3/30/18 Report - More On The Sifting Compared To Detecting Experiment. Intact Section of 18th Century Wreck Washes Up On Beach. Good Friday!

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

Section of Old Wreck Appears on Beach.
Source: See msn.com link below.

48-foot hull of a well-preserved 18th century vessel dubbed the 'Holy Grail of shipwrecks' washes ashore on Florida beach with copper tacks and roman numeral etchings still intact...

Experts speculate that the wreck may have laid under sand offshore for years, then washed onto the beach due to storm activity, explaining how the ship remained so well preserved...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/48-foot-hull-of-a-well-preserved-18th-century-vessel-dubbed-the-holy-grail-of-shipwrecks-washes-ashore-on-florida-beach-with-copper-tacks-and-roman-numeral-etchings-still-intact/ar-AAvhmGj

If you have the chance to get up there and view this before it is removed or something should definitely do it.  I don't know if it is still there.  But if you do get a chance to look at it, take a close look at all the metallic parts.  It is a good chance to learn something.

Thanks to Dean R. and Bruce B. for alerting me to this story.

When I saw that peat washed up Tuesday, I thought there was also a chance for some old wood to wash up as well.  I was in an area where wood planks have washed up in the past.

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On 3/26 I posted a report by someone who detected a lot several times, recorded all finds, and then sifted the entire lot to find out what if anything he had missed.  The results were amazing, both in the total number of coins found on that small lot, but also the number of old coins found, and what everybody should take notice of is the low number of old coins found as the result of multiple thorough metal detecting sessions despite the large number that was in that ground.  Most people would have detected the site a few times and maybe thought they had found most of the good coins that were there and thought it was time to give up and move on not realizing how many more old coins were waiting for them there.

If you have not read the 3/26 post and the total report of that experiment, I highly recommend that you do that.  If you don't you'll be missing out on proof of what is often said and speculated about in the metal detecting community.

The person who sifted that entire lot offered the following important comments and observations concerning that experiment.

No one was more shocked by the results than me.  I suspected there was more in the ground, but had no idea of the actual amount.  When I started, I did not intend to do [sift] the entire lot, just the areas I thought would be most productive.   However,  I just kept finding more, then decided to finish the job.  

I have a few other comments.  I can't be sure, of course, but I strongly suspect that this lot was never hunted prior to the houses being demolished.  It has nothing to do with the number of finds, but much of the lot was covered in a concrete pad and for many years during the detecting era it was a dangerous area.  This would make the conclusions more valid.

A point I don't think I emphasized enough is the difficulty detecting from the surface.  The first detectorist found 8 silver coins over 2-3 hunts.  I knew there were likely some more silver dimes because he found 3 silver quarters, a silver dollar, and only four dimes.  That is a strange distribution.  I actually briefly hunted the lot before they cleared the house piles and found a couple of clad coins only.  It is just mind-boggling to me, in hindsight, that I found no old coins on my first hunt on a lot with more than 225 in the ground!  When I went back, I found a silver half and silver dime and some wheats, some of which were on the surface.  The second time I found two silver dimes.  Over many hunts before I tried sifting I never found more than 2 silver coins with the detector.  I worked that lot thoroughly and repeatedly with multiple detectors because I strongly suspected there was more there.  I remember being frustrated about it.  So even though 30% of the silver coins were found using a detector, that was after an unusual amount of detecting, including moving at a snail's pace with a small coil and my Safari from different directions.   I feel confident saying that a more common scenario would be for the lot to be detected significantly less before being abandoned in search of greener pastures.  My point is that my detected finds likely overrepresent the percentage of finds that will be found using a detector on a site with heavy trash.

Overall, it was eye-opening for me.  The results were exciting...and daunting.  I now know there are a lot of great finds still to be made, even in well hunted areas, but it might not be easy.

I added the parenthesis and bolding for clarity and emphasis.

Thanks once again to the author of this report.

People are always looking for new unhunted sites.  Many of the old sites still hold more good finds, perhaps more than you would ever imagine.  Realizing how much more might be there is the first step to getting the finds you've been missing.

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As you probably know, Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox.  Yesterday - Thursday - was a full moon, and today is Good Friday, which is the perfect time to talk about crosses.

A couple days ago I showed a silver ring with a cross on it.  Alberto S. found the same ring offered by WalMart.   So it is no Tiffany or anything really old.  I had no idea that it was anything but common modern despite my joking around.

