12/30/19 Report - Mystery Coin for ID. Mayan Ruins Explored. Trash to Treasure.

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

Object On Right Found on Beach

Find and photo by Sharon

Sharon found the coin on the right in the photo above and is wondering if someone can identify it.  Looks like it might be an ancient Greek coin to me, but I haven't done any research.  A lot of these kinds of coins are used in modern jewelry - some being reproductions.  Let me know your thoughts on the identify of this coin.   All thoughts and opinions welcome.

Back of Same Coin Found by Sharon.

I suspect that with a little research someone will be able to come up with an exact identity for this find.

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DJ sent me the following link to a very interesting article by Zelia Nuttall published in the 1910 American Anthropologist about the archaeological exploration of the Mayan ruins found on the Isle of Sacrificios.  Good reading.

Here is the link.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/659954?seq=50&socuuid=3cb098d2-9e2f-482c-a6da-80ad83963c48&socplat=email#metadata_info_tab_contents

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Red Green Of the Red Green TV Show

Source: RedGreen.com

Red Green, the redneck comedian, philosopher and raconteur, always says,  "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."   I can relate that to metal detecting.  If what you find isn't pretty, it still might come in handy.

I'm always happy to find something useful on a beach, and a surprising number of things are.  Wire can often be found, for example, and even though it isn't exactly what you are looking for, I've found that it almost always comes in handy.  I use my found wire for a lot of things, including hangers for outdoor Christmas decorations.

Old coconuts, as one of many possible examples, can be useful - even if the milk and meat is no good.  Here are some things I made out of old coconuts that I picked up at the beach.

Orchid Hanger Made Out of Found Coconut Shell and Wire.

To create an orchid hanger, all I had to did was cut the top off the shell, use a drill to cut a little design in the shell, then drill a couple holes near the top to attach a hanger made out of found wire.   Insert a little coconut shell fibre and an orchid, and that is all there is to it.

Here is one way to make a planter out of a found coconut shell.

Coconut Shell Planter.

Cut the top off.  Cut a smaller bit off the bottom, and use a section of the top for the stand.  Then just add soil and a plant.

I know those kinds of things aren't what you'd like to find, but there is a lot of treasure in the trash you see, and I like finding the value in things that aren't so pretty.  I'd rather convert junk than than waste my money buying stuff.  It's living green too.

A little creativity can turn your less handsome finds into something handy.

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Yesterday I posted a review of 2019, including the most read posts, which were mostly about the storms and finds of the year.   I gave links to the most popular posts so you can go back and check out the big topics and finds of the year.  You might want to take a look at the year in review if you have not already.

It looks like the Treasure Coast surf is now down around two or three feet and will remain low for several days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/5/15 Report - More On The Heart-Shaped Cobs and The Sacred Heart In The Old and New Worlds.

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

Source: See link below.

I shouldn't try this today.  It isn't refined yet, and it is something that really should be done well.   Nonetheless, I'll go ahead and give it a shot.  Maybe some day in the future I'll take another shot at it when it is more ready.  Here goes.

A lot of people  found the heart-shaped cobs interesting.  I'm one of those.  They suggest some interesting questions - questions that might lead to some good answers.

I've read several different thoughts about why the heart-shaped cobs were made and how they might have been used.  Sewall Menzel suggested that they were presented as awards to those in religious positions. Laura Strolia thinks that perhaps they were used as images to help evangelize the native populations.  Someone else (I forget who) wrote that they were used as votive offerings, but somewhere else I read that the archaeological evidence doesn't back that up.  At this point it seems no one really knows.



Katleen Deagan in Vol. 2 her book Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500 - 1800 says, "The profound influence of the Catholic Church in shaping both daily life and public policy in the Spanish colonies can not be overemphasized."  She devotes an entire chapter to religious artifacts and includes a table showing the number of religious artifacts shipped to the colonies from 1511 to 1613.  Her sources show that 5246 rosaries were shipped in that time period.  11,671 crosses, medallions and other images were shipped in that time period.  The vast majority of those, 11,512, were shipped in one year - 1603.  Obviously there was a purpose for that shipment.

It is tempting to believe that the Sacred Heart devotion was brought from Europe to the New World. Laura  Strolia, however, pointed me to an article that suggests that the devotion may have started in Mexico and then eventually made its way to Europe (See link below).  Here is an excerpt.

Late in the seventeenth century, a French nun of the Visitandine Order, Marguerite-Marie Alacoque (1647-1690), in the Monastery of Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, had visions in which Christ appeared to her holding out his heart. She narrated these experiences in writing. In June 1674, she described one of her visions: “the divine Heart was represented to me in a throne of fire and flame, shining on all sides, more brilliant than the sun, and transparent as crystal. The wound that he received on the Cross was visible. There was a crown of thorns around this Sacred Heart and a cross above …”2 To this vivid description was added the admonition of a French Jesuit, Joseph de Galliffet, who in 1726 published a book about the mystical experience of the visionary nun, and gravely pointed out that many pious persons “find more devotion in honoring the Heart of Jesus Christ as it really is in the sacred chest of the divine Savior.” 

