2/3/19 Report - Wrapping Up January 2019 on the Treasure Coast: Finds and General Conclusions.

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

I'm glad my beach rating was as accurate as it was.  It appears that only a level three rating was warranted though.  Since I was sick and didn't get to actually inspect more than couple beaches for myself, I'm satisfied with my prediction and rating, which was based primarily on my observation of the weather and the condition of the beach I did get to inspect.  Some treasure coins were found, but not a lot.  Of course, I do not always hear about all those that are found.  Not everybody reports their finds.

When I issue a beach conditions rating, it is for the Treasure Coast in general - not any particular beach.  That means that you can go out and not find anything like what I was talking about if you just look at a few spots.  People reported cuts from Juno to Melborne, even though most beaches were not producing treasure coins.

I don't tell you exactly which beach or beaches you need to visit. There are a lot of very good reasons for that.  I can't even explain all the reasons why that would be a very bad idea.  I think you can come up with some of them if you think about it yourself.

First of all I don't know about all the beaches.  The Treasure Coast is about a hundred miles long.  Even when I'm well I can only check a few of them myself.

Imagine that you have been putting in some long hard beach time to find something good and you finally have some success.  Then the Treasure Guide tells everybody to go to that spot, and hundreds of people swarm to your spot.   That wouldn't be very nice would it.   You'd be certain from that point on to never tell anybody anything again - certainly not the TreasureGuide - and that ends all of those nice beach reports that you like to read.

Like I said, I can't give you all of the good reasons, but here is another.  It takes the hunt out of treasure hunt.  I know some of you just want to find your first, but you'll appreciate it much more and learn much more from it if it isn't handed to you on a silver platter.

One big TV expert used to complain about my ratings being too this or that.  I was surprised that such a big expert would even need my ratings - or maybe would issue his own.

Here is another reason.  When there is one good spot, there is likely more than one good spot, and there are times when it can really pay off to take the path less traveled.

I've never been one to follow the other guy.  I'm an oldest child, and tagging along never appealed to me.  If I see a bunch of guys going one direction, I'm much more likely to go other direction.

My specialty for a long time was finding those places that seemed to be overlooked by almost everybody else, yet produced very well.  There are those kinds of places on the Treasure Coast too.

Years ago I did a poll in this blog asking people where they had found cobs in the last five years.  Here are the results of that poll.

Didn't find any.	54 (72%)
Cocoa/Mellborne	3 (4%)
Bonsteel	0 (0%)
Sebastian Inlet to Ambersands	0 (0%)
Golden Sands/ Treasure Shores	0 (0%)
Wabasso	2 (2%)
Seagrape/Turtle Trail	4 (5%)
Between Turtle Trail and Rio Mar	1 (1%)
Rio Mar	0 (0%)
John Brooks/Frederick Douglass	3 (4%)
Jupiter	2 (2%)
Other Florida	3 (4%)
Not in Florida	7 (9%)

As you can see, there are six different Treasure Coast areas listed where people had found cobs during that time period. Some of them include more than one beach.  I know that cobs have been found at some of those other locations over the years since then.

The point of that is that the Treasure Coast includes a lot of areas, many of which will produce when conditions are right.  Some produce more often, and some have been producing more in recent years while others have not, but much of the Treasure Coast has produced some very good finds at one time or another.

I was thinking last night where I had found Spanish Colonial cobs or other identified Spanish Colonial artifacts over the years.  According to my best recollection, I came up with 18 different beaches, which ranged from a Caribbean Island, to the Florida Keys, South Florida, the Treasure Coast, and the Florida Panhandle.  At most of those locations I found only one or two.  The majority came from just a few beaches, but that is partly because I spent a good amount of time at those beaches.

You have to remember that there are some beaches that are not visited often by metal detectorists that have and will produced some remarkable finds when the time is right. 

The vast majority of my cobs came from one beach, but there is one other beach that is a not too distant runner-up.

