3/20/26 Report - Treasure Coast Heavily Encrusted Shipwreck Spikes Freed. Post Cards as Collectibles and Research Clues.

 

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

A Sample of Heavily Encrusted Treasure Coast Shipwreck Spikes Freed.

Above are some of the heavily encrusted shipwreck spikes found on the Treasure Coast.  These spikes were all totally encrusted before being freed from the encrustation.  It was impossible to know what was inside the concretion as found.  A few looked like they might contain spikes, but others did not show a shape that gave any clue.

There are various approaches to finding out what is in a heavy crust.  One way to find out is to x-ray the clump.  Sometimes nothing remains of the original item, which has totally dissolved, leaving only a void.  I've talked about that type of thing before.

Here is a good link to a article about examining and treating heavily encrusted object. 

The Belle

That is a site that you'll want to read.  It covers the archaeology of the shipwreck La Belle, including artifact cleaning and conservation.

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Breese Farm, Indiana.

Some old post cards show places like they were in the past and therefore provide good tips on metal detecting sites.  I've written about that before. 

There are many old post cards showing Florida hotel and beach sites, but I'm showing the one above because it shows some of my ancestors.  I recently noticed it and asked Alberto S. to see if he could make the scanned image a little better, and he very kindly did that.  Thanks Alberto.

I like ephemera on its own, but also because of the history it preserves.  Long ago I was into collecting old books and found many other types of ephemera while looking for old books, and sometimes in old books.  Always look between the pages of old books for other items, which can include money as well as other interesting things.

But old postcards can have some value.  Some a lot.  

There are some things I like about old postcards and I've sold some in the past.  For one thing, they don't require a lot of storage space, unlike bottles, that take up a lot of space.  And they don't break, but they can get damaged.  They are very easy and inexpensive to ship.

I don't know the exact date of the post card shown above, ut it is probably in the in the 1915 - 1925 date range.  If I study the car, that might provide some clues.  

I don't know why the Breese's put their farm put on a post card other than possibly a desire to share with others -perhaps those that they left back east.  They didn't have email or any other of our modern convenient methods of communicating, and post cards were used a lot in my family back in the early 1900s.  I've shown some of those postcards before.

If you are interested in collecting old post cards, here is a good web site that will help you date them and determine if they might have value.

Guide to Collecting Valuable Vintage Postcards (Rare Finds to Look for)

Above is an old postcard that I showed in the past.  It shows Wabasso beach.

Here is an older post I did on postcards.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 6/19/20 Report - Metal Detecting Hobby Makes Contributions to Archaeology. Digging Gold Mining Camp. Old Postcard Treasure.

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Nothing much new with the surf predictions or anything, but today is the Vernal Equinox.

Happy Vernal Equinox,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/19/26 Report - Great Metal Detecting Finds by One Reader: Silver Dollar, Mouring Pin and Pendant. Some Beach Cuts.

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

Find and Photo by Al C.

Al C. made the above cool find yesterday on the Treasure Coast.  He has also been doing some traveling and finding great things.

Below are couple more.

Beautiful 1879 Silver Dollar Found by Al C.

Here are Al's email about two of his great finds.

Perhaps you remember my long sad story of how I scratched Lady Liberties face on my only Morgan Dollar find. Well good news! I got another chance! I went up to North Carolina for the Dig Stock 12 metal detecting event. One of my buddies got permission to detect an old house near where the event was to take place. The yard was unkept and under a tree through thick dead leaves I got a pretty loud signal worth investigating. I scraped the ground with my foot a couple times to clear away the leaves and sadly the signal moved with the leaves. Of course that always means it’s junk in the leaves…but not this time. I swung over the moved leaves and I could see the edge of a big silver coin. No digging or risking required this time!

Dig Stock 12 was in North Carolina close to the Virginia line. It was 500 detectorists on 7000 acres of very historic property. I went with a few friends who made some great finds including a Spanish half reale and a cut two reale with the full date of 1708. Many other amazing things were uncovered by others as well. With only a couple hours left of the third and final day I took a chance on a 45 vdi on the Deus 2. Glad I did. It’s a Mourning Pin with what I assume is a last name engraved on the back. Usually there is hair inside the locket like part. It will not open easily and I don’t want to break it. I reached out to a museum that is in the immediate area of where I found it but have not yet heard back from them. I plan to donate it to the museum.