Notice the dates in the above paragraph.  In 1674 the vision was described.  Not knowing if that was the first time or if was the time that led to the adoption and spread of the devotion, it provides a rough marker.  

Although I've read that the heart-shaped cobs were first produced in Potosi around 1640, all those in the recent auction, as I recall, were produced after 1700.

Here is another excerpt from the same article.

Thus, hearts pierced, bleeding, intact, and miraculously resplendent, were a common religious symbol in Mexico a century before Marie-Marguerite had her visions in a French monastery cell. Direct evidence between Mexican sacred hearts and the European devotion to a realistically depicted Sacred Heart, says Kehoe, “must be buried in some archive or priestly memorabilia.” But enough circumstantial evidence exists to propose that, consciously or subliminally, the minds of the foremost religious leaders were influenced by what theologians were doing in Mexico and reporting in a flood of written works that the European priests certainly read. The cult of the realistically drawn flaming heart of Jesus started in Europe and coincided with the peak of those publications. In sum, Kehoe marshals sundry arguments to show that, by a process technically known as “stimulus diffusion,” the inspiration to make the flaming heart of Jesus “an embodiment of the new humanistic Catholicism” may have actually originated in Mexico, and extended from there to France.

My thinking on the subject is just beginning to develop.

Here is a paragraph from Wikipedia.

During the pre-Coumbian era human sacrifice in Maya culture was the ritual offering of nourishment to the gods. Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering.  By extension, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice...

Heart, blood, and sacrifice are words and symbols central to both Christianity and the Mayan and Aztec religions.  You can find Mayan images of a priest holding a beating heart and offering blood sacrifices.  Those archetypal images are central to both Christianity and Mayan cultures, if not the psyche of all mankind.

I feel certain that the Spanish missionaries would use those symbols to communicate with the native populations.  Those images, already invested with meaning and feeling, would be used to convey Christianity in a way similar to how pagan holidays in Europe were modified and assimilated into Christianity.

I don't have any idea whether it was Europe or Mexico that originated or most influenced the Sacred Heart devotion. What I do feel confident about now is that there is a common experience in the core of all mankind that transcends time and place.

Every human has a heart.  The heart beats from a time before birth and is associated with life.  And once it stops, so does life.  That is a common core experience for all mankind - just one of many.

Similarly, a sense of the sacred is universal.  Men worlds apart feel it.  Men worlds apart know it.  The few that don't feel it fight it, try to explain it away or just wonder about it.

I have to cut this short.  I know that I didn't do the topic justice.  I couldn't possibly do it justice in a post.

But one thing I want to leave you with is that the things you find often have a message.  It might be easy to see or hidden.  It might be simple or deep.  In either case, it can lead you on a journey.

Here is the link I mentioned above.

http://www.hektoeninternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8

That is all for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/8/15 Report - First Named Storm of Season. Jacksonville Beaches Ripped. Making Coin Rings. Dig Site You Can Join.

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


Gold Found by Shannon F.
Photo by Shannon F.

Shannon F. wrote the following.

I'm not sure if you are familiar with my area. My local beaches back in the 70's experienced a full dune replenishing project adding 15+ft of sand to the ENTIRE area. As far as old things go there were none to find. Period. It was all hidden out of range of a detector. This past weeks storm finally changed that by digging a river like cut 10ft below the high sand. After detecting the area for years with no luck for "older" finds this cut made a brief window. I found 3 1940's nickels and out popped some old gold. Moral of the story is that it's all there hiding under the sand. Just out of reach 99% of the time.

While the recent storm didn't do much for our Treasure Coast beaches, it evidently did the beaches up north some good.   That is a great tip.

What Shannon says is true anywhere.  Although we haven't had good beach conditions locally for quite a while, there is still plenty of stuff hiding under the sand just waiting for the right conditions to uncover it all. 

I know some of you will lose patience, but it will pop out again. 

Thanks for sharing Shannon.  Nice find.

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1905 Barber Half For Sale on eBay.

Yesterday I showed an old coin ring that I discovered after cleaning it off.  After looking at it in various lighting, I discovered a date on it.  The ring was made from an 1905 half dollar.  I can barely see the date, but looking at other parts of the design, I can match it up with a Barber half dollar.  Notice the leaves overlapping the word TRUST in the photo.

Russ P. spotted the Barber half quicker than I.  He could see the signs from the photos that I showed yesterday.

Good eye Russ!

Here is a picture of a 1905 Barber half like that used to make the ring.  Not only can I see where the leaves overlap with the word TRUST on the ring but also the stars and other features of the coin.

There are plenty of youtube videos showing how to make rings out of coins.  You might like to give it a try if you have some old silver coins you are willing to sacrifice.

Here is one to get you started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo_wUYktz-U

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Trying to think up something new for a different and exciting for a summer vacation?  How about digging a Mayan archaeological site?  You can!

