6/8/20 Report - Shipwreck Bochie or Manillas From 1600s Wreck. Fenn Treasure Finally Found. Sebastian Beaches.

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

Sebastian Sunday

Beachcam image submitted by JaminJack.

Jaminjack sent these two beach images.  The first was a little earlier when there were fewer people out.

You can see the scooped front beach and some dips in the water.

Sebastian Later Sunday.

Beachcam image submitted by JaminJack.

Thanks Jack.

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Odyssey Marine explored a shipwreck found at the Western Approaches to the English channel.  the wreck, dated to circa 1660 - 1680, appears to be a merchant vessel of the Royal Africa Company.  36 iron cannon, a quantity of elephant tusks and copper bracelets were among the artifacts discovered on the site.

Manillas or Bochie

Bracelets Used As Money in West Africa Up To The 1940s.

Source: Odyssey Marine, Paper 23.

In Odyssey Marine Paper 23, bronze or copper bracelets that were used as money in West Africa since at least the 1500s, were discussed.  It is thought that originally they were created by the indigenous Africans from rods or spikes salvaged from shipwrecks.  Later they were manufactured in great numbers by Europeans who traded them for slaves, gold, ivory and other products.

 West African exchange demanded enormous quantities of this form of currency. As early as 1504-07, just one trading station along the Guinea coast imported 287,813 manillas from Portugal (Davies, 2002: 47). In modern terms of monetary exchange they yielded high dividends. In 1505 a Portuguese merchant reported that at Calabar a large elephant tooth could be exchanged for one manilla and a slave purchased for eight to ten copper manillas (Einzig, 1949: 150-1; Johansson, 1967: 12)…

The Odyssey paper provides a detailed study of the wreck, including much damage by fishing trawlers and provides many pictures of the site and artifacts found on the site.

Here is the link for more of the study.

https://www.academia.edu/3597456/Neil_Cunningham_Dobson_and_Sean_A._Kingsley_A_Late_17th-Century_Armed_Merchant_Vessel_in_the_Western_Approaches_Site_35F_?email_work_card=title


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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Famed art and antiquities collector Forrest Fenn, who hid $1 million in treasure in the Rocky Mountain wilderness a decade ago, said Sunday that the chest of goods has been found...


Fenn posted clues to the treasure’s whereabouts online and in a 24-line poem that was published in his 2010 autobiography “The Thrill of the Chase."...


Fenn told The New Mexican in 2017 that the chest weighs 20 pounds (9 kilograms) and its contents weigh another 22 pounds (10 kilograms). He said he delivered the chest to its hiding place by himself over two separate trips...

Here is the link for more about that.

1 million treasure hidden in Rocky Mountains found - ABC 33/40abc3340.com › news › offbeat › 1-million-treasure-hidden-in-rocky-...

Thanks to DJ for  that link.

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Cristobal weakened as it moved inland.

On the Treasure Coast we'll have a few days of smooth surf.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/7/19 - Money Can Burn a Hole In Your Pocket - An Idiomatic Expression That Appears To Be Literally True.

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

Surprise Discovery

Could this be the actual origin of the old idiom?

My wife was going through some old clothes that had been in a storage box in the garage when she discovered this surprising sight.

It looks like money can actually burn a hole in your pocket!  I've heard that expression many times but never imagined it could be literally true.

I dig up a lot of corroded coins that have been exposed to salt water.  I think this penny was corroded to some extent before being placed into the pocket, and I suspect the mineral acids interacted with the fibers.  Florida's hot humid environment might have increased the reaction.

This is NOT a corroded coin that was simply falling out of a hole in the pocket..  When I first touched the coin, it was firmly attached to the fibers.  You can see in the photo that the cotton immediately around the hole is discolored as well.

I pulled the coin out just a touch, at first, so I could see what it was, but the photo looks very much like what I saw when my wife first held up the pants to show me what she found. 

The next photo shows what was holding the coin to the inside of the pocket..

Fibers From Pants Pocket Embedded In Corrosion on Penny.

You can see how the cotton fibers were embedded in the corrosion from the chemical reaction, so even if the coin was corroded before being placed in the pockrt, it evidently continued to corrode while in the pocket.

And below is a closer view of the two holes - the larger hole in the outer layer of the pocket, and a smaller hole in the inside layer of the pocket.

Hole in Pocket As Observed After the Penny Was Removed.

You can also see some corrosion still attached to the inside layer of the pocket.  That is where the fibers were attached to the coin.

It looks like the chemical reaction affected the blue dye as well as dissolving the cotton fibers.

When I first saw what was happening, I thought the pants were probably made of synthetic fibers, but the label says it is 100% cotton.

Perhaps a chemist could better explain the chemical reaction.

It does seem to be true that money can burn a hole in your pocket.

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/2/19 Report - Saddle Ridge Hoard of Gold Coins. New Inventory of Old Shipwrecks. Extinction of Coins and Money and Metal Detecting.

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

Part of the Saddle Ridge Hoard: One Can of Gold Coins.

