5/10/20 Report - Eight-Reale Kicks Off 2020 Salvage Season. Old(?) Wood Handle Fork Find. 18th Century British Indiaman Wreck. Surf Building.

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

2020 started off as a good year for beach hunting.  A good number of reales were found on Treasure Coast beaches January through March, and then came the beach closures.

Now the 2020 salvage season has begun.  The calm surf allowed an early start to the salvage season and at least one eight-reale was found off of Douglass Beach already.  The 1715 Fleet find was made by Queens Jewels, Jason and Joey Gooch working on the M/V Blackwater salvage vessel.

Congratulations!

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Two Tine Fork or Skewer.

As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to go back and look at some tableware that I found in the past and never researched much.

Here is a peculiar two-tined fork or skewer.  I believe it is probably a skewer rather than a fork simply because of size and feel.  It also shows very little wear, but it could have been repaired.  I'll show you why I think that might be the case.

There are no maker's marks or anything like that on this one.  It does not appear to be very well made.  There is some obvious asymmetrical grinding on the back near the base of one tine.

Wood Fork Handle With Wood Pins.

The rivets are not metal.  Wood pins hold the handle to the tang.  I haven't seen that on any other tableware that I've found.  Mostly they seem to have metal rivets.

The handle appears to be a relatively soft wood and very square - not nicely shaped for the hand.

Poorly Fitting Tang and Handle.

Notice how square the edges are and how poorly the tang fits into the handle.

My opinion is that the fork or skewer was either not made by a company that made tons of them or else it was repaired - maybe both.

I'd guess it is old, but don't know much of anything about this one.  It lacks any identifying marks.  The use of wood pins makes me think it is probably older, but it shows little wear as it is.

I don't think I'll ever find out much more about this one.

---

I've found a lot of silverware over the years.  Some came from the beach.  Many of those were in very poor condition.  A good number also came from inland sites where some were dug and some were evidently secreted.  They were generally in better condition.  It is very common to find silverware at home sites.

I recently started researching some of my old silverware finds.  Yesterday I posted a photo of a spoon with a maker's mark I couldn't identify.  Mitch King said the mark is that of the AB&Co., England.  I don't have the dates on that company yet.

Thanks much Mitch!


Spoons have been around for thousands of years, but forks, which took over for knives and fingers, came later.

Forks were the last of the flatware tools to be added to this gastronomic arsenal. The early Greeks were known to use forks, and one was carried to Italy by a Greek princess in 1071. There is some disagreement about when tined instruments first appeared in inventories on the continent. Many credit Catherine de Medici with bringing them from Italy to France in 1553 upon her marriage to the future King Henry II, but gold and silver forks, used only for eating mulberries and other foods that stain the fingers, are listed in the inventory of Charles V of France (1338-1380).

Nevertheless, by the 1600s, fork usage had spread all the way to England, where a gentleman traveler by the name of George Coryat credits himself with the momentous introduction. This may have been a bit of a boast, as Queen Elizabeth I counted them in her inventory. Even so, forks were not readily adopted in England. The Church had frowned on them, ruling that they took glory from God who gave us fingers to eat with, and were seen as effeminate in many corners. However, King Charles I of England declared them “decent to use” in 1633, and the fork slowly but surely gained acceptance at the table...

You might find the following linked article on the history flatware interesting.  It is the source of the above excerpt.

https://rauantiques.com/blogs/canvases-carats-and-curiosities/flatware-history

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Here is the title and abstract of an article about an early 18th century British West Indiaman wrecked near Soldier Key.  If you know the area around Key Biscayne you'll be familiar with a lot of the history and shipwrecks in that area.  Actual treasure chests were recovered from Key Biscayne, not to mention many other treasures.  I spent a lot of time in that area when I lived down south.


A FINE WRECK IN SHALLOW WATER: INVESTIGATION INTO, AND CONSERVATION OF, A HEAVILY DISTURBED 18TH CENTURY BRITISH WEST INDIAMAN, THE SOLDIER KEY WRECK

Allen Donald Wilson

In the summer of 2012, a team of archaeologists excavated a known shipwreck site in the
submerged bottomlands in north Biscayne National Park. This site had been excavated
previously by John Hall, a professor from the University of Miami, in the early 1980s. Hall never
produced a report on the excavations and did not curate the artifacts recovered. The purpose of
this 2012 research was to document any remaining material culture, determine the best way to
preserve the site, and ultimately to use whatever remaining hull structure and portable artifacts
were available to determine the nationality, previous ports of call, and potentially the name of the

vessel as well as how the ship came to wreck in that location. 

