7/18/20 Report - South Hutchinson Island Beaches Somewhat Eroded This Morning. A Product Recommendation.

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

Sunrise This Saturday Morning on the Treasure Coast.

I went to the beach this morning.  It is the first time I went out for a few weeks.  Yesterday I saw the wind change and thought I'd check out some of the beaches.

John Brooks Beach Saturday Morning.

As you can see, John Brooks had some erosion on the beach front.  You can also see the big step behind the erosion.

There were modern coins, sinkers and other items on the slope in front of the cut, both high and low.  I was there way before low tide, and I had already spent a lot of time eye-balling, so I didn't spend a lot of time detecting, even though it looked decent for Treasure Coast summer conditions.  If I didn't have other things to do, I could have easily detected much longer.

Erosion At John Brooks Beach Saturday Morning.

As you can see, the cut ran for along distance in both directions.

A little farther south, people were surfing.

Surfing On The Treasure Coast Saturday Morning

There was erosion to the south too.  Also the remains of some nice shell piles.  The shell piles had some of the bigger shells.  It wasn't just the little pieces, so it was possible there would also be sea glass, and there were some fossils.  In fact that is why I did some eye-balling first.  And once I get my nose to the ground, I'm like a beagle on the trail.  So I ended up doing a lot of that before I ever got my metal detector out.

Treasure Coast Erosion Saturday Morning.

I found a horse tooth fossil and another nice tooth that I need to identify, along with some other fossil bones.  

Which reminds me - I enjoyed watching Dino Hunters last night, and I was hoping to see a tooth or two today.

Here is the largest fossil bone I saw this morning.

Fossil Bone Found on Beach.

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IIn response to my recent blog post, JamminJack spoke of a fellow that used to duck dive at night and also added the following.

...Using my knowledge of when I used to work with some of the salvagers, I would check some of the reefs to see if anything was nearby. Believe it or not, I never removed any shipwreck treasure other then some modern jewelry, fishing gear, and junk. One time, I discovered a reef loaded with shards of onion bottles, olive jars, etc. I told Bill Moore about it, but never got a reply back. Maybe he was protecting me, but will never know. There was no law going out on the reefs, but removing any treasure was...

My grandmother would tell me locks were made for honest people.

Is anyone out detecting with a [virus] mask on? I bet it is difficult with the heat and limited breathing.

Happy Hunting, JamminJack 

I recently bought a Solarguard Faceshield, made by Bimini Bay for $9.95 at WalMart.  A lot of fishermen use them for sun protection.   It is a tube of stretchy material that goes around your neck and can be pulled up to protect your face from the sun.

Well this morning I used the one I recently purchased for the first time.  When I got to the beach there were also a lot of mosquitos and I was glad I had the faceshield because it helped with that too.

Some people  use them as virus masks in stores, but that isn't what they were made for, and I don't know how effective they would be for that purpose.  

Anyhow, I found it helpful and had no problem using it in the early morning hours.  If you start to get hot, you can pull it down.  I also think it could be worn wet and would have a cooling effect.

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There are no storms to watch right now, and the Treasure Coast surf is running two to three feet.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/28/20 Report - Summer Beach Conditions Continue. A Few Finds Including A Fossil. Atlantic Heating Up.

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

Fishing On A Hazy Treasure Coast Morning.

I went out to see what was going on.  There were a lot of guys fishing at the beach.  I should've checked the river this morning.

The first thing I dug was this lengthy piece of copper shown with a bottle for comparison.

Piece of Dug Copper.

Bottle for comparison.

I eventually got something old - some fossils, including a snake vertebra fossil (below) if I'm correct, and I think I am after checking some books.

Posterior View of Fossil Snake Vertebra on Quarter and Expaned View.

I several fossils, some were just pieces.  The snake vert, a fish vert and a turtle scute were in pretty good condition.

The snake vert was the most interesting of the three to me.  The fish vert was not nearly as complex or complete and turtle scutes are very common.

Here are some other views of the same snake vert.

Two Views of Fossil Snake Vertebra.

It is intricate and still in pretty good shape.

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I received this email from Norbert.

