3/15/20 Report - Metal Detecting on South Florida's Crowded Beaches. Thoughts on Mystery Find.

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

Source: See local10.com link below.

UPDATE: As of Saturday evening South Beach and the Miami beaches were closed.  Spring breakers from around the world were ordered off the beaches.  The following was written before I got that news.

From South Beach to Hallandale, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano, the South Florida beaches are absolutely crowded with spring break beach-goers ignoring the Coronavirus threat.

I did most of my metal detecting on the South Florida beaches.  It was not until after several years that I tried my luck on the Treasure Coast wreck beaches.

The South Florida beaches get a lot more crowded than the Treasure Coast beaches, and you can find a lot more.  You can often find items that were lost just minutes or hours earlier.  That makes it much easier.  You don't have to depend so much upon beach conditions, especially when there are rowdy crowds playing in the surf.

It was down south that I learned a lot about metal detecting.  Despite the fact that yo don't have depend so much upon beach conditions, it still helps to know how to find those holes where the gold accumulates.

Except for a few months, I always had a job when I lived down south and was only able to detect occasionally.  Still I was able to pick up 20 - 30 pieces of gold per month - mostly rings.

I specifically remember hunting the beach shown in the photo above and some of the finds I picked up there.  There was a near-mint silver Isle of Man coin, for example.  Also class rings and gold bands.

One day a couple young girls told me they lost their sister's class high school class ring in about three feet of water.  They weren't supposed to have it.  Luckily I found it for them in just a few minutes.

Hollywood beach was a good beach to hunt, but never had the very expensive jewelry you could find at South Beach.  I spent a lot of time at Hollywood beach when I just began metal detecting because it was close to my home.  I find it amazing how many finds I can remember very accurately, and could point out the exact spot where they were found.   My first ring find ever was made at Hollywood beach.  I remember that one like it was yesterday too.

Back in the day the Fort Lauderdale beaches were often so crowded with college spring-breakers that there was virtually no space to walk between the blankets.

I've talked many times before about metal detecting experiences in South Florida.

Well, as you can see, that photo brought back a lot of metal detecting memories.

Here is the link for more about the South Florida beach-going crowds.

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/03/14/south-florida-beaches-packed-despite-coronavirus-fears-as-spring-break-arrives/


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Not long ago I posted this photo of items that came spilling out of the dunes when TM was digging a target at the base of the dunes.  One person thought it might be shattered safety glass, and I originally thought t could be from a beach wedding.

Over the years I've found a lot of decorative items from beach weddings including small glass balls that are used in vases.  Tony S. evidently studied these items better than I and came up with something interesting.  Below is what Tony said.

The shape of the stones posted are called octahedron. Based on quick look as shown, they are most commonly in a gem/crystal called flourite, which comes in many colors including those in the picture. But, diamonds and quartz crystals can also take on those shapes and colors, but did not come up on searches as often and required deliberate search of “diamond” tied to the shape in search.

Tony also provided the following reference links and photos.

https://crystal-information.com/encyclopedia/fluorite-octahedron-properties-and-meaning/

https://www.gemselect.com/other-info/about-fluorite.php

https://geology.com/minerals/fluorite.shtml

https://www.qualitydiam.com/products/0-92-carat-exceptional-white-high-quality-octahedron-shape-natural-diamonds

https://www.amazon.com/100g-Blue-Fluorite-Octahedron-Crystals/dp/B01MT34JRM\

Tony continued with the following.

Fluorite is found worldwide in China, South Africa, Mongoliam, France, Russia and the central North America. Here, noteworthy deposits occur in Mexico, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Colorado

Blue flourite is fairly rare and much sought after by collectors. The brilliant yellow is also quite rare. The rarest fluorite colors are pink, black and colorless. Black fluorite is formed from exposure to radiation during the growth of the crystals.

Fluorite is an important industrial mineral composed of calcium and fluorine (CaF₂). It is used in a wide variety of chemical, metallurgical, and ceramic processes. Specimens with exceptional diaphaneity and color are cut into gems or used to make ornamental objects.

Fluorite is the second-most popular mineral in the world among mineral collectors next to quartz. Famed for its enormous range of colors, it is often referred to as "the most colorful mineral in the world." But fluorite is not just another pretty stone; it has a number of fascinating properties and some very useful industrial applications.

Flourite is interesting to mineral collectors because it has several different crystal habits that result in well-formed clean crystals. The cube is by far the most recognized habit of fluorite, followed by the octahedron, which is believed to form at higher temperatures than the cube. Fluorite has perfect octahedral cleavage.

Flourite Crystal.

Thanks for all of that information Tony.

That is a very interesting possibility that I never would have thought of. It is also a possibility that raises a lot of questions such as how they got there.