Three Views of Mouring Pin Found by Al C.

Thore are some really special finds.

And here is what Al C. saw early this afternoon at John Brooks.

John Brooks Thursday Around 1 PM
Photo by Al C.

Thanks much for sharing your great finds Al.  Everybody likes to see what people are finding and those great finds will inspire anybody.

If you like to see finds, you have to send them in.  

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In the morning, Brooks wasn't looking that good.  In fact, it looked very much like the photo I showed you yesterday with the broken cuts, although the cuts were a little bigger than the day before.

John Brooks Thursday Morning.

And here is what Walton Rocks looked like Thursday morning.

Walton Rocks Thursday Morning.

We've had a few days of north winds.  Too bad to the surf was only in the four foot range.

Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

Looks like more of the same.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/18/26 Report - Checking a Few Treasure Coast Metal Detecting Beaches Today. One Find. TreasureGuide's Salvage Yard.

 

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

Frederick Douglass Beach Wednesday Morning.

I decided to go out to the beach today.  I wasn't expecting much, but hoped to be surprised.  I wasn't.

This morning the Fort Pierce beach cam showed a small cut, but less than a foot, and that is what I saw when I got there.  

There has been one detectorists working that beach for hours every day.  Two detectorists were there today.

But I was more interested in checking John Brooks beach, which as I've said before, is correlated to some extent with the Fort Pierce south beach.  I expected to see small cuts at John Brooks and that is what I saw.  

I did a little detecting at John Brooks.  There were a few targets but not many.  Most targets were down about mid-slope.

Also, as I've said before, Frederick Douglass is correlated with John Brooks, but more highly than the correlation Brooks and Fort Pierce South Beach.

Frederick Douglass Beach Wednesday Morning.

The cuts at John Brooks were mostly one foot or less.  The bigger ones were between Brooks and Douglass, but at Douglass they were smaller.

John Brooks Wednesday Morning.

There was more iron on John Brooks beach.  In the distant past Douglass had really a lot of iron, a lot of which came from an old Mel Fisher salvage barge. 

The iron on Brooks made me wonder if some of that older junk might be coming up again.

The dug clad coins were all really discolored and had been out there a while.

I managed one small gold find.  I'll post that below.

Fort Pierce Wednesday Morning.

You can see one detectorist in the above photo.  

There was a lot of iron at some spots there too.

The cut south of Fort Pierce Jetty beach was small but ran for hundreds of yards.

Fort Pierce Wednesday Morning.

Here is my tiny gold find from today.  

14 K Mark on Stud Earring Post.

I don't know if the stone is good or not yet.  

I didn't detect long today.  Just wanted to check things out a little.  When I left home I mostly wanted to check Brooks and Douglass, which I did.

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Below are three old Aquasound detectors (made by Herb MacDonald who formed Florida America Electronics - FAE)  and a few extra coils now in the TreasureGuide's metal detector salvage yard.  There is a probably a working coil in there, but I know it isn't the 14 inch one.  

14 Inch Weighted Coil.

If someone can use the parts or whatever, we might be able to work out something.  I think there is probably one good coil in there or maybe a good control box - one or the other, but I don't know which.  And maybe some could be repaired.  

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Nothing exciting on the surf chart - just three to four feet for days.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/17/26 Report - Study of the Silver Coins on the 1622 Tortugas Shipwreck. Another Good Link. Current Conditions and Projects.

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

The above table come from a study of the reales of the Tortugas wreck.  Below is the introduction from the articlle.

Between 1990 and 1991 an assemblage of 1,184 silver cob coins was excavated from the 400m-deep Tortugas shipwreck off the Florida Keys, a merchant vessel from the 1622 Spanish Tierra Firme fleet most plausibly identified as the 117-ton Buen Jesús y Nuestra Señora del Rosario. A sample of 648 coins retained in the collection of Odyssey Marine Exploration in Tampa, Florida, was re-examined in 2011 to obtain optimum quantitative data about the coins’ denominations, mint origins, dates and assayer admin istrators. Silver reales coins were identified from predominantly, and unexpectedly, the mint of Mexico, followed by Potosi and a ‘Bogotá/Cartagena or Old World’ class. 

