9/7/26 Report - Detectorists Find & Return Long Lost Class Ring. Auction Authenticity Guarantee. Spanish Colonial Artifacts Age Determined.

 

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

Nearly three decades ago, Kim Rasbeck lost her high school class ring during a trip with friends to Great Sacandaga Lake in New York.

To her surprise, 28 years later, strangers with a passion for metal detecting found her Red Creek High School Class of 1988 ring under a rock at the lake and returned it to her...

"I told them, I said, I will Venmo you, whatever it costs to send me the ring back," Rasbeck said. "And they wanted no part of that. They're like, no, we just want to get the ring back to you."

"So it made me feel good that there's actually, you know, people out in the world that are still doing decent things, you know," Rasbeck added...

Here is the link for the rest of the story.

Long-lost class ring found 28 years later under a rock at a lake by metal-detecting enthusiasts

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eBay has expanded its Authenticity Guarantee program to collectible coins, adding professional authentication for eligible purchases of $500 or more.

Beginning Aug. 18, the program is rolling out in the United States for graded U.S. coins, graded world coins, including Canadian coins, and raw U.S. coins priced at $500 or more. PCGS will authenticate eligible purchases at no additional cost to buyers or sellers.

Coins are only the second category within eBay's collectibles business to receive Authenticity Guarantee coverage. The company introduced the service for trading cards in 2022...

Once authenticated, the coin receives an e-tag, a tamper-proof seal containing a unique QR code that allows the buyer to access information about the coin and its authentication journey. The coin is then securely packaged and sent to the buyer.

The program also provides an additional safeguard on returns when a seller accepts them. Instead of being returned directly to the seller, the coin goes back through the authentication center, where experts confirm that it is the same item originally sold and check its condition before returning it to the seller...

The humble cent has attracted particularly heavy interest. From January through June 2026, eBay users searched for pennies more than 2,500 times per hour...

Here is the link for more about that.

eBay Expands Authenticity Guarantee to Collectible Coins - Numismatic News

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Iron artifacts from early Spanish expeditions in North America often look too similar to tell apart, making it difficult to establish the exact routes that were taken.

In a new study, archaeologists analyzed iron artifacts spanning more than 400 years of American history using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Their results show that differences in the purity of iron and the trace elements it contains can be reliably used as a diagnostic feature to identify iron artifacts from different time periods.

This method may be sensitive enough to distinguish iron artifacts from Spanish expeditions separated by only a few decades, but the study authors say more data needs to be collected to be sure...

De Soto’s expedition represented the longest sustained 16th-century incursion of Europeans into North America, but it was preceded and followed by several others, 15 in all. That’s a problem for archaeologists. The Spanish left behind detailed records of their exploits in the Americas, but because they only had a vague sense of where they were at any given time, the exact routes they took remains unclear.

Archaeologists have sidestepped this issue by looking for things the Spanish left behind, especially iron, which they brought with them in great quantities. But the various expeditions, which often overlapped, makes things complicated.

“A wrought-iron nail from the 1500s looks like a wrought iron nail from the 1600s,” said Charles Cobb, the Lockwood chair in historical archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Nails account for more than half of all metal artifacts found in North America. This, of itself, is no small problem, said Lindsay Bloch, a courtesy faculty member at the Florida Museum and principal investigator at Tempered Archaeological Services. “Archaeologists find lots and lots of rusty nails and other rusty iron objects. We often can’t even tell what they are, so they get weighed, counted and put back in their bag. And usually, no one ever looks at them again,” she said...

Here is the link for the rest of that great article.

Archaeologists use X-rays to distinguish iron from different periods of America’s colonial past – Research News

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The Atlantic National Hurricane Center map shows nothing of interest.

We might still have something, but it is beginning to look like we're not going to get anything to rip the beaches this summer.  In recent years, October has been good, so maybe the Fall season will offer some good opportuntities.

---

I was working on something else but its taking me longer than expected.  I'll get it ready before long.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

9/5/26 Report - Metal Dectecting Time-Saving Target-ID Trick: Reaction

 

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

I was going to do something else today.  In fact, I already had it about half done, but I just saw something that made me change my mind.  It was so compelling I had to follow up and respond to it.

