Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com
Source: See LincolnshireLive link below.
A metal detectorist has amazed experts after finding an incredibly rare Roman artifact in a Lincolnshire field.
Jason Price, from Grantham, was searching in a field near lesasingham when he unearthed a colourful horse brooch.
The 48-year-old, who is an armed forces veteran, was left gobsmacked by the find, which one local expert says has rewritten the understandings of Roman brooches.
It seems to me that in the past several years archaeologists have come to view detectorists less antagonistically - at least in the press. Back then it seemed like detectorists were always called looters or something. It seems a little better to me now. I think it is at least partly because detectorists now have a voice such as this blog.
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Al C. sent me the following email and photos.
As always, thank you for the blog. I look forward to reading it every day.
When I saw the weather coming a couple weeks ago I tried to fire up my old Soverign and she finally gave up. I think I had that machine for almost 20 years. Made some great finds with it.
So I bought a Equinox. I have only used it once in a very trashy spot that had some construction going on and found the Mercury dime and Barber quarter. It was tough hunting. I plan to investigate the notch discrimination some and try more soon.
I also cant remember if I sent you a picture of the silver rings before. I found it years ago maybe a 100 yards north of where the stairs used to go up to Chucks Steak House. I also found two half reales at the same time/area.
I always wondered if it was ship wreck era. There are no markings on it. No way to tell I guess. I always think about it when the conversation of silver rings and the 1715 ships comes up.
Coins Found By Al C. In A Trashy Area Using His New Equinox.
Photo by Al C.
Intertwined Silver Rings Found by Al C.
Photo by Al C.
Thanks for writing Al. Nice finds. Congratulations.
I've found a few sets of intertwined rings but unfortunately at this time don't have the foggiest idea where. They aren't marked either. One set has one silver, one gold and one other ring. None have markings. I think I have one set that has more than three rings intertwined - I think five.
Here is the one set I had handy. They look much like yours.
I might be lucky enough to have some records that tell me when those were found.
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Brian B. sent me the following email and link.
Hello.. Still enjoy your great reads daily. Hope all is swell and glad to see you have a bit of free time as of late on the shores. Ran across a Jan good read as might be a dupe to you but if not, it's a good recap about the latest battles over treasure finds. Thanks Brian
Below is the lead to the article and the link.
A Shipwreck Off Florida’s Coast Pits Archaeologists Against Treasure Hunters
The discovery of a legendary wreck raises questions about who should control sunken riches
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Winged Liberty Head Imprint.
It can be difficult to tell what an item is and how old it is when you dig it up. We might have a first impression that tells us that the item is old or that it is modern. But those two terms are very general and we might not know precisly how old the item is, and our impressions can be way off.
Bot "modern" and "old" are very general terms that might mean different things to different people. You might even use them differently at different times. When I say an item is modern, I'm usually thinking that it is 20th century or later, but that can vary.
In the absence of any definitive marks, when it comes to estimating an item's age I think most people look first at wear and deterioration. That is the first and most obvious thing you will see. An old item will generally look worn or corroded, but that really doesn't tell you much. Appearances can be very misleading.
Many years ago I thought that items that are hundreds of years old would look crude or primitive, but I learned that many really old items were very skillfully and wonderfully made, at times being every bit as nice as the finest modern items. If an item looked too good, I could have mistakenly dismissed it as being more modern. I probably made some mistakes like that.
It does take some time for items to wear down or corrode, but that process can take place very rapidly or very slowly, so the amount of wear or corrosion can be a very poor indicator of age.
The environment can have a lot to do with how quickly an item corrodes. Coins will corrode faster in salt water environments than fresh water, for example. I was always impressed by how well silver coins held up in the cold fresh water lakes of the north. And coins buried in the acidic soil around mangroves, on the contrary, corroded very rapidly. Nearby items can also accelerate corrosion or protect an item from corrosion.
Buried items can become encrusted. At the top of this post is an imprint of an winged liberty head. The imprint is in a clay coating that encased a mercury dime that I once dug up. After finding the coin, I took it home and placed it in Muriatic acid to clean it. The Muriatic acid appeared to have absolutely no effect at all on the crust or coin. I tried a stronger solution and left it longer, but the crust was completely resistant to the acid and completely protected the coin no matter how long I left it in the acid.
The imprint you see at the top of this post is on the inside surface of the crust that was removed from one side of the dime. The other side of the dime and the edges were completely coated too.
