3/11/16 Report - Lead Stylus From Treasure Coast Beach. Good Negative Tides Today.

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

Four Lead Styluses.

The four lead styluses (both styli and styluses seems to be accepted) shown above were recovered from Wayne County Michigan, the site of the Battle of Brownstown Creek.  They are shown in Identification Guide to Recovered Colonial and Revolutionary War Artifacts by Timothy J. McGuire.

Styluses were used as far back as the days of the Roman empire.  From Wikipedia ,"The original form of "lead pencil" was the leaden stylus used by the ancient Romans, who also used it to write on wood or papyrus by leaving dark streaks where the soft metal rubbed off onto the surface. The concept has been revived in recent times as the core of the "inkless pen": a lead-based metal alloy that leaves dark markings on paper by abrading small pieces of core onto the surface."

I've also seen styluses that were made of bronze and silver.  Some were quite ornate.

Those shown above are described as being from 1770 to 1813,

The stylus shown below is from a Treasure Coast beach. Unlike the more refined examples that can be found both those shown above and the one from the Treasure Coast are more crude, yet functional.

Lead, of course, was used to make shot and was very plentiful in many situations.  It was easily melted or pounded into different forms and used for a variety of purposes.

I've found lead sinkers that were obviously hand-made by melting and drilling or rolling.  Without context it can be difficult to date such items because there are still a few people around who will make their own sinkers out of left-over lead.

Lead Stylus Found
On Treasure Coast
Beach Some
Years Ago.

When I was a child, one of my favorite toys was an electric melting pot and molds that I could use to melt lead and pour my own lead soldiers.  They weren't so particular about lead and heat and safety issues in general in those days.  I wish I had that neat little kit today.

McGuire points out that "Lead was used for many purposes on the Frontier.  It was easily melted and recycled into many different items."

The stylus found on the Treasure Coast was not found on one of the well known 1715 Fleet beaches.  It was found on a shipwreck beach though, where I believe there are multiple shipwrecks nearby from various centuries.  I believe one of those shipwrecks is probably a 19th century shipwreck.

I have found very little good research information on lead styluses like these.

This stylus leaves a black or grey mark on a hard surface.

I have not yet learned anything about what the most common tablet would be made of in the 18th century.

If you let your imagination run wild, you might imagine an officer standing on the beach over seeing recovery efforts and keeping tally of goods that were salvaged.  You can raise many questions or objections to that scenario.

If you can find any good information about how lead styli were used and what they were typically used on I'd appreciate an email.  Or any of your thoughts on the subject.

I could see how this kind of stylus could be used to mark on a large piece of olive jar or even a brick or something.

This is the kind of item that a detectorist might find and toss as junk.

There are a lot of questions remaining in my mind about this item.  I'm sure there are some who will think that it is nothing but rolled lead.  That might be right.  I'm not sure.

---

On the Treasure Coast it is pretty breezy.  The news is talking about the rough surf and rip tides.  Be careful with those rip tides.

The surf isn't that big though - only around three feet.  And the wind continues from the southeast.

The one thing to consider is the big tides right now.  The high tides are high and there are some good negative tides.  That can be just as important as the surf.  Take advantage of the tides.  I haven't been able to get out to the beach lately, but I'm sure with those tides you will be able to find some small cuts if you look around enough.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/15/11 Report - Blog Changes Coming & More on the Stylus and Capron Treasure

Photos of Other Found Lead Syli.

Yesterday I posted a photo of a recent find that came from a Treasure Coast treasure beach. I thought it might be a lead stylus and asked for help in identifying the item. One reader (mzbarrerras - Thanks!) wrote and provided links to two web sites that showed lead syli. The first web site, and the one that the above pictures came from, is a UK Finds Database. It is a very nice web site for browsing detector finds.

Here is the link to the finds database.

www.ukdfd.co.uk

After reading about lead styli, I could see in my mind's eye a hihg-ranking survivor of the wreck standing on the beach trying to keep count of salvaged treasures or supplies. That was only my imagination, but it makes sense to me that it certainly would have happened.

