12/6/17 Report - Ring of Well Known Person Found After Being Lost On A Florida Beach For Decades. Another Reale Find On The Treasure Coast.

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

Some Nice Coins and a Ring Found Sept. 25.

Finds and photo by Chris N.

Below is a message I received from Chris N. who found the items shown above.

I found this ring belonging to Fairleigh S Dickinson Jr of New Jersey. He was an avid fisherman, adventurer, businessmen, New Jersey Senator, and instrumental in laying out the plans for the Meadowland Complex along the Hackensack River in East Rutherford New Jersey. Also note His father was Farleigh Dickinson Sr. who help start Becton Dickinson Medical formally in that area as well as the University in Rutherford, NJ.  He attended the New York Military Academy in Cornwall,New York, and the Ring was dated 1937. .And was in the United State Coast Guard in the 1940's.

With help of the Police departments in New Jersey and a little research,we were able to get the ring back to the family, who were astonished that we went through all this trouble to get it back to them. They were surprised and happy that Metal Detector Enthusiast do their best to try and return items. "Thats what we do"

He passed away in 1996, and I was informed that they had no idea the ring would ever be found. We can assume that "Hurricane Irma and the Nor'Easter shortly between each other exposed the original hard pack in which we were able to pick it up on the Metal Detectors September 25, 2017. {Using a Garrett AT Pro, and Mine Lab Sovereigns  GT}

Extensive erosion inadated the Northern Florida coast where ring was found. 

Amongst other items found were old coins dated 1895 and later to Modern Clad, other Jewelry Items, Copper Sheeting, Ballast Rocks, but no Spanish Coins!!! Yet?

Found Ring With Name Clearly Inscribed Inside
Find and photo by Chris N.

Thanks Chris for all of the good work involved in getting it back to the family and providing some more good PR for the metal detecting hobby.

Congratulations of the great finds as well!

Florida beaches have long attracted people from around the country and around the world.  That is one thing that makes detecting here so interesting.

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Below are some items found by Darrel S. not long ago. 

Fused Bolts.

Photo by Darrel S.

Darrel S. sent me the above photo of the two dug fused bolts or spikes and then the picture below of the same items after they were cleaned.

Bollts After Cleaning.
Photo by Darrel S.

Here is something else he found with the bolts.

Thanks Darrel.

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We''re still having some big tides on the Treasure Coast, including a nice negative tide in the early AM hours.  The surf is going to be only around two or three feet.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

6/17/17 Report - Amazing Treasure Coast Beach Find!!! Beach Conditions and Tropical Disturbances.

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

Diamond Gold and Amethyst Ring Find.
Find and photo by Warren D.

If you have been reading this blog, you've read about Warren Dennison before.  He has found and returned some valuable rings.  The stories were covered in the news and here.  Warren stored up a lot of good karma.  Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Different View of the Same Ring.
Find and photo by Warren D.

This find is a very exceptional one-of-a-kind item.  Research could reveal the owner.  It has been identified by no less than Robert Marx and Karl Fismer as being a probable 1715 Fleet item.  A cob was found nearby.  It was found on a Treasure Coast beach, and is obviously shown uncleaned.

There is a WESH2 News video with Warren showing his find that you can probably find on the internet.

Congratulations Warren!  Super great find!

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John Brooks Beach Saturday Morning.

You can see the sandy conditions and the nice smooth one-foot surf.

With these summer conditions, you have to be alert to rare opportunities.  Some of those occur are very localized situations. As you can see, the prevailing beach conditions are poor, but there are always those little spots ( some man made and some natural ) that provide opportunities.  They are rare and not always easy to find, but they are out there.

Nieves Site Saturday Morning.

You can barely see it, but the small dot is a salvage boat working in the distance.

Seaweed Covered Beach Saturday Morning.

Seaweed is generally a bad sign, but there are rare occasions when a layer of seaweed can cover a newly exposed good spot.  In this case, under the seaweed was newly accumulated sand.

Down the beach was a spot where there was no seaweed.  Some older items were found there - mostly iron.

I also found some very old fossils.

There are still a couple tropical disturbances on the map - one near Yucatan and the other way south in the Atlantic.  The second is organizing and has a long way to go before hitting land.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/3/16 Report - One Of The Most Remarkable Beach Finds That I Could Ever Imagine.