I saw a video in which a guy was sharing "a trick" to save time.  The important words are I want you to remember are "save time." 

His trick was to use the Manticore display to better identify ferrous versus non-ferrous targets in the ground before digging.

Let's get something straight right off the bat.  I watched him and he didn't save time.  Maybe he saved some other things, but he didn't save time.

I watched him sweep over the target and be alerted by an audio signal.  The audio signal carried a good bit of information.  In fact, you could have dug the target right there and then.  It wasn't particularly rocky ground or anything difficult.  It was a field that had been plowed many times over and wasn't especially hard.  There wasn't a lot of roots, twigs, leaves or anything.  Just inviting earth and a target that appeared to be at no great depth.  The target could have been dug and held in hand in a matter of seconds even if was an iffy signal.

But here is what happened.  He stopped, looked at the display, studied it,and decided to sweep over the target a few more times to get a good solid reading.  The he studies his display again, and then announced that he would use his special time saving trick.  He switched to pinpoint mode, swept over the sleeping target a few more times, studied the display again, and determined that the target was worth digging, and finalllllly, dug it up.

Between studying the display screen, additional sweeping and restudying the screen, and then using his special trick, which was supposed to be the time saving element and point of his video, before actually digging, a good bit of time elapsed.  

People have the impression that they are saving time by studying the signal before digging it.  It seems to me that a lot of the time, they actually spend more time than if they would have dug it to begin with.  I really suspect there is something more to it.  It isn't a simple matter of time, no matter how hard they try to justify it that way.  

There is a psychological element.  I'm convinced many detectorists hate digging junk.  They hate having their hopes dashed by seeing a piece of junk in their hands when they hoped for silver or gold.  Disappointment magnifies their assessment of the amount of apparently wasted time.  I can understand that, but I don't look at it that way.  

Under ideal conditions, I can target and remove an object in a matter of a very few seconds, which is a fraction of the time I might use on making a dig/no dig decision.  With all the information coming at you from modern detectors, you still have to decipher it and decide.  It takes time to gather and assess the information and make a decision.  Additional readouts can help but they can also complicate a very simple decision.  That is something that AI might do for you someday, if and when it gets an understanding of your thought processes.  My thought process has a lot to do with the context and probabilities of the situation outside of the metal detector signal or display.

Considerable time is added when you sweep your coil repeatedly to get good solid reading on your detector.  People don't seem to count all of that time. 

I see removing junk as having many benefits.  First, when you remove junk, you have cleaner ground to work.  That can help more than you might expect.  Second, there is information in junk.  I don't think a lot of people appreciate that enough.  Junk can tell you a lot.  It can tell you about what kind of activity went on at that location in the past.  Was it a picnic area, battlefield, homesite, or what?  Thirdly, some junk can turn out to be treasure after cleaning and interpretation.  It is possible to be surprised by what you uncover.  Forth, junk can tell you how things are distributed in an area.  It provides context.  If light stuff is accumulating at one area, I might decide that isn't even where I want to be.  When beach hunting, I dig very little junk even though I dig all.  That is because I generally don't go where the junk accumulates.   When hunting a beach, I tend to hunt where denser items are close to the surface (which also means less digging).  Junk can be a great time saver if you use it as information.  Even land sites have some degree of stratification or classification and erosion from nature or other causes.

And I never use a pinpointer.  I only used one a few times, and that was enough.  By the time you take it out and search with your pinpointer, find the target and put the pinpointer back, more time has elapsed. There are other techniques or adaptations you can use other than using an additional pinpointer. I will admit though there are times when a pinpointer is more useful than others, but that is another set of topics such as sticky brown soil or a lot of detritus, but that is another topic.

If you are experienced and fairly skillful in using your detector, and use good strategies, hunt strategically, and can dig and recover targets efficiently (each of those is important), digging everything, or near everything, might actually be the most time efficient solution for you. There are actually many factors to consider.

Much of your time efficiency will be the result of effective knowledge, assessment, and strategy. That can not be done by your metal detector alone.