Source: CoinWorld.com

Dan Owens published an interesting article in Coin World.  The title is Who Buried the Saddle Ridge Hoard.

Mr. Owens did some very extensive research and names a variety of possibilities but ends without being able to answer the question concluding, "Perhaps in the end, the story was not about the burier of the hoard, rather, as Kagins described it, about John and Mary discovering the fabled pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Then he quotes Prentice Mulford saying, "It is mysterious Providence that impels any poor fellow to dig his pile, bury it for safe keeping, and then go off and die in some out of the way place without being able to leave any will and testament as to the exact hole where his savings lay."

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... Led by archaeologist Carlos León, the team has logged 681 shipwrecks off Cuba, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Bermuda, the Bahamas and the US Atlantic coast.

Its inventory runs from the sinking of the Santa María to July 1898, when the Spanish destroyer Plutón was hit by a US boat off Cuba, heralding the end of the Spanish-American War and the twilight of Spain’s imperial age...

It found that 91.2% of ships were sunk by severe weather – mainly tropical storms and hurricanes – 4.3% ran on to reefs or had other navigational problems, and 1.4% were lost to naval engagements with British, Dutch or US ships. A mere 0.8% were sunk in pirate attacks...

Archaeologists have located the remains of fewer than a quarter of the 681 vessels on the inventory to date...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/01/spain-logs-shipwrecks-maritime-past-weather-pirates

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I heard somebody say that fewer people carry change these days.  I think he was talking about coins, but I think people are carrying less paper money too.  They simply don't pay with cash very often.

If people are carrying less money, it only stands to reason that they would lose less money.  That mean fewer easy targets for the coin shooter and require some changes in detecting strategies.  It might mean focusing on older coins rather than coins that were recently lost.

I suspect it won't be long before people quit carrying money altogether.  They can pay with a card, smart phone, or some newer way.  The end of money won't mean the end of metal detecting though.  There will be older coins that haven't been found yet, but as the numbers of those dwindle, detectorist will probably focus more on relics or other kinds of targets such as nuggets, meteorites or lost smart phones.  The reduction or elimination of physical money definitely has implications for detectorists as well as metal detector designers.  Another change might be increased targeting of non-metallic objects, including paper money.

I enjoy eye-balling, which is mostly about non-metallic targets.   Many years ago when I was in school, one day our gym class went out to pick up trash on the football field.  I found a dollar bill under the bleachers.  That is my earliest memory of finding paper money.  I still occasionally target paper money, and as with metal detecting, there are strategies.

One thing I've successfully done is visit fair grounds or other busy event locations early in the morning and check the fence rows on the down-wind side of the site.  I've done that several times with some degree of success.

One place you can find paper money on the beach is in the sea weed line.  Also I know where there is one place in the water in front of a busy resort where there is a shallow water dip that collects paper money.  There have also been several times when I was detecting in the water and seen a bill come floating by.   So far my biggest paper money finds have been twenties.

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I happened to see an old episode of the TV show River Monsters, and the fellow was catchting Bull sharks in the Indian River Lagoon at Fort Pierce.  He also seemed to spend a lot of time down by the power plant.

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The Treasure Coast is having a one foot surf and very small tides.  Those conditions make for easy water detecting.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/28/14 Report - Returned Rings, Butterfly Knife, Dangerous Items Found in Parks and Hidden Money

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

Returned Rings,
Found and returned by Michael E.

As you know, I've been talking about the Port St. Lucie Parks, which, it appears, suddenly began to prohibit metal detecting.  We first learned of this when one of the readers of this blog was told, after months of regularly detecting PSL parks, that he could no longer detect there.  

The detectorist I'm talking about is a fine fellow that is known for returning rings and other finds, including the rings shown here.  I covered that particular story in my 8/9/13 post.

I don't think the Parks Dept., or the citizens, realize how many cherished items are returned that would otherwise remain lost if detecting is no longer allowed.

In addition to the service of finding and returning items, much junk and many dangerous items are removed by detectorists.

I've personally found and removed three sets of brass knuckles (considered a deadly weapon) from one park.  I understand that it is illegal to make or sell brass knuckles in Florida.

I've also found a butterfly knife in a park. 

Butterfly Knife Partially Open

They are legal in Florida, but you are not allowed to carry them in public without a permit. 

Butterfly Knife In Closed Position.

It is sort of fun to learn to use them.   Pretty neat, but not the type of thing you want to be have laying around for kids to pick up.


I wish we had a picture of the tons of trash that we have all removed from the parks and beaches.  That would be amazing.




Joan T. said,

I have removed countless dangerous items from parks and playgrounds while detecting, most recently, a switchblade right under a swing, and it was not even under the mulch!

I have removed razors, nails, pins,  pens, broken glass shards, asthma inhaler, knives, glasses, push pins, nuts and bolts from sloppy repairs to the playground equipment - those are always fun to find. ... I would never let my children run barefoot in the sand or mulch of any park or playground. Too many dangerous items, and I find many of them.

