Friday, June 9, 2017

6/9/17 Report - An Earring Find. Surprising History of Earrings. Cycles of Moving Sand.


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

Rainbow Over the River.
Rainbows have been a common sight lately on the Treasure Coast.



Very Encrusted Silver Earring.

This ear ring was dug on a treasure beach.  It is very small,  The main part of it will fit on a penny.

The stone is very small, but seems to have a remarkable surface.   

The back is made to let the light through the stone.
Back of Same Earring.
I'll have to get this heavy crust off to get a better look at this thing.

I got it partly cleaned - enought to see some design.  More cleaning is needed for the silver and the stone.


Same Item Partly Cleaned On Penny.

As often happens, after making a find, I try to narrow down the source and age of the find.  That means research.  In the process I usually find something interesting.  Here is a little of something I found on the history of earrings.

During the Middle Ages in Europe male earrings alternated between being popular and being out of style for long periods of time until in the 13th century when the Catholic Church forbade the piercing of ears. This was done in accordance with the dogma, stating that a person cannot alternate his or her body which is created in the image of God. Only thieves, pirates and representatives of the lower class continued to wear earrings.

Thieves used this means of expression to demonstrate their abhorrence for society, while peasants pierced the ear of the only boy in the family or of a child who had been born immediately following the death of another child. For pirates, the earring meant a plundered ship. The Russian Cossacks also gave much significance to earrings.

Earrings were worn on the left ear by the sons of a single mother whose husband had been killed and on the right ear by the only boy in the family. A man wearing earrings on both ears was the last of his family line. Such a man was guarded by his neighbors and was not allowed to participate in times of war, lest his line disappears forever...

For more of that article, here is the link.

http://jewellerypassion.net/the-history-of-earrings/

I now think this earring is 19th century or later.  One reason is the kidney style wire with loop.  That was invented about 1870.   I would also not expect the setting for the stone to be open on the back. That is my best attempt at dating the earring so far.

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Sand moves all the time.  Every tidal cycle it moves to some extent.  The amount can be small and difficult to identify.


Most of the time it is just a small amount of sand in front of the beach that gets washed up or a small amount of sand from the slope that gets washed own into the water.  That happens all the time to some extent.  The same old sand keeps getting pushed up and dragged down.

Newly lost objects can be in the top layers of sand that always get moved.  The objects might or might not move move with the sand.  I've discussed that a lot in the past.

The force of the water can be enough to move the water and leave the objects behind, or it an be great enough to move both.  When both are moved they will be separated as the force decreases with the more difficult to move objects dropping out first.

In the illustration above the three orange dots represent good old objects.  The sand above those objects can get pushed up onto the beach many many times before the objects are moved.  They will just sit there under the sand until the sand over them gets moved and the force of water is great enough to move them.  That could be years or centuries.

Of course they can get uncovered enough to be detected with a metal detector.

I should also say that sometimes the sand at the foot of the beach will get pulled out to deeper water.

Those same objects will not sink much deeper than the lowest level of sand that has occurred in the past.  If they are sitting on bed rock, the sand above was at some time removed or at least agitated or disturbed.  In the past I've discussed various things that can result in those types of effects.

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The surf is just a little higher today ( 3 - 3 feet).  The primary swell is from the north.  We are near a nice full moon.  The tides increased a little.

You might want to go early before the rain storms start.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


Thursday, June 8, 2017

6/8/17 Report - Various Finds in One Treasure Coast Beach Hole. Diver Finds WW II Trumpet With a Story. Old Woodworking Tools Book.


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

Iron, Glass, Copper and Pottery
Fins and photo by Darrel S.
In May Darrel found this variety of object of widely different dates and composition all in the same hole.  Here is what Darrel said.

I found all these objects in the SAME HOLE!

The button, I think is part of the smaller brass or copper object. I think it is a snap off pair of pants that broke. The glass could be from bottom of gin or mallot bottle. The iron objects are from small spikes.

Imagine digging all of that from one hit! I was shocked when I saw the glass, but the shard baffled me until I turned it over and the button was attached to it. At first, I thought a maravedis coin, but after removing, could see a button. Later inspection leads me to think the button is part of the rivet or snap and somehow found it attached to middle period pottery 300 years later!


