10/18/17 Report - Gold 1715 Fleet Beach Find From Irma Plus Diamond Ring Find. Worn Silver Coin Find.

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

Gold 1715 Fleet Beach Find.
Find and photo by Ken A.

OK, so you wanted to see the gold finds that were reported after Hurricane Irma. I have one to show you today.

You might remember the poll I conducted towards the end of September to find out what was found that month.  I showed a lot of musket ball finds, but not any of the gold finds that were reported at the time. I am now finally able to show you one of those. You can see it above.
Now that is what I call a really super find!  But that isn't all Ken found.

Here is what Ken told me.

Hi my name is Ken A. I recently recovered a piece of rolled gold from a wreck site beach. It is .8 grams and you can see if has been in the surf for a long time. It tested at 21kt. I also dug the same day a beautiful Platinum and Diamond ring not far from the gold find. It contains around 2ct. Was a awesome day. These were located 2 days after Hurricane Irma.
Thanks for sharing Ken.  Great finds!

Here is the platinum diamond ring found by Ken on the same day as the gold.

Platinum Diamond Ring
Find and photo by Ken A.

---

Here is a find from just a couple days ago.

Heavily Corroded Silver Coin Find.
Find and photo by Sherry Y.

Sherry Y said, I was metal detecting at   - - -   today and a found this round disc about 6 inches down in wet sand.  It is silver.  The yellow coin is a trashed US dime for size comparison.  I'm pretty sure it is or was a coin as there is a date that is almost readable.  I don't want to get my hopes up, but it looks like a 1722 or 1724.  Only one side has any detail left whatsoever.  The other side is completely worn smooth.,,


In a follow-up email she said, I tested it, and it is silver. I was using my Garrett Infinium, so no ID number. It was totally black when dug out of the sand.  I probably shouldn't have, but I did clean it with silver jewelry polish and a soft cloth.  I figured it was already toasted anyway and I thought it was a trashed silver dime until I did a size comparison. The color cast on the photo is misleading.  It is actually a flat dull gray color.  I could probably get it shiny, but I don't want to damage it any more.  

  It reminds me of a penny I dug a few weeks ago after the hurricane.  Almost paper thin and totally smooth on both sides.  But it was penny sized and copper, so I figured that's what it was...

Thanks for Sherring Sherry.  Keep it up.  Who knows what will pop out of that hole next.

A find like that tells you that there might be something else old there.  Keep checking that spot.

Be alert for spots like that.  We are having something like a three to five foot surf on the Treasure Coast but the swell is very much from the north.  That is something we didn't get when the surf was big this year.  That could open up some spots.

I haven't been able to get out to check lately. I had a family member in the hospital and had to take care of things.

The surf will be up around six feet towards the end of this week.

Its always good to get a look at some new 1715  gold.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/1/14 Report - New Tropical Storm in Atlantic. Diving Near The Wedge Wreck. Detecting a Treasure Coast Beach Today.

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

Diving North of Fort Pierce Inlet This Morning.

We have a new tropical storm heading this way.   Bertha is the second named storm of the season.  At present it doesn't look like it will be much more than a tropical storm and is supposed to pass well east of us.  They do a good job of predicting anymore, but there is always the possibility of some error.  I'll be keeping an eye on Bertha anyhow.

On the Treasure Coast we'll have a one-foot surf today, and then we'll have a one to two-foot surf for about a week.  So if the current predictions are accurate, Bertha won't affect us much.



Beach This Morning Near Low Tide.



This is the kind of thing we've been having nearly all summer this year.

On this beach a very fine compact layer of powder-like sand goes all the way to the dry sand.  Wasn't easy to dig deeper holes.  Really compact stuff.

I detected the area below the high-tide line.  This beach usually has a lot of pull tabs.   From the high tide line to the water this morning, there were NO pull tabs.  Only a good number of coins and couple rings and a fork.   That was very unusual.  I had to wonder what happened to all the pull tabs and bottle tops that are usually all over this beach.  There were still bottle tops in the dry sand, but the pull tabs were not there.

