7/3/20 Report - EXCITING Gold Find Made on Douglas Beach Wreck. Biker Ring Find. Lessons From Liquefaction and Water Lenses.

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

Gold Pelican of Piety Artifact
Found by Captain Bonnie Schubert

If you've been reading this blog very long you might remember reading Laura Strolia's research concerning the Pelican of Piety artifact that was found by Captain Bonnie Schubert on the Douglas Beach wreck site in 2010.  As you can see from the photo above, it was missing a wing.  Well, ten years later, in 2020, Captain Henry Jones and 1st mate Tracy Newman along with Brian Fisher working on the M/V Perfect Day, found the missing wing, along with an attached segment of chain and connecting ring.

Missing Wing Found by Captain Jones and Crew of M/V Perfect Day.

Queens Jewels LLC Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez.

Thanks to Captain Jonah for sending me this news.

For Laura Strolia's research and interpretation of the Pelican of Piety artifact, see the following web site.

 https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2012/11/11412-more-revealed-on-pelican-in-piety.html 

If you want to read more about the Pelican of Piety artifact, use the search box and do a search of this blog.



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Alberto S. found this stainless steel biker ring about 10 inches deep.

Stainless Steel Biker Ring

Find and Photo by Alberto S.

Alberto also said, I also found that the heat was unbearable, good thing I carried some water with me, 2 bottles which was not good enough for a 2 hour hunt. 

If you are working out on the beach these days, be sure to take water along with you.

Thanks for sharing Alberto.

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People talk about the sun coming up or going down.  That is how they see it.  There is nothing wrong with describing it that way - unless you really want understand or describe what is really going on.  In that case, you might want to talk about how the earth moves relative to the sun.

For a long time I've been trying to move the discussion away from objects sinking in the sand.  They do sink, at times, but it is not like an item at rest will be drawn by the force of gravity alone to lower levels, which is how I would picture objects described as sinking.  It has a lot to do with the movement of the sand, which might to the eye seem relatively stationary.

The sand can move in a very obvious or very subtle way.  Sometimes it is easy to see it moving and sometimes not so much.

As you can see from the above illustration, which really gives a good description of one way that items are sorted and resorted in wet sand, resulting in stratification of layers with successive waves of pore pressure changes.

I'll leave it at that for today.  I've been trying to put together a good description of how items become stratified (you might say sink) in wet sand, but it is fairly complex and I'm going to have to invent my own descriptions and illustrations.  None of the experiments that I've seen take into account forces such as crashing waves, which is critical in many cases. That is just one of several important factors.  A crashing wave, like the passing waves shown in the above illustration, changes the pore pressure between grains.  Think about how a pressure hose can be use to set a dock pier.  The hose creates turbulence and separates grains to create a hole into which the pier can be set.

Anyhow, I'll try to elaborate on that more in future posts.

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The surf is really flat on the Treasure Coast and there are no signs of storms forming.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/27/20 Report - Cuts and Eroding Beaches That Expose Treasure. Photo Comparison. 1715 Fleet Silver Rings.

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

Seagrape Trail As It Looked Last Saturday

I distinctly remember watching Monday Night Football maybe thirty years ago when Howard Cosell commented to Dandy Don, "You have a tremendous grasp of the obvious."  It was meant as a humorous insult, but it strikes me now as something of a complement.  Advances in understanding are often made painfully slowly and often involve gaining a deeper appreciation of what was hiding in plain sight all along.

Were you ever metal detecting when a surprise wave hit you and almost knocked you off your feet?   It has happened to me numerous times over the years.   In fact I remember once actually getting knocked off my feet.  Inspiration can come with a sudden rush too.

I've talked a lot about the importance of what I call cuts.   If you looked at some of the beaches that were eroded last week, you might not have noticed any cuts, but there were cuts.  Those cuts were very high though.  The face of the dunes was cut.  At the bottom of the dunes you could see a layer of black sand over a layer of the old orangish sand exposed in some locations.

It is not often that we get a surf of over ten feet, but that happened on the Treasure Coast in both January and February.  And shipwreck treasures were found both times.

On the 22nd the high tide was bouncing off of the dunes, and the water was rushing with good force back down the slope carrying sand and other materials with it.  You can see from the photo above where probably two feet or more of sand was removed.  Old wooden posts that were previously buried were exposed, and stairs were left hanging two feet off the ground.

If you take a volume of sand two feet deep by maybe thirty by fifty yards, that is a volume of 3000 cubic yards of material being classified.  That can easily happen in one six hour tidal period, and that is undoubtedly a small part of what actually happened on the beaches that day.

So what is it about cuts that makes them so significant to the beach detectorists?  I mentioned it above.  When the water hits the face of a cut, or dune, the water rushes back down the hill with a lot of force.  If you get caught in it, you can feel how strong the flow is.  There are times when it can knock you off your feet.  That is obviously strong enough to carry sand - and other materials with it.

Yesterday I talked about the amount of water velocity required to suspend different kinds of particles and objects, and the amount of force required to transport those objects.  When the force decreases below the amount required to transport objects, they drop out and settle.

My main point today is that even though there weren't any obvious cuts on the slope of the beach last Saturday, there were cuts to the dunes at the top of the beach, and at high tide the water was bouncing off the face of the dunes and flowing down the slope, carrying sand and other objects until the flow slowed enough to drop whatever objects were being carried.

