4/8/17 Report - Treasure Books and Book Treasures. Surf a Little Higher Next Week.

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

One of my favorite types of collectibles is books.  The only thing I don't like about old and rare books is the difficulty of maintaining them in Florida heat and humidity.  Anyhow, books can be valuable in more ways than one.

I once did an article for a treasure magazine on treasure books and book treasures.  In that article I offered a free list of valuable modern collector books.  (Books don't have to be very old to be valuable.) I had previously published a database of collector book values.

One day I went to the mail box and found about twenty letters asking for the free list of books.  I knew the article must have been published.  I didn't know that before I saw all the mail.

The next day even more envelopes showed up in my mail box.  That went on for quite a while.

I included a coupon with the list of collectible books that I sent out and a good number of people usedto the coupon to buy a book that I published.

It was a lot of fun getting so much mail everyday in response to my offer.

I just found an article on the Sotheby's web site telling ten things that make books valuable.  You might find it interesting and helpful if you have some books around the house.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/sotheby-s-at-large/2016/07/10-things-that-make-books-valuable.html

I once bought a book about making fly rods for one dollar a thrift store..  It was an early edition of
A Master's Guide to Building a Bamboo Fly Rod, by Hoagy Carmichael Jr.  The book was signed, and I found a business card of the author inside the book.  I sold the book with the card, if I remember correctly, for about $170.

I've found a lot of good books at thrift stores.  You can usually buy them inexpensively.  One that I got for one dollar is Monedas Espanolas Desde Juana y Carlos A Isabel II 1504 a 1868 by Calico, Calico ad Erigo.  It is 544 pages and covers, as the title suggests, Spanish coins from 1504 to 1968.  It is illustrated profusely and presents examples of most major varieties.  That is the kind of thing that would be difficult to find at a reasonable price if you were looking for it.

I've found other good treasure books and resources in thrift stores.

If you buy any old books at a thrift store or anything, don't forget to check between the pages.  You can find old letters, photos, post cards, autographs, business cards or even cash.

Someone once bought an old book from me, and I put a small amount of money in the book when I sent it to the buyer because he over paid.  When I told him I put some change in the book, he said that will teach him to look in books before he sends them out.  I guess he resold it and sent it off without ever looking in it.

Both nonfiction and fiction books can be surprisingly valuable.

Before places like eBay became so popular, it was easier to find books that you could sell for a profit. The internet changed the collectible book market.  More common books that you could easily sell before for a few dollars became worthless while the price of the rarer books increased.

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The surf is going to remain small on the Treasure Coast this weekend, then increase next week, but only to three to five feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/7/17 Report - Rosary From Atocha. When Objects Move Against The Current. Erosion This Morning.

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

Atocha Rosary In Sedwick Auction.

There are tons of coins listed in the most recent Sedwick auction.  You can get everything from -escudos to lots of 12 half reales.

There aren't too many shipwreck artifacts in the auction, but this is one of the stars.  It has been shown in museums and magazines.  It is an early Atocha find and has an auction estimate of $25,000 to $50,000.

Here is the link.

http://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Gold-and-red-coral-rosary-from-the-Atocha-1622-ex-Christie-s-1988-ex-Mathewson-1986-ex-Quee_i26973373

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I gave you a little puzzle a few days ago.  I asked if you could imagine when an object might be moved in the opposite direction of the current.  Here is one answer that has been experimentally demonstrated.  I don't know if I can find the video of the demonstration, so I'll just try to illustrate what happened with a simple drawing.

The illustration shows a submerged sand slope (black) with an object (blue) resting on the slope.  The current is coming in and up the slope (orange arrow).  What happened in the demonstration video in which the actual object was part of a plane fuselage is that the current quickly moved sand from around the front of the object.  When a sufficient amount of sand was removed on the lower side of the object, the object slipped down the slope.  The object did not slide down the slope smoothly but but in quick short steps.

Enough sand would be removed so that the object would slip and stop.  Then when enough sand had been moved again the object would slip down again.  This happened repeatedly as the object moved down the slope against the current.

This is a good illustration showing two forces (water and gravity) acting on two objects (sand and the other object).  It illustrates something I talk a lot about - trigger points.  The trigger point for sand was exceeded, but not the object.  The movement of sand resulted in the object moving against the current.

In this example, the force of the water was enough to move the sand, but not the other object.  If the force had been strong enough to move both the sand and the object up the hill, the results would have been very different.  After the sand that was supporting the other object was moved, gravity brought the object down the hill against the current.

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Since the wind changed, there is just a little erosion on a few beaches but nothing very significant.

A Bit of Erosion at John Brooks This Afternoon.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/6/15 Report - Eight-Escudo and Silver Bar. Fossil Sea Shell. Cold Front.

