9/7/19 Report - A Few Post-Dorian Finds. South Hutchinson Island Beaches. Minelab Equinox Performance On Salt Sand.

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

South Hutchinson Island Beach Early Saturday Morning.

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Below are some post-Dorian finds from DJ.

Four Iron Finds by DJ

Photos by DJ

Here is how DJ described these finds.

… The four pictures are the four pieces of iron I found yesterday and taken today after a night soak in white vinegar/water. Today I tried to chip a little off and you can see what happened. (Which I knew was a possibility from my research, but also electrolysis might damage them as well)

It really bothers me that I may not be able to preserve these, these are obviously old square straight and bent spikes (except for the shorter blob looking one). One looks as some wood remains.

They are a piece of an amazing history and world wide journey, they were found in a grouping (as you have often said) and in a small area of orange grainy sand (which you also mentioned)... 

DJ also found an unusual rectangular piece of silver.  When he was researcher it, he found a very similar piece that I found and posted in 2010.

Rectangular Silver Piece
Found by DJ 2019

Rectangular Silver Piece 

Found by TreasureGuide 2010

Below is what DJ said I about this silver find.

Yesterday I sent you a greenish flat almost perfect rectangle of metal that rang up 18+ on the NOX 800. My acid test kit came in with a greenish color change or .500 silver. I cannot imagine it is old or what it might have came from. it looked broken at each end. No markings visible.Maybe you have an idea. Here is a pic with scale.

And below is what I said about my find in my 11/7/2010 post.

Small Rectangular Piece of Silver Found on a Treasure Coast Shipwreck Beach Yesterday.

This is one of those types of finds that will probably never give up its secrets. It is definitely silver. I could tell that when I inspected it with a high power loop and when I did an acid test on it.


And it has definitely been exposed to salt water for some time. Close inspection of the considerable surface corrosion shows that. It has some age to it. I can tell it has been exposed for some time, but can't tell if the time period is years, decades or centuries.

The other side of the object is about the same and presently shows no markings.

The long oval mark in the middle of the object is where it could have been attached to something. The oval area is slightly raised even though you can't tell that from the photo. It could be a sprue if the item was formed using a mold. I don't know if that is the case, or, like I mentioned, it might have been attached to something else.

I suppose I will never know the age or identity of this little silver rectangle. The best chance of learning more about it is to clean it and see if there are any marks underneath the green. I'll probably do that someday, but won't hurry into it.

If any one has any ideas about this little silver piece, I'd appreciate receiving an email.

See http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2010/11/117-report-mystery-small-silver.html

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Despite the fact that I expected some of the beaches in the Vero area to open today and I didn't get a chance to see them when I visited the area yesterday, I decided to use my limited time to explore some South Hutchinson Island beaches that I hadn't seen since the passing of Dorian and check out the performance of the Equinox 600, which I had not yet used at the beach.

I went out early this morning and found that the beaches I visited on South Hutchinson Island didn't look very promising at all - certainly not what you would hope to see after a hurricane passing nearby.  I expected the two days of north wind to do more to our beaches than it did, and even though I knew it didn't do much to John Brooks or Frederick Douglass, hoped that I would find a few better spots.  As it turned out they were not as good as John Brooks and Frederick Douglass.

The beaches shown at the top of the post and immediately below are fairly typical of what I've seen on South Hutchinson Island.  There is a lot of sand.  At least John Brooks and Frederick Douglass beaches had some cut dunes.

South Hutchinson Island Beach Early Saturday Morning.

Anyhow, I got a better idea of what the Equinox could do.  It was the first time I used the Equinox on the beach and in the wet salt sand.  I used the factory settings and the Beach 1 mode.

The Equinox did well at detecting small targets at depth in shelly sand.  I was actually surprised by how well it did.  It easily picked up nickels and small pieces of copper in the wet sand with water moving in and out over the sand, and it did not false when salt water washed over the coil.  I was impressed with that.  Small targets were found at good depth under fairly difficult conditions, and due to the lack of falsing, faint targets could easily be heard.

I have not found the conductivity numbers to be real useful yet.  Maybe that is because of the lack of experience I have with this detector, but it seems to me that the numbers are inconsistent (jump around), and there seems to be a lot of overlap with many different targets giving about the same numbers.