If you look at the photo above, the yellow line runs parallel to the beach.  There is something of a momentary dead spot.  The incoming water hits the water rushing back down the slope there.  But that is only momentary, as the next wave is already on the way.

Obviously that area will move as the tide comes in and goes out.  It proceeds up the hill towards the dunes during the incoming tide and then recedes down the slope and out as the tide recedes.

The red line shows how much sand has been removed from under the steps.

Compare these two photos.

It is always handy to have more than the most recent photo.   Old photos give you a base line.   You can compare different times and see what is happening.

If I know a beach is especially high, for example, then I know it will take more weather and erosion to make it productive.

The fluctuation on a beach is seldom two feet or more over a wide area.  Down at Turtle Trail, when the sand is low you can see a foot or so of the blue bags, but when the sand is high they are covered again.  There are posts down there that also appear and disappear.

Notice  the foot of the dunes and the slope right in front of the dunes in the last photo.

Thanks to DJ for those photos.

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Silver Finger Rings From the 1715 Fleet.

One of the most experienced Treasure Coast salvage divers said that no silver rings have been found on 1715 Fleet wrecks.  That is something that has interested me for a number of years, especially because of how commonly old silver rings are found on the wreck beaches.

I know of three examples of documented silver rings that have been correctly or incorrectly attributed to the 1715 Fleet.  That is such a small number that even if they are all correctly attributed, they are undoubtedly personal property rather than cargo.

Below are those I have seen listed as being from the 1715 Fleet.

1.  In Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500-1800, Vol. 2: Portable Personal Possessions, by Kathleen Deagan, a silver Claddagh ring shown on page 126 is attributed to the 1715 Fleet.

2.  In the Winter Beach Salvage Camp, by Doubglas R. Armstrong (2012 revision), on page 52 a gold plated silver ring is attributed to the 1715 Fleet.

3.  And just this year, VeroNews reported that West Bay Trading Company certified a silver ring found by Jeff Emlet on a Vero area beach as being from the 1715 Fleet.  See my 2/6/20 post, https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2020/02/2620-report-first-silver-ring-beach.html, for more information about that.

Without some type of specific markings and historical documentation, I do not know how you could tell that an isolated ring find would be from a particular fleet or wreck rather than from some other source, including, for example, contemporary salvage efforts.

In any case, I'd like to keep a list of silver rings attributed to the 1715 Fleet.   If you know  of any others, I'd like to add them to my list.  Please be specific about the source of information.

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Despite the most recent cold front, we're supposed to have nothing higher than a two or three foot surf for the next week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/8/19 Report - Difficult to Recover Targets and a Few Tips. Three Finds for Thoughts and Opinions.

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

Compass Rosette Find.

Find and photo by Trina O.

Trina O. reported this item found at Wabasso a couple days ago. It is five inches in diameter.

It looks like a compass rosette to me, but I need some help here. It seems to large for a regular hand compass. There is no hole in the middle, but I suppose the dial could be suspended. And I'd think there would be another ring around the rosette. I'd like to hear from some of you guys who have more experience with these. Does it look like it is from a functional compass?

Let me know what you think.

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Here is an mystery item (actually two) that requires more than a single photo.

Above are three different views of  the two objects that seem to have exploded at one end.  See also two closer views of the larger one below.

I've found several of these that are very similar.

They appear to be copper or copper alloy and shaped something like shell casings. There is a hole in one end, but the other end appears to be blown off.   As you can see, one exploded more completely than the other.  I thought they might be shell casings at first, but they don't look like any that I am familiar with.

The small end with the hole in the middle of it is about 3/8 inch in diameter.

The cylinder seems to expand a bit from the end, but that might be due to the force of the explosion.

Notice how the metal on the one end was blown back.

What do you think these are?

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There are some  targets that can drive you crazy.  They just don't want to stay in a sand scoop.  Some are small.  Some are light and want to float away.  Some are nimble.  And some are big or awkward.

Evasive targets can be even more evasive when you are working in rough water when there is little or no visibility.

There are small items that will continue to escape through the hole in your scoop.  There are those that keep getting swept out of the front of your scoop.  And then there are the chains.

Gold and silver chains can be very evasive.   You'll get part of a chain in your scoop, and then when you lift the scoop, there will be enough of the that is not in your scoop that the entire chain will slide out as you lift.  That is especially true of the large and heavy chains.

Small chains will snake through the hole in your scoop.  They'll also slip through a small hole in your pocket.  I once had to backtrack  nearly a mile and refind a very nice gold chain that did that to me.

Small objects can take a lot of time to corral.  One I always remember is a small gold bead that I could barely see in the sand even when I had it on my coil cover.  I kept moving it around and heard the signal but still couldn't see it.  It was about the same color as the sand and very small.

Another was a miniature copper teapot that kept slipping through the hole in my scoop. The water was rough and visibility was zero.  Rough water complicates things, because when the item slips through your scoop, it doesn't fall straight down, so you have to find it again.

Sometimes the bottom is so packed and rocky that digging is impossible.  I've described other techniques for dealing with that.

For large deep objects near the water line, one technique has helped me a lot.  Of course you can get a shovel and a buddy and dig like crazy, and you can build a little sand dike, or try to drain the hole, or line the hole with a bottomless bucket or something like that, but none of those have helped me like what I'm about to describe.

