5/26/18 Report - Whatzit Coin for ID. Bottles and Huge Insulators Found. Alberto. One Reader Who Suffered Rattlesnake Bite.

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

Very Mangled Coin.

I found this very mangled coin.  It is one of the most mangled that I've seen.

The photos show more detail than the actual coin, which only shows very very little surface detail if you get the lighting just right.  In fact, looking at the actual coin, I didn't see any surface detail at all until I caught the light just right and could barely make out part of the face.  I thought it might just be a slug or blank for a long time, but after seeing part of the face, I tried to clean it some and then took the photos, and I could see much more with the photos than the unaided eye.

You can see part of the words "LIBERTY" and "GOD WE TRUST"  in the photo above.

Two Photos of the Back of the Same Coin.

The above photo appears to show "10 60" and "KES" along with a boats bow with people standing on it and a bird overhead.  At least that is what I think I'm seeing.  You have to look close.

The camera angle is slightly different and I think you can see how much difference that makes in what you can see.

I could use some help in identifying the coin.  I don't know why I need to, but it has become a bit of a puzzle for me.

It weighs more like a nickle than a quarter.  In the bottom photo, I think I can see either 2005 or 2007.

Notice how a slight change in camera angle can make additional details more clear.

By the way, these photos were created using a Cannon EOS Camera (Digital Rebel XTi) with the lens that came with it (EF-S 18 - 55mm).  No close-up lens or anything special was used.  I was pleased with the photos, and a small amount of digital enhancement.  I could see way more in the photos than I could see with just bey looking at the coin.

I'm hoping someone can tell exactly what coin that is supposed to be. Thanks.

And how do you think it got so mangled?

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I was clearing an area covered with brush and vegetation this morning and found a bunch of bottles and some insulators.

Here are a few.

A Couple Bottles Found This Morning.

The clear one is about a foot and a half tall.  I don't have any idea what it might have held.

Insulators and Bottles Found This Morning.

There were a lot of milk bottles.  You can see one of those in the background of this photo.

I haven't looked through those bottles much yet.

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I add this rattlesnake story to emphasize what I said yesterday about being careful.  In Florida we have some very deadly snakes.  Here is Brain B.'s dramatic story.


Hello,

I'll share a true story with you regarding being bitten by a rattlesnake. When I was 15,I broke my ankle playing basketball at school. The cast stayed on for 6 weeks up to my knee.I begged the doctor to take it off on the evening before Thanksgiving. I was his last patient of the day. He xrayed it and said it could come off so I could hunt Thanksgiving long weekend but wasn't due off until the following week.

The next day around 1pm before the big family dinner I was hunting up near Tomoka State park. I stepped on a palmetto fan laying on the ground. As soon as I stepped off of it something sprung up and latched onto my left calf up high near my knee.

I grabbed it and yanked it off,as my buddy ran away from my scream. I climbed a small oak quickly(funny how your brain tells you to run and get off the ground) and rolled up my pant leg. I heard the rattle then. There he was coiling around my shotgun laying on the ground.

My friend threw pine cones at it and I slid the gun to me and shot it many time. 14 rattles and maybe 7 feet in length. Fang marks were 2 1/8 apart. My buddy ran for help as I limped out of the woods with rattles in hand.At the hospital they called my parents and asked permission to treat me. Guess what? I was allergic to the horse serum as they prick you a couple times with lose dose to see how you react.I was screwed. 

They tried to get in touch with Ross Allen in Miami for a pint of his blood. No luck. For 13 days I stayed in Halifax Hospital while the venom ran its course. For the first 2 days they kept me awake, Low dose of morphine for pain. I turned black,green,yellow and blueish on half my body. My whole left side from toes to neck was twice the size of the right side. A perfect dividing line one side chest bigger than right side.

When you are allergic to horse serum there is nothing else they can do without getting someone else to give you a pint of their blood that has been bitten before and allergic to horse serum too. You body has to build up on it's own.

Yes,the doctor whom cut the cast off that evening before stopped my room as it made the papers and throughout the community. We laughed about the the timing of cast coming off early and getting bit on the same leg. For the next 3 months I was on crutches and limping along. To this day I can take a pencil tip and still pinpoint to the exact location of where the fang marks were as they are sensitive.No surgery was needed as they wanted to cut my whole leg open and remove the poison  dead tissue. I thank my dad for not allowing them to do that as my leg is 100% today and everything is normal.When you are bitten you feel light headed,like you are walking on a hot day ready to faint. You feel disoriented as the poison hits your system. Worse part? The force of the strike like punching nails into your calf with a hammer. The rest isn't bad at all. Thanks and enjoy your weekend.

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7 AM Saturday Update.
Source: nhc.noaa.gov

The path of Alberto has been steady.  It looks like it will hit the Florida Panhandle as a storm.  Probably no big deal.