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

1713 J Mexico 8-Escudo From 1715 Fleet

The big news for me this morning is that the new Sedwick Coins Auction catalog is now online.  That is the Treasure, World, U.S. Coin & Paper Money Auction #21 catalog.

There are lots and lots of lots to look through.

The first session starts with the gold coins, including some 1715 Fleet escudos.  One of the stars of this session, as well as the entire auction, is an encapsulated 1714J Mexico 8-escudo graded MS 64.  Bold full cross, 100% full date and oMJ, nearly full crown and shield, muted luster and toning but technically very well preserved. NGC #3349433-001. (See photo above.)

The price estimate of this one is $15,000 to $30,000.

There are gold coins, for example Charles III busts and a one dollar Indians that are much more inexpensive, with lower end estimates below $200.

Here is the link.

http://auction.sedwickcoins.com/Treasure-World-U-S-Coin-and-Paper-Money-Auction-21_as47081

The afternoon session begins with ingots.  One of the more expensive items in the auction is an Atocha silver bar.  The estimated price range is $35,000 to $70,000.

Three Views of the Atocha Silver Ingot.

And here is the catalog description.

Large silver bar #72, 83 lb 7.52 oz troy, Class Factor 1.0, dated "Po(tosi) 1622" in cartouche, foundry / assayer MEXIA in cartouche, five tax stamps (two different designs), fineness IIUCCCLXX (2370/2400 = 98.75% fine), manifest number DCCCCXXXII (932), silvermaster A, from the Atocha (1622). 13-3/4" x 4-3/4" x 3-3/4". Attractively marked "silver loaf" (typical shape) that is particularly interesting for the fact that it shows two kinds of tax stamps (three with lions and castles and two with monogram) and an "overdate" manifest number with the second C punched over a D (probably just a mistake), although the clarity of the assayer and date cartouches is remarkable as well. Most of tax stamps appear to be more complete than usual. The middle of the top of the bar contains the usual peanut-shaped assayer's "bite." At one end is what appears to be the letter V with an up-arrow to its left for the owner/shipper, who is/are apparently not listed on the manifest. The surface of this bar is relatively uncorroded, with a couple small pits on top that existed before sinking and mostly contain small pieces of coral now. From the Atocha (1622), with Fisher photo-certificate #S72.

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Couple of Fossil Sea Shells In Rock Matrix.

Here are some fossil sea shells from the Treasure Coast.  They are embedded in rock.  Just the top part of each shell shows from this view.

As you can see from the picture below, the shells are actually larger than the part of the tops that show.  You can see much of the outline of the bottom of the shell on the left.  It encompasses most of the area of the rock.  You can see the edge of the other shell on the right at the top edge of the rock.  The size of the shell is pretty much the same as the rock on that one.

Bottom Side of Same Shells.

I just thought they were interesting.  I think they might have been totally enclosed at one time, but maybe the rock was eroded until the shell protruded.

If any of you fossil experts can tell me anything more about the shell or rock would be called, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

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A cold front came through the Treasure Coast today.  The surf is still small.

Later, maybe Saturday the wind will shift and the primary swell will begin to come from the north.

I don't see any hope for big seas though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/5/17 Report - Hutchinson Island Beach Conditions. Atocha Emeralds and Gomar Collection.

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

Typical Beach This Morning.

I looked at a few beaches this morning.  Every one had newly accumuated sand.

John Brooks, Another Mushy Beach.

Shell Pieces Near High Tide Line

You can see from the above picture that the water had been fairly high and washed up pieces of shells. 

Fort Pierce Jetty Park

The renourishment sand is almost all gone now.  Heavy equipment is ready to begin the next renourishment project though. That will begin soon.

One More Beach With Nothing But Sand This Morning.

As you can see beach conditions generally are not good right now.  We've had a few days or southeast winds.

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The Marcial de Gomar Collection of rare emeralds, including the largest collection of cut emeralds from the Atocha, will be auctioned on April 25 beginning at 7 PM by Guernsey's auction house. The auction will also include coins from the 1715 Fleet.

• Click here for auction details and featured lots.

Click here to view the ecatalogue.

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Snake hunters received a $600 reward for capturing a 15 foot python in the Everglades.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/04/04/python-hunters-describe-dangers-wrangling-15-foot-snake-in-florida-everglades.html

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The past few days I've been talking a bit about erosion.  Erosion can be one good sign of improving beach conditions, but old shipwreck coins can be found at times when there is little or no erosion. That mostly occurs when the high seas and tides push up high on the beach, such as after a hurricane when the unusually high water comes directly from the east.  Shells will often be pushed up onto the beach then too.

