8/25/16 Report - Invest 99-L Still Heading Towards Florida. Octant Find. Fisher News. IRC History Books.

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

Wind Prediction for Early Sunday Afternoon
According to wyndyty.com.

The biggest news for me is Invest 99L, a low pressure area, coming our way.  I ran the wyndyty.com prediction out to Sunday, and from that it appears that the storm could develop and come in around the Miami area, as shown above.

Notice that according to this prediction, the system has a nice tight center by Sunday afternoon.  Also notice that the strongest winds are to the northeast.

If this is what happens, we won't get very much wind from the north or northeast.  After it passes we'll be getting a lot of South winds.

Of course, this is just a prediction and things could change significantly.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Above you can see where things stand at the Thursday 8 AM update.  At this point, there is still just a 50 percent chance of the low pressure area becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.  

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Here is a really nice artifact found by Darrel S. years ago.  He said, I have found some late 18th century items. I found the part to an octant south of Turtle Trail. Image (bottom) is from Sedwick's auction for reference.

Part Of An Octant Found by Darrel S.
Photos submitted by Darrel S.

Below is a picture of a complete octant as shown in a 2010 Sedwick auction listing.  You can see a part like the one found by Darrel on that octant. 

Source: Sedwick Oct. 23, 2010 Auction Listing.

That is the kind of item that an inexperienced detectorist might find and discard as being of no value. As I often say, if you don't know what an object is, hold onto it until you are very confident that you know what you have.  .

Very nice find Darrel!  Thanks for sharing.

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Recently I showed a chisel that was found on the Treasure Coast.  The J.B. Magruder recently found an iron chisel along with some other items on the Atocha site.  The Magruder will be moving down to the Atocha Main Pile to look for emeralds.

The Dare continues to explore targets identified by Dolores an the EM metal detection system.  They might move North to the Lost Merchant site.

The Fishers are adding Captain Dan Porter and his Sea Reaper to their Key West salvage operations.

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Here is something really useful.  It is a listing of Indian River County local history books in the Indian River County library system.

You'll find many more related books (hundreds) by using the following link.

http://www.irclibrary.org/genealogy/irchistorybooks.pdf

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/31/14 Report - Booty Makes Big Discovery On Treasure Coast Wreck Site. Gold Pyx. Low Pressure Area Moves Closer.

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

Shown below are two parts of the same item found 25 years apart.  The front part (on the right) was found 25 years ago, while the back (left) was recently found by the crew of the Booty.



Treasure Coast Finds.
Photo source: Video from Orlando Sentinel link below.

A truly great discovery was made this summer by a Treasure Coast salvage crew.  In fact a lot of discoveries were made, but the one I want to focus on today isn't a gold coin or even a bunch of gold coins, but something more important.

25 years ago a very intricate gold hinged frame was found, or at least that is what they thought it was.  This year, last month in fact, another very intricate piece of gold was found by the Schmitt family who operates the salvage vessel Booty.  It appears that the new find is the back of the item that was found 25 years ago.

The item appeared to be a frame before, exciting enough by itself, but having the additional part, they now believe the item is not just a frame, but it could be a pyx.  A pyx is a small, flat, clamshell type of container made of brass or other metals but lined with gold used in Catholic services. 

In the Catholic church a pyx would be used to hold the Eucharistic Host.  It would sometimes by carried in a fabric or leather pouch with cords and worn by a priest, deacon or minister of Holy Communion along with a monstrance.  When not carried, it would be kept in the church tabernacle.

This pyx would have definitely been owned by someone important.  It reminds me of the Pelican of Piety, which was also found on the Treasure Coast, and which I believe could be associated with the pyx.  Certainly both are very impressive gold religious artifacts.

I've posted about the Pelican of Piety in this blog back in 2012, and Laura Strolia, researcher and author, sent me a couple of excellent articles on the Pelican which I posted. 

You might want to go back and look at my 11/4/12 post, for example.

You can always use the search box on the main page of this blog to look for particular items or topics.  Enter either "Laura Strolia" or "Pelican of Piety" as search terms.  That should get you there. 