After digging the hole to as close to the object as you can get, get down on the ground and stick your hand and arm into the sand soup and feel around.  That sounds simple enough, but it really helps a lot of the time.  If you can get your hand on the object so you can feel its exact depth and location, you'll have a much better chance of getting it out.  Sometimes you can grab it and pull it out.  Be careful not to get stuck or cut.

If an object is long and thin, like a rod, due to the detector's response, you might be digging to one side or another rather than having a good idea of the rod's position.   It is difficult to get something like that in your scoop, but if you know exactly where it is at, you'll have more luck.

For flat objects, you'll have to get the tip of the scoop or shovel under the edge of the object.  If you don't know exactly where the edge is, you'll keep banging into the top of the object.

The arm stretch won't be successful every time, but it will help.  When nothing short of an excavator works, I just leave the object and keep watching for the sand to move until I can get a better shot at it.  You might be worried that someone else will get it, and that is possible, but I've seen objects like that stay in place for years before finally getting to it.

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John E. sent this photo showing the back of his mystery object along with a penny for size comparison.

My best guess is still earring even though I'm far from sure.  It looks like it would be difficult to insert.

The symbolism of the trident and water and the shape of the object make me think of fertility symbols, but that is probably way off.

What do you think?

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We'll have a little bigger surf Thursday, but a south wind.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/16/19 Report - A Chest Full of Bogota Two-Escudos. Cuts, Cliffs, Flow and Erosion.

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

Bogota Two Escudo in Sedwick Auction (Lot 30)

Source: Current Sedwick Auction Listing.

Have you heard of the Mesuno Hoard?  The Mesuno Hoard consists of Bogota two escudos from the early years of the Bogota mint.  They are mostly dated 1628 to 1635.

The hoard was found by a poor fisherman who found a chest full of gold coins in 1936 in the Magdalena River near Honda, Columbia, when he went to check his fishing lines.  He shared the coins with his two brothers.

It seems that a boat carrying a shipment of coins to Cartagena was lost in the river.  From what I've seen of photos of the river today, it wouldn't have been a large boat.

I recommend that you read the very interesting and detailed Sedwick article about the hoard.

Here is the link.

https://www.sedwickcoins.com/articles/mesuno.htm

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Yesterday I described two ways that cuts are formed on a beach.  The first is when the water hits at an angle and slices away the sand.  The second is when the water hits the beach straight on.  It seems to me that the second method does not happen often on a real beach.  Beaches don't cut real often anyhow unless there is something that makes the beach especially vulnerable, such as jetties, rocks, or renourishment sand piled where there otherwise would not be much sand.

A wave tank is obviously not exactly like a natural beach.  The wave tank has walls that channels the water both incoming and returning and also keeps the sand from spreading to the right or left.  In the wave tank, the waves are also equally spaced and of the same approximate magnitude.  At least that was the case in the video I posted yesterday.  If you watch waves hit at one of the local beaches, you will see they vary a lot.  You'll often see waves coming from two different directions.  They are not equally spaced, and as the tide comes and goes so the water moves higher and lower on the beach, unlike what was demonstrated with the wave tank.

With the cuts created in the wave tank, I observed three stages.  First there was erosion that caused the slope to become more steep.  Then the upper edge of the slope collapsed.  And then the cut increased in size and moved back on the beach.

Long ago I showed how water slamming into the face of the cliff causes slabs of sand to separate and fall to the base of the cut to be washed away by the waves that follow.  For that to continue the water level must increase or at least remain high.  If the water starts backing off, the cliff will not continue to develop.    As long as the water continues to slam into the cliff, the cut will slowly move back on the beach.

I haven't yet explained how cuts create hot spots.  I'll have to do that some another time.

If the water remains high or increases because of storm surge or an incoming tide, the water will be hitting the cliff with a lot of force and bouncing the water back down the slope.  When you have that kind of force moving back down the slope, more sand and other things will be carried with it.  The only thing to stop it would be the incoming waves.

For sand to be moved by water flowing over it, it first has to become suspended.  It takes more force to suspend sand or other materials, but once it is suspended, it takes less force to move it than it took to dislodge it from its resting place.

The sand in front of a cut will be repeatedly washed and permeated with each incoming wave.  I( believe that repeatedly crashing waves can cause liquefaction.

Here is a video showing how shaking saturated sand will behave when it is shaken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_aIm5oi5eA

This is something that I've not been able to observe, but I suspect that if the sand becomes liquefied, it will flow off the beach at a faster rate, and secondly it will fail to support the sand on the slope above it.

I observed that effect myself.  If you are near the swash area where the sand is near the edge, if you step on it, it will quickly give way.  The sand above that, which is not as saturated and firmer, will hold your weight, leaving only an impression of your foot.

When the sand gives way, the sand immediately behind it also loses some of its support.

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I know that some of you won't be very interested in beach dynamics, but I am, and if you understand it better, you'll be better able to determine when and where cuts will occurs and what will happened to the coins and other objects.  Then you'll have a better idea of where to spend your time.

I colored some grains and put them in the small surf and traced their movement.  Hopefully my video came out well and I'll be able to show you that in the near future.  I'm afraid there was too much glare on the water.

I'll also talk more about cuts and how objects will move relative to them.

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I'm sure you all saw images of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral.  Anyone interested in history had to be saddened by the loss of such a historic building.  Began nearly six hundred years before the 1715 Fleet sailed, it survived hundreds of years of history including the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, and World Wars, and was the residence of sacred relics such the Crown of Thorns, a stone from the Holy Sepulchre, and wood and a nail from the cross and many works of art, some of which were saved.