Same objects.
Photo by Darrel S.

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Trumpet Recovered From Sunken WW II Ship.
Souce: See Washington Post link below.

Navy conservator Shanna Daniel carefully cleans a smashed trumpet that was retrieved by a diver from the wreck of the USS Houston, which was sunk in battle by the Japanese in 1942 during World War II. Navy experts believe the owner's DNA might be preserved inside the instrument. (Michael Ruane/The Washington Post)...

The trumpet arrived at the lab 2 1/2 years ago, handed over by an Australian diver who found it in the wreck of the USS Houston, a World War II cruiser, off the coast of Java in Southeast Asia.

The Houston, which had been President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s favorite vessel, was the elegant flagship of the Navy’s Asiatic fleet when it was sunk in a fierce battle with the Japanese three months after the attack on Pearl Harbor...



https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-broken-trumpet-from-a-sunken-warship-holds-its-secrets-from-wwii/2016/02/02/f5972f38-bfa0-11e5-9443-7074c3645405_story.html?utm_term=.b61b44933a45

That is one very nice artifact with a cool story, and it was great that the Australian diver turned it in.

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As I said before I don't generally post YouTube videos.  I posted one, and then I received so many that I can't keep up with them, so I'm just saying that I'm not going to be posting links to YouTube videos.  I'm going to keep doing this blog as I've done it in the past.  There are some videos that are worth posting and that I'd like to post, but it opens up a whole new can of worms and would change what I do.  Thanks for all who have submitted YouTube links anyhow.

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I get a lot of mystery items.  It always helps to be familiar with a large variety of items, so that you have a better chance of  identifying odd finds.

Here is a neat free ebook that might be of some help.  It is Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 by Peter C. Welsh.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27238/27238-h/27238-h.htm

Lots of pictures.

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I'd like to hear from anyone who has posted a link to this blog or mentioned it elsewhere on the web.

As you might know, I don't do any advertising or promoting of my own.  From the beginning of this blog people told me that I should monetize it.  I know that is true, but I haven't made any attempt to do that.  I'm just happy to help anyone who wants to read it, and I can see from the stats that there are a lot of those.  I also watch for Google Pluses.  Thanks.

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More rain.  Rain continues to uncover items along the beaches.  We have a sustained weather pattern. Too bad it isn't a pattern of strong northeast winds.

The surf is going to increase a little.  Expect a two to three foot surf Friday and Saturday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

6/7/17 Report - Salvage Boats at Work. Rain Delivers New Treasure Coast Fossil Finds. Lost and Found Wedding Band.


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

Two Salage Boats on the Nieves Site Yesterday.
There were three boats on the Nieves site yesterday.  Two are shown in the above picture.  One was farther north, up by the condos.

After a rain I checked out a place where fossils are found.  Some had been exposed.  It was a small area and mostly small pieces were found.

Below is the first that I found.  It is on a penny.

When I first picked it up I thought it was a tooth, but after looking at it more closely, I'm pretty sure it is a claw.

Small Fossil.


One End of the Same Fossil.
Here is the proximal end of the same item.  You can see how it fit the joint.

I'd appreciate if any of you fossil experts can tell me what it belongs to.  Thanks in advance.

That is one small fossil.  Not easy to see in the sand.  I especially like finding the smallest items, becuase that suggests that I'm not missing much.  If you don't miss the small ones, you're probably not missing much.  I like to keep my eye-balling skills sharp.

A lot of the fossils I found were just broken pieces.  It only took me about ten minutes to pick up about 15 fossils.  Like, I said, the producing area was small.  Most of the fossil dirt was still covered by sand.

Three Fossils Found After A Recent Rain.
The one on the bottom left is a piece of a turtle skute.

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On the night of June 2, 2017, Meg Walls of Chambersburg, PA, was playing football with her young son on the beach near 4th street and the boardwalk when her diamond wedding band flew from her finger and disappeared into the sea of sand. After several hours of emotional, desperate and unsuccessful searching by family and friends, the search was stopped and the ring was assumed lost to the sand forever...

Here is the link to read about how a detectorist found and returned Meg's ring.

http://sbynews.blogspot.com/2017/06/citizens-and-police-working-together.html

Thanks to Dean for sending me this link.  I'd like to see more of these kinds of stories showing how  detectorists find and return cherished items.