I took a Whites \Surf PI Dual Field detector this morning.  It turned out to be a good choice this morning -  no junk in the wet sand, but a good number of coins.  Except for one spill, most of the coins were down about six inches or so.

I have worked this beach in the past with an Excalibur.  I would have given the Ace a test in the wet sand, but I don't like to take two detectors to the beach in the summer.  It is too hot to leave a detector in the car.  That isn't really a good idea anyhow.  Don't leave anything of value in the car.

It is a good idea to check your detector before you leave home.  It can be a pain to get to the beach and find out that something is wrong.  It is also a good idea to have some spare batteries.

I really like to be able to switch detectors depending upon conditions. 

In the wet sand there were ripples and some black sand scattered about.  Again, I think the choice of detectors was a particularly good one today considering the conditions.

I got word of a platinum and diamond ring being lost a couple of days ago.  Things are always being lost.  I'll look for it.

The two rings I found were about six inches apart.

It seems that most beaches have one spot that is better than the others.  This one definitely does.


If you missed yesterday's post, you'll want to be sure to see that.


You have until August 20 to consign to the Nov. 5-6 Sedwick Coins auction.

Here is the link for more information.

http://www.sedwickcoins.com/consign.htm


And here is the projected path for Bertha according to NOAA.

 

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

3/24/14 How To Detect Fake Bullion Coins, Another Gold Ring & 18th Century Spanish Colonial Platinum

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

Gold Diamond and Pearl Ring.

As I've been showing, there are some holes that continue to produce gold along the Treasure Coast.  Old finds on the beach are rare now though.  This ring came from one hole that has been producing on a regular basis.

Today was a good day to get down low on the beach.



Whether you have found or bought bullion coins you should know that for bullion coins, like virtually everything else of value, there are fakes or counterfeits.  I found the following linked web site for bullion coin collectors that makes a clear distinction between fakes and copies.  According to their definitions, fakes are made of the wrong metal while copies are made of the correct metals.

A fake silver bullion coin, for example, might be made of silver-plated copper, while a copy of the same coin would be made of he correct purity of silver.

Copies are therefor made when the value of the coin is considerable greater than its melt value, such as with rare coins.

Here is the link to that article.  http://rscott.org/bullion/counter.htm

The article also explains that gold and platinum are very dense metals, and fake bullion coins are usually made of lighter metals, therefore the fake coin will usually be either too light or too big.  That makes it fairly easy to detect fake gold or platinum bullion coins.

Here is a list of some known fake bullion coins as described in the above linked article.

Silver Pandas. Around 2005, fake pandas started being distributed, apparently from China, and apparently made out of silver-plated copper.

2002 1/10 oz platinum eagle. This fake coin was made of a copper-colored alloy, with a white platinum colored coating, and is lighter than a genuine coin (2.13g versus 3.112g).  

Canadian Maples. There are likely many counterfeit Canadian maples, probably all fakes (wrong metal), but most likely all the 1oz size.

Krugerrands. There are likely many counterfeit Krugerrands, probably all fakes (wrong metal), but most likely all the 1oz size.

1994 Australian Nuggets/Koalas. These are actually replicas that were created for Monex to show what the coins look like. They appear nearly identical to the genuine coin (even the hard plastic holder is nearly identical), except the reverse is blank. It is believed that only 1 oz and larger (10 oz and 1 kilogram) sizes were made.


There is a device that will help you check bullion coins such as those listed above.  It is called a "Fische."   Here is a link where you can learn more about that.

http://www.thefisch.com/index.html?content=home



If you've been reading this blog you know that I recently discovered a series journal articles that describes what appears to be the earliest discovery and refinement of platinum.  Documentation from the Archives of the Indies talks about early attempts to separate and refine platinum at the Bogota mint by assayer Sanchez in the first third of the 18th Century.

