6/21/19 Report - Ordnance on Beach. Mystery Item Identified. Checking Dug Pennies. Coastal Flooding. Mystery Jar.

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

Ordnance Found on North Carolina Beach.

A lady in North Carolina found an unusual item (above) at the beach, which she took home to put in her garden.  It began smoking.  Police identified the item as some kind of white phosphorous military ordnance.

Here is the link.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-carolina-military-ordnance-beach-garden-police

I don't know what she found attractive about it, but it is a reminder to be careful what you pick up at the beach.

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Speaking of ordnance, the last two mystery items were shot down like ducks in a shooting gallery.  It seems they were identified within minutes of being posted.

Mitch King was first again, identifying yesterday's mystery item as a shot bullet.  He sent these pictures.

Hollow Point Bullets

Scott B., with his military and law enforcement background, quickly followed describing the item as a fired hollow point bullet.

Thanks guys!

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I came across a container of pennies that I hadn't looked at in many years, and I know I didn't look a them well.  Probably I only looked for old dates or unusual coins, so I decided to look for the better ones to see if there might be any error coins.  Some of them were in very nice conditions while others were totally destroyed.

Here are a couple examples.  There were both worse and better coins.

Corroded Penny.

Not Perfect but Nice.

The varying patinas always amaze me.  There was bright red to black and silver colors.

No valuable coins were found, but there were a couple keepers.

Most will be rolled and exchanged.

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After three years of brutal flooding and hurricanes in the United States, there is growing consensus among policymakers and scientists that coastal areas will require significant spending to ride out future storms and rising sea levels — not in decades, but now and in the very near future. There is also a growing realization that some communities, even sizable ones, will be left behind.

Total cost of adding sea walls

1. Jacksonville, Fla.$3.5 billion

2. New York City$2.0 billion

3. Virginia Beach$1.7 billion

4. Galveston, Tex.$1.1 billion

5. Charleston, S.C.$1.0 billion

6. Tampa, Fla.$938.4 million

7. Barnstable Town, Mass.$889.2 million

8. Corpus Christi, Tex.$861.1 million

9. St. Petersburg, Fla.$751.4 million

10. New Orleans$725.1 million

Here is the link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/climate/seawalls-cities-cost-climate-change.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

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I found the 14 inch tall jar shown on the left below.  I've been thinking it might be for motor oil.  It reads CAPACITY 64 OUNCES AT THE RIM.    A much prettier Tiolene Motor Oil Jar is shown on the right.

Can anyone identify the jar on the left?

14 Inch Tall Found Jar on Left.  Tiolene Oil Jar on the Right.

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No change in beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/25/16 Report - A Lot of Beach Finds From GoldNugget. A Web Site For Identifying WW II and Aviation Finds. Restoration of LaBelle.

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

Really Nice Beach Finds.
Finds and photos by GoldNugget.

My 6/23/16 post provided a link to a North Carolina beach photo showing a beach as it appeared after the April storms.  The video was made by Gosports1, also known as GoldNugget. You might want to look at the post and video again to see the conditions that produced the coins and buttons shown today.

More Great Finds By GoldNugget.

Closer View of 1853 Half Dime by GoldNugget.

Button Find by GoldNugget

Besides coins and buttons, GoldNugget also found some other things.  Here are some shell casings he found at another beach.  50 caliber Browning shells show up regularly along much of the Florida East Coast, but I haven't seen many of them on the Treasure Coast for some time.

WWII Shell Casings Found by GoldNugget.

As most of you know, WW II training exercises were held along the Treasure Coast.

GoldNugget said,  "The imprint stamped on the brass casings are SL 43 and TW 45

As with most Old  Beach  Coins from the 1700-1800's it's hard to get a date,

One of the Large Cent was laying on top of the sand ( Note Eye Spy ).  This happens when the water pushes over the top sand level and will leave some coins on top. I have found a lot of coins like this. , Easier than finding shark teeth.

Three of the best coins were found from 8;00 PM until 12:00 AM - my 1st time Detecting the Beach after dark in over 20 years, not that I won't do it again if I can fill up my finds pouch.

Notice the fishing weights were the old round style.  I only found 2 that were pyramid shape with the leaders."

Thanks for sharing GoldNugget.  And congratulations on great finds.

I talked about shell casings in my 2/17/12 post and gave information telling what the marks mean on those types of casings mean.