The excavation revealed the midships to stern portion of a British West Indiaman that
dates to the early to mid 18th century. The sparse artifact assemblage suggests that the vessel
was coming from Jamaica en route to England when the ship succumbed to a hurricane.
However, a large number of ships wrecked in the region during the time period the Soldier Key
Wreck would have sailed. Unfortunately, no name could definitively be ascribed to the ship. 


Here is the link.

https://www.academia.edu/19559882/A_FINE_WRECK_IN_SHALLOW_WATER_INVESTIGATION_INTO_AND_CONSERVATION_OF_A_HEAVILY_DISTURBED_18TH_CENTURY_BRITISH_WEST_INDIAMAN_THE_SOLDIER_KEY_WRECK?email_work_card=view-paper

This one is in Biscayne National Park and I do not know of any treasure from the wreck being reported.  Still it is an interesting read.

---

The past couple of days I posted links to some very good studies.  One was a major study on near-shore shipwrecks and another was on privateering.  You won't want to miss those.

It looks like the surf will be building for a few days and maybe get up to five or seven feet.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Happy Mother's Day,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/22/19 Report - Corroded Silver Coin. Old Bottle Finds. Dates For Artifacts. Weather System Developing.

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

Corroded Silver.

Can you identify the coin in picture above?

I think it is interesting how the corrosion causes different patterns on the silver.

If you could not tell what the one above is, can you tell from the picture below?

Same Object Shown Above.

The second photo is the same, with the same magnification, same lighting and everything, except it is more out of focus.

It is a silver Roosevelt dime.

I thought it might actually be a little easier to identify the Roosevelt profile in the out-of-focus photo.


---

The first old bottles I ever found at the beach were found after Hurricane Andrew in South Florida.  I was digging old coins when I noticed what looked like an old bottle in the surf.  The coins I were finding were old but were in terrible condition.  I decided to start collecting the old bottles.  I found a plastic bag on the beach and started collecting the bottles.

 One of the very first that I found was an embossed Gordon's Dry Gin bottle like the one shown here.

This is one I found not long ago.  Since the first one that I found, I've found a few similar bottles.  One was found recently.

Two Very Similar Gordon's Dry Gin Bottles.

I've found several now.  Only the first was found down south.  The others were found on the Treasure Coast.

They all have the wolf's head symbol on the bottom (below).

Bottom of Gordon's Dry Gin Bottle.

These are not very rare bottles.  As I said, I've found a few, and you can find them online.  It didn't take much research to find an age for the bottle.

They also have a number on the back.  The number is 610617.

No. On One Side of Same Bottle.

It didn't take much research to find an age.  The BayBottles.com web site (link below) says that number means the bottle dates to 1912 -1913.

Interestingly, Miami-Dade County voted itself dry in 1913.

The lips on the bottles are different.

Lips On Same Two Bottles.

The lip on the greener bottle looks more crudely made.  The lip of that one is applied over the neck, which makes a more narrow opening.

That would make me think the bottles might be of different ages.

The initial Gordon’s Distillery dates back to 1769 in London and they began making a form of dry gin sometime after the advent of continuous distillation in the 1830’s.

Gordon & Company merged with Tanqueray  in 1898 and it was around this time  that listings for Gordon Dry Gin began to appear in U.S. newspaper advertisements. The first mention that I could find in a New York City newspaper were several advertisements for Macy’s, who listed Gordons Gin under the heading “Fine Wines for Medicinal Use.”

See https://baybottles.com/2016/11/07/gordons-dry-gin-london-england-regd-610617/

Also https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2015/02/gordons-gin-a-brand-history/

---

When you talk about the date of an object, exactly what is the date of interest?  Do you want to know when the item was made, or when it was being used, or the date it was lost?  Maybe the date of interest is the date of an associated event, such as a battle or the sinking of a ship.