When i lived south in Coconut Creek, my 3yr old son dug up a hand gun right next to a slide! That was scarey! ...

Thanks for your email Joan.  I'm sure we've all removed some of those items.
 

One thing I hate to find, but have, are syringes - some medical and some drug related, I'm sure.  Very dangerous!  I just received an email from John P. who indicates he has found them too.

 

John P. wrote and said, ... there have been many times that I have removed (carefully) hypodermic needles from beaches in the area along with lots of broken glass.

I've found crack pipes too.  It is all out there, and detectorists find it.

Maybe we should bring all of that to the attention of the pubic and parks personnel.  It is dangerous for anyone that visits a park.

Maybe we should start documenting this stuff with out cameras.

You don't need a detector to find a lot of it.  You can see much of it on the surface.

I don't know why any park wouldn't be glad to have all of that removed for free.  They just don't realize how much of it does get removed.


A successful real estate salesman has been hiding envelopes of cash and leaving clues about where to find the cash on twitter under @HiddenCash.   So far the envelopes have been in the San Francisco area, but he will be doing the same thing in other cities soon.

Here is the link to that story.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/millionaire-hiding-envelopes-cash-san-francisco/story?id=23871103

 On the Treasure Coast we have another day of smooth water, which will last two or three more days, and then if the predictions are correct, the surf will start increasing to a peak of 3 - 5 feet in a few days.  Otherwise, no change in beach detecting conditions.

 

If you are want your name on to be included on a letter to the parks department, send you full name and use the word Petition on the title.    That will make it a little easier for me to keep it organized. 

 

I don't usually post full names in the blog but it is better if I have a full name for the letter.

 

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

 

5/16/14 Report - Recent Cuts on the Treasure Coast, Beach Analysis, Couch Cache, Religious Statue and Dry Beach Finds

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



Three to Four Foot Cut on Treasure Coast Beach This Afternoon.

I missed it, whatever it was.  I went to the beach this afternoon and saw some recent cuts.  I know it wasn't the last high tide that caused the erosion.  I could tell that the last high tide filled the front of the beach instead of cutting it.  So I don't know exactly when the new cuts occurred, but it wasn't too long ago, and it was before the last high tide.

I was out of town yesterday and not paying attention to beach conditions like I normally do.  I don't know if a front came through yesterday or if it might have been a local storm.  I've seen local storms cause cuts.  This isn't anything I would be concerned about missing anyway.  I doubt that it was enough to cause an upgrade in my beach conditions rating.  And, as I said, it has started to refill already.

Another View of the Cut Beach

I added some lines to this photo to show you some things.

At the right, notice the cliff face and then the slope at the bottom of the face.

The new sand piled in front of the cut is emphasized by the arced arrow.  Sand was in the little dip between the new refill sand and the slope down from the cliff face.

Another thing I noticed this afternoon is the beach behind that is starting to slop upward as it goes back.

The front hump created by the new fill contained some light targets on the front face.  Mostly aluminum junk but also some clad.   On the new hump, under a few inches of sand was a layer of shells. 

If we get more erosion before this fills all the way back in, this erosion could still be a help.

Where I scribbled the lines along the face of the hump is where there were a lot of targets.

Dry Beach Finds
Finds and photos by Dan B.

Dan B. said he tried out some of the tips I recently gave on hunting a dry beach and had some luck.

Here are some finds from doing that.

Thanks for sharing Dan.



Kovels Komments says, Forty-nine percent of Americans carry less than $20 in paper money and 9 percent go without cash entirely, according to a recent survey.

Fewer people conduct cash transactions these days and that of course means that there will be less to find on the beaches.  There was a time when many parks charged for entrance, and often the entrance fee was something like $1.50, which meant most beach goers would be carrying both cash and coins, some of which would be lost.  Not so much now.

There were some underwater dips next to some resort beaches where lost bills collected.  A lot of people only use credit cards at resorts now, so that will cut down on cash and coin finds.

Also fence lines along fair grounds after fairs were often good for producing a few bills. 

Bills also occasionally show up in sea weed lines on the beach. 


Students found $43,000 in an old couch they bought for $20 and returned the money.

Here is the link for that story.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/students-find-43000-cash-in-old-couch-return-it-to-owner/story-fnixwvgh-1226919577145

People hide things in different places.  Remember that.


A rare statue of the Virgin Mary, probably from somewhere around the 13th Century, was found buried under a church floor.

Here is that link.

http://cphpost.dk/news/rare-statue-of-virgin-mary-found-buried-under-church-floor.9554.html


Tonight's high tide is going to be pretty high.  It looks like the wind is supposed to be out of the North.  It looks like the swells will be pretty much out of the East until late tonight.  Unfortunately the surf is only supposed to be round two feet.  I don't think we'll lose much sand as a result of that and the sand in front of the cut, but I'm not totally sure.  Time will tell.

Not much time remaining to give your poll response.  Thanks!

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net