Isn't it remarkable how prevalent the cross is whenever you talk about treasure hunting.  You'll find a cross on most cobs in one form or another, as well as on rings, pendants, and other things.  You can't escape that.  And there is a reason.

Something happened that changed the world, and 2000 years later people still wear and display the sign of the cross.  That in itself is remarkable.  But what people wear is not as important as what is on the inside.

You meet all kinds of people.  There are kind generous people, and then there are grumpy demanding people.  It is the same in metal detecting as it is in the world in general.  I'm glad to say that the readers of this blog, judging from the emails I receive, are almost exclusively of the kind generous type.

Some people can't get along with anybody and they think it is the fault of everybody else.  Some are always seeking and never finding.  They are looking in the wrong place.  Others have found the secret and carry their joy with them no matter what is going on in the world around them.  They are the ones that fill the Easter baskets and scatter the eggs and rejoice everytime one is found.

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The surf will be 3 - 5 feet today and less tomorrow and Sunday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcas.net

11/3/15 Report - Blog Poll Results On Finds Made Last Half Of October.

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

The most recent blog poll has concluded and the results are in.

This poll was conducted in part to validate my beach detecting conditions rating scale.  I upgraded the beach conditions rating to a 2 back in mid-October.

The rating scale is a five point scale that goes from 1 to 5.   A 1 rating indicates poor detecting conditions and a 5 rating indicates excellent beach detecting conditions.

The rating indicates the chances of finding a cob or treasure coin on the Treasure Coast ocean beaches.  The rating scale does not indicate the chances of finding modern items.

Although the rating is for the Treasure Coast in general, different beaches will vary.  It is possible for one Treasure Coast beach to be a "3" while another might be a "1."  Although different beaches will be different, there will generally be some correlation.  When one beach changes, it is likely that others will change in a similar manner.

The poll results are based upon the sample of people who read this blog and responded to the poll.  For this poll, the sample is additionally limited to those who actually detected on the Treasure Coast during the last half of October.  The sample size is therefore smaller than my usual poll.  Not everybody who reads this blog lives close to the Treasure Coast.  Many of those people will not make the trip to detect every time beach conditions improve, especially when conditions do not improve a lot.

Now, to the poll results.  70 people responded to this blog poll.  As I said, that is a smaller sample size than usual,  This poll was only for those who actually detected Treasure Coast beaches during the last half of October.  That excluded those who were not on the Treasure Coast and those who did not have the opportunity to detect the beaches during that period of time.

Of those 70 who did detect the Treasure Coast beaches, about 87% did not find either a treasure coin or artifact.  This was not a highly productive period for detectorists.  It was, however, better than what would be expected when there is a "1" (poor) rating.

The beach conditions looked better than that.  There was a good amount of erosion and fairly large cuts along much (not all) of the Treasure Coast.

I heard of a small number of cob finds that were not reported in the poll.  Evidently a few people who found cobs either do not read this blog or did not respond to the poll.

Among the reports of finds that I received was a half reale found by a lady who did not realize she had a cob in her hand until she was told what it was.  Evidently she does not read this blog or she probably would have been able to recognize the cob.

There are many examples of lucky first timers, including one lady who found an escudo on her first detecting outing.  It happens, but rarely.  For most detectorists it takes a lot of time before they find their first treasure coin.

Two people reported finding cobs in this poll.  One person reported only finding a treasure coin, while another reported finding both a treasure coin and an artifact.  That would be slightly over 1.5 percent.  That is not a high percentage.  Despite all the big cuts and how good conditions looked to the eye, this was indeed a small improvement in actual beach detecting conditions.  I attribute that to two things.  First is the large amount of renourishment sand on many of the Treasure Coast beaches.  The renourishment sand would cover and protect items from washing out from the dunes and older layers of the beach and shallow water.  I also believe that the large amount of sand just in front of the beach was also an obstacle.

I know of one cob that was found, which was found away from the renourishment sand.  I don't know if that was the case for others.

About ten percent of those who responded to the poll reported finding an artifact of some sort.  That is not bad. It appears that there was a much better chance of finding an artifact than a cob.  That is something you might expect when the beaches improve a little.  Some items, such as copper sheathing, china, or pot shards, will tend to appear before cobs.

I don't know what types of artifacts were found, and invite those who found one to let me know by email.  With blogspot, the poll option are very limiting.

One person reported finding both at least one cob and at least one artifact.

I don't know how many cobs or artifacts were found by those who reported finds in the poll.  All I know is that they found at least one.

