Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Artifact From Battle of Blair Mountain Source: See link below. |
You might remember the emerald from the Treasure Coast that Captain Jonah recently showed us.
Here is a good article about gem stones. It talks about which gems are popular and how prices are determined.
http://www.gemselect.com/other-info/gemstone-prices.php
Vintage costume jewelry can bring surprisingly high prices, sometimes hundreds of dollars. Unfortunately, like coins, vintage costume jewelry found on a beach has often been there a while and is probably in poor condition.
Here is a great web site for researching old costume jewelry. It gives information on designers, makers marks, patents, etc.
http://www.illusionjewels.com/costumejewelrymarks.html#art
Here is an article on a dig at a Revolutionary War prison camp site.
http://www.eveningsun.com/local/ci_26412077/eighteenth-century-artifacts-including-british-half-penny-found?source=rss
Some of you will consider this off-topic, however I thought it was interesting. It seems that mysterious cell phone towers have been appearing and no one seems to know who they belong to. Are they being built by criminal organizations to hack or obtain information or is a covert government operation? No one seems to know.
http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/02/who-is-putting-up-interceptor-cell-towers-the-mystery-deepens/
Unless you are from West Virginia or are familiar with the history of labor relations, you might not know about the the Battle of Blair Mountain, which occurred near Charleston WV in 1921. The Battle of Blair Mountain involved more than 10,000 men and was the country’s largest civil conflict besides the Civil War. Though the battle is little known outside of union and historian circles, it was a key moment for the American labor movement.
Detectorists helped to determine where the skirmishes actually took place by scanning the area for gun shells and artifacts. Now the historic site is in danger of being destroyed by mining operations.
Here is an article about the second largest civil conflict in US history.
http://archive.archaeology.org/1201/features/blair_mountain_coal_activism_west_virginia.html
If you ever had the opportunity of detecting a battle site, you might have found that the artifacts really speak to you. Things like buttons, bullets, or gun parts all seem to make you wonder how they got lost and what happened to the person that once used them.
The first time I had a chance to hunt a battle site it was like that. I found my first military button there, my first gun flint, my first musket part, my first grape shot, and a few other firsts, however, each and everyone of them seemed to be accompanied by an image. I thought about sailing ships, soldiers and sailors hundreds of miles from home landing on a strange island, and attempting to climb up a very steep embankment to reach the fortified canon emplacements while being shot at. There was evidence of hand to hand combat on that steep cliff. I thought those images were nothing more than my imagination, but could they have been something more. I doubt it, but it sometimes felt like a faint ghostly reenactment materialized in the air.
Seems the weather is finally getting a little cooler. It has been one hot and rainy summer on the Treasure Coast..
There is a little weather system over the Bahamas that is headed our way. Doesn't look like it will cause the surf to increase much though. Also a system crossing the Atlantic headed towards the West Indies. That won't affect us this week.
The tides are nice a big now.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@Comcast.net
