10/26/26 Report - Unusually High Surf Hits the Treasure Coast Beaches. Very Good Time to Seek Beaches Producing Treasure Coins.

 

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

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Monday Morning.

Of course, the big news is the big surf.  You can see it above as it looked around 8:15 AM.  You can see the water hitting the foot of the dunes in the background and the cut towards the bottom of the picture.  It doesn't show real well in the picture because of the camera angle.   

You can also see in the view that the beach behind the cut is wet too.   One thing I like is how much water is hitting the foot of the dune. 

Just for comparison, below is the same view from Saturday around the same time in the morning.  Surprisingly, that doesn't show as big a change in the cut as I expected yet.  The water is higher Monday, but the angles at this beach con't appear to be all that different.

As you know, Sunday was rainy and windy on the Treasure Coast.  I wasn't able to get out Sunday.  I had other things I HAD to do.

Below is the far south view from the Wabasso Beach Cam Monday morning about 8:30 AM.

The thing to notice there is the amount of water on the slope all the way back and onto the foot of the dunes.

Wabasso Beach Cam Far South View Monday Morning Near High Tide.

There are some beaches where this is what you want.  That is where the old stuff erodes out of the dunes.  Some of my good reales came that way, for example the one from Jupiter Beach with the nice protected monogram side that I've shown a few times, came from exactly that kind of situation.  In thos kinds of cases, as the dunes erode, the coins and things are dragged down the beach.

Here is Stuart Rocks.

Stuart Rocks Beach Cam Monrday Morning Around 8:45.

Same kind of thing.

Jensen Beach Cam About 9:00AM.

Sebastian Inlet Beach Cam Center Beach View About 11 AM.

Considering all that, there is evidence of some cutting, but it isn't limited to certain locations, as is often the case.  Most places are getting over washed, which can result in dune erosion and the slope being moved back.

When the beach slope moves towards the dunes, it might not be obvious without reference to landmarks.  Also check for buried older layers or sand.

Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

I would bet that some treasure coins will be made this week, but it will take searching out the best spots.  As I said in a recently post, you might have to do some scouting around and maybe even taking some good long walks to those out of the way places that aren't the most heavily detected.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

10/24/26 Report - Found Reale Happily Refound. Dating Jewelry and a Platinum Diamond Tension Set Ring Find. Big Surf Coming Soon.

 

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

Reale Found a Months Ago.

I found this reale on a beach several months ago.  It was the first one I found metal detecting with my Manticore. It was one of my first times out with the Manticore.  Maybe it was the first hunt with the Manticore, but I'm not sure about that anymore.  Anyway, I put the reale somewhere and couldn't find it for months.  I looked almost everywhere around the house, because I hadn't put it in the vault yet.  I was starting to give up on ever finding it again; but when I was looking for something else the other day, I found it.  It was in a jewelry box - the kind of box a store might give you when you buy an engagement ring.  I never thought I would have put it in something like that, but I guess I did.  

Despite the reale not being anything really special, I was very happy to find it again.  It was aggravating to lose track of it after finding it on the beach, so I was.almost as happy to refind it as I was to find it originally.  

 Not the best photos.  I'll clean the coin up some and try to get better photos and study the coin

===

Yesterday I talked about how you can figure out the age of a ring from its style.  Here is a good example.

Platinum Diamond Ring Metal Detector Find.

I found this ring in shallow water using a Tesoro Stingray, which I never used very much.  

The ring is bicolor platinum and is held by tension without any other setting material. 

The first Niessing tension ring was made from 18 Karat gold, a metal with enough give to be worked into a spring-like shape without becoming brittle. Later versions moved to Platinum, which holds its spring tension even better over time. The style reached American engagement ring shoppers largely through jeweler Steven Kretchmer, who patented a proprietary platinum alloy called Plat/SK in 1987 and later secured patents on his own tension-setting method in the early 1990s. That alloy let jewelers make tension rings noticeably lighter than Niessing’s original 35-gram design, without losing the strength needed to hold a diamond securely.

I'd guess I found the ring in the early 1990s, although I don't remember for sure.  I don't remember when I got the Stingray, but it was marketed by Tesoro beginning in 1991.   And the ring was close to the surface.  I remember the signal of the platinum ring as being not loud but smooth.