One thing that can be forgotten is that items, especially older items, were often used for long periods of time and might have been repaired or repurposed and reused for centuries.  An old tea kettle, for example, could be repaired many times with additional copper and rivets and then finally the copper turned into points, decorations or any of a variety of things and used again and again in different forms. I have a book that shows many dug artifacts that were manufactured out of the copper of old tea pots.  The life cycle of old objects could be very long, especially when you consider how the items were repurposed and the parts reused.

I once found a ;penny bearing the date 1909.  The penny appeared to show almost no circulation wear, but had a few big scratches.  It was found at the site of an old house that had just been demolished, not far from the corner of the house. The date on the penny was the same year that the house was built.  I wondered if it might have been placed with the laying of the cornerstone for good luck.  That was  not an uncommon practice.

Being marked with a date, coins can provide good reference points, however the date marked on the coin is the year it was made, which can differ very significantly from the the dates it was used or the date it was lost.  Very old coins can be lost after being safely stored for decades or centuries.

In this case the date of the penny matched the date the house was built.  I knew the date the house was built from my research.   Were the matching dates significant or just coincidence?  That question remains.

When we talk of salvaged shipwreck items we might be interested in the age of the item (when it was made), but just as often, I think we are interested in the date of the wrecking, especially when you have no better information about the date of the item.

In summary, when I attempt to determine the date of an item, there might actually be several dates of interest. I might be most interested in the date of manufacture, the date or time period when the item was in use, the date when it was lost, or the date of some important event associated with the item.

---

I added the GORDON'S DRY GIN bottles to my TGBottleBarn.blogspot.com site and added an archive gadget to make it easier to find old posts about other bottles.


Expect another week of small surf.

There is a weather system southeast of Miami that could develop.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/23/18 Report - New Silver Coin Sight Find. A Few Metal Detecting Tips. Bigger Surf Coming.

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

Nice Silver Sight Find by One of This Blog's Readers.

I just received the following email.

Yesterday the wife and I went to a local wildlife management area in Volusia county to do some scouting for hunting. While there I stopped in a nice spot where crushed limestone had just been replenished to fill in a large void in the road from last years hurricanes. The wife looks down and says "Hey there's a quarter!" Laying on top of new soft limerick that had just been rained on popped out this coin. All the hours I spend swinging a detector and she finds this sitting on the surface. No idea how it got in the limerock  fill but there it was. 

Best wishes.

Thanks for sharing. Nice find.

It's always nice to find a silver coin, especially an unexpected sight find.  

Wind or rain can be enough to uncover coins and other objects.  I'd often do some eye-balling on beaches after a good wind.  Coins and other things would be exposed.

When one is found, more than likely there are more.  I often say, Birds of a feather flock together.  I'd check the area with a detector, and I'd also try to find out where the fill came from.  That might be a good place to hunt too.

You can quickly scan way more ground visually than you can with a ten inch or whatever coil.

Dale J. said thanks along with a list of  several tips he got from reading this blog.  The first one on the list was about signals that disappear when digging a hole.  Very often when a target seems to disappear, it has moved in the hole, either slipping deeper in the hole or sticking to the side of the hole standing on end so the signal disappears.  In either case, keep digging.  Dig out the bottom and sides of the hole, and most often you'll find the target again.

There is also another reason that signals sometimes disappear.  That one has to do with ground mineralization.  Digging can disturb the ground mineralization and create false signals or make it more difficult for the detector to detect the target.  That happens a lot in a black sand.  A detector can adjust to a layer of black sand that transitions slowly, but when you cut a hole in it, the sharp edge can cause falsing and loss of the target signal.  Again, keep digging and spread the dug sand out.

For black sand or wet salt mineralization, sweep along with the mineralization rather than across it.  Along the water's edge, that means sweeping parallel to the water line.

He also said he liked yesterday's Christmas post.  I sometimes do posts that I like, but I don't know if anybody else will like them.   Not everybody will like every post.  My readers include everybody from the arm chair treasure hunter to the professional, so some posts will appeal more to one group or another.  Sometimes I just post what I like or feel like saying.  It is always nice to hear what the readers like.

I think some posts are good but don't get enough attention, and some posts get a lot of attention, and I don't know why.   

If a post gets posted on some big national web site it always gets read by a lot of people.  For example, CNN Travel published a link to my blog one time and so the blog got a ton of hits then.  

