6/13/19 Report - 2019 Salvage Season Off To Great Start: Gold Reliquary Found. Mel Fisher Days Coming.

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

Bones Uncovered In Dunes

Source: See VeroNews link below.

A skeleton was uncovered in the dunes by a construction company and gold was found under water nearby

The bones are thought to be old, but there were no buttons or any associated artifacts.  The skeleton will be studied before the age is determined.

You might recall we had some discussion in this blog about the relative absence of known 1715 Fleet burials.  This one might or might not be.  Perhaps that will be determined.

Source: Same VeroNews link below.

The 2019 Treasure Coast salvage season is off to a great start.  Back a week or so ago I posted pictures of salvage boats working near Turtle Trail, and some great finds were made.

Most interesting is an encrusted gold object, thought to be a reliquary, found at the Corrigan's site by Maritime Research Recovery's vessel, Capitana, on  June 4th, 2019.

Here is the link for those two stories.

http://veronews.com/2019/06/13/a-week-of-discoveries-sunken-treasures-and-human-remains/

MRR is working under contract with Queen's Jewels LLC.  The Capitana is one of three vessels operated by Maritime Research Recovery, LLC.

Other reliquaries have been found on Treasure Coast wreck sites, including one found some years ago near Douglass Beach.  Here are links for more information on that one, including research by author and researcher, Laura Strolia.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2014/08/83114-report-more-on-1715-fleet.html

 https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2014/08/81414-report-treasure-coast-gold.html

The Sea Reaper and Seatrepid, also operated by MRR, are also making good finds, including a nice piece of Kang Hsi porcelain and musket balls.

Here is the link to the MRR web site that shows the finds.

https://www.mrronline.com/single-post/GoldReligiousArtifact

Thanks to DJ for pointing that out to me.

The MRRonline web site mentions that the reliquary bears the symbol "IHS."  You will find the same letters on many religious pendants that you will find.

Here is an explanation from the Catholic Herald.

Early scribes would abbreviate the sacred names of Jesus by using the first two letters of the name, or the first and last letters, with a line over the letters. For example, the Greek letters Chi-Rho (which looks like our English X and P) was an abbreviation for the name "Christ." Likewise, I (iota) and H (eta) are the first two Greek letters for "Jesus." Sometime in the second century, the third letter, S (sigma), was added, thereby rendering IHS. These Christograms, such as XP or IHS, served as secret codes, whereby inscribed on a tomb, they indicated a deceased Christian, or on a doorpost, a Christian home. 

If you ever saw Christmas written as Xmas, you might have wondered about that. Some people object to that abbreviation saying that "Xmas" takes Christ out of Christmas, however the X represents the Greek letter Chi, also being the first letter of the name of Christ and having that significance.

Similarly, you might know of the Christian fish symbol that you'll see on the back of some cars.

Ichthus, or in koine Greek, ἰχθύς which means "fish," is an acrostic from “ Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ “, (Iēsous Christos, Theou Yios, Sōtēr), which translates into English as “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour”.

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Mel Fisher Days will be July 11 - 13 this year in Key West.

Events will include tours of the Fisher private conservation laboratory.

For more information see

http://melfisherdays.melfisher.com/

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The weather has been good for salvage work but not so good for beach hunting.  I have plans to metal detect an inland site when I get a chance.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/26/18 Report - Early Graves. Rough Edges. Mel Fisher Days. Van Stan's Bottle. Pontil.

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

Edges of Two Kennedy Half Dollar Coins.

It seemed that the photos of the Kennedy Half Dollar that I posted yesterday were not good enough to show what I was talking about.  Maybe this will do it.  Here are two coins: the one I was talking about yesterday as being unusual (top coin) and a more normal Kennedy half dollar for comparison (bottom coin).  You will have to look closely to notice the differences.

Notice how the edge of the bottom coin is smooth. The ridges in the copper center are filled and the surface is flat.  However on the top coin the ridges on the copper core are rounded and not filled in between.  And look closely at the thin layer of clad on top.  It is paper thin and sticks out considerably more over the valleys in between the copper ridges.  You can feel the sharpness of that thin clad layer.  The top coin also has a very slightly smaller diameter.

To sum it up, the bottom coin has a typical smooth edge, while the top coin has a very rough and sharp edge.  It appears that some material is missing.

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ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – More burials of what could be St. Augustine’s first colonists have been discovered. They are within inches of where burials were found during an archeological dig in 2017.

This time, they were found while construction workers were working on Charlotte Street in downtown St. Augustine. The city archeologist was monitoring their work and ordered construction be halted as soon as a bone was found...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/st-augustine/more-colonial-burials-found-under-st-augustine-street/77-566791195

You might recall that we discussed the almost total absence of graves found on 1715 beaches, so that remains a bit of a mystery.