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

Some finds are really remarkable.  The royal escudos found last summer by the Queens Jewels guys are very remarkable.  There are some finds that aren't valuable, but they are still remarkable.  I'm going to talk about one such find today.

The find I'm going to talk about isn't gold or silver or even copper, pewter or lead.  It isn't wood, glass or ceramics or mineral or stone or shell.   It isn't a coin or medallion or anything that you would really expect to find on a beach, especially not after hundreds of years.

What I am talking about is a wax seal impression - not the wax seal stamp that would be used to make an impression, but the impressed wax seal itself.

Modern Wax Impression.

Shown to the left is the type of thing I'm talking about, but that isn't the one.

Beeswax was used in the Middle Ages to seal documents, but since beeswax was flexible and could be easily removed, sealing wax was invented.

Below is a bit of the history of sealing wax.

...Government officials, particularly those engaged in clandestine operations and delicate and confidential negotiations, immediately recognized the need for a sealing material which would betray any effort made to tamper with the seal and gain access to the contents of the document it was intended to secure. It was then that the superior qualities of the new "Spanish" wax came to be highly valued. The basic formula of this new sealing compound was a blend of shellac, mastic, turpentine, chalk or gypsum, and a coloring agent, to which essential oils and/or fragrant balsams might be added to facilitate melting and impart a pleasant fragrance. This "sealing wax" could be melted to a thick viscous fluid which would readily and firmly adhere to the parchment or paper on which it was placed. While warm, it would take a clear impression of any seal that was pressed in to it. It would remain solid, even in the heat of summer, and was flexible enough to remain intact while affixed to the document on which it had been placed...

You can read more of the history of sealing wax by using the following link, which will take you to the article where I found the above information.

 https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/sealing-wax/

The wax seal impression shown below was found many years ago near Turtle Trail.  The remarkable thing is that it survived,for hundreds of years.  It is not very durable.  It must have been protected by a layer of sand for a long time.  It could not take much of a beating without crumbling.  

Wax Seal Impression From Treasure Coast Beach.

It is not easy to see the details of the impression.  I'll try to point out some of the features.  There is some sand or crust on part of it, but I can make out a little more of it than what shows in the photo.  

In the picture below I outlined one wing that shows fairly clearly.

Eagle Wind Outlined In Red.

To the left of the wing you might be able to see the breast and thighs of the eagle.  I outlined those in the picture below.

In the picture below you can not see the head at all, but I outlined it too.

The other wing is covered by encrustation.

Eagle Body And Thighs Outlined In Red

At about the ten o'clock and seven o'clock positions some of wax broke off of the perimeter.

You can see how the wax flowed out around the edges of the seal very much like the picture of the red seal above.

I wish that more details were visible, but for me it is enough of a miracle that it survived hundreds of years before being found.  I can't think of any kind of find that would amaze me any more.

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We have a south wind today and about a two foot surf.  We'll have a small surf for several days.  Not much of a tide either.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/7/15 Report - Great Numismatic Study of Dug Pistareens. Tropical Storm Grace Headed This Way. Ring Beach Find.

Witten by the Treasure Guide for the exclusive use of TreasureBeachesReport.blogspot.com.

Found This Morning On A Treasure Coast Beach.

I went to the beach this morning.  Conditions had not changed at all.  I saw a couple of detectorists on the same beach.  One had done a good bit of the beach before I arrived.  The other arrived later.

People were arriving early for the Labor Day holiday.  There were a few distant showers and a little lightning and thunder.

When the holiday crowds are at the beach, they spread out a little farther than normal from the main gathering spots.

I had just switched from motion mode to non-motion mode, just to check it out, and hit the ring.  It sounded much larger.

I think it is a very good idea to be very familiar and practiced with all the modes that your detector offers.  There are times to use each one.

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Yesterday I posted Bernard Romans' statement about pistareens being found along the Treasure Coast beaches after Easterly gales.

The coins Romans referred to were not really pistareens.  Pistareens, as the term is more strictly defined, are Spanish coins minted in the old world. In the 1700s pistareens were commonly used in the American colonies along with a variety of other foreign coinage.  Of course, there was no U. S. currency yet.  It would be natural for Romans to refer to the Spanish cobs found on the beach as being pistareens, since they were commonly used in the colonies and had similar markings.

Pistareen 

Mint Marks.