The shells marked SL 43 were loaded by the St. Louis Ordnance Plant in 1943, and those marked TW 45 were loaded at the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant in Minneapolis in 1945.

Below is a web site that gives the markings for all of the ordnance plants as well as a lot of other interesting WW II information.  You might want to take a look at that link.

http://www.nebraskaaircrash.com/

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La Belle was one of four ships under the command of French explorer La Salle.  It sank into the muddy waters of the Gulf where it remained until archaeologists discovered it in Matagorda Bay, about 100 miles south-west of Houston.

It took 17 years to restore the La Belle, which left France on the orders of King Louis XIV in 1684 to establish a new colony.  The ship was full of cargo when it sank, including everything required to start a trading colony.  Cannons, three dozen long guns, swords, Jesuit rings, combs and clothing, glass bottles and beads, brass tins, casks and pewter plates were among the artifacts recovered.

Here is the link if you want to read more.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/21/la-belle-france-ship-restored-texas-colony

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Nothing new about Treasure Coast beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/5/14 Report - Grapeshot(?) Find, Free Civil War Ordnance Book and 1850 World Currency Values

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


Possible Grapeshot Found in Area of Jensen Beaches.
Find and Photo by Christopher P.
 

This rusted object was found by Christopher P. in the Jensen Beach area.  He thought it could possibly be a grapeshot and wondered if any one else had found a grapeshot in the area.

The area does have some good old history.  There are accounts of numerous Spanish gold coins found after a big storm in that area way back before detectors were being used.

I haven't seen that written about in treasure magazines or any of the treasure literature, but I have seen accounts of that.  The author who wrote the fiction book, Treasure Coast Gold.   has shown old photos and documents relating to that.


There is a table that gives data on round iron civil war shot.  Here is the link.

http://www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.htm

That table shows the allowable diameter for a 6 pounder being 1.14-1.17 inches and weight being 0.21 pounds.

The amount of corrosion on the dug item makes it difficult to measure precisely, but it seems to be a touch under that.

A great google ebook that you can access free on the internet is the following.  The Ordnance Manual for the Use of the Officers of the United States Army, 1861.

If you are interested in US military weapons, you'll love this book.  It has everything.  A very good research book.

Here is the link.

https://archive.org/details/ordnancemanualfo00unit

And the following table came from the same book.



If you want to identify weapons from the Civil War period or any of their parts down to the number of screws or bolts, you'll find it all in that book.


Here are the results of the most recent poll that just concluded.

1. On an ocean beach                    52(46%)
2. In the ocean                               21(18%)
3. Along inland waterway                9(8%)
4. In inland water                              8(7%)
5. Dry land                                       47(42%)
6. Did not detect this month             35(31%)

The first thing I wanted to see is how many people were detecting only one type of area.  There were 111 people who voted and 173 choices.  That means that on average respondents were detecting just over 1.5 of the places listed.  Put another way, about half the people were detecting one type of site, and about half two or more sites.  I know I need to ask more questions to make that more precise, but I think it is a fair rough approximation.  A lot of people seem to be detecting only one of the types of sites listed but about as many are detecting more than one. 

I often warn about the possibility of getting in a rut and recommend trying some different types of sites.  You will probably learn something new if you try another type of detecting.

The most detected place according to the results of this survey is the ocean beach.  That isn't surprising.  It is easy to detect ocean beaches and much of the Treasure Coast is off-limits because of salvage and exploratory leases.  However, I know from previous polls that many of the people who read this blog are not from the Treasure Coast and many live far from the ocean.

Less than half the number of respondents who detect on an ocean beach detect in the ocean.  Again, on the Treasure Coast a lot of the ocean is off-limits.

In some ways it is easier to detect on the beach, especially when the water is rough.  You also need a waterproof detector to detect anything but the most shallow water in the ocean.  That means more expense too.  However if you detect a busy tourist beach where gold jewelry is common, you will find much more gold in the water.

I'm going to end there for today and pick up with this tomorrow.

Locally we have about a two foot surf today and an East wind.  Not promising.

Let me know what you think about Chistopher's find or if you have found a grape shot or anything similar in the same area.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/22/13 Report - Strange Helicopter, Large Treasure Coast Ordnance Removal Project and WWII History

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

Figure From 1998 NRL Project Report.
See link below for link to the report.

Have you seen the strangely equipped helicopter flying up and down the coast off of Hutchinson Island?