Although vast quantities of comparable silver coins have been recovered from the shallow-water wrecks of the Atocha and Margarita from the same homeward-bound 1622 Spanish fleet, this material has not been subjected to formal quantification. The value of the Tortugas collection lies in its association with a small Tierra Firme fleet merchant vessel, and as an important archaeo logical counterpoint to the more renowned large treasure-laden flota warships. The Tortugas wreck thus reflects the smaller scale maritime trade conducted between Colonial Spain and the Americas that is less conspicuous within the archaeological record...

The article shows many of the coins and discusses their identity and how they probably ended up on the wreck. It also discusses something I've talked about a few times - the lower denomination coins more likely being personal possessions rather than cargo, which could also have something to do with the disparity between the smaller denomination of beach found reales.

Here is another interesting part of the article.

What Would a Spanish Dollar Buy? While it has been widely quoted that a common worker would need to labor a month to earn one or two Spanish dollars (also called pesos and ‘pieces of eight’), each consist ing of 8 reales of silver, just like today the value of money f luctuated as a result of inflation, recession and geography. As a general indication of income, Walton (1994: xiii) has suggested that in the era of Columbus the richest aristocrat in Spain earned over 80,000 pesos a year from his estates, while a typical laborer made about 25 pesos annually. In 1622, the year of the Tortugas shipwreck sinking, and in 1623, a master carpenter could make 238 maravedís a day (34 maravedís = 1 reale), a master mason 272 maravedís, a laborer 136 maravedís, a gardener 25 maravedís and a female cook 11 maravedís a day...

Here is the link for the entire article.

be6d77_40ec0076da6b46199b40ebcc7e983141.pdf

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You might find some other articles you will want to read here.

 Publications – Florida Anthropological Society

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Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Came (South Zoom View from Surfguru.com
Around 6 PM Monday.

There is a small cut, or what I'd call a crease, on the beach Monday around 6 PM.  It didn't last long though.  Tuesday morning it was gone (as you can see below).

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Came (South Zoom View from Surfguru.com
Around 9 AM Tuesday.

Once detectorist was working the beach there Tuesday morning.

You can see the equipment going to be used to pump sand onto the beach below.

Beach Renourishment Equipment at Fort Pierce.

There will be beach and jetty closures during the renourishment project.  I think the jetty will be close on the 18th.

This seems to be the same kind of thing they are doing at Sebastian.  They have the tall metal structures there too, and I thought I could see the pipe on the beach at one point.  I think the excavator is moving the pipe down the beach.  You can see that on the Sebastian beach cam.

The renourishment project is going on during Turtle nesting and is contrary to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation plan.  

Here is the Tuesday surf chart.

Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

As the surf chart is showing, there is currently a north NNW wind and a north surf.   

It is a bit chilly out today too.  

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/16/26 Report - Early Florida Contact Period Sites and Artifacts. Religious Symbols on Shipwreck Artifacts. Surf Prediction Fade.

 

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

Map Showing Early Contact Sites in Florida.
Source: See link below.

Here is a map showing where artifacts of early indigenous European contact sites.  It was published in a Florida Anthropological Society journal (line below).  The contents of the article is shown immediately below.

The types of artifacts at various sites for each site and period are described in the article.

Here is an excerpt just to give you an idea about what is in the article.

Here is the link so you can read the entire article.

The European and the Indian - UF Digital Collections

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Here are a few excerpts from a great article on some artifacts found on the Tortugas Wreck site.

It is Papal Plates & Propaganda on the Deep-Sea Tortugas Shipwreck, Florida (1622) by Sean Kingsley, Wreck Watch Int.

Why was such highly exalted, specific imagery painted onto Blue on White plates manufactured in Seville and why did they ultimately end up on a small merchant vessel returning from the Americas to Andalusia? Given the plates’ very specific religious iconography it seems reasonable to suggest that its owner did not simply buy the product over the counter in the open market, where it had been manufactured based on popular schemes found in a pattern book. These plates are more likely to have been commissioned specifically for the Church and conceivably for a very particular purpose. 

 When the crossed keys and triple crown are represented with a shield, the insignia is identifiable as the personal arms of the pope. When the emblem is depicted in isola tion it represents the papacy as an institution (Galbreath, 1930: 23). Since the arms of Pope Gregory XV (1621-23) – gules three bends silver retraits in chief – are not associated with the Tortugas plates, its design was clearly intended to signify the broader papal authority of the Catholic Church...