I'll probably do a post on the top blog posts at the end of the year.  I noticed one post that had very few readers even though I think it is something everybody, including myself, can benefit by remembering.  It was about how to determine the optimal sweep speed.   

I think a lot of people sweep too fast for optimal depth.  Of course, you don't need optimal depth for a lot of targets, and you can move along quickly.  So is the trade-off worth it.  Hard to say.  Sometimes yes, and sometimes no.

If you are using a motion or discrimination mode, you can also sweep too slow.  I think it is a good idea to determine your optimal sweep speed for maximum sensitivity, whether you use it or not.

---

Did you see the beautiful full moon last night.  Really nice.

The tides are big and it still looks like we'll get a nice increase in surf after Christmas.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/8/18 Report - Mint-State Silver Coin Beach Find. Lost and Found Diamond Ring. Garden Treasures.

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

One Ounce Silver Coin in Plastic Container.

A day or two ago I mentioned how you can on rare occasion find a near mint state coin on the beach.  It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.  Here is one I found in it's plastic container at the water's edge one day.

I was awed by the fine condition of the coin, especially compared to most of the coins that I find.  Most are in poor condition.  In comparison, this one has a strikingly fine appearance.  I think it is just beautiful.  I didn't take it out of its container, so you will see some dust, scratches and reflections from the plastic, but the coin is beautiful.  Here is a closer look.

Closer View of the Same Coin as Seen Through Plastic Container.

Another View Showing the Mirrored Surface of the Background.

I was just struck by the beauty of the coin and thought I'd show it.  It is so rare to get something in that good of condition on a beach.

---

Story of One Lost and Found Diamond Ring.

Sometimes the most amazingly unbelievable things happen.  One incident that happened to me about fifty years ago just came to my mind this morning and it seems just as unbelievable to me today as it did then - in fact, more so.

Anyhow, I was dating my wife, and I was wearing a diamond ring.  I never, never, never wear any jewelry, and haven't for many many years.  I'm a very active physical person, even though I've slowed down some lately.  I'd rather cut a tree with an axe than try to get a chain saw started, and am as likely to dig in the earth with my hands as use a shovel, so I don't like anything hanging on my fingers, hands or arms.

Anyhow, about fifty years ago when I was dating, I had a diamond ring, which my father gave to me as a present when I graduated from graduate school and got my first good job.  It never really occurred to me before, but this morning I had to wonder how he bought a diamond ring at that time. I sent money home from school every month when I got my assistant ship money.  I lived VERY frugally - ate rice three times a day every day one year.  He must have saved some of the money I sent home every month to buy something for me.  Me having and wearing a diamond ring back then is hard enough for me to grasp, but there is more to it.

I had taken my wife-to-be out on a date, and I took her home.  It was a little old house down a long gravel country lane in hilly rural West Virginia.  It was maybe about eleven o'clock at night and pitch black.

After I took her  home and left, a few miles down the road I noticed that my diamond ring was not on my finger.  Panic hit me.  I turned around and drove back to her home.  The house lights were off and there were no lights other than my headlights and the stars.   As I pulled down the lane, in front of her house, I saw one glint of light in the headlights in the gravel.  I got out and there was the diamond ring.  Boy was I relieved.  How unlikely was that - to see that one small flash of light in the gravel in the black of night.  Hard to believe, but true.

---

If you've ever noticed, a lot of very good accidental finds are made by gardeners.

While digging in the backyard of his Wiltshire farmhouse in England in February 2015, Irwin hit a cold, flat surface, he explains on his company's website. He was trying to install electricity cables so his children could play ping pong in their old barn, but instead he unearthed an untouched 1,500-year-old Roman mosaic...

Here is the link for the rest of that story.

https://www.countryliving.com/gardening/news/a38257/roman-villa-digging-garden/

It helps when you live on top of an ancient Roman residence.

---

No real change in beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/25/18 Report - Red Tide Keeps People Off Treasure Coast Beaches. Gold Relic. Most Active Hurricane Season Ever.

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

Flag Indicating Red Tide Spores Displayed at Jensen Beach Yesterday.

Red Tide was strong at Jensen Beach yesterday afternoon.  It evidently kept a lot of people off the beach, but there were a few there.   I heard a lot of coughing and saw one kid crying with burning eyes.  It can be serious.  Too bad!  It is otherwise beautiful beach weather.