Just as a "for what it's worth" I found a heavy men's bracelet on a golf course where worked. I used to run my detector when I monitored the sprinklers at night for watering the greens. I had my hopes up that it would be a good. The clasp had apparently broken when the guy hit his shot and couldn't find it in the tall rough. Back in the golf shop under the light, it was clearly marked "Italy 14K", but was without question some kind of heavy pot metal with most of the gold flaked off. 

I think people are not as surprised by items that are marked higher than they should be. You can see a motive, so that could be intentional deception, but I guess simple mistakes can happen in both directions.

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There is one system in the Atlantic with a small chance of developing in the next couple of days.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Otherwise nothing much new.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/8/19 Report - After Dorian. Locked Gates and Open Borders: Thoughts. Beach Conditions. Shark Tooth Find.

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

Locked Gate.

I received this email from a veteran and regular reader of this blog.

I have really been troubled with the beach access situation in Indian River County. I am tired of walking around in the evening like I am some kind of criminal. As a war vet I love being back in America and love going to the beach. Especially at night. My family, friends and I love to fish at night, walk the sunsets or clear star nights and turtle walk. Why then are we denied access to our beaches for over 20 miles in IR County.

I found the DEP site I linked below and reported every access point as an issue due to gates being closed. They should only be closed in a dire emergency. The beach is not the county's, it belongs to the State.

As such, it is held in the public trust under the Public Trust Doctrine. I believe you will find that IR County is in violation of State law and the trust, and I urge all your readers to mark every spot (ambersands, turtle etc.) and report it.

Sometimes the government does things because they can and no one objects. This does not mean it's right. It's time to tell our public servants this is our land and we demand the gates be left open.

I am pro law enforcement and welcome their patrols but they should not be used to guard locked gates to keep law abiding citizens away.

Thanks for your daily work

DZ

Thanks DZ.  I've received emails from others that are upset about the beach closures as well.

I find it very curious that our beach accesses are more heavily guarded than our national border.  Why should it be easier for a terrorist to walk across the US/Mexico border than for a US veteran to walk onto an Indian River County beach?

GB had something to say about that yesterday.  See that post.

If danger is the issue, they'll have to construct safety fences around the ocean like those used for home swimming pools.  Lets face it.  Life involves risk and danger.

Get ready for beach closures this summer too.  Just the mention of a storm will open up federal dollars for beach renourishment.

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From Russ P.

I made my way to the Treasure Coast early Wednesday morning.  As has been well reported, there were unmanned patrol cars in front of the closed Turtle Trail and Seagrape accesses.  

I arrived to TT at 7am.  There were no cars parked outside the access.  I moved on to Seagrape and there was a single private car parked outside the access, so I decided to quickly check it out.  As I was walking to the access, I met the sole detectorist walking back to his car, reporting "no luck".  I took a quick look and although the water had hit the dune wall, there was a fairly steep slope with some mushy sand, so overall not much improvement.  There was not a single person on the beach at that time.  I did not detect.

Later, I met a detectorist who told me that, the day before, he had been escorted from Turtle Trail by police until they saw him cross the bridge in his car.  He repeated the story that the officers' approach is to keep other detectorists off the beach so they have no competition while they detect.

I wonder if there is any truth to that rumor.  On one hand, I find it unlikely.  However, judging from what I saw at Seagrape that morning, there was absolutely no reason for the access to be closed.  It was in good condition with a safe beach and beautiful surf.  Frustrating.

Thanks Russ.  All reports that I received so far indicate beach conditions at the closed beaches were not much improved by Dorian.

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From Jeff C.

       I detected the beach just south of the Vero Disney resort on Thursday. Like most of your other readers, not much found except for lots of can slaw! Conditions were not very good. A flat beach and lots of mushy sand. But the reason I’m writing you is as I was searching a nice shell line , I remembered your posts about looking for fossils amongst the shells . Within 2 minutes of that thought a sharks tooth was right in front of my coil.. a few minutes later what looks like possibility a horse tooth.. thanks for broadening my searching mentality.. I was genuinely excited to find something that old.    

Shark Tooth and Barnacle(?)

Finds and photo by Jeff C.

The second item looks like a barnacle to me.

I forget if I mentioned seeing a fossil in the shell line after Dorian.