In my yesterday's post I quoted    which says,

1990s rings were sharper, cleaner, more angular with a princess cut and a square modified brilliant. Tension settings were used with the stone appearing to be suspended between two ends of a band. Channel-set shoulders were very common.  

Here is the link for that.  A century of engagement ring design - Our Culture

Even with my partial memory, it all seems to support that it is a ring from the 1990s.

You might try dating some of your ring finds.

---

Wimdyty.com Wind Chart for the 24th

Windyty.com Wind Chart for Oct. 25.

The big predicted surf for the coming week is kind of exciting, but I took a look at the Windyty.com wind charts for the next few days and was a little disappointed.  I'd really like to see better angles on the wind.  Saturday we have a little more northerly wind than after that.  I'd really like to see a more northerly wind when we get the really big surf.  At least we will have the high water.

Fort Pierce South Beach Saturday Morning.

Nothing great going on there.

We still have the nice high surf and tides to look forward to beginning Sunday and continuing for a few days.

SurfGuru.com Surf Chart.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

10/23/26 Report - Valuable 1715 Fleet Gold Escudos and Finger Bar. How to Date an Engagment Ring. Even Higher Surf Coming.

 

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

See Treasure, World Coin & Paper Money Auction 40 : Session 1: Gold Cobs, Shipwreck Coins & Ingots - iCollector.com Online Auctions

I just did a quick browse of some of the Sedwick Auction #40 listings.  Above is the coin with the highest bid that I saw.  It is 1715 Fleet 4-escudo.  The second highest bid I saw for a coin was a very nice roundish 1715 Fleet Mexico 8-escudo.

The highest bid I saw was $55,000 for a 546-gram 18K gold finger bar from the Santa Margarita.

There may have been higher bids somewhere in the auction.  I didn't look at all the lots.

I'd guess that only about a third to a half of the lots had bids at this point, but that is a rough estimate.  I didn't really count them.

I'd say at least half of the lots had no bid yet, but there is plenty of time left before the auction goes live, so I'd expect much higher bids and very few lots, if any, not receiving bids.

Among the silver cobs, it appeared that the  Mexico 8-reales were doing very well along with some of the Peru cobs.

One Jupiter wreck coin that was PCGS-certified had an especially good high bid.

 

There are still many lots without bids.  Give it a look.  

---

You can pretty well determine the age or period of an engagement ring from stylistic features.  I'll give you some of the main trends for the different age periods.

From 1900 - 1915, rings were made in the Edwardian or Belle Epoque style. Platinum became commonly used. 

Until the early twentieth century, gold and silver was the choice for fine jewelry. Silver was used for diamond settings.

The garland style with lacework, filigree, millegrain edges, and settings so fine the metal nearly disappeared. Bows, ribbons, laurel wreaths were common.

Stones of this period were old mine and old European cut. They are chunkier, with small tables, high crowns and large open culets. 

The next period was the Art Deco period, which was roughly1920 to 1935. In contrast to Edwardian jewellery , which would be curled, would be characterized by step cuts, emerald and Asscher with broad flat facets, baguettes, calibre-cut coloured stones, sapphire, onyx and ruby shape set inm channel.

1930 to 1950 was the Retro period. Platinum was no longer used since during the war it was needed for the war. Yellow and rose gold was common with bolder, heavier, more sculptural, with large curves and less fine detail.

Stones were smaller, so there was more metal. Rose gold was very common.

1947 to 1950 was the deBeers period. Rings were characterized by a single round stone raised on claws.

The 1960s and 70s feature yellow gold again with rougher textures and colored stones. Asymmetry, hammered finishes, organic forms, cluster settings, and several stones arranged as a flower or a spray, were most common.

In 1981 Lady Diana Spencer set the trend with her large oval blue sapphire surrounded by diamonds. Sapphire engagement rings became popular. Catherine Middleton later reenergized the trend.

1990s rings were sharper, cleaner, more angular with a princess cut and a square modified brilliant. Tension settings were used with the stone appearing to ber suspended between two ends of a band. Channel-set shoulders were very common.

In 2000 the halo returned dominated. A center stone surrounded by small appeared larger. Economy was featured.

White gold rather than platinum became the default. With rhodium plating it looked similar.
The 2010s rose gold with elongated shapes became fashionable. Ovals, pears and elongated cushions look larger.

