11/4 Report - Insulators & Stuff

Two Insulators Found on the Treasure Coast.

Here are two of many insulators that were found on the Treasure Coast. The one on the right still has the metal mounting and so could be detected with a metal detector. The other one, like most found insulators, does not have any metal attachments and would probably be a surface find.

I often remind detectorists to keep their eyes open when they detect.

Kovels Komments reported on some insulators that recently brought good prices.

Here's What they said.

"Insulators like the ones found on the top of old telephone poles are often overlooked by those who have not been introduced to them. But insulators, fire grenades, target balls, lightning rod balls and other glass made for industry in past years are now collected. A fall Glass Discoveries & Pole Top Discoveries auction by Ray Klingensmith brought amazing prices--especially amazing for those who are unfamiliar with the hobby. A CD 726 red insulator sold for $24,640 ("CD" stands for "Consolidated Design"). A CD 726 cornflower blue example was $8,400. And a bright aqua CD 736 E.R.W. (Erie Railway) insulator with a threadless bracket brought $10,080."

Those are some pretty nice prices. Of course, most common insulators are not worth anything like that, yet they make a nice collection and are often worth picking up.

I personally like insulators.

I mentioned the other day about the effect of the falling dollar. Here is a link to a story on how that is causing the prices of things like food to increase.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/fed-policy-sinks-dollar-commodity-prices-soar/19701878/

Forecast and Conditions.

Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.

It's still sandy out there, and it is raining this morning.

It seemed like a strange morning to me. First off, it didn't get light until late because of the clouds in the East. And the beach accesses weren't opened until about 8:00 or later in St. Lucie County. I don't know why that was, but there was a helicopter very closely inspecting the beach from the Fort Pierce inlet down towards the St. Lucie inlet. It looked like the Sheriff's office to me. I guess there might have been a drug drop or something.

There is still a lot of sand protecting the front of the beach. At high tide the surf is breaking on the bottom of the beach in many places. That should stir some things up.

The high tides are really nice and high now, and the swells are hitting the beach from the southeast.

I would expect some piles of lighter materials to show up at low tide at some locations.

We're still expecting six foot seas around Sunday.

Tomas hasn't moved much yet and seems to be headed in the same direction.

Oh, before I quit, here is the helicopter that was scanning the beach this morning.



Too bad I don't have one of these.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/3 Report - Collecting Modern US Coins & Checking Your Sweep Speed

Coin Holders.

You can purchase coin holders like these to store pennies, dimes, nickels, quarters, etc. You can get holders for older coins as well as newer coins. There are holders with preprinted dates and mints,and there are also holders without labeled slots that you can label yourself

One good way to use these holders is to put your best coins in the proper slots for each date and mint. As you find duplicates of particular dates/mints that are in better condition than the ones already in the slots, you can replace the old coin with the better coin and upgrade your collection.

If you get enough, you can start a second or even third holder with good quality coins.

Not only is this a nice way to store your coins, but it will also help you take the time to examine your finds more thoroughly as you check the dates and mint marks, notice any die errors and check for key dates.

It can be almost as much fun to explore your finds and create a nice collection as it is to hunt them. Keeping your coins like this makes finding modern US coins a little more interesting while you wait to find that big gold cob cache.

Today the US is going to print from 500 billion to 1 trillion dollars. That means the dollars in your pocket or that you are working for are worth less. Commodity prices, including gold and silver, will probably go up as a result, as will the price of groceries and almost everything else.

If you have gold and silver, you might consider holding it for a while - at least as long as the dollar keeps falling. If you buy ten boxes of cereal or other food stuffs that will not spoil, you will probably save some money. Some cereal companies have already announced that they will be increasing prices soon. I would expect commodities of many types to show increasing prices.

I've noticed lately that I've been switching back and forth frequently between discrinimate mode and pinpoint mode as I detect. There are times when one mode will do the best job and times when the other would be best. Even when I switch to discriminate mode, I don't use anything more than the minimal setting on the discrimination setting. When you switch modes, you might also have to adjust your sweep speed for best results.

If you haven't done it lately, check your sweep speed. Put an object on the ground and sweep the coil over it at various speeds until you find the speed that gives the best signal. You can also vary the sweep speed over a buried target to determine the best sweep speed of various targets under various conditions.

