5/14/17 Report - Happy Mother's Day! Fisher Distribution Week. Digital Technology and Treasure Hunting.

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

Happy Mother's Day!  

You can take that lightly, and I suppose that most of us do for a good part of our life, but there is no one else that carried you and gave birth to you or has the same type of feelings for you.  More than likely there is no one that has cared for you or worried for you any more than your mother.  

Time comes and time goes.  In my life, that person that cared for me now needs my help and care.  That person that held my hand when I tried to walk, now needs a hand.   In my later years, I can  look back and see the years and stages in life a little differently, knowing that probably some day not too far away I'll never have a chance to talk to her in this life again.  The person that I depended upon, now depends upon me.  Some things I can't do that I'd like to.  Some I'd like to fix, but can't.  I know she had the same type of wishes for me,  I hope I made her feel that through it all, it turned out pretty good.

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May 2 - 5 was Division Week for investors in the Mel Fisher organization in Key West.  Division Week is when investors received thei split of the previous year's finds.  

The Fisher crews made a few recent finds.  A cannon ball was found on the Margarita site.  An eight reale was also chiseled out of bottom rock.

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After posting a bit about the information war yesterday, I read an article from the New York Times under the headline  Hackers Hit Dozens of Countries Exploiting Stolen N.S.A. Tools

...By late Friday the attacks had spread to more than 74 countries, according to security firms tracking the spread...  Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm, said Russia was the worst-hit, followed by Ukraine, India and Taiwan. Reports of attacks also came from Latin America and Africa.

Elsewhere I read that one Los Angeles hospital paid thousands of dollars o ransom. More from the same article follows.

...Security experts described the attacks as the digital equivalent of a perfect storm. They began with a simple phishing email, similar to the one Russian hackers used in the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and other targets last year. They then quickly spread through victims’ systems using a hacking method that the N.S.A. is believed to have developed as part of its arsenal of cyberweapons. And finally they encrypted the computer systems of the victims, locking them out of critical data, including patient records in Britain...

...The attacks on Friday appeared to be the first time a cyberweapon developed by the N.S.A., funded by American taxpayers and stolen by an adversary had been unleashed by cybercriminals against patients, hospitals, businesses, governments and ordinary citizens...

...They also showed how easily a cyberweapon can wreak havoc, even without shutting off a country’s power grid or its cellphone network...

Here is the link to the article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/world/europe/uk-national-health-service-cyberattack.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

We are all computer users and vulnerable.  You need to be aware of the dangers.  Digital technologies are becoming a bigger part of our lives.  We all need to know something about the new technologies. The very nature of treasure and treasure hunting is changing.

You probably know about Bitcoin.  It is a monetary system in which payments are made and received by transfering units of digital money outside of the national monetary systems.  I can't really explain it well without taking more time so you'll have to look into it yourself if you want to know more about it.  There are no physical coins or bills aassociated with Bitcoin.  It is entirely digital.

As you know, the economy is becoming increasingly digital.  That has a direct impact on how much change you'll find on the beaches.  People carry less cash.  They rely more and more on plastic and other forms of payment.   That affects metal detecting directly and immediately.  In the future it will transform treasure hunting in a variety of ways. Some are predicting that in the not too distant future, coins and cash will not be used at all.

Some detectorists have told me that they find fewer coins on the beach these days because people are carrying less cash.  Some attribute at least part of that to the increase in the number of people detecting.

I mentioned not long ago one place where a lot of old coins were found, and I think it is because that is where parking fees were collected in the old days.  If there were parking meters that required change or if an admission or parking fee required change, you would find more change at that beach.  Also beach snack shops, businesses or concessions would also result in more change being lost on the beach. Less money is being exchanged at places like that now too.

It used to be possible to go out and pick up a couple of dollars of change almost any day on any busy beach.  It seems that is not the case anymore.

Information can be a type of treasure. Computer code can be treasure. Personal information can be treasure.  Pirates sail the web looking to hijack personal information that they can sell.

I feel like talking more about computer security and our nation, but won't do that right now, but treasure hunters do need to be aware of the big picture and what is going on.  It is good to know something about new technologies, including both the benefits and the potential problems.  It is also good to know something about the changes occurring in our culture and lives.

I once did a post about how different cultures wear more or less gold and how that affects the distribution of lost gold jewelry on Florida beaches.  Some groups wear more gold than others, and some groups tend to wear a higher karat gold than others.  I've talked about that in the past.  You can tell a lot about who visits a beach, by what type of jewelry you find there.

Many different types of knowledge are relevant to and can help you with treasure hunting, and treasure hunting can help you learn about a lot of different types of things.  I guess that is what keeps it so interesting for me.

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Next week on the Treasure Coast we're supposed to have a gradual increase to a surf of up to five feet.