Here is the link for the entire article.

be6d77_456f80cc973a4d97befc700b2c92ea47.pdf

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Jensen Beach Monday Morning
 from the Jensen Beach Web Cam

You can see the slight south angle at the beach at Jensen as well as the dip between the beach and the bar.  

There are a lot of beachgoers.  Some things will be lost.

View of Fort Pierce South from the SurfGuru.com Web Cam.

This was earlier, but there were already people on the beach.

Surf Chart for the Fort Pierce Area from Surfguru.com.

Yesterday I said, The past couple of days I didn't take the predicted high surf too seriously.  Very often those kinds of predictions when made several days out eventually fade away.  This time the predicted high surf has been steady for three days now and has even become a little bigger - now up to nine feet.  It could still fade but be prepared.  It might happen.

I was surprised the eight or nine foot surf was holding.  Well, I was one day early on thinking the fade was not going to happen.  Today, it happened.  The surf chart is now showing nothing bigger than four feet - half of the peak predicte earlier.

That used to happen a lot.  They'd show a big surf out six or seven days, and then it would end up being much less.  That is what I came to expect, but they have improved on that.  They don't predict a disappearing big surf nearly as much as the used to, but it happened again this time.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/15/26 Report - Old Coin in Bus Fare. Modern Error Coins Gaining Popularity. Being Attuned to Treasure. High Surf Predicted.

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

Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

The past couple of days I didn't take the predicted high surf too seriously.  Very often those kinds of predictions when made several days out eventually fade away.  This time the predicted high surf has been steady for three days now and has even become a little bigger - now up to nine feet.  It could still fade but be prepared.  It might happen.

Today we'll have a low tide around noon.

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Coin used as bus fare was 2,000-year-old currency...

James Edwards worked as a cashier for the Leeds Transport Company, gathering fares from bus and tram drivers in the city.

He put fake and foreign coins to one side, and this collection was passed down to his grandson, Peter Edwards.

Mr Edwards later set about investigating one of the stranger items in the collection, which has now been revealed to be a coin that was minted in the 1st century BC.

It was made by descendants of the Carthaginians, in what is now Cadiz, Spain, and features their god Melqart, ruler of the underworld...

Coin used as bus fare was 2,000-year-old currency

I always liked checking the change in coin machine.  Those have mostly disappeared, but they would kick out silver or foreign coins.  I found a good amount of silver U.S. coins in the change machine that were used on the turnpike when I was driving it daily.  A lot of U.S. silver and Canadian coins were found that way.

========

Here is an article that claims that modern error coins are becoming very popular and modern error coins are bringing high prices.  The article says that during Covid quality control fell at the mints.  That combined with high production numbers resulted in many errors.  The large variety of new designs also contributed.  

Here is the link for more about that.

Why error coins from 2021-2024 are suddenly flooding the market

By the way, that is one of those articles using illustrations that have nothing to do with the topic.  For example, they show a picture of a mid-1800s coin while talking about modern error coins.

The authors do not seem to be serious experts.  Maybe they are just using AI.  Anyhow, some of the ideas are worth consideration.  I can see how the high production numbers, and the large number of designs can add to the number of error coins, for example.  And modern error coins do seem to be popular these days.  You just have to read those things critically, which is always a good practice anyhow.

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A few days ago I found several die.  As I've said before, once you find a cob, there is an increased probability of finding another.  Part of that is due to the fact that there is more likely more there, and part of it is due to becoming more attuned to that type of item.  

When I found the first dice, I continued to look along the water's edge and I was mentally attuned to that particular type of object.  It was a small green cube with white dots.

When you search, whether it is with a metal detector or not, you are focusing on certain types of objects.  It might be coins, gold rings, cobs or something else.  You are mentally attuned.  Your senses are attuned as well.  

Your metal detector works as an extension of your senses.  You can now sense to some extent electromagnetic fields.  When you use a metal detector, your focus, or "attunement," might involve your detector settings, including perhaps discrimination.  You discriminate in multiple ways.  You might avoid digging certain tones or certain conductivity numbers.