Outside Surface of the Crust Removed From The Same Dime.
When the crust was removed, other than discoloration, the Mercury dime was still in great condition and looked very much like it probably looked when it was lost. The protective crust protected the dime very well until the crust was manually removed.
Here is another example. I've used this example before. It really shows how an item can be protected by a crust.
Here is how one side looked when it was dug (below). It actually wasn't so much dug as scooped up from the rushing water that was bouncing off an eroding cut.
Heavily Encrusted Side of Half Reale.
That shell/sand crust was very hard and strongly attached to the surface of the coin. I couldn't budge it mechanically without doing damage to the coin. Muriatic acid did the job though.
Here is the extremely well preserved surface that was revealed when the crust was removed.
Surface of the Cleaned Coin That Was Protected by the Crust.
The details on the side that was protected by a crust are unusually nice and sharp. The other side of the half reale had no protective crust when I picked it up. Here is the other side, which is not much different than it appeared when it was taken out of the scoop.
Same Reale
Side That Did Not Have a Protective Crust.
You can see that the edges, which were not covered by the crust are worn and the side that was not covered by the crust is not nearly as clear as the details on the side that was covered. If you go by the amount of wear or corrosion alone, one side looks older than the other.
Time alone does not cause an item to look older or newer. It depends upon where the item was and what happened to it. An item lost hundreds of years ago can easily look newer than an item that is actually very new. How well an item is preserved depends upon the material, the environment, and how the item reacts to the environment. An item can appear to age either very quickly or not hardly at all. You can not judge the age of an item with any precision from the amount of wear or corrosion, even though that is what we usually tend to do.
Today I gave two examples of items that were protected to some extent by protective encrustation. In the future, I plan to present other examples illustrating other things that can radically affect the apparent age of a beach find.
Items that are hundreds of years old can look days old and other items can deteriorate very rapidly, making them look much older than they are.
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Yesterday I showed a Facebook photo of a find by a Tom J. who was visiting the Treasure Coast and found what looked like a reale. Although the photo was not real clear, I thought I could see a raised edge on the object that made it look incorrect. I didn't have the entire text of the Facebook page yesterday, but DJ sent me the rest of the text, so I'll present that now.
So the bottom line is that Tom J.'s find is a fake treasure coin. Don't you wonder how they end up on the beach? I think some are souvenirs that are lost just like many of the other things we find. I think others might be put out to entertain children who want to play pirate. And perhaps others are meant to fool someone.
Thanks to DJ.
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Looks like we'll get another bump in the surf - but only for one day.
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com
Too bad the wind will be mostly east/southeast.
I'll be talking more about corrosion on coins, Kang Hsi shards, Aztec gold and a variety of other topics that I've already started.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Silver Coin Cleaned by Muriatic Acid
Yesterday I posted photos of the surface of a couple coins that I was going to clean using Muriatic Acid. I immersed three silver quarters and five silver dimes about a 10% solution for about a day. All eight coins were in the same container together for the same amount of time.
Above you see the cleaned 1942 quarter,. Below you see part of the same 1942 quarter (right) before it was cleaned.
Surfaces on Recently Dug Dime and Quarter That I'll Be Cleaning.
That quarter came out better than the others. Below is another 1942 quarter that I cleaned in the batch. It didn't come out as well.
Another 1942 Quarter That Was Cleaned.
It looks like the second 1942 quarter might benefit from additional cleaning.
And below is the third quarter that was cleaned in that batch. It is in worse condition.
Cleaned 1947 Quarter.
The surface on this one is very rough.
I also cleaned some Roosevelt and Mercury dimes in the same solution.
1946 Dime After One Day in Diluted Solution of Muriatic Acid.
This dime (above) still has some surface scale that I think will come off with additional cleaning.
I'm going to put it back in the solution for a while to see how the surface corrosion reacts.
Here are a closer views of the surface of that dime.
Closer View of Surface of Same 1946 Dime.
We'll see the effects of additional time in the solution maybe tomorrow.
Another 1946 Dime
I did another 1946 dime. That one (above) has a badly pitted surface. I don't think additional cleaning will do much for it.
Here is a Roosevelt dime that is nearly unidentifiable.
Roosevelt Dime - Date Unknown.
The third Roosevelt dime came out just as bad as the Mercury dimes.
Now to the Mercury dimes, which did not come out very well.
Mercury Dime - Date Undetermined.