As I've shown from past polls, if you find one the chances of finding more than one are fairly high.

I would not have been surprised if a few more cobs were found.  As I said, I did receive reports of a few additional cob finds.

Overall, the poll results seem to make sense to me.  They also give me some idea of how accurate my beach ratings are.  There were slightly fewer cobs reported than I expected.  The poll results definitely support the idea that my rating should have been no higher than a "2."  I feel that I gave the right rating, since it seems conditions did improve enough for finds to be made, but there was not enough found to justify a higher rating.

Thanks to all who responded to the blog poll.  I believe this kind of information helps us all.

--

Here is an interesting story about a sudden crack that appeared in the earth in Wyoming.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/10/31/huge-crack-discovered-in-earth-in-wyoming/

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Next week I'll have a post on Native American artifacts found on Treasure Coast beaches.  Some were found by people hunting sea shells.

I also expect to have some more information on heart-shaped cobs.

That is all for today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/21/14 Report - A First Gold Ring Find For One Detectorist. Blog Poll Results Summary.

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

First Gold Ring Found By Dan B.
Photo by Dan B.

Concerning this Masonic gold ring, here is what Dan B. said.  As soon as I did my tests and started pulling tabs out of the ground, I found my first gold ring. Masonic at that! Funny thing was, the back is separated like a kids you ring, due to a previous repair. So I was thrilled to feel some weight.

Did you notice that he said he was digging tabs?

That is a unique ring for a Mason's ring - not one of the standard off-the-shelf varieties.

Great find Dan!  Congratulations on your first!

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The most recent blog poll has concluded and the results are in.  Nearly half of the respondents (47%) indicated that the primary reason they detect is simply because it is fun.  They enjoy it.  What more can you say?  I won't try to break it down to all of the elements that make it fun, but you never know what you might find.  There is always the element of possible surprise and discovery.  And it is nice just being out there on the beach or wherever.

Nearly as many (42%) indicated that uncovering or touching a piece of the past is their biggest reason for detecting.  I suspect that that number is so high because this blog is very much about the Treasure Coast where we have a lot of interesting history and that is what a lot of people shoot for here. 

The third biggest reason selected by this blog's readers is financial.  It was the third highest response but still only 5% selected improving their financial situation as the "biggest" reason for detecting.  Again, that number would probably be higher if the focus of this blog was not the Treasure Coast. 

Something valuable can always pop up and some people make that their primary objective and become quite good at it.  Beach detecting on the Treasure Coast is not the easiest place to be successful if you want to make a living from metal detecting even though it is one of the better places if you have a salvage lease, but it is still not easy. 

There was a time when I hunted to maximize financial gain.  I lived down South then and kept track of how I was doing.  I was between jobs for six months one time and during that time proved to myself that I could make a living at detecting if I had to.  It is not easy, and for me trying to maximize the dollar value took a lot of the fun out of detecting.  I like detecting more for fun rather than doing it as a profession, but if you need or want to and are willing to work really hard, it is possible if you are good at it.  Now I do it more as a hobby and have the freedom to do it at leisure.  I don't have to go for the maximum value in finds and can hunt the things and way that I like, even if it isn't the most profitable. 

The next most frequently selected response (selected by 2% of the sample)  was "intellectual curiosity."  Some people like to figure things out, solve problems and learn.  Of course that can be coupled with some of the other objectives, but it is the primary motivation for some.

Both "social enjoyment" and "helping others" was each selected by one person as the biggest reason they like detecting.  I'd bet that the person who selected "helping others" has enjoyed returning some nice finds to those that lost them.

Well, maybe you found it hard to select one answer out of all the alternatives, but over a hundred people managed to do so.   Here is what Robert H. said is his biggest motivation.  The next best or rare find. I'm really driven to find Spanish treasure. Big catches would be amazing also. So I guess there's lots to it and hard to just name one thing.

I'm sure a lot of us are out there hoping for that rare or big find and never know when it might happen.  I'm sure the suspense of it all is something that adds a lot to the hobby for all of us.  You never know what exciting thing might pop up or when it might happen.  Maybe it will be today or tomorrow, but if you keep at it long enough I'm sure you'll hit something that surprises and excites you.

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I hurt my back yesterday morning trying to recover a big heavy item.  I could barely move at all yesterday but am quickly getting better.  I wanted to remind you to be careful.  Various kinds of injuries can occur while detecting.  I've had a variety myself over the years.

