7/27/26 Report - Dom van Keulen Shipwreck and Salcombe Hoard. Being Discerning Reader. Fossil Find. Deadly Flesh-Eating Virus Kills One Person in Palm Beach County.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Moroccan gold coins recovered from the wreck provided historians with key evidence linking the vessel to a Dutch trading voyage from Morocco. (British Museum via Bournemouth University).
Source link: Shipwreck near Salcombe linked to Moroccan gold coins found in 1995 | Fox News

I started this post a few times and then deleted them and then started over again.  The problem is I'm finding it difficult to not go on a long rambling rant.  I'm disgusted by the current state of the internet.  It has become a garbage heap of cheap click-bait tricks and outright fakery and dishonesty.   AI has provided an additional powerful tool for fakers and imposters that can too easily produce seductive but misleading content.  The same story is lifted and copied by every outlet without any real knowledge or expertise but using site optimization techniques to catch your attention.   Old stories and endlessly recycled and slyly recycled with irrelevant but eye-catching images that have absolutely no relationship to the actual story cut and pasted to draw attention.  Here I go again.  I'll try to cut it short by giving just a couple examples.

One story that is being widely circulated on the internet is the story of a 17th century shipwreck associated with a large group of Moroccan gold coins that finally appears to have been identified as the Dutch ship Dom van Keulen.

It is a good story, but the MSN link takes you to a picture of a pile of coins that look nothing like the Moroccan gold coins found in association with the wreck.  The picture is completely irrelevant to the story.  That is a very common technique.  Many outlets add images that have nothing to do with the story.  Some readers may not care about those details, but someone with a genuine interest can be misled until they discover the deception.  The user is forced to waste time trying to determine what if anything in the article is actually true because the outlets put clicks over truth.  In some cases, they don't have any particular knowledge or expertise and might not know the reality or significance of the fake details.  Some outlets are worse than others and sifting through the trash requires an informed discerning reader.

Here is an excerpt from the story that gives some of the real story, which you can find after you wade through the trash.

A stage‑1 hypothesis proposed that metallurgical signatures of the Salcombe coins would match specific West African mine outputs documented in 17th‑century Dutch trading ledgers, proving the Dom van Keulen carried direct African gold rather than re‑exported European bullion. The available evidence does not yet confirm or rule out that claim. The coins are recorded as Moroccan and North African in origin, but no published metallurgical analysis tying them to particular mine sites has appeared in the accessible source record. The hypothesis remains testable but unproven.

This uncertainty has not diminished the wider significance of the find. The Salcombe hoard demonstrates that substantial quantities of African‑linked gold were moving through northern European shipping lanes in the later 17th century...

Here is a link from one of the better sources where you'll find more of the real story.

Four hundred gold coins finally cracked a 30-year-old shipwreck mystery off England

You'll find another link under the image at the top of this post.  

Here is a better source link.

Mystery of 17th-century shipwreck carrying 400 gold coins solved after decades of research | Archaeology News Online Magazine

That article presents the image of the image shown above and used by the Fox link.

When I see a possibly interesting story from some outlets, I immediately try to find the story on a more reputable site.  It takes an additional step, but at least you'll get a more worthwhile article.  

The next example is based on another story that I liked except for a subtle deception.  Here is the title to the article.

Family found a strange rock while fishing, it turned out to be a 32-million-year-old sea turtle fossil.  

That is something I'd like to read, and I did.  

The title suggested to me a regular everyday family on a fishing trip stumbling over a very old and rare fossil.  Part of the appeal is that could happen to anybody.  But it turns out the family was not only hunting fossils but discovered the fossil only after removing it from a rock.  

I know that titles must be short and cannot tell the whole story, so this one is forgivable, but I think the title was twisted to grab attention.  I can forgive that too, but a careful reader should be aware of the motives that affect content creators and publishers.  Those motives affect the product either intentionally and deceptively or unintentionally.  

Despite the editorial choices, the story is still interesting.  Here are a couple excerpts.

A family fishing trip in southern Alabama turned into an unexpected scientific discovery when a fossilized 32-million-year-old leatherback sea turtle shell was found along a riverbank. The fossil belongs to a new species named Ueloca colemanorum and is one of the most complete ancient leatherback turtle shells ever discovered.