All that said, there are a number of factors to consider, There are times when discrimination and target ID will be the best decision.  If you have physical limitations such as a bad back or knees, that will be a consideration. Information on ground effects and apparent target distribution should be considered.  Your detecting and recovery skill is a factor.   

I'm not telling anybody to change.  If you feel good about what you are doing, keep doing it.  All I am saying is that I don't believe some things that are proposed as saving time, such as the trick in the video, may not actually save as much time as you think. They can actually waste time.  Also be sure you aren't missing too many great finds in the attempt to save time.

---

There is no new storm activity on the Atlantic NHC map.

The Treasure Coast surf outlook also remains unchanged.

---

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

9/4/26 Report - Various Patinas and Crusts on Dug Coins. Copper, Silver, U.S. and Shipwreck Examples. Ancient Bronze Coins.

 

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

Gold Patina on Dug Silver Quarter.

Over the years I've talked about the patinas that are found on "duggies" - my name for coins I dug.  Duggies can have a lot of different kinds of patina, depending upon the metallic composition of the coin and the soil or environment the coin was buried in before being uncovered.  

Time is another variable that affects the patina.  It will take a while for a patina to form or deepen.

A patina tells a part of the coins story - not only something about where it was buried, but it also gives a clue as to how long it was there.

I found a great article about patinas on ancient bronze coins (Ancient Coin Patina Explained: Types, Chemistry, and Collector Value).  The quotes below (in italicized blue) are from that article.

Ancient coins are something like shipwreck coins.  Shipwreck coins are made of a variety of metals, but bronze coins exhibit some of the characteristics of copper coins because copper makes up somewhere between 88 to 95 percent of bronze.

In technical terms, true patina refers to surface oxidation that begins forming on a metal coin almost immediately after striking. On modern copper coins, this same process produces the familiar Red, Red-Brown, and Brown designations.

However, among ancient coin collectors, the term “patina” has a broader meaning. In common usage, it describes any layer of oxidation or mineral deposition that forms over centuries while a coin remains buried...

Green patina is the most frequently encountered surface on ancient bronze coins. It forms primarily from copper acetate (Cu(CH₃CO₂)₂), which develops when copper reacts with acetic acid present in air or soil.

Importantly, green patina can vary dramatically in tone. Shades range from nearly black to bright or pale green, depending on environmental exposure and alloy composition...

Here are some pennies that show a variety of patinas.  

Dug Copper Cents with Various Patinas.

Among my copper cent finds red patinas are less common than green.  The 1970 S above is more green than it looks in the photo.  Green patinas are pretty common.  I call them greenies.

Red patina appears far less frequently than green patina. It forms when cuprous oxide (Cu₂O), also called copper(I) oxide, develops from reactions involving cupric oxide (CuO) in the coin or surrounding soil.

This patina can appear bright red or dark crimson. However, coins displaying only red patina are extremely rare...

Some copper oxides form stable blue or blue-green surfaces, similar to those seen on untreated bronze statues...

Most of the coins with a blue patina that I've found came from fresh water northern lakes, such as some in Minnesota, where the silver coins and silver artifacts all a nice blue patina. The patina left the silver uncorroded, so they coins looked very nice.  Those coins, unlike those found on saltwater beaches, didn't turn black.

Silver Dime with Blue Patina

I really like the blue patina on the silver I dug in these Minnesota lake.  The coins and religious medallions all had the same nice gunmetal blue patina.

The wildest patina I have is the black and gold silver Standing Liberty quarter shown at the top of this post.

Unfortunately, I don't remember when or where I found this one, and I didn't follow the progress of the patina over the years, so I don't know how much of it was there when I dug it.  It has been stored in a coin holder for years, but it doesn't show the characteristic signs of PVC contamination.

Most older “flip” holders and vinyl pages were made from PVC with added plasticizers that can migrate onto the coin's surface. Over time, these plasticizers migrate out of the plastic and onto the coin and can form hydrochloric acid compounds that react with the metal.

Copper coins are most vulnerable because copper reacts readily with the acidic byproducts, forming copper chloride that pits the surface.