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It really turned rainy, didn't it.  If you've ever been standing out in the ocean in shallow water when the rain started pouring, you might have seen how the rain can diminish the waves.  At least that is how it looked to me on many occasions.

We still have a another day of one-foot surf in the preditions.  And the tides are moderate.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


Tuesday, June 6, 2017

6/6/17 Report - John Brooks to Jensen Beach. Salvitae Blue Seaglass. More on Musket Balls.


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

John Brooks Beach Monday Near Low Tide.
As far as I could see there was only a sloped beach front.  No cuts anywhere.  It all appeared to be recently accumulated sand.

There were three salvage boats working at the Nieves site.

Jensen Beach Monday Near Low Tide.
Jensen Beach appeared to be just a little different form John Brooks.  You can see the small dip running between the beach and the sand bar.  The slope was not as steep.

There was one beach that had a slightly better shell line running along the low tide area.  It had only small shells though.

I didn't do any detecting Monday but did find some small fossils.  

A couple of days ago my wife picked up this blue sea glass on a local beach.

Blue Sea Glass Picked Up a Couple Days Ago.

You might be able to faintly see on this seaglass "SALVITAE," and some other lettering.

This seaglass doesn't have the nicest shape, but is fairly large and has a nice color.  It is the bottom of a cobalt blue cure bottle made by the American Apothecaries Company of New York.  Salvitae was something like milk of magnesia and was sold in the 1920s and 1930s.  

This is just another reminder that things that are nearly 100 years old still wash up on the beach and can be found without even using a metal detector.

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Yesterday I showed some musket balls found by the Capitana guys.  Although their's were, not all musket ball finds are old.  I've found a few that were undoubtedly very new. 

Musket balls are still being produced today for various reasons such as for use with antique guns and battle reenactments.  It isn't difficult to tell the difference between musket balls that are old and those that are new.

First of all, a musket ball will generally show evidence of a mold seam and the remains of a sprue. The sprue looks a little like a neck.  It is where the lead was poured into the ball shaped mold.  And you can usually see where it was clipped off with clippers.  Not all genuine musket balls will have an obvious sprue though.

New musket balls will be shiny gray.  Old dug musket balls will often have a coating of lead carbonates, sulfides and oxides.  The patina will usually be white or beige, however different soils can result in different colors.

Musket balls were sometimes made with an alloy of lead and pewter or lead and tin.  The American army during the revolution often used alloys because of the short supply of lead.  That resulted in musket balls having a somewhat irregular surface.

Musket balls usually have a diameter between 0.39 and 0.80 inches, however musket balls were often use with buck shot, which was much smaller. That was referred to as buck ad ball. George Washington was a proponenet of buck and ball during the revolution.

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No changes in beach conditions are expected. Don't forget, though, that heavy rain can cause erosion. The fossils I found yesterday were exposed by heavy rain. I'll have some of those pictures for you tomorrow.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Monday, June 5, 2017

6/5/17 Report - Capitana Making Finds in New Salvage Season. How Coins Can Get Trapped On a Beach. Conservation of Wood Artifacts.


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

Musket Balls Found by the Crew of the Capitana.
Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez
Not only has the hurricane season begun, but the Treasure Coast salvage season has also begun, and the finds have started.

I received the above photo and the following message from Captain Jonah.

First day on the Capitana was full of finds. Lots of musket balls, encrusted objects, and pottery shards.

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I mentioned in the past how I once found five mercury dimes in one scoop.  I was going to explain that, but it took a while before I finally made the illustration.

It happened when there was a lot of coins on a small beach below an eroded cliff.  The water had been hitting the bank and washing out old coins.  I got a hit directly below the end of a fallen palm log (Orange spot), and  when I dug in and sifted the contents of my scoop there they were - five mercury dimes.

The find isn''t that impressive, but it does illustrate something that I talked about a lot.

The water was coming off of the face of the dunes fast enough to carry both sand and coins down the slope.  However, when the water hit the palm log, turbulence was created and the coins settled out and came to a rest in the area where the flow of the water was slowed.   That was an excellent example of a coin trap.  Also illustrated is what I often refer to as the trigger and settle points.

