6/25/19 Report - Musket Gun Barrel Mold. Cleaning Coins. Benefit of Metal Detecting. Gold Prices. Way to Remove Rust.

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

Encrusted Musket Barrel as Found.

Find and photo by Will R.

If you saw yesterday's post early, maybe you didn't see the link I added later in the day.  That link was to a old post in which Will R. talked about some nice finds and how he made a mold of the gun barrel shown above.  Here is what Will said.

I love your last post. I ran into a similar situation last year. I was detecting a private site on the intercoastal when I found a brass butt plate, then the side plate and one of the ramrod tubes. Then it hit me... where's the barrel? Soon I found the barrel because it had one of the ramrod tubes stuck in the EO chunk. I took it home and did as I do with most EO's and put it in a tub of fresh H2O. The next day I noticed the end of the EO was oozing sludge. I figured this was the end of the barrel. I gently flushed the end of the EO with water and then I knew I had rare opportunity. This was a perfect mold of the metal barrel that once was there. I carefuly flushed the rest of the mud and sludge out and made sure it was clear of all metal. Now here's where the fun began. I used fiberglass resin and made a perfect mold of the barrel. Here are some pics of it. You're welcome to use them if you like.

Finished Copy Made From Mold.

By Will R.

If you used the link yesterday, you might have already seen this, but I thought it was worth posting again for those who might have missed it.

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Surfaces on Recently Dug Dime and Quarter That I'll Be Cleaning.

I'm going to use diluted Muriatic acid.  I'm doing four dimes and three quarters, all having a black patina very much like the dime and quarter shown in the photos above.  Some are a little worse than others, but all are similar.

You hear that you should never clean coins.  There is no danger with these coins since they have no collector value other than the melt value.  They are already damaged beyond what any body would pay a premium for.  Therefore there is no danger of actually hurting the value.

Make sure you know that is the case before you clean any coin.  In the case of possibly valuable coins, definitely don't clean them until you know for sure.

I hope to have some photos for you as things progress.

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I heard another way to remove heavy rust from iron objects.  On the Antiques Roadshow it was said that a fellow found a clump of rust and buried it in his barn in horse manure.  It looked like it did a good job of removing the rust from what turned out to be a medieval key.

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The price of gold has been really flying for the past week or two.  It went up another $28 per ounce in the past couple of days.  That puts it close to $1430 and moving.

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I've commented about some of the fake elements of some of the "reality" treasure shows.  I realized the other day that I actually hope that some of the other so-called reality shows are fake.  It would be sad to think that people are actually like that.  I could list a number of shows that I've seen enough of to actually hope that they are really fake.

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It's been established that people who spend more time in parks and other natural settings tend to report higher levels of health and happiness, but new research shows there's actually a magic number for it.

According to a study published this week in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, spending 120 minutes a week strolling a tree-lined street or sitting by a lake can greatly enhance a person's overall sense of well-being. Less time didn't yield any significant benefit, the research showed...

Here's the link.

https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/People-who-spend-more-time-outdoors-lead-more-14025910.php

As always you can quibble with the conclusions and details of the article, as I'm so prone to do, but isn't that one thing we all like about metal detecting or treasure hunting.  You have to be out there.

There is something about feeling the sun, wind and rain.  I like being barefoot.  I like feeling the grass or sand beneath my feet, and will accept the risk of fire ants or other dangers.  I like when it is stormy and nature is getting a little frisky.  You feel nature even more.

On the other hand, there is the garbage and pollution littering the out doors.

Millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans every year, polluting our seas, littering our beaches and endangering wildlife.

Plastic can take centuries to break down, and instead of quietly disappearing beneath the waves, it has a way of coming back to haunt us.

Almost 1 million shoes and over 370,000 toothbrushes were among more than 400 million pieces of plastic recently found washed up on a remote group of islands in the Indian Ocean.

Great chunks of plastic have been found inside the stomachs of everything from seabirds to whales, while tiny microplastics are eaten by fish and other sea creatures, ending up as part of the food chain...
See https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/24/health/plastic-pollution-rivers-oceans-scn-intl/index.html

The litter makes me a little sad.  It intrudes on nature, and makes it a little less "natural."  Litter seems to intrude upon nature and removes some of the healthy-giving and aesthetic benefits.

