12/30/18 Report - Nailed Old Coin Find. Ranking the Top Posts of 2018.

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

Coin With Nail Through It.

Photo by NumisRob clipped from CoinCommunity.com.

I saw this coin impaled by a nail posted by NumisRob on CoinCommunity.com.  It was found by a metal detector in a farm field.

The coin is a 1920 UK Florin.  It is 50% silver.

One of my recurrent topics is the difficulty of interpreting isolated finds.  When you have an item and you don't know its purpose, here are four categories to consider - utilitarian,  recreational, political, and superstition or religious.

I think archaeologists too often use the recreational and religious categories when they don't know what an item might be.  I've seen many items called "game piece" when there is very little evidence to support that conclusion.

Starting with the utilitarian category, how could this item [possibly be used?  Could it be a type of washer meant to hold something in place?

Political?  Maybe someone was showing their contempt for King George when they drove a nail through his likeness.

Superstition? Maybe it was mounted it for good luck or something.  A little reading might turn up something like that.

Recreational?  Maybe a spinner, top or toy of some sort.

What do you think?  Any good ideas?

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Today I'll go over the top-ten most-read posts of the year.

The most read post of the year I mentioned the other day.  It is the April report giving the names of Florida congressmen to contact regarding proposed legislation that was thought to restrict beach access in Florida.

1. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/04/4518-report-who-to-contact-concerning.html

The second most read post of the year was posted in April.  It is about experimenting with your metal detector to get to know it better.  In this experiment three different one-cent coins were used.  The
reason for the different read-outs for the three different coins was discussed.

This was an instructional post, and I'm glad it was so well received.

2. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/03/31018-report-experimenting-to-learn.html



Third on the list is a January report about the Palm Beach beaches being severely eroded, and also about finding shipwrecks using Google Earth.

3. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/11218-report-palm-beach-beaches-low.html



Seven of the ten most read posts of the year were posted in January.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  First, beach conditions were better then, and people were detecting a lot, and good finds were being made.  Earlier posts have an unfair advantage because people continue to read old posts as long as they are available, which makes it very difficult for newer posts to have as many readers.


The fourth most read post was posted on January 21.  It showed the several shipwreck finds, including among other things, an ornate silver cross and reales.

4. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12118-report-ready-to-be-excited-first.html



The fifth most read post was posted on January 23.  It showed another Spanish reale find and some reflection on metal detecting back a few decades ago when I was in South Florida.

5.  https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12218-report-another-2018-cob.html



Sixth was the January 11 post, which discussed one man's success with sifting for silver coins.  It also presented some other finds, including a spike and old bottle.

The posts on sifting, including this one, provides some very good information on a alternative technique that can be extremely effective.  There are times when it is more effective than metal detecting.

6.  https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/11118-report-finds-sight-and-otherwise.html



The seventh most read post of the year was another January post.  This post reported on another very old looking silver cross and a modern gold chain.

7.  https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12818-report-mystery-object-and-other.html



Eighth was a post about what the beaches and detectorists were doing.

8.  https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12718-report-what-beaches-and.html




The ninth most read was about an unusual pendant that looked like it could be a reale with loop attached.  Also s modern dive-watch find.

9. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/12518-report-treasure-coinpendant-find.html



And rounding out the top ten most-read posts of 2018 was a post about one man's winning ways at the Treasure Coast Archaeological Society Annual Hunt.

10. https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2018/03/31118-report-one-mans-winning.html



To sum it up, it was a good year and good finds were made, but it was not one of the better years for beach detecting.  

Many of the most interesting beach finds were made in January.   As I've said before, January and February are often the best beach metal detecting months.  October through March is generally much better than the other months.  Good hunting can occur in any month, but we often get some of the best beach hunting in January and February.

For me personally, I didn't get to do much beach hunting at all this year.  That was due to a variety of factors, but I did mange to come up with some nice cache finds.  

As I said, most of the top posts were posted in January, both because the conditions were good then, but also because the early months have the advantage of being available to readers for a longer period of time.

It took me quite a while to look through the stats to determine the most read posts.  Maybe some of those that did not show up in the list because they were posted late in the year will get more viewers in the future.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/26/15 Report - Pierced or "Holed" Coins: Characteristics and Uses. Slight Beach Improvement. Sea Glass Again.

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

Pot Shard and Sea Glass Incidental Finds

Here are a couple beach finds from this morning, They were eye-balled while detecting near low tide.  The blue sea glass is well tumbled and has a nice elongated teardrop shape.


Before I get into my main topic for today, I wanted to mention that the high tides lately has done some good, but not enough for me to  change my Treasure Beaches Detecting Conditions Rating.

I should also say that I would bet that there will be a few small cobs found.  I suspect they will be very few and very small.  The high tides have been dropping shells near the high tide mark on some beaches.

There are some shells and pieces of fossils on a few beaches now.  More than I've seen in quite a while.

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If you've dug many coins you've probably found some that were "holed" or "pierced."  Over the years I've found everything from holed pennies to holed reales.  Probably most common in my experience are holed wheat cents.

You might have noticed the holed large cent in yesterday's post.  I pointed out the hole in one of the large cents dug by GoldNugget.

Holed coins are thought to have served a variety of purposes.  For slaves, it is said that holed coins were worn on a cord around the neck and served as a type of wedding band.

Holed coins may also have been used as charms.  You've probably heard of lucky pennies.  Some people wear coins bearing their birth year or other important years.

Some holed coins are simply used as a nice shiny trinket or adornment.

One coin found by archaeologists was punched multiple times and may have been used as a button.

Coins bearing two holes, one on each side, may have been strung together as bracelets or necklaces.

It is also said that coins were sometimes pierced to be sewn into clothing to prevent loss.

The practice of piercing coins may have been replaced to some extent  by the practice of mounting coins in a bezel.

One study looked at hundreds of "holed" coins offered on eBay.  Most had one hole, were holded at the top of the obverse (side bearing the main design) as if holed for hanging, and the majority were from the mid 1800s.

I think this survey of auction coins is great, but on a site like eBay, you never know how many might be copies, fakes or simply misrepresented.  Still, I think this survey is a good start.

The title of that study is Pierced Coins: Insights From eBay, by William B. Lees and Monica L. Beck of the University of West Florida.

Here is the link.  http://uwf.edu/wlees/SEAC2007.pdf

Here is something interesting on the subject found at another web site.

Based on my study of old coins excavated in Virginia, on average about eight per cent of the older coins have holes. Almost all are holed near the rim. Coins holed at center are unusual to dig. I understand coins used in West African rituals to be holed at the center and buried at the corner of structures. The tradition served to help spirits who could recognize objects they possessed in life, to find their way back to visit their living relatives when taken away from familiar surroundings...

That came from the following linked site.

http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v14n26a07.html

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Beach Near Low Tide Yesterday.

This particular beach has about twenty yards of flat sand out in the shallow water.  That sand came from the beach, which is now rather firm.  I chose to detect this beach rather than the steeper one with shells at the high tide mark.  This one had shells down near the water line.

We have a full moon tonight and will have another good high tide.  The surf will be increasing up to five feet in a couple of days, and the longer range prediction is for nine feet.  I can't get excited about the nine feet yet, because the long range predictions are not very accurate.

Nonetheless, it does look like we'll have some continued improvement in beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net