2/20/20 Report - Sam's Town Casino Token Find. Upcoming Sedwick Auction. Bigger Surf Coming.

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

Sam's Town Casino Token.

I've found a number of casino chips or tokens in the past.  Some were in great condition, seeming to be recent drops.  One was in a plastic case and like new.  That one was found in the swash on an ocean beach.

Here is another.  It is from a land site and is beat up.  It is a favorite of mine even thought it shows a lot of wear.  I tend to like things that show wear.

Obverse of Sam's Town Casino Token.

I haven't done the research on this one yet, and haven't even tested it to see if it is silver.  I want to have an XRF analysis rather than an acid test because I don't feel like doing a rubbing on it even if it is already beat up.

Just a short section of the edge reeding remains, which clearly shows the heavy use before it was lost.

Whats Left of Edge Reeding on Sam's Town Token.

It weighs .75 oz.

See https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2012/05/52212-report-found-casino-chips.html for more casino chip finds.

Thanks.

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If you want to consign items to the upcoming auction, there are only two weeks remaining for you to do that.

Among the lots that will be sold are the following:

       The Nueva Granada Collection of Colombian Rarities Part I

       An extensive date collection of the finest and rarest Lima 8 escudos recovered from the 1715 Fleet

       Ingots and artifacts from the Spanish Fleets of 1622 (Atocha and Santa Margarita) and 1715

       Large variety of important Spanish colonial cobs and Latin American coins

This year's Spring Treasure Auction will be held at an historic art-based venue: the Germaine Marvel Building at the Maitland Art Center, just minutes from Orlando, FL.

Even if you do not plan to buy or sell anything, the Sedwick auctions provide an excellent opportunity to view fine coins and artifacts in person.

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A winter storm has moved into parts of the south and will be affecting the Treasure Coast before long.

The surf predictions have been holding pretty steady the past few days.  Seven to ten feet is predicted.  Here is the latest.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/10/20 Report - 1715 Fleet Beaches: Rings and Reales. Private Beaches. Big Surf Predicted.

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

Among other things, yesterday I posted some comments from Jammin Jack.  The following comments and photo album picture is from Jack.

Below is a page from Gary Daemer's salvaging during the 1990s. Billy Elam was involved and I think put the album together. You will see many rings been found, but no silver! Possibly, more fragile and did not survive the beating of the ocean or silversmiths did not make many because silver harder to work with. 

Jack continued saying, The rings in the above picture are all gold.  Most were low karat, except for one, which was about 14K, according to the text by the photo.

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It is accepted that very few, if any, silver rings have been found on 1715 Fleet wrecks. (Deagan shows at least one.)  And now we have a beach silver ring "certified" as being from the 1715 Fleet.  So the question is why silver rings are so rare on 1715 Fleet wrecks.  The archaeological record of Spanish colonial land sites does document a few, but again, not many.   It appears they were not the rage at the time.  

Some people have suggested that the scarcity of silver finger rings might be made more extreme by fact that they didn't survive well in a rough salt water environment.

Despite the fact that very few silver finger rings have been attributed to 1715 Fleet ships, a lot of old silver finger rings have been found on the wreck beaches.  Being isolated finds having no substantial context, it would be really difficult to attribute such a find to a particular source without definitive markings.

We can not forget that items of roughly the same time period could come from 18th century salvage efforts and other activities drawn to the beaches by the wrecks.  I wonder, for example, if some finds might be trade goods used to pay/reward indigenous divers and other workers after the wreck.

Another question that is possibly related is why are so many half reales found on the 1715 Fleet beaches while cobs salvaged from the submerged wreck sites include such a high proportion of higher denomination cobs relative to half reales.  Below are a few possibilities.

Could it be because the lighter half reales are more likely to get washed onto the beach?

Are the half reales more difficult to find in the water as compared to larger cobs?

Do small denomination reales corrode and disappear more quickly (as some have suggested of silver rings) in submerged salt water environments?

Did contemporary salvage efforts affect the pattern significantly?


I have my opinions, but since they are nothing more than opinions I'll leave those questions to you.

One huge difference appears obvious: half reales were carried on the fleet in great numbers while finger rings were very scarce.  Nonetheless, both natural and human actions could affect the distribution and finds of both half reales and silver rings.

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Private beaches for the wealthy paid for by taxpayers: that is the subject of the following article, which I am sure will stir up some people.  The same subject had people up in arms a few years ago.