At first platinum was considered nothing other than a nuisance.  However before long they had learned to refine platinum into a malleable form and were able to manufacture items made of platinum.  Apparently the first refinement of platinum was actually an alloy.

One of the first "uses" of platinum was to debase gold and cobs.  It was easier to overlook some of the inexpensive metal than to remove it.

Those who had learned how to work platinum were told not to disclose their methods.   The king wanted Spain to have a monopoly on the new noble metal.

The king wanted platinum to be shipped to Spain but tried to keep the desirability of the metal from being discovered so that he could get it cheaply.  However, miners and others got the idea that it might have value since the king was not only wanting it but was willing to pay for this metal that was previously being tossed into the river or otherwise discarded.  They illegally stockpiled the metal and the price increased.

Several orders of platinum were requested and sent to Spain via Cartegena during the 18th Century.  The first documented official shipment was in January of 1766.  Some was shipped earlier.

Treasure clues can be found in this literature, including shipments, storage and disposal of the metal.  Specific locations are mentioned where platinum was dumped into rivers or valleys.

Below is a paragraph that illustrates the kinds of things you can learn from the historical articles published in various issues of Platinum Metals Review.

The success Chabaneau had achieved in producing malleable platinum in some quantity immediately prompted the Spanish government to order the Viceroy of New Granada - now Antonio Caballero y Gongora - to collect all the platinum he could obtain while keeping its new value a secret. About 150 pounds of native metal were shipped to Spain, this time the miners being paid two or three reales
a pound. Further shipments necessitated the price being raised to four reales a pound, and the authorities in Madrid recommended the importation of many more negro slaves to work the deposits and approved a scheme for the importa­tion of tools for sale to the workers in the hope of increasing output. In 1788 it was decreed that platinum was to be sold only to the crown and penalties were established for anyone detected in hoarding the metal. By the end of that year more than three thousand pounds of platinum had been despatched from the Chocó to Cartagena for shipment to Spain, but great quantities were still smuggled out.

And here is the link to one of a number of articles that I have found in the journal on the subject of early platinum separation and refinement in 18th Century.

http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/pdf/pmr-v38-i3-126-133.pdf

It is known that by the mid-18th century a few articles had been made of platinum.  I also feel rather certain that platinum could be found in gold coming from Bogota, some of it included unintentionally and some unintentionally.


The surf on the Treasure Coast is down around two feet today.  The tide is fairly flat.  The surf will be increasing tomorrow to up around three of four feet and staying that way for a while.

The wind seems mixed.  It will be from the North now and then but only for short times.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/22/14 - Bogota Mint Platinum In The 18th Century & Gold Religious Medallion Beach Find

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

14K Religious Medallion Find From The Treasure Coast

With the nice weather and the large number of tourists this year, there are a good number of modern jewelry items being lost and found on the swimming beaches even on the Treasure Coast.

Here is one new find.




It is easy to make a mistake by throwing something away before you really know enough about it.  I know because I made a number of mistakes like that in the past.  Unfortunately we often learn our lesson when it is too late.  We can keep learning though and cut down on the number of mistakes we make in the future. 

A few posts ago I showed some very small and very heavy lumps of metal that were detected on a wreck beach back a week or so ago when it was cut.  I know that a lot of people would quickly dismiss those small beads of material.  I can understand that, and the beads are probably not anything of interest, but due to the fact that I don't know exactly what they are yet, my curiosity is more than enough for me to hold onto them for a while.  I'll test them more thoroughly later. 

I haven't bothered to run many tests on them yet, partly because I'm out of some of my acids.  There is no harm in waiting anyhow.  I've learned that there is no harm in holding onto something that is probably nothing important.  If nothing else, the presence of items like that often leads to research and learning.  That has already been the case with these items even though they are most likely nothing very interesting. 
.
I ran across an interesting article last night that could possibly be remotely relevant.   It is an article published in Platinum Metals Review, 1992, 36, (I), 40-47, which discusses a manuscript written by an assayer at the Bogota mint dealing with platinum and its separation from gold and its refinement.