It looks like we'll get some rainy days from it, but no big effect on beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/30/16 Report - Turning A Whatzit Into a Thatzit. Help Solve The DB Cooper Mystery. Reports From the T. C.

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

Dug Lead Whatzit.

What do you think it is?  I'll get back to that below.

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Darrel S. sent the following message.

Golden Sand still closed. Not much found other some junk jewelry and tabs! Beach was in 2 parts. 1st part wall 6 feet high and flat to 2nd part. 2nd wall dropped off with very low pockets or scoops. Flat out into low tide surf. The rope that we saw at Turtle Trail was past the steel wall towards Orchid Resort. 3 employees were cutting it with machetes and removing it from the beach. That is long way to travel from where we saw it on Sunday. I found 3 nice Cowrie shells. Been a long time that any good ones have been seen in this area.

Darrel and friends detected Round Island Park today and found a good bit of scrap iron and some coins.  He said it wasn't as worked as he expected.

Thanks for the reports Darrel.

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The public is being asked to help solve the DB Cooper case.

True Ink founder Geoffrey Gray says he received the case files—including evidence assessments and interviews with jet passengers—while researching a 2011 post on the hijacker, later branded DB Cooper, but couldn't review them all, per the Washington Post.

"We have access to all these original DB Cooper case files and we want help from the public, citizen sleuths to help solve this case," he says. Authorities have had almost no leads in the decades since Cooper boarded the flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle on Nov. 24, 1971. The only physical evidence is a cache of about $6,000 from the heist found along the banks of the Columbia River in 1980, and theories abound. One retired FBI agent suspects he landed in a lake and died. Others believe Cooper was really Richard McCoy, who copied Cooper's crime in 1972 and was later killed in an FBI shootout, notes Fox 13 (Or perhaps Cooper was a grocery manager from Michigan.)...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

http://www.newser.com/story/234717/db-cooper-case-could-still-be-solved-with-your-help.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=foxnews&utm_campaign=rss_science_syn

Thanks to Dean for that link.

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Did you figure out what the item shown at the top of the post is?

I dug the item not too long ago and thought I knew what it might be but I really wasn't confident about it at all.  It stayed in my TBR (To Be Researched) pile for a while. Today I did a little research and now am pretty sure that I know what it is.

Source: Odyssey Virtual Museum
See link below.

I thought it was a lead bottle collar.  If you look at the inside of the ring it has a ridge which spirals away from one edge.  A lead cap would screw onto it.

Here is what the Odyssey Virtual Museum says.

A total of 127 fragments of glass were excavated from the “Tortugas” shipwreck, including square-sectioned case bottles. The bases of these bottles are all medium olive green in color and contain air bubbles. Glass rims and neck sherds were recovered still attached to 14 lead screw collars and caps that originally sealed some of the “Tortugas” ship’s bottle mouths. Data suggests a minimum presence of 16 square-sectioned bottles on the ship...

The two-piece permanent lead collars and caps that originally closed the bottles’ mouths feature everted sides and a horizontal shoulder surmounted by a short vertical mouth. Each collar, 1.4-1.9cm high, is subdivided into two seamless elements: at top a narrow screw thread (W. 1.5-1.9cm, Th. 0.2cm) consisting of three convex external edges between two inner recessed threads for receipt of a lead cap, and below the main section (max W. 2.1-3.3cm, bottom W. 1.9-2.9cm, Th. 0.2-0.4cm) that originally covered and protected the glass bottle neck and rim. The two zones are separated by a horizontal ledge, furrowed on the lower edge. The bottom edge of the inner diameter, reflecting the bottle’s neck diameter, ranges from 1.2-1.7cm. The collar was a permanent component cast over the bottle...

Here is the link if you want to learn more about lead bottle collars and caps from shipwrecks.

http://odysseysvirtualmuseum.com/products/Lead-Screw-Collars-and-Caps.html

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We're having great weather lately.  I'm not expecting any improvement in conditions in the next couple of days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/8/14 - Dug Championship Ring, Various Other Detector Finds & $1.5 Million Olympic Gold Medal

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

Dug Championship Ring.

As I watched the Opening of the Winter Olympics last night I was reminded of some of the championship rings, pins and other sports related items that I have found.  Is it possible to find an Olympic Medal?  Likely, no, but possible, yes.  I'm sure that one way or another a few have gone missing and may be out there somewhere to be found.

One of the most valuable  Olympic medals was a gold medal won by Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics.  Jesse Owens gave one to Bojangles Robinson, and the Robinson family later sold it at auction for nearly $1.5 million.   The whereabouts of the other three medals won by Owens is currently unknown.

Oh, by the way, Olympic gold medals are not really gold.  Not since 1912 has there been a real gold Olympic medal.  Today they are just plated.

Here is a quick video with some interesting facts and history about Olympic medals.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/olympic-gold-medals-really-made-140000905.html

Whatzit find by Leonard G.

