3/14/14 Report - Beach Conditions Downgrade, Disston Saws and Medallions and Fisher Dive Trip

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

Beach This Morning.

This is the same beach that I showed yesterday when there was a cut running along the same place.  The cut has disappeared in some spots and decreased about a foot in others.

When I got to the river I saw the waves coming in from the East and figured that was a bad sign.  I pretty much knew what to expect at the beach and was right.  The East wind filled in the cuts.  At high tide the waves went up over the berm a little and dumped a line of small shells on the flat beach.

That was quick.  I have to drop my Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions Rating back to a 1 again already.

I could see that a sand bar that was about fifty yards out yesterday had moved in close to the front of the beach by this morning.

I got a report from Christopher P. who said he was at Jensen Beach this morning and there were some small cuts but just junk targets.   I always appreciate receiving beach reports.   I can't be everywhere.  Thanks Christopher!

I noticed a +1 by a post that I did the other day.  I didn't know what that meant so I looked into it.  It seems Google now provides a new way for readers to indicate when they appreciate content.  It is something like the Facebook "liked" feature.

I was glad to learn that someone appreciated what I wrote because I wasn't sure if people would like that particular post or not.  I found the feedback helpful and motivating.  It gives readers one way to help shape what they read by providing feedback to the writer.

The Google +1 button can be found at the top of the blog. Maybe you know more about it than I because I just learned this little bit.


Here is what Google says about the plus 1 feature.

+1 is how you signal your appreciation for anything that grabs your attention on Google+ or on your favorite websites. When you read a post that makes you want to cheer, +1 is your applause; when you watch a video that has you in stitches, +1 is your laughter; when you see a photo that perfectly captures that special moment, +1 is your 5-star review.


A lot of people collect old tools.  Saws are commonly collected, especially those nice old ones with the nice woodwork on the handles and the brass medallions.

Bill M. sent me a great web site this morning that will help you identify the age of various Disston saws and the medallions from them.

Sometimes you'll find the medallion without the rest of the tool.

After hurricane Andrew I found the bottom part of an old wood shovel on the beach.  The handle was broken but it had a wood square blade.  Unfortunately I wasn't bright enough to pick it up at the time.  I was too focused on other things.

Here is a link to a web site where you can see a shovel with a wood blade.

http://andrewbaseman.com/blog/?p=1544

It loads slow.

But what I wanted to talk about was the nice old Disston saws like these and the medallions which can provide good information about the age of the saw.  I think it was 1840 when the company began.

Disston Saws

The saws have a number on the blade that helps identify them.  One of these is a six and the other a 10.

Below are photos of a couple of the medallions that were on these particular saws.

Nice shape to the handle and nice carving.

Here is one medallion from one of the above saws.

It reads H. DISSTON & SONS   PHILADEPHIA.

A similar medallion on the other saw leaves out the word SONS.

Those are the type of diagnostic differences you will find listed in the web site.  Here is the link.

http://andrewbaseman.com/blog/?p=1544

Thanks much to Bill M. for the great link.

One of the medallions has an eagle and reads WARRANTED SUPERIOR.

If you have found any old Disston saw or one of the medallions you now a good new tool to help you identify the object and its age.

I think you'll find the web site both very interesting and informative.









The Fishers are offering dive packages to allow people to go dive with them on the Atocha or Margarita sites.  The cost is $3000.   You can keep finds up to a value of $3000, so you can end up getting your dive trip free.

On the Treasure Coast today the surf is predicted to be around three feet.  It will be decreasing the next few days until Tuesday when it will be down around one foot.

That means no improvement in conditions is expected.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/4/14 Report - Detecting And The Inner Voice, Eye-Balled 14K Rope Chain and Medallion & $250,000 Penny

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

January Finds by Michael E.
Photo by Michael E.

I had this post nearly complete and ready to post and somehow I lost it.   Arrrrrgh!

I have to start over.  That is aggravating.

I had tons of stuff today too.   We'll see if I have enough patience to do it all again.

As you can see Michael has been out hunting.
The amount you find will be determined largely by how much you hunt.

In January Michael found 20 rings, of which 2 are .925 and 1 is 10k, a .925 bracelet, .925 Tiffany charm and a .925 earring. 

Here s what Michael wrote about how he found the 14K rope chain and medallion.


But the chain was the find I am more interested in the story behind.  The beaches haven't been offering as many targets as normal so the majority of my time is spent in parks, medians, lots, etc... Mainland basically. Had the internal voice screaming for the beach one day, so opted to heed its direction. Spent a few hours at Jensen, found 1 nail and some trash in that time in wet sand. Got the call from the better half asking for time table of return, with the lack of targets told her I would just pack up and head out. Hung up the phone continued in the wet sand at a substantially brisk pace heading toward the exit. Got a nice hit in that walk out, repositioned myself back to the wave to recover the target, as I was turning about 15 yards to my left, south, a piece of seaweed caught my eye as the wave was pushing it up the slope, seemed weird because the beach was seaweed free, wave receded and the seaweed was heading toward the swash out with the wave, and that's when it struck my mind, that is not seaweed, I literally dropped the scoop and triple jumped to retrieve the item before it slipped into the swash. Put it directly in the pouch and went back to grab my scoop and recover the target, which was a nail. 25.4 grams 14k rope chain and mariners cross. One heck of an eyeball find.    All the hearts were found with in 5 days time, just found it odd, weird how items come in tandem like that...


