12/29/18 Report - A Couple Finds And a Look At Seagrape/Turtle Trail Area.

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

Seagrape/Turtle Trail Area Friday

Photos by Dale J.

I received these photos from Dale J. who added the following.

Stopped by this afternoon [ Fri.] an hour or so before low tide, part of my education. Turtle Trail looked the same as yesterday.

Seagrape had some shells and what appeared to be some orange sand near water's edge.

Ventusky looks like the next op will be next weekend?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, still learning! Dale J.


Thanks for the photos Dale. Decent looking area to check out.

---

Sterling Silver Ring Found While Looking for Lost Bracelet

Photos and find by Joe d.

Joe D. found the above ring.  He described how it happened.

  

     I haven't posted, or detected much this year! Been a little busy with family matters! Nevertheless, Happy Holidays!

 

   I did get out to Juno Beach the other day to search for my nephews gold bracelet that he unwisely wore there while playing football the day before!   Unfortunately it was peak tide with large waves and i was unable to find it! 

   But the beach gave back a nice consolation prize that i gave to him! Not gold, but it works! 

Keep up the good work, and Happy New Year!               

                      Joe D.

That is a nice sterling ring with maker's mark.  A little research will reveal the maker.  The ring will be worth more than the silver value.  If someone looks finds it, I'd like to hear more about the designer.

And that is one way things are often lost - by young people playing sports without removing jewelry. As I've said in the past, check beach volleyball courts. I once told about the various areas where things are most often found on volleyball courts.

Also you can tell where people have been running around playing football by the roughed up sand.  Always worth a look.

I also mentioned in the past how you will frequently find something else when looking for a specific lost item.  If one person lost something in an area, others probably have too.

---

Old Encrusted Treasure Coast Find

Find and photo by Steve of St. Louis

I received the above picture and following email message from Steve.  Here is what he said.

My wife and I found this on the beach this morning in Indian River Shores and think it may be a flintlock pistol. I have it in a bucket of water and am trying to figure out what my best course of action would be to get it to the right people for preservation. Are you able to point me in the right direction? 

I told him to take it to the McClarty Museum and have them take a look at it.

---

The tides are more moderate now and the surf is slacking off.  Not much exciting for the next few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/24/18 Report - Various Shipwreck Finds From the Treasure Coast. Slave Ship. Bigger Surf Coming Soon.

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

Finds and photo by Terry S.

I received the find pictures and the following message from TerryS.  Terry said,  While out there detecting we often find things that we need to research to determine what it is that we just found. These items often look old and of course the first thing we wonder is if is from the 1715 Spanish Plate fleet. They could be valuable or of no value but if you have a metal detector and it looks old it’s neat and research is half the fun.

Finds by JP

Terry continued, These are some items that JP found.  A large bronze ships spike, a brass fastener of some sort and a small silver half reale coin. The second picture is really neat and we thought it may be the butt of a pistol. I took it to the coin show at Vero and two experts said it was a pistol butt. The third expert I showed it to said it’s behind the handle of a sword and holds a spike used in close in fighting. He said he was pretty sure because he had found a sword that had a piece just like this one. Apparently research is never an exact science but I tend to believe the sword theory.

Found by JP.

This is a bent ornate key and DB showed it to an expert treasure diver and he said that it’s from the 1715 fleet. It really would be nice to find the treasure box that this key opened. It probably opened a box that held some wealthy ladies jewelry and I know right where DB found it.

Bent Ornate Key Found by DB.

Congratulations guys!  Thanks for sharing.

More tomorrow.

---

Gulf Coast Wreck Could Be Last U. S. Slave Ship.  Below is the link for more about that.

http://www.columbian.com/news/2018/jan/23/report-gulf-coast-wreck-could-be-last-u-s-slave-ship/

---

The surf predictions from MagicSeaWeed show a four to seven foot surf for the Fort Pierce area by on Friday.  That has held up pretty good.  They may have improved their prediction models.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/28/14 Report - Million Dollar Eight Reale? Christobal & Three Disturbances. Battle of Blair Mountain. Error State Quarters.

