finds.

Here is a very helpful table from that article.

And here is the link.

https://uccshes.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/nail-chronology-the-use-of-technologically-derived-features.pdf

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It looks like we'll have a two to three foot surf for several days.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

10/3/19 Report - Sword Fragments Found. Lead Sheathing on Shipwrecks. A Lead Find. Beaches.

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

Archaeologists have discovered fragments of about a hundred Viking swords, the largest find of Viking swords in Estonia to date, in northern Estonia.

Here is the link for more about that.

https://news.err.ee/986495/fragments-of-100-viking-swords-unearthed-in-north-estonia

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Lead Showing Cloth Pattern Found Very Recently.

Find and photo by JD.

JD didn't know what it might be but thought of lead seals.  I sent him the following link about lead sheathing on the Santa Margarita, of which there were thousands of small pieces recovered.

https://www.academia.edu/4351205/Lead_Hull-Sheathing_of_the_1622_Galleon_Santa_Margarita?auto=download

I think you'll enjoy the Santa Margarita article along with some of the other related articles that are linked at the site.

Here is a brief excerpt starting with a list of some shipwrecks having similar lead sheathing.

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I looked at the beach yesterday afternoon before low tide.  Despite the high surf Tuesday, which was evident by the high tide line, the beach barely changed.

Here is John Brooks as it looked then.

John Brooks Beach Yesterday Afternoon.

John Brooks South Yesterday Afternoon.

I also looked a mile or two north of that.

North of John Brooks Yesterday Afternoon.

I don't know if the water was high enough to get into the dunes up in the Vero/Sebastian area or what happened up there.

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It looks like there won't be much change to the beaches for the next several days.  If nothing happened Tuesday, I'm not expecting anything much new for a while.

Have you noticed that as you get more TV channels how they have to come up with more crap to fill the air time.  The population of ghosts, spirits, Big Foots, UFOs  seems to be growing exponentially, and that isn't to mention the worst of the lot.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/1/18 Report - Tips and Techniques for Finding Paper Money and Other Valuable Papers. News on the Atocha And Santa Margarita Sites.

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

Unidentified Paper Money Found in Pages of Old Book.

After Thanksgiving I told about finding a ten dollar bill on the floor of a restaurant.  I remembered that when I woke up this morning and started thinking about other times I found paper money.  There were actually quite a few, and there were even times when I set out to find paper money.

Of course, you don't do that with a metal detector.  There are, however, things you can do that will increase the probability of finding paper money.  One is being generally alert.  But there are also specific strategies for different times and places.

Finding paper money is one aspect of what I call eye-balling. Years ago I wrote an article about that for a treasure hunting magazine.  It was either Lost Treasure, Treasure, or Western and Eastern Treasures.  I forget which one right now.

I once found a twenty dollar bill while driving through the parking lot in front of a Bealls store.  You can find stuff while driving.  I once saw a watch on the street while driving.  I drove up to it, stopped, opened the door and picked it up.

I won't mention all the bottles, rings and other treasures that I've found visually, but will get back to paper money.  There are some places where you have a decent chance of finding paper money.

I always liked to search the grounds after a carnival, circus or fair. You could always find a good number of coins right after they left, and most of them would be on top of the ground so you could find a lot of them visually, but also there was also a good chance of finding paper money.

The best place to check at a fair grounds was the fence line on the down wind side.  Usually the fence line would also have a bunch of weeds that would help trap blown paper money.

At the beach I've found paper money in the seaweed along the seaweed line.

A lot of wind or big surf helps you chances.

There aren't so many of them out there anymore, but people used to leave cigarette packages on the beach.  I would always check out packages like that for any money.  There would occasionally be a folded bill stuffed inside.

I've also found paper money while metal detecting in the water.  I remember one time when a bill came floating by about a foot deep in the water.  It wasn't real easy to see.

There was also a dip in about six feet of water in front of one beach-side hotel where bills often collected.

Of course, paper money can be found in with coin caches.  

I used to stop at a thrift store to buy old and collectible books.  I once found a ten dollar bill in between the pages of a book I bought.

A lot of good things can be found in between the pages of old books.  Old calling cards, autographed papers, tickets, etc.

One of my favorites was the business card of Hoagie Carmichael Jr., which was in a book written by him.  I purchased the autographed book on building a fly rod for a dollar and sold it for around $125, as I recall.

I've also found very nice old photos in books, including one showing a some people in the old long bathing suits at a New Jersey beach.  It looked like it was from the twenties or thirties.  Also some nice wedding and other photos.

Old Photo Postcard Found Between Pages of An Old Book.

The clown postcard shown above was found in an old book.  It has the typical postcard look with the space for stamp and everything on the other side, but it also appears to have the name of the person (Charles H...).

Another favorite book find included a religious card with a small cloth relic attached.