By all accounts it seems like the closed beaches were no better than the other easily accessible. beaches.

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From Curt B.

In your 11/7/2010 blog you posted pics of a small silver object. I used to do a lot of E-waste scrapping and that little object looks a lot like a contact from an industrial breaker. The contacts are soldered on to a copper arm. The contacts are 40% silver. In the industrial breakers they vary in size but that looks like a lot of ones I have scrapped out over the years. Hope that helps in identifying it.

Thanks Curt.  I would never come up with that.

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One of the interesting things about Dorian and how the surf quickly dropped off, is that the low surf after the storm would not fill the beaches in again right away - that is if there was much erosion to be filled in.

I wasn't worried about getting out quick.  If there were any good spots, especially those that aren't detected as much, you could get out and detect those beaches days later.

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I should point out that John Brooks and Frederick Douglass beaches were closed slso while other nearby beaches were open.  John Brooks and Frederick Douglass weren't closed as long as Seagrape and Turtle Trail though.

Very few finds have been reported so far.

There are still some things in the Atlantic to watch.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/17/19 Report - Hurricane Season. Finds for Identification. Book on Artifact Identification: The Jesus Tomb.

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

Hurricane season runs from June 1 to the end of November. But the next six weeks -- “the season within a season” -- is regularly the most dangerous and active time for storms to develop in the Atlantic, said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Only two named storms have developed in the Atlantic so far this year. Dry, dusty air from Africa’s Sahara robbed potential storms of moisture, and wind shear spurred by the El Nino climate systems ripped apart budding storms. Now, those brakes on hurricane development are gone...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/back-loaded-hurricane-season-bearing-204201726.html

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

As of today the National Hurricane Center map is only showing one poorly organized system up by South Carolina.  It probably won't affect us.

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Facebook has just become the latest big tech firm to confirm that external contractors are listening to audio of users’ private conversations. According to a  Bloomberg report, Facebook has hired the contractors to listen in to users taking advantage of the audio to text functionality in its Messenger service...

For more about that: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/08/14/did-facebook-just-give-13-billion-users-a-reason-to-delete-their-account/#10b4b89f1662

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Jerry P. is satisfied that we identified his find, mentioning specifically the eBay items.  He said thanks to everyone.   He had been working on the boat all week but sent the following additional photos.  I'm going to post a couple of them, even though it is a little late, because they are excellent examples for others.

Notice the (1) different views or angles, (2) a ruler for dimensions and (3) a coin for comparison.

Excellent.

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I wanted something to read last last night and found a 384-page book by Rene A. Lopez on my shelf having the title The Jesus Family Tomb Examined..  It is about a tomb in Jerusalem containing several ossuaries, one of which was supposedly labeled "Jesus son of Joseph." which, despite the fact that Jesus and Joseph were very common names, was presented as the tomb of the Savior and his family.  The book thoroughly examines the claims made by books and TV documentaries and addresses each argument and the evidence.  The book will be interesting to anyone interested in Christianity or the process of examining and interpreting artifacts.  It also exposes how books and TV programs sensationalize things and promote falsehoods.

A couple sections that I found particularly interesting is the topic of patina and how an objects patina can record the environment.  Mention was made of the Statue of Liberty and how you can see a record of the pollutants of New York on its surface.  Of course, it has been cleaned, so some of that was wiped away.

Another section I found particularly interesting was on the difficult to read inscriptions on the ossuaries, which were not only obscured and confused to some extent by scratches but also how the writing could have been overwritten when the ossuary was reused.

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Kerri K. found the following object on Playalinda Beach and wondered what it is.

Photos of unidentified object submitted by Kerri K.

Looks like a fossil turtle scute to me.

Where there is one there is probably more.

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/24/19 Report - Encrusted Objects (EOs), Clumps and Conglomerates and Their Contents.

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

Photo of Terry holding the EO before cracking and what was in it. The canvas and hemp rope was still in intact.

Find by John C.  Photo submitted by Jerry P.

I received the following email with photos from Jerry P.