Again, Happy Mother's Day.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/2/17 Report - Preserving The Story. Electronic Piracy.

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

Preserve the story.  That is the topic that stuck in my mind the past couple of days.

I was watching Antiques Roadshow and they were talking about a chair that was owned by Ginger Rogers.  The chair wasn't worth much except for the fact that it was owned by the movie star, which increased the value many times.  The expert told the chair's owner to preserve the story and all the documentation that they could find because the documentation would add to the value of the chair.

Provenance can add to the economic value of a coin or other artifact.  An item can be worth more when you can prove that it was owned by a famous person or it was a part of an important historic event, but the story surrounding an object can increase the value of a object in many ways - not just monetarily.

Yesterday I decided to start this post, but I didn't finish it.  It hadn't marinated long enough.  Today I'll get it started.

The first question is what story?  What is the story that should be preserved?

There is a story connected with every find - probably more than one.  The story might not be obvious at first.  You might have to do some research or study to discover the story. You might have to think about the find, how it came about and what it means to you.

The story might be about the history of the object, including things like why it was made, how it was used or how it ended up where it was found, or the story might be more about you and how you made the find or what the find means to you.

Why preserve the story?

There are a lot of possible reasons.  I've already suggested some of those.  There might be an economic incentive.  The story might be more about you than the object though.  The story might be about a time and place in your life.  It might communicate something about yourself.  It might be something that is remembered by you and your family for years to come.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that I never regretted keeping records, but I have regretted not keeping better records.

I never guessed that thirty years later I would enjoy looking at my old metal detecting records.  I still learn new things from old finds as well as my records.

Things that didn't seem important at the time, might seem important years later, and if not important, at least interesting.

It seems that older people, myself included, like to think back about the old days.  You can look back and understand things in a way that you couldn't at the time.  You have a new more complete perspective.  It can be informative, and it can be funny or interesting.  You might not guess that now.

I found a good post on the FamilySearch blog that you might find helpful.  It gives some good tips on how to keep memories alive.  The title of the post is Preservation Week—Helping Us Keep the Memories of Our Life Alive.  Those memories are not just for you.  They are also for your family, and possibly your friends, and maybe even generations to come.

The post gives some good suggestions on how to store and protect your collections.  Paper deteriorates, especially in Florida. The hear and humidity takes a big toll.  If you collect books, postcards, stamps or ephemera of any kind, you should be well aware of how paper deteriorates in hot humid weather. Bugs can also be a problem.

Don't rely on digital storage.  Devices change rapidly.  Those nice digital photos and records that you have on your electronic devices might not be accessible when those devices fail or become obsolete.

Here is the link. I think it is well worth reading.

https://familysearch.org/blog/en/preservation-weekhelping-memories-life-alives/

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Back in June of 2013 I had posted a coupled brief notes relative to George Orwell's book 1984 and NSA hacking.  NSA introduces vulnerabilities into cell phone networks worldwide so they can monitor them.  A problem with doing that is that once the vulnerabilities have been introduced, others can make use of those vulnerabilities, including what you might call bad actors.  It is therefore highly possible, if not likely, that the Russian hacking that has recently been the topic of endless news programs, if not made rediculously easy by the highly publicized poor security practiced by high ranking government officials, would have occurred through exploitation of vulnerabilities actually introduced by NSA.

For more information on those topics, I suggest the following.

https://theintercept.com/2014/12/04/nsa-auroragold-hack-cellphones/

https://nsa.gov1.info/dni/2017/index.html

https://nsa.gov1.info/utah-data-center/

Besides the need for treasure hunters to be broadly informed, they should also be aware that while treasure maps and codes were at one time a bigger part of treasure hunting, electronics now play a huge roll.  Pirates once sailed the seven seas, now pirate surf the net.

As you undoubtedly know, every major commercial venture in the world wants your browsing data and major companies and other bad actors alike are eager to sell whatever data they can collect.  Disney, collects tons of data on their customers.  They can tell you the day and time that you entered any of their parks for years and years. Their magic bands do more than facilitate the customer experience.

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The surf is smooth and the tides are moderating.  The water should be pleasant.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/30/17 Report - Coin Bracelet Find. Computer Security and How To Avoid Sharing More Information Than You Really Want To Especially When You Send Photos.

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

Dug Bracelet of Drilled Coins.

Here is a dug coin bracelet.  At first I didn't think these would be real coins, but after inspecting them closely I'm pretty sure they are.

Each one is a un sol de oro.  Heavily tarnished or discolored but not old - 1975.

Despite the fact that oro means gold, there is no gold in these coins.  They are brass.

It appears that somebody worked the coins and drilled holes in them.  Close inspection of the holes shows they were drilled and they still have rough edges.  The connectors are hand made too.

Closer View of One Coin.

