3/27/20 Report - Ancient Gold Stater Florida Find. 18th Century Dugout Canoe. New Opportunities!

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

Gold Stater Circa 350 BC Found 
in Shallow Water Off The Florida Coast

Not long ago I had some posts on old coins found on the Treasure Coast.  I also mentioned that some very old ancient coins have been found in Florida, and I'm sure on the Treasure Coast as well.  One way that ancient coins are found in Florida includes those mounted in jewelry.  You'll find ancient coins that were once mounted or are still mounted in rings, earrings, bracelets, pendants, etc.  I've found a good number of those.

I went back to find some examples and in a very early post found this photo of a gold coin that I found.  It is an Alexander the Great gold stater from around 350 BC.  It was found in shallow water, if I correctly recall, in North Dade county.   It is still in the bezel, which is on a nice heavy chain, but I used the Paint application to edit the photo to show only the coin.

This is just one example of a pre Spanish-colonial coin that was found in Florida.  I never entertained the idea that Alexander the Great visited Florida, or the Knights Templar for that matter.

When I found this photo that I posted years ago, I realized how much more thoroughly I research, inspect and document  things today as compared to how I handled finds back then. For one thing, I have better equipment and take better photos now.   I guess I should get it out of the deposit box some day and do a better job on it.

I found a good web site with information about the Alexander the Great coins, although it only talks about the silver coins.

Here is just a little of what it says.

Alexander invaded Asia Minor to liberate the Greeks and drive out the Persians. Alexander’s armies swept down into Egypt and then circled back, taking territory the whole way to borders of India. Alexander’s armies defeated every army for 13 years. While traveling back home through Babylon, Alexander died at the age of 33 in 323 BC. The coins minted under his name from 336 to 323 BC are referred to as lifetime issues and command a high price today...

The value of the coin principally came from what it was made of, not who issued the coin. The weights of the coins were regulated by city officials called magistrates. It is often their official symbols and monograms that we find on the coins. Ancient forgers used to coat copper coins with silver and try to pass them off as pure silver coins. It is not uncommon to find an ancient banker’s mark or a test cut in ancient coins. By piercing the coin, the person could tell if the silver ran through the coin... 

Here is the link for more about the silver coins of Alexander the Great.

http://www.coinsoftime.com/Articles/Coins_of_Alexander_the_Great.html

I don't know that I ever heard of holes in coins being used to identify forgeries.  If I did, I forgot.

Here is a link to a site that lists some gold staters.

https://www.austincoins.com/ancient-coins/alexander-ancient-coins.html

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18th Century Dugout Canoe.

Source: See UnionLeader.com link below.

Testing reveals dugout canoe discovered 80 years ago dates to 17th century...

The canoe was discovered by three fishermen from Tilton in the fall of 1939 under 14 feet of water in Verrie Cove along Squam’s northwest shore. After failing to spark local interest, the canoe found its way to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, where it was identified as Native American...

Here is the link for more of that article.

https://www.unionleader.com/news/history/testing-reveals-dugout-canoe-discovered-years-ago-dates-to-th/article_23a7f1d7-2dba-5ed7-b67a-c4c8f376cdd3.html

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I've often talked about obstacles as opportunities.  I remember once mentioning that it seems like big treasures always have a dragon to protect them.  That is why they are still there.  And it seems that the person that slays the dragon is the person that deserves the treasure.  Sometimes the dragon is in the world, and sometimes it is yourself.   Most of the time it is probably hiding in the cave of your being.  That is why slaying it is so transformational.

It is natural to want to take the easy path, but the difficult path can be an adventure.  No matter where you go you take yourself with you.  That is why some people are always unhappy and angry and others are just as often content.

Did you ever notice that every miracle starts out as a problem.  That is a part of the recipe.

Every major accomplishment begins with a challenge.

People are being challenged today.  There is disease, fear, illness and economic downturn.  Those things might always exist to some extent but some people are feeling it more intensely now.

There will be sorrow and loss.  There always is.  But there will also be miracles of love, comfort and strength where there is loss, along with miracles of healing.

The fuse is lit.  What are the opportunities?

There will be new cures, new understanding, new techniques and methods.  In short there will be new ingenious solutions and new ways of living.

There are new opportunities in new threats.  How can you help in some way to solve the large or small problems you see?

Solutions create businesses and fortunes, and provide aid and comfort.  Be a part of it.

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The surf tonight and tomorrow will be up to three or four feet.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

11/12/19 Report - Possible Opportunities Coming. 17th Century Shipwrecks. American Legion Anniversary Coins.

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

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

As you can see, tomorrow and Thursday the surf should be up, and then again, a bit more on Sunday.

Those are the types of thing that is common in November, but I'd prefer to see something more sustained.  After a little erosion the wind changes again and the beaches fill before the next opening.

John E. sent me the following report.

On Saturday found a 50 yard-75 yard stretch of beach with 3-4 foot cut.   Was down in some nice yellow sand...lots of targets - highlights ... one buffalo nickel ( no date) and couple wheat pennies.... 1940’s (all others clad ) and a lock escutcheon, don’t think it is very old ( 1.5 inches long) went back next day, cut was gone - no targets.... shows how short window of opportunity can be sometimes. Using equinox 800 - still learning!!      

Finds by John E.

Photos by John E.

Thanks for the report John.