1. Seville

2. Madrid

3..Segovia

4.Cuenca

I found a super study of dug pistareens recovered in the tobacco raising colonies of
America.  Pistareens found by both relic hunters and archaeolgists are included in the study.  Many of of those included in the study were found in Virginia.

This is definitely THE best study of a large sample of dug coins that I have ever seen.  The study was published in the April 2001 The Colonial Newsletter.  The title of the study is When Cross Pistareens Cut Their Way Through the Tobacco Colonies.  The author is Thomas A. Kays.  I posted the link below.

Here are some of the conclusions describing the typical dug pistareen.


It crossed the Atlantic westward as a 1721 dated pistareen minted by King Philip V at Seville.

The coin was used to make everyday purchases in Colonial America before the Revolution • 

It grades very fine having circulated actively for fifteen years and was saved for twenty five. • 

It was cut into quarters for frontier change at a tavern losing 25% by weight to the melting pot. • 

It would have gone to melt completely before the 19th Century had it not been casually lost. • 

It lay undisturbed (save for the pass of the plough) for over two centuries until it was dug up. 

The study includes many illustrations and a map showing where the pistareens were found and a lot of other really good information.  I think you'll want to read this.

Here is the link.

http://numismatics.org/wikiuploads/CNL/Pistareens.pdf

The mint marks shown to the left are from the same linked study.


I'll add this link to my list of reference links on the first page of the blog.


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t

Tropical Storm Grace.

Grace seems to be following about the same path as Erika.  She is still days away and supposed to decrease to a depression around the West Indies.  We'll just have to watch that one for a while.

The surf this morning was one to two feet.  It looked a little rougher than I expected, but won't change much the next few days.

Happy Labor Day,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/15/14 Report - Bronze Rod Shipwreck Finds. 1715 Fleet Posey Rings and Bracelet Finds With Inscriptions To Be Translated.

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



Bronze Pin With Washers
Photo submitted by Trez

 

Trez sent the above picture of an item found by his father at Corrigans after seeing my 8/10/14 post, which showed some similar objects found by UB (shown below).

 
 
 

Trez says The washer's (on the item above) actually have some ornate markings along it, I wonder if the other man's spike does?

UB and I referred to these items as spikes in the 8/10 post.  It seems to me now that they are not spikes at all.  The photo that Trez sent shows that both ends are flared. 

Notice the rods on the cannon carriage below. 

I believe that the ones above would be used similarly to the ones shown in the cannon carriage shown below.  They appear to be smaller, though, and for lighter duty.

I would not be surprised if many of those types of things of various sizes were to be found on every ship.

If you can point me to any other pictures of bronze rods with what we have referred to as washers, or if you know the correct names and how they were used, please let me know.

Thanks in advance for any help.  I think Trez's pictures show that UB's items (at least the two that are not covered by wood) are not spikes.

Thanks Trez.



A posey ring is a finger ring, often of high carat gold, with a poem or motto inscribed on it.  The tradition goes back to the Middle Ages. 

Here are a couple of examples of 18th Century posey rings.

Photo source:  www.georgianjewelry.com

These examples are English.

Posey rings have been found on 1715 Fleet wrecks.  Two examples are very large, and may have been worn over gloves.

The inscriptions on the two 1715 Fleet rings, one found in 1989 and the other in 1996, are as follows:

Z+DIA+BIZ+S+ZB+Z+HGA+BFS++

Z+DIA+BIZ+SAB+Z+HG+F+BF

Presumably those abbreviated messages would be in Spanish.

They were originally published in the Oct. 1977 Florida Historical Quarterly in an article by Catherine M. Gaither.

I could not find those pictures now.

Like the two posey rings shown above where the words are separated by marks, the abbreviated words on the 1715 Fleet rings are separated by crosses.

There is also an old Treasure Coast beach find bracelet reported to have the following similar inscription.

Z DIA BIZ SAB ZHG BFRS

If anyone can translate or decode these inscriptions, I'd be very happy to hear from you.

I hope some one will take up this project and get us the answer.


Here is the specific source link for the two posey ring photos shown above.

http://www.georgianjewelry.com/items/show/15602-i-lyke-my-choyse-poesy-ring-ca-1700


One of those disturbed areas is just coming off of Africa again.  It has only a 10% chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.

On the Treasure Coast the conditions remain the same.  Same calm surf and South wind.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net