The find happened in 2021, when the Coleman family spotted something unusual inside a large limestone boulder while looking for fossils during a fishing trip. Adam and Adrienne Coleman had spent years taking their children, Talah and Corey, fishing near their home in southern Alabama. During these trips, the family often searched the riverbanks for fossils. Adam had learned fossil hunting from his own father and later shared that interest with his children...

Here is the link to that article.

Family found a strange rock while fishing, it turned out to be a 32-million-year-old sea turtle fossil

Cool find for anybody, especially a fossil hunter.

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Alert!

Health officials in Florida are reporting the first flesh-eating bacteria death of 2026 in Palm Beach County.

The flesh-eating bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus — is a rare and potentially deadly bacteria that naturally occurs in warm saltwater and brackish water. However, the Florida Department of Health said most people get vibriosis by eating raw or undercooked shellfish, particularly oysters...

Here is that link for more about that.

Deadly infection: Florida reports first rare, flesh-eating bacteria death of the year | FOX 26 Houston

The Treasure Coast water is warm.  In the case of the Intercoastal, shallow waters are hot and in places, there are tons of rotting seaweed.  I would imagine it would be an ideal place for the bacteria.

Be careful.  You don't want to get it in your mouth or on exposed cuts.

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You might want to try DuckDuckGo.com for your browser and skip a lot of the junk stories and keep more of your data to yourself.  I like it.

I tried Duckai but so far haven't learned to use it well.  So far, I've just used it a little and don't know much about it yet.

---

No tropical development in the Atlantic or Gulf and the surf remains pretty flat.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/26/26 Report - Distribution of Beach Materials and Objects on a Beach. Sedimentation and Compaction.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

I noticed that one post from many years ago getting a lot of recent views and decided it might be a good time to update that post and add some to it.  That old post is about compact versus fluffy sand, how sand is compacted and what it means to the detectorist. Compact beach sand is often a very good sign for the beach detectorist.

Did you ever walk out onto the beach and sink in the sand up to your ankles?  It is like that sometimes, but you might walk a distance and find yourself walking on a harder layer where you don't sink in at all.  I always prefer a harder area of more compact sand.  You might wonder why some sand is fluffy while other sand is firmer.

I've talked many times before about how the size of the grains helps determine the amount of water force required to erode the sand on a beach. The size of sand gains varies. The grains can be large or small and rough and irregular or smooth.  The sand can be either just recently pushed up and piled up, or it can be from an older layer that has settled over time.  Sand can be made of different materials.  Sand can be made of shell or rock.

One thing I've pointed out many times in the past is the chart below that shows sedimentation and deposition gradients for different kinds of materials.  In this case the range goes from clay to pebbles. The variable is the size of particles.  The other variable is the amount of water force.

ON the excellent chart below, the vertical axis shows the grain or particle diameter.  Going from small to larger grains, bottom to top, is clay, silt, sand and pebbles.  The chart also shows that with increasing grain size, it generally takes more water force to move larger particles, but it isn't a simple straight-line increase   As excellent as that chart is, other factors besides particle size and water force must be considered.

Sand grains are defined as being from .05 to 2 mm in diameter.  Silt grains are .0002 to .05 mm.  And clay less than .0002 mm.  

But in addition, each grain of sand is different in composition, resulting in different densities. Besides that, the shape and texture for grains varies. Silt particles are smooth, floury and greasy when wet. Clay is hard when dry and sticky when wet. Clay sticks to itself. You can see in the chart that it takes as much or more water force to move clay as it takes to move pebbles (red line on right). Pebbles drop out and are deposited at higher force levels than either sand or silt (left red line). As the force of water diminishes, transpoted pebbles will drop out and settle before the finer grained materials such as silt. The amount of force required to move sand will typically be less than the amount of force required to move a coin, not only because of the weight or density but also because of the shape.

The chart above doesn't consider all of those factor.  The surface of grains can be very different. Just like pebbles, grains of sand can be either roundish and smooth or rough and irregular in shape.

Sand that is firm is compact. There is less space between the grains. 

The amount of friction between the grains is important too. Grains that are smooth and round barely touch each other so there is little friction between the grains.  The friction between rounded grains is small.  Think of a pile of bowling balls. There is very little contact or friction between each one. 