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On the Treasure Coast we're not expecting around a two-foot surf for a few days yet.  We are finally getting some negative tides though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/25/14 Report - Metal Detecting Target Distribution Patterns and Search Strategies - One Excellent Example. Sedwick Auction Results Online.

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



Simplified Illustration of What I Found On One Treasure Coast Beach Saturday.

I mentioned that I found a lot of coins Sunday.  I hunted the slope of the beach from the face of the cut down to the water line.  First I scanned part of the beach for maybe three hundred yards.

The above illustration is not totally accurate but gives a good picture of what it looked like.  First, the coins were found in one area running from close to the toe of the cut down to near the water line well before low tide.  The coins did not appear to go all the way to the water line though.

In the above illustration black dots represent coins.  There are not as many black dots as coins found in the coin hole area that spread about fifty yards along the beach.  The coins were on average about five yards apart. This was not a densely packed coin hole.

The grey dots out to the right represent aluminum targets that were found about a hundred yards or so to the north.  They were up against the toe of the dune in a white shell packed sand which was distinctly different from the sand the coins were found in.

Although there were more coins found than shown, the illustration shows he correct number of dots for the other types of targets dug on that day.

To the South of the coins no targets of any kind were found for a hundred yards or so.

Red dots represent lead finds, and orange represents gold.

I only spent between one and two hours checking this stretch of beach.  I did not cover every inch of the beach.  Some areas were detected much more thoroughly than others.

I first used a very lose search pattern to identify different areas that I would more intensely search.  I try to find the most promising areas where I should spend most of my time.

I quickly hit a few of the coins in the coin hole as I walked along the beach, then nothing as I went north until I hit the aluminum junk area.

I've explained before some of the scan patterns that I use to identify hot spots. The zig zag pattern is one of those.  That is not what I used Saturday.  I simply followed the contour of the beach near the face of the cut at first.  Since I quickly discovered a few coins up near the cut, on the return I went down closer to the water to get an idea of how wide the coin bearing area might be.

Here is an important point.  Look at the illustration.  The black dots represent coins, the grey dots aluminum, the red represents led finds, and the orange iron.  What do you notice about the distribution?   The targets of different metals were grouped without exception.  This was a well developed distribution pattern. 

The coins were not real old, but were not recent drops.  They were all, except one, colored and crusty.

If I was using discrimination, I might not have detected the aluminum or iron targets.  I would have had a less complete picture of what was going on.

The two round lead sinkers helped to identify the lower boundary of the coin hole.

I certainly did not need discrimination in the coin hole because there was no junk in with the coins. The aluminum told me that the area to the north was probably not a good place to waste time, so that information was helpful too.  There is simply too much beach to cover equally and completely, so you need to focus your time and efforts on the most promising spots.

The distribution of targets led me to the most likely location to find gold.  Of course, sometimes the areas aren't so well defined, but in this case the targets were not new and had been well classified and distributed by type.

This illustration shows a number of things and explains why I use some of the techniques that I often talk about.  I can't get into all of them now.

Here is one thing I will advise.  Sample different areas of a beach to try to identify the area where you want to focus your efforts.  Don't use discrimination, especially at first, until you get some idea of any distribution pattern. 

Distribution patterns are not random below the high tide line.  This particular example is a very well developed pattern and makes an excellent illustration.

I probably spent about eighty percent or more of my time in the area of the coin hole.  It was located quickly.

-------------------

You can go back and look at the completed Sedwick Coins auction catalog on the icollector site to see what prices were realized by the various lots.

Here is the link.

http://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Treasure-and-World-Coin-Auction-16_as34049

Sedwick also sent me an email to say that new items were added to their online store.

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Don't expect any Thanksgiving storm this year.  The surf Thursday will be calm.  

They are predicting a bump in the surf out another week, but the long range predictions are not very accurate.


Happy Hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

8/30/14 Report - Silver Cobs Metal Detector Test Continued With Results. Quartz Crystal Pendant.

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

Silver Quartz Crystal Pendant

Here is a beach find.  Oxidized silver and quartz with a tigers eye.

Notice the phantom in the quartz. 

I don't know how old it might be.


Now I'm going to pick up today where I left off yesterday.  I'm going to show you something new that might surprise you.  It also shows how specific you have to be about detector tests, particularly the types of targets you are interested in and the environments they are used in.  A number of factors have to be considered when selecting a detector for a particular job.

