7/9/19 Report - Secret Colonial Era Code Found on Jewel. Shipwreck Graveyard. Fossil ID Needed. Sedwick Auction of 1715 Fleet Cobs.

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

Source: MSN.com link below.

A century ago, dozens of shipyards across the United States constructed a fleet of wooden steamships to aid the fight against Germany during World War I. Today, ospreys nest on the boats, and bats breed in the hull. More than 100 of these historic vessels survive, serving as a half-submerged home for fish, beavers, waterfowl, and vegetation along a stretch of the Potomac River next to Mallows Bay, Maryland.

On Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration designated the 18-square-mile area a national marine sanctuary—the first in nearly two decades. The Mallows Bay-Potomac National Marine Sanctuary holds not only remains of the “ghost fleet” of WWI vessels, but also Civil War-era shipwrecks, and Native American archaeological sites dating back 12,000 years...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/ghost-fleet-of-sunken-warships-declared-a-national-marine-sanctuary/ar-AAE2kAr?ocid=spartandhp

Drones are providing some nice images.

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Gaylen C. sent the following email and photo below.

The story of the young lady finding a big sharks tooth in an unusual place reminded me of one I also found in an unexpected spot. The tooth pictured was found in a brand new load of oyster shell that my father had ordered for his driveway. Just west of Lakeland! I have had this thing almost 30 years now. Maybe you or one of your followers is knowledgeable in shark tooth identification and could name the former owner, It's really big, but not the dark look of megalodon  at all. Those serrations are still pretty sharp. That load of oyster shell could have come from anywhere, including the phosphate mines all along Hwy 60. That shark had nothing to do with the missing finger, but that's not what I tell my grandchildren. LOL 

Also found what I believe is a gator tooth in some freshly mulched plant bed as I left a restaurant after lunch. Would a gator tooth be hollow? 

Loved the Declaration post.

Tooth Found by Gaylen C.

Photo by Gaylen C.

What do you think?

And here is the other one.

Again, what do you think?

You can find things in strange places.

I'll have more on this after I give you a chance to give your thoughts.

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A clump of dirt initially dismissed as nothing more than a pebble has turned out to be one of the most significant 18th century artifacts ever found in North Carolina, archaeologists say.

“No bigger than a pea,” the clump was washed to reveal a pressed glass jewel, etched with a Colonial-era code: “Wilkes and Liberty 45.”

Archaeologist Charles Ewen told McClatchy those words were infamously seditious in the 1760s, and indicate the excavated tavern in Brunswick Town was likely a den of rebellious Americans.

“That was a rallying cry for those in opposition of King George III,” says Ewen, director of Phelps Archaeology Laboratory and professor at East Carolina University in Greenville...

Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article232283702.html#storylink=cpy

You'll want to read more about that.  Here is the link.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article232283702.html


Don't pass up something just because it looks like a clump of dirt.

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From Sedwick Auctions -

Now is not too early to consign to our Treasure, World, U.S. Coin & Paper money Floor Auction #26. Like last time, we have secured the DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Orlando - Disney Springs in Orlando, FL, and we have locked in the date: Oct 31- Nov. 2, 2019 (with lot viewing & Guest Speakers on Thursday, October 31 and Live Floor Auction on November 1-2, 2019). Please let us know now if you plan to attend, so that we can make a preliminary head count and expand the room-block reservation if necessary.

This will be the most important auction of the year, with exceptional exposure both from the LIVE FLOOR AND INTERNET BIDDING SIMULTANEOUSLY.

We recommend not waiting until the last week to consign to give you priority to your material. Please consult with us about your consignments now. Also, there is plenty of time to meet to discuss your consignment in person. You will be able to see us at two upcoming shows this summer: FUN (Florida United Numismatists) Summer Show in Orlando, FL July 11-13 (booth #730), and ANA World's Fair of Money in Rosemont, IL August 13-17 (booth #1429) As new members of the Professional Numismatist Guild, we're also setting up at the PNG Day event on Aug. 12. Will also be offering much new inventory at these shows!  We will travel to you for qualified consignments.

We are honored to announce the much anticipated Collection of John Pullin Mexican Silver and Gold Cobs, most of which come from the 1715 Fleet, featuring several finest and unique pieces with very sought-after pedigrees. A lot of collectors have been waiting for this opportunity and we know there will much spirited bidding in person. 

Mr. Pullin, a well-known numismatist and long time collector, will be part of our educational talks the day prior to the sale, giving participants a chance to meet the man behind one of the most interesting collections of Mexican cobs put together over the last two decades with a focus on 1715 Fleet pieces.

We look forward to hearing from you, with thanks in advance.

Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC
P.O. Box 1964 | Winter Park, FL 32790
consign@sedwickcoins.com | Phone: 407.975.3325 / Fax: 407.975.3327 / Whatsapp: 407.975.3325

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/14/19 Report - Laser-Inscribed Diamonds. Spanish and Other Foreign Coins in US Colonies. Super Wolf Blood Moon.

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

Laser-Inscribed Diamond.
Source:SerendipityDiamonds.com.
More about that below.

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Have you ever wondered why a United States quarter-dollar is called “two-bits”? Or, a half-dollar “four-bits”? Do you know why we call our basic monetary unit “dollar” instead of something else?

Here is a nice article that will answer those questions.

https://coinweek.com/world-coins/history-of-coins-two-bits-four-bits-six-bits-eight/

And here is a brief excerpt from the same web site.

The English colonies of America were prohibited by royal law from coining, minting, or even so much as using coins. The colonists were supposed to ship any and all coins to Mother England in payment for manufactured goods. This, of course, precluded any foolhardy colonist from starting a mint. Besides, there is little silver or gold to be had in New England and eastern Canada to this day. So, the English Colonies decided to use paper money which served them well until they attempted to finance the USA Revolutionary War with it. By 1780, this form of currency became useless and worthless and the money called Continental Currency collapsed.

Immediately, part of the vacuum was filled by the milled Spanish-American silver issues based on the real system in denominations of 1/8R through eight-reales. The most widely circulated of these was the piece of eight, which, when supplies of smaller denomination coins dwindled were chopped or cut into smaller pieces to make change. Thus, one eighth of eight-reales became one bit, one quarter two-bits–the equivalent of our present day quarter-dollar. One-half is four-bits and three quarters are six-bits. Many believe these expressions to be slang, yet, history suggests they are perfectly good nomenclature...

After reading that web site you might want to follow that one up with these.

http://materialculture18t.wixsite.com/18thcmcrc/money--scales

https://historicjamestowne.org/selected-artifacts/english-coins-2/

Thanks to Dale J. for the coinweek link.

Having the 1715 Fleet wrecks offshore, Spanish colonial coins receive a lot of our attention, but English, Irish and Dutch coins were also used in colonial America.

I recommend both the MaterialCulture and HistoricJamesTowne web sites.

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Did you know...

Diamonds accompanied by GIA Diamond Dossiers® typically feature a micro-laser inscription applied to the edge of the diamond. The GIA report number appears microscopically engraved on the outer edge (girdle) of the diamond. This gives buyers a unique way of linking their GIA report to the physical diamond. Enter this number into GIA’s website and hey-presto – you have an electronic copy of your diamond grading report.

Where to find the girdle of a diamond

The girdle of your diamond runs around the outer edge between the upper crown facets and the lower pavilion facets. It is basically the thin outer edge, separating the upper part of the diamond from the lower section. The outer edge will appear as a polished, faceted or bruted (matt) surface on which the number will be microscopically lasered.

A GIA laser inscription gives the consumer greater confidence when purchasing a diamond. Retailers should use this as a further selling point since not all laboratories laser mark diamonds in this way. The inscription is permanently registered in GIA’s archive database.

The GIA inscription is invisible to the naked eye and difficult to see under 10x magnification to the untrained eye. Buyers who purchase without consultation are likely to be unaware of the presence of the inscription.

Here is that link.

https://www.serendipitydiamonds.com/blog/how-to-read-the-gia-laser-inscription-on-your-diamond/

Other wording can be inscribed on diamonds, however it would be very rare for those inscriptions to help identify rightful owners.  For one thing, the databases are kept confidential without a court order.

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A super wolf blood moon is going to appear in all its stunning splendor later this month, as a rare cosmic gesture to welcome in 2019.

People who live in the Americas, Europe, Africa and the central Pacific region could take a glimpse of this stunning image late on the evening of Jan. 20 and into the early morning hours of Jan. 21, according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The eastern side of North America will have the best view, but the full lunar eclipse will be visible from coast to coast, and will last far longer than most eclipses, with a duration of roughly one hour and three minutes. Super blood wolf moons are highly uncommon: only 28 are expected to align this century... 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/super-blood-moon-eclipse-make-appearance-jan-21/story?id=60334755


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Both the tides and surf are small along the Treasure Coast now.  The surf is expected to increase Wednesday - maybe up to five feet.

Happy hunting
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/16/17 Report - Artificial Intelligence Helped Find Lost Treasure Hunter. Can It Help You Find Treasure? Colonial Period Items of Personal Adornment.

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

Find and photo By Captain Jonah Matinez.