Angular grains, on the other hand, will touch each other at multiple locations and over various areas, thus interlocking something like the stones in a stone wall. Just like river rocks, the tumbling surf smooths sand over time, and like everything else on a beach, sand gets sifted and sorted, as do shells and lost objects such as coins and rings.

Finer sands will naturally have smaller pore spaces between grains and angular grains are most likely to tightly interlock and cross-link. Rounded grains will always have larger pore spaces between grains. As the individual grains become more spherically shaped the grains become more incapable of cross-linking. 

If you dig a hole on a beach, you will often note distinct layers of sand. Each layer will have its own characteristics.  Bird of a feather flock together and so do different types of beach materials -and just as importantly, so do other objects such as coins. Deeper layers often have been subjected to sifting and sorting for longer and are typically more compact even though there are exceptions.

We know how builders compact earth and how sand sculpturers intentionally compact sand. They use vibration.  You may have seen compactors that vibrate on the soil and assist gravity. On the beach, the pounding surf vibrates but there are many sources of movement to jiggle and reposition the grains. The tides and surf come and goes; Water percolates down through the layers, first increasing pressure between pores and then vacating. There are also other sources of movement such wind, foot traffic and vehicles on the beach.

In recent years I've commented on finding coins on the surface of a buried layer. Of course, a lower layer won't erode until the layer above moves. When top layers erode, some items will lag behind and end up on what were previously lower layers. 

Pay attention to the feel of the sand as you walk down the beach. 

On a few occasions I've seen uncovered clay, which has often been a very good sign.  When that happens, there is a very good chance of finding older objects, including coins. .I always like to see a layer of exposed clay. When you see an exposed layer of clay, other loser materials such as sand have been removed.  One of the good things about that is when the sand is moved, many of the other lighter junk materials will be removed too.  One of the reasons I so seldom use discrimination on a beach is the sifting and sorting effect.  When seeking older things, I don't spend much time in areas with a lot of light junk.  I use a lot of that as a sign to move on to more productive areas.  

To sum it up, there are a lot of factors that affect the movement of sand and other objects on a beach and where you will find them.  If you are hunting modern jewelry or recent drops all of this doesn't matter much, but it can be a big help if you want to find older things

Here is the link to a web site on compacting sand.

http://www.sandscapes.com/sandtech.html

---

No tropical weather devloping in the Atlantic or Gulf and no change in the surf or beach conditions.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/25/26 Report - Reports from a Couple Detectorists. Some Older Finds and Beach Photos. Mint Mark(?)

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Recent Treasure Coast Metal Detecting Finds by Mark G.

By being out there and being observant, Mark G. made these finds.  Below is the Mark's email regarding those finds.

Disclaimer: I used AI help to put this together it was a lot of info, so long story short:

I’ve shared photos and comments here before about the Jensen Beach renourishment project, and as a metal detectorist it’s honestly the worst thing they can do to us. But I’m glad I paid close attention while they were working, and that turned out to be more important than I realized.

Today I was hunting at Hobe Sound Public beach. It had been renourished back in the winter of 2024/2025. It was a normal day a few coins junk jewelry and trash, then my detector went crazy. From where I was standing, I dug a British Britannia copper from the 1700s, an American NEW PENNY token, a farthing from the 1800s, Chinese cash coins, and mid‑century charms — all sitting in a tight two‑foot circle like somebody had buried a time capsule spanning 250 years.

At first, it was confusing. Then it got interesting. Then it got downright strange.

I knew these objects didn’t come from the same era, and they definitely didn’t come from the same person. No fisherman in 1960 was carrying a colonial British copper, and nobody in the 1800s had a charm bracelet with mid‑century trinkets. These items were never together in the real world. They came from completely different offshore layers — colonial ballast, coastal trade debris, early foreign coin loss, mid‑century charm pouch loss — all mixed into one impossible little pile.

Once I realized how strange this mix was, I asked my copilot where the sand came from on this exact stretch of beach I’d been hunting — all of it came from the renourishment zone fed by Borrow Pit III southeast of Fort Pierce Inlet. That’s when the pieces finally started to line up.