The vast majority of my precious metals artifacts came from another beach.

And the vast majority of military artifacts (buttons, musket balls, etc.) came from another.

What I want you to know is that there is still a lot to be found, and they won't all come from the same one or two areas.

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Bruce B. wrote and identified himself in a photo that I posed the other day.   He also said,

I left John Brooks and turned into Middle Cove when I saw no other cars there. I was able to dig a bunch of coins many of which were dated from the 70's and 80's so I didn't go home completely skunked. At John Brooks I got one penny and some aluminum and I was there about 4 hours.

Thanks Bruce.  

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Sebastian Steve came through surgery well and now has two new stents.

Thanks for your prayers.

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I'm expecting to receive some more find photos.

It looks like this week we'll have a two to four foot surf.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/14/11 Report - Salvage and Search Lease Areas & More

Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.

I'm often asked where you can detect in the water and where you can't. That should be an easy question to answer, but it isn't.

Below is the information that I have on that. I hope it helps.

Here are the center points of the salvage leases that I have.

Cabin Wreck North 27.49.8 West 80.25.55
Anchor Wreck North 27.48.2 West 80.24.70
Corrigans North 27.46.2 West 80.22.67
Rio Mar North 27.38.3 West 80.20.90
Sandy Point North 27.35.8 West 80.19.65
Nieves North 27.25.3 West 80.16.50
Power Plant North 27.21.2 West 80.13.65

The leased areas include the area defined by a radius of 3000 yards out from the center point. That means an area of around 3.2 miles across (diameter).

I've posted this information before, but I get asked so often that I thought I would post it again.

My 9/20/2010 and 9/23/2010 posts provide maps showing most, but not all of the leased areas.

I'm sorry I don't have it all, and I can't guarantee that what I do have is accurate or up-to-date. It isn't easy to get this information. I haven't found where it is published by official sources. I think it should be public information and easily accessible to the citizens of the state for whom those cultural and historic resources are being protected.

If anyone can provide complete, accurate, up-to-date maps of lease areas I'd be happy to post them so people will know where they aren't allowed to detect.

I can tell you from personal observation that a some of those leased areas haven't been actively worked for quite some time.


The survey has concluded and the results are in. Most people who travel to metal detect, travel by car. That isn't in the least surprising. It does make the information that I've provided lately concerning crime at the beach accesses important.

I'm a little surprised by how many people take their detectors on planes and boats. And I am surprised that as many people take detectors on boats as planes.

I suspect that before airport security became so tough, it was more common to take detectors on planes.

I remember in the eighties and nineties before airport security was as tight as it is today, I would take my detector as carry-on and when I went through security, they didn't have the slightest idea what the detector was but they passed me through without any trouble. That wouldn't happen so easily these days. I don't think I would try to take my detector as carry-on these days.

I'd like to hear any tips or experiences from those of you who take your detector on either planes or cruise ships.

Don't forget to check out the new site on my Treasure Links List. And you mightalso want to take a look at the old posts containing the lease area maps.

And don't forget you can use the blog search box to find information in old posts.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions

Beach conditions on the Treasure Coast are not only very poor for finding cobs, but also poor for finding iron artifacts or anything old now.

We are really in summer now. It is hot and the surf has calmed down. Nothing but sand everywhere.

Well, not quite nothing. There are some shells and light materials. But not much good.

Shell Pile Found This Morning.

The shell piles were few and far between but there were a few. I found some fossils in shell piles like this one.

I also detected around the shell piles without much luck. Just a few worthless pieces of metal.

The wind is out of the west. That is why the surf is so smooth.

The forecast says the surf will remain calm for the nest week. You might either want to hunt tourist beaches or take a dip. That is one reason I posted the lease area information again today. The surf is nice and calm.

One thing I often tell people is that if they don't know if they can detect on a certain beach, ask. If there is a life guard, they will be able to tell you what you can and can't do. In some cases, you might want to call government officials. The people in Parks and Recreation will be able to tell you.