A lot of people seem to accept what they hear or accept the results of simple tests on clad coins that actually leave out a lot of important factors.  They think if detector A is a good detector or has a good reputation it is the detector to use.  The fact is, as I'll show today, it is much more complicated.  And as I showed yesterday, there are situations when an inexpensive detector will actually do a better job than a highly regarded more expensive detector.  The basic questions are, what do you want to find and where are you going to hunt.  I say those are basic questions, but to answer them well involves more factors than you might think.

If you haven't read yesterday's post yet, I recommend that you do that before continuing.

Here are the same small beach cobs that I used for the tests that I reported on yesterday.  The one on the left weighs about 0.4 grams, the next 0.5 grams, the next 0.6 grams, and the next 2.0 grams.  I will refer to these cobs going left to right as 1 - 4.



Four Treasure Coast 1715 Fleet Beach Cobs.  Three Half-Reales and One 1-Reale.

Yesterday I tested these in a high EMI environment using the Ace 250.  Today I'll report on my results using an Excalibur.

I used both discrimination mode and pinpoint mode for all my Excalibur tests.

Which cob do you think consistently produced the best (loudest and clearest) signal?  It was cob 3.  You might expect it to be cob 4.  I did.   But cob three consistently produced a signal that was a loud and distinct, and a slight bit better than cob 4.  That was true on many attempts varying the sweep speed, and sweeping at different directions.

Tests were done with the coil at the approximate same height over the cobs, and also at different heights to give a rough measure of depth.  By varying the height of the coil I essentially did a type of air test but with a sugar sand background and relatively high EMI environment.

In case you wondered, signal loudness and distinctness correlated with air-test depth.  In other words, cobs that produced a fainter signal when the coil was at the same height for all cobs, were detected only at smaller distances from the coil.  Those cobs that produced louder more distinct signals were detected at greater heights when the coil was raised.  So relative signal strength, as you might have suspected, is a decent (not perfect) measure of how deep a target would be detected.  That makes sense, but the test results did strongly support that conclusion.

Now the question is why did cob three, even though smaller by weight and presenting less surface area produce a louder signal.   I do not yet know.   Yesterday I suggested that one possibility could be different alloys or composition of the silver.  We know that the composition of cobs was regulated,  but we also know that there were some differences.

Surprisingly, cob 1 consistently produced a more distinct signal than cob 2 despite its smaller surface area.  It is thicker.  All other cobs produced better signals than cob 2 without exception.

Another reason could possibly be the ground under the cobs, but I changed where I did the tests and the results were the same.

The results did not change when I switched from discrimination to pin point mode. 

I often hunt in pin point or all metals mode.

Ordered by signal strength, it was cob 3, 4, 1 and last, 2.

Being in a high EMI environment, I varied my sensitivity.  I actually got slightly better signals with reduced sensitivity. 

Some people are afraid to reduce sensitivity.  I seldom reduce sensitivity and am accustomed to identifying signals in noise, but there are times to do it.

I always recommend testing your detector and settings with the type of target that you want to find and in the environment that you will be hunting before beginning to hunt.  I think these tests support that recommendation.  Things are not always simple, and if you want to optimize your detector and settings, do it in the environment and with the most desired targets.

When selecting a test target, Id select a smaller test target.  Generally if you are set for the smalls, you will find the larger targets too, whereas the other way around is not necessarily true.

A lot of people are running around with detector settings that would not detect the smaller cobs shown above if the cobs were laying on the surface with the detector coil right over them.  I know I have met people on the beach who were discriminating out anything that small.

As I showed yesterday using the Ace 250, these test cobs generally were identified as nickels.  That's not bad.

The best way to learn how to better understand and use your detector is to experiment.  What you read may or may not be true, and your detector and your environment might not be the same as those you read about. 


On the Treasure Coast we're back to a one-foot surf again.  Nothing much in the Atlantic either.  Just one disturbance down by Central America.

Get to know your detector better.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

5/2/14 Report - Sedwick Auction Results, 5000 Years of California Violence, Digging Up Your Personal Past and My Most Valuable Find

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

There was one standout among the gold cobs auctioned off by Sedwick yesterday.  It brought in over $76,000.  The next highest price for a gold cob was around 23,000.  A common price range for gold cobs was one to two thousand, with just a handful bringing in less than one thousand.

Here is the lot description for the big winner.