Here are two links about the recent find of the back of the pyx.   Cool video showing the discovery.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-sanford-family-finds-sunken-treasure-20140729,0,1244901.story

http://www.wptv.com/news/region-st-lucie-county/fort-pierce/fort-pierce-booty-salvage-discovers-centuries-old-spanish-treasure-off-coast


Congratulations Booty!!

The low pressure area that I've been following for a few days is moving closer to the Lesser Antilles and now has a 60% chance of becoming a cyclone according to NOAA.

Source: www.nhc.noaa.gov
 

On the Treasure Coast we still have a one-foot surf, which by this weekend will get just a little bigger.


The most read post of this blog for June 2014 is the 6/29/14 Report -  National Archives For Research, Detecting Military Shells With a 2-Box Detector,  Getting To More Remote Beaches, & US Religious Shrine

I'm going to highlight the most read post of the month at the end of the following month.  If I did the current month it would usually be one of the early posts of the month since readers continue to read the older posts for a while after they are posted.  This way there is enough time for even the most recent posts of the month to be read.  At the end of August I'll see what the most read post of July was.

As I pointed out, you can always go back and read old posts.  Using the search box is a convenient way to find particular topics.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

7/30/14 Report - Fine Bunch of Stone Tools Found. Site For Learning About Stone Tools. Cyclone Likely to Develop in Atlantic.

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



Photos of Finds Submitted
By One Reader From South Africa

I got an email from a reader in South Africa that found these stone tools.  I only have a vague familiarity with that sort of thing.  I wondered if anyone knows if they have a Portable Antiquities Program like England or what the laws are in South Africa.  He has some very nice finds but doesn't know what to do.

Here are some of his pictures.

  





 He said something about what he thinks is a Spanish shield on an item from the same location.  I didn't see a picture of that.

Maybe some of you guys that know about stone artifacts can offer some comments.





I don't do this very often anymore, but I did it today.  I added another site to my reference link list.  That site will give you a very good introduction to stone tools and a few other objects.  If you want to be able to identify a stone tool when you stub your toe on one, this would be a good site to look at.

I think every detectorist should know a little bit about a lot of things, and this is one of those things.

Check it out.

http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/arch/tools.html#chopper

Very good site for learning some basics.  It is now listed on my reference list as Stone Tools: An Introduction.


Don't throw anything away in the field if it MIGHT be interesting.  I've done that too many times.  I still regret discarding some things that I tossed aside years ago.  It is important to recognize items in the field, but if you aren't sure what something is or might be, hold onto it until you can really inspect it and do some research.  You can always throw something away later, but you might never find it again if you toss it aside too soon.

The most recent item that I discarded was a piece of flint that I dug when I was up north digging another target.  I should have kept it.  It wasn't an arrowhead, but it might have been another tool or partly worked.  I don't know now.  That is why I regret not keeping it.

It reminds me of the time many years ago when I dug a musket flint.  I was just beginning detecting and tossed it away.  That seems stupid to me today.  Shortly after tossing the flint I found the rusted part of the musket that held the flint.  Should have kept that too.  Live and learn.  Those are a couple of things that I threw away that today I wish I hadn't.



From the stone age to the digital age.  Early personal computers are selling for big dollars.  An Apple-1 (the company's original model) sold at auction in November 2010 for more than $213,000.

Here is a link to an article on collecting for financial investment.

 http://www.bankrate.com/lite/smart-spending/collecting-items-as-an-investment.aspx#ixzz38nRTfF8e


On the Treasure Coast we still have that one-foot surf and winds from the West today.

Low Pressure Area Likey To Become a Cyclone.

This low pressure area will likely become a cyclone (70% chance).

Who knows where it will go from there.  It is still a long way out.


I've been impressed lately how hunting the same site over and over again can continue to produce finds long after it would seem that you have covered everything, especially when you change detectors.  Some detectors that are very good at the beach are not so good on developed inland sites where there may be power lines, underground cables and other sources of interference and junk.


In the future I'll do some more tests with various detectors.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net