The tides are getting bigger, but there won't be much surf for several days.

Easter, if I correctly recall, falls on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the Spring equinox.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/15/19 Report - New Explanation on Beaches and Cuts. Rare Strike-Over Half-Reale Coin.

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

Cuban Half Reale Struck Over U.S. Half Dime.

Source: Sedwick Coins auction.  See link below.

Here is an interesting coin that is listed in the current Sedwick auction - a Cuba 1/2 reale that was struck over a U.S. half dime.  There are other coins in the auction that were struck over coins of other countries.

Here is the lot description for this coin.

Cuba (Mayari), silver 1/2-real(?) token with incuse MORALES above 1 over 2 denomination, made from a US Seated Liberty half dime (1800s), very rare. 1.10 grams. One of very few examples known, all believed to be made from half dimes, this one to our knowledge the only one without a hole, with oversized arms (lions/castles) covering the entire reverse and the obverse punched with MORALES H(o) in a box above an incuse 1 over 2 believed to stand for 1/2 real. Clearly from the same series are some 10 centavos (supposedly) made on US dimes with incuse 10 and also a unique 20 centavos made on a Spanish colonial 2 reales (both of those denominations with JUNIO below the number), the last-mentioned with more of the reverse design showing a clear DE MAYARI below the arms. Toned Fine with no host-coin details showing.

https://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Cuba-Mayari-silver-1-2-real-token-with-incuse-MORALES-above-1-over-2-denomination-made-from-a_i33012333

This coin is lot 1020.

There are more strike-overs in the auction.  This one already has a bid of over $2000.

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These days I often hear people say "You don't know what you don't know."  There is some truth to that, but it isn't entirely true.  I personally have an unending list of things that I know I don't know and would very much like to know.

Sometimes it is very important to know what you don't know.  I wouldn't let a podiatrist do brain surgery on me, for example.  Experts should be especially aware of their limits, and have a deep respect for the boundaries of their expertise.

I previously described how cuts are created.  The one thing that absolutely has to happen is the water has to move with enough force to carry sand down the slope and out into the water.   I've described how that happens when the water hits the beach at an angle and slices sand away.

Below I have a video that I previously posted that shows how cuts are created when the water is hitting the beach at an angle - in this case, it is an extreme angle.  After that I have an excellent and very revealing video of an experiment conducted in a wave tank that shows how a cut can be created when the water is hitting the beach directly at a ninety degree angle.

Here is a video I caught that shows how a cut occurs when water hits the beach from an angle.  In this case the water flows almost parallel to the beach.  I showed this one once before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8aCk1zC0e4

The cut is moved farther back each time the water flows along the face of the cut.  If the tide goes out and the water level drops but the water keeps hitting at a similar angle, another cut will be made lower on the beach.  You three different cuts at different levels in the video.  For a deep cut to be made the water has to keep moving along the cut for a period of time without the water level getting either much higher or lower.

That is one way a cut is created, however cuts can occur even when there is little or no angle to the water hitting the beach.

Here is a video that illustrates very clearly how a beach can erode when the water is hitting a beach straight on.  Watch closely.  This is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0C5sQ_NWs8

A wave tank is a different than a real beach in several ways, but the wave tank does help make some things clear.

If you carefully watch the beginning of the video, you can see a dip gradually form just below the highest reach of the water.  Watch from second three through nine and you will see a dip beginning to form.  The side of the dip highest on the beach continues to get steeper until finally it starts to collapse, and a small cliff (or cut) is formed.  The cliff becomes higher and moves farther back on the beach as the water continues to erode into it.  That is an excellent illustration that you couldn't see on a real beach in real time.

But that isn't all.  After the first cut, a second cut forms a little lower on the beach.  Why is there a space between the cuts, and why does the second cut form where it does?

What happens is that the sand from the first cut moves down the slope and that hump forms a steeper slope which focuses the force of the water and creates a new a new cut.

To sum it up, under specific circumstances such as those illustrated in this wave tank video, water hitting straight onto the beach CAN, under certain circumstances, cause a cut by first creating a dip that gradually increases until the slope is so steep that it begins to collapse, therefore creating a cut.

Steeper beaches return water at a speed and force that can carry sand down the slope (erosion).  Waves with less force cause lower wider beaches that deposit sand on the beach instead of pulling it back into the water.

A real beach is different in a variety of ways.  For one thing you don't have straight walls and the waves are more irregular in both shape and timing.  The beach is not straight either.  And the sand can vary in a number of ways, including grain size and compactness.

There is much more that you can see in that video if you keep watching, but that is enough to assimilate at one time.  I'll probably comment on more of what you can see in that video at some other time.  I do wish I could slow the video down.

Here is one tip if you want to study the video some more - watch the turbulent areas.

While on the subject I'll throw in one more video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05EQLQqKMGU&pbjreload=10

I didn't even get into what is special about cuts or why they are good for metal detecting.  I'll do that in the future.

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The tides are getting a little bigger.  Today there will be a small negative tide.

The surf is only around two feet.

As I recall, Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox.

I think what I posted today will help you understand beaches better.  There is more to come.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/8/19 Report - How Mammoths Were Killed by Man. Water Forces and How Objects Move on a Beach.

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

A flint point was found in a mammoth bone that provides clues about how mammoths were killed.  Here is an excerpt from that report.

