11/23/17 - Another Kind of Treasure Coast Treasure: Fossils. Easter Island Stones. Sampling. Happy Thanksgiving!

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

Vintage Post Card OriginallyReceived by My Grandfather in 1909.

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Did you notice that this Megalodon tooth fossil received a winning bid of $550 in the recently concluded Sedwick treasure auction?

Auction Listing From Sedwick Auction 22

I showed that to remind you that there are other types of treasure on the Treasure Coast besides coins and artifacts.  You can find fossils all the way along the Treasure Coast.  I've seen fossils on most of the beaches.  Some beaches provide more fossils than others, of course, but you can find fossil shark teeth, as well as rhinoceros, giant sloth, camel and even mastodon bones on the Treasure Coast.

This meg tooth is more valuable than the vast majority of what you might find, but there are valuable fossils to find, and if you like finding old stuff, you should know that Treasure Coast fossils can be millions of years old.

Below are a couple of fossils I picked up the last time I was at the beach.  Beach conditions were not good for finding fossils, but I noticed them along the way.  They aren't really worth anything, but it shows that fossils are out there.

Matrix Containing a Few Pieces of Fossil Bone.

On the left bottom of the photo above is a vertebra.  At the top is larger piece of fossil that I have not yet identified.

Larger Piece of Broken Fossil Bone.

This one is larger and a little unusual because of the two colors.

Keep your eyes open.  You never know when you might see a nice shark tooth or something else nice.

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There is always more than meets the eye.  You've seen the huge stone heads of Easter island. but they are actually more than heads.  They have bodies too.  The bodies were buried over a period of about 500 years by natural processes. They didn't sink - at least not much.  They sit on rock foundations where they were originally carved and then raised from horizontal to vertical.

Here is the link.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/07/26/famous-easter-island-heads-have-hidden-bodies/#220cb45af804

People wonder how huge stone blocks like these could have been moved.  In this case they weren't moved - at least not far.  They were carved on location and then flipped up.

Use your head and save your back.

Speaking of which, I was glad to see on a recent episode of Oak Island that the fellows FINALLY decided to do things a bit more systematically and methodically.   They finally drilled a grid of holes to do some testing and sampling.  I've been screaming at the TV for them to do that for at least a couple of years.  I felt the same way when the Hoffman's ( I think) finally had Tony Beets (sp) do some serious core sampling.

In the past I've done a few posts on sampling.  Sampling can save a lot of time.  Very important concept.

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Here is a sad article.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/18/wwii-veteran-calls-for-help-and-dies-as-nurses-laugh-video-shows.html

While you are being thankful, express your gratitude by being kind, especially to those who need it most.

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Today we'll have a three to five foot surf.  The next few days the surf will be decreasing.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/14/15 Report - Finds On An Inland Hunt. ID Help Requested. Surf Increasing On Treasure Coast

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

Mystery Item.
What do you think it is?

As I said the other day, I was up north recently and did some detecting in an area that has a wooded path up a hillside that has been more or less continually used for hundreds of years.  Everything from Indian artifacts to yesterdays losses are found there.  That makes it difficult to tell what era unidentified finds might be from.

Here is one find that I'd like help in identifying.  The most obvious answer is drawer knob, although it is a little unusual for that.  For one thing, I think it is iron.  Another thing is that it is slanted oddly.

I'd like to hear your opinions on what it is.

Another item found along the path is this ring.  It is not silver or gold.  I think it is older and still needs some more cleaning.

The last ring I found on this path was a 1930s gold high school class ring.

I can not see how these stones are mounted.  I've looked at it under close magnification, but part of it is still encrusted.

It is a rather large size.  Too large to be a child's ring.  The band is broken and bent in.  It was in compacted rock and soil.



Copper coins found in this area are usually very corroded and many are unreadable.

Below are a few examples of that.

1939 Penny.

Totally Unreadable
Maybe Penny.

Barely Readable 1946 Nickle.

Here comes the exception.  The above coins were typical.  Not very readable.  Then comes this silver dime out of compact rock and soil just like it is shown.  I did not clean it or anything.

1957 Dime As Dug.

It still blows my mind.

This is the same general area where I found the 1829 large cent a year or so ago.

The silver Rosie would have about a dollar of melt value and a few dollars for collector value.

There were other finds.  I should have the good one ready for you soon.

There were a couple of things that struck me about this hunt.  One is that the path is not hunted out yet despite the number of times it has been detected, and not only by me.

The heavy weed coverage that protected the sides of the path in the spring was now gone.  That allowed me to detect where I couldn't easily detect then.  There is a seasonal aspect to hunting there.  Of course, the path will soon be covered by ice and snow.

Another thing that struck me, is how certain areas produced and others didn't.

On one side of the path there is a hump having a few inches of rock and soil over top of a layer of yellow clay.  The used part of the path is much lower, in some places a foot or so.  And on the other side of the path is a hill.  At the bottom of the hill on that side of the path, there were no targets other than junk. Old items were deeply buried beyond detector range there.

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On the Treasure Coast the surf is increasing.  We're supposed to get something like five feet today and six tomorrow.

The wind was coming from the northeast or a while.

I hope to get out to see what is happening on the beach.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net