My curiosity about the sifting process going on last winter on Hutchinson Island wasn’t just curiosity. I specifically wanted to know what they did with the spoils coming off that 1/4‑inch screen, because if anything old was going to show up — Spanish reales, colonial copper, early trade tokens — that’s where it would be. What I saw was simple but important: everything the sifter caught was conveyor‑belted into a short dumpster, and when it filled up, they dragged it down the beach ahead of the bulldozers, dug a big hole, dumped the entire load in and buried it. They ran two dumpsters and did this all day long.

Hobe Sound beach has been eroding for almost 2 years. I you ever detect Jensen Beach you will see shell piles or zones about 6' x 6' round high up on the beach and when I do my detector always tells me there is something down there but way too deep for now. 

Thanks for sharing Mark.

One of the benefits of being out there on the beach is that you can observe what is going on, and that might help you in the future even if it doesn't lead to immediate finds.  But you have to be out there to begin with.

-----------

Frank B. sent the following email and beach photos.

I was down here for a week's vacation from the Chicago area and got out yesterday, mid-day, to Treasure Shores, Wabasso, and Sebastian Inlet, near parking lot 3. TS and Wabasso looked completely sanded in while Sebastian had a tiny cut. I got excited for a moment when I saw that little cut, but I searched the length of it and all around it slowly with my Equinox 900; I didn’t get one signal.

Overall, I didn't find a darn thing except a few pennies, pull tabs, foil, and lots of can slaw. I saw only 1 other metal detectorist at Treasure Shores. Got a lot of good exercise even though conditions were far from ideal. Here's a couple of snaps I took

Sebastian Thursday

Frank's Finds.

Treasure Coast Beach Thursday.

Thanks for sharing Frank.  It helps us all.

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Doble Excellentes Ferdinand and Isabella Coin Found by Peter H.

This is the same coin I posted in my previous post,  I mentioned the star on this coin.  

After looking into it a bit more, what I at a quick glance was an eight, is actually an S, indicating the Seville mint.  After doing some more research, I think the star might be a secondary Seville mint mark. Some sources give the star as a Seville mint mark.  I also saw one document that listed a star as being an assayer mark.  So at this point I'm not sure if it is a mint mark or assayer mark. For now I'm leaning towards mint mark, but am not at all confident about that.

---

Bertha is gone, and the Treasure Coast surf remains in the one to two foot range.  

You can get a little rough water and a bit of erosion from passing rain storms.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/23/26 Report - More on the Treasures Found by Longtime Reader. Gold, Rare Coins and Collecting Market.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Doble Excelente Gold Coin from the Finds of Peter Hughes at Margram Beach

Snippet from the Ann Francis | Museum Wales

In my 7/12/26 post I presented finds by longtime detectorist and reader Peter Hughes.  His finds, coming from Spain rather than the New World, are more varied than those from our Treasure Coast shipwrecks.  They are also considerably older than those found on the 1715 Fleet wrecks.  One example is the above Ferdinand and Isabella Doble Excelente coin minted in Spain. A doble excelente would be 7 grams of .99 gold and 29 mm in diameter.  It has a nice little star that reminds me very much of the Lima star coins. The doble excelente is just one of the finds illustrated on the blog post.

I thought you should learn more about the wreck and see more of Peter's finds and so I am pointing you to the museum blog, Ann Francis | Museum Wales.  I hope you will visit that blog.

Here are a few excerpts from that blog post to get you started.

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales has just acquired a spectacular collection of coins and artefacts. These were discovered by Peter Hughes, a metal detectorist, between 1996 and 2017. They include about 870 gold and silver coins, as well as personal belongings, ship’s equipment, and cooking, eating and drinking utensils, all dating to the late-15th to 16th century...

Francis Shaxton, the owner, claimed that the Ann Francis had sailed to Hartlepool from King’s Lynn, but in truth, the Ann Francis had set sail for the Iberian Peninsula in October with a cargo of wheat. At the time, Spain relied on imports of grain as well as other goods. It paid for these shipments with gold and silver bullion, which had been shipped from Spain’s recent conquests in South and Central America. The Ann Francis was returning home to Kings Lynn from Spain with payment for the grain along with other tradeable goods when it was driven onto the shore by a storm and violently wrecked. A navigational error or strong southerly winds may have led its captain to enter the Bristol Channel instead of the English Channel...