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This year Mel Fisher Days will be July 12 - 14 in Key West.

http://melfisherdays.melfisher.com/

Activities will include tours of the conservation lab and boat tour out to a wreck site.

There will be a fee or those activities.

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Van Stan's Stratena antique bottle.

Circa 1890.


This is a small embossed bottle for Stratena, which was an adhesive (See advertising card below.).

You can see many bubbles in the glass (right).

Van Stan's Stratena Advertising Card.

I placed this bottle along with more company information in my TGBottleBarn.blogspot.com.

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Just one more bottle related item today.  I've found very few rough or unsmoothed pontils, but this looks like one.  It is a recent find.

Pontil.

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The predictions are for a continuing one foot surf on the Treasure Coast for at least several days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/8/17 Report - Mel Fisher Days and Lifetime Achievement Award. Atocha, Margarita and Treasure Coast Finds. New Island. Scoop Assist.

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

Newly Formed Island Off North Carolina
Source: Charlotte Observor

I talk a lot about how sand and things move on a beach.  Here is a new island that recently formed.  It continues to grow, but it might disappear just as fast.

One thing I'd be interested in is where the sand came from.  When sand builds up one place, it comes from someplace else.  That is obvious enough.  So the question is did something get uncovered.  That is what I think about when I see sand accumulating.

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article160073179.html

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Along the Treasure Coast, Captain Jonah and the crew of the Capitana has been finding lots of musket balls, pottery,lead,and some Silver coins.

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The Fisher organization reports that June was one of their best months of 2017.  Found on the Margarita and Atocha sites were an "ornate piece of gold jewelry, more than a dozen silver coins, a rapier, knife blades, pottery and lots of encrusted objects..." 

Mel Fisher Days will be celebrated this year in Key West July 13 through 15. Captain Andy Matroci will receive the Mel Fisher Lifetime Achievement Award. Here is the link for additional detail.

www.MelFisherDays.com

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I give away tons of free information all the time.  I generally don't do free product advertising too, and I probably never will, most especially unless I've tested the product myself and can offer my own observations. but Warren D. said,  Here's an example of a scoop assist handle we created to allow one handed digging without bending your back.  You lift it like you would lift a suitcase using your legs.  It clamps on to any handle. Here it is seen on a Stealth scoop with a carbon fiber handle.

Warren D. Using Scoop Assist Handle On Stealth Scoop.

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There are only a few hours to respond to the most recent blog poll.

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Tropical Depression Four has disappeared and there is currently no tropical weather to watch.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/17/16 Report - Increasing Antiquities Research and Knowledge: A Case Study. Open Access Movement. Lifetime Achievement Award To T C. Salvor.

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

Mel Fisher Days will be held July 15 and 16th this year in Key West.  The Mel Fisher Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded to John Brandon. Congratulations John!

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In the Feb 3, 2011 CoinWeek there was an interesting article bearing the title Dancing with the Universe – The Infamous Wanborough Hoard of Atrebates Coins, a reprint from Wayne Sayles' Blog Ancient Coin Collecting.

Not long ago I expressed my pleasure that so many privately held cobs were available for study.  You can see many of those cobs, complete with photos and detailed descriptions in auction catalogs or on online retail sites.  As you know, I also receive pictures of finds, many from Treasure Coast salvors, that I post in this blog for all of you to see.

The Wanborough Hoard provides a very interesting case study and illustrates how private ownership of ancient coins can stimulate study and promote dispersal of information about those coins.

I will now post a few excerpts from the CoinWeek article.

The Wanborough hoard, at least the parts of it that got away, went around the world and worked their magic. People started buying metal detectors to find even more, and what do you know? They did! The little coins inspired me and many more, Some of us started to collect and write about them. The literature and the research ballooned. Before all of that there were only a few people working on this stuff — Sir John Evans in the nineteenth century, then much later, Commander Mack, and the very great Derek Allen who was a friend of two friends of mine, a smallish assortment of lesser known scholars and a few collectors who could wait for the occasional British Celtic coin to show up at Seaby’s...

Wanborough was our salvation. The commodification of Celtic coins eventually created even conferences about the things!...

So what would have happened if the restrictions preceded the hoard? The site would have been excavated and the report, if it was ever published, might have been read by a few inhabitants of boxes, but two weeks later, the world would have forgotten about it and the hoard, itself, would be in its own box in the bowels of the British Museum, soon to be forgotten. A few might have gone on display as entertainment, or something to look at before the rain stopped.

Don’t believe me? I have worked at a museum. Get permission to randomly look in their storage cabinets and boxes to see what you might find. It will amaze you to see what has been forgotten and is sitting in boxes while the universe dances on...

Analyze the dates and their frequency, plot it out and compare it to metal detector use. People found coins, they asked about them, Those they asked started to look more and write. Some of the collectors turned to scholars and wrote more...