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This is the digital age.  We are an internet community.  I thought you might be somewhat interested in what other people who access this blog are using.  For browsers, the list in descending order is Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer and Firefox.  For operating systems it is Windows, Macintosh and then Android.

There has been a lot in the news lately about hacking and privacy.  It is a topic that is very relevant to treasure hunting.  When I was doing some consulting for a TV show, I was asked if I knew of any treasure maps.  That is a question I received previously from another TV show, and one producer commented that real treasure maps are really hard to find.

They are hard to find.  They aren't really meant to be public.  When they do exist, they are often coded.  But today instead of drawing maps, people are simply keeping GPS coordinates instead.

Treasure hunters, like everybody else today, use computers and electronic communications extensively, but they might think those forms of communication and data storage are more private than they really are.

People sometimes send photos of finds and things to me for the blog.  They might not  know sometimes the file also includes information about where the photo was taken.  I never post that information, so you don't have to worry.  I don't even look at it myself.  I just make a snipping or screen print and post that.

If you wouldn't say something out loud in a crowded room, don't say it over a phone or internet connection without encryption or some serious security measures.

You might know about the bill to repeal the Broadband Consumer Privacy Rules, which I understand would allow your internet service provider to sell your browsing history.  Maybe you also heard that tech genius Mark Zuckerberg and FBI Director James Comey both use tape to cover the camera on their laptops due to the ease of hacking.

If you are reading this blog, I know you use the internet or a smartphone, so I think you should be aware that your electronic communications are probably neither secure or private.  I doubt that most people realize how insecure those things are.  If you don't care if your browsing history might be sold or made public, or if you don't care if your system is hacked, fine - no problem, but you simply can not be sure your electronic communications or data is private and secure.  I don't care if you are the President of the United States, leader of Germany, Secretary of State, head of a high tech company or the FBI, or just an average Joe, you can't assume that your electronic communications or data has not or can not be compromised.

The United States bugs and hacks.  Why would anyone think that other countries, especially those that are not supposed to be our friends, aren't doing the same type of things. You can assume that they are.  All this fuss about Russia trying to affect the election is silly.  I would expect no less of them. Foreign leaders aren't going to play fair and be nice, and neither are crooks.  That is just the way it is.

My point here is that you shouldn't assume that your electronic devices and computers are totally secure and private.

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I want you to know that if you send me photos, I never look for any data other than the picture and any email message that you send. You don't have to worry about me checking out the location of where you took a picture. There are steps you can take to remove that data if and when you want to.

Just to make sure I made this clear, I don't post photos. I make a snipping of the photo or picture and post that. I never post a photo so that the additional properties and data can be accessed.

You should know how to find that data in your photo files.

The location information is stored as “metadata” embedded in the photo files themselves. All you have to do is view the file’s properties and look for it.

If you use Windows, after downloading the image file to your computer, right-click on the file, select Properties, and then click the Details tab. Look for the Latitude and Longitude coordinates under GPS.

That is how easy it is to find where photo was taken if your camera or device stores that data.


If you want to remove the location information from your photo files,so you won't be telling everyone where you made those special finds or where you were when you took the photo, here is how you can remove that data when using an iPhone.

On an iPhone, open the Settings app, tap Privacy, and tap Location Services. Tap the Camera app in the list and select “Never” for “Allow Location Access.” The Camera app won’t have access to your location and won’t be able to embed it in photos.

If you want to know how to do it using other systems or devices, you might want to visit the following site.


https://www.howtogeek.com/211427/how-to-see-exactly-where-a-photo-was-taken-and-keep-your-location-private/

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The surf is down to around two or three feet, but we still have a very good low tide.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/9/17 Report - Knights Templar Cave. Gold Ring Find. Historical Graves in St. Augustine. Hacking.

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

Source: See link below.

Source: See link below.

A rabbit hole in the UK conceals the entrance to an incredible cave complex linked to the mysterious Knights Templar.

New photos show the remarkable Caynton Caves network, which looks like something out of the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” The shadowy Knights Templar order is said to have used the caves....

Here is the link for more.


http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/03/07/rabbit-hole-leads-to-incredible-700-year-old-knights-templar-cave-complex.html


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14K Gold Ring Find
Submitted by renkenyacht.

This 14k gold band was found Sunday on a Treasure Coast beach.

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ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- An archaeological dig in St. Augustine continues to marvel scientists and historians. More burials have been found, and some are children's graves. They are children who may have been some of the earliest colonists in St. Augustine.

The dig started in early February. David White, the owner of the Fiesta Mall in downtown St. Augustine, had to rip up his floor because it was damaged by the hurricane. He offered the city archaeologist, Carl Halbirt, to dig underneath. That's when they started finding human burials...