Outdoors, consider the wind and water and where paper will evntually be trapped.

Indoors, consider anyplace where paper can be stuffed away for safe keeping.  Old books are one of my favorites.

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Recent calmer weather allowed a lot of salvage activity down around Key West.

The crew of the Dare has been trying to determine if there might be another debris trail on the Atocha site.  In the process they found a couple silver coins and a few EOs.

On the Margarita site, the Sea Reaper was searching for a missing section of the Santa Margarita.  There are about 22 chests of coins missing, including about 80 thousand pieces of eight.  They found a silver coin, musket balls and lead sheathing while searching.

Doug Pope has made an agreement with the Fishers, and the Polly-L be working with the Fisher organization again on the Santa Margarita site.  The Polly-L worked on the Margarita site back in the early 2000s and found a 40 carat uncut Colombian emerald.  It was the only emerald ever found on the Santa Margarita wreck site.  It was found in a conch shell.

Source: email from the Fisher organization.

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Let me know if you can identify the partial bill shown at the top of the page.

It looks like we'll have south winds and less than a two foot surf for a few days.  We might have something bigger after that.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/27/15 Report - Custer's Last Stand Gun Parts. 2015 Santa Margarita Treasures. Treasure Coast Inland Finds/

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

Kovels Komments reports that these gun parts sold for $31,050 at auction.

The parts were found back in the 1990s by using a metal detector on the Reno Battlefield, which is the site of Custer's last stand.  Kovels  said, But it's the name Custer that made them so valuable. The James Julia auction proved that great record keeping makes a collection more valuable.

Keeping good records is always a good idea.

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We've had a long period of poor beach conditions on the Treasure Coast, but as I always say, there is always someplace to hunt and something to find.  What makes poor conditions one place makes good conditions some place else.

The Mel Fisher organization said, The Dare and the Magruder will remain on site for the last few days of this incredibly long window of good weather. It is rare to see so many days at sea this early in the year and this trip is hopefully a sign of good things to come...

They recently found a heart shaped gold ring on the Santa margarita wreck site along with five silver coins, some encrusted objects and a piece of wood from the wreck.

As I previously reported, the ring is the first gold of the year from the Margarita wreck site.

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Despite the poor Treasure Coast beach conditions some of our Treasure Coast guys have been doing very well inland.

Below are some great finds made by William M.

William said, I'm honestly getting kind of burnt out on land hunting really wish the beach would do something drastic.  I dug a lot of targets today definitely gotta work out doing squats.

That is a nice early coin for the Treasure Coast area.

Way to go William!

William says, the old bullet is a .44 long DA.. that stands for double action it was fired from Smith and Wesson's first double action revolver called the Frontier manufactured between 1881 and 1913.

That is really neat.  Good research too, which makes it all the more interesting.




Thanks for sharing the great photos William.



      












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Dan B. has also been doing well inland.  Below are some of Dan's recent inland finds.

Finds and photos by Dan B.

              

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Yesterday we had some heavy rain and wind.  I lost power a few times when I was trying to do this post or it would have been posted sooner.   I was also out on a little expedition.

We'll have about a two to three foot surf today.  Not so much wind, and not good wind direction.

The tides have flattened out too.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

                           

3/19/15 Report - First Gold Of The Year From Santa Margarita Site. Nice Treasure Coast Finds. Cave Explorers Find 2400 Year Old Treasure.

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

Here are some great finds and photos from Robert H.

Very nice Robert!  Thanks for sharing.

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The weather down in the Keys has been good for hunting lately, and Captain Andy and the crew of the Magruder found the first gold of the year.

They were on the site of the Santa Margarita when they found a ballast stones, a musket ball, a spike and a gold ring with a clear stone.

They were using a GoPro when the ring was found so they have the find recorded.

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The Northern lights were seen as far south as West Virginia Tuesday night.  For anyone that hasn't seen them, it is very impressive.  I've seen them a few times.

That could also mean a possible increase in electrical interference in the atmosphere.

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A couple spelunkers found 2400-year-old treasures while exploring a cave in Israel.  Included were coins showing Alexander the Great.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/09/middleeast/israel-ancient-treasure-found-in-cave/index.html

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Aqua-Cycle Water Trike.

    You've seen these.  I received an advertisement today that reminded me of the time I was metal detecting in front of a hotel that rented these things.   There was a nice couple pedalling along not far out from shore, and a kid, maybe about 12 years old, got on a jet ski, took off like a torpedo on a curved path and hit the back wheel of the water trike, instantly breaking the wheel.  The trike listed to one side and sank.  I thought that was hilarious.  It was even funnier seeing the people involved and the expressions on their faces.

I don't think I'll ever forget that.  That kid on the jet ski looked like a torpedo.

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On the Treasure Coast today we had a surf of about three to four feet with the wind coming from the East.  The surf will decrease slightly through the weekend.