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/newswire/2020/02/03/privatization-coming-beach-near-you-opinion/4643308002/

You might want to be informed on that subject.  It is not a new one, but has not been settled.

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The tides are getting bigger, as is the surf.  We are now up to around 3 - 5 feet, but that isn't the best news.  Look out to next weekend.  The predictions are interesting.

The longer term predictions have been good recently - much improved over a couple years ago.

Source: MagicSeeWeed.com.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

controversial article

1/21/20 Report - Vero Man and Treasure Coast Fossils. Kang Hsi Notes. Big Surf Coming.

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

Source: SiberianTimes.com web site.  See link below.

The Kotelny island woolly mammoth was killed by humans some 21,000 years ago, say scientists.

Dr Albert Protopopov shared new pictures of the remains found at a location which was then part of the vast Beringia Land Bridge connecting what is now Siberia and North America.

'The traces on the bones show that the mammoth was killed and butchered by ancient people,' he said...

Here is the link for more of that article.

https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/arctic-island-woolly-mammoth-shows-strongest-evidence-yet-of-human-slaughter-and-butchering/

You might be aware that some of the oldest things you can find on the Treasure Coast beaches are fossils. It might surprise you to learn that you can find mammoth fossils on our beaches. I've found both mammoth teeth and a section of a tusk.

Mammoth Tusk Section.

Source: SiberianTimes.com (Same link as above).

The tusk section I found was of about the same diameter as the one shown in the above photo.  The end was sticking out of some eroded sand on the Treasure Coast.

Every Floridian, full or part-time, should know about the world-famous "Vero Man" site and James Kennedy's history making find of a 13,000 year-old mammoth bone bearing a human carving.

Wikipedia describes Vero Man this way: Vero man refers to a set of fossilized human bones found near Vero (now Vero Beach), Florida, in 1915 and 1916. The human bones were found in association with those of Pleistocene animals. The question of whether humans were present in Florida (or anywhere in the Americas) during the Pleistocene was controversial at the time, and most archaeologists did not accept that the Vero fossils were that old. Recent studies show that the Vero human bones are from the Pleistocene and are the largest collection of human remains from the Pleistocene found in North America.

See https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/6/110622-mammoth-bone-oldest-art-americas-science/

And also https://www.livescience.com/20088-early-floridians-mingled-mammoths-mastodons.html

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Shards Found South of Seagrape Where Kang His Has Been Found.

Photo by Robert C.

I recently received multiple questions about Kang Hsi porcelain.  As you might know, Kang Hsi porcelain is sometimes found on 1715 Fleet shipwreck sites and on the neighboring beaches.

Robert C., who sent in the above photo showing shards that he found, was wondering if others might know of Kang Hsi porcelain found on the Treasure Coast having colors other than the more common blue and white.

I'm sure he'd like to know if anyone had opinions to offer on the shards shown above.

I've talked about Kang Hsi porcelain in the past, but made some new photos that I think might be helpful for those attempting to identify Kang Hsi.

Below is a comparison of a piece of what I believe to be Kang Hsi porcelain and a piece of common European blue on white pottery side-by-side

Broken Edge of Common Blue on White Pottery (left) and Kang Hsi porcelain (right)

First off, in my experience, the paste of Kang Hsi porcelain is very white and very fine as compared to the common blue on white shards that you'll often find, and Kang Hsi porcelain is generally thin.

Another thing you will notice from the above photo is that the color will sit on the surface of most shards, while the color on Kang Hsi will penetrate the glaze.  The yellow on the shard on the right is encrustation, not a part of the shard.

I am far from an expert on this, and will gladly accept correction if I am wrong about any of it.  From my experience, though, these observations seem to hold.

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It has been a relatively busy year so far.  While there have not been a lot of shipwreck finds, there have been some finds, and there has been periodic erosion at a few spots around the Treasure Coast.  Too bad there is so much renourishment sand to deal with.

The surf predictions look real encouraging.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

The surf will start to build today and peak tomorrow (Wed.).

The wind and primary swell is northerly, but the wind is a bit off-shore until tomorrow

Not only will we have high surf (if the predictions are correct), but we'll also see some swells coming from the north and a few wind direction changes.  Altogether, it looks promising at this point.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/28/19 Report - Big Surf But Not Much Erosion Observed On The Treasure Coast Wreck Beaches. GPZ 7000 For Sale.

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

Seagrape Trail Beach Thursday Morning

I took a look at a few beaches this morning to see what was going on.  Despite the higher surf, not much happened.  It wasn't enough for me to upgrade my beach conditions rating.   Here is what I saw at some of the wreck beaches.