One of the side benefits of the dig-everything and take-everything philosophy that I encourage, is that it leaves the environment a little better than you found it.

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The price of gold continues to rise, going up another $28 per ounce in the past couple of days.  That puts it close to $1430.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/18/18 Report - Using Nature and Finds in Treasure Displays. History, Constructs, Genetics and Humor.

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

Display and Photo by John C.

John C. sent in the above photo along with the following message.

Well, not exactly a display case, but it's the closest thing I have for now, always wanted to put together a nice display case, but I haven't gotten around to it yet, but everything in the picture is real, except of course the coins and the small piece of China, pictured are musket balls, copper spikes ,some lead sheathing and some pottery shards.  I got this big guy diving off Corrigan's some years ago, so I tried to make it look, as close as I can, to its natural environment.

Thanks John.  I like the natural look.

I think this series of posts on displays will motivate some of you to do something with your own finds so they are not just sitting in a closet in a box.  That would be too much like a lot of the stuff in our museums.

The displays that I've posted are all awesome.  John shows how a variety of things you can pick up at the beach can be used.

Here is something that might give you an idea.

Clump of Barnacles Used to Display Coin.

You could mount a clump of barnacles, concretion, or shells on a piece of drift wood and get as creative as you want.

Someday I might get around to giving some other tips on how to use found or scrap items to inexpensively create displays.

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Unlike a book or cinema, there is always more to the story.  History is never the whole story.  It doesn't end when the credits roll.  Only the simple-minded can unapologetically offer simple answers to complex problems.

Elizabeth Warren's attempt to prove her Native American ancestry didn't end up how she hoped.  Race or ethnicity is a construct.  It can not be proven.  Not even with genetic markers.  The whole discussion illustrates that.

Fact is, we are all a mixed up mess - not entirely one thing or another.  Elizabeth Warren, according to her 23 and Me test results, was determined to have anywhere from 1/64 to 1/1,024th Native American ancestry.  I won't even comment on the questionable methods used by the test to determine Native American ancestry, but why wouldn't a person claim to be of a group that they more closely match - say 90, 70 or even 50%.  It's obvious - personal gain.

A Cherokee tribal leader said that only the tribe could determine membership.  He said that you could not use genetic markers to determine that.

If you do attempt to use genetic markers to determine ancestry, as Elizabeth Warren learned, only more questions are raised.  What is the criteria for group membership?  Do you have to be 90, 70 or 50%, or can you be as little as one millionth.  If you can't define the criteria, you have a problem.

If a genetic marker crietion is used, a lot of tribal leaders will find that they no longer qualify as members.  To them such things as culture, respect and participation are more important than genetics.  For some that is indeed fortunate because otherwise they might be disqualified.

Most people in American say they are Christians.  Born again Christians might say that a majority of those who say they are Christians are not because they are not born again Christians.  Some people claim they are Christians because they observe some traditions such as Christmas, or go to church on Easter.  What is the criterion?  That is the important question.

Many Native Americans claim that their ancestors were always in America.  Many archaeologists, on the other hand, claim that Native Americans only came to North America around 30 thousand years ago.   (See http://theconversation.com/first-americans-lived-on-land-bridge-for-thousands-of-years-genetics-study-suggests-23747 for a more adequate discussion.)

History is not the whole story.  It is someone's perspective.  History takes on a different flavor or color with each telling.  It becomes something other than what it was, no matter how much we try to capture the whole truth.  Ancestry is the same.  It is the history of a family.  It is usually more fiction than fact.  That doesn't make it less important.  It has a lot to do with how people see themselves.  The only thing I object to is using it for advantage over other people.

If you are an evolutionist, we have another ancestry.  Our ancestors were relatives of the Chimpanzees or Bonobos.  Humans and chimps share 98.8 percent of their DNA, so does that mean that Elizabeth Warren is more chimpanzee than Native American?  

Roll the credits.

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Did you ever see such a long setup for a punch line?

The tides are flat, but some higher surf is expected.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Looks like the four to six foot surf has been delayed a little.  Look for it Monday.


Keep the treasure display photos coming.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net