Showing posts with label mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mexico. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

5/6/20 Report - Pre-Columbian Beer Keg. Victoria Cross Analysis. Stolen Treasure Dug Up.


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


Pre-Columbian Beer Keg Found in Mexico.
Source: MexicoNewsDaily.com (See link below.)

Below is a bit of the story of the jar shown above.

Naturally the archaeologists decided to check their assumptions and as soon as they began digging beneath the surface, they discovered that a 10-square-meter section of the new museum site was unusually rich in artifacts. Within a few months they unearthed bowls, jewelry, figurines, six burials, five ovens and six big urns, one of them a meter high by a meter wide...

It is interesting to note that the big jar found in 2008 weighs about 100 kilos empty, so that when it was full of liquid it must have weighed around 200 kilos (441 pounds).

“It may seem surprising,” Esparza told me, “but it appears that jars of this size were commonly used in those days and every home may have had not just one, but two or three jars this size. I should mention, by the way, that in our excavations we have normally found these pots all in pieces, not well preserved like our big jar, which we found 85% intact.”...

Here is the link for the rest of the story.

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/mexicolife/after-12-years-a-giant-pre-hispanic-jar-tells-its-story/

---

The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces.


Victoria Cross
Source: TheGuardian.com (See link below.)

There was some question if they were made from the cascabels of captured guns.  That was investigated and here is the answer.


“While it’s unlikely that even the earliest medals came from the ordnance captured at Sevastopol, it is clear that most of the VCs awarded since the first world war have plausibly been sourced from the cascabels of captured guns – an important and symbolic fact for those who have received the honour in recognition of their bravery,” Marriott said.

Here is the link for more about that.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/03/show-your-mettle-victoria-cross-not-made-of-captured-russian-guns-after-all


---

A Mexican drug lord's property seized and sold at auction.

The auction, held at the Los Pinos cultural complex, also offered 77 cars, five airplanes, five homes and 107 lots of jewelry, among other seized goods. In total, more than 130 million pesos, around US $5.3 million, was collected...

He is estimated to have amassed a fortune of around US $25 billion by transporting drugs, mostly cocaine, from Colombia and Mexico to the United States, often using his fleet of jets, which is how he earned his nickname...

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ex-drug-lords-mansion-goes-for-49-million-pesos/

While all of the focus is on Covid, the death and devastation of drugs continues.

I've found bales on Treasure Coast beaches in the past.  I'm sure others have too.

---

Every once in a while you dig up something and wonder how it got there.  Sometimes you know, or at least have a good idea, and sometimes you can only imagine.

Some things were buried by the rightful owner, but sometimes thieves bury stolen goods.  Unless you are looking for a known treasure, you might not know which it is.

Here is a story I ran across about stolen goods that were buried.

Huge Stash of Stolen Goods Uncovered Long after Prolific Thief Is Apprehended
Los Angeles: On Feb. 25, 2008, LAPD Burglary Special Section detectives received a map leading to stolen goods buried in the ground near the 118 Freeway at White Oak Avenue. The unearthed treasure may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and is yet another chapter in the arrest and conviction of Roberto Caveda...

Recently, the case resurfaced with the discovery of the buried treasure, based on information Caveda relayed through his attorney. To safeguard it, Caveda stuffed it into a plastic pipe and placed it in the ground on a 118 Freeway right-of-way. As before, when detectives sorted through the stolen material, they discovered a lot of jewelry...


Here is that link.

http://www.lapdonline.org/february_2008/news_view/37637

[---

Looks like we're going to get some bigger surf before long.

Surf Predictions
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net


Friday, January 24, 2020

1/24/20 Report - A Couple Reales and Some Other Finds. Treasure Coast Beaches and Beach Developments.


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

Four-Reale Found Wednesday.

The four-reale I showed yesterday needs some cleaning.  Much of the detail is obscured by a corrosion and crust.  Even the parts that look clean are not.  It took me a while to get the lighting so I could show some of the details.  In the photo above, you can see that the reale has the Florenza cross and was minted in Mexico.

Zooming in more, you can see that most of the surface, even the parts that look clean, is covered by crud (to use a technical term) and corrosion.

Close-up of Surface of Same Four Reale.
I think it will show more detail when it is cleaned some.

That four-reale was the first good target I dug Wednesday.  I dug a lot of small stuff that day too.

On the Equinox, using the factory preset settings, but in beach mode 1, the four-reale gave a coin tone, and the number I think was 26, or maybe 30.