As long as the force of water is great enough it will carry objects.  More force is required to carry coins than sand.  When the force slows enough, both sand and coins will quit moving.  In this case the coins settled below the end of the log.

The fact that it happened to be five mercury dimes is partly coincidental.  They probably didn't wash out with the same retreating water, but probably got trapped one at a time.  Other coins could have been trapped at the same spot, even though other types of coins might have settled out higher or lower along the beach.  A lot of other finds were made at the same location that day and on other days.

I almost always check under and around object that might create a trap for small objects.  Rocks can create traps the same way.  I've found rings that got trapped by rocks.

You can actually create traps like that yourself.  I remember reading decades ago about a fellow that did that.  I believe I read it in Carter and Trevillian's book, Diamonds in the Surf.  I'm surprised that I remember the source.

It is always good to think about how and why finds ended up where they were found.

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This isn't a new article but it is one that I don't remember seeing before.  It tells how difficult it is to preserve wood shipwreck artifacts for the long term.  Under normal circumstances even in wood that was thought to be well treated, acid continues to build up and damage wood.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the article on the deterioration of the wood on the Vasa.

Based on their findings, the researchers recommend strict regulation of a wooden marine artifact's environment. A relative humidity of 55 percent and a temperature of less than 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) will slow migration of water and oxygen into wood and ensuing mechanical and chemical damage. The researchers also recommended replacing the 8,500 iron bolts holding the boat together -- inserted to replace the completely corroded original bolts -- with bolts made of an inert material. Eventually the infused iron in the wood might be rendered electrochemically inert with a chelating agent, and even extractable in an alkaline solution, but more work is needed to investigate this option.

"X-ray spectroscopy is almost uniquely suited to evaluating the chemistry of elements in situ in these artifacts. There is no doubt that the information we obtained would not have been available by any other method."

Here is the link to the article, if you want to learn more.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2002/february27/vasa-227.html

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Hurricane season has arrived, but beach conditions have been very much unchanged lately.  We are still have a one-foot surf and no big surf can be found in the Treasure Coast predictions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


Sunday, June 4, 2017

6/4/17 Report - Historical Newspaper Worth Big Money. Hurricane Season Has Started. Watch Finds. Pre-Colombian Gold Pendants.


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




That was the headline on January 6, 1777.  The story read as follows.

CROSSING THE DELAWARE AND THE BATTLE OF TRENTON – Great News from New-York … His Excellency General Washington … in Person at the Head of Three Thousand of our Troops, crossed the Delaware, attacked the Enemy at Trenton … and after a brisk Action of Thirty-five Minutes, entirely routed them. Salem: E[zekiel] Russell, January 6, 1777.

This newspaper telling of Washington's victory is the only one known to survive and is being auctioned by Christies.  The auction estimate is $40,000 to $60,000.

Here is the link to the fine manuscript and book auction.

http://www.christies.com/salelanding/index.aspx?intsaleid=26932&sitecoreguid={e70a5466-f441-4913-ba5f-035cc211c735}&sectionname=auctions_nav&saletitle=

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Hurricane season has begun.  As you know, most cobs and shipwreck artifacts that are found on Treasure Coast beaches are found after storms.  Last year Matthew aimed at us but hit farther north.  Some cobs and shipwreck items were found after Matthew, but nothing like some of the bigger treasure storms such as the famed Thanksgiving Storm of the last century.

Not all hurricanes come during the peak part of the season, which is August to October.  Some tropical storms don't wait for hurricane season to start.  That happened this year and the previous two years.  Arlene, which had no impact on us, formed earlier this year.  Alex formed in January of 2016 and Ana formed in May of 2015.

They are forecasting that this season will be more active than average.

The last hurricane having a category 3 or greater rating to make landfall in the U. S. was Wilma in 2015.

It take a hurricane to make the beaches productive.  It has nothing to do with storm strength.  Some strong hurricanes do not produce a lot of finds, while some storms do.  What I'd like to see more than anything, is a storm that sits off-shore and sending us a steady stream of northeast winds and high seas.

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I've talked about the fact that there aren't as many coins being found on the beaches these days. People aren't using cash as much as in the past.