First, this is a reminder to keep your eyes open while detecting.  You can scan a lot more ground visually than with a detector coil.

If you've been detecting very long, you have probably eye-balled at least one piece of gold.  If not, maybe you aren't visually scanning enough.

Chains will often get caught up in sea weed.  This one didn't, but they often do.  They can sometimes be seen under water in sea weed if you snorkel.

Also I wanted to comment on the inner voice that Michael mentioned.

Yesterday the National Geographic channel had a program about the Anglo Saxon hoard.  You probably have heard of that.  I've mentioned it before.

Anyway, the fellow who found that hoard mentioned the inner voice.  Many people believe in something like intuition.  It sure seems like there is such a thing that guides you at times, but unfortunately there also seems to be times when it is not working.  

The fellow that found the hoard was lucky that he had access to the field with the hoard in it.  He spent a lot of time detecting that field.  That had a lot to do with it.

After time on task, the second most important factor, is location.   He couldn't find that hoard anywhere else and he was the one that found it primarily because he was the one that spent time hunting the field where the hoard was.   If his inner voice was working, there were also other necessary requirements or conditions - first and foremost that he was in the right location.  

One time that I felt like my inner voice was working resulted in one of my biggest finds.  It was a HUGE and quality diamond ring.  I only had a small amount of time to detect.  I debated with myself if I should even bother.  By the time I drove to the location I would only have a few minutes of detecting time.  I had another obligation in just a little while.

Well, I drove in traffic, got to the location, jumped in the water, and in a few minutes came out with that large diamond ring, and ran off to my other appointment.  I don't know how much detecting time I had, but it was probably only fifteen minutes or so.  Normally I wouldn't bother driving through traffic for so little time detecting.

I don't know if that was my inner voice telling me to go or not.  It seemed like it. 

There are a lot of people that firmly believe in dowsing and things like that.  They've seen it work.  For me, I wonder why, if it works, it doesn't work more. 

Can the inner voice be enhanced?  Does attitude or mental state have something to do with it?

Interesting questions.


What is a 1974 D penny worth?  How about $250,000?   

One 1974 D penny sat in a man's drawer for thirty years.  He thought it was a souvenir rather than a real aluminum penny.

The Denver mint made ten aluminum pennies, but they thought they were all destroyed.  That was until this one was discovered to be genuine.

Here is the link for more about that.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/man-learns-that-for-decades--he-was-holding-onto-rare-aluminum-penny-worth-hundreds-of-thousands--maybe-even-millions-231225674.html


On the Treasure Coast we have about a four-foot surf today.  The wind is coming mostly from the south again.

The tides are not as big as in recent days.


I have a lot more finds and other material, some of which I had in my original draft today, but that will be all for now.  I'll get back to the other stuff in the future.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/6/11 Report - Spanish Armada & Remains of Emily Lingering

Back of Religious Medallion Found on 1715 Fleet Wreck Beach.

I've been working to get a better photo of this medallion. I've shown the front before. The back, shown here, has a prayer on it in Latin.

Getting good photos of artifacts has a lot to do with the lighting. Sometimes the lighting is just right and all of a sudden you can see things you never saw before.

When I originally dug this medallion, it was so encrusted I thought it was another encrusted coin. It wasn't until much latter when I partially cleaned it that I could see that it was a medallion rather than a coin. Since that time, it has been cleaned a lot more.

There is some remaining gilt on it.



Underwater archaeologists are exploring a shipwreck that appears to be from the Spanish Armada of 1588. The wreck is located in shallow waters in Rutland Harbour, near Burtonport.

Here is a link to that article.


http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/armada-wreck-discovered-off-donegal-16032885.html#ixzz1UHMOCN00


For more information on the Spanish Armada and its wrecks, here is a great article that includes artwork and maps of wreck locations.

http://factoidz.com/shipwrecks-of-the-spanish-armada-la-trinidad-valencera/


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions


The remains of Emily are now poorly organized and just east of South Florida this afternoon. Maybe we'll get a little rain from it. It has a 80% chance of becoming a cyclone again.

On the Treasure Coast, the wind is from the east and there the waves are just a touch higher. The seas are up to about 2.5 feet. That's not much, but it could be enough to freshen up a few of the better low tide spots.

Conditions for finding shipwreck treasure coins on the Treasure Coast remains poor.

We'll have to see if Emily reforms or what and what other storms may come along.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net