Seagrape Trail This Morning.

A couple detectorists were at Seagrape this morning.  

Turtle Trail This Morning.

A couple detectorists were at Turtle Trail this morning.  You can see one in the photo below.

South of Turtle Trail This Morning.

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

The water did get high last night, but didn't do us much good.  At John Brooks it came up over the previous cut and smoothed it out.  It was pretty mushy on the slope.

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

I visited a couple other beaches,and they too showed signs of the water being high on the beach but were not cut.

The predicted peak surf has not yet arrived.

I heard that some of the beaches farther south were eroded better than these beaches.

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I generally don't do this, but to help out Sebastian Steve I'm letting you know that he needs to sell his Minelab GPZ 7000 (See photo below).

You might remember that he had heart surgery not long ago.

If you are interested, let me know and I'll give you his email address.

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The peak surf will be this morning.  Unfortunately the tides are pretty flat, and the primary swell seems to be hitting the beach from a pretty easterly direction.  Also I'm still seeing a lot of sand in front of the beach that is taking much of the force of the waves.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/27/19 Report - Seven to Eleven Foot Surf Predicted. Notes On Identifying Fake Coins: One Example. An Inexpensive Handy Scale.

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

Surf and Wind Predictions.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

It has been quite a while since we had an eleven foot surf, but the current prediction is for a seven to eleven foot surf.

That is definitely enough to improve beach hunting conditions if other factors are favorable.  It looks like the wind will be from the north later today and into tomorrow.

Dale J. subscribes to a hurricane weather service and received this forecast for Wednesday.

Wind direction will be North-Northeast to Northeast at 20-35 knots starting on Wednesday afternoon and continuing through Wednesday night and Thursday.  Winds on Friday look to shift to a more East-Northeast direction and gradually diminish to 10-20 knots.

Thanks Dale.

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Dan B. sent me a link to the CoinCommunity forum, which had photos of what appeared to me to be the same mounted coin that I showed in this blog a couple days ago.  While I never feel comfortable making judgements about finds from photos alone, the photos that were posted on the other site seemed a little better than the ones I had, and those other photos seemed to show what I thought could be evidence that the coin was made in a mold, which, if true, means that it is probably a reproduction.

Enlargement Of The Photo Shown On The Coin Community Web Site.

The photo appears to show suspicious raised areas.  If I am seeing what I think I am, I would think that the coin was made with a mold rather than struck.  Pictures can be tricky - especially the lighting and reflections.

You can't get true depth perception from a two-dimensional photo, and you obviously can't hold the coin to get a feel for it or inspect it at different angles.

Mounted coins present additional complications.  The mounting hides the edges, for example.  A mounting can also hide other markings, such as a "COPY" mark.  And you can not weigh the coin.

Reproduction coins are often made for jewelry and some are made from shipwreck recovered silver and sold mounted.  

Maybe a numismatic expert such as Ernie R. will be kind enough to confirm or disconfirm my suspicions. 

___

On a related subject, I purchased a nice little scale at Harbor Freight for under $10 that is supposed to measure accurately to the tenth of a gram.  It can weigh in grams, oz., troy oz, dwt., and more.  It has features that I haven't yet explored.

It is useful for weighing coins, nuggets and other small  items.  If you think a coin is on the wrong planchet or made of the wrong type of metal, weigh it.

Handy Little Scale.

The scale has a nice compact cover and you can easily slip it into a shirt pocket. I've already found it very handy.

One way to tell if a coin is made of one metal or another is to weigh it.  If you want to test that, weigh a zinc penny and a copper penny.  The zinc penny will weigh less.

You can easily find online the proper weight for various coins, although there will be small acceptable tolerances.

___

I'm eager to see how the surf shapes up the next couple of days and what happens to the beaches.  It is always interesting.

Cooler air is already starting to arrive on the Treasure Coast.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

  

3/26/19 Report - Ten Foot Surf Possible. To Thine Own Self Be True. Find: A Slice of Silver.

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

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

The surf predictions are looking good.  6 - 10 feet is predicted now, and it's only a day or two away.

The tides are not as big now, and the wind doesn't look ideal, yet that kind of surf could open up some areas.