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Metal detecting is a Coronavirus-safe hobby.   If you don't maintain a safe distance, your detector will chatter.

No change in beach conditions again.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/15/19 Report - River Boat Parts Exposed by Low Water. My Favorite Beaches From My Days In South Florida.

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

Riverboat Parts Exposed During Low Water.

Source: See link below.

Take a walk along the Yukon River in Whitehorse these days, and you might spot things you rarely see — historical objects and structures that are typically well hidden under water or ice.

"Like, there's a log cradle here, or a crib, that was used to support sternwheelers when they were hauled out of the river in the winter," said Yukon government archeologist Ty Heffner, as he walked along the riverbank.

Water in the Yukon River system is very low this spring. Vast gravel bars flank the stream in many areas, and Heffner says lots of artifacts can now be seen in the mud and rocks.

That might include anything from old rusty nails and wooden logs and planks, to iron fixtures...

The article also states that some of the items you can now see along the river could be of historical significance.  I guess that might be true, but I wonder what kind of significance or how significant they might be.  It seems that archaeologists like to make everything over a few years old into something significant.  That makes it easy to make "significant" discoveries.

But how much can those items really add to the body of knowledge?  They already know there were steamers on the river, and they probably know a lot about those steamers and the stories of those steamers.  So what information can those parts add?  There might be some earth-shaking new information in them, but I really doubt it.


For me, there is a difference between interesting and significant.  Sure, you can study the  items and perhaps learn something from them, just like we do here all the time, but will it really add anything to the body of archaeological knowledge?  That is just a question.

I also wonder if whatever might be learned from those items will ever benefit the public.  Will the items be seen by the public, and will the results be published for the public.  In the mean time, the items rust and deteriorate.

Lowered water levels can always reveal interesting things, just like erosion.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-river-historic-artifacts-1.513459

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I woke up thinking this morning about my earlier days of metal detecting.  I was living in Hollywood when I really got started, and hunted coins at first.

My first serious detector was a White's that I got from a Sears catalog.  I sent it back for some reason and got a Fisher Aquanaut.  In one year with the fisher I found enough value coins to pay for the Fisher, just counting the face value of the coins.  As I recall, that was about $640.

Like a lot of things, I was pretty intense with my new hobby, and tried to see what I could accomplish.

I was living in Hollywood, so that was the beach I went to most at first.  It later became a beach that I would visit when I didn't have much time to go somewhere else.  There were a lot of targets there, and a lot of jewelry, but the targets weren't high value targets.  The gold rings were mostly bands without gem stones, and mostly 10K instead of something better.

Anyhow I was thinking about the locations I hunted.  Hollywood was the most frequent because it was closest to my home, but I spent a lot of time on beaches ranging from Key Biscayne to Fort Lauderdale.

A lot of the beaches down there were crammed with people, and I suppose they still are.

My favorites were Key Bicayne, North Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, Hallandale, and Fort Lauderdale.

There were a lot of good areas to choose from, and I'd hit one heavy for a while when it was producing and then focus more on another when things changed.  To rank my all-time favorite from back then, it would be Bal Harbour.

I occasionally went down the Keys, and of course up to the Treasure Coast.

I enjoyed Jupiter when the banks were eroding.  Virginia Key was also real good at times.

I had enough places to choose from that I would pick the one that was producing at the time.

There were specific spots that produced frequently.  At Fort Lauderdale, there were three spots that I liked to work.

I had jobs that allowed me time to get out and I detected almost everyday back then.  Both university teaching and consulting allowed time to get out.  Even when I traveled on business I took my detector and always like detecting in the Pensacola area and the lakes in the Minneapolis area.  There was a good bit of silver in the lakes, but not a lot of gold.

There was some good hunting at John Lloyd park for a short while.  I hit fifteen rings there in a four hour period one day.  I think that was the  number.  Maybe it was thirteen, but it was a lot.  I think I have a photo of that day's finds somewhere.  I understand that you can't detect there anymore.

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Concerning the little vase referred to as a medicine bottle in the article I referred to yesterday, Bruce B. said he,  ... happened to see the first photo of a so-called medicine bottle. I say that because I happen to own some bottles just like it, but what they are are dollhouse vases, which the Spanish made for the female children of noble families throughout Europe as furnishings for their dollhouses. At least that's what it appears to be.  

Thanks Bruce.

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Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/23/18 Report - Carlos II Cobs From a Treasure Coast Beache and the Monogram. Good Artifact Database.

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

Holed Mexico-Minted Carlos II Beach Cob

The past few days I showed nine different Mexico minted half reales from one 1715 beach.  Most had the Philip V monogram.  The monograms changed from time to time.  You might have noticed some differences  in the photos.