There have been many rumors recently about the helicopter with a strange contraption attached.  Some said it could be a government agency doing a study of the sand.  They can actually measure the amount of sand deposits in the water from the air.  Others thought it could be a magnetometer survey or photographic mapping.

One resident who spoke to the helicopter crew thinks they got the answer.  They say the helicopter is conducing a magnetometer survey for WWII items.

As you probably know a magnetometer by detecting differences in the magnetic fields can detect iron objects.

It has been determined that a Canadian company is performing the survey to locate the WWII items for a future reality TV program.

That reminded me of a large project to remove WWII items from the Treasure Coast beaches back in the 1990s.

I've talked about that a little in the past but you might be surprised by the extent and type of artifacts that were removed.

Figure From Same NRL Report.

Beginning in 1993, the project conducted by the Naval Research Laboratory removed everything from sculleys, to live bombs, "tiny tom" missiles, to railroad rails.  The 1990s project employed a magnetometer survey with a magnetometer array pulled by the vehicle shown here.

The strangest contraption though was a large barge-like amphibious vehicle on tracks like those used on tanks or other heavy equipment and equipped with a large crane that was used to remove large sculleys from the water.  That thing was huge.  I wish I got a photo of it at the time. I hoped they would show it in the report, but they didn't.

The fellows working the project were dressed like those shown below in black shorts and white Ts.

If you want to learn more about the project, what was detected, how the project was conducted, and what went on at our Treasure Coast beaches during WWII, below is a link to a report on the project.

Not a Cannon But a Rocket Being Removed From
a Treasure Coast Beach.

Anti-Tank Mines Removed From Beach.

Here is the link for the Navy report.  It is a PDF file.

https://www.google.com/search?q=navy+research+laboratory+ordnance+removal+fort+pierce+1998&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS536US536&oq=navy+research+laboratory+ordnance+removal+fort+pierce+1998&aqs=chrome..69i57.18867j0j4&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

You'll find a lot of information in the report and some useful hints.

Most of the items removed were larger - at least a half meter or more.  And as you'll read, there was a lot of "live" ordnance.

Many obstacles thought to be a danger to swimmers and
boaters like this Hedgehog were removed from the
water along the Treasure Coast.

Did you know, that Normandy Beach on South Hutchinson Island was named that because it was used to conduct training exercises for the invasion of Normandy?   The report says that area was used for bombing raid exercises.


I've been receiving a lot of email from readers from other states lately.  I'll post some of those and some ideas on the mystery item I posted yesterday.

I got one report of good erosion on the Alabama Coast lately.


On the Treasure Coast a lot of surfers were enjoying the Christmas break yesterday.  The surf was up to about four feet.

On Christmas the predictions are for a six foot surf.


Happy Hunting,
TreaureGuide@comcast.net

5/1/12 Report - Beach Upgrade, Super Moon & Bomb Squad on Vero Beach

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

Bomb Unit from Patrick Air Force Base at Vero Beach Yesterday.

A possible bomb was inspected by the police who were called in by a detectorist who found the suspicious object.  The police called in the bomb unit from Patrick Air Force Base, but they arrived too late as the incoming tide made it impossible for the object to dug up and inspected.  They will try again today at low tide.

The detectorist who originally detected this object sent me the photo and information.   Thanks W. D.

You got it here first.

Always remember that old ordnance could surface on our Treasure Coast beaches anytime.

You might have noticed the low low tides we've been having.  It is because of what has been called an Extreme Super Moon.  Super Moons aren't all that rare.   They occur every year.  Although this one may be one of the nearest in the last seventeen years. 

The closest and biggest full moon of 2012 will be on Saturday, May 5th. That means that high tides will be unusually high and low tides will be unusually low, then and for a few days before and after.

Yesterday I located an object in the low tide zone that I couldn't recover myself.   I dug it up this morning.  Nothing good.

The two to three foot cut that I talked about yesterday turned into a three to four foot cut by this morning. About one more foot of sand disappeared last night.


Here it is immediately below.

And the beach below had was cut even more - five to six foot. 

I'm issuing an upgrade on my Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions Rating Scale to a 2.   That is a minimal two.  Despite the nice looking cuts, they aren't the most productive.  There is just too much sand in front of the cuts.   And the foot of the cut is too high above the water line.

This google blog editor is poor.  

I don't expect the 2 rating to last long.  Seas have decreased since yesterday and will continue to decrease throughout the week.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net