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I used to belong to a small but good gym run by a fellow that holds world records in power lifting.  He had a franchise with a well-known company, but the gym wasn't doing very well.  He was competing with all of the other gyms that offered similar or lower prices.  He paid virtually no attention to the regular gym member, but trained for power lifting and attracted a group of other power lifters, who he trained and mentored.  One day I told him he ought to make his gym into a training center rather than trying to compete with all of the other gyms.

When I went by the gym recently after having moved away, I noticed  that the sign on his gym no longer had the name of the franchise, and now it was a "Performance Center."  It seems he is now utilizing his unique talent and passion rather than following the crowd.  I would hope and guess that he is now happier and also much more successful.

You might wonder what that has do with metal detecting or treasure hunting. The same principles apply to virtually every type of endeavor.  Analysis and problem-solving skills always help.

You are not like everyone else.  You have strengths and weaknesses.  You have a unique vision and perspective.  You have a greater interest and passion for some things rather than others.

A popular Greek aphorism says, "Know Thyself."  And there is a quote from Shakespeare that says,

"To Thine own self be true."  Both of those apply to metal detecting and treasure hunting as well as to other ventures.  The lessons are the same.  Know who you are.  Know your strengths and weaknesses.  And follow your passion.

Because of who you are you will find some types of metal detecting more enjoyable than others.  Maybe you don't have the patience or perseverance to spend years looking for a particular lost treasure.  Maybe coin shooting or panning for gold suits you better.  Maybe you don't like to do a lot of research.  You will do well when your traits and abilities match up with what you are trying to do.

Yogi Berra, the Yankee catcher from the 1960s, had a way of saying humorous and memorable things.  One of them was, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."  If you find yourself getting frustrated, maybe you took the wrong fork in the road.  It might be time to take a hard look at what you are doing and think about making some changes.  

Not only do you need to analyze a map or a beach or a technique or strategy.  It also helps to know yourself.  A little introspection and analysis can help.

Maybe you have been frustrated lately, or maybe you just want to be a little more successful. My advice would be to take a good hard look at yourself and what you are trying to do.  Consider your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your dreams and goals.  Are you really being true to who your are?  

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Last week I made a few meagre finds.  Some were encrusted and unidentifiable.  Here is one that I got cleaned off.  

It is silver, but worn very thin.  It is about the size of a small coin, but there are no identifiable markings.  All I can say is that it is a very corroded thin piece of silver.

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Keep watching the surf predictions.  According to the most recent predictions, the surf will start to increase tomorrow.

Yesterday there were over 1,400 page views on this blog.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/24/19 Report - Six to Ten Foot Surf Predicted for Thursday. Indian Massacre Artifacts. Porcelain Find.

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

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Last week didn't turn up much despite the erosion at various beaches.  Where there was more erosion, it didn't last long.  And at other beaches it just didn't get down to the older layers of sand.

Back in February, I said there would be old coins found, and there were.  There weren't many though, as far as I know.

My beach conditions rating was a little overly optimistic in February, as it was last week.  I thikn ther reason for that is that I didn't adequately take into account the large amount of renourishment sand that has been dumped on the beaches in recent years.  Despite the erosion, it didn't get down to the older layers of sand.

Despite the significant erosion at John Brooks both in February and last week, all we saw was the same old brown sand.  And there were almost no shells to be seen.

In February I think I gave a four rating for a very brief time.  That was too high.  I should have gone no higher than a three.  And last week, I flirted with going to a three rating.  In retrospect, that would have clearly been too high.

At least I think I learned something.  The accumulating renourishment sand on and off-shore needs to be taken more seriously, and I'll have to be a touch more conservative with my beach conditions ratings.

That said, it looks like we will have another chance at improved conditions in a few days.  Right now MagicSeaWeed is predicting a six to ten foot surf for Thursday.  Of course, things can change over the next few days.

I still remember those trips I made to the Treasure Coast when I was living in Broward County not having any idea what things might be like on the Treasure Coast.  I remember the wasted trips and then finally finding something.  I was starting to think it would never happen.

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The attack was the Wethersfield Indian Massacre of 1637. Artifacts that could provide new context for understanding the incident, along with a large cache of items spanning four centuries, have been uncovered behind the Webb Dean Stevens Museum in Wethersfield during an archaeological excavation over the past two years. Concluding in November, the excavation was required by the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office as a prelude to the construction of a new visitor/education center getting underway this spring.