"Among tens of thousands of bones, during a detailed analysis of the remains, I came across a damaged mammoth rib. It turned out that a fragment of a flint arrowhead was stuck in it. This is the first such find from the Ice Age in Europe!" - told PAP Dr. Piotr Wojtal from the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals PAS in Kraków. The analyses, co-financed with the National Science Centre grants, are conducted jointly with Dr. Jarosław Wilczyński.

Wojtal reminds that the scientific community has been discussing for years how our ancestors killed mammoths. According to some researchers, these animals were killed by trickery - chasing them to the pits or towards bluffs, from which they would fall. Others say that people focused on weaker or sick animals. Some think that mammoths were hunted...


Here is the link for more about that.

http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news%2C32358%2Ckrakow-first-evidence-europe-man-was-hunting-mammoths-discovered.html

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On different occasions I've talked about how coins and items move on a beach and the forces that move them.  Today I'll address the complexity of the water forces.

There are many different water forces that act on an item on a beach.  First of all, the water doesn't hit the beach or an individual item from just one direction.  The most obvious example is the incoming and outgoing water after each wave.  The incoming water hits in one direction, and the outgoing water, if it gets there, from another direction.  But there will often be a primary and secondary swell too, and they will hit the beach from different angles.

Not only can the water come from almost any direction, but the amount of force will vary dramatically too. The amount of force can be nearly zero or very violent.  The force of a crashing wave can be great.  That is water crashing down.  A breaking wave can also, or a passing wave can also lift sand and other items.  I've shown pictures of that before.

Considering all that, an item can be hit from almost any direction and with greatly varying amount of force, but that is not all.  The force will also be different on different parts of a single object.

I once posted a link to a video showing an experiment in which a stream of water was directed up a sandy slope and over an object that was sitting on the slope in shallow water.  The amount of force was sufficient to move the sand on the front of the object, but not enough to push the object up the slope.  The result was that the object slipped down the sandy slope in steps.  When enough sand was moved from the down-slope side of the object, the object slipped down and settled again until enough sand was moved so the object slipped down again.  As the water flowed around the object, the sand on one side (the down-slope side) was moved away until gravity moved it down the slope.

I described that experiment in more detail in a March 2014 post.  Here is the illustration and brief description of the experiment.

Object On Sandy Slope and Stream or Current Directed Up Hill.

The current pushed the sand away from the front and sides of the object as the water rushed around it.  The object then STEPPED down the slope.  I say "stepped" because it moved in small quick steps, pausing in between steps.

The current moved the sand from the front of the object but not the back of the object.  Gravity on the object and also the sand behind the object then moved the object down the slope.

The current trigger or threshold level was sufficient to move the sand in the current up the slope but gravity moved the object down the slope.

Here is the link to that post, which also described another related experiment.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2014/03/31014-report-experiments-on-movement-of.html


It might seem surprising that the object actually moved opposite the current, but that is the way it worked out.

If this was a wave, instead of a steady stream, you'd also have returning water too instead of water running in one direction, and that could move sand down the hill faster than the object moved down the hill.  And that could bury the object.

You have vastly different amounts of force at different times and locations.  The amount of force of a crashing wave can throw objects and suspend a lot of sand.

I think you can see how complex this is with the water moving  in a variety of different directions and with varying amounts of force.

How an object moves on a beach depends on how the water moves the sand in relation to other objects.  Different objects require different amounts of force to be moved.  The sand moves easier and faster and uncovers or covers objects that move at a different rate.

I've discussed that before along with the subject of thresholds and trigger rates.

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Not much surf this week.

Predicted Surf.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/23/18 Report - Beach Reports. How Coins Move On A Beach. Tips For Cache Hunting.

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

Beautiful Fort Pierce Beach Monday Morning.

Dumping More Sand and Money In The Big Black Hole. 

I went out to see what the higher surf did this weekend.  The answer is, not much.

Below are two photos of John Brooks Beach.

John Brooks Beach Monday Morning Near Low Tide.

There were some small scallops and peaks here.  You can see that in the photos.

The beach down near the water was pretty firm and flat.  Even zinc pennies were down a few inches.

The sand bar was out in front of the beach some thirty or so yards.

Notice the sea weed.

John Brooks Beach Near Low Tide Monday Morning.

A little farther south where there were some decent cuts back not too long ago, a lot of sand had accumulated and filled the cuts.

Blind Creek Beach.

There were good numbers of modern clad coins in the dry sand and a few in the wet sand this morning.  Those in the wet sand were at least a few inches deep.

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I don't generally post YouTube videos, but it has been a while since I talked about the movement of sand and other objects, and SuperRick made this video that shows how a coin can quickly move in the shallow water near the water line.  I've observed the same thing and talked about it before, but this shows it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttcQacW3F90&feature=youtu.be

Thanks Rick.

A coin that has just been uncovered so that it is on the surface can move quickly.  There are times when I'll throw a coin in the surf and track it just to observe how things are moving, particularly in front of a cut where there is a concentration of coins.

Back some time ago I did an experiment to determine what factors determine how much items are moved by the water.

Here is that link.

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2013/08/8513-report-what-actually-determines.html

Everybody talks about weight, but as I've explained many times, it isn't weight.  A ton of styrofoam still floats.  It is more about density and the shape of the object.

And here is a post about five ways coins move on a beach.