I was very pleased that all the cobs I dug, whether it was the chunky 13 gram four-reale shown above or the small one gram half-reale that I dug a little later, resulted in what I'll call the coin tone, and none of the other stuff that I dug that day gave the coin tone.  If cobs are consistently identified as coins, that could be very handy at times.

I have not done a direct comparison under the same conditions, but suspect that the ATX might still be my choice to make sure I don't miss anything deeper.  With the ATX you can spend a lot of time digging very deep holes and trying to find very small nearly invisible targets.  I like the Equinox for doing quick general purpose scans, but might in some circumstances do a final check with the ATX.  I didn't have time to recheck with the ATX Wednesday.   Search strategies can get complex.  I'll have to do more posts on that someday.

Below is a pretty representative sample of the other miscellaneous small stuff I dug Wednesday in the same general area where I dug the four-reale.  I should have put a dime or something in for size comparison.  I'll look at some of these items more closely some other day.

Some Miscellaneous Small Stuff Dug Wednesday In The Same Area As Cobs.
I think a few of those are probably shipwreck related, but some are definitely modern junk, and I'm not sure about quite a few.  What I am pleased with is the equinox correctly identifying cobs with a coin tone while not giving a coin sound for any of these other various types of items.

Here is a quick look at another cob found Wednesday.  This one is the smallest cob I found that day, weighing just around 1 gram.  Again, it gave a coin tone just like the 13 gram four reale.

Half-Reale Found Wednesday.

The surface of this one is corroded almost exactly like the four-reale shown above.  I took close-up photos of the surface of both, but since the close-ups look so much alike I won't bother to show both.  They both have the same kind of grains attached and show the same kind of corrosion.

So what I'm going to do next is some cleaning on these and a couple more corroded cobs and take a closer look at some of the smaller miscellaneous finds.

DJ sent in the following photo showing the erosion control bags at Turtle Trail covered yesterday.


Turtle Trail 1/24

He also said, Went by Golden Sands where a sign said trucks entering and leaving, caution.
Two guys in orange vests were at the entrance... 


And,  Treasure Shores, strangely, had a photo shoot with about twenty vehicles and about 50 people milling around. 

Thanks DJ.


I think I showed a photo I took from there earlier in the day when the bags were just a bit more exposed.  That shows how the sand was accumulating at that spot during the day.


John Brooks Beach 1/24.

I took the John Brooks and Frederick Douglass photos just an hour or two ago.  I guess if you want to get the photos as soon as possible, it might help to Follow the blog.  Since I'm not peddling books or promoting anything, I don't know much about that, but I believe you get a notice when there is a new post if you are a blog follower.  I'm sure someone will correct that if I'm wrong.


John Brooks Near Low Tide 1/24.  

Some Detectorists Shooting the Breeze at Frederick Douglass 1/24

Frederick Douglass Near Low Tide 1/24


Frederick Douglass Near Low Tide 1/24

Of course beaches change continually.  Everybody knows that.  It is something like the stock market: there are minute by minute changes, daily changes and year over year changes.  A beach will continually change, but it helps if you know where it was recently as well as in the more distant past.  You can project some of the changes and develop some reasonable expectations if you know where the beach has been in recent days and what is going on that will affect the beach, which is the reason for the surf reports etc.  That is a big topic that will take a lot of posts.


The surf today was five to seven feet, dropping down to something like four or five feet tomorrow.  The decreasing surf can will give you access to spots you couldn't easily detect before.  There was a lot of open beach at low tide today.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

Sunday, January 5, 2020

1/5/20 Report - Piece of White City History Unearthed. More on Proto-Money. Bigger Surf Coming.


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

1815 One Skilling.
Find and photo by Jeff C.

Had to pass on my find from a week ago in White City. As you know it was a settled by the Danish originally in 1839. So I was very excited to find this 1815 2 Skilling coin.. I’ve found many older coins in the area, 3 wheatbacks over 100 years old in one visit. Also a 1923 mercury dime in very good condition. Can’t help but feel the 2 skilling coin was lost by one of the original settlers due to its condition and depth. It was approximately 8-10” deep with several inches of top soil removed from the construction. Found with my equinox 600.

Congratulations Jeff. Thanks for sharing.

Here is a clearer picture of a similar coin from the internet.

1815 2 Skilling Coin.