Here is the link to that article.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=platinum+in+the+18th+century&form=IE10TR&src=IE10TR&pc=CPNTDFJS

And here is the abstract of that article.

It is generally accepted that the first description of “platina” to appear in Europe was by a young Spanish naval officer, Antonio de Ulloa, whose famous work “Relacibn del Viaje a la America Meridional” was publishedin 1748. Important though this was, of even greater significance was the fact that the primary metallurgy of platinum must have been established much earlier, enabling it to be extracted, purified and manufactured. These processes appear to have been kept secret from

other European countries, and until recently their details had not been  deduced. Now manuscripts discovered in the Colombian Archives enable known methods of purification to be linked to the description of the primitive manufacturing process.

So it turns out that some of the earliest work, if not the first metallurgical work with platinum was conducted at the Casa de la Moneda de Santa Fe de Bogota.

Platinum for some time was thought to be little more than a waste product to be removed from gold, but later it was separated and used itself to construct items.

Jose Sanchez de la Torre y Armas was the assayer at the Bogota mint from January 1722 to 1732 and wrote extensively on the refinement and use of platinum.  It appears that much of what he wrote was known well before the time that he wrote it down.

More from the same article.

In the light of present knowledge, we consider that the platinum obtained by Sanchez would have been practically pure, although it is certain that his objective would have been the separation of platinum from the gold, rather than the refining of the platinum. Sanchez states that he produced calcined platinum and platinum grains, in which state the platinum could be readily hot-forged.

Notice the use of the word "grains."
\
 Assayer Sanchez wrote an explanation of a few says that platinum could be separated and the costs associated with the different methods.

Here is another paragraph from the article.

Of even greater importance is the fact that fabricated platinum articles existed in the first third of the Eighteenth Century, necessitating a refining or purification process and, in the absence of the means to melt it, a hot-pressing or sintering process that enabled the platinum to be worked subsequently.

So sometime in the first third of the 18th century, platinum that was mined with gold was separated and refined and actually used to manufacture things such as medallions, buckles, and even sword handles.

One last little interesting tidbit from the article.

The act of throwing the platinum into the rivers can easily be justified. The cost to the Spanish Crown of the introduction of just 5.4 per cent of platinum into the gold alloy would be the value of ...

Hmmmm.   Throwing platinum into the river!   

So what does all of that mean to us Treasure Coast detectorists.   One of the things that interested me is that items or parts of items were created from platinum early in the 18th Century.

Another thing is that when gold is less than 22k there could be platinum in it.  The heavy cost of removing the platinum provided enough incentive to overlook the "impurity."

And if gold nuggets were transported legally or illegally, is it possible that platinum in one form or another (including forms such as grains) was also intentionally or unintentionally transported with the ore.

Those are a just a few thoughts.  You might dismiss some or all of them quickly.

One thing I know is that the very small beads of heavy metal that I posted the other day will be tested more thoroughly because of what I learned in this article.  I still think they are more than likely lead, but am not ready to dismiss them without testing.

Lead or not, I learned something from the research and the remote possibility that the found beads could possibly be platinum rendered I read more interesting and meaningful to me.  And I learned a little more simply because they were on my mind and influenced my reading.

I did find it difficult to post from such a technical article.  It took a lot of time.  I hope you get something out of it.  I did.


I did a post on modern platinum items in my 6/6/13 post.  You might want to go back and read that.


On the Treasure Coast we now have a little bigger surf.  It is running around four feet and will not change much for several days.