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2015/07/7115-report-five-ways-coins-move-on.html

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A couple people offered good suggestions for hunting in an area like the area where the ten dollar gold coin was found in a canning jar.

Dan B. suggested tuning into the canning jar and looking for more.  Since the jar was found under a piece of concrete he also suggested probing for concrete.  Good ideas.

You'll also recall the sifting experiment done by one reader that showed that only a small percent of the coins buried in one lot were found by repeated metal detecting sessions.  I featured that post for a while.  That reader also suggested that there were most likely much more buried at that site.  That is something I believe too.  There will be more on that in the future.

---

My Comcast has been out more than it has been working for several days now.  Really a pain.


The surf will be decreasing gradually for a few days.  I don't expect to see any improvement in beach conditions any time soon.

I'd really love to see some good cuts into old sand.  They have been very scarce the past couple of years.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/26/17 Report - An Important Experiment That Helps Explain When Beaches Will Erode. A Little More Erosion On One Beach.

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

John Brooks Saturday Afternoon.

This is one place along the Treasure Coast that shows a cut.  Friday I showed the same beach, but nearer to high tide.

John Brooks Beach Friday Near Low Tide.

Between Saturday morning and the Friday low tide, another half foot had been added to the cut at John Brooks.  The slope was not as mushy either.

Another beach I looked at was not cut at all, but was showing an area that would have probably produced at least some modern coins if I had made the walk.  It was a good ways off.

---

From time to time I talk about how beach sand moves.  I've referred to how crashing waves push water into the sand and put pressure between particles of sand.  I found a good YouTube experiment that hows how water with some velocity saturates and and how the process can actually lift sand particles.  You might remember the photo that I posted in which in looked like sand was actually being sucked up into a wave.  This experiment might help you better visualize how that happens.

The experiment shows how sand will be moved.  If you remember my post on sand liquefaction, this is something like that.  The result is "sand shearing."  Sand shearing, I recently discovered, is the technical term for one way that sand moves.

Water Poured Into  Sand Contained in a Transparent Container \
Source: YouTube video link below.

The above illustration clearly shows what I imagined must happen and what I tried to describe before.  In the middle where the most water is hitting, you see two things.  One is that the water is penetrating the sand.  That is hardly surprising.  Notice also that the sand is pushed out from the area of greatest force on the surface of the sand.  Sand is also lifted there.

So what does that have to do with metal detecting?  Imagine a coin sitting on the surface of the sand when a wave hits the same spot.  The coin, unless the force is so great that the coin is lifted too, would slip down into the depression and eventually be covered.

There is another thing to consider as well.  When the sand is lifted, it will be easily swept away by water moving over the surface.

On a day when the surf is not so rough, the waves are breaking out in front of the beach.  When the waves are bigger and the tide is up, the waves will crash farther up on the beach.  When that happens, the sand will wash away quickly.

When the water is hitting with force any type of cliff from any erosion that has already occurred, the erosion will occur quickly due to the water bouncing back off the cliff and washing disturbed sand down the slope at a relatively rapid rate.

On calmer days when the water is washing up the slope, sand and other materials that are easily lifted and moved will wash up onto the slope.  The water force will slow as the water goes up the slope and the sand will be deposited.  The water washing down the slope will be even less forceful, due to water sinking into the sand.

Here is the link to the video.  There is more to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCJLuB0NgcI

If you remember my discussions of trigger points, the water must be moving with enough force to move both sand and coins for coins to wash in.  (I'm not talking about coins being uncovered or washing out now.) While the force diminishes, the coins will settle or drop out of the flow while the sand is being moved.  The sand will settle out at some other location where the force diminishes even more.

I hope these experiments help you to visualize what I've been talking about.  The technical terms make it much easier for me to talk about my observations.

Sand shear or soil shear are two good terms that I'll be using more in the future.

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It looks like we'll have a three to five foot surf for a few days.  The wind will be from the east.  That isn't promising, but we'll have bigger tides later in the week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/7/14 Million Dollar Coin Found by Detectorist. How Objects Sink Very Quickly Into Beach Sand.

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

Very Rare Coin Found by Detectorist.

I hope you enjoyed seeing all of the fantastic Treasure Coast treasure finds sent in by  Captain Jonah.  Things like that are still out there to be found.  If you didn't see them, you'll want to go back to the previous two posts.


The threepenny piece shown here was struck in Boston, Massachusetts back around 1652 and is one of the first coins struck in what would become the US.  The coin was recently found by a detectorist in England.  Nobody knows how it ended up over there.

The coin, expected to be worth nearly 1.5 million US dollars, was dug by a detectorist who did not know how rare and valuable it could be.  He put it in a jar and lost track of it for a bit.

The coin is a real rarity in any condition, but to top it all off, this one is in amazing condition.

Here is the link to the article about that.   I think you'll enjoy reading it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2745782/Minted-Dug-Midlands-field-1m-perfect-US-threepenny-bit-time-Pilgrim-Fathers.html

The detectorist and landowner will split the proceeds.  The coin is not claimed by England because it is a single coin and not a hoard.  

I wish we had something more like their antiquities laws.

One of the things about this story that is very interesting to me and very relevant to any detectorist is that nobody expected such a rare US coin to be found in England.  Things don't always pop up where you expect them.  It is possible to find a rare coin from England or any other country right here on the Treasure Coast.  It doesn't have to be a US coin, or even a Spanish cob.  You just never know!

Many thanks to Peter H. who sent this link.  He is one of our detecting friends from across the big pond. 