Here is a whatzit for you.  Take a look at the photo and see what you think it is?  See who can identify it.  It is a good exercise.











William M. did some research and found a new water hunting spot to try.  That area was more active back years ago than it is today, and he made a number of interesting finds.  He is excited about his new hunting area and thinks it will keep him busy for a few years.  From the finds he shows below, it does look promising.

Below are some of his finds from the new spot.

 


On the Treasure Coast today expect a two or three foot surf.  The wind will be mixed, but largely from the North.

No significant change in beach detecting conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/20/13 Report - Gold Prices Fall, Whatzit, Jewelers Loupe and Old Straten Bottle

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

Whatzit.

I've shown this find before but have never figured out what it is.  I decided to show it once again.

It was found at a circa late 1700s or early 1800s site along with musket balls, grapeshot, and British military buttons.

I don't know what metal it is.  It is fairly thin, something like a heal or toe plate, but does not show the slightest wear and does not seem to be the right size for that.  Also the holes and shape don't seem exactly right for that.

If you have any ideas what it is let me know.  A few people have offered ideas, but I don't feel like I have a positive ID yet.

Gold hit a new 3 year low at around $1200 per ounce yesterday.  Here is a nice long term chart of gold prices.

http://goldratefortoday.org/gold-charts-rates-prices/

And here less detailed chart, which shows how much in dollars gold has increased over the decades.

The source of this chart is
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-historical-price-of-gold.htm

You have to remember that a great deal of the increase in the price of gold can be explained in the decrease of the value of the dollar.

To oversimply, what you could buy in 1900 for $3.48 would have cost $100 in 2012.  So if I figure it right, close to half the change in the price of gold is due to the decrease in the value of the dollar.

Silver, of course, has been dropping as well and was down to $19.19 per ounce yesterday.


For inspecting finds, especially jewelry, I recommend using a jewelers loupe.   10X magnification is best.   Anything not seen with 10X is not used in grading diamonds.

Here are a few tips for buying and using a jewelers loupe.

http://jewelry.about.com/od/jewelryappraisal/ss/loupe.htm


I have some interesting experiments planned that I'll probably do after the holidays.  Also I'll be doing a few more polls in the near future.

Don't forget if you want a little variety and you feel like trying something other than the beaches, the Treasure Coast has a lot of places you can find old bottles.

I heard from one reader recently who is a bottle digger and he mentioned he was looking for some places to dig bottles.

Along waterways or at old sites you can find old bottles that you don't have to dig, such as the one shown here.

This small bottle is embossed Vanstan's Stratena.  It is from the 1890s and is a glue bottle.  2.5 inches tall and nice aqua.



On the Treasure Coast today we have about a three foot surf, which is expected to increase gradually up to about six feet by Christmas.  Six feet is getting close to the level where if everything else is right, we could get some improvement in beach detecting conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


  

12/22/21 Report - 7 Million Dollar Brasher Coin & Whatzits Revisited

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




1787 Brasher Doubloon. 

This beauty sold for 7.4 million dollars.

You can read more about that by using the following link.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/general/view/20111212rare_1787_gold_coin_fetches_74m/srvc=usnews&position=

Here we are  approaching the end of another year.  It is a good time to evaluate things and make improvements.

In the past I've recommended keeping good detailed records.  Have you done that?  If so, it is a good time to go over your records.  Maybe what you'll find is that you didn't do a very good job of keeping records.

When I was thinking things over, I realized that a good number of my mystery items have been identified to my great satisfaction.   There were some that remained mysterious for a long time, but thanks to my many readers, I've solved some of those.

There are however a few that remain.  One that still puzzles me even though a lot of people have offered various opinions is what I call the silver ingot.

I've posted about it before but despite the good opinions that I've received on it, I still don't feel like the mystery is solved.

Here is a front and side view.

It is silver.  I acid tested it.  It weighs 10 grams.  It appears to show a wreath, which you can see near the top of the heavily stamped "1."

I found it on a beach, but not one of the 1715 Fleet beaches.  I think it is probably not Spanish, but I don't know.  The wreath just doesn't seem Spanish and, the "1" doesn't seem like it to me.

I received thoughts that it might be a button or weight or assay sample.   The last of those seems the most likely to me, but if there are any additional thoughts you might offer about the identity of this item, please let me know. 

If it is an assay sample, the wreath could be the mark that identifies the owner, and the "1" might be the sample number.

Maybe I'll post a couple more of my unsolved mystery items in the next few days.

Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

I did find one beach yesterday that was eroded down to older layers of sand, but most of the beaches are now big and mushy.

The wind is from the south and the high tide will be pretty high.  We are near a new moon.

I'm not any real changes to the overall poor conditions real soon.   The surf web sites are predicting five foot and higher seas for week.   That is probably not going to be enough to improve conditions.

Happy hunting.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net