Jensen Beach Yesterday Afternoon.

There were more people to the north for some reason.

The beach had lost some sand.  You can see the small cut and the slope had eroded back some.  You can also see a small dip in front of the beach.  Didn't look half bad for modern jewelry if the Red Tide doesn't bother you.

Jensen Beach Yesterday Afternoon.

It looked like the tide predictions were pretty accurate.  Just some small waves breaking on the sand bar at low tide.

Expect nothing more than a two or three foot surf for the next few days.

We have a full moon and some decent tides.

---

Gold Relic.

Source: See MSN.com link below.

The origin of a mysterious golden relic has been identified after leaving archaeologists baffled for almost 150 years.

The small, flat golden plate was uncovered alongside a female skeleton and a coin at a grave site beneath York station in 1872...

The coin, which was made of copper with a silver wash over the top, had the face of Septimius Severus on one side and Fortuna, the goddess of luck on the other.

Severus was Roman Emperor from 193 until his death in York in 211, but it is not clear whether the woman was buried during this period or later...

Here is the link.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mysterious-gold-relic-finally-identified-after-baffling-scientists-for-almost-150-years/ar-BBOOO67?ocid=spartandhp

---

The oceans near North America have been angry this year.

When all the hurricanes and tropical storms that have formed in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans this year are added together, the 2018 hurricane season is the most active season ever recorded, Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach announced Tuesday...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/10/23/hurricane-season-most-active-record-atlantic-pacific-combined/1741226002/

----

I was consulting with a treasure author that was wondering about how far some bars of gold might sink into the sand over a period of a few decades.  I won't give any details because I don't want to put anybody else on the trail, but some bars got deposited in a fairly unusual way and they wanted to try to find them.  It took me a couple of emails to answer, but I still wasn't happy with the answer.  That reminded me that I started to talk about the subject of how things sink in the sand a few weeks ago in this blog.  I introduced a question, but got off on other subjects and failed to answer the question.  I'll try to do that some day soon.  I'll have a meaty related subject for you tomorrow.


Go, and do well.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/20/19 Report - HMS Endeavour Found. College Class Rings Returned. Gold Toned Silver Coin.

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

1927 Gold Toned Quarter.

This 1927 quarter was found many years ago.  It is the only silver coin that I've found that has developed such a bright gold toning, which seems to be increasing.  I don't know how or why that happened.

Reverse of Same 1927 Gold Toned Quarter.

The coloring in the photo is accurate - no digital editing or anything.

---

The possible discovery of HMS Endeavour off the east coast of the US has been hailed as a “hugely significant moment” in Australian history, but researchers have warned they are yet to “definitively” confirm whether the wreck has been located.

On Wednesday Fairfax Media reported archaeologists from the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, or Rimap, had pinpointed the final resting place of the famous vessel in which Captain James Cook reached Australia in 1770. 

The ship was later used by the British royal navy in the American war of Independencee and was eventually scuttled with a dozen other vessels off Newport, Rhode Island in 1778....

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/19/wreck-of-captain-cooks-hms-endeavour-discovered-off-coast-of-america

---

The alumni magazine from one of the schools I got a degree from had an article about two returned class rings.

One took a long journey.  It was first lost while the owner was fishing back in the 1970s.  He took off the ring and put it into a vest pocket while he tied a lure.   It was found years later, given to the daughter of the lady who found it.  She couldn't find the owner.  The ring was eventually given to an official of the university.  The owner was eventually found, decades after it was lost.

Another ring went missing.  Evidently it was stolen by a college room mate who gave it to a girl.  Eventually the girl gave it to the president of the school alumni association, who couldn't find the owner for some time.  After some time other university contacts were able to identify the owner, which lead to the ring's return.  That was before facebook etc.

My mother lost her college class ring when planting flowers at a grave site.  She thinks she laid it on the stone while working the dirt.  When she returned it was gone.

---

The Dawson City Museum in Yukon is about to get an overhaul that will allow new exhibits, displaying artifacts only ever held in storage.

It will be the museum's first major renovation in about three decades.

"Because our displays change very little, a lot of the acquisitions over the last 30 years have never been on display," said Alex Somerville, the museum's executive director...