My 9/4/14 post, which discussed how objects sink in beach sand, received the most +1s of any of my posts.  I'll continue with that topic today.

A few days ago I showed how moving water would suspend a layer of sand and cause a coin or ring to sink.  How far the item would sink was very much determined by how fast the water moved, and how much sand was suspended and moved by the current. 

As I showed in my simple demonstration, the objects sank down to a stable layer of sand and stopped there.  I didn't see any relationship between the amount of time the water and sand moved and depth other than the very short amount of time that was needed for the objects to reach the stable layer of sand.  After that the object sank no more.

If this was the only way that objects like coins and rings sank into beach sand, it might take numerous periods of rough seas for an object to eventually sink through enough layers of sand to reach bedrock.  That is not the only way that objects sink though.  There is another thing that causes objects to sink more quickly.

You might have read articles about objects sinking into beach sand very quickly.  I've read reports that seem fantastically unbelievable.  I have however observed something that makes objects sink more quickly than the type of currents I talked about a few days ago.

When I circulated water and sand in a cup, it took seconds for the test objects to sink a mere eighth of an inch.  However, when water was forced down on the sand, rather than simply circulated as a current would do, the sand was quickly suspended and the objects sank much faster.

Here are two very short videos showing what I am talking about.  The only difference between the two videos is the amount of water force.  Take a look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36tgNx9a8Fg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESSOdH78eic

The results were amazing.  In that one second or so when the water was on, the objects sank an inch or more.  The rate of sinking was many times faster than when the water was circulated horizontally as was the case in my previous experiments.

After turning the water off, I stuck my finger into the sand to find where the objects went and found them down an inch or more.  Each time I repeated this experiment, the results were very similar.  The more force, the deeper the objects sank.

It appears that the downward force of water disturbs sand to deeper levels and suspends sand more quickly than horizontally circulating water, and as a result the objects sank more quickly.

How does that apply to a beach?  Waves crash with a similar downward force.  That happens not once, but repeatedly.  Each crashing wave disturbs and suspends sand.

As the tides go in and out the waves will crash at a slightly different place.  That means a wide area will be affected during each tidal cycle. 

If you have ever observed how they build a dock in the river, you might have seen them pump water downward, pushing sand up and out so that the post can be inserted down to bedrock.  This is a very similar effect.  When the sand is being suspended by the forced water, the post is easily pushed in, but once the post is in place it remains very stable in the sand.  (Bedrock in the river is about six feet deep.)

So now I have described two different types of forces that make objects sink in beach sand.  One is the horizontal current that suspends and moves sand, and the other is the vertical force of crashing waves.

When a wave crashes, sand is suspended, then the water rushes in towards shore, carrying sand with it.

I observed this very clearly on a beach recently when the waves were crashing on a sand bar and a flat layer of sand was being washed in towards shore where it was beginning to fill a small dip.  The front edge of the moving sand was very obvious.  (That was the day my camera batteries were dead.)

I posted this picture of that same beach back in my 8/13/14 post, but now I have a much better appreciation of the forces, how the sand is moved and how objects sink.

Notice the red line where the waves were crashing.  The waves look big, but they were less than two feet on that particular day.  Where the waves crashed, sand was kicked up, very much like in the two videos above. 

Any objects under a crashing wave could sink inches, and maybe more. 

Add to that the fact that the sand would only partially settle before being hit again.  Some of the suspended sand would then be pushed towards shore where it would settle. 

After a wave, the water rushing back out is not moving with as much force as the incoming water and is met by more incoming water.

Another thing to point out is that in the situation shown in the illustration the waves are nearly parallel to the beach.  There is no angle to slice away beach sand.

After objects sink deeply, they will likely remain put until they are uncovered again.  If there is a storm and the water rises and the waves crash on the beach or near shore buried objects can be uncovered again.


On the Treasure Coast we still have a small surf.  There is some weather that has very slight chance of developing into a cyclone over North Florida and another disturbance that is still closer to Africa.  It won't get here for several days, if at all.

We'll have a small surf through most of this week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

9/4/14 Report - How Coins and Rings Sink In Beach Sand. Targets Only Sink As Far As The Disturbed Layer.

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

Same Cup of Water and Sand
Shown Yesterday.

Just in:  I have some great new pictures of treasure ship finds sent by Captain Jonah!   Probably tomorrow.


I accidentally did an ingenious experiment.  I should probably call it an observation rather than an experiment.  I'll get back to that in just a minute. 

I always enjoy receiving emails from this blog's readers.  They are an educated and intelligent bunch.

Yesterday I talked about how objects of interest sink in sand.  I received an email from Bill F., who has a degree in physical oceanography and did his undergrad thesis on beach erosion at Ponce Inlet.  

Here is some of what Bill said.

1)  The finer the sand particle, the flatter the beach
2)  The faster the current, the bigger the particles which are moved
3)  As you show, without wave/water energy, objects don't settle on their own.
4)  The heavier/denser an object, the less likely it is to move horizontally.
5)  Shape makes a difference.

Thanks Bill!   Those are some good points to remember.


Above is a picture of the same cup that I showed yesterday.  The ring and coin in this cup never sank so much as a micro inch while it sat undisturbed.   That clearly demonstrates one thing Bill said -  without wave/water energy, objects don't settle on their own. 