Archaeologists of the Maya Research Program (MRP) plan to field a crew beginning in June 1, 2015, to excavate an ancient Maya elite residential complex and other sites in northwestern Belize. Though less than a month away, the team leadership still has some available positions in the opening session to fill with willing students and volunteers to help them investigate large residential structures and a large shrine north of the site core of Xnoaha a medium-sized Maya center in Belize not far from the border with Mexico.

Here is the link if you want to learn more.

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/spring-2015/article/archaeologists-offer-special-deal-to-dig-at-ancient-maya-site

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We now have the first named storm of the season off of South Carolina - Ana.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/ana-tropical-system-atlantic-us-east-coast-north-south-carolina-rough-surf-rain/46764807

On the Treasure Coast we're back down to a two-three foot surf again.  It is going to be down to a one foot surf in a couple of days.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

4/5/11 Report - Keeping Records on Unidentified Items & Investing in Pirates

Nice Lima Escudo from the Upcoming SedwickCoins auction.


I simply couldn't pass up this story. It seems you can invest in the Somalie pirates. Give them weapons or cash and share in their booty. Can you believe it?

Here is what one entrepreneur said.

Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 "maritime companies" and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,' Mohammed [a wealthy former pirate who took a Reuters reporter to the facility] said. ... Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel. 'I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation,' she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony. 'I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the "company."

Here is the link.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/12/02/0130216/Somali-Pirates-Open-Up-a-Stock-Exchange

I don't even know what to say.


And here is another story from Kovels Komments that has all kinds of implications and says a lot about today's world of treasure.

A Mayan warrior statue said to have been made between 550 A.D. and 950 A.D. sold at a Paris auction for $4 million on March 21, 2011. The experts at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said, after looking at pictures of the object, that it was a fake. The figure’s height, posture, flexed legs, and boot straps are not "characteristic of this (Mayan) culture." Giquello Binoche, organizer of the auction; Jacques Blazy, an expert; and Drouot auction house were all involved with the sale. They claimed the stucco figure is authentic. They said the figure has been publicly known since 1976, was exhibited in a museum in 1998, and has been examined by other experts. They claimed the Mexicans are trying to ruin the market for pre-Hispanic artifacts. There have been problems with sales of artifacts between Latin-American countries and France before. A 1972 Mexican law limits private collections of antiquities. Anything found since 1972 is national property and pre-Hispanic artifacts cannot be exported. This is an expensive debate. The sale included 66 other pieces from the same collection that have been called fakes. The auction galleries' expertise has been questioned and could cause a loss of business. Mexican officials judged the figure from a picture, not the object itself, which is something that is usually not acceptable for an appraisal. The buyer now owns a piece that could be worthless or could be a $4 million prize. Whatever happens with lawsuits or scholarly opinions, the "fake" Mayan pieces have a blemished history that will affect any future sale.


My tip for the day is to do a good job of record keeping - even including found mystery objects. Sometimes things get forgotten, neglected or even lost and then you realize you wish you had them and all the details pertaining to their discovery.

I was reminded of that this morning. For some reason I decided to look into some percussion caps that I found on the beach. I've found a good number of them over the years, especially at one location. After looking into it I discovered that percussion caps were used from 1850 to 1860 and of course probably after that, including those manufactured today for antique guns.

I know I have some good examples with good readable markings on them, but I couldn't find them this morning. What I should have done, and what I recommend for those of you who don't want to learn the hard way, is keep unidentified objects, filed away where you know where they are at, and marked with details about where and when they were found.

I've learned this lesson the hard way. Even though I kept good records on my hunts in the past, I didn't keep good records of objects that I couldn't identify or just didn't know much about. I've lost track of some objects that after learning more about them, I wish I had.

So keep your mystery finds and the relevant information or you'll probably regret it some day.

One example where I kept an item that I misidentified could have been a big mistake. Long ago when I hadn't been detecting very long, I found a diamond ring that at the time I thought was gold plated and probably held a zircon. I was wrong. The "KP" marking that I found on it did not mean gold plated but rather "plumb gold," or in other words, exactly the karat value actually stated within very small tolerances, and the stone was almost a 3 carat solitaire.

If you are like me you can and will make mistakes, but by keeping items with the relevant information until they are positively identified, you can avoid making some of those mistakes.

I hope to find the most readable percussion caps so I can research the markings.


If you haven't taken the time to browse the new Sedwick Coins #9 auction catalog, I think you will find it interesting and informative.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

The wind is coming out of the southwest and the seas are around three feet. There is supposed to be a storm system moving through the Treasure Coast this afternoon. I don't know if it will actually show up.

The sea is supposed to decrease later today and then go up close to five feet tomorrow. I don't see anything that indicates a significant change in conditions. I'd still be doing the tourist beaches or hunting the front of the shipwreck beaches for artifacts. Get in the water where and when you can as the winds switch around.


Have fun,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net