Jonah sent me this picture several months ago but I never posted it before.  Looks like it might have held some decorative stones.

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A treasure hunter that disappeared while seeking the Fenn treasure was located by with the help of artificial intelligence.

When Randy Bilyeu disappeared, he was hunting for the Fenn Treasure, a chest allegedly filled with gold, precious stones, and jewelry, supposedly hidden in the Rocky Mountains north of Santa Fe, New Mexico...

Essentially, it’s an artificial intelligence system that figures out the current location of someone (or thing) using a data set of known previous locations. For example, geospatial abduction can pinpoint the location of a bear’s cave using the coordinates of animal’s droppings, or a serial killer’s address using the coordinates of known killings. Serial killers usually attack within six miles from their home, and bears will stay within the same distance of their cave when they go out on their daily hunts or bathroom trips. Shakarian has designed algorithms that take information like that into account, ingest data points, and, after ruling out obviously impossible locations like lakes, rivers and so on, come up with the most feasible solution to current whereabouts. As with most algorithms of this sort, the more data—the more killings or droppings—the more likely for the solution to be correct.

https://qz.com/770022/ai-for-missing-persons-found-fenn-treasure-hunter-randy-bilyeu/

I bolded and underlined two words in the above excerpt to draw your attention to the fact that AI systems can be used to find things.  The same AI system that helped find the lost treasure hunter could also be used to find treasure.

Artificial intelligence is being talked about a lot these days.  Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google all offer AI capabilities to various industries.  AI was one of my interests some thirty years ago.  I constructed a couple of few "expert systems." Now artificial intelligence is receiving new attention and is being applied to more significant tasks.

The treasure industry could benefit tremendously from AI but probably won't.  There are a variety of reasons for that.  It requires expertise that most treasure hunters do not have and do not want to take the time to develop.  You almost have to start with the computer skills and then bring those skills to the application.

The tons of GPS data stored over the years by the treasure salvage in Florida provides a very rich database.  That would be an ideal starting place for an AI project.  The data has already been computerized for the most part.

AI attempts to recognize patterns in existing data and make predictions from incoming data so the AI system is only as good as the data and the algorithms.

 I always enjoyed taking big data sets, soaking it in and analyzing the heck out of it.  If I was thirty or forty years younger, I would definitely be doing that.  So much in life and treasure hunting is about timing.

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It would be easy enough for a manufacturer to install an expert system into a detector that would guide you to the best settings for a specific piece of ground and target type.  You heard it here first.

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Here is a book you might like - especially if you find old things and try to identify them.

The book is American Artifacts of Personal Adornment, 1680-1820: A Guide to Identification and Interpretation by Carolyn White.

Here is a table from the book showing the items discussed.

Here is the link to the book, some of which can be viewed as a preview.

https://books.google.com/books?id=aWsnAAAAQBAJ&dq=artifacts+of+spanish+colonial+period

Aglets are often found and can easily be confused with a number of other items.  They are typically made of copper and in the shape of a rolled cone.

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The surf is picking up a little.  Expect something like three to four feet along the Treasure Coast.  The wind is from the east.  I hope to get out to the beach in the next couple of days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/24/16 Report - See if you can identify the mystery items. Two Points of View On Cleaning Coins.

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

I have a little quiz for you today.  See if you can identify these dug items.

First, what era do you  think they are from?

Mystery Item One.

Mystery Item Two

Mystery Item Three

Mystery Item Four

Mystery Item Five

Mystery Items, Picture Six.

If you don't have any clue yet, they are all gun parts or used with a gun.

They were all recovered from a Revolutionary War era site.

Item 1.  Broken Sideplate from a British trade gun.

Item 2. Piece of a broken brass cast butt plate engraved with a boars head, trumpet, lance and arrow.  It is from a Willet trade gun.

Item 3. Another piece of the same butt plate.

Item 4.  This one is eassier.  It is a triggerguard, circa 1770 - 1813.

Item 5.  These are unused gunflint holders made from flattened lead musket balls.  These were folded over and the gun flint was wrapped in the holder to hold them securely in the gun cock.

Item 6.  These items are not so certain.  It is thought that they are a pistol butt plate and a pistol side plate.

All of these items are shown in Timothy McGuire's book, Recovered Colonial and Revolutionary War Artifacts.

I have found items similar to these such as a silver engraved side gun plate which was found on a 1715 Fleet beach and was posted in this blog back some time ago.

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Concerning the question of cleaning the Standing Liberty Quarter which Russ P. found and was shown yesterday, I received basically two types of replies.

Bill Popp said,  I would try the diluted muriatic...remember... A.A.A. Always Add Acid to dilute, not vice versa. 