Once you dig a cob or a gold ring, you become more attuned to that type of object.  When I recently dug a gold ring, I noticed the conductivity number.  I remember it now.  It was a thirteen.  So, after being rewarded for digging that 13, you know I'm going to dig the next 13.  Finding the first made it more likely (increased the probability) of finding another similar item.  Same thing happens with other kinds of targets.  

Attunement, as I'm calling it, can have both positive and negative impacts.  When I become attuned to one type of object I might then overlook other kinds of things that might be just as good.  There are tradeoffs - just like the tradeoffs involved with discriminating or digging everything.

Attunement operates at the sensory, neurological and psychological levels.  For more about that, see What Are Feature Detectors and How Do They Work? - Biology Insights .

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Stuart Rocks Sunday Morning
from SurfGuru.com

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/14/26 Report - Gold Coin Cache Found Under Old House. Treasure Coast Beaches. Ides of March Are Upon Us.

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

In 2025, researchers...  excavated the foundations of a historic house ahead of new construction... about 260 miles (420 kilometers) southeast of St. Petersburg... 

During this excavation, archaeologists noticed a pit in the foundation that contained the broken remains of a glazed earthenware mug, known as a candyushka, filled with 409 coins minted between 1848 and 1911. The hoard consisted of 387 gold 10-ruble coins, 10 coins each worth 5 rubles, 10 coins each worth 15 rubles and two 7.5-ruble coins...

Russian Revolution gold coin hoard worth over $500,000 discovered during house construction | Live Science

There is still plenty out there to be found.

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Here is a photo by Mark G. from Jensen Friday.

Notice the equipment being used in the renourishment project at the top of the photo.

Here is what Mark said.

Great photo of the beach in this mornings post. Last Tuesday I went out searching beaches after my mom told me Dollman was open. That is where they are staging all the equipment and pipe. I was amazed, it appears they have flattened the beaches with a steep dune wall in the back. The amazing part is the beach is still open with bulldozers and golf carts running up and down the beach. People are putting there towels down in the path of equipment or to one side or the other it’s mayhem. I broke out the detector at Dollman and got a taste of things to come. My first loud and proud target was a huge iron nut for an at least 1 or 1 and half inch bolt crusty and so was my second target, no joy. I packed it up and tried to get ahead of the equipment. It doesn’t appear they are renourishing all the beaches they are selectively moving the dredge and dozers slowly down to the south. You can see them from Jensen Beach now.

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You can also see the excavator working up at Sebastian this morning, as well as the work going on down at Jupiter.  They much have some tax dollars that have to be spent.

Jupiter Beach Cam View Saturday Morning.

Once you disrupt the natural sand flow, it never ends. Nature continues to do its thing.

I'm glad I was able to get some good detecting in at Jupiter before they ruined it.  I always remember one day when the dunes just below the jetty were eroded and I spent hour digging old U.S. coins when Dave showed up.  Dave had taken many Potosi reals out of there before the Jupiter wreck was ever discovered just off the beach by the lifeguard one morning.  He vowed to be there first the next time the beach eroded like that.  Maybe he was, but I know of one time he wasn't.  I don't know what happened to Dave, like most of the old-times of the 1980 and 90s.  

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The Ide of March is a date of historical importance due to the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE.  It was a turning point in Roman history, leading to the decline of the Roman Republic and rise of the Roman Empire.  The term "ides" is from "iduare," meaning to divide, which is traditionally associated with the full moon reflecting the origin of the lunar Roman calendar.  Immortalized in Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar in the phrase, "Beware the Ides of March" the phrase has since become a warning of looming bad luck.

For Florida detectorists it marks the transition between the rough winter surf and smoother surf of summer. While the Spring surf becomes less erratic and we get less beach erosion, we still get an occasional storm and some nice low tides.

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

I'm surprised the surf chart is showing a possible eight-foot surf for next Friday.  I thought the prediction would be lower.  Anyhow, that is something of interest.

Otherwise, there are still some nice inland sites that have been thinned out by the drought and freezing weather.  It might be the best chance to get to some of those kinds of places for a while.

There is a rip current warning.

Description: * WHAT...Dangerous rip currents expected. * WHERE...Coastal Volusia, Indian River, Saint Lucie, Martin, and Brevard Counties. * WHEN...Through late tonight. *

 Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net