7/23/18 Report - Cache Hunting: Tips and Misconceptions. Fisher Organization Salvage Activities.

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

I've written about a couple of Florida cache finds this year.  Caches are found, but not real often.

Hunting for a cache is different than hunting for individual coins or pieces of jewelry, and a lot of what you read about how to find a cache is wrong.

The first thing about cache hunting, is you have to have reason to be looking for one.  If you just go out and cover a lot of ground, you might eventually find one, but the odds are very long against it.

Caches are rare, so it helps if you have reason to believe there might be one.  Of course if you are hunting the right kind of place, for example a historic home site, you should be aware that there is always the possibility of a cache being present.  If you don't want to miss any possible caches, you want to alert to a variety of types of targets that you otherwise might discriminate out.

If you read most articles about cache hunting, you'll probably read about things like two-box detectors for detecting really deep targets.  For many caches, a regular detector will work just fine if you aren't using too much discrimination.  The idea that every cache is going to be buried ten feet deep just isn't true.  People don't have to dig down ten feet to hide a cache.  There are other things that will hide a cache as well or better than a few feet of earth.

Someone who buries a cache, will usually hide it where they think they can find it again.  That means that the cache will be near landmarks or features - perhaps a tree, wall, fence or walk.  That can cause a problem for the detectorist.  They will not be able to detect the area well either because of physical obstacles, like walls, or noise from rebar or buried cables.  You can't detect with a two-box detector in small areas or around other big metal items.

The caches that I'm most familiar with were buried in canning jars, not treasure chests.  One cache was distributed around a home site with individual jars placed in different areas.  And each jar contained different kinds of coins.  You don't know what the container might be so you don't want to discriminate iron or a lot of other metals

If you've been hunting very long, you can probably easily tell the difference between a small surface target and a deeper large target from the sound of the signal.  You can't pay too much attention to your meter.  Many caches will give mixed signals because there can be signals from the container as well as the coins or whatever else is in the container.  They can be quite a mixed bag.

---

A very dark two carat emerald was discovered on 7/11/18 while the Magruder was working Emerald City.

The Magruder will be going back to the site of the Margarita to dig the virgin area on the northern trail near where the gold chalice was found years ago.  They will be using an airlift to excavate holes in the bedrock.

The Margruder was finding Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain and olive jar shards on the Atocha site.

The Fisher organization will also be returning to the deep target site with Dolores.

---

I think it is amazing how little coins have changed over the past thousand years.  I guess they were well-designed for the job and worked well.  Mostly flat and round with designs on two sides.  It is fairly obvious what works well about that.

Anyway, I think coins will be going away before long.  Canada quit producing the-one cent coin in 2012.

Keys had a long run too, and are disappearing.

---

We had a nice west wind this morning, but there are no storms around, and the surf is only one to two feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/11/14 Report - Two-Box Detecting. Storing & Maintaining Finds. Metal Detecting ID Test. Fossil Sand Dollar. Super Moon Tides.

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

2-Box Detector

If you ever want to hunt aunt Mary's buried silver tea pot, cache, septic tank, or some other larger buried object, you could use a 2-box detector like the one shown here.

The top picture shows the two boxes in closed position for transport, along with the collapsible rod.

The bottom picture shows each of the two boxes, which would go on each end of the length of rod.

You would hold the rod in the middle slightly above ground and when you go over a buried object you will get a signal.

This is one I've used a few times.  One time was to locate a septic tank, which I quickly did.



The link to the story about the old house and silver coins wasn't working for a while yesterday.  I think it is now fixed.

 

Florida heat and humidity can be hard on all kinds of things.  If you like old things, keep them carefully protected. 

You probably already know that if you have iron objects, especially those that have spent time under salt water, they will fall apart unless they are carefully conserved and protected.  Take a look at the old canons in the park along US 1 in Fort Pierce.  They are seriously corroded and damaged.

But it isn't only iron.  If you have fire arms, especially nice old firearms, they have to be properly cared for and maintained.  It is best if they are kept in a humidity controlled environment.  Dehumidifiers are available for gun safes.  You don't want that antique gun to be damaged.

Papers and books do not do well in hot humid Florida environments either.  If you have old maps or books, they need to be kept out of bright sun-light.   Do not keep them in basements or garages either where they will get mold or mildew or in hot attics.  Bugs will also damage not only paper pages but will ruin nice old colorful book covers.  

Leather needs to be maintained too.  It will also mildew.

If you have HO model trains, for example, the band drives will melt in Florida heat.  Rubber parts on anything, including antique cars, will quickly deteriorate.

This is a tough place to keep old things nice.  It is easier in colder and less humid environments.

And one thing I've said before, don't keep finds made of different metals together.  Metals such as silver and pewter will discolor and corrode if they are stored touching other metals.  Silver seems especially vulnerable.  Don't just drop your finds in a box mixed together if you care about them.  It is best to store each item separately wrapped.

I have also found that the more information you store with finds the happier you will be when you dig them out in the future and wonder when and where they were found and what they are.  Don't depend upon your memory.  You might think now that you will remember, but in a few years you might wish you wrote it down.

As usual I'm speaking from experience and have learned most of these lessons the hard way.

If you have some items that you really like but aren't able or willing to maintain properly, you might think about selling them and sending them to a good home.  It can be real discouraging to find out that you let something old that you really liked get damaged by lack of care.

One more thing.  Keep valuable finds and items in a bank safe deposit box.

Here are three I objects I used in a little test.

I used the Ace 250 to detect these objects.

The knife was identified by the detector as iron.

The small vintage toy gun was identified as a penny.

The watch also was identified as iron.

These are the kinds of test that I recommend if you have any interest in detecting items like this.