Lima, Peru, cob 8 escudos, 1701H, Philip V, extremely rare, from the 1715 Fleet. S-L25a; KM-38.1. 26.95 grams. Almost round, evenly struck and perfectly centered, this would be an exceptional specimen for any date, let alone one that is missing in Calico and the State of Florida collection (theirs is Charles II). In fact we can trace only one other example for Philip V, an AU 55 of demonstrably inferior strike but with perhaps slightly more evidence of the coins' having been created from a modified 1700 die. The present coin is at least AU 58 but bears areas of red staining and gray coral that preclude professional encapsulation. What is more important is that the strike is nearly perfect--well centered and even--and the effect in hand is sheer beauty. From the 1715 Fleet.

The two standouts among the world gold coins were two had final prices of nearly $5000. 

Both of those were Brazil (Rio mint) reis.  Each of those sold for just under five thousand dollars.  A good number of lots in this category did not sell.  An the expected standout in this category did not sell.

There was a clear standout in the US gold coins.  It was the USA (Philadelphia mint), $10 capped-bust Liberty, 1801, encapsulated NGC UNC details / improperly cleaned. KM-30. Lustrous and attractive, with minor marks only, the surfaces very faintly hairlined from cleaning, popular early gold with high catalog value.

It sold for just over $15,000.

The auction continues today.


Two more days remaining to respond to the blog poll.  It is proceeding very nicely.  I'll get more out of the results than might be immediately apparent.


On the Treasure Coast the wind is out of the South right now.   The higher surf will be this morning, then decreasing through the day and for a few more days.


It seems to me that we get a very sanitized, or should I say "politically correct" version of history, so much so that I was really surprised when I learned just how dangerous life was on the US frontier in the 1700s.  I did some research and read about some of my ancestors, including one thirteen-year-old boy, who, with his mother and brother were captured by the Indians, took a bullet in the leg but managed to heal during captivity, later escaping to freedom by swimming across the Monongahela River in an area that I personally know to be about a hundred yards across. 

I guess I actually bought into the sanitized view of history that I received.  However a new study shows that California, the land of Flower Power and Peace, has a long history of violence that goes way back before the white man arrived.

Here are some excerpts taken from an article describing an archaeological study that examined 16,820 burials from over 5000 years of history in Central California.

From shooting their enemies with darts and arrows to crushing their skulls and even harvesting body parts as trophies, the ancient foragers of central California engaged in sporadic, and sometimes severe, violence, according to a new archaeological study spanning 5,000 years.

The article goes on to say, Chronicling 16,820 burials from 329 sites among 13 different ethnographic groups, the data reveal that the most common type of violence over the millennia was so-called sharp-force trauma, caused by projectiles like arrows or atlatl darts, which appeared in 7.2% of the burials studied.

Another 4.3% of the hunter-gatherers suffered apparent blunt-force trauma to the head, while just under 1% showed evidence of dismemberment, with limbs, scalps, or heads having been removed after death.

Interesting article! 

Here is the link if you want to read more about that study.

http://westerndigs.org/from-stone-darts-to-dismembered-bodies-new-study-reveals-5000-years-of-violence-in-central-california/


I'm going to recommend genealogical research to you once again.  I know I've done it before, but I am continually amazed by what all can be found on the computer these days.  It has been very productive for me and in ways that I never would have imagined.  Not only have I learned a lot about my ancestors, but I've discovered tons of good detecting leads in the process.

I've mentioned this before, but you can join Ancestry.com for a free trial period.  That will give you a access to a lot of very good resources.

Yesterday I showed an example of a land use map from 1870 that I found on the web site.  That was only one example of the many types of excellent research resources you will find there.

Of course you can compare those old maps to more current maps if you need to.   I was using maps of land that I was very familiar with, so I didn't have to do that.

One thing I learned is that reading history is one thing, but finding your personal connection makes it really come alive.  There is another step beyond that though.  You can visit the places where your roots were formed and actually touch the past.

One thing I learned in a new way is that history can be very personal.  If you make the connections,  you can learn a lot about out how your family ended up where it is today and how it connected to what was going on in the world.

I have learned a lot about my father's family that I am sure he never knew.  He was too young to know some of the whys and hows of his early life, yet through all of the digitized records I've been able to piece much of it together. 

I've communicated with cousins this year on both coasts that I never knew I had until I did this research and learned that they were also researching the family.  That is how I was able to make contact with them and learned from them what they had discovered through their research.  We exchanged both information and pictures.
  . 
Besides discovering relatives that you never knew about, and you might even learn what happened to crazy so and so.  After going through the process myself, I'd be surprised if you don't discover a lot you never knew about your family.  I benefited greatly from the time my wife put into the process.  It is much like detecting, the more time you put into it, the more you benefit.  Things come together more quickly when you have already collected some of the pieces.

