12/1/16 Report - Million Dollars of Gold Flakes Stolen. Great Bottle Book. Gold Torc Found.

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

Turtle Trail North Thursday
Photo by Darrel S.

Darrel, down from Gainesville, hit the Treasure Coast beaches hard for the last month and sent me a lot of reports and photos,  They were very helpful to me.  Thanks Darrel.

You can tell the cuts are old.  They are beaten down.  When they are new, they are more like a wall. They just sort of crumble over time if the water isn't hitting them.

In the above photo you can see that the water had just splashed up on the foot of the cuts.

Darrel says that Seagrape Trail access is still closed.

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Over a million dollars worth of gold flakes was stolen from the back of a truck in New York in broad daylight with bystanders not paying any attention.  

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/29/us/daring-gold-theft-ny-trnd/

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A few days ago I posted a link to an article about how to tell the age of Coke bottles.  That post received a good number of Google Pluses.

Here is a great book that will give you tons of good information on how to date and identify all kinds of bottles.  You can read much of it online as a preview.

The book, written by Peter Schulz, has the title Baffle Marks and Pontil Scars: A Reader on Historic Bottle Identification.

Click on the title to look at that preview.

I highly recommend taking a look at this book if you collect bottles at all.

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3000 Year-Old Gold Torc (Belt) Find

A mysterious 3,000-year-old gold torc, described as one of the largest ever discovered, has been unearthed in the U.K.

Discovered in Cambridgeshire last year, the torc, which dates from between 1300 and 1100 B.C., went on display at the British Museum in London this week...

Here is the link for the rest of that story.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/11/30/huge-3000-year-old-gold-belt-unearthed-in-uk.html

Thanks to Bill White for that link.

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Expect a small surf for the next week or two.  Nothing exciting.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/4/14 Report - Pirate's Lair, $10 Million Gold Coin Cache Stolen, and Odyssey Marine Contracted to Work On SS Central America

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



Steps Up To 17th Century Pirates Lair
Source: Livescience,com.

What would the ideal pirate lair look like?   Think 1600s.

What would you want?  Remote location?  Good view of the sea lanes?  Protected access for coming and going?

Well this might be it.  Everything I imagined.

Here is what the following linked article says.  An alliance of pirates preyed on ships laden with treasure, outmatched Britain's Royal Navy, elected their own admiral and, ultimately, were destroyed in a cataclysmic battle against a Dutch fleet in 1614.

They were a pirate alliance which operated on the southwest coast of Munster, Ireland, in the early 17th century, and now new archaeological and historical research reveals new details about their adventures.

Here is the link for more about that

http://www.livescience.com/43696-17th-century-pirate-alliance-uncovered-in-ireland.html

And here is the link for more photos.

http://www.livescience.com/43693-photos-17th-century-pirate-alliance.html



The 10$ million dollars worth of mint-condition gold coins that were found buried under a tree may have been stolen from the mint in 1899.  If that is the case, the finders won't be able to keep the coins but might get a finders fee.  Bummmmer!

I wonder what is going to happen to those coins.  They'll probably disappear into some government black hole.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/03/04/10m-in-gold-coins-found-in-yard-might-be-linked-to-1899-heist/20842614/


Odyssey Marine Exploration has been contracted to conduct an archaeological investigation and salvage whatever remains of the cargo from the SS Central America shipwreck off the coast of South Carolina.

You probably know something of the SS Central America.  It has been well publicized and you'll see ads for the sale of its gold coins and other salvaged items.  It sank while returning from the California gold fields.

Here is the link for more about the new deal with Odyssey Marine.

http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2014/03/03/614960/10070736/en/Odyssey-Marine-Exploration-Selected-for-Recovery-of-SS-Central-America-Gold.html


I've talked about the storms hitting the United Kingdom this year.  Everything from WW II bombs to ancient forests are being uncovered.