Additional treatment of this Mercury dime might remove some more surface materials, but I don't think the appearance will be improved,
Almost Unidentifiable Mercury Dime.
The last Mercury dime is terrible as well.
The first quarter turned out fairly nice, but the rest are bad.
None have any numismatic value. Coin collectors are very particular about condition, and these ones aren't even close.
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A man found a valuable Jackie Robinson baseball bat in with a bunch of worthless bats and tells the seller. They quickly removed the bat from the garage sale.
If I was the owner I would reward the man for his honest kindness. He could have easily bought the bat for almost nothing and kept the profit for himself.
Kindness is often not rewarded. I don't know how many times I returned a found gold ring or something and received not so much as a thank you. You have to wonder about people. Are the not capable of showing gratitude?
I'm not saying you should return items and show kindness for the reward, but I'd think that people would like to reward those that freely do things for them for no particular reason other than being honest and kind.
In fact, as I've told before, I've had people on multiple occasions try to claim finds that did not belong to them. If they see you find something, they'll say that they lost it. Or they'll tell you I lost a ring, if you find it, it belongs to me.
Here are some things I do.
First, get a good description of the item, including details that would not be obvious to any casual observer, such as a date inscribed in the ring.
Define the area you are going to hunt, and if in sand, draw a boundary and keep everyone out of it while you search. Explain that you have to be able to swing the detector and have to cover every inch and you want to be able to see where you have and haven't been. You can't have people in the way. That also helps makes it possible for you to get a look at found items before everybody else.
When hunting in the water, if other people are trying to see what you are digging up, when you raise your scoop, as it nears the surface, shake it violently, raising a cloud of sand that will conceal the item until you stick your hand in the scoop and find it by feel and put it in your pocket before anyone else sees it. You can then move away from people and inspect it when you can do it privately.
The goal is to get items for the rightful owner - not for crooks.
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A couple days ago I heard from Captain Jonah. He has been having boat problems, but expected to get out soon.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
"Holed" Mercury Dime
Find and photo by SuperRick.
Yesterday I was talking about "holed" coins. SuperRick found the one shown above. Here is the story that goes with that one, as told by Rick.
Coins with holes we all have found a few of them but last year one of the beaches that is right by our condo has some homeless staying on the beach at night. One guy told me that if I found a mercury dime with a hole in it that it was the one that he lost!
I'm coming off the beach one night and one of the guys said that he lost the keys to his car! So I said that I would try to find them for him and while doing that I get a hit on a dime and it turns out to be the mercury dime.
The guy that told me many months ago was sitting there on the beach and I told him that I had something for him! Here is the photos of the dime and me giving it back to him. The dime was given to him by his father who had passed away the look on his face was priceless, he couldn't thank me enough for giving it back to him!
Owner Showing Returned Dime.
Photo by SuperRick.
I find these guy quite interesting and when there are on the beach I always stop and talk to them. They have some very interesting stories to tell about how they became homeless. Basically, if you are living week to week anybody can become homeless! I learned years ago that you can learn from anybody and being homeless is a problem that can be overcome with some help.
Thanks SuperRick!
When hunting something for somebody else, it seemed like I always found something else good.
I was saying yesterday how "holed" coins have a story. This one not only had a story but also a real emotional significance for the owner.
Notice the hole and how it is crudely made. That adds a bit to the story.
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Silver Penny and "Holed" Gold Piece
Photo by Sebastian Steve
Sebastian Steve sent the photo of the silver dime and "holed" 1851 one-dollar gold piece.
He said the penny shows no trace of copper - not even on the rim.
I don't recall if I ever mentioned it, but one day I got some very shiny quarters in change at a Dollar Tree store. They really stood out as something special. Turns out they were silver plated.
The United States Mint sells both colorized and silver and gold plated coins.
Here is what else Steve had to say about the gold coin.
A small addition to your story on “holed” coins. This 1851 $1 gold piece (type 1) was the -only- coin I ever found that was holed, in my thirty plus years of salvaging shipwrecks. This includes over one hundred wrecks in four of the five Great Lakes, and all the other regions of the world. You seem to have a lucky touch!
This very small coin... again picture being down at 160 feet deep in total darkness other than your hand held light, the swirling mud is all around you, as you gradually work away at a two foot vertical edge of rotting organic material. One of these $1 gold pieces flys by and behind you in an instant, and you just catch an instant of a “glint” of gold and it’s GONE. And you just sit there and go...”Oh Shoot!” Yeah right. Because now you have deposited this minute object into the “tailings” pile behind you! Good Luck!