“IF YOU DON’T KNOW DON’T THROW” This is a lesson I learned from John C. One of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started hunting the Treasure Coast was throwing unidentified objects away. One day Terry Shannon and I were hunting the Vero Beach area and I heard a good target sound off on my GT. I pulled up an encrusted object aka an EO. I walked over to have Terry swing his coil over it and he agreed it sounded like a good target. At the end of the day I decided to crack it open in the parking lot and inside was a copper/brass grummet from a tarp, or at least that’s what I assumed it was. I gathered up the pieces and threw it in the trash can. When I got home I called John C. to give him the beach report and told him about the grummet EO. He congratulated me on the find and I thought he was joking and I told him that I threw it away. I will never forget what he said. “Excuse me Jerry, did you say you threw it away?” He texted me a photo from his private collection and it was the exact some copper/brass grummet partly encased in coral. He explained that it was in fact a brass grummet from a canvas sail probably 1800’s and don’t you know the rule, if you don’t know you don’t throw? Sick to my stomach as I came from a long line of sailers and that piece would look great in my collection. I asked John if he could do me a favor and trash dive first thing in the morning to retrieve the EO. He was there as the gates opened but after going through multiple cans he couldn’t locate it. Since Terry was going there a bit later that morning, and he seen me throw it in the can, I ask him if he could retrieve it. Both Terry and John scuba dive but a true measure of friendship is dumpster diving first thing in the morning, thank you both! Besides meeting new people and making new friends a large portion of the fun is the research and learning the story behind each object. If you don’t know don’t throw.

I would love to see some good EO’s, please share.

Jerry P.

Photos submitted by Jerry P.

Thanks for the email and photos Jerry. That is a good lesson that bears repeating.  I couldn't agree more.  Very good topic suggestion too.

I looked back through the blog and found quite a variety of encrusted objects, including such diverse items as coins, a gun barrel, cannon ball, sword hilt, and gold ring.

Here is one good photo showing and EO before and after cleaning.

I used electrolysis to clean this spike after removing some of the crust mechanically.

In order to keep the broken iron spike from rusting again, you could add a protective coating.

Coins can be totally encrusted too.  I had some that looked like nothing other than a ball of sand and shell bits.  I can't find of photo of that right now, but here is a cob that was partially encrusted before being cleaned.

Same Half-Reale After Some Cleaning.

Here are a couple encrusted objects that I've posted before and I still don't know what they are.  Here are a couple more EOs that I haven't opened or cleaned yet and do not know what they are.  I can tell they are partially hollow.

The biggest hollow one is about seven inches across.

Here is another than seems to contain a blade-like object.  It is about seven inches long and one inch wide.

Seven by One Inch Encrusted Object.

Here is a flat one, that has an intriguing coin-size bump on it.  The surface coins are for size only.

Thin EO With Bump.

You can see the bump near the upper right of the object.  Here it is from the side.

Bump on Flat EO.

I curious about the bump.  It could be a bolt or something like that, but that one will not be easy.

Some EOs contain a void where the object used to be.  A cast can be made the shape of the void.  I had a post showing a cast of a gun barrel made from such a void but can't find that post right now.

Two EOs.  
Top One Showing Square Void From Spile or Something Similar.

I had another post on using X-Ray to determine the contents of an EO.

The next clump is composed mainly of melted lead that stuck to sand and shells.

Melted Lead in Conglomerate.

Some clumps contain interesting things besides metal.  Here is a photo of a nice calcite fossil shell sticking out of a clump.

Clump With Nice Calcite Shell Showing.

And here is a clump containing a fossil tooth.  It is the brown nearly rectangular object near the center bottom.

Fossil Tooth in Conglomerate.

Here are links to some previous posts on EOs.  The first one is about an X-Rayed EO.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/08/82918-report-another-conglomerate-x-ray.html

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2017/12/121217-report-clumps-conglomerates-and.html

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2016/12/121516-report-key-find-appreciating.html

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2015/07/7815-report-more-treasure-finds-from.html

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2014/10/101014-report-subtropical-storm-fay-and.html

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2012/12/12812-report-wreck-of-la-belle-and.html

Here is a good one I was looking for a just found.

Will R. found gun parts and was able to make a mold of the barrel.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2012/12/12912-report-encrusted-objects-again.html

Send me your photos of EOs and the objects found inside.