The community of White City on the southern border of Fort Pierce is named for the utopian Great White City built by architect Daniel Burnham for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The community’s main road is Midway Road after the fair’s Midway.  (Source: visitflorida.com/white-city/)

---

Not long ago I posted an article about "hoe money," supposedly a type of proto-money used in Pre- Columbian South America and Mexico.  The subject intrigued me and I wanted to find out if any had been found on shipwreck sites.  So far I've not been able to find anything about nautical or other archaeological discoveries of axe or hoe money, but I did find one very good article, Aztec Money: An Inquiry into Substance, Sources and Heuristic Value, by Kenneth D. Jacobson, University of Massachusetts.

While the article didn't answer my questions about axe or hoe money, it did provide interesting descriptions of the market place that was in operation upon the arrival of the Spanish.  It also provided thought provoking observations that you might find relevant to today's politics and economics.

Here is the link.


I'm still looking for any descriptions of axe or hoe money found on shipwrecks or other sites.

---

Somewhat related, I did find an article on proto-money, although it is about Celtic ring money, not Aztec hoe or axe money.  Still interesting.

Source: See link below.


Before coinage was introduced to Britain in the Late Iron Age, people had to conduct transactions by bartering their products, goods and/or services.  This process of payment and exchange may have been facilitated by gold “ring money” (most of which seems to date from the late Bronze Age, therefore they are not ‘uniquely’ Celtic and may not have even been used by the Celts as a ‘proto-currency’).

For example, we now know that by the 2nd century BC (the Late Iron Age in Britain) the locals were trading iron “currency bars” shaped like swords, spits, plough-shares and bay leaves.  The use of the so-called ‘ring money’ as a proto-currency may have died out well before this...
Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://oldcurrencyexchange.com/2015/03/31/what-is-celtic-ring-money/

---

I hadn't watched any of the Oak Island curse TV show for a year or so, but yesterday happened to see that they haven't learned much of anything and are still popping off instantaneous wild interpretations of finds while ignoring any number of more reasonable alternative explanations.   It seems that anything and everything is either "searcher" or "depositor" related. whether it is a piece of wood or rusty metal.  So tiring!

---

Mike F. says he reads Japanese but not Chinese, but recognized a couple of the characters on Steve's ring as being Chinese.

Thanks Mike.

---

I've been observing changes along the Indian River lagoon for some twenty or thirty years and hope to soon discuss how things have changed and what I've concluded from some of those observations.  I need to take some photos before I discuss that topic much, but one general thing I've noticed is that the big changes are rare.  The storms that hit the Treasure Coast in 2004 dramatically changed the west bank of the Indian River and are still predominant even though there have been numerous storms and hurricanes since.   After the 2004 storms I would walk down the river and not recognize where I was.  The storms that occurred since did not cause changes that were as big or as sustained.  Some objects, such as a boat battery, that were deposited in 2004 have been visible since 2004.  I'll try to document some of that kind of thing in a post someday soon.

---

There is a little bump in the surf today, but a bigger surf is predicted in a few days.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net






Friday, January 3, 2020

1/3/20 Report - Tajaderos: Mexico Hoe or Axe Money Cache Returned. New Years Finds. Roman Coin Repro.


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

Source: See MexicoNewsDaily link below.


The United States returned a collection of over 3,500 pre-Hispanic copper coins to Mexican authorities in a ceremony in Miami on Monday.

The coins were used in what are now Michoacán and Guerrero between the years 1200 and 1500, according to Jessica Cascante, spokesperson for the Mexican Consulate in Miami.

A U.S. collector acquired them in Texas at a numismatic fair in the 1960s, she said, but at that time neither Mexico nor the United States was part of a UNESCO convention that guarantees the return of such heritage artifacts to their countries of origin...


Cascante did not divulge the name of the collector who obtained the coins in the 1960s, but said that he did so before it constituted a crime and turned them in voluntarily...


Here is the link for more about that.

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/us-returns-3500-copper-coins/


They call these coins, and they were used like coins, but it seems they evolved from tools that were bartered to being used as coins with a fixed value.  Columbus, on his fourth voyage, encountered native traders carrying a large stack of these, and Cortes described the natives using trajaderos in the 1520s.

One source values the "hoe money" or "axe money" at 8,000 cacao seeds.  Another source describes the four of the tajadero as being worth on reale.  The items are unmarked and seem to vary in weight and size.

The shape varies with the location and what you see at the top of this post looks like it might have been from West Mexico.

Similar tools seemed to evolve in proto-money in different parts of the world including, for example, China.

