10/31/15 Report - $100,000 Eight-Reale. Ancient Shipwreck Cemetary. Sword Found. Ghosts of Treaures Past.

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

Lot 720 as shown in the Sedwick Coins
Online Auction Catalog.

This heart-shaped eight reale brought a winning bid of $100,000 in the Sedwick Coins treasure auction that concluded this week.  It is the best example known.

I held this reale myself and inspected it carefully.  It is beautiful.  Unlike many heart-shaped cobs, this one is not holed.

Potosi was the only mint to make cobs in this shape.  Heart-shaped cobs from other mints do exist, but they were shaped into hearts later instead of being struck on a heart-shaped flan.

The purpose of these special cobs is not known for certain.  There is an article about that on the Sedwick  Coins web site.





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Underwater archaeologists have discovered 22 shipwrecks around a small Greek archipelago, revealing what may be the ancient shipwreck capital of the world...

"Surpassing all expectations, over only 13 days we added 12 percent to the total of known ancient shipwrecks in Greek territorial waters," Peter Campbell, of the University of Southampton and co-director from US based RPM Nautical Foundation, told Discovery News...

Here is the link to that article.

http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/22-shipwrecks-found-in-single-greek-location-in-greece-151028.htm

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A hiker travelling the ancient route between western and eastern Norway found a 1,200-year-old Viking sword after sitting down to rest after a short fishing trip. Further studies of the area will take place next spring...


That sword was in really amazing condition too.

Here is that link for that article.

http://www.thelocal.no/20151021/hiker-finds-1300-yr-old-viking-sword

One more example of how amazing objects can be found without a metal detector.

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A lonely beach can be as busy as Times Square on New Years Eve if you really listen to your finds and use your imagination a little.  Fossils tell of giant sloths, mammoths, tapirs and Megalodons. Treasure coins conjure up ghosts of pirates, missionaries, conquistadors, sailors, and half-drowned survivors. Arrow heads and shell artifacts echo early man hunting and going about the business of survival.  Badly corroded World War II dog tags announce in sad muted tones the names of young men who trained in Florida for a landing in Europe that would change the world.  Modern coins and jewelry items tell of those who played, grew up and raised families on the Treasure Coast as well as tourists who came to enjoy the sun, sand and surf.  It is all there.  You can feel it if you are quiet enough.  You can see it if you respect it enough.

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It looks like we are in for a week or so of 2 to 4 foot surf.  Not very encouraging.

Please respond to the blog poll if you hunted the Treasure Coast beaches during the last half of October.  It will help me evaluate my beach detecting conditions ratings as well as tell us what was or was not found.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

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3/27/15 Report - Custer's Last Stand Gun Parts. 2015 Santa Margarita Treasures. Treasure Coast Inland Finds/

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

Kovels Komments reports that these gun parts sold for $31,050 at auction.

The parts were found back in the 1990s by using a metal detector on the Reno Battlefield, which is the site of Custer's last stand.  Kovels  said, But it's the name Custer that made them so valuable. The James Julia auction proved that great record keeping makes a collection more valuable.

Keeping good records is always a good idea.

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We've had a long period of poor beach conditions on the Treasure Coast, but as I always say, there is always someplace to hunt and something to find.  What makes poor conditions one place makes good conditions some place else.

The Mel Fisher organization said, The Dare and the Magruder will remain on site for the last few days of this incredibly long window of good weather. It is rare to see so many days at sea this early in the year and this trip is hopefully a sign of good things to come...

They recently found a heart shaped gold ring on the Santa margarita wreck site along with five silver coins, some encrusted objects and a piece of wood from the wreck.

As I previously reported, the ring is the first gold of the year from the Margarita wreck site.

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Despite the poor Treasure Coast beach conditions some of our Treasure Coast guys have been doing very well inland.

Below are some great finds made by William M.

William said, I'm honestly getting kind of burnt out on land hunting really wish the beach would do something drastic.  I dug a lot of targets today definitely gotta work out doing squats.

That is a nice early coin for the Treasure Coast area.

Way to go William!

William says, the old bullet is a .44 long DA.. that stands for double action it was fired from Smith and Wesson's first double action revolver called the Frontier manufactured between 1881 and 1913.

That is really neat.  Good research too, which makes it all the more interesting.




Thanks for sharing the great photos William.



      












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Dan B. has also been doing well inland.  Below are some of Dan's recent inland finds.

Finds and photos by Dan B.

              

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Yesterday we had some heavy rain and wind.  I lost power a few times when I was trying to do this post or it would have been posted sooner.   I was also out on a little expedition.

We'll have about a two to three foot surf today.  Not so much wind, and not good wind direction.

The tides have flattened out too.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

                           

7/8/14 Report - Fort Harrel Found (?), Horse Shaped Cob & Biting Great Whites and Noseeums

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



Cob Shaped Like Horse
Source photo: Sewall Menzel's book
Cobs, Pieces of Eight, and Treasure Coins.

Cobs were formed in a variety of fanciful shapes.  Hearts are most common.  A Sedwick auction had an entire group of those. 

Besides hearts, or pomegranites, other cobs were shaped like horses, birds or arrows. 

The precise reason for these oddly shaped cobs is not known.   Some think they were special favors used as jewelry and some believe they were used for religious puposes.

Many had holes so they could be worn.

Sewall Menzel believes that they were not "made at the mint."   That doesn't seem right to me, but he knows a heck of a lot more about it than me.

He wonders if one example was made as a joke or at the whim of a public official.  This is one of those things that you can wonder about but will probably never know.




Section of Gold Chain Found

It is possible! If you do your research you can go out there and find a historic site that has been lost for a century or more.  That is what recently happened.

A high school chemistry teacher, a computer engineer and a U. S. National Park Service Employee recently found what could be the site of Fort Harrel in the Everglades.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-07-02/news/fl-historic-fort-found-20140702_1_everglades-fort-site-seminole-war

Reading can help.  You never know where you'll find that important clue.  Then they did some more reading and put in some hard time looking.

I don't think most detectorists do much research at all.  Many just go out to the beach to get some exercise.  Nothing wrong with that, but if you want to make new discoveries research will definitely help.

Here is an extensive list of Seminole War forts.

http://fortwiki.com/Seminole_War_Forts_List



You might take some insect repellant the next time you go to the beach.  The noseeums haven't been as bad as I've seen them, but they have been out there.   One got inside my ear phone cup the other day and chewed my ear up.   That was a first for me.   They've eaten me before, but not from the inside of my ear phone. 

They seem to be bad when the sand gets wet from rain.  And as you know that has been happening.

Watch out for lightening too.  We had a lot of lightening yesterday.


Here is an article about a fellow that got bit by a Great White.  Creatures can decide to take a bite out of you.  Beware.

http://nypost.com/2014/07/06/shark-attack-victim-it-lunged-and-locked-into-my-chest/


And here is an article about the NSA accumulating and saving messages by regular people who were not targeted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html


The surf on the Treasure Coast is running around two feet.  The tidal change is modest.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net