A lot of mine haven't been opened yet.

Sometimes I think it is better to leave some of the matrix intact.  Makes a nice display.

I have a lot of heavy-duty coin cleaning to do.  Maybe I'll get some good examples from that.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/19/19 Report - Some Beaches Not Looking Bad on Good Friday. Take a Look.

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

Detectorist at John Brooks Near Low Tide Friday.

I hadn't been out for quite a while, but went out to take a look at a few South Hutchinson Island beaches this afternoon.  There were some decent looking beaches.  The beach fronts were low, as you can see above.  There were a few shells scattered near the low tide line.

John Brooks Friday Afternoon.

At John Brooks there were some cuts both to the south and north.

Frederick Douglass Beach Friday Afternoon.

Frederick Douglass beach was similar to John Brooks.

Frederick Douglass Beach Friday Afternoon,.

Shells on Frederick Douglass.

One of the regulars was detecting down at Dollman (below) where it was heavily cut a week or two ago.  Naturally it had changed some since then, but there was nice spot down where he was.

I believe most of the coins down there was coming from the eroded nourishment sand, but from what I could tell, some things were washing in as well.  Not only were there shells, but also a few fossils, which I doubt came out of the renourishment sand.  I'd bet some of the other beaches are looking decent too.

Overall, today I saw some beaches that I were worth working.  Based upon the few beaches I saw I would give a 2 rating on my five-point treasure beach conditions rating scale.  That is what I call transitional.  A few older things might be found, but it wasn't bad at all for finding newer targets.  I know a lot of clad and a few pieces of gold would be found.  

I didn't get any word on what is happening in the Vero and Sebastian areas and haven't been there.  I would suspect that at least one or two that tend to benefit from south winds aren't bad.

Here's one more.

South of Pepper Park Friday AM

Photo by DJ

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/1/16 Report - Coin Hole Coins. Collection Starter Sets. 1715 Fleet Gold Coins Being Sold. Dinosaur Brain. How To Submit FOIA Request.

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

Bunch of Clad Found at One Treasure Coast Beach.

These coins were found in one coin hole on a Treasure Coast beach in a short period of time.   There are the same number of quarters as dimes - exactly.  A few less nickles, and many more pennies.  That is typical.

A day earlier I found a wheat penny with a similar bunch of coins and thought there might be some older items to be found.  It turns out that the wheatie was the only one.

Item Found With Coins.

This item is about half the size of a dime.  When I found it I figured it was some type of foreign coin and didn't pay much attention to it.  It didn't take much research to find that STH is a manufacturer of fishing reels.

The good thing about good coin holes is that they usually contain something else - very often some gold jewelry.  The quality of the jewelry, of course, depends upon the beach you are at.

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I was browsing the ongoing Sedwick Coins auction and noticed there were several lots of ten 8-reales. That is an easy way to start a collection.  Get ten at once for a low price.  They aren't the best quality, but you it looks like you can get them for a good low price.

There are tons of eight-reales listed in the auction.  Also a good number of Mexican half-reales.  For some reason I still find the half-reales the most interesting.  I guess I like the monograms.  I find the gold dubloons boring.  Gold always looks good coming out of the ground though.

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A lot of gold coins from the 1715 Fleet, including many from the 2015 season are being sold by Blanchard Gold and Monaco Rare Coins.

And here is a link where you can view and buy some of those coins.

https://www.blanchardgold.com/buy-rare-coins/search-coins/?&CurrentPage=1

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A funny little pebble-looking fossil might be part of a fossilized dinosaur brain.  That is the opinion reached after ten years of study.

Here is that link.

http://my.xfinity.com/video/tiny-pebble-a-massive-find/797210691705/Comcast/X1_Science?cid=sf_watchmod_pebble&tab=Must%20Watch

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The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law that gives you the right to access information from the federal government.  If you want access to information held by the government, you can submit a FOIA request.

The following link will take you to a web site that provides a sample request letter that you can use.

http://www.nfoic.org/florida-sample-foia-request

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Wind again today.  It was a windy October.  Too bad it didn't hit at a better angle.

We'll be having something like a three or four foot surf.  They are predicting an increase Saturday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net