You can read on in the article to find out about history and circumstances of the wreck, which is very interesting and informative.  You will read of the earliest discovery and attempts to salvage items from the wreck and the typical disagreements over ownership.  You will also see more find photos, including, for example a very early three-reale minted by the Mexico mint.  There is much to read and see.  Here is the link.

Ann Francis | Museum Wales

It is good to remember that by the time modern detectorists get to an old shipwreck, there have probably been several previous attempts at salvage.  

Once again, thanks to Peter Hughes for sharing his great beach metal detecting finds with this blog.  Here is the link to my previoius post.

Treasure Beaches Report: Pt. 2. (2020 and Beyond). : 7/12/26 Report - Most Amazing Early Shipwreck Beach Finds Made by Long-Time Detectorist and Reader of This Blog..

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Here are a few excerpts from an article entitled Future of Collecting from Numismatic News.

The live sales format stands in stark contrast to the 1960s, when hobby periodicals were the main venue for collectors across the country to access new inventory. In the 1980s, dealers connected via Teletype and electronic exchanges, before the Internet made way for massive disruption. Also in the 1980s, home shopping networks offered a channel for retail sales to the masses, many of whom may not have had exposure to numismatics before, outside of rooting through their wallets and purses...

In the last few years, the debut of live shopping sales portals like Whatnot and eBay Live have transformed the business. This (probably along with the pandemic bubble) has inflated market values for lower-end material like Wheat cents and 10-percent-silver Mexican pesos from the 1960s. Whereas Wheat cents pre-pandemic were routinely available in bulk quantities for $200 to $250 per 5,000-count bag, today that price is $150 to $200 higher. Though, in fairness, the 2025 “death” of the Lincoln cent may also have prompted interest to spike, but other lower-end material is also spiking, as newer collectors are exposed to inventory without a framework of reference for value...

The launch of semiquincentennial coins this year, especially the July 4 privy mark found on only 250,000 Thomas Jefferson 25-cent coins, “are good for the hobby as it creates a treasure hunt for collectors of all types,” said Brush. “I can only hope that there will be more of these opportunities for future collectors and less of the more expensive promotional-type issues that are focused more on the higher-end buyers.”...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

The Future of Collecting - Numismatic News

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Gold prices have decreased, but no the prices of rare coins.  Here are a few more excerpts from an article about that, also from Numismatic News.

The performance of gold, and of course gold coins, has been spectacular in recent times. Gold is now settling back into a slightly more modest post-crisis trading range; however, the demand for collectible and rare gold coins continues to hold its own. Heritage Auctions recently pointed out that 10 coins in their late March auction combined to realize $1.3 million (The auction realized about $11.5 million total!). Eight of those 10 coins were U.S. gold coins. The combined value of the 10 coins was helped by a coveted 1895 Morgan silver dollar that, in PCGS Proof 63, realized $91,500, this being significantly higher than had been its suggested trade value...


What all this shows is that there is continuing strength in the rare coin market. Bullion and intrinsic value-impacted coins took a recent hit based on good news regarding the potential end of the U.S. war with Iran, but gold as well as silver have once more stabilized. This has created a modestly lower trading range for coins that are not being appreciated due to their potential scarcity. Relatively available coins that have been certified in unusually high grades remain prized, their prices remaining strong...

And here is that link for more of that article.

Gold Cools, Rare Coins Don’t - Numismatic News

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Source:nhc.noaa.gov

Bertha has moved farther west.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Around 10 AM Thursday.

Nobody is enjoying the nice new sand this morning at Fort Pierce South Jetty.

As you can see the surf is smooth.

Nothing bigger than a one to two foot surf is predicted through this week.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/22/26 Report - Ancient Lead Shot with a Message. Bunker Hill and Charlestown. CNL Put to Bed.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Archaeology projects have revealed that Greek and Roman soldiers put insulting messages to their enemies on sling shot.   

Here is one brief excerpt from a long article about that.

Writing messages on bullets and missiles goes back at least to Biblical times and continues to modern times among Israelis, Jordanians, Americans and others. The practice became industrial to ancient Greeks and Romans, who manufactured lead sling bullets in molds with taunting messages in bas-relief, such as ‘Ouch!’, ‘Be lodged well’, and ‘Here’s a sugar plum for you! ’...

And here is the link to the article.

Messages on missiles: Here is a Sugar Plum for You! | Ancient Origins

That reminds me of the messages put on shells and bombs during World War II.  