I found a line of coins and other metal running close to the water's edge on a convex beach front.  Also there were targets near the top of the beach just below the dunes.  Given the poor conditions, it was not the most productive detecting, but I did learn more about the Equinox, which is what I wanted to do.

Just to give an idea of what the Equinox was detecting at around six inches, here are a couple targets recovered in course loosely-packed shelly sand.

Thin Piece of Copper

The second piece is thicker than the first, and I'm not sure but I think it is also copper also.  It definitely is not iron.

Unknown Metal Suspected To Be Copper.

 Actually the first target I dug at the waters edge in mushy sand was a green modern nickel.

I just mention those finds to give some idea of the performance of the Equinox.

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I was expecting the Indian River County beaches to be open today - at least most of them, but I don't know if they did.  I'd appreciate a report on that.

GB sent me the following message.


As a daily reader of your blog and a retired long term beach hunter I saw a question as to why the acceses at turtle trail and seagrape warrant manned attention. 

It is common knowledge, among some, that this area of Corrigans is treated by some officers as their private detecting beach especially after storm activity and discourage and restrict others.  As you may know they have made some impressive and valuable finds over the years. 

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We won't be getting any more rough surf for a little while.

I expect to hear from some of the areas that I didn't get to detect this time and am expecting to see photos of more finds. I feel certain there will be some even though overall beach conditions weren't improved much.

I'll be watching some of the other weather systems that could come our way.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/8/16 Report - Treasure Coast Treasure History: Cobb Coin VS Unidentified Wreck. 2000 Year Old Cache of Hasmonian Coins.

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

Cache of 2000-year-old Coins Uncovered.
Source: Times of Israel.

Cache Being Uncovered.
Source: Times of Israel.

A treasure trove of 2,150-year-old silver coins excavated in the central Israeli city of Modiin apparently belonged to a Jew who had to leave the nearby house but never managed to retrieve his hidden cache.

The 16 coins from the Hasmonean period (2nd-1st century BCE) were concealed in a rock crevice up against a wall of a large agricultural estate, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday.


Below is the link.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/cache-of-hasmonean-era-silver-coins-uncovered-in-modiin/

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Here is an interesting piece of treasure history.

COBB COIN COMPANY, INC., a Florida corporation, et al., Plaintiff, v. The UNIDENTIFIED, WRECKED AND ABANDONED SAILING VESSEL, etc., Defendant. No. 79-8266-Civ-JLK. August 31, 1982. United States District Court.

I pasted four excerpts below.  You might want to read the entire document though.

In the summer of 1963, Mr. Mel Fisher, owner of a scuba diving shop, came to Florida from California and became associated with Mr. Wagner and Real Eight. Mr. Fisher formed salvaging groups named Universal Salvage Co., Cobb Coin Co., and Treasure Salvors, Inc. Between October 1963 and August, 1972, Mr. Fisher's companies and Real Eight worked some of the sites of 1715 wrecks pursuant to various agreements, under authority of Real Eight's State leases. Under these agreements, they divided their recoveries 50-50 after deducting 25 percent for the Division of Archives and Records Management. The combined effort yielded large quantities of gold, silver, and other valuable artifacts.[2] See Plaintiff's Exhibits No. 8 and 9 and State's Exhibit No. 68. Although the State's archivists admit to having received these artifacts, none could testify with certainty what the State now has, nor are there any records of precisely which of the artifacts it received came from the Corrigan site or other wrecks of the 1715 Fleet...

 Real Eight terminated its contract with Fisher's company in 1972. At that time, Mr. Fisher was apparently devoting more of his attention to the search for the treasures of the Atocha and Santa Margarita, which sank in 1622 40 miles west of Key West. Mr. Fisher testified that he gave up on the east coast wrecks because the State officials were slow in sending field agents to accompany salvage vessels and in returning the salvors their share of the recovery... 

Mr. Kenworthy stated that his company recovered sixteen (16) silver coins from Corrigan's *547 in its two years of salvage under the exclusive State lease. Tr. at 92. The State's representative testified that Quest found nine (9) coins. The coins were turned over to the State for safekeeping; they have since disappeared.