Some academics see commodification as a bad thing. A few of them look at coin dealers as maggots, but without maggots, dust mites, and dung beetles we would soon be buried in our own muck. They do not know that many of these coin dealers and collectors sometimes make amazing discoveries — they are dancing with the universe. Even more of them are inspiring others to take to the floor.

Here is the link if you want to read more of that CoinWeek article.

http://www.coinweek.com/ancient-coins/dancing-with-the-universe-the-infamous-wanborough-hoard-of-atrebates-coins/

For a great post on the same subject, you can use the following link provided to me by James F.

http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.com/2014/06/in-praise-of-metal-detecting-1-celtic.html

I am very much of the belief that disciplines advance more when the public is informed and allowed to participate.  The phrase that has been on my mind is "great cloud of witnesses." When information is made public and the public gets to see the existing objects and evidence, more discoveries will be made. It also results in greater accountability.

I am big fan of Open Access, which helps scholarly publishing achieve its purpose: spreading knowledge and allowing that knowledge to be built upon. Price barriers should not prevent the public from getting access to research.

The Right To Research, an organization promoting Open Access, says, "Open Access, and the open availability and searchability of scholarly research that it entails, will have a significant positive impact on everything from education to the practice of medicine to the ability of entrepreneurs to innovate."

Here is the link to the Right To Research web site.

(http://www.righttoresearch.org/learn/whyOA/index.shtml#The_Public)

And here are a couple more excerpts from the Right To Research web site that describes the benefits of Open Access.

Return on our investment: making research publicly available as soon as possible will allow other researchers to build on new ideas as soon as they are published, while in the current system these ideas might remained locked away and unable to advance to state of the field. To have the greatest possible impact, the research we fund as taxpayers must be made available to the largest possible audience to make use of and build upon new ideas.

Exercising our right to research: as taxpayers who pay for much of the research published in journals, we have a collective right to access the information resulting from our investment.

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Sotheby's spring sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts achieved a total of $2.67 million. An autograph leaf of the manuscript of Origin of Species led the sale and sold for $250,000. Also notable was a fine and bright copy of Cendrars and Delaunay's Prose du Transsiberien, which sold for $225,000.

Click here to view the catalog with realized prices.

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On the Treasure Coast, the surf will be flat Friday and Saturday, but start to increase Sunday.  The projected peak surf will be about 7 feet on Monday.  It has been a while since we had much of anything to move the beach sand.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/13/15 Report - Silver Heart Found On Treasure Coast Shipwreck. Mel Fisher Days Coming Soon. Not Le Griffon.

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

First off, more Treasure Coast finds.  Captain Jonah and the crew of the Capitana keep making great finds.

Here is a silver heart.  Notice the rectangle on the back of the convex heart (top).

Below the two pictures of the find is a

Dan B., of the Capitana crew, sent the two photos of the find.    He said, The sacred heart has been a symbol that pre-dates 1650, and votive offerings were common in the 18th century. 

Many are ornate, but some are blank hearts with ornate borders. The border may have been connected to the rear of the piece, hence the small rectangle bracket.

Dan also included picture (right) that shows what the complete object might have looked like at one time.

Thanks Dan!  Thanks to the Captain and crew of the Capitana for sharing.

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KEY WEST, Florida Keys — Shipwreck fans, treasure seekers and history buffs can commemorate the 30th anniversary of Mel Fisher's discovery of the sunken Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha Thursday through Sunday, July 9-12, in the island city closest to the fabled wreck site.

Fisher and his crew uncovered the $500 million "main pile" of the Atocha's treasure and artifacts in July of 1985 after an exhaustive 16-year search. The galleon sank during a 1622 hurricane in approximately 55 feet of water 35 miles southwest of Key West.

Mel Fisher Days highlights include tours of the salvage boat J.B. Magruder that is used to seek still–undiscovered Atocha artifacts, an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of of the Fishers' private conservation lab, the rare opportunity to hear tales from the crew that found the Atocha's riches and a land-based treasure hunt whose prize is $5,000 in silver dollars...

There is a small fee for events such as the tours.  Registration is required.  Below is the link for more information.

http://melfisherdays.melfisher.com/

Proceeds go to charity.

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FRANKFORT, MI – Michigan state archeologists have completely ruled out the possibility a Lake Michigan shipwreck is the long-lost Griffin...

The two Muskegon men who discovered the wreck, Kevin Dykstra and Frederick J. Monroe, in late 2014 came forward with photos of the wreck, saying they thought it might be the Griffin -- the earliest known shipwreck on the Great Lakes, missing since September 1679.

Other divers and historians were skeptical.