I've found that method very effective for cleaning reales and other coins.

Dan W. who works on one of the Treasure Coast salvage vessels and has spent a lot of time in the conservation lab, had the following to say.

Don't clean it! It may have rust on it and it is rough, but you could never simulate that kind of patina.   It is beautiful. 

After experimenting with acid and electrolysis on some of my coins, I regretted cleaning some because they no longer remind me of where, when, and how I found them. Just a thought. Dan

Those are two points of view.  Some people like clean shiny coins and others like to keep them as found.

If you do want to clean them, the muriatic method should do the job.  Go slow and keep an eye on them.  Russ only wanted to clean them enough to see the date, so he could stop as soon as that was accomplished.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/11/15 Report - Revolutionary War Artifacts Found And Lost. Three Good Lessons. Reasons Watches Aren't Found.

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

Item Found on Caribbean Island.

Do you know what this item is?   Would you recognize it coming out of the ground all rusted in poor condition? 

I know that many of you know what it is. Some twenty or thirty years ago I didn't.

I was hunting the side of a very steep cliff on a Caribbean Island just below where there once was a Revolutionary War cannon emplacement .  I was finding buttons and things and was a little excited.  Those were my first Revolutionary War era artifacts.  Before that I primarily hunted South Florida and found mostly modern stuff.

The cliff where I was hunting was very steep.  It was hard to stay on it.   I was using a short piece of wood as my rod.  It was only about as long as a detector stem as it would be used when you are diving - not like when you are normally hunting dry ground.  Because the hill was so steep, the ground and coil was more out in front of me than down at foot level when I detected.

I was using an old Royal Sabre detector.  I didn't take the rod and assembly on the trip at all - just the box and coil and a short piece of wood about a foot long to use as the rod.  I took it in a backpack and assembled it on site.

One thing I remember about that hunt that I thought was funny was the crabs on the hillside.  There were a lot of them there for some reason.  But the funny thing was when I would approach them they would pull their legs into their shell, which would result in them rolling a hundred or more feet down the hill and into the water below.  I suspect that they would then march back up the hill.

I dug a few buttons and things, then I dug up a rusted twisted piece of iron very much like the one shown above, but not in such good condition.  It was also covered with mud, as if that would excuse my ignorance.  

Gun Flint.

If you don't know what it is yet, it is an iron gun cock from an old musket.  

The one shown above is not the one I found.  I regret to this day that I didn't take it home.  I bet there is a good chance that I could still go there today and find it.

To make matters worse, I also found a flint that looked very much like the one shown here.  It was a nicely shaped rectangular one very much like the one shown.

I remember it very well yet today.

On the NFL Hall of Fame program last weekend Marshall Faulk was talking to Jim Brown and someone asked what experiences stood out in their Hall of Fame careers, and Marshall said he most remembered when he messed up.  They went on to say that is the sign of greatness.

I regret not quickly identifying those items more quickly when I was on that hillside.  I think it actually clicked for me before I left, but because the one item was so rusty and they weren't what I was looking for at the time, I ended up leaving them for some reason.  Maybe I was just eager to get on with it.

I also left grapeshot, but that was intentional.  I was not going to take any chance of being caught taking explosives onto the plane.

I tell this experience to make a few points.  1.  Don't repeat the same mistakes over and over.  Take the opportunity to learn something from them.  2.  Read all you can and become aware of different types of things so you can quickly identify them in the field.  And 3., don't discard items until you are sure that you know what they are or that you definitely don't want them.

Those are three good lessons that I learned.

NOTE:  The two pictures above can be found in the book An Introduction Guide to Recovered Colonial and Revolutionary War Artifacts by Timothy J. McGuire.

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According to Odyssey Marine Explorations second quarter report, The team aboard the Odyssey Explorer vessel completed search and preliminary inspection operations on the "Olympus" Project, which includes a cluster of five 20th-century shipwrecks believed to be carrying significant cargoes of gold and silver at the time of their sinking in the northern Atlantic. All shipwrecks were located by Odyssey and varying degrees of reconnaissance work was conducted in order to collect data on each wreck. This included multibeam surveys, sub-bottom imaging and visual inspections using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The information gathered during this expedition is now being analyzed to determine the financial and technical feasibility of recovery operations on one or more of the shipwrecks in the "Olympus" Project area. Preliminary work to prepare for recovery operations on at least one of the targeted shipwrecks can be performed from the Odyssey Explorer.

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It is sometimes difficult to date a site from an artifact.  One thing that makes it even more difficult is that items were repaired and used for a long time.  It has been found that many Revolutionary War muskets dated back to the 1600s.  They were simply refitted and repaired and reused.  