I decided to see what it actually takes for objects to sink in the sand.  I put my hand over the cup and moved the cup in a semi-circular motion so that the water moved.  When the water moved the very top layer of sand lifted and the suspended sand moved with the water while the objects pretty much stayed in place.  When I stopped, a little sand covered the objects, but very little.  With gentle only the sand above the green line moved.  This is important, and I'll get back to it.

When the objects got covered there were a couple of ways I could tell how deeply they got covered.  You'll notice that the surface of the sand in the cup (below the yellow line) is not exactly horizontal. 
A perfectly circular even motion moved the water so that the sand remained level across the cup, but by moving in a more jerky  manner resulted in the sand moving from one side to the other of the cup to the other. 

I could see how deeply the objects got buried either by sticking my finger in and finding the objects or I tilting the cup and moving it so that the sand then uncovered one side and one object.   I could then see where the previously covered object had stopped sinking.  

Here is an important point.  The amount of sand that moved when I moved the cup was directly related to how fast I moved the cup and therefore how fast the water moved. 

I had no idea how important it was going to be for me to be able to see through the container when I started this experiment. 

When moving the cup gently, a small amount of sand moved - only a thin layer.  Approximately the amount of sand above the green line which I drew on the picture of the cup moved when I moved the cup gently.  The top of that layer moved the most, decreasing as the moving layer got deeper until there was no suspension and movement of sand at all.

The fastest moving sand was clearly suspended, and the grains appeared farther apart than the grains that were lower in the moving layer, which moved more slowly and less overall.

 How deep do you think the objects sank in the sand when the cup was moved gently?   Now this is an important principle.  The objects sank to the surface of the layer of stable sand, and then stayed there.

I recalled how many times in the past few years that I dug an object and found it on the surface of a lower layer of sand.  If you go back through this blog I'm sure you can find that.  Often the lower layer was a different color or texture.  Often it was a layer composed of course shells.

That might not be surprising finding, but it sure was interesting to see.  I could keep the water moving at a relatively slow rate and no more sand would be suspended or moved.  No matter how long I kept the water moving at the same speed, the objects sank no deeper than to the surface of the layer of stable sand.

I know this is not a highly controlled experiment and what happens on a beach will be somewhat different, but in I think this principle will hold.  Just like in the previous report, the objects did not sink into the undisturbed sand no matter how long they sat there in the cup.  In this demonstration the objects did not sink into undisturbed sand even though they did sink through the suspended moving sand.

Here are a few observations that held up all through these demonstrations with the moving cup.

 (1) Only a relatively thin layer of sand was disturbed by the moving water. 
(2)  When the cup and water was moved more forcefully, a larger layer of sand was moved.
(3)  The speed of the sand decreased in the moving layer of sand from top to bottom until there was no movement at the bottom of the layer.

At first I moved the cup gently and only the layer above he green line moved, but when I moved the cup more forcefully, then the sand moved as deep as the light blue line, and that is where the objects ended up, and when I moved it even more forcefully, the sand moved as deeply as the dark blue line, and that is about where the objects ended up.

On the beach, different storms will disturb deeper layers of sand allowing targets to sink deeper.  They will then often be covered again by incoming sand. 

In this demonstration I'm only addressing sinking targets, which occurs primarily when the trigger point for sand is reached but not the trigger point for targets. 

This simple experiment has many limitations, but it reveals some important principles that I've observed in operation on the beach.  I reasoned that objects in deeper layers of undisturbed sand would remain in place, but with this demonstration I observed it and am much more certain of it.

Another thing I observed with this little experiment is how it is only suspended sand that moves.  I could see this on the beach just yesterday.  The waves were crashing on a sand bar.  In front of the sand bar was what I might call a flat topped creeping sand bar.  You could see a clear edge of a layer of sand that was moving from the crash zone towards shore.  The crash would suspend sand, and then that suspended sand would be washed ahead in the surge.

Where the sand was suspended, you couldn't see through the water.  That makes sense.  But closer to shore, where there was a dip beyond the creeping sand bar, and the water there was clear.  That is where I found a couple of relatively new coins that had not yet been covered by the incoming tide and creeping sand bar. 

As the tide comes in, the area where the waves crash and most sand is suspended closer to shore.  Obviously that means that a greater area of sand is affected.  The crash zone changes and the area of surge comes in and then goes out again.

If you've spent much time down in the Fort Lauderdale and Miami area, you know that they have much more calm water than we do.  Many days the shallow water sits still almost like you are in a bath tub, especially before the sun starts to heat things up.   The shallow water on the Treasure Coast seldom has that kind of flat water even when the surf is down to one foot.  That small difference in roughness appears to make a big difference in the average sink rate of targets.  They'll stay in detector range down there a lot longer than on the Treasure Coast.  Couple that with the absolute number of people and what they wear and there is an even bigger difference between South Florida and the Treasure Coast.  Bottom conditions are very different.

Well, I'll quit there for today.  This is getting long.  The principles demonstrated are important and help explain how things settle and therefore how and where things will be found.  I know that I did not address all of the relevant factors and situations. 

I'll do some more experiments someday to help answer some of the remaining questions.

I'm sure some of you will find this post tedious although several of you used the +1 button to indicate that you particularly liked the previous post.  For my own purposes and understanding, I'm glad I did the demonstration.


There are no storms to watch in the Atlantic right now.

On the Treasure Coast we still have a one foot surf and will continue to have a calm surf for at least a few more days.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@Comcast.net