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

Million Dollar Coin?
Source of photo: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=9a501b2f-1cb3-4254-b702-c38b9ca8b983&c=116708e0-3539-11e3-b96a-d4ae52844279&ch=12520520-3539-11e3-ba6f-d4ae52844279

 

Is this a million dollar coin?  We'll find out this November when it is auctioned by Sedwick Coins in Orlando.

The auction estimate is $500,000 to $1,000,000.

Minted in Mexico in 1538, this 8 reale was found on a shipwreck in the 1990s.  This is one of three known to exist and is considered to be the first dollar-sized coin minted in the New World.  This is the first time it will be offered publicly.

Here is the link for more information.

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=9a501b2f-1cb3-4254-b702-c38b9ca8b983&c=116708e0-3539-11e3-b96a-d4ae52844279&ch=12520520-3539-11e3-ba6f-d4ae52844279

Three Disturbances and Christobal
Source: www.nhc.noaa.gov

We're certainly seeing more activity in the Atlantic.  Christobal is headed towards Iceland.  One disturbance passed over the West Indies and is heading towards the Gulf.  One is sitting over the Southern coast of Texas, and one is just about to leave Africa.

Padre Island is getting four to six foot waves, building to overhead today.

The 2014 Outer Banks Pro (surfing competition) started Wednesday because the waves were coming in at the head high to overhead range.  

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to pop down on any beach at any time you wanted? 

On the Treasure Coast, if that is where you are, this is the last day of 3 - 5 foot surf.  This weekend it will slack off and get back to a 1 - 2 foot surf.  At least that will give you a chance to get out a little farther where the waves were hitting the past few days.

I'm curious about the path of these next two potential storms.

Source: archive.archeology.org link.

Here is a pistol from the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain. 

Detectorists helped to locate the position of skirmishes by locating concentrations of bullets and shells.  I don't remember that being mentioned in the article, but maybe it was.  It has been a while since I read the article.

The following link provides a good article on the effort to save the mountain as a historic site, ironically, from mining operations.

http://archive.archaeology.org/1201/features/blair_mountain_coal_activism_west_virginia.html


Coin errors are out there and they can make a big difference in the value of a coin.  I've found a few while detecting.  There are so many possible die errors that it can be difficult to know what to look for.

There are a lot of mint errors on the state quarters.  Here is one article showing a lot of the easily noticed errors as well as a few of the more difficult to detect errors.

http://koinpro.tripod.com/Articles/finding_states_quarters_errorsa_.htm

Source: www.koinpro.tripod.com link above.

Some of these errors make the quarter worth hundreds of dollars.  That is something you won't want to miss.

For example, this 1999-P Pennsylvania state quarter shows the faint image of the opposite side of the coin on both sides.  This quarter is worth about $700.

It is easy to let some good treasures go simply because you don't know about them. 

It can be worth taking a good look at your coin finds and doing some research.







And here is a another web site showing some more difficult to detect errors found on state quarters.  Some of these you really have to know about or you would never notice them.  For example on one you need to know how many trees there are supposed to be.

http://www.blifaloo.com/info/more-rare-coins.php

Have some fun hunting error coins.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

1/26/2011 Report - Flint Pocket Pistol Found on Treasure Coast & Charles II Half Reales

Treasure Coast Beach Metal Detector Find by Mike H. in 2009.

Mike, who submitted the photo said, "...included is a picture of a very small flint model pocket pistol, the rivets are still visible. I found this near turtle crossing north of Vero Beach."

That is an interesting find. Mike coated the pistol with Rust-oleum Clear Coat to preserve it and that accounts for the shiny appearance in the photo.

That is one interesting find. Congratulations Mike!


Yesterday I posted pictures of stylized Charles and Philip monograms as they would appear on half reales form the 1715 Fleet.

The design for many half reales of the period included a date. Due to the small size and irregular shape of half reales, the date is often not found. There are other clues help you narrow down the date though.

On the Charles II Mexican half reales, if you can see anything to the left of the monogram, you might see the mint mark and assayers initial, which would be an O over an M over a G. The OM is the mint mark (Mexico) and the G is the assayer's initial.