Every day history is being made.  Every day information about you and I is being accumulated online.   More of it is going online than I ever suspected.   It is really surprising how much can be found.

History is going into the ground every day too -  much more than could ever be excavated or studied.

My now deceased father nearly a half century ago told me that his father or grandfather had tools stamped with a swastika.   I don't know why he told me that or why it is something that I remembered, but I guess it made an impression.  Not only did I remember that one statement, but now I have a pair of those pliers and found the swastika, which proves what he said.  It seems unlikely that one casual comment made about fifty years ago would result in an item of personal history being resurrected from the earth. 

I thoroughly enjoyed digging up some of my personal history, including some of my old toys from the small home where I was raised.  When I visited that home, I was able to walk directly to the exact area where there was a slight depression just to one side of an old Pussy Willow tree that created a nice shady spot to play in the cool dirt in the summer.  I made roads in the dirt with my toy tractors and trucks there, and sadly, that is also where my yellow baby duck that I had just won at the county fair by throwing coins into cups ate a toadstool and died. 

I could not see it any more clearly than if I were there today, and I guess in a way I am.

Nobody else in the world knew that spot like I did.  Nobody else knew how I played there, what toys I used and how special that one small area was to one young boy.  Talk about an advantage for a detectorist!  I can actually see the past, and in more ways than one.  

Nobody knew that one small spot like I did and never will.  I walked right to it, and quickly dug up a part of my personal history.  No find has ever been more valuable to me than that.



I think I'll leave it there for today.



Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/13/14 Report - Treasure Coast Half Reale Date, Iron Cannons and Poll Results

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

Mexican Half Reale Found In Nov. 2013

They say that time heals, but you could say it also reveals.  That is one reason I like holding onto things.  It often takes a good bit of time to learn about some things.

Just yesterday I was browsing through the Sedwick Coins auction listings.  I was looking at Mexican half reales.   I have a special interest in those since they have been frequently found on the shipwreck treasure beaches of the Treasure Coast.  But while looking through the auction listings I noticed a half reale with an O to the right of the monogram.  Hmmmm.  Where had I seen that before?

A little later when I was looking through some half reales, there it was -  the big round circle to the right of the monogram (See photo above.).

I then went to Sewall Menzel's book, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins, and looked through the Mexican half reales of the appropriate time period.  And there it was on page 108.   Menzel shows a cob that matches the one in the photo extremely well.

The book says that in 1705 there was a transitional half reale design that showed the common mint and assayer mark of "OMJ" to the left of the monogram and an"O" to the right of the monogram.  The O was the mark of an assistant assayer.

The match between the one in the Menzel book and the one in the above photo was one of the best matches I've seen.  There is the same lop-sided V, and on and on, detail by detail, making for a very excellent match.

Since the transitional design started in 1705 and ended by 1719, or maybe earlier, I now have a better date range for this cob.  If it came from a 1715 Fleet wreck, as I'm confident that it did, the date range would be 1705 - 1715. 

My point is that it was a combination of  browsing through numerous examples, in this case including the auction listings, and taking yet another look at the real thing that made it all come together.  Not only do I now have the date for the cob narrowed down to between 1705 and 1715, but this cob might be from the same die as the one in the Menzel book, or at the very least, a very similar die.

I'm reminded of that old song, Just One Look, which says that's all it took, but one look is seldom enough for me.  I really like how old things seem to reveal their secrets over time as you add one fact or detail after another.


Bill F. ran across some iron Spanish cannons in a marine consignment store.  The asking price was about $2000 each.  They were reportedly found in the Bahamas in the 1930s and were in a yard in the Sewall's Point area for some time.  Bill says they were in good condition.


The most recent blog poll has concluded and the results are in.  The sample size was good, especially considering the time of year and everything.

One thing is for sure - this blog has a heavy Treasure Coast focus even though a good number of its readers are from other parts of the country and other parts of the world.  The two most favorite categories were Treasure Coast specific.

According to the poll results the top "most favorite" thing in the blog is Treasure Coast finds.  I guess that shouldn't be too surprising.  Over one third (36%) of the poll respondents selected that category.