 In 1980, the plaintiff recovered 734 individual silver coins, two gold discs, 10 clumps of inseparable silver coins, and 300 pieces of "encrusted objects." In 1981, it recovered 25 or 30 "encrusted objects," 300 silver coins, and 12 Royal Eight Escudo gold coins. The Royal Eight Escudos are in "fairly good shape." Tr. at 806. Many of the silver coins are pieces of eight, minted in 1713; the value of one is now estimated at $500.00 to $600.00. The value of a Royal Eight Escudo is estimated to range between $5,000.00 and $12,000.00, depending on the quality of the coin...

Here is the link if you want to read the entire document.  Some of you might be interested in the legal aspects of the case.

https://coast.noaa.gov/data/Documents/OceanLawSearch/Cobb%20Coin%20Co.%20v.%20Unidentified,%20Wrecked%20&%20Abandoned%20Sailing%20Vessel,%20549%20F.%20Supp.%20540%20(S.D.%20Fla.%201982).pdf?redirect=301ocm

Did you notice mention of the 12 Royal Eight escudos?

I wonder how the coins disappeared from the State's safekeeping.

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On the Treasure Coast we'll have a couple more days of flat surf.  The wind will be out of the west.  We'll also have some negative low tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/20/16 Report - Gold Brooch From Corrigans. Poll Results On Treasure Hunter Spirituality. More On Andy's Crucifix Find.

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

High Carat Gold Brooch With 12 Emeralds
Listed In Current Sedwick Treasure Auction.

This broach was found on the beach at Corrigans.  It is listed in the current Sedwick Treasure Auction.  The item number is 1682.  I posted it because it is an interesting beach find.

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The most current blog poll has concluded and the results are in.  77% of the respondents said they were religious or spiritual.

It should be noted that some good number of churches preach against what might be called "religiousity" so a good number of those who described themselves as spiritual might also be affiliated with a church.  In retrospect, I probably should have defined the first two categories a little differently.

Nonetheless, the poll does show that most detectorists do have some spiritual or religious feeling. That is what I suspected from the emails I receive and what I hear people say.

Religious or spiritual feelings are evidenced in how treasure hunting is experienced and how events are interpreted.  For example, I often hear karma mentioned.  That could indicate a type of spirituality however it also could be little more than a common expression that implies little about any deeper analysis or feelings.  It might be one of those things, like the very common phrase "in our thoughts an prayers," which I believe is often used these days as a politically correct thing to say in certain situations even though the person does not have any intention of seriously praying.

9% of the blog poll respondents described themselves as agnostic, and the same number described themselves as atheistic.  A PEW poll conducted in 2014 found 4% to  be agnostic and 4.2% to be atheist.  A higher number of those that responded to the blog poll and therefore presumed to be detectorist are atheist or agnostic.  The poll therefore did not support my feeling that detectorists and treasure hunters tend to be more spiritually or religiously inclined than the general population. The blog poll did support the notion that a large majority of detectorists or treasure hunters are religious or spiritual.

A spiritual world view will affect how people behave and interpret events.  As I mentioned above, I often hear terms like karma used in the metal detecting community.  That suggests a certain type of behavior based upon what I would think would have to be a spiritual world view or at least some universal intelligence or governing agency.  I guess it could, however, be a concept held by those believing in an entirely material world that somehow behaves in a karmic manner, although I have a hard time imagining how that would work.

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Concerning the crucifix that I talked about the last couple of days, Laura Strolia added the following.

I imagine the cross is from the 20th century. Keyholes [hangers*] began in the early 1900s. The Victorian era was known for nails, wire, and ribbon.

I never asked what the cross is made of. Why isn't it corroded? My guess it was someone's inherited crucifix from a family member and the person decided to bury it. I put my broken rosaries and other objects in the ground as one shouldn't "throw out" blessed religious artifacts. Ironic, here I am digging and placing treasure back into God's holy earth, opposite of what I do when metal detecting!

Laura

Thanks Laura!

* Added by TG.

Andy thinks it might be bronze.
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The Treasure Coast surf has decreased and is now down to around three to five feet.  By Monday we'll be back to a one-foot surf.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net