I would expect to find some nice coin holes and modern gold other than recent drops out there during current conditions.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/6/13 Platinum Beach Finds, Tropical Storm Andrea & Tidal Coefficients

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

Platinum Ring Found With
 Metal Detector

Months after being at around $1900 per ounce, gold is now close to $1400.  That is a big drop, even though it is still well above what it was years ago.  Silver finished at $22.55 yesterday and platinum, at $1511.

Years ago platinum was a lot more valuable than gold and then it got to be about the same.  It seems platinum is regaining some of its edge over gold again.

In the photo to the right is a platinum beach find.  Platinum jewelry is not exactly rare, but it is found much less frequently than gold or silver.

So far the poll is showing that the most common favorite find for 2013 is modern jewelry.  It can certainly be worth a lot, especially when you have a quality diamond or something like that.

Platinum looks a good bit like silver and also stainless steel or titanium, all of which are being used in jewelry these days.  There are ways to tell the difference though.

Instead of the common marks that indicate silver or gold, platinum jewelry is usually marked either "PT" or "PLAT" or "PLATINON."

Here are some additional ways to identify platinum.

Check the weight.  Platinum is almost twice the weight of the same amount of silver.  Platinum is also very hard and resistant to scratching.  Like gold, it does not corrode much.

If you put platinum in a spoon and heat it, the spoon will change color but not the platinum.  You can also get acid to test platinum just like the acids you can get to test silver and gold. (I've done a post on acid testing metals some time in the past. You might want to look it up.  One is the May 13, 2010 post.)

You can also use iodine to test platinum.  A drop of iodine on platinum sill dry completely clear, unlike on gold or palladium, which will show streaks of brown or black from the iodine.

If you know your detector very well, you might get a hint from the signal.  On one detector I use, I get a quiet but very stable and smooth signal when I detect platinum.

Hopefully your jewelry will be marked.  As I often tell people, if you have a jewelry item that you can't test or identify, a pawn shop or jewelry store might help with that.


Have any old comic books stored away?  You might want to look them up.

One man almost threw away an old comic book that he found while he was remodeling a home.  It turned out to be Action Comics No. 1 , which introduced Superman in 1938. The copy was damaged but will sell for over $141,000. Watch the bidding or bid yourself at www.comicconnect.com.  The auction ends next Tuesday, June 11, 2013.


It is getting to look like summer.  People have been going to the beach when it isn't raining, which it is supposed to do a good bit through this week.

I'm stills seeing a lot of out-of-state cars on the Treasure Coast.


I just read that the government has been getting all of the phone records on everybody (everybody on that network) from Verizon.  While some banks evidently got to be too big to fail, it seems the government has become too big to succeed.  Power and intrusiveness in government is running wild.



Andrea, the first storm of the season, is in the Gulf and heading towards North Florida.

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/atlantic-depression-storm-one-20130605



I've been learning to better use the tide data.  The tidal coefficients and the size of the high and low tides can be helpful.

A high tidal coefficient, which the tides4fishing charts give for the 6th is 74, a relatively high coefficient.  A high coefficient indicates a high range in the tides.  The high and low tides are more different when you have a high coefficient.

For the 6th, the chart says the high tide will be 2.6 feet, while the low tide is 0.3 at around 1 AM, and -0.3 at the afternoon low tide.  That means the afternoon low tide will be the lower of the two.

I had another way of evaluating that before I learned of the tidal coefficient. What I did was add the absolute numbers of the high and low tide, for example the 2.6 of the high tide and 0.3 (-0.3 with the minus removed) for the low tide, which gives 2.6 + 0.3, which gives 2.9.   When the addition of the high tide and absolute value of the low tide added together came to 3 or more, I considered that to be a large range in the tides.  But the tides4fishing.com charts gives the tidal coefficient so I don't have to do that anymore to get a sense of the range in tides.

Thursday on the Treasure Coast we'll have about a 2 foot surf.  The wind is from the southeast and the surf will be a little less for the next couple of days.

The low tide might be a good time to look around for left-overs down near the waterline.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net