The easiest way to tell the mint is from the cross.  Enough of the Florenza cross is usually visible on Mexico minted half reales to tell you where it was minted.  Sometimes you can see the mint mark too.

One of the cobs I showed from the December 1989 hunt came from the reign of Carlos II.  Below is a stylized monogram like the ones used on Carlos half reales.

Stylized Carlos II Monogram.

And below is a Carlos II half reale that I showed a few days ago.  You can see most of the A and the some of the C coming from the left and cutting through the left leg of the A.

The monogram on this reale is a bit different from the stylized monogram shown in the illustration above.  For one thing, the A is slanted to the right.

One thing you can often see on Carlos II cobs even when not much else is visible is what I call the fish hook.  The end of the C often shows a downward stroke that reminds me of a fish hook.

Carlos II Half Reale Found in 1989.

Below is another Carlos II half reale.  This one is from the same beach but was found decades later.  This is the other side of the same half reale shown at the top of the post.  Notice the little hole.

Carlos II 1715 Fleet Beach Cob
Same one shown at the top of the post.

This monogram is very much like the one on the other Carlos II cob. If that is a assayer mark right below the hole, as I think it is, although it looks like a C, it should be a G, which would be the mark of Geronimo Bercerra, and that would put the date between 1666 and 1677.

As I recall this one was found on the flat sand right behind the berm in a patch of small and broken shells.

Most half reales found on the beach will not be in very good shape, but most of the time you will be able to determine the mint and date range.

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Iguanas invading South Florida and causing electrical outages.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/fl-reg-south-florida-iguana-invasive-damage-20180618-story.html

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Here is a good web site where you can view artifacts donated to the British Museum.  Good browsing.

http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/H/hoardandtreasure.htm 

Thanks to Brian B. for that link.

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If you want help with identifying finds, please send good photos taken from various angles and provide basic information such size and what it appears to be made of and anything else that you can make out that might be relevant.  It isn't easy identifying items from photos so provide any and all information that you can.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/29/17 Report - South Florida Beaches Get Tons of New Sand. Antique Words. Independent Investigator Needed to Explore Russian Involvement With TBR.

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

Source: Miami Herald link below.

To widen a 3,000-foot stretch of Miami Beach’s shore that was washing away, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dumped 285,412 tons of sand on Mid-Beach...

The $11.5 million project, funded with a combination of federal, state and county dollars, expanded the shore at 46th and 54th streets by about 230 feet...

The eroded section at 46th Street, which received the majority of the sand, was completed by Nov. 9. The swath at 54th Street was finished in late February. The whole project wrapped Friday.

Next up: Sunny Isles Beach...  Construction will likely begin in September and last four to six months.

Here is that link.

http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/MiamiHerald/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TMH%2F2017%2F03%2F29&entity=Ar3E2&sk=CE4109B0


Thanks to Alberto S. for that link.

That is an area that I detected a lot back maybe thirty or forty years ago.  Good detecting!

There is an old shipwreck off Sunny Isles, but it isn't easy to get to.

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A pile of cannon balls was found during a construction project in Pittsburgh.

Here is that link.

http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/12124896-74/cannonballs-discovered-at-construction-site-in-lawrenceville


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Do you know which country has the most readers of this blog after the United States?   I wouldn't have guessed it, but I looked at the stats just yesterday, and it says it is Russia.

I hope you don't think I'm conspiring with Putin or anything.  This is the internet, which of course is sometimes also know as the world wide web.   And people, even nobodies like me, have international connections.  Heaven forbid!

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Language Artifacts.

I like words, but language isn't real easy for me.  I'm more of a visual thinker, so writing is a little more awkward for me than it would otherwise be.

My wife heard me tell my mother to look in the ice box.  My wife said I'm the only person that still uses that word.  We used to use it all the time.   I don't use it all the time anymore, but does come out when I talk to my mother, who actually used an ice box during her youth, and that is what she calls a refrigerator.

Have you ever heard anyone talk about the "cloak room."   Or getting their "wraps."  My elementary school teachers used to tell us to go to the cloak room to get our wraps.  You have to be fairly old to be familiar with that usage of those words.

I'm not really that old, but I grew up in a rural area that was a good part of a century behind the rest of the world.

By the way, "cloak room" was the long closet area on the other side of the wall at the back of the classroom on which George Washington's picture was hung.  And "wraps" didn't have anything to o with music.  Our coats or jackets were our wraps.

I'm talking about language artifacts today.

I was wondering the other day how long people will talk about hanging up the phone.  It doesn't seem like that term describes how people usually end a call these days,  But it is a term that might last for a while.

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The Treasure Coast surf will be decreasing a little.  The tides are real good though.  We'll have soe very nice low tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net