'
The 2020s is characterized by individuality over trend. People want something nobody else has. Rings are often custom made. Some common trends include two-stone designs, bezels, lower profiles, colored center stones.  To make things difficult, vintage and antique becamme popular.

And in the past couple of years lab-grown diamonds became popular for economy sake. A lab-grown diamond can cost 5 to 10 percent of what a similar natural diamond can cost, and it looks very similar.

With large center stones being so inexpensive settings have become more elaborate, more architectural. More of a ring's cost is in the workmanship rather than the stone.

Another common trend is having an ancestor's stone reset in a contemporary setting.

Trends come and go.  Nobody wants their parent's style. which is what they grew up.  It takes a while for a style to fade from memory before it is brought back again.

Here is an excellent link for more on that topic.

A century of engagement ring design - Our Culture

==

Wabasso Beach Cam Friday Morning.

Fort Pierce Jetty Areas Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

Take a look at that. It looks like Sunday the surf will be up again. 8 - 12 ft. That will continue on into the week too. Combined with this weeks effects, that has a good chance of opening up some good opportunties.

Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

10/21/26 Report - Turtle Trail and Seagrape Trail Photos. Adapatation Levels in Metal Detectors Not Unlike Human Senses. Around the Bend.

 

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

Seagrape Trail Tuesday.

Alberto S. sent these photos of Seagrape and Turtle Trails.  He took the photos Tuesday.

Seagrape Trail Tuesday.

Turtle Trail Tuesday.

4

Turtle Trail Tuesday.

Thanks much for sharing, Alberto.

If you remember, a few days ago I talked about a few miles of beach in South Florida that I metal detected a lot decades ago.  I pointed out and characterized a number specific of spots.  There were a lot of different areas in that stretch of a few miles.

And a couple days ago, Mark G. told about how he was recently metal detecting at Jensen Beach and looked at a few spots before he finally found a cut area to the north where he made most of his finds.

On the Treasure Coast, you might stop and look at the beach from the beach access, but that won't tell you what is around the bend.  Some of the best cuts I reported from Sunday were a good distance from the beach access and couldn't be seen from the beach access.

The Treasure Coast beaches aren't a straight line.  The bend in the shoreline changes the angles the waves hit.  At one spot the waves will be hitting straight on but around the bend they might be hitting at an angle. Sometimes you have to take a good long walk from the access to find the cuts and hot spots.

There are some beaches that correlate pretty well even if not perfectly.  For example, Fort Pierce South Beach has a stretch that correlates somewhat with the beach at John Brooks.  And Frederick Douglass Beach often looks very much like John Brooks, but there will be some differences between the two.   It seems like more often than not, Brooks will be more cut than Douglass.  Even though they often look similar, different spots along the way also will be different.  

In conclusion, you should remember that some of the good spots will be around bends and you'll have to walk a good distance if you want to check them out.

===

I talked about sensory adaptation levels yesterday and a little about how that can affect your metal detecting.  Your metal detector also attempts to adapt in much the same way your body and sensory system adapts.  For example, when your metal detector ground balances, it attempts to filter out signals from conductive minerals such as salt mineralization or black sand.  It attempts to minimize false signals from those things, which can be a good thing, but you should realize there may also be a cost.  

If you use all metals mode enough, you'll learn to be able to discriminate fairly well between things like black sand and signals from actual targets in black sand.  It will take some time but it can be done. However. some of the deeper or smaller targets causing fainter signals will be missed from whether you depend upon ground balancing or use all metals mode.  There is some amount of information that will be lost in the filtering process.  

---,

Fort Pierce South Beach Wednesday Morning
From Surfguru.com.

The surf has decreased a bit.  The wind is NNE while the surf is NE.  

The Wabasso surf is a couple feet bigger than the Fort Pierce surf this morning.

Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/20/26 Report - Beach Developments. Turtle Trail Report. Psychophysiological Adaptation Levels Relevant to Metal Detecting.

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

Turtle Trail
From Al C. Monday.

Yesterday I asked for some photos from Indian River County beaches, and as usual a frequent contributor came through.  These photos are from Al C. and below is what he had to say.

Down between the second and third flagpole. Still need a lot of sand to move. The very tops of the bags are showing.

Turtle Trail from Al C. Monday.

Good photos Al.  Thanks.