Here is that link.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/st-augustine/historic-burials-of-children-found-in-st-augustine/418890981

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Seems the CIA has been collecting almost every phone and internet communication made by US citizens.  Nothing new.  I discussed that in a post a few years ago.  People seem shocked though.  According to reports, they can hack into cars to commit assassinations, listen in on homes through TVs and other appliances, etc.  Some people don't care at all about that.  I think it is sort of interesting.  But I tend to find a lot of things interesting.  I would assume that other powers are interested in certain US communications and just as capable.

To me this is very much like metal detecting in that meaningful signals are sought in a context of noise. The fun and usefulness of it all is in separating the meaningful signals from all the noise and determining the significance and then taking action.

Here is a link.

http://blog.spiritdaily.com/news-links/cia-leak-agency-can-turn-smart-phones-into-spy-devices

Devices such connected detectors can be hacked too.  As you probably know, some detectors keep track of locations using GPS.  That is hackable data.  Conversations about treasure locations, just like any other electronically transmitted conversation, can obviously be hacked.  Since you and I don't have anything to hide, we don't have to worry about that.  At least that is how some people look at it.

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Sometimes, like yesterday, what I'm thinking about won't condense down to a post.  As a result I don't do a post.  That happens to me when I am thinking about doing a post on topics such as how sand and coins move on a beach.  I start out on a part of that and it keeps expanding to pages and pages.  Then I don't get it finished and I don't post it.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/15/16 Report - Flintlock Pistol From Treasure Coast Beach. Thoughts On Religious Relics. World Wide Web 25 Years Old This Month.

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

Flintlock Pistol Found After Hurricanes of 2004.
Photo submitted by Darrel Strickland.

Lately I've been showing some noteworthy treasures that were found a few years ago, especially after the hurricanes of 2004, which was some of the best hunting we've had since the legendary Thanksgiving Storm of 1984.  A lot of treasure was found by a lot of people after Francis and Jeanne. You've never heard of most of it, and I'm only showing a few pieces.

The flintlock pistol shown above was found by Tom K., who found the pistol "at Wabasso Beach going north towards Golden Sands in the wet sand near the water's edge."  Thanks for sending the photo and email Darrel.

I don't know if Tom ever got the pistol cleaned up or not, but he wasn't in a hurry to clean it at the time because he thought it might be damaged in the process.

Tom also found some rings that day.

Here is charm or rosary piece found back then too.

Photo submitted by Darrel S.

I've shown some of the famous religious pieces found by the salvage divers, and Laura Strolia has provided authoritative research on some of the most fascinating ones. Click the following link to go back to a post containing some of Laura's research on the Pelican of Piety.

  http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/search?q=pelican+piety

Before Laura's research was published, the gold Pelican of Piety was often mistakenly referred to as a reliquary.  A reliquary is meant to contain a relic.

I recently found an article about first-class relics being sold on the internet.  A first-class relic is an item or piece of an item directly associated with event's of Christ's life or the physical remains of a saint, for example bone or hair.

One person wrote an article about selling first class relics and wants the practice stopped. The author of that article, Ryan Scheel, had the following to say.

The listing of first class relics “is incredibly insensitive to the Catholic faith in way I doubt would be tolerated for other religions,” Scheel said. 

“But also...common decency should tell eBay that profiting off of the sale of body parts is ghastly and unethical, no matter who the remains belonged to in life.”That's why Scheel decided to launch a petition calling for eBay to remove the listings of the first class relics. He hopes to obtain signatures from at least 25,000 Catholics in order to alert the site of the illicit sales.”

Here is the link to that article.

http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php?id=14075

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Did you know that August 5 was the 25th anniversary of the first web site.  That web site described the WorldWideWeb project and said the following.

"The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents," the world's first public website reads, going on to explain how others can also create their own web pages.

"The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should be freely available to anyone."

I found that information on thehackernews.com, which is a good site for those who want to stay informed about computer security.

Many large corporations have been hacked by China.  Google admitted they were hacked.   If Google, who has all of those bright computer scientists, couldn't prevent being hacked, who can?  If you don't maintain the finest security practices and if you have anything that the major players might want on your computer, you probably have been hacked, whether you know it or not.

Computer security isn't all technical.  A lot of it is behavioral.  Hackers take advantage of natural and naive human behavior.

On a side note, the Stuxnet super-virus was created to damage Iran's nuclear centrifuges, and it did its job fairly well even though the controllers were isolated.  Somebody had to use a USB or some other portable storage device to install it the virus.   More powerful versions are now being developed.

I started this post talking about a centuries old flintlock pistol, and ended it with cyber warfare.  How things have changed!

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Here is one note on old rings that appear large enough to be worn by a giant or on a big toe.  They were made to be worn over a glove.

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There are no storms right now, and the surf will run around one or two feet for the next several days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net