Know this...just as any detectorist (worth his salt) knows... a site is never, ever totally barren of targets. Just the same principal applies on shipwrecks! And -that- is good news!
It’s ironic and funny in a way, that when I went to the web to locate a quick outline of these $1 gold pieces, up first came a “for sale” listing. And looks what it says! (Cleaned and x-jewelry). See what I mean?
These coins were designed by James B. Longacre and were only minted from 1849-1854. This Type 1 Liberty Head Gold $1 coin has been cleaned or may be ex-jewelry.
Interestingly... this holed coin that I found was on a small woman’s bracelet. Total junk, fell apart up in the boat already. But of course I saved the coin for “ show and tell” in my wallet. Along with an 8...in my wallet...makes good bar talk...
Thanks Steve.
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It's about that time of year when we often get some good fronts moving through and historically have had some pretty good metal detecting days.
I could feel a west wind this morning and there is more to come.
Here are the surf predictions: three to five feet this weekend and then up to eight feet later.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
John Brooks Beach Sunday Afternoon.
The surf wasn't large but the wind direction was good so I went out to take a look at the beaches yesterday. Often when a front comes through you'll get a little cutting. As you can see from the photo above, there was a little erosion. The surf and tides were high, so the cut was low on the slope. The sand in front of the slope was fairly soft.
The weather was beautiful, and on such a beautiful Sunday afternoon, you'd expect to see a lot of people, but there were very few people at the beach. Evidently the Red Tide was still keeping people away.
I felt a little respiratory irritation, but not as much as at Jensen Beach a couple days ago. There were a few dead fish and eels.
I didn't know there were eels in the lagoon until the I saw some dead ones over there recently.
John Brooks Beach Sunday Afternoon.
Notice how the water is washing up onto the beach here was at about a thirty degree angle. That was directly below a cut and was the cause of the cut.
Frederick Douglass Beach Sunday Afternoon.
Above is the view looking south from Frederick Douglass beach. As you can see there was less erosion there. The depth of the foot prints also shows you that the sand was soft there.
Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Sunday Afternoon.
There was a nice cut south of the Fort Pierce Jetty. Unfortunately that is all renourishment sand.
Notice the steep slope in front of the cut in the distance. That is down near the old picked-over wreck.
For such a beautiful day, it is a shame that people weren't able to enjoy it more.
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Blue and White Beach Shard.
If you were walking the beach and found this shard, at first glance you might think Kang Hsi. If you've seen much Kang Hsi, a closer look will show that it is something else. Take a look at the broken edge.
Edge of Shard.
The paste is not as white and fine as Kang Hsi. This paste is more coarse and not as hard. But that isn't all. The top layer of blue sits on top of the surface. Kang Hsi has a transparent layer and the blue penetrates down through that layer. I think I've shown that before.
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1942 Mercury Dime.
This is an old find that I decided to experiment with. I'm experimenting with methods of removing the black oxidation.
Close View of Oxidation.
This dime was probably in excellent shape when it was lost. The date and lettering is still very nice.
It is very rare to find a nice silver coin on a salt water beach that isn't badly damaged.
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We'll have some more north wind, but the surf won't pick up until late Tuesday.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Couple Nice Finds by Dan B.
These are inland finds. As often happens with worn Mercury dimes, the last digit is unreadable. As you can see, the Barber dime is a 1908.
Nice finds Dan.
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William M. also has been hunting inland and making nice finds. Here is a nice Barber quarter.
1898 Barber Quarter Found by William M.
Back of Same Quarter.
Veteran's Commemorative Medal Found by William M.
Other side of same medal shown
at right.
William also found this medallion. The front (right) reads, "Honoring The American Veteran."
William found some other good items along with these.
The medal is obviously not as old at the Barber quarter. Great finds!
Thanks to Dan and William for the find photos!
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It isn't easy to find old U. S. coins on Treasure Coast beaches. As I stated, those shown above were recently found at inland sites.
As strange as it might seem, it is easier to find 18th century Spanish coins on most Treasure Coast beaches than it is to find U. S. coins from the 1800s or even early 1900s. Our beaches were not heavily populated in the 18 and early 19 hundreds.
I've seldom seen old U. S. coins that appeared to wash up onto our local beaches, and those were usually barely recognizable. Of the Barber and other older coins that I've found on Treasure Coast beaches, most seemed to come out of the dunes rather than being washed up.