You might be surprised by the results.

Forecast and Conditions.

The high tide is predicted to be unusually high today. That could help churn stuff up on the front of the beach.

The high seas that were earlier predicted for the weekend are now predicted to be a little later, hitting a peak on Sunday. They are now saying we will probably see about 6.5 foot seas at the peak now. That isn't bad. It's about borderline. If the wind is right, it could be good.

Tomas is headed between Cuba and the Dominican Republic and back out to sea.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

11/2/10 Report - Mystery Clay Artifacts & Inca Gold

Artifact Found in Association with Musket Balls and Other 18th and 19th Century Artifacts.

This was found in an area where a battle took place around 1800. Of course, it could be from a later or much earlier time period. There were a number of these items. All had holes like the one in the photo, and all were about the same size and shape, but not exactly the same shape. They are made out of clay similar to olive jars. I never figured out what they are and would gladly receive an ideas.


A few Days ago I mentioned a site that provides photos and information on the Jupiter are beaches. If you are down that way or thinking of making a trip, you can use that site to get an idea of the condition of those beaches.

That site is now linked to this blog. You will find it listed to the left of my posts under the Tide and Surf Projection section.


Todd S. sent me an email with some good information including one tip that I've never mentioned. Todd uses a stainless steel scoop with a wood post-hole digger handle. He says, "I took off the shovel and drill out a number of places (size of a dime) in which I expoxied a few neod. rare earth magnets. Reinstall the wooden handle back on and it is fantastic."

By using magnets in the scoop, you can quickly locate and capture any small iron items in your scoop. That will save you time in the field.

I have a limited amount of field time and like to make the most of my time in the field. As a result, I don't spend a lot of time looking at finds until I get home. I do look at finds close enough to determine if they might provide any clues to where and how I should be detecting, but otherwise I wait to further inspect finds more closely when I get home.

Supposedly there could still be a hoard of lost Inca gold to be discovered. At least that is what a National Geographic article suggests. I'm sure there are some, but as for this story, you'll have to judge for yourself.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/guides/history/ancient/lost-inca-gold.html

Interesting story anyhow. Makes you want to go on a field trip.

Forecast and Conditions.

The wind is now from the southeast and the seas are about three to four feet. I'm downgrading my beach conditions rating back to a 1.

The high seas that were projected for 7.5 feet for Saturday have now been reduced. The surf web sites have a definite systematic error. I've been watching this long enough to know that about ninety percent of the time, seas projected to peak in about six or seven days, are reduced as the time draw near. It happened again, and now they are projecting only about six foot seas. I wouldn't be surprised to see further reductions in the next couple of days, even though I wish we would get 6 to 8foot seas. I'm not expecting much though. Maybe things will change.

You have to stay on top of it. Good days for beach detecting have been so few lately that you don't want to miss one when it actually occurs.

In the mean time, there is a lot to do. Try something different. Or go after modern coins and jewelry or do some research and scout around a bit.

Here is the projected path of Tomas.



Don't forget to vote.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/1/10 Report - More Sand & Gold Bird From 1715 Fleet Video

Shipwreck Beach South of Fort Pierce This Morning.

The St. Lucie County beaches didn't look very good this morning as you can see from the photo. A lot of sand accumulated on the front beach, which was at some spots very mushy.

I did see one beach that had a very small cut and had a hard packed front, but the sand was still piled pretty high and there weren't many targets.

The water got up to the base of the larger cut that occurred some time ago and the more recent cut was washed over.

If you haven't seen it, here is the ABC coverage of the Fort Pierce gold bird (Pelican in Her Piety) find from the Nieves site.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/sunken-ship-yields-gold-treasure-in-florida-11996287

It doesn't look exactly like a pelican but if you look at the stylized images that follow you can see that many bear a striking resemblance to the found bird.

http://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=pelican in her piety&v_t=keyword_rollover

I suspect that besides the missing wing, there are other items that would accompany this artifact that hasn't been found yet.

I've posted a lot about sunken ships, of course, but I just had a new experience. I watched a video taken by divers on a sunken ship that for a while I thought my deceased father served on in WWII. It was a small wood minesweeper that literally went around the world and crossed both the Atlantic and Pacific. Wherever the big ships were headed, the minesweepers had already been.