I've always found a lot of watches. There don't seem to be quite as many any more, but still they are common finds - more than I would expect.

I don't know why people wear watches these days.  You can tell the time from your cell phone.  Those big watches seem to be in style.  People are now also wearing watches that do things other than tell the time, like the Apple watch and Fitbit.

I always found a good number of watches in the water - a lot of them worked, but a lot of them were ruined.  My first Rolex find was drowned.

I was always surprised by how many watches were lost on the beach.  You might not think something so big would get lost in the sand, but they do.

A lot of the lost watches are inexpensive, but some are nice or interesting, and some are valuable. The one that I actually wore the most, as I don't often wear a watch, was a German watch I found.  I wore it until the battery ran down.

Gucci watches were common finds for me - both men's and women's but more women's.  I found a good number of those ladies watches that have the different color plastic fashion pieces that can be changed.  On the ones I found, more than half did not have the color pieces.

Dive watches were fairly common finds in the water.  There was one place where I used to find a lot of dive equipment, including dive watches, knives and weights.  It was where they took people for dive classes.   I started discovering dive equipment at that location and wondered why, and then later I learned about the classes they conducted there.

I don't often target watches, but one good place to find a watch is in a dip in front of the beach, especially if it is filled with course shelly sand.

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These Pre-Columbian gold pendants, 1000-1500 AD, were appraised at $20,000 to $28,000 several years ago.


Here is that link.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/season/17/myrtle-beach-sc/appraisals/pre-columbian-pendants-1000-1500-ad--201202A17/

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Overall I have no changes in beach conditions to report.  Even a passing storm can cause a spot of the beach to erode and open up a treasure window.  You have to be alert and quick to catch those types of fleeting opportunities.

We'll soon be keeping track of tropical storms.  No one knows how that will turn out this year.  It might be a big detecting year or it might not.  Only time will tell.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


Friday, June 2, 2017

6/2/17 Report - Gold Coin Hoard. Mystery Find. Map Worth Nearly a Million Dollars. Valuable Watches.


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

Cache of Gold Coins From the Fifth Century.
Source: See DutchNews link below.

A hoard of coins dating from the final days of the Roman Empire has been found in an orchard in Gelderland. Experts believe the fortune was buried by a Frankish military leader in the second half of the fifth century, when the area was part of the Western Roman Empire, which collapsed in 476AD...

Here is the link if you want to read more about that.


The article leaves out a lot.  Maybe I can find more details elsewhere.

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Here is a find made by a detectorist in the Cape Canaveral area.

Mystery Object.
Find and photo by Dustin P.
Dustin was wondering if anyone could help him identify this find.   Don't tell me it is a Sharpie.  I already figured that one out.

Below is a closer view of one end.  Notice the shape and the point.

It was found in the Cape Canaveral area.

Closer View of Same Object.
Dustin is also to be congratulated on his new baby boy, born on May 7.

Let me know if you have any ideas on his find.

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I'm always interested in old things and how much they might be worth.  Disney items are among the most sought collectibles.  In the past I showed some Disney items that were found with a metal detector, but here is a Disney item that they expect to sell for over $700,000.

According to Reuters, LOS ANGELES, June 2 (Reuters) - Walt Disney's first map of his planned Disneyland theme park in Southern California is going up for sale in June and could fetch up to $900,000, auctioneers said on Friday.

The 1953 map, hand-inked and hand-colored, was created by Disney and artist Herb Ryman and used to present to investors in order to secure funding to build the first Disney theme park in Anaheim.

It clearly shows the layout of the park with the now iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle and railroad, and sections for Fantasy Land, Land of Tomorrow, and Frontier Land...

Here is a link for more on that story.


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If you do a lot of detecting and don't discriminate them out, you'll find a lot of watches.  And the chances are good that sooner or later you'll find valuable watch.  Mostly those are watches made by companies that you would recognize.

If you want to get an idea about how valuable they can be, here is a Sotheby's watch auction site.

check it out.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2016/important-watches-ge1601.html

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We had a lot of rain today.  That probably discouraged some detectorists.  If not the rain, at least the lightning.

The surf will remain smooth for a couple more weeks if the predictions for the Treasure Coast are correct.

Hurricane season has begun.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net