Do you really want to pass over knives and watches?  That is a question you have to answer for yourself.

Here is a nice fossil sand dollar.  The matrix is still attached to the back.



I mentioned the unusually big tides yesterday.  Sunday was the closest full-moon of 2014.  If you check the tide charts you'll see how big the tides were.

Here is an article about the moon and tides.

http://news.yahoo.com/sundays-supermoon-full-moon-really-super-132856515.html?pt=BureoF3GVB

I'll be checking some beaches after the big tide.   If the water got up to any dunes, that might be interesting.  I don't know if it did.   I can think of one place that I'll check for sure.

The weather coming off of Africa that I mentioned yesterday still has a 10% chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours and is still far far away.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

6/29/14 Report - National Archives For Research, Detecting Military Shells With a 2-Box Detector, Getting To More Remote Beaches, & US Religious Shrine

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

Fellow Using Two-Box Detector To
Locate Buried Shells From WW I On His Farm
Source: video link below.

I've learned a lot through genealogical research.  I mention that again because once again I was amazed by what I found. 

My father was on a minesweeper during WW II.  He never talked much, hardly anything, about his experiences during the war.  We have, however, found where his ship was everyday during the war.  Palermo, Genoa, Sardinia, and Malta are some of the places where they cleared mines before his ship came back to New York and Miami before going through the Panama Canal to the Pacific.

I tell you this because the National Archives has tons of information that you can search.  Not only can you research individuals, but you can also find detailed records on ships and battles.  And not only do they have information on WW II, but also information going back to the Revolutionary War and more.

I was able to find a daily longitude and latitude for my dad's ship, which was one of the smaller ships in the Navy.  You might find it easy to find even more information about larger ships.

If you want to find information about a family member or track down a ship that sank while carrying gold bullion, the National Archives and Navy have tons of records that can be accessed.  You can receive some information free, but there may be a price charged to cover the cost of copies of other records.

Oh, by the way, you can also get medals and things posthumously, as well as a flag

You can apply for the flag by completing VA Form 2008, Application for United States Flag for Burial Purposes.

Here are a couple of websites that can help you get started with research on a veteran or a ship.

http://militaryrecordsusa.com/

http://www.ancestry.com/nara_new

Collection of Militaria From NY Times Video Clip
Source: link below.

Here is a video about a fellow (See picture above.) that uses a two-box detector to locate shells and other old military items on his farm. He has accumulated a huge collection.  

The story is a good reminder that there still may also be dangerous things in the ground and on the beaches around the Treasure Coast, which was once a military training center.  

It is said that 20 million shells were fired during the Battle of Verdun, of which about 20 percent did not explode.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000002957552/the-bomb-collector-of-ypres.html?playlistId=1194811622205
 

Thanks to teklord for sending me that link!

Remember to be careful when digging where there could possibly be old shells or bombs.  That includes the Treasure Coast.


Spain recently returned a bunch of stolen artifacts to Columbia.  

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/06/24/us-spain-colombia-archaeology-idINKBN0EZ1YW20140624


You might remember the case from back in 2012 in which Odyssy Marine had to turn over tons of coins from the Nuestra Senora de Mercedes that it recovered off of Portugal.  

http://tbo.com/news/business/spain-sends-military-to-retrieve-treasure-from-odyssey-marine-360822

I'm not sure why Peru didn't prevail in their claim for the same coins.


A Mexican helicopter fired shots at a US border patrol.  They claim it was by accident, of course.  I would not be surprised by anything down there these days.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mexican-helicopter-crosses-u-s-border-fires-border-patrol-n142966


There are religious shrines around the world that are visited by millions of people, but you might not know that there are religious shrines in the US as well.  I thought this one was especially interesting.

National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Fonda, NY: Having lost her parents at an early age, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) was raised among the Mohawks in the home of an uncle. There she first encountered Christian missionaries, and was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1676 in Fonda, NY near the Jesiut mission in Auriesville. Because of her baptism, her exemplary life, and her desire to remain a virgin, Kateri suffered great persecution. She died at age twenty-four known as the “Lily of the Mowhawks,” since she had given herself over entirely to care for the sick and long hours of prayer and penance. She was beatified in 1980 by Pope John Paul II. Her body is buried in the church of the Native American  reserve of Kahnawake, Quebec.

Source:  http://www.ssvmusa.org/Events/CatholicCulture/PilgrimageSites.shtm



It sometimes seems that the obvious beaches are over hunted.  I suppose they are.  There must be more detectorists today than back a few decades.  Yet that is easy to over estimate, as I've said before.  The detecting community is so much more visible today than in the past, due to the internet. 

The most over-hunted beaches are those that are obvious and easy.   Most of those "obvious" beaches have parking lots and beach walk-overs.

There are however long stretches of beach along the Treasure Coast that are seldom hunted because they are not as easy to get to.  Those beaches are not as heavily hunted, but they are also generally not as busy and so produce fewer modern targets.  That doesn't mean they will never produce shipwreck items though, and they may produce a few good modern targets even if they aren't real plentiful.

One way to make it easier to hunt those out-of-the-way beaches is to get someone to drop you off and pick you up again later.  That can keep you from having to walk a few miles with your detector, scoop, water, etc.

If there are two or more of you, you might consider dropping a couple of the more energetic people off at an out-of-the-way location while the others go ahead to a parking lot.   If the one group detecting the more distant location only has to walk to the parking lot, that means the walk has been cut in half.   If you park at a parking lot then walk to a remote site and then have to return to the parking lot, that doubles the distance you have to walk.


On the Treasure Coast we are stuck in the same old weather pattern with a one to two foot surf.  As is typical of this kind of weather, a few shards have recently been found up in the Corrigans area.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net