Here is that link.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/dawson-city-museum-renovations-1.4295988

When people donate items to a museum I think they expect the item to be displayed, but that doesn't always happen.  I've heard from people who have donated items, and the items disappeared somehow.

---

You've probably seen about New Bern, North Carolina on the news.  I did a little (very little) metal detecting there back in the 1980s when I was on a business trip to the Naval Air Rework Facility.  I buried a knife that I used as a digging tool by a hotel light post in case I returned.  I never did.

Nothing much happening in the Atlantic, and not much happening on the beaches either.  Expect a peak surf of around 4 - 5 feet on Sunday.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/9/18 Report - Silver Coin Find. Storms Chris and Beryl. Treasures Found in Farm Fields.

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

1964 Kennedy Half Dollar Find.

This Kennedy half dollar is 90% silver and has a melt value of almost $6.00.  Retail value would be from $10 to $90, depending upon condition.  This one is in unusually nice condition for a beach find.

Reverse of Same Half Dollar.

---

Hurricane Chris and Remnants of Beryl

Beryl is now almost gone, and Chris is going to be heading north.  Seems pretty early for hurricanes, but they do seem to be forming. 

On the Treasure Coast we're supposed to get a three to four foot surf Tuesday, which is a little bigger than previously expected, falling off to two to three feet on Wednesday.

Chris is probably causing some erosion to North Carolina beaches.

---

Some of the most amazing hoard finds have been made in farm fields, and you might remember my recent post mentioning the farmer that found gold while digging a drain.  I just found that ModernFarmer.com has some good treasure stories.

Here is one article from that site entitled 7 Insane Things Farmers Have Accidentally Found in Fields.  For example, there was the Kentucky farmer that in 1922 found $185,000 (in today's money) worth of early British gold coins.

Another farmer found a second of third century helmet in a field where detectorists had previously found some ancient coins.

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

https://modernfarmer.com/2015/10/things-found-in-famers-fields/

And here is another article on the same web site about a 3500 year old dagger being found in a farm field.

https://modernfarmer.com/2015/01/one-farmers-field-trash-another-mans-treasure/

I spent a lot of time in farm fields in my early years, but not metal detecting.

---

Keep watching the Atlantic weather.  Eventually a storm will come along to stir up our beaches.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/26/17 Report - Erosion in Jupiter/Juno Area. Cuban Silver Ten Centavos. Erosion Is Erosion.

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

Joe D. sent the above pictures from the Jupiter/Juno area.  He says that the got more erosion this week.  You can see that in the pictures.  Notice also the nice shell line.

Thanks much Joe.

I haven't been able to get out since the last pictures I posted, so I have seen what the beaches are doing for myself.  Thanks for any reports.

UPDATE:  Joe D. tells me these beaches have changed in the past 21 or so hours.  More on that later.

---

It looks like Brian M.could have identified the mystery coin I showed yesterday.  The mystery coin looks very much like the Cuban 10 centavos shown here.

The coin is silver and was made in this design from 1915 to 1949.

Here is the link Brian sent.

https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/uploaded/XavierOfGreen/20110825_1915cuba10centavos.jpg

Thanks much Brian.  Looks like a good match me.

I very much appreciate the help.

---

The Dare is returning to Key West from the hunt for the Lost Merchant and will be gearing up to work on the Atocha or Margarita site.

Storms move sand in the ocean as well as on the beach. The Fisher organization flew over the Atocha and Margarita sites and was able to see the Margarita main pile from the air after it was uncovered by the storm.

---

Treasure hunting, especially beach and shallow water hunting is very much about moving sand. Erosion is key, no matter how it happens or where it happens.

Erosion can be caused by wind, rain or waves and currents. We don't often mention wind or rain erosion, but whenever it happens to any significant extent, I always check it out. 

Erosion caused by wind is usually not a big factor, but it can be helpful.  There have been times when I walked a beach looking for anything that might have been uncovered after the beach was scoured by strong wind. Wind erosion can uncover non-metallic as well as metallic targets.  You might find shards or fossils or other things.  It also gives you a chance to take a look at whatever is normally hidden by the top layer of sand.  Important clues can be uncovered.

Rain can also be an important source of erosion. There are places on the Treasure Coast where million-year-old fossils are uncovered any time it rains.