The nearly 19,000 items collected will add layers of knowledge about the lives of the colonists, says Sarah Sportman, who supervised the dig. Sportman is a senior archaeologist with the Public Archaeology Survey Team, a private, nonprofit research and public education organization based in Mansfield. “I think we’re really just starting to get a handle on this period archaeologically,” Sportman says. “The interesting thing about the project is that we’ve actually found archaeological material from the 1630s all the way up to the 20th century. Every period of occupation on this site really tells a rich story about this property and about the town of Wethersfield.”...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

http://www.connecticutmag.com/the-connecticut-story/connecticut-s-jamestown-an-incident-in-wethersfield-nearly-years-ago/article_23470b4e-45a7-11e9-a081-e75a6b99c142.html

The funny thing to me is that all of that stuff was behind the museum, but they didn't dig it up until they had to before they did new construction.  If it was in your backyard, you probably would have dug it up long ago.

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Found Porcelain.

I found this piece of porcelain.  I think I found a similar piece of a cup  before.  Maybe I can find it.  I'm sure this one is porcelain, but the design looks a little odd to me for Kang Hsi.  Unfortunately there is no marking on the bottom.  That would help.  The design looks a little crude like it might be a European copy.  But I don't know.

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Don't forget to verify details on the Kellyco closeout sale before going if you were planning on going.  Someone told me it is over.

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It looks like a beautiful day to be out.  Keep watching the surf report.  Maybe we'll have some better hunting before long.



Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/23/19 Report - Detectorists Still Hitting T.C. Frank Fish Mystery. Bigger Yet Surf Coming? Kellyco Closeout Sale Link.

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

Detectorist Favored by The TreasureGuide Cam at Frederick Douglass Beach Near Low Tide Friday.

I got to take a look at a couple beaches Friday afternoon.  There were five or six detectorists at Frederick Douglass Beach.  At least two or three of them were novice snow birds.

The beach there, and the other beaches nearby, had deteriorated since earlier this week.

Despite all the detectorists, I observed no digging.

John Brooks Beach Friday Afternoon.

View From John Brooks Beach Near Low Tide Friday Afternoon.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Friday Afternoon.

Jupiter Inlet Beach

Photo submitted by Joe D.

Joe sent me this photo and pointed out the pipes.  Looks like they are getting ready to dump more sand on the beach there again.

Thanks Joe.

There are a lot of beaches that are a lot bigger than they were back when I was hunting them many years ago.  Jupiter beach was a lot of fun back then before they kept dumping sand on it.

I was looking at the beach up by the condos north of John Brooks today.  It is at least a hundred yards farther out to the east than it was at one time.  There is just too much sand south of the Fort Pierce inlet.  It seems like they are always renourishing the beach there, then the sand works its way south.

Oh, I just remembered I was going to mention that at Seagrape a couple days ago, I did see an older layer of sand down a few inches when I dug a hole.  The older sand was about a half foot deep.  I forgot to mention that then.

I got a couple older items out of the older sand.  One of those is shown below.

Encrusted Object Yet To Be Liberated.

I've got some very similar ones in years past.  A large bullet was in one, but I don't think that is what this one contains.  Maybe a broken piece of spike.

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Dan B. sent in a link to a story on Frank Fish after I mentioned the legendary mid-century treasure hunter a couple days ago.  Here is an excerpt from that article.

Frank Fish was a highly successful at finding treasure and authored a cute little yellow guidebook called “Buried Treasures and Lost Mines.” His friends wrote numerous articles about him and catapulted his book of doodles and maps to temporary fame. It stands to reason his thrust into the spotlight generated some envious folks and enemies, especially when Fish claimed to have one of two copies of the legendary Peralta Map...

How Frank was killed is a mystery.  It is the kind of story that would make a great movie. 

Here is the link Dan sent if you want to read more about the treasure hunter Frank Fish.

https://www.ghoulifornia.com/home/2017/7/27/the-curious-death-of-frank-fish

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The surf has decreased.  We'll have big tides, but the surf will be smaller for a few days.  MagicSeaWeed is predicting a six to nine foot surf after that though.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

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Just added:  Warren D. sent me the link to the Kellyco closeout sale on Craigs List.

Includes antiques, collectibles, books, bottles and much more.

https://orlando.craigslist.org/atq/d/casselberry-closed-our-doors-final-days/6829540152.html

Thanks Warren!



I was just received an email from Pavo saying that the closeout sale was in February and ended on March 2.  

That is why I post my sources when I get something second hand (including the media) as well as to give credit where it is due.  I don't think I really have to tell you this, but you should always verify what you read when it might have significant personal consequences.  

I do see that the notice was posted 24 days ago.  

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net