Here is a good resource for more information about "hoe money."

http://www.moneta-coins.com/library/Hoe%20Money%20of%20the%20Americas%20-%20Martin.pdf

I'd be glad to hear of anyone who can point to any examples being found on shipwrecks.

---

Ring and Coins Found by Joe D. On New Years Day.
Photo by Joe D.

Here is how Joe described his hunt.
  

I went out this morning (Jan. 1) before sunrise again! I was determined to start the New Year right! Since the inlet beach is now ruined, i went South a little to have a look! First beach was a total bust, and just a few pop tops after an hour and a half, and multiple passes! The pop tops where all in the shell line! I finally gave in and moved to another beach up the road!

      A few swings in i got a little redemption with a small ring, missing the stone! I think it may be pewter; and not silver, due to the way it looked after cleaning! There are no markings, and it hard to say how old! 

      I only found several newer coins, pop tops, and lead fishing lures after that, and it was time to call it quits!    But good enough for the New Year!



Ring Found by Joe D.
It has a heart on each side of the setting, and it looks like the stone was heart-shaped.

Thanks for sharing Joe.

---

Susan B. was researching Sharon's Roman looking coin and found the following nice site.


Here is what Susan said.  Reverse:  The coin (if it is real) is from Dacia. (See the word “Dacii” just beneath the line near the bottom.). Although it is somewhat the worse for wear, I found on Google Images a Reverse that is close to Sharon's coin.

Here is the link Susan provided.


Thanks for the research Susan.   Everybody benefits from the research.



Just a little later I received a the following email from Sharon.

I took my coin to a coin dealer to be checked out. Unfortunately, it’s a fake electroplated Denarius Roman Coin. He said if it was real, it would be worth $50. So I guess I’m back to hunting, but for a gold coin this time.

Thanks for your help.

Sharon

Thanks for letting us know the outcome Sharon.
--- I hope someone can help Iowa Steve with the marks on his ring (See yesterday's post.). Let me know if you can identify the language or anything. The Treasure Coast surf is still small and the tides pretty flat. We will have some higher surf before long though.
Source; MagicSeaWeed.com
Happy hunting, TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Saturday, December 21, 2019

12/21/19 Report - Cortes Anchor Found. Old Railway Track Explored. A Couple Recent Finds From Treasure Coast.


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

It is not exactly one of those days when a whisper of wind turns into a hollow scream and normal men scurry to their hidey-hole, but at least there is some stirring in the air and surf.  It is better than the slow and steady accumulation of dead sand over the summer.  It wouldn't take much for things to turn good, but it might not do that.

Below are photos of a find made by John B in the Vero area along with a nickel for comparison.   John says the object is slightly larger in diameter than the nickel but thinner.   I assume he hasn't tested the metal yet.  If he did, he didn't mention it.

Find (left) by John B.
Photos by John B.
John was asking for ideas on the object.

---

I was talking about small objects that I dug in the past couple days.  Below is another one.

Dug Find on Dime.


Here is a closer look at the other side of the object.


Other Side of Same Object
It is very thin.  When I picked it out of the sand I didn't think it looked metallic to me, in part because it is so thin.  The signal made me expect something bigger.

I think could be the end of a bullet.  Maybe something like the one shown below.


What do you think?

I also found something a little bigger.  It is a heart very much like one found in Kathleen Deagan's book on Spanish Colonial Artifacts.  In fact I found one exactly like it before, and also one of silver.  I thought I had photos of it on my thumb drive, but they weren't there when I got ready to post them.  Maybe I can get that done some other time.

--


MEXICO CITY: Archaeologists have discovered two iron ship anchors off Mexico’s Gulf Coast that they say date back 500 years and could have belonged to Spaniard Hernan Cortes’ fleet, which landed in 1519 before overthrowing the Aztec empire...

Cortes famously burnt the first ships he and his crew used to sail to Mexico, forcing his small army of treasure-hunters to march inland...

Two new television series are also stirring new interest in the history, one released last month by TV Azteca called “Hernan,” and another planned to be developed by famed Hollywood director Steven Spielberg entitled “Cortes” that stars Oscar-winner Javier Bardem...


Here is the link for more about that.
https://arynews.tv/en/anchors-mexico-spanish-conquest/

---
An extensive archaeological excavation of Scotland's first railway track is planned for next year.
Wooden rails from the 297-year-old Tranent-Cockenzie Waggonway were uncovered in a dig in June this year.
Part of a cobbled horse track for the ponies which pulled the wagons up to coal pits at Tranent in East Lothian was also discovered.
A community project hopes next year excavation might unearth some of the timbers used to lay the railway...