I spent one very good day years ago digging many old U. S. coins that washed out of the dunes at Jupiter Inlet. I thought it was a little strange that I didn't hit any Spanish cobs that day even though cobs did wash out of the same dunes at other times. That was back before the Jupiter wreck was located and salvaged.
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Very rainy the past couple of days. We'll have a few days of small surf now.
Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
As you know finds come in a variety of conditions. Some come up looking like they were lost yesterday and some barely survive.
Of course some were lost just yesterday, but some that were lost long ago, still look very good, while others that aren't as old have deteriorated to near nothing.
Silver shipwreck cobs are the same way. Some show great full detail, while others are worn away to just a fraction of what they once were. The two sides of the same coin can be very different too.
It is very common for cobs that are found on an ocean beach to have lost as much as one third of there original weight.
As I said yesterday, I've been looking at some old finds that I never really looked at very well. In that group were a good number of Rosies and Mercs in various conditions.
Here are two of the Mercury dimes in not terrible condition.
As you probably know, silver tends to turn black, especially when it has been in sea water.
On the other hand, silver dimes that I've found in cold fresh water lakes up North, have a more gun metal blue patina and very little erosion.
The two mercury dimes above were found on Florida ocean beaches. I don't recall exactly where.
The second one (1934) is more corroded than the top one (1941) and shows sand still adhering to the surface.
The third is also a silver dime. This one is much more corroded. You can't tell if it is a Rosie or Merc or what. It does appear to be a dime though.
Notice that it also has sand still adhering firmly to the surface. That tends to cause a mottled rough surface that is very commonly seen on more corroded silver dimes that come from an ocean beach.
I went through several that looked like this yesterday, as well as some that were worn paper thin and some that were worn completely through in some places.
Those that were paper thin were either still round though.
Some reales show the same type of corrosion. This half reale was found at Jupiter and has one very crisp side. The side shown in the photo was completely covered with a thick shell crust when it was found. The other side had no sand sticking to it and that side was completely visible when dug, but the details aren't as crisp. It seems the sand shell on the one side protected and maintained the surface of the reale. After the sand shell was cleaned off using Muriatic acid, I saw what you see here.
Exactly how one side was so heavily encrusted and the other side not at all, I don't know. My theory is that it rested in the sand dunes for hundreds of years unmoved. It is hard to explain how one side attracted sand and the other side not at all. Other cobs have been found paper thin, but still showing good detail.
Here is an uncleaned dime, which seems to have lost silver in a way that is relatively unusual for a silver dime. They often maintain the round shape even when severely corroded. I've seen very few silver dimes that have lost the round shape like this one.
On this one you can still make out some of the detail on the side shown in the photo. There is no detail that can be seen on the other side.
If you look at the amount of wear, or lack of wear on a piece of silver, you might get some clue about where it has been. If you can figure out where they have been, then you will better know where to look to find more.
Unfortunately I don't know now where these dimes came from.
I do know exactly where the half reale came from, and I am pretty sure that it just washed out of a sand dune before it was dug up. I suspect that it was in the dune undisturbed for hundreds of years. Undoubtedly in that time it was washed over by sea water at least a few times. Perhaps that accounts for how one side got encrusted but not the other.
My main point today is that if you pay attention to your finds, you might get some clue to the source and therefore know where to look for more.
I suspect that coins that lose a lot of material, like the irregular shaped dime shown above, at some point was in the churning sand in the shallow water. In contrast, I am pretty sure that was not the case for the half reale.
As a side note, I've coins found in acidic black soil around mangrove trees really corrode and dissolve.
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A few days ago you saw in this blog how old shipwreck coins and items were found using blowers near shore. A good bit of sand had to be moved to expose those items. There are two ways that such items would have ended up under feet of sand.
Items that were lost during a hurricane might have been lost when tons of sand had just been removed and found their way down to near bedrock right away.
The other way is that items could be lost on top of layers of sand, either in the water or on the beach or on the dunes, and then gradually found their way to lower levels over the years and centuries.
Each time a layer is removed, the objects go deeper. Sometimes they are covered again by new layers and remain there under the new layers until new erosion removes sand to deeper depths.
And of course there are times when coins and things are washed up with the new sand. The coins that most recently washed up will then be in layers of sand above those that were in layers that previously eroded.
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It looks like the surf on the Treasure Coast will be just a touch bigger this week, but not very much at all - it is still a smooth surf.