A lot, if not all, state and national parks do not permit detecting. Again, if in doubt, ask.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/7/11 Report - Metal Detecting and the Splash Zone.

Beach Showing Splash Area.

I looked and looked but couldn't find any of my best photos of the splash area. This one does show the splash zone but not as well as I would have liked. You can see it if you look closely.

The blue line shows the approximate border of the back of the splash area which is between the blue line and the top edge of the cut. Where the arrow is you can see a bunch of shells. The shells run along the entire splash area, they are just more visible in the area that I am pointing to.

As I mentioned in my last post, the splash zone is where the water splashes up and over the face of a cut and deposits shells and other light materials behind the cut. There will usually be a lot of small shells, some sea weed and other light junk in the splash area. Splash areas do not form behind all cuts.

When a clear splash area does form and there are a bunch of shells behind the cut, there is also a good chance you will find a small cob or two there as well. They will be small cobs.

As I've mentioned, I don't know exactly how those cobs end up in the splash zone, but have observed old US coins flipping up over cuts.

As you can see from the survey results, the splash area is one of the areas where only one cob was reported found in the survey results. I didn't take the survey myself, and if I did, that number would have been a little higher, because I have found cobs in that area. In fact, my personal experience verified much of what the survey said.

I also know some other heavy duty detectorists and have observed some that hit the splash zone very heavily - too heavily to have never had success there. You just don't focus on an area that often unless you have found something there in the past.

Below is a cob that I found in the splash zone. It is typical of the type of cobs that are found there.

King Carlos Monogram On a Corroded Half Reale.

If I correctly recall this cob was found in 2010 on a 1715 Plate Fleet beach. It is a Mexican half reale. As you can see it is very corroded and is pretty light. It is fairly typical of the type of cob that you can expect to find in that type of area.

The assayer mark looks like a "C", but I think it must be a "G", which means the assayer would be Geronimo Bercerra, and would make the date somewhere in the 1665-1677 range.

I show the cob because it is so typical of the type of cob that would be found in a splash zone. As you would suspect, these small light cobs do not produce a real loud signal.

Here are some reasons why not too many cobs are found in the splash zone. First, splash areas do not form above all cuts. A number of conditions must simultaneously exist. Second, from my own personal observations, not too many people hunt that area, although as I mentioned I have observed some serious detectorists that hunt that area frequently and heavily. Third, the cobs found there tend to be smaller cobs that I am sure are missed by some detectorists.

Overall my personal observations support the survey results. The splash zone is not an area to be dismissed, but don't expect to find any eight reales there.


I hear that there are beach clean-ups this weekend for Fort Pierce and Martin County. I didn't really hear the date, but assume that they were talking about this weekend. They'll provide T-shirts, water, gloves, bags and a free lunch. You might want to look into that. It might not be too late if you want to look into that.

I also heard on the the Swap Shop on WPSL this morning that someone was looking to buy a metal detector. If you have one for sale you might want to call the show tomorrow.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.


Typical Beach On the Treasure Coast Friday.

Current beach conditions for finding shipwreck cobs or coins on the Treasure Coast remain poor. There is a lot of sea weed and a lot of loose sand piled up on the beaches.

If you aren't familiar with this blog, I use a five point rating scale to rate beach conditions for finding old shipwreck cobs or coins on the beach. I haven't gone over that for a long time now.

The five point scale goes from a 1 to a 5, where 1 means poor conditions and a 5 rating means excellent conditions.

Below you can see how the new sand at Fort Pierce inlet has already deeply eroded. It might be worth taking a look along the bottom of the cut although I don't expect much there. The sand came from out west of town.


New Sand Leaving Already.

The wind is from the west northwest today. Seas are running two to three feet, and will remain at those levels for several days. That doesn't look good for the weekend.

You'll have to work for finds on the Treasure Coast.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net