Despite what you might see in museums, most people didn't have all the newest stuff.  Things were made to last longer, and they didn't throw useful things away just because they didn't look like new.

Old documents and pictures in many cases provide a better estimate of life in the past.  An artifact out of context creates more questions than it answers.   Beach and water recoveries are seldom in a context that answers many questions.  They are in a context, but it is a context determined by the density and shape of the object and the force of water that acts upon them over time rather than a context that tells you how and where they were used. 

One book I recently read talks about such things.  It is A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America by Ivor Noel Hume.  It is a little dated itself, having been originally published in 1969.  It is worth reading though.

Mr. Hume presents a some interesting inventories.  One was an inventory of a blacksmith shop.  Another was a household inventory.  Both inventories included a lot of old items.  The blacksmith was upgrading old muskets and the household, as you would expect, had some very old items that were still being used.

Wills often give a good picture of life in the past.  I've read one of my ancestor's wills from the 1700s.  Included were things like a couple of sheep and other goods that were passed down.

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I posted a picture of a found watch the other day.  I find a lot of watches, and often they are good watches.  I believe that a lot of detectorists miss good watches because of discrimination or target ID.

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No significant change in Treasure Coast beach detecting conditions to report yet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/21/14 Report - Artifacts of Historic Battle Between Spanish and Native Americans, Colonial Silver Spoon & Clay Shaman

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

Olive Jar Sherds Found in the Midwest.

Five years after the sinking of the 1715 Fleet along the Treasure Coast a historic battle between the Spanish and Native Americans took place in what is now Nebraska.

The battle was known but these sherds are among the first artifacts giving evidence of the battle.  The Spanish jars are thought to be loot resulting from the battle.

The battle ended the incursion of the Spanish eastward into the US from Mexico.

Here is some information from the article that might help you tell the difference between early Spanish sherds and Native American sherds.

... analysis revealed important similarities among the samples, like granite-based sand that had been added to the pottery mixture, unlike indigenous ceramics made using natural clays, and telltale horizontal “throwing marks” that are still visible on the vessels’ interiors.

“Olive jars were thrown on a potters wheel, a forming technique unknown in the New World,” Hill said. “The parallel throwing marks on the exterior of the olive jar sherds are evidence of this technique.”

Here is the link for more on this historic battle and the artifacts.

http://westerndigs.org/first-evidence-found-of-storied-battle-that-stopped-spains-eastward-expansion/

This 1500-year-old shaman sculpture was found guarding bodies in a burial shaft in Mexico.

The square shaft, which is around one-and-a-half metres deep, is thought to date to between 300 AD and 600AD and leads to an underground vault measuring approximately two metres squared, containing bones of either one or two individuals...

Here is the source link.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2581154/Ancient-shaman-discovered-Mexican-tomb-1-500-year-old-sculpture-guarding-bodies-underground-shaft.html



How much is a silver American colonial spoon worth?   Of course that depends upon a lot of things.

The spoon shown here was offered for nearly $223,000.

Source: Kovels Komments
Link below.

Here is what Kovels Komments says about the spoon.

A marrow spoon attributed to silversmiths Daniel Henchman and Nathaniel Hurd will be for sale at an antiques fair in England in April. Asking price: almost a quarter million dollars. The spoon has a cast 3-D hand at the end of the handle and a scalloped bowl. It's dated 1766-68. The high price is based on the quality of the silver work and the spoon's history (provenance), proven by the engraved words "John Wentworth Esq to Thomas Smith." Wentworth was the wealthy British Colonial governor of New Hampshire from 1767 to 1775, and Smith, also important in the Colonies, was his friend. It is suggested that the hand on the spoon's shaft represented their friendship. Recorded high prices for other pieces of antique American silver have been $708,000 for a coffeepot (c.1770-1775) by Paul Revere Jr. that sold in 2004; $775,750 for a wine cup (c.1660) made by John Hull and Robert Sanderson Jr. that sold in 1993; and a punch bowl by Cornelius Kierstede (c.1700-1710) for $5,906,500 that sold in 2010.

http://www.kovels.com/news-news-news/american-colonial-silver-spoon-offered-for-222-848.html?utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=http%3a%2f%2fwww.kovels.com%2fnews-news-news%2famerican-colonial-silver-spoon-offered-for-222-848.html&utm_campaign=Kovels+Komments%3a+Banana+Sticker+Collectors+Alert

The word for the day is "adaptability."

On the Treasure Coast we have around a four foot surf.  It isn't too much different than yesterday.  Still a lot of tourists on the beach.  

There are new modern gold jewelry beach finds.  I'll show some in future posts.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net