The ship in the video turned out to not be the one my father served, on but was very similar, yet for those few moments of watching the divers video the ship, I couldn't help but thinking about my father once walking the deck of that sunken ship.

As it turns out, he didn't, but other young men, most of whom are now gone, did. That experience was a very personal and moving experience for me, and it reminded me that all of those sunken ships, no matter how long ago they sailed, were once manned by real people with families and dreams. Maybe we should take a moment to really remember and appreciate that fact when we pick up a coin or an artifact on a beach. Remember that those objects are more than simply lumps of wood, iron, silver or gold.

Here is the link if you want to see the video of that sunken ship.

http://www.pugetsounddivers.com/journal/2010/10/2/wwii-minesweeper-yms-105-gypsy-queen.html

Forecast and Conditions.

As I mentioned above, the beaches that I saw today didn't look very good. I don't know if the beaches up north are any better. I suspect not, but I don't know.

The high tides are still nice and high, and the wind is now out of the northeast.

It looks like seas will run about four feet through the week. That isn't very promising, but next weekend it looks like we might get some action. The surf web sites are predicting 7.5 foot seas on Saturday. If that actually happens it could get good - depending upon other factors, of course.

That's it for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/30 Report - Beaches Neither Trick Nor Treat

Beach at Turtle Trail This Morning.


The entire Treasure Coast looks pretty much the same. You can see the remains of cuts from two previous times - slightly larger cuts towards the dunes and in front of that some smaller cuts made last weekend.

The low tide shows a low flat beach front and in front of that a lot of sand. The low tide zone is worth detecting. I'm surprised by how many coins and things are still out there considering how much these beaches are hunted. I would think those heavily hunted areas would be more cleaned out.

I guess they weren't the easiest targets, though. Most are several inches deep and do not give the clearest signals. They are signals that could easily be missed if you are moving too fast or being a little sloppy.

At Corrigans, and from what I've seen, in many places on the Treasure Coast, there was a layer of sand over a layer of shells. The shell layer was typically down a little over six inches. It seemed like the targets were in the top of the layer of shells.

They weren't the easiest targets to dig either. The sand was packed and the water was coming up and filling the holes.

I recommended searching the low-tide areas the other day, and I would still recommend the same. There are coins and things out there.



British cannons and cannon balls were uncovered on the waterfront in Kingston Jamaica. In a rare statement of common sense, they decided to allow development to continue because all of Jamaica could be made into a historic preservation site, which would leave no place to "live and work."

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20101028/news/news1.html


The remains of a Civil War tugboat, the USS Narcissus that exploded in 1866, was uncovered near Edgmont Key. Previously, little of the wreck was visible, but shifting sands have revealed more of the wreck.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/oct/28/281610/shipwreck-near-fort-de-soto-may-receive-state-desi/news-breaking/

Forecast.

So far the beach conditions do not qualify as either a trick or a treat. It's sort of middling. Conditions aren't terrible, and there actually is some possibility of something good popping up, but conditions aren't great either. I'm sticking with my 2 level Treasure Coast Beach Conditions Rating, which as you probably know by now, is on a five point scale.

For the forecast, the peak seas for this weekend are now expected to be about five feet. That probably won't help much, but if we can get just a little improvement on the beach fronts, there should be continued decent hunting in the low tide zone.

I'm not expecting much of an improvement in conditions, but am hoping there is no further deterioration.

There is one hurricane out there. At least I think it is now a hurricane - Tomas. It looks like Tomas is headed for either Cuba or Central America and so will probably not affect us much.

Have fun,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/29 Report - Blackbeard's Skeleton Dog & Various Sunken Treasures

Black Beard's Dog?

I just thought this was a great image for Halloween. I've posted it before. If I remember correctly, it is a dog skeleton found on the Queen Anne's Revenge wreck site, and could therefore be Blackbeard's dog.

Looks like he is still guarding the treasure.

For information on that wreck and the salvage efforts, archaeology, artifacts and conservation, here is the link. It is a good site with a lot of good information.

http://www.qaronline.org/

There has been much discussion about how the the HMS Victory should be handed since Odyssey Marine discovered and identified that important wreck. While some prefer to keep wrecks on the bottom, in this case there are some that want the wreck to be raised. Odyssey has offered a proposal on how they would handle the wreck.