===

The picture above and the following excerpt are from an article on the Battle of Bunker Hill and the civilians involved.

By dawn on June 18, 1775, nothing was left standing and everyone was gone. Less than 24 hours earlier, a brutal engagement, known as the Battle of Bunker Hill, had raged across the Charlestown Peninsula. It would go down as one of the most pivotal moments in American history, a day that catapulted the American colonies onto the uncertain and perilous path toward independence. Many people are familiar with the battle, especially the legendary instruction uttered by one desperate colonial commander not to fire “until you see the whites of their eyes.” However, one tragic outcome of the battle has largely been glossed over by history. As part of the British plan of attack, Major General William Howe ordered his troops to burn all of Charlestown, including its residential neighborhoods. When the cannonballs finally stopped raining down, one eyewitness described the aftermath as a “scene of ruin unparalleled before in America.” Townspeople were sent fleeing, and many never returned. Nearly all lost everything they owned...

Here is the link for much more of that lengthier and detailed article.

Road to 1776: The Untold Story of Bunker Hill

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It wasn't long ago that I posted about an article in the Colonial Newsletter, a publication of the American Numismatic Society.  I highly recommended the newsletter to anyone interested in colonial coinage in America.  Now the free newsletter is going to be replaced by a subscirption based publication.  You'll still be able to read it, but it will be costly.  Too bad!

The American Numismatic Society, which assumed publication of The Colonial Newsletter, or CNL, in 1996, is executing the change to make it more recognizable as the numismatic research publication that it is.

The first issue of JEAN is planned for mid-June, with 230 pages, more than the entire cumulative number of pages for CNL during its first eight years of publication, from 1960 to 1968.

The physical format for JEAN is being changed from that used for CNL, to make it more compatible for libraries and other such educational institutions to handle. 

JEAN’s editorial focus will change to encompass numismatics of all the Americas for the same time period covered by CNL. 

JEAN is to be published twice per year, in June and December, as a bound scholarly journal. An annual subscription will be $65 postpaid...

The Colonial Newsletter did deserve greater recognition, but this change won't make it more available.

At this time you can still find the CNL online.  Here is one link.

Newman Numismatic Portal at Washington University in St. Louis | Comprehensive Research & Reference for U.S. Coinage

And here is the link to the above quoted article on the changes. 

‘The Colonial Newsletter’ ceasing publication, to be reborn as new journal

I really appreciated the CNL as it was.  It revealed an unusual understanding for detectorists, unlike so many publications.

===

Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

Tropical storm Bertha, in the north Gulf of America is moving west.

The Treasure Coast surf remains small.

Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

I had this post done yesterday but somehow lost it and had to recreate it from scratch.  That is why I didn't get a pots done yesterday.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/20/26 Report - A Couple Finds. Assessing Stones Using AI, Test Equipment & Experts. Ancient History Uncoverd. Tropical Depression.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Mystery Find.  Front and Back View.
1 3/8 Inches Long.  8.5 Grams.

This find left me wondering a little bit. It feels too heavy for your typical junk jewelry but close inspection quickly reveals a flaking chrome-like finish.  It is definitely not silver, gold or platinum.

The inscription "I lobe you" on the back is an intentional cutesy misspelling that is commonly used on some internet forums.  

It probably had a loop that broke off.

The setting and everything else about this item says that the stones are junk too.

---

Mark G. sent the following email after he did some additional research on one of his finds that I showed in a previous post.

  Here is what he said.

First, thank you for posting my communications when I get excited about something I've found, or found out about metal detecting. In one of my recent posts dated 6/9 and 6/15 I stated I had found 2 good size diamonds metal detecting, most recently found the 3rd and largest one yet set in a silver ring, at least that is what my Amazon diamond tester said. After a long back and forth with my copilot I was convinced; I had diamonds, but my copilot never left off the chance they could be Moissanite. We agreed to take them to a jeweler. I have a really great jeweler I used in Jensen Beach. I do a little business there for my wife, and he knows I metal detect and has always been good enough to take his time to educate me on my finds. Moissanite is the diamond impostor that fools almost everyone. Copilot is not wrong here; it took three jewelers a long time on 3 diamonds to actually say nope. They actually had to do destructive testing on them. I forget the name of the tool, but they would try to round off a facet edge, Moissanite you can, diamond you can't.