Those times are not as good as when you have some good erosion though.  Cobs on uncut beaches will usually be few and scattered.  The exception is when the high water hits the dunes and washes cobs out from the dunes.  Then you can get good numbers.

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A cold front will be coming through.  A higher surf is not predicted though, until next week.

The pink diamond I mentioned the other day sold for over 70 million dollars.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/4/17 Report - Ship Remains Dated to 17th Century. Complexities of Beach Erosion.

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

Jupiter Beach.

Jupiter Beach, as you can see above, has tons and tons of new sand.

Thanks to Joe D. for the photo.

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Uncovered Ship Remains Buried Near Alexandria Virginia.
Source: See WTOP link below.

... Skolnik said some of the earliest tree rings from the ship are from 1603 — four years before John Smith showed up in Jamestown and 17 years before the Pilgrims showed up in Massachusetts.

“So the wood in the ship comes from a time of early American history that even predates the earliest permanent English settlements here in the New World,” he said.

But the ship was sunk on purpose by early Alexandrians.

He said documentary records show between 1788 and 1796, the ship went from being a vessel to being buried...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

http://wtop.com/alexandria/2017/04/uncovering-mystery-behind-alexandria-waterfronts-18th-century-ship/slide/6/

They dated this ship by looking at the tree rings on the lumber.

Notice the number and size of the rods.

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Yesterday I posted a list of ten factors that contribute to beach erosion.  Predicting erosion is complicated by not only the number of factors, but also how quickly those factors can change.  Furthermore, there are interactions.  For example, wave size interacts with tides.  Big waves are most effective when the tides are high.  So the timing of both factors as they relate to each other is important.

Water force is obviously the primary factor that causes sand and other items such as coins to move.  Many of the factors change the force of water at different locations.

The same force of water will move one type of object but not another, therefore you get separation or sifting of objects.

Erosion is a good sign and always present during the very best beach conditions, but beach old coins sometimes appear on the beach when there is no erosion.  I explain that more some day.

One complication is that the direction of water from an individual wave will wash up and then back down the beach, so the force of water from each wave changes direction.  Not only does the direction of the force change, but  the amount of force also changes as the wave goes up and down the beach. That might be obvious enough, but figuring out how the sand and other objects move is more complicated.

Another complication is that each wave interacts with other waves.  The outgoing water from one wave will hit the incoming water from the next wave.  The force from both waves is changed when they interact.  When outgoing water hits the incoming water from the next wave, temporary much of the force is lost at that point.

I'll continue with this some other day.

Here is a little puzzle.

Coins and other objects can actually move in the opposite direction of the water rushing over and around them.  Think about how that might happen.  I actually explained that once before.

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If you have never seen the Northern Lights before, you might want to check it out.  For me, it is something that I'll never forget.

http://blog.spiritdaily.com/news-links/northern-lights-in-real-time

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Yesterday the wind picked up in the afternoon and we had some good southerly winds.  I wish I'd get a chance to get out today to check out one of my spots that gets hit better by southerly winds.  Perhaps tomorrow.

We're supposed to get a cold front later this week.  It doesn't look like it will increase the surf though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/3/17 Report - Pink Star Diamond. Below Normal Hurricane Season Expected. Ten Factors That Determine Beach Erosion.

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

`

59.6 Carat Pink Star Diamond
Source: See Sothebys link below.

One of the world’s great natural treasures, the Pink Star diamond will lead Sotheby’s sale of Magnificent Jewels and Jadite in Hong Kong 4 April. Estimated in excess of US$60 million, this 59.60-carat oval mixed-cut pink diamond is the largest Internally Flawless, Fancy Vivid Pink diamond ever graded by the GIA. The sale of the Pink Star continues Sotheby’s tradition of bringing some of the rarest and most extraordinary collectibles to market.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/videos/2017/the-pink-star-a-true-masterpiece-of-nature.html

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Experts are calling for a below-normal hurricane season this year, as a potential El Niño may limit the development of storms.

AccuWeather meteorologists are predicting 10 named storms, five of which are projected to become hurricanes and three of which may become major hurricanes. 

“The big factor is going to be the fact that we now believe El Niño will come on board some time during the summer and will continue all the way through the rest of the hurricane season,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski said.


Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/2017-atlantic-hurricane-forecast-possible-el-nino-to-limit-development-of-storms/70001271

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When people talk about beach conditions, the two factors they typically talk about is high seas and the wind.  Other than those two important factors there are others that are important.  Here is a list of ten factors that determine how a beach will erode.

1.  Size of the waves.

2.  Direction of wind and waves.  This is actually relative to the beach and long shore currents.  On the Treasure Coast waves hitting from the north are best.