That shows a lot.  Notice the two-step cut.  Also, the stairs that were probably replaced after the renourishment.  Also, what looks in the picture like some black sand.   

This is just the start of the winter season after a very long summer of accumulating sand.

DJ another long time and frequent contributor sent this picture from Pepper Park yesterday.

Pepper Park Yesterday
From DJ.

Looks like the same rainbow I saw from Douglass, but more little clearer.

Thanks DJ.

---

Yesterday I mentioned that there was a bunch of deep junk at John Brooks beach on the slope in front of the beach access.  I was digging deep stuff whereas the day before it was totally different.  There were coins and sinkers and things like that all near the surface.  So it was a real change and a real contrast.  One day there were decent smaller targets barely covered and the next day I was digging bigger stuff a foot or more deep.

When you are digging all big deep stuff, it might appear that there are no small targets such as coins present, however if they are present and you might not be detecting them.  I'm not saying coins were or were not there.  I'm just saying that if they were too deep, I wouldn't know if they were there.  Like I always say, you never don't know what you are missing.  

I've always recommended removing big targets when that is practical.  It seems that one you remove the big targets, you have a good chance of then finding smaller or deeper targets that you didn't notice before.  Of course, we know there can be a masking effect, but I think something else tends to happens.  When you are hearing big targets, your perception isn't as keen for small sounds.  It happens all the time.  If you are accustomed to loud noises, you don't notice softer sounds around you.  There is a perceptual adaptation.   It isn't just psychological.  It is psychophysiological.  

As you have probably noticed, people from the north find Florida's heat more unbearable than residents.  That isn't surprising.  We just say we are used to it.  But I when I was doing research in the 1970s I found that people who have been in Florida a long time didn't show the same peripheral vasodilation to cold that others did.  They lost a cold adaptation response.  A northerner when putting left had in ice water would adapt by the blood leaving their hands where it would lose more heat to the environment.  People often say that southerners have thinner blood, but it is the distribution of blood that changes rather than the thickness of the blood,  

The sensory system adapts too.  It adapts to the environment. 

This baseline, or adaptation level, acts as the zero point against which your brain evaluates everything new. It isn’t fixed. It shifts continuously based on three things: the intensity of current stimuli, your memory of past stimuli, and the surrounding context. Your nervous system is doing this constantly and automatically, recalibrating so rapidly that you rarely notice it happening.

In vision, for instance, your eyes adjust to enormous changes in brightness throughout a single day. Retinal cells physically change how much they fire depending on overall light levels and contrast, and these adjustments happen on different timescales. Some shifts take fractions of a second; others unfold over minutes. '

When you are accustomed to hearing loud signals in your earphones, you will not be as sensitive to the lower sound level of smaller or deeper targets.  I believe that happens physiologically to some extent, but also psychologically.  When you aren't getting loud signals, you pay better attention and more intently listen for those faint signals.  You might also better tune or adjust your detector.  That is one reason I recommend the sequential step search strategy.  Remove the easy targets and then you can focus on the smaller signals.

---

Fort Pierce South Beach Tuesday Morning
From Surfguru.com.

As you can see, this beach is now washed flat this morning.  The same thing happened at Wabasso.

Wabasso Beach Cam.  Far South View Tuesday Around New.

Surf Chart for Fort Pierce Aera from SurfGuru.com.

The surf is decreasing and the angles aren't as good as a couple days ago, but the water is still pretty high and rough.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/19/26 Report - Recent Reader Metal Detecting Finds and Beach Developments.

 

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

Chasing Rainbows on the Treasure Coast Monday Morning.

I checked a couple beach cams Monday morning (Wabasso and Fort Pierce) to get an idea of what was how the beaches changed since Sunday.  On both those beach cams I could see that the cuts that were there on Sunday had decreased some and had migrated north a bit.  As the wind and surf changes angles, you'll see the cuts change.  Very often from one tide to another they will increase or decrease and move either north or south, depending upon the angles.

Before I get into what I saw today, here is a report from Mark on his Sunday hunt. 

First, here is a picture of what he found. 

Finds by Mark G. Sunday.

 And here is his email.