Tuesday's dive confirmed to state archeologists it isn't the Griffin, even though they already had it wasn't from viewing Dykstra and Monroe's evidence...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2015/06/not_the_griffin_state_archeolo.html

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The single most read and most Google Plused blog post of May was my 5/25/15 post, which had no title other than Memorial Day Post.  I can't say I expected that.

That post had no tags other than freedom, liberty, life and Memorial Day.  I didn't think that would do much to attract readers, but I guess it was enough.  I heard from people who liked that post, and I now feel that maybe I should have done more to draw attention to it.

I don't give any attention to web site metrics or optimization or whatever they call it.  I just put things out there.  I don't try to convince anyone of anything.

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Along the Treasure Coast expect a week or more of very calm surf.  We're also having some nice low tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/1/14 Report - Mel Fisher Days, Hidden Cash Craze Spreads, Best Target Recovery Techniques & Valuable Secret

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

Each year a celebration is held to commemorate Mel Fisher’s famous 16 year search for the Spanish galleon Atocha which led to a $450 million dollar treasure discovery in the waters just off Key West. Events are scheduled from July 10-13 in Key West.

You can find more information and register for all events at www.MelFisherDays.com


The hidden cash craze has spread to cities across the United States.  It seemed to begin in San Francisco where one real estate millionaire hid cash filled envelopes and then provided clues by way of tweets from @HiddenCash.  Other cities are now involved, and it now seems that others have taken to hiding cash too. 

It might have been started by one person who wanted nothing more than to share some wealth, but I'm sure that it will become a method of advertising or promotion.  Below are links to some of the stories on this new craze.

http://article.wn.com/view/2014/05/30/Hidden_Cash_craze_on_Twitter_hits_Tampa/

It was rumored that one place to find hidden cash yesterday (Saturday) was Orlando.  Another Florida city was Tampa.

Check out @HiddenCash, as well as @Moolah Mystery.

Here are more links.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Hidden-Cash-Phenomenon-Twitter-Clues-Lead-to-Envelopes-Stuffed-with-Money-444641.shtml

http://globalnews.ca/news/1365351/vancouver-the-latest-city-to-catch-on-to-the-twitter-cashscavenger-hunt/

http://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/05-30-14-company-hides-envelopes-of-cash-in-random-downtown-locales/

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-get-thee-to-hermosa-beach-hiddencash-seekers-20140531-story.html



In the US, credit cards carry a magnetic strip that is easy for criminals to duplicate.   Other countries, I understand, use cards that use microchips instead of the magnetic strips  The microchips are safer. 

Unlike magnetic strip cards that transfer a credit card number when they are swiped at a point-of-sale terminal, chip cards use a one-time code that moves between the chip and the retailer's register. The result is a transfer of data that is useless to anyone except the parties involved. Chip cards, say experts, are also nearly impossible to copy.

I said before that cash is becoming a thing of the past.  It might happen sooner than you or I expect.


The other day I said that I don't dig holes in parks or lawns but instead plug or probe and pop the item out of the ground. 

Detectorists should never leave a public area leaving signs that they were there - other than the fact the area should be cleaner.  And I'd say that real detectorists are pretty good about that.   Most of the  trouble comes from beginners or people that are just giving treasure hunting a try thinking that they are going to dig up a treasure chest or something and can't tell the difference in signals between a coin and a cannon.

Well, plugging can be abused too.   Just yesterday I was watching the TV show Diggers, and one of the fellas on the shows was doing what he called plugging, but the problem was that his "plug" was about a foot square.  That is not what I call plugging.   When you plug, the objective is to take out a whole plug, about the circumference of the target and not much bigger.

Here is a good article on proper recovery techniques.

http://goldpanprospectors.com/files/METAL_DETECTING_RECOVERY_METHOD11.pdf

Another technique taught in that article is "slitting."

It is important to be very careful about how you recover items.   You hear people say that you shouldn't take a knife to a gun fight, well with detecting it is the opposite.  Don't take anything bigger than you absolutely need.   Take a screw driver instead of a shovel.

I'll tell you a secret here.  You don't need a detector to recover an item.   It is not necessary to have a detector with you when you remove an item.  AND, it is not necessary to have a recovery tool with you when you detect.

I don't know if you realize the value of that statement.  I'm sure you didn't hear it before this.   If you get what I am saying, it is worth big bucks.   I'll give you detailed instructions on that some other time.

The one thing I want to leave you with now is this, leave a site looking better than you found it.

And also don't carry around a shovel or anything larger than necessary in a public place such as a park.

Keep a low profile when detecting. 


Today the surf on the Treasure Coast will be up a little, close to four feet.   By Tuesday the predictions are saying that we might get something closer to six feet.  That is getting in close to a surf that could, depending upon other factors, result in improved detecting conditions.   There is a lot of sand that has to be moved though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net