3. Tides.

4. Amount of sand or depth of water in front of the beach.

5. Where the waves are breaking.  This factor is determined largely by numbers 1, 3 and 4.

5. Timing.  High waves are more effective when the tide is also high, for example.

 6.  Obstacles such as inlets, rocks or sea walls.

7.  Duration of favorable wind, waves and tides.

8.  Type of sand or other material making up the beach and how it is packed.

9.  Beach saturation and pore pressures.

10.  Slope of the beach.

I also suspect that the wave periods may also have an effect.


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The last few days have seen small surf, southeast wind.  There is no real changed expected very soon.  The tides are not as big now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/2/17 Report - Preserving The Story. Electronic Piracy.

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

Preserve the story.  That is the topic that stuck in my mind the past couple of days.

I was watching Antiques Roadshow and they were talking about a chair that was owned by Ginger Rogers.  The chair wasn't worth much except for the fact that it was owned by the movie star, which increased the value many times.  The expert told the chair's owner to preserve the story and all the documentation that they could find because the documentation would add to the value of the chair.

Provenance can add to the economic value of a coin or other artifact.  An item can be worth more when you can prove that it was owned by a famous person or it was a part of an important historic event, but the story surrounding an object can increase the value of a object in many ways - not just monetarily.

Yesterday I decided to start this post, but I didn't finish it.  It hadn't marinated long enough.  Today I'll get it started.

The first question is what story?  What is the story that should be preserved?

There is a story connected with every find - probably more than one.  The story might not be obvious at first.  You might have to do some research or study to discover the story. You might have to think about the find, how it came about and what it means to you.

The story might be about the history of the object, including things like why it was made, how it was used or how it ended up where it was found, or the story might be more about you and how you made the find or what the find means to you.

Why preserve the story?

There are a lot of possible reasons.  I've already suggested some of those.  There might be an economic incentive.  The story might be more about you than the object though.  The story might be about a time and place in your life.  It might communicate something about yourself.  It might be something that is remembered by you and your family for years to come.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that I never regretted keeping records, but I have regretted not keeping better records.

I never guessed that thirty years later I would enjoy looking at my old metal detecting records.  I still learn new things from old finds as well as my records.

Things that didn't seem important at the time, might seem important years later, and if not important, at least interesting.

It seems that older people, myself included, like to think back about the old days.  You can look back and understand things in a way that you couldn't at the time.  You have a new more complete perspective.  It can be informative, and it can be funny or interesting.  You might not guess that now.

I found a good post on the FamilySearch blog that you might find helpful.  It gives some good tips on how to keep memories alive.  The title of the post is Preservation Week—Helping Us Keep the Memories of Our Life Alive.  Those memories are not just for you.  They are also for your family, and possibly your friends, and maybe even generations to come.

The post gives some good suggestions on how to store and protect your collections.  Paper deteriorates, especially in Florida. The hear and humidity takes a big toll.  If you collect books, postcards, stamps or ephemera of any kind, you should be well aware of how paper deteriorates in hot humid weather. Bugs can also be a problem.

Don't rely on digital storage.  Devices change rapidly.  Those nice digital photos and records that you have on your electronic devices might not be accessible when those devices fail or become obsolete.

Here is the link. I think it is well worth reading.

https://familysearch.org/blog/en/preservation-weekhelping-memories-life-alives/

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Back in June of 2013 I had posted a coupled brief notes relative to George Orwell's book 1984 and NSA hacking.  NSA introduces vulnerabilities into cell phone networks worldwide so they can monitor them.  A problem with doing that is that once the vulnerabilities have been introduced, others can make use of those vulnerabilities, including what you might call bad actors.  It is therefore highly possible, if not likely, that the Russian hacking that has recently been the topic of endless news programs, if not made rediculously easy by the highly publicized poor security practiced by high ranking government officials, would have occurred through exploitation of vulnerabilities actually introduced by NSA.

For more information on those topics, I suggest the following.

https://theintercept.com/2014/12/04/nsa-auroragold-hack-cellphones/

https://nsa.gov1.info/dni/2017/index.html

https://nsa.gov1.info/utah-data-center/

Besides the need for treasure hunters to be broadly informed, they should also be aware that while treasure maps and codes were at one time a bigger part of treasure hunting, electronics now play a huge roll.  Pirates once sailed the seven seas, now pirate surf the net.

As you undoubtedly know, every major commercial venture in the world wants your browsing data and major companies and other bad actors alike are eager to sell whatever data they can collect.  Disney, collects tons of data on their customers.  They can tell you the day and time that you entered any of their parks for years and years. Their magic bands do more than facilitate the customer experience.

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The surf is smooth and the tides are moderating.  The water should be pleasant.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net