From Copilot:

Moissanite is the only common gemstone that can beat a diamond tester because:

• It has thermal conductivity almost identical to diamond
• It returns a positive diamond reading on most testers
• It has higher brilliance than diamond (more sparkle)
• It has double refraction, which can mimic clarity
• It is often set in silver, just like your finds

So, your tester wasn’t wrong — it was doing exactly what it should do. Moissanite simply tricks it.

Even jewelers get fooled without magnification.

Thanks for sharing your new research, Mark.  As your story suggests, identifying objects can be difficult and often involves a multistage process.  Some objects are more difficult to identify than others.  And some things require a type of testing that is not readily available to the average person.

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Massive wooden beams charred by the fire that destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple were unearthed during a recent dig at the Jerusalem Walls National Park in the City of David, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) reported Monday.

The First Temple, which was built by King Solomon, was destroyed in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar II, the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire...

According to the IAA, Jerusalem’s returning residents, as they began to rebuild the city, probably made a deliberate decision to preserve the memory of the destruction by leaving behind remains that tell the story of the catastrophe.

“The concept of a landscape of memory is familiar from many cultures around the world,” said Dr. Yiftah Shalev, who is directing the excavation on behalf of the IAA alongside Prof. Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

Wooden beams from First Temple’s destruction found ahead of Tisha B'Av | The Jerusalem Post

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There is a tropical depression in the Gulf.  Below is the projected track.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

The surf on the Treasure Coast remains small.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/19/26 Report - Tropical Storm Developing. Clump Busted. Bottle Finds. Reservation Only Beaches.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Crushed Mystery Clump.

I showed you thee metal detected clump shown below before.  I detected it with a metal detector and put it aside for a few years.  Not too long ago I decided to see what was in it so I first tried vinegar but that wasn't strong enough to help much.  I set it aside again for a while until I finally decided to crush it.  You see the results above.

Percussive methods are dangerous, so I usually prefer other methods. Slowly increasing pressure in a vice or even pliers will crack conglomerates in a more controlled and safer way. 

This was a very hard conglomerate but I finally got it crushed - carefully, removing one small bit after another. I started on the opposite end of where I thought the metal was and inspected all the newly exposed surfaces.  I saw one very tiny vert or some sort but didn't bother any more with it.

After crushing the clump down  to the level shown above (I did it in a box so I wouldn't lose anything), the results were not exciting.  Just one small somewhat rounded piece of very mangled metal.  Looks like maybe it was a small shot.  I'm not sure.  In this case, there wasn't a lot more to it than what was exposed on the surface of the original clump.

Clump Showing Bit of Exposed Metal.

You never know, but there wasn't much more to this case.

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On a recent trip to WV, I found a couple nice dairy bottles.  Both were from the Lantz Dairy and are in great shape.  I think they spent most of their time buried in mud next to a spring that got washed out after a downpour.

The smaller one below is more ornate than the larger one.  I'd guess they'd both date to anywhere from the 1930s to 1950, but I'm sure I could narrow that down with a little more research.  I think the half pint bottle is the oldest because of the type of closure.

Below is the larger bottle.

Here is the bottom of that one.

It has the Thatcher Manufacturing Company mark to the left of the L.  The Thatcher marks are well documented and can be date pretty well whenever I get around to researching that.

Nice embossed bottles in very nice condition.  I'll do some mroe research on those and post what I learn in the tgbottlebarn.blogspot.com site.

The bottom of the smaller one appears to have only an O in a circle.  That mark is very faint.

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Italy's most famous beaches are becoming reservation-only destinations, leaving travelers to debate whether a day at the beach should require weeks of planning.

Several of the country's most popular beaches now require visitors to reserve entry before arriving, with QR codes, daily visitor caps and admission fees replacing the traditional first-come, first-served approach, according to Fodor's Travel Guide...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

Famous beach now requires visitors to reserve spots weeks ahead and pay fees

That could be a trend.  With high population concentrations around desirable beaches, like with the beaches in front of some resorts or wealthy areas, there might be more restricted access to beaches.  

Restricted beach access is nothing new, but it could be an increasing trend in the future.  

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Here are the NHC maps showing a little tropical development in the Gulf.

The surf is still basically flat.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net