7/18/19 Report - Trade Dollars and Chop Marks. Scouting With Drone. Silver Hands Bracelet.

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

Half Reale With Chop Mark.

Submitted by Scott C.

Yesterday I posted a brief history of the swastika as an example of how some symbols are used for thousands of years and by many cultures.  In response, I received the above photo from Scott C. along with the following message.

Saw your post on the Swastika, take a look at this circulated trade 1/2 real. Upper Left and Bottom Right you will see the Swastika chop marks. I really like this little half.

So many symbols were used during the trade years, The Manila Galleon trade route is most likely how this 1/2 real was chopped. Do you have the book on Chop Marks by F.M. Rose?... 

Thanks again for all you posts and great information.

Thanks for sharing Scott.  That is one interesting coin and a fascinating subject!

Wikipedia says,  Chop marks on coins are Chinese characters stamped onto coins by merchants in order to validate the weight, authenticity and silver content of the coin.

Starting with the 18th century, a number of European, and American and Japanese silver coins (generically know as the trade dollar) began circulating in the Far East.  Each merchant's firm had its own mark and, after heavy circulation, the design of the coin became completely obliterated by the chap marks.

Here is a good link on trade dollars and chop marks.

https://www.littletoncoin.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Display%7C10001%7C29555%7C-1%7C%7CLearnNav%7CChop-Marked-Trade-Dollars.html

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I received several great emails and also had a lot of ideas buzzing around in my own mind this morning.  I could go a lot of different directions today and originally planned to continue with the factors involved with dating dug items, but I decided to post some of the things I just received today.  That will give me more time to better develop and organize the ideas that I've been thinking about and there is always the danger if I don't post something soon after I receive it, I'll eventually forget to do it.


Here is an email from Alberto S.

 ... About 3 years ago, I came across this facility in Homestead Florida while doing research for possible metal detecting sites other than the beach, it happened to be less than 45 minutes from our house in South West Miami so I decided to visit the area and see if I could fly my drone to get some footage, I could have walked from where I parked to the actual location but it meant leaving my wife alone in a secluded area and that was not an option as she was not going to walk 5 miles in the heat and the mosquitoes of the everglades. So with the help of my drone I got some real interesting footage although limited due to distance and power (battery only lasts about 18 minutes total) and I had to have enough for the return flight. I used a screen shot from one of the video clips I took to set the background for the attached image and tried to summarize the story on the one shot, the other images came from google earth and online search. To think that until 2013 the building where the silo is located was still standing and the silo was there for anyone to see and take pictures (see attached)  well anyone willing to go a little out of the hiking trail and maybe miss the no trespassing sign made me wish I had found this information a few years before, maybe. The actual silo is about 3 miles south of the main facility. There are some photos online of the rocket in the silo even with all concrete that has been placed on top, some people just have to get that shot...

Alberto S 

By Alberto S.

Great research and image Alberto. Thanks much. Below I enlarged the text boxes so you can read it more easily on your devices.

There are abandoned places out there. Often they are off limits, but Alberto's work shows how you can effectively use a drone to scout sites.

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Mitch King found a picture of a new bracelet for sale online that is almost exactly like the heavily corroded one I posted a few days ago.

New Silver Bracelet for Sale Online.

Submitted by Mitch K.

Gaylen C. sent the following. On page 264 of  1715 Treasure: History, Manifests, Analysis, Photos by Robert Burgess there is a photo of a ring with clasped hands. Your photo shows a much higher degree of accuracy of anatomical detail than the clasped hands examples. Maybe that kind of skill could be a clue to the origin. 

Good detailed observation Gaylen! Thanks.

I'll plan to have a more detailed discussion of this subject in the future.

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Expect more hot weather and small surf.  There is no tropical storm activity expected real soon.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/13/14 Report - Reasons to Explore Zinc Penny Dip, Santa Maria Found, Bell of the Santa Maria, Space Race Archaeology

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



Pile of Recently Dug Corroded Coins.
 

Some think the wreck of Columbus' sunken flagship, the Santa Maria, has been found just north of  Haiti.  Permission is being sought to conduct an extensive archaeological survey.

Here is the link for more of that story.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/santa-maria-found-wreck-may-be-columbus-sunken-flagship-n103766


The bell of the Santa Maria, if that is indeed what it is, has been the subject of a battle between Portugal and Spain going back to 2003/2004.   The bell was supposedly being returned to Spain from the New World when the ship carrying the bell sank in Portuguese waters.

Spain claimed that the bell was stolen from them when it was recovered by a diver, and the bell was returned to Spain in 2004.  I haven't seen anything more recent on that. 

It seems there are questions not only about who should own the bell but also if it is indeed the bell of the Santa Maria.  That might be why there appears to have been no resolution to the issue, at least not that I can find.

Here is a link from 2004.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5257041#.U3GQGSDD8VQ

The story of the bell is old news but I never found out what finally happened to it or if it was proven to be the bell from the Santa Maria.



Archaeologists are surveying the deteriorating structures of the early days of the Space Race at Cape Canaveral.

http://archaeology.org/news/2101-140512-cape-canaveral-space



Above is a pile of coins recently recovered from the water.  It isn't hard to tell that they were exposed to salt water.  

That is the kind of thing you'll often find between a sand bar and the beach when the dip still contains too much loose sand and shells.  Most better targets will be deeper in a location like that.

You'll also notice some green encrusted coins in that pile, and a little junk flag pendant in the middle.

The pennies are not worth the effort, but they can provide important information.  These pennies were not recent drops but had accumulated and been sifted and sorted.  These pennies told me that there was a good bit of activity in that general area and as a result things were lost nearby in good numbers.  That is good information.  The question is then, how much deeper or in which direction would you need to go to get out of the pennies and into concentrations of better items.

Besides the information they provide about other possible targets, another reason to not ignore concentrations of finds like this, is that there can be better items in with the pennies.

Dips that contain loosely packed sand and shells and zinc pennies often also contain things like watches.  This one did - two in fact.

Most importantly, this concentration of pennies told me that better targets were probably nearby and, most likely, in good concentrations.  The better items would be deeper and perhaps off to one side or another.  If I was able to use a blower in that area to remove the loose sand, I'm certain a good number of better items would have been found.  As it was, I couldn't move the necessary amount of sand and am waiting for Mother Nature to do the job.  It might happen or it might not.  It depends upon which direction the sand moves.  In any case, I know there is one very promising spot if and when the window finally opens.

Junk Flag Charm.

I'll clean up the watches and get a photo of them.  Both seem to be in good working order.

The pennies went through a quick tumbling to remove some of the crust and corrosion.

I'm actually more interested in what is under all of the remaining sand.

Anyone recognize the flag right off?


On the Treasure Coast today we are near a full moon and the tides are more significant again.  The wind, however, is pretty directly out of the East, and the surf is up a little, to around three or four feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net