Here is a link for more about that.

http://www.livescience.com/43761-storms-reveal-bombs-ancient-trees.html


We're have absolutely beautiful weather on the Treasure Coast if you are thinking about playing on the beach, but if you wanted to detect the beach for old things that is a completely different matter.

The surf will be up to around four feet.  And the tides are big because of the new moon.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/9/14 Report - Storms Hitting the UK, Treasure Coast Finds and Conditions, and Identity of Recent Whatzit.

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

I went out to the beach this morning to see what was going on.  There were a number of Sheriff cars at one beach access.  I suppose they were looking for signs of the plane that recently crashed.  As I understand, it is thought that the pilot's backpack and maybe a boot has been found.

Mushy Treasure Coast Beach This Morning Near Low Tide

The beaches that I looked at this morning were mushy.  Here is one.

I did find one place where there was a one-foot cut that ran for about fifty yards.  (See below) There were shells below the cut.

All along that beach were a lot of iron flakes near and in the wet sand.  That was the predominate target type on that beach this morning except for a small number of small pieces of copper.  There were also a few pieces of fossil.

I often get questions about iron flakes.  Many of them come from renourishment pipes and equipment.  Some can be from something older though.

Overall, beach conditions remain poor.

Notice the black sand right below this cut.


Detectorists are often mischaracterized and misunderstood.  The many contributions  made by amateur archaeologists as well as the salvors that contribute so much to the Florida Collection are very much overlooked.

You might be surprised by the level of experience, expertise and contributions made by those who read this blog and who send me emails.  Among those that read this blog are some who work on the salvage ships along the Treasure Coast, but I often hear from experts in a variety of fields.

For example, I often hear from those who collect fossils.  They hold permits and report their fossil finds according to the terms of those permits.

I also hear from some who have published articles in professional archaeology journals and others who have worked with archaeologists.  And there are some who have contributed their finds to museums.

As I showed through a poll that I conducted in this blog, the average age of the detectorists who reads this blog is in the fifties.  They don't dress like Indiana Jones and swing across canyons on ropes.  There is a very small group that is younger.  Certainly many of the divers are younger, but overall detectorists are mature, accomplished, law-abiding people who have rasied families and now have the time to pursue other interests.


Here is a neat video sent to me from Peter H., a detectorists in Wales who reads this blog.  The video shows an animation graphic of significant wave heights that have been banging the UK for the past couple of months.  Really fascinating.

http://magicseaweed.com/news/an-extraordinary-winter-of-north-atlantic-storms/6066/

Thanks for the contribution Peter.

I think you can see that what they are getting over there is a continuation of the winter storms coming off of New England.

In Florida we don't get the huge tides that they get farther north and the beaches are what I'll call lower profile.

The principles I describe in this blog were largely derived from personal observations from the East Coast of Florida yet apply to beaches everywhere.  

Peter said, "Your posts have helped me immensely to find the spots particularly high up on the beaches where the dunes have been cut and washed away." 

I'm glad to know that I'm helping people well beyond the Treasure Coast.  I'd guess that my most long-distance email concerning this blog came from a detectorist in Australia. 



The other day I posted a whatzit.   It was a toy pirate piece, in case you couldn't tell.

Here are pictures of similar fantasy pieces sent in by Clint L., who correctly identified the whatzit.

 
 


 
 





I recently posted some finds by SW.  Below are some more, including a musket ball, old token and a few other items.

Finds by SW.

Token Found by SW.

SW said, On the subject of tokens. Here is a token just dug yesterday, right in the middle of my war site. It is a George Junior Republic 50 cent. Most likley early 1900. My best find ever was a 1776 token found at a Morman Battalion Camp. To bad it was stolen from me about 35 years ago. The other photos are a .49 call musket ball, a Carlton Silver Plate spoon. (age not known yet). the fired round and the white metal button were in my trash bucket, the button looks like an early bottle cap. 

Congratulations SW.  And thanks for sharing.

SW gave two good warnings.  One is to keep your good finds safe.  I recommend a bank safe deposit box.

Second, be careful what you throw in our trash bag.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net