I also read somewhere that lead styli were used from very early on and up to the 20th Century, and in addition to be used to write on wax tablets as I mentioned the other day, I read that they were also used for writing on slate.


I've been talking about the Fort Capron payroll treasure. Tom Guidus of Wreckovery Salvage (see the link to his web site listed in my treasure site link list) wrote in to say that there were more coins that were found as a part of that treasure than those listed in the tables that I recently showed. I won't get into that whole story now, but there were 2600 other coins that were initially found and were not included in those tables.

Sometimes what you learn as you follow a story is the treasure. I always like learning new things, whether it is about a part of history or an object like a lead stylus.



Still Out There.

These guys must be making a permanent full-time job out of cleaning the grates(?).

This morning the smaller boat brought some crates that were moved to the platform boat.


You may have noticed the new addition to this blog's title and description. I've been thinking for a while that I needed to make some changes to this blog, but didn't know exactly what. Now I know.

It has been such a slow year for hunting shipwreck treasure coins that I decided to add more how-to information on beach and shallow water hunting techniques that should help almost anyone find more gold.

The material in this blog has always been applicable to hunting more than treasure coins on the Treasure Coast, but that was and will continue to be one of my main areas of focus. I'm not going to quit doing what I have been doing, I'm just going to add more material on beach and water hunting techniques.

As I've often mentioned, it is good to expand your hunting experiences. You can learn things from any type of treasure hunting that will apply and help you with other types of hunting.

When I first started detecting, I began on the tourist beaches of South Florida where I lived. I often hunted the beaches in Broward as well as those in Dade County and the Keys and other places. I always enjoyed traveling and hunting new places. It's always interesting to try new and different types of beaches.

No matter where you hunt, many of the same principles apply. It doesn't matter if you are detecting along the Gulf of Mexico, in the ocean, or in a lake or stream, or hunting foreign soil.

I have a lot of new topics in mind. They aren't really new topics to me, but with the new breadth of this blog, I'll include them whenever they seem to fit.

When one type of hunting is slow or you are ready for a little change, you'll be able to use this new beach and water hunting information almost anywhere.

If you hunt long enough your preferred targets will probably change. But no matter what you want to hunt, the more diverse your knowledge and experience, the more likely you will be to maintain a good level of success over time. As things change, you will need to change and adapt too.

But like I said, I won't be doing away with my Treasure Coast treasure beach reports. That will continue to be my central focus. I'll just be adding a little more material on beach and shallow water hunting techniques.

This blog had evolved from the time I started it and it will continue to evolve. I never imagined that the blog would be getting over 300 hits a day when I started it.

Although the Treasure Coast has some very good treasure beaches, you should also know that you can also find old shipwreck coins down through Palm Beach, Broward, Dade County and the Keys. In fact my first treasure coins were found down in Dade County. And in this blog I've shown shipwreck coins and artifacts that came from down south.

Anyhow, I hope you like the new topics that I add to future posts of my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Report.


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Forecast and Conditions.

The weather is beautiful. The wind is out of the southeast and the seas remain relatively calm. As you probably know by now, that means continuing poor conditions for finding shipwreck coins on the Treasure Coast beaches.

It is almost like we are already into summer conditions this year. In fact, we hardly had anything else. It just was a sandy year.

Anyhow, calm seas mean easy water detecting. That makes my new direction even more fitting.

There are a lot of tourists on the beaches for Spring Break already. I was even finding new coins dropped on some of the treasure beaches.

Makes me think back to the time when Fort Lauderdale was the place to be for Spring Break. That beach was packed beyond belief.

A lot of class rings came from that place.

If you want to take advantage of the busy beaches, this is a good time to get started. There is plenty out there to be found.

One of the topics that I will cover through a series of posts is how to evaluate a tourist beach.

That's about all for today.

Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@com