Here is a link to one web site about that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10317790


Millions of dollars in gold and silver were found inside a ship that sank under mysterious circumstances in the South Atlantic. Some say the ship was sunk to hide the stolen loot. Video recordings taken by an ROV 80 metres below the surface of the ocean revealed bundles and baskets holding 9.6 tonnes of raw gold and silver. As far as I know this has not been salvaged yet due to the cost and difficulty of the project.

Here is the link to the story.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/article_1485517.php/Load_of_gold_found_inside_sunken_ship_in_South_Atlantic

Sounds like an interesting project.

I received an email giving notice of a new web site that shows the Jupiter area beaches. That should come in handy.

Take a look.

www.JupiterBeachPics.com

I'll be adding this link to my blog in the next few days so you can find it here.

Forecast and Conditions.

The wind is out of the northwest now and I'm expecting a cold front, or should I say cool front, to be passing through. The seas are expected to be increasing through today and reaching a peak of about 5.5 feet tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see what the new waves do to the low areas like I showed yesterday. I'm not expecting much erosion, but the remaining old cuts might get cut further.

For the time being, I'm sticking with a 2 on my beach conditions rating scale.

Tropical Storm Shary is heading for Bermuda. There are two other disturbances out there to watch.

Happy Halloween Treasure Treats.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/28 Report - Flat Low Tide Areas & Cold Front Coming

Treasure Coast Beach Near Low Tide Today.

Notice all of that flat low-tide area that is now available for hunting. That area was difficult to get to, let alone detect, when the water was rough. Now, there it is.

That is the type of area that you also want to eye-ball when you detect near the water's edge. I once showed what appears to be a intact wax seal that was found at the edge of the water in an area like this.

One of the biggest finds on a 1715 Fleet site in recent years was the gold bird found by the crew of the Gold Hawg this past summer south of Fort Pierce. I think I posted about that in the past.

It takes a lot of hunting.

Skill is the process of improving the probability of success. You can skillfully improve the probability of success, and that will bear out over the long term, but a lot of luck goes into finding those once-in-a-life-time finds.

It seems that when I find a cob, I almost always find one within the first twenty minutes of hunting. I don't know why that is. Sometimes I think it is because I hit the most promising areas on a beach first, but I can't totally accept that because if I did, I would tend to give up too soon. Sometimes I think it is intuition. But if that were the case, why doesn't my intuition work better more often? The best advice is patience and perseverance. You never know when something will pop-up, but you can improve the probability of success by learning as much as you can about how to hunt more effectively.

As you know silver tarnishes. I'll bet that some people have picked up cobs and artifacts and thrown the blackened lumps away because they didn't realize that they were silver. There are stories about people skipping the black lumps back into the ocean.

Here is a link to an article about a new treatment for silver that conservators are using.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/materials-scientists-conservators-join-forces-to-preserve-silver-artifacts-and-art-105764868.html

Did you know that silver prices have increased more than gold prices this year on a percentage basis? Some are saying that because of the industrial demand for silver, silver will hold onto recent gains better than gold. Both have dropped back from recent highs a little, due to recent gains in value of the dollar.

Have you noticed that Odyssey Marine stock (symbol OMEX) has increased from its low of below $1.00 back in July to over $2.00 now. That is a very good gain. Who knows which direction it will go now?

Forecast and Conditions.

It was a beautiful morning to be out on the beach. As I showed in the photo above, the tide was out and a lot of low flat beach was exposed. I think I mentioned yesterday or the day before that the southwest wind would do that.

You could see where the sand from recent cuts had piled up in the water at the front of the beach. There is a sand bar now protecting much of the beach.

I did a little detecting in the low tide zone and found a variety of targets down in the flat area. I suspect they were dragged out of the beach above when the beach eroded a few days ago. You'll often find some nice big targets down there, but they can be hard to dig out when they are close to the water.

The surf web sites are saying that the seas will start increasing tomorrow and build to around six feet on Saturday as a cold front comes through.

That will be another chance to see some more erosion if things work out well.

The tropics are actually fairy active. There is one disturbance southeast of Bermuda that is expected to head towards the northeast and there are two others interesting areas out there.

It is that time of year when things should start to happen.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net