Mexican Charles II Half Reale Found on 1715 Fleet Beach.

On this example, I think you can see most of the assayer's initial (G) to the left of the monogram. And perhaps the "R" inside the "C" of the monogram. From the examples I've seen, the left side of the "A" in the monogram is more slanted than what you see on the Lima and Potosi minted half reales, which would also have the last three digits of the year directly under the Charles monogram.

On the Charles II half reale that I showed yesterday you couldn't see to the left of the monogram and therefore couldn't see any of the mint mark or assayer's initial.

Anyone who studies cobs knows that it is a vast field. There are so many variations and minor details that can be significant.

For example, one thing that will help you distinguish between Lima and Potosi half reales is that on the Lima Charles II half reales the circle around the monogram is composed of more circular or round dots while those on the Potosi half reale of the same period is composed of more comma-shaped dots.

I like to learn what I can about dug cobs, but it is really a bit overwhelming.


A nine-year-old stopped his grandfather from throwing away a Neolithic axhead. The grandfather was throwing stones for the dog when the boy recognized the flint tool.

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/news/Scout-s-honour-Neolithic-discovery/article-3115412-detail/article.html

I'm sure that a lot of you have discarded very nice finds. I've done it myself. That is why I say to keep anything that might be questionable until you get a positive identification.

Forecast and Conditions.

The low tide this morning was lower than usual. I was able to search out further than usual but still couldn't dig up that one object I've been working on.

Although conditions are still poor for finding shipwreck coins, the low tide area might turn up some artifacts. I dug some iron objects that were obviously old, but encrusted and unidentifiable.

One area that was cut very nicely a couple of weeks ago and yielded a number of gold items as well as coins was cutting again, but was not back down to the productive layers yet. That could happen if the same area keeps eroding.

There are a lot of scalloped areas out there, but they are so high on the beach and in such sandy areas that I don't think you'll find them very productive.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/16 Report - Pistol Found on Site of 18th Century Wreck Near St. Augustine

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

It has really filled in again. It looks as bad as it did back in August.

On the other hand I did find some washed out spots this morning. One is shown in the other photo.

I picked up a few interesting things today. I'll show some of them some time.

Despite a few spots that did improve over the weekend, the high seas this weekend generally didn't help much as you can see from the first photo.

I'd give a beach conditions rating today of a minimal two (on my five point scale) for today, most likely dropping back to a 1 (poor) in a day or so.

Washout.

There have been a few mystery items popping up in a few select spots lately. The photo below shows one.

I don't know what metal this is. Unfortunately I am out of silver test acid. I don't think it is silver anyhow though.

It is very heavy, maybe lead or bronze, appears harder than silver, about four inches across, and over a quarter inch thick. If anyone has any ideas, I'd sure like to hear what you think about this item.



Strange Heavy Metal Disk Find.

I talked about encrusted lumps just a few days ago. Today I ran across an article describing a concretion found on the site of an 18th Century shipwreck off of St. Augustine. When the MRI was done on the lump, it was found that the concretion contained an ornate pistol.

Archaeologists will now work to free the pistol from the encrustation. That effort could take up to two years.

Here is the link to that story.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-11-13/story/st-augustine-team-finds-gun-amid-shipwreck

Forecast and Conditions.

The seas will be backing off this week and remaining relatively calm for the rest of the week. That will give you a chance to check the low tide areas to see if anything was left behind that you couldn't get at during the rough seas.

I'd also check for any washouts that haven't been thoroughly detected yet.

As I said, I'm giving a minimal two rating for now, which will probably drop back to a one in a few days.


Here are photos from 11/13 sent in by Tom Guidus of Wreckovery Salvage. Unfortunately I've been busy and I didn't get my emails soon enough to get these posted on a more timely basis. You can see that the water got pretty high down there. Maybe they actually did better than us last weekend.



The first photo is from Jupiter. Notice how high the water got.

The second is from Juno.

Tom sent a number of nice photos and a video.



I wish I got to these sooner.





Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net