Here is that link.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-50728225


---

We still have some good wind and a five to seven foot surf.  The wind, though, is from the east.


Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Only a few more detecting days before Christmas.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Sunday, November 3, 2019

11/3/19 Report - 1715 Fleet Cobs Dated 1715 Bring High Prices. Half Reale and Famous Four Escudo. Erosion at Jupiter Beach.


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


Lot 379 In Sedwick Coins Treasure Auction No. 26.
You can learn a lot from auctions.  There are all the items to inspect, and you also find out what people are willing to pay for things.  The Sedwick auctions are among the most informative for those of us interested in treasure coins and related items, including those from the Treasure Coast and the 1715 Fleet wrecks.

The live bidding for all but one session of the current Sedwick Coins Auction No. 26 has concluded.  I'd have to say that the auction was a big success.  Extremely few items did not sell, and the bidding was enthusiastic.

Above is one item that caught my attention.  It is a half reale from the 1715 Fleet that brought a winning bid of $1,150, not including the buyers premium.  That is a lot of money for a half reale.  So what made it so special?

First of all, it, like many other half reales included in the second session, was dated.  You can see the date (1)715 in the photo above.  Most half reales do not show a date, snd this date is unusual as it is the same as the year of the wreck, being very recently minted before making it onto the ship and being lost off the coast of Florida shortly thereafter.

This reale, in my opinion, other than the fact that it does show a rare date and is pedigreed to Real Eight and the Pullin collection, is not very exceptional.  Below is the lot description.

Mexico City, Mexico, cob 1/2 real, (1)715(J), rare, ex-1715 Fleet, ex-Real Eight (Ullian). S-M22; KM-24; CT-1828. 1.37 grams. Bold full 15 of date above full but weak crown, nearly full cross despite flatness, minimal surface corrosion, toned all over, desirable as the date of the wreck. From the 1715 Fleet, with original Real Eight Co. certificate signed by Lou Ullian. Auction lot-tag personally signed by John Pullin. The John Pullin Collection of Dated Mexican Cobs.

The other dated half reales from the Pullin collection mostly sold for between $200 and $400.  Those are still high prices for half reales.

Take a look at the undated half reales in the one internet-only session (Session VI) of the same auction that will close Monday.  The half reales in that session could still increase in price but will probably sell mostly for well below $100.

If you take a look at those lots and the lot descriptions, including the photos, you can learn a lot.  Many of the reales and escudos are from the 1715 Fleet, so you'll get a good idea of the kinds of things that have been found and are still out there to be found on the Treasure Coast.

---

Among the higher priced coins was lot 7, which is also from the 1715 Fleet and dated 1715.  The winning bid for this one was $24,000.

What is surprising is that it is a four-escudo - not an eight-escudo, as you might expect from such a high-priced escudo.  So what makes it so special?   Below is the photo and lot description.


Lot 7 In Current Sedwick Treasure Auction No. 26.

Mexico City, Mexico, cob 4 escudos, 1715J, NGC MS 62, ex-1715 Fleet (designated on label), Practical Book of Cobs Plate Coin (3rd edition), ex-John Pullin (stated on label). S-M30; KM-55.2; CT-235. 13.26 grams. It is hard to imagine a nicer example of this desirable final year of 1715-Fleet cobs (and in fact there may not be any nicer, as it is tied with two others for finest known in NGC census), for this coin shows a 100% full and bold date and oMJ while still bearing a full shield and cross, all with muted luster and no doubling or wear. Little wonder Frank Sedwick chose this piece for plating in his Practical Book of Cobs! From the The John Pullin Collection of Dated Mexican Gold Cobs from the 1715 Fleet, pedigreed to our Auction #8 (lot #6) and plated on page 106 of the 3rd edition (1995) of The Practical Book of Cobs. Auction lot-tag personally signed by John Pullin. NGC #5705323-001.

So it is also a late and rare date for a 1715 Fleet escudo, but it also has a lot of other things going for it, including being one of the finest of its type known, according to the NGC census.


There are other lots in the auction that brought even higher prices, including some of the ingots and bars.

Session VI, which is an internet-only session, will conclude tomorrow.  That session will include a wide variety of lots.  A number of less expensive half reales will be included - mostly undated.

---

John B. sent the following photos of Jupiter Inlet beach.


Eroded Beach At Jupiter Inlet.
Photo by John B.