The second most favorite topic is Treasure Coast beach conditions (24%).   That is what I started this blog to be.  That part has become a smaller part of the blog simply because Treasure Coast beach detecting conditions don't change real often and I got tired of giving the same old ratings everyday.  I still make every effort to stay on top of things and warn you of any changes in beach conditions that result in a beach conditions upgrade.  I actually spend a lot of time monitoring beach conditions, even if I can't issue an upgrade or downgrade very often.  I really stay on top of things and give daily conditions ratings when I can issue anything other than a 1 (poor) beach conditions rating.  As you know most of 2014 has been poor this year and there have been very few upgrades.

I'll talk about the poll results some more some other day.


On the Treasure Coast we still have poor beach detecting conditions.  The wind picked up a little today, but we still have something like a three or four foot surf and the wind is coming from the East.

It doesn't look like it will get much better in the next few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/29/13 Report - November Treasure Coast Finds and Poll Results

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


The most recent blog poll has concluded and the results are in.  The results are interesting and combined with the results of a previous poll are very significant to me.

In this poll, there were 100 respondents.  That is a good sample size.

First off, 84 percent of those that responded to the poll did not find any cobs or treasure coins.  That is a pretty high percentage.  So if you did not find one, you are not alone.  In fact, you are in the majority.

More than five times the number that found cobs or treasure coins did not.  To put it another way only about 15% of those who responded to the poll did find a cob or treasure coin.

My highest Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions rating during November was a 3. If you generalize from the results of this poll, your chances of finding a cob or treasure coin is something close to 15% when I issue a 3 rating on the scale.  And of course a 2 rating would indicate your chances are somewhat less -  maybe something more like 1 in 5 or 10 or somewhere in between.  I'll continue to try to better calibrate my scale.  These numbers do help.

I've always imagined that a 5 rating (excellent conditions) would give you something like a 50/50 chance.  Maybe that is too high or two low.  I haven't had a 5 rating yet and therefore haven't had the chance to test it out.  Maybe I'm trying to make this more precise than is possible.  The numbers do give me a good perspective though.

One very interesting thing to me is that of those who found a cob or treasure coin, four times the number found multiple cobs or coins than found a single cob or treasure coin.

This relates to one thing I always taught in this blog since the very beginning.  Birds of a feather flock together.  In other words, if you find one of an item, there is a good chance that there are more of the same or similar items.  You might remember my discussion about coin lines and holes in previous posts.

A find is more than a find.  It is also a sign or indicator.  That is one of the big reasons that I discourage the use of too much discrimination.  Finds, even junk finds, can provide important information.

I talked about clustering a lot before.  The same types of items tend to accumulate near each other on a beach.  I've elaborated on that at great length in the past and how density, shape and other factors determine where an item ends up on a beach.

This poll shows that the chances are very good that if you find one cob or treasure coin that you will find a second or third.

In November I know of three cobs that were found in one small area and another found not very far away (probably less than 50 yards) from that.

Somebody asked me not too long ago if they should walk fast or slow when detecting.  My answer was walk fast when you are looking for a good spot, but walk slow when you have reason to believe you might have identified a good spot.

One of the better indicators of a good spot is a good find.  Again, birds of a feather flock together.

The fact that those who found one cob or treasure also usually found more also suggests that those people were at the right place at the right time.  To do that you are either lucky, or have scouted around, read the beaches and focused on the spots that looked better than others.

Of those that did make finds, more found four or more than found a single cob or treasure coin and more than twice as many found 2 or 3 than found a single cob or treasure coin.

Comparing the results of this poll with the results of the poll that I conducted after Sandy, there are some very similar conclusions.

There were 90 respondents in the post-Sandy poll.  15 of those respondents indicated that they had found cobs or treasure coins.  That is the same number of people that indicated finding cobs or treasure coins this November. Since the number of respondents is a very little higher in this poll, percentage wise a slightly smaller number found cobs in November, but that is a very small and undoubtedly insignificant difference.  As I recall, my highest beach conditions rating during Sandy was also a 3.

I'll have to look it up to make sure that is correct.  If I did issue a 4 rating during Sandy, it was for a very short time.

In conclusion, if you were wondering if you were the only one that did or didn't find anything, now you know you are not alone, but more people did not make a find than did and many of those who did make a find made multiple finds.



The high surf that was predicted for 7/12 has disappeared from the predictions.  Too bad.

A 6 foot surf is possible for tomorrow on the Treasure Coast.    The wind is also from the North again.

I'm sticking with a 1(poor) rating on my beach detecting conditions scale for now.


Happy Holidays,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net