Not much very promising on the weather front.  At least we're having some good tidal action.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net            

1/25/14 Report - Historic Survey of St. Lucie County, Gold Prices and Scatter Pattern of Santa Margarita

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

I'm not going to write much today, but I'm going to give you a lot to read.

Part of that is the 2003 survey of historic properties in St. Lucie County.

Thanks to Joan T. for giving me the link.

The survey gives a lot of history of the area and lists (many with photographs such as the one to the left here) many historic properties.

Often beach detectorists get spoiled.  They fall into the habit of going out to the beach and wandering around to see what they can find.  As a result many don't do any research.

There are different ways that research on the history of the area can come in handy.  One way is providing alternatives for detecting when the beaches aren't doing much.

This is a very extensive survey.  Although it does give some older history, many of the historic properties are 19th or 20th Century.  Still it makes for interesting reading, especially if you, like most detectorists, are into history.

Here is the link.

http://www.stlucieco.gov/pdfs/FinalReport.pdf

Note: it is a PDF file and will take a little while to load.

Here is another photo from the survey, just as one more example.


The price of gold has generally been increasing in 2014 after losing 28% in 2013.  So which way will it go?  Who knows?  Not me.  But momentum is currently with sellers so far this year.

Here is a link.

http://mail.aol.com/38306-111/aol-6/en-us/Lite/MsgRead.aspx?folder=NewMail&uid=28888340&seq=0&searchIn=none&searchQuery=&start=0&sort=received&sortDir=descending


Here is a scatter pattern of finds on the Santa Margarita wreck site from the Mel Fisher web site.

http://www.melfisher.com/Library/Chart0124_2014.html

Purple dots indicate silver.  Take a look.


Nothing much has changed at the beach yet.


Happy researching and happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/20/12 Report - Wreck Found in Gulf, 2-Reales Found & Petition Reminder

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



Wreck discovered by NOAA in the Gulf.   Photo by NOAA.

Copper Shell of 19th Century Wreck Found in the Gulf.

Additional information and the photo can be found by using the following link.

http://www.livescience.com/20377-shipwreck-gulf-mexico.html

Nice photo.

The wood has mostly dissolved, but the copper shell of the wreck and artifacts including bottles, dishes and muskets remain.

Notice the squares attached over the copper along the bow.  I believe those might be lead markers.   I might have once shown pieces of lead that I believe might be similar hull markers from a Treasure Coast wreck.   Those pieces, if I did post them in this blog (I  don't remember off-hand), were found on a beach opposite a wreck site.  An archaeologist couldn't say what those pieces of lead were but I think the similarity to those shown in this photo supports my interpretation.

I've been swamped lately, but things are slowing down a bit and I'll have a bit more time to respond to my emails and catch up on some other things, including a few innovations that I've been working on. 

I've been having trouble with my camera too.  I'll get that ironed out before long, hopefully.

I received an email from the Mel Fisher organization telling of the most recent discoveries by the crew of the Dare on the trail of the Santa Margarita.   They found some artifacts last week along with five two-reales.  They were working an area just southwest of  where the gold chalice was found in back in 2008.

Received from Sedwick Coins via email:  ... the May 30 deadline to receive consignments for our Summer (Internet-only) Auction #2 (June 28, 2012) is fast approaching. Keep those consignments coming!

You better act soon if you want to consign.

Pete R. sent a reminder asking all to sign the petition to stop NOAA from expanding the Marine Sanctuaries.   I mentioned it back in my 5/15 post.   If you missed that or forgot, here is a link where you can sign to STOP the Sanctuary's Expansion:

http://www.change.org/petitions/noaa-and-the-us-senate-stop-the-abuse-of-noaa-and-the-monitor-national-marine-sanctuary-mnms?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=friend_inviter_modal

I was recently on a flight arriving at PBI and another fellow had a metal detector that he stowed in the over-head compartments.   I asked, and he said that airport security didn't give him any trouble when he brought his metal detector through security.  He carried it on-board in the original cardboard box.  That may have helped.

Decades ago I regularly took detectors on planes as carry-on and had no trouble.  Back then airport security would look at my disassembled detector with a puzzled look, ask what it was, and then let me board with no problem.  I suspect that there is a much greater possibility of encountering problems these days.   Since 911, I prefer to ship any detectors to my destination via UPS separately.  That is probably not necessary, but I want to avoid problems even if I am being overly cautious.


I fixed the link to the web site on State Quarter errors listed in the 5/17 report.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions

I haven't been out to the local beaches for a while.  I'll have to get out there just to take a look, get a few pictures and personally confirm for myself what the situation is. 

There certainly hasn't been anything to suggest any changes from the basically poor conditions that we've had for some time.

Nonetheless, I'll give a more detailed update after I get a chance to take a look for myself.

Until then,

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net