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Swedish maritime archaeologists have discovered two wrecks believed to be 17th-century warships, at least one of which is likely to be the sister ship of the Vasa, a historic vessel that sank on its maiden voyage.

“When I came down as the first diver ... I saw this wall five or six metres high and I came up and there was a massive warship,” the maritime archaeologist Jim Hansson said. “It was a thrilling feeling.”...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/08/17th-century-warships-linked-to-swedens-historic-vasa-found

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American Legion 100th Anniversary coins from the US Mint.

You can see more at the USMint.gov web site (link below).

https://catalog.usmint.gov/american-legion-100th-anniversary-coins/?cm_sp=LP1-legion-coll-030619

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It looks like there is a good chance that a window of opportunity might crack open some time in the next few days.  If you manage to hit the right place at the right time, you might get access to some older things.  It won't come to you.

Open Sesame.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/16/19 Report - Eight Foot Surf Possible Soon. Tips for Detectorists. Who Moved My Cheese. Wood Find.

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

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

The big news for me today is the forecast.  MagicSeaWeed is predicting up to an eight foot surf for next Tuesday.  The wind will be mostly northeast and the tides are increasing too.  If that holds or gets even better we might be in for some good beach hunting conditions.

Keep watching.

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A couple decades ago, a book entitled Who Moved My Cheese was very popular in the field of business motivation.  Despite the title, the book isn't about cheese at all, but uses two mice and two miniature people as characters in a parable to illustrate some important lessons.  Every detectorist should read that book, or at least learn the lessons the book teaches.

Doing the book a gross injustice, I'll boil it down to this - the mice lived in a maze and were accustomed to  always finding abundant cheese in a particular location, but one day when they went out to get their daily fill, they find no cheese where they always found it in the past.  They fear there will be no more cheese and blame everybody else for their failure  (thus the title Who Moved My Cheese) instead of moving on and finding a new cache.

Here are some of the main lessons from the book.  Things will change.  Change is inevitable.  Don't be afraid of change.  If you don't change you will become extinct.  Be ready to change quickly, and enjoy it again and again.

The book applies to metal detecting as well or better than it applies to business.  Things will change.  Some day you'll find that doing the same thing that was always successful in the past will no longer  work as well.  And people will think that there is no more treasure or that the beach or detecting site no longer produces.  To continue to be successful, you will have to change.  You can not keep hunting the same site, or the same kind of sites, using the same techniques and expect to continue being successful.  Be among the first to change.  Take the challenge and enjoy it.  Progressing is necessary just to stay even.

There are plenty of obstacles for detectorists, but they can and should be overcome.  Here are my four big Os - Overcome Obstacles to Open Opportunities.

An obstacle is often a sign of a new opportunities.  The obstacles don't have to be big - just big enough.  You can do well by working the places with small obstacles that no one else wants to bother with or perhaps does not know how to work.  Some that I've worked were just a little farther out of the way or covered with trash or mud or weeds or somehow not as accessible.

A lack of creativity or willingness to change can be a different type of obstacle.

If it was really easy, everybody else would do it, and sometimes it seems like they are.  If you are just doing he easy stuff, there will be plenty of others that are doing it too. If you are doing what is easy, that is one sign that it is time to start thinking about how you can take the next step.

There are always new frontiers.   And you might be surprised how much is out there to be found.  That is one reason I tell you day after day about what is being found.

I'll never forget the first time I went out on a wooded hillside in West Virginia.  Everybody said, "There is nothing there. You won't find anything."  On my first outing, I found a gold 1940 something high school class ring.  On subsequent outings, I found old coins and relics from previous centuries.

On my first outing on a Caribbean island, I found 18th century military buttons, ordnance and other relics.

But you don't have to go to distant places.   There is stuff almost everywhere.

I no longer live near the glitzy resorts of Miami where people visited and lost their coins and jewelry for over a hundred years.  I now live in an unremarkable place that has to be maintained continually just to keep it from once again becoming a wooded mass of thorns, vines and trees.  There is nothing that would suggest that anything ever went on there - certainly nothing important.  It is a place no different than millions and millions of other places.  Yet within walking distance, and without any equipment or anything other than the clothes to cover my nakedness, I've found fossils that are millions of years old, Native American artifacts, pioneer relics as well as most of the bottles and glass insulators that I've posted.  I'm just saying there is a lot of stuff out there.  I'm not talking about some world-famous treasure island where you might expect to find buried treasure galleons or the Holy Grail or Ark of the Covenant where people have searched for centuries and turned everything upside down with heavy equipment and scanned with high tech tools.  I'm talking about Anywhere USA.  You don't have to go far unless you have a particular treasure in mind.

I can't tell you all the kinds of places you should look or how you should work them,pl but they don't have to be far away.  In fact, they might be right under your nose.   Believe it or not there are more places that are unhunted than places that are over-hunted.

My main point today is that there is a lot still out there to be found, but like the book says, you might have to make some changes to find it.

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Dale J. sent me the following photos of his find.

Find and photo by Dale J.

He said, The red circles show rusted iron, a close up of the one possible spike sticking out, there are oyster shells only on one end. Not sure how long it was washed up it was not moving in today’s small surf. This is north  of Ft. Pierce Inlet.  About 8 feet long and 12x12 inches.

Here is another look.

Find and photo by Dale J.

Interesting!  Thanks Dale.

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Keep watching the surf reports.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net