Back from the beach or inland, little gullies produced by rain can be worth checking. I remember finding some nice historic artifacts in a little gully back from the beach near a historic site.  There are places like that which you can't detect, but a little erosion gives you a chance to see what lies under the surface.  I've also found some older silver coins in gullies cause by rain.

On the Treasure Coast we are always waiting for some good erosion to the beach or dunes, but I very much enjoy checking out erosion at inland sites too. Creeks and rivers are always moving earth. One of my friends usually hunts river banks up north and has found a lot of Native American artifacts by that way.  Camp sites were often near creeks or rivers.  Bottle dumps are often found in small dips or valley running downhill towards a larger creek.

Always check out erosion no matter how it was created. It doesn't have to be huge to be helpful. You might discover a find or at least see something that provides a good clue.  

---

Enjoy the nice cool weather.  

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/6/15 Report - Corroded Silver Coins. Corrosion As A Clue. Coins and Layers of Sand.

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

 As you know finds come in a variety of conditions.  Some come up looking like they were lost yesterday and some barely survive.

Of course some were lost just yesterday, but some that were lost long ago, still look very good, while others that aren't as old have deteriorated to near nothing.

Silver shipwreck cobs are the same way.  Some show great full detail, while others are worn away to just a fraction of what they once were. The two sides of the same coin can be very different too.

It is very common for cobs that are found on an ocean beach to have lost as much as one third of there original weight.

As I said yesterday, I've been looking at some old finds that I never really looked at very well.  In that group were a good number of Rosies and Mercs in various conditions.

Here are two of the Mercury dimes in not terrible condition.

As you probably know, silver tends to turn black, especially when it has been in sea water.

On the other hand, silver dimes that I've found in cold fresh water lakes up North, have a more gun metal blue patina and very little erosion.

The two mercury dimes above were found on Florida ocean beaches.  I don't recall exactly where.

The second one (1934) is more corroded than the top one (1941) and shows sand still adhering to the surface.

The third is also a silver dime.  This one is much more corroded.   You can't tell if it is a Rosie or Merc or what.  It does appear to be a dime though.

Notice that it also has sand still adhering firmly to the surface.  That tends to cause a mottled rough surface that is very commonly seen on more corroded silver dimes that come from an ocean beach.

I went through several that looked like this yesterday, as well as some that were worn paper thin and some that were worn completely through in some places.

Those that were paper thin were either still round though.

Some reales show the same type of corrosion.  This half reale was found at Jupiter and has one very crisp side.  The side shown in the photo was completely covered with a thick shell crust when it was found.  The other side had no sand sticking to it and that side was completely visible when dug, but the details aren't as crisp.  It seems the sand shell on the one side protected and maintained the surface of the reale.  After the sand shell was cleaned off using Muriatic acid, I saw what you see here.

Exactly how one side was so heavily encrusted and the other side not at all, I don't know.  My theory is that it rested in the sand dunes for hundreds of years unmoved.  It is hard to explain how one side attracted sand and the other side not at all.  Other cobs have been found paper thin, but still showing good detail.

Here is an uncleaned dime, which seems to have lost silver in a way that is relatively unusual for a silver dime.  They often maintain the round shape even when severely corroded.  I've seen very few silver dimes that have lost the round shape like this one.

On this one you can still make out some of the detail on the side shown in the photo.  There is no detail that can be seen on the other side.

If you look at the amount of wear, or lack of wear on a piece of silver, you might get some clue about where it has been.  If you can figure out where they have been, then you will better know where to look to find more.

Unfortunately I don't know now where these dimes came from.

I do know exactly where the half reale came from, and I am pretty sure that it just washed out of a sand dune before it was dug up.  I suspect that it was in the dune undisturbed for hundreds of years.  Undoubtedly in that time it was washed over by sea water at least a few times.  Perhaps that accounts for how one side got encrusted but not the other.

My main point today is that if you pay attention to your finds, you might get some clue to the source and therefore know where to look for more.

I suspect that coins that lose a lot of material, like the irregular shaped dime shown above, at some point was in the churning sand in the shallow water.  In contrast, I am pretty sure that was not the case for the half reale.

As a side note, I've coins found in acidic black soil around mangrove trees really corrode and dissolve.