John said there weren't many targets.  As you can see it is very mushy sand.  You can tell that from the footprints and the coarseness of the sand and the shape of the beach.

Cut At Jupiter Inlet Beach
Photo by John B.
Despite all the big surf we've had the past few months, there have been few good finds.  Conditions just haven't been good, and I blame that on all of the renourishment sand.  Beaches like the one shown here are covered with renourishment sand, and even when you get erosion, it is just the renourishment sand moving around.   When it leaves the beach, it piles up in front of the beach covering anything old and protecting the beach against the force of the surf, and eventually gets washed back in again.

Unfortunately, I think it is going to take a lot to create good beach detecting conditions.  There is a lot of sand on the beaches.

Next week we'll have mostly two to four foot surf.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

The way they keep dumping sand



https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-50186758

Friday, October 25, 2019

10/25/19 Report - Avoiding Deterioration and Preserving the Value of Coins. Pre-Contact Images Found. Jamestown Graves. Storm Forming.


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

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Can you believe it?  It looks like there might be another storm developing in the Gulf.

The surf will be up to around three to five feet today, and the tides will be high too.

---

It is rare to dig up a coin that is in near perfect condition.  Most coins that you dig will have been in circulation for a while and buried in dirt or sand or worse.  That means that the coins value will already be reduced, but even though detectorists are seldom handling the most pristine of coins, it can still be helpful to be aware of the things that can harm coins and reduce their value.  I recently received an email from Joe D. in which he mentioned that coins he had stored in a cardboard folder were corroding.  Even if you purchase a near mint coin and keep it in a coin folder or something, there are many ways that a coin can be damaged and reduced in value.

Here are some things that can damage coins even if they are carefully stored.

Humidity.  That is a big problem for us in Florida.  Some companies market "air tight" holders, but they aren't guaranteed to be airtight.

Acids.  Coin collecting supplies made out of paper or cardboard can cause damage.  I just received an email from Joe D. telling how coins he stored in a cardboard folder had corroded.  Copper and silver coins are especially vulnerable to toning from household acids or even vapors emitted from cooking.

Chlorine.  "One of the main sources of this are flips made from plastic that contains PVC.  Additionally, vapors from a hot tub or pool can seep into the area where you store your coin collection."  You'd think that coin holders sold for the purpose would be safe, but not all of them are.

Air Pollution can also damage coins.

Improper Handling is one of the biggest causes of coin damage. Of course dropping or improperly cleaning coins will damage them, but acids and oils on your hands can also cause damage.  Gloves can be used.

Coins can also be damaged when sliding them into and out of coin holders.  Coin collectors use the term "flip rubbing."

Here is a link that will take you to an article that more fully describes the above sources of damage and how to store your coins safely.





---



… Federal Reserve banks receive coins at face value because they are obligations of the United States Government. The Banks store the coins until they need to fill orders from the commercial banks in their district. The Federal Reserve banks fill these orders from their vault stocks of both new and circulated coins. Also, they fill the orders without regard to date or mint mark. Coin shipments leave the Federal Reserve banks by armored car, registered mail, or express.
If a commercial bank has excess coins on hand, they may return the coins to the Federal Reserve bank. It then sorts the coins for fitness. They return badly worn or bent coins to the United States Mint which melts them down and makes them into new coins. Also, the banks remove foreign and counterfeit coins from circulation. According to Federal Reserve sources, over 20 billion coins valued at well over $2 billion pass through their coin processing units each year..
Here is the link for more about the US Treasury



---

Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have found 11 pre-Hispanic images in a tunnel in Ecatepec, México state, that is part of a dike system that dates back to colonial days.

Among the images discovered on the sides of the 8.4-meter-long tunnel are petroglyphs and stucco relief panels, INAH said in a statement.

The tunnel is part of the four-kilometer-long 17th-century dike system known today as the Albarradón de Ecatepec.

A war shield, the head of a bird of prey and a “paper ornament” are among the images carved into the walls of the tunnels while a teocalli, or temple, is etched into the central stone of the arch entrance. The temple is dedicated to the rain god Tláloc, the INAH archaeologists concluded...


Here is that link.

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/archaeologists-find-tunnel-with-pre-hispanic-images/

---

Archaeologists are digging up 17th century graves at Jamestown.

https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-nws-jamestown-grave-1019-20191022-qlypvf4xm5dedm4eptzt3hmcua-story.html\

---

Send me your beach reports and photos.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net