This Sunday morning, I headed out to Jensen beach knowing that the wind and the surf have been busy moving sand around. From the camera's view I did not see any cuts on the south end, so I checked out the hotel there first and was correct, no cuts. I headed north toward the busiest part of the beach. I was working the surf line being low tide the sloop was steep so maybe some slope back, I did not find much I think 1 penny and some aluminum. Then about mid beach I saw it, the entire north end from the last tower to the mansion was a 3-foot cut. I wasn't expecting much, this is renourishment sand and relatively newly washed in from when the last king tide washed it out. I had time for one pass up and one pass back down against the bank before the tide washed me out. I wasn't disappointed in the number of targets, there were plenty I was busy digging quarters and dimes a few pennies and some lead so I was in the right place if there had been some gold or silver there. One thing I noticed today that doesn't happen often, especially on the weekend; I was the only detector out there. 

And here are his pritures of Jensen from Sunday.

Jensen Beach Sunday.
From Mark G.

Jensen Beach Sunday
From Mark G.

Thanks for sharing Mark.

Today I went back to John Brooks.  I was expecting to see some changes, as I mentioned above.

Here are the pictures of John Brooks beach.

John Brooks Beach Monday Morning.

The first thing I notice is how the surf was banging into the bar in front of the beach.  It was really stirring things up there.  Pretty strong swash too.

The beach was very different today.  A lot changed since yesterday.  Not only was the cut smaller, but there was a layer of shells about a foot under the sand near the top of the slope and there were a lot of targets, including a lot of junk, down in that lower layer.  It was really trashy.  The first thing I found was a pair of destroyed eye-glasses down a little over a foot.  Then an entire foil cigarette pack down about a foot.  

There were more targets today, but they were mostly junk and they were all pretty deep, unlike yesterday when the targets were mostly modern coins and fishing gear, but all near the surface.  It was much easier digging the targets yesterday.

I also took a look at Frederick Douglass.  You can see that below.

Frederick Douglass Monday Morning.

Frederick Douglass didn't look great Monday.

There was a faint rainbow seen from Frederick Douglass before it started raining.

Fort Pierce South Beach Monday Afternoon.
From the Beach Cam.

This afternoon the water was breaching the cuts and hitting the foot of the back dunes at Fort Pierce South Beach.

That rounds the cut off and drags sand down to the slope.  That will cause a mushy slope, like I saw at some beaches Monday morning.  

The same thing was happening at Wabasso.

Wabasso Beach Cam Monday Afternoon.

Looks like the cuts there are completely washed out now.

I think I showed cuts there yesterday or the day before.

The more northern surf angle causes a slicing action instead.  It just keeps cutting the cliff back farther on the beach.  The more easter surf washes up and down, breaching cuts at high tide when the surf is big enough. 

Looking ahead, it looks like the surf tomorrow will be slightly smaller, but there might be more of a north angle.

Surf Chart for Fort Pierce Jetty Are from Surfguru.com.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/18/26 Report - Some Treasure Coast Beaches Cut Overnight and More High Surf Is Expected Tomorrow.

 

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

John Brooks Beach Sunday Morning.

Last night a four-foot cut was created at John Brooks Beach.  You can see that above.

I did a little metal detecting.  This beach produced some seasoned modern coins, including some greenies.  There was the normal junk, which included some fishing hooks, sinkers etc.

Low tide was around 8 AM this morning.  I got there a little later.  

John Brooks Beach Sunday Morning.

John Brooks Beach Sunday Morning.

Not all the beaches were cut this morning.  For example, Walton Rocks was mostly not cut.  There were some creases and farther to the north there was an area that was cut, but it was still in renourishment sand.

Walton Rocks Sunday Morning.

Walton Rocks Sunday Morning.

Sunday morning Fort Pierce South Beach was cut.  You can see that below.

Fort Pierce South Beach Sunday Morning.

Below you can see that it was not eroded Saturday evening.

Fort Pierce South Beach Around 6 PM Saturday.

The same goes for Wabasso.  It cut overnight too.

Wabasso Beach Cam Just a Little After 6 PM Saturday.

Below you can see the Saturday morning cut that was found on the Wabasso Beach Cam (far south view).

Tomorrow the surf is supposed to be up around ten or eleven feet.

Surf Prediction from Surfguru.com for the Fort Pierce Jetty area.

The surf report shows more NE wind tomorrow.  I'd like to see more NNE, but at least some of the sand is moving out.

If you can send some photos from Indian River County, I'd like to report that too, but the bottom line is, it could be worth checking around because there has been some nice erosion in spots.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net