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A few days ago you saw in this blog how old shipwreck coins and items were found using blowers near shore.  A good bit of sand had to be moved to expose those items.  There are two ways that such items would have ended up under feet of sand.

Items that were lost during a hurricane might have been lost when tons of sand had just been removed and found their way down to near bedrock right away.

The other way is that items could be lost on top of layers of sand, either in the water or on the beach or on the dunes, and then gradually found their way to lower levels over the years and centuries.

Each time a layer is removed, the objects go deeper.  Sometimes they are covered again by new layers and remain there under the new layers until new erosion removes sand to deeper depths.

And of course there are times when coins and things are washed up with the new sand.  The coins that most recently washed up will then be in layers of sand above those that were in layers that previously eroded.

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It looks like the surf on the Treasure Coast will be just a touch bigger this week, but not very much at all - it is still a smooth surf.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

10/21/14 Report - The Magic and Memories of Metal Detecting. Excellent Research Links. Thin Silver Coin(?)

Written by the Treasure Guide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.

Thin Piece of Silver
About Dime Size If Complete
 

 

I was looking through some old coin finds and noticed how often I could remember the exact moment when they were found.  I'm not talking about the routine pennies, nickles and dimes, that I don't pay much attention to, but those finds that are just a little distinctive in some way.  I was really amazed by how many of those finds brought back a crystal clear memory of the exact time and place.

Isn't that the magic of detecting? You create memories.  It surprises me how I remember exactly where and how so many items were found.  So many of those memories seem as clear today as they were 20 years ago. 

They might be moments of elation, surprise, wonder, or maybe exhaustion or fear.  Those memorable moments are very different, but they stick in memory just the same.

I remember stupid things that I did.  I remember the first time I got caught in a rip tide.  And the time I got bumped by something in the ocean at night, and I still don't know what it was.  (I don't do that anymore.)  It got my heart pumping.

They say God watches over helpless fools.  He took care of this ignorant soul.

You might not know exactly what something is when you first dig it up, and that seems to add to the excitement. 

There often is excitement when you first dig up an item.  I clearly remember the diamond that I saw sparkling through a couple feet of crystal clear water as it came up in my scoop.  That was beautiful, and it was memorable.  The sky was so blue and the water was crystal clear that day.

I remember the time my wife thought she had a real hot spot when she had a hole in her goody bag and kept picking up the same coins.  That was funny.

I remember the time I found a very nice gold chain and religious medallion and it slipped through a hole in my pocket on the way back to the car.  After discovering that it was missing I walked back a mile or more to find it, and was lucky enough to see part of it sticking out of the sand at the edge of the water. 

Those are just a few.  There are tons of them, and they come marching back one by one as I look through old finds.

Some of those finds will last a long time.  Somebody else will own them some day, but whoever gets the item won't get all the magic.  They weren't there.  I was.

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Above are two views of a dug silver object.  It looks like it could have been a coin, but most of it is missing, as you can see.  The side shown in the second photo is almost completely covered with a thin coat of encrustation.  It looks like it was in the water a good long time.  It looks like it attracted some iron residue.

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This blog has become a very good resource.  I find myself often using the blog search box to find old postings to locate information or links.  There are quite a few links to good reference works. 

One reader commented on especially liking the gem stone link from the other day.

Below are some very good links relating to Florida archaeology.  Some deal with 16th Century Spanish exploration.  

The works are by Jeffrey M. Mitchem.  The articles are a few years old but excellent.

The first describes the archaeological evidence for the location of Narvaez's Aute.  Very good article about one of the very first Spanish explorations in Florida.  Well worth reading.

https://www.academia.edu/1419291/Archaeological_and_Ethnohistoric_Evidence_for_the_Location_of_Narvaezs_Aute

Here is an good list research resources by the same author.

http://uark.academia.edu/JeffreyMMitchem

Thanks to Mr. Mitchem for making his works easily available to the public.  That is how is should be.

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On the Treasure Coast today and tomorrow we are supposed to have a small surf -  only one to two feet.   That is as calm as it is going to be for a week or so if the predictions are correct.  Unfortunately the tides are pretty flat, so we won't be getting much of a low tide.

There is one disturbance hanging around in the south of the Gulf of Mexico.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net