Silver coins are more resistant to PVC contamination but can still develop dark spots or hazy films.

Gold and platinum are the least affected.

PVC contamination usually causes a green or greenish blue, and maybe a greasy texture, hazy patches, or tiny green blobs. So, I don't think that is what happened to the gold and black quarter.

Duggies can have something heavier and thicker than what I would consider a patina. It is more like a crust.  My best example is the Potosi half-reale from Jupiter shown below.

Shell Encrusted Potosi Half Reale
Metal Detected at Jupiter Beach.

That was a really hard crust. Only one side had the crust.  The other side looked more like the typical beach metal detected reale.  It was black.  So the two sides looked very different.  I discussed my theory about that before.  The cob was just washed out of the dunes, where I would guess it had spent many years.

Once the hard shell crust was removed, the surface was black but the design was sharp and clear like it was newly minted.  The shell crust protected the surface from the deterioration.  The other (exposed side) showed wear of corrosion or wear from tumbling in the surf.  

Another type of crust was found on a bunch of silver U.S. coins found on Ambersands beach in beach renourishment sand.  The sand removed from the Sevastian River inlet before being trucked in and dumped on Ambersands.

Below is the negative image of a mercury dime on the inside of the crust after the crust was cracked and removed from the coin.

Image of Mercury Dime on Removed Black Crust.

The crust fully encased the coin and was impenetrable.  Acid didn't affect it at all. The crust was like a ceramic.

Here is the other side (outer side) of the same crust.  No detail showed on the outside of the crust.

It seemed this crust was made from a type of fine clay or something like that, but I'm not sure.

The patina, just like mint marks or contextual clues, can provide a part of the coin's story and add charm and character to the piece.

So, there are a variety of types of patina and other coin coatings found on metal detected coins.  Maybe I'll present additional examples in the future.

---

Once again, here is the link to the article about patinas on ancient bronze coins.  

Ancient Coin Patina Explained: Types, Chemistry, and Collector Value

---

There is nothing on the National Hurricane Center Atlantic map right now.  No storms or any developing systems.

The Treasure Coast surf will remain small for a few days.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/2/26 Report - Familiar Coin Features Over Thousands of Years. A Coin Hoard Discovered. Square Coins. Pilate's Coins.

 

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

Archaeologists in Russia have unearthed a medieval hoard of 2,600 silver coins, including more than 350 coins of a type never seen before. The hoard may have been buried by a nobleman who later fell victim to a plague.

The coins were found in an elegant ceramic jug...

Most of the silver coins are a type called a denga. Dengi were first minted in the late 14th century by the Grand Principality of Moscow...

more than 350 of the coins are previously unknown varieties minted in Kolomna, which experts are now studying...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

2,600 silver coins found in the outskirts of Moscow may have been buried by a medieval plague victim | Live Science

Considering that these are 14th century coins from Russia, I'm struck by the familiarity. How many times have you seen some of those features. First there is the cross-like symbol in the center of the first coin. Then there is the legend around the coin. And a circle of dots. You've seen those features on Spanish colonial coins. And how often have you seen a bird featured on a coin? That is something you see on a fairly high percentage of coins back in history, but modern technology has made solid lines easier.  Those dotted lines are one feature that has disappeared.

Men of widely different places and times contain a mind that seems to share much in common.  You can conceive of coins in very different shapes.  I've found a few of other shapes.  Cobs are not very round.  Some are square - or at least squarish.  

Below are a couple odd shape coins I've found.  One is nearly square.  It has rounded corners.  I found both of those in St. Lucia.  The are Caribbean States coins and show Queen Elizabeth.  Even the square-ish one has a legend that circles around the queen's profile.
 

Odd Shaped Metal Detector Coin Finds

But the fact remains that in the history of coins, round is the norm and anything else is the exception.

Why is that?  I've seen many reasons proposed, but only one of those seems very significant to me.  

The rounded edges are easy to carry and maintain.  Sharp edges tend to catch or tear other surfaces.  

I've read that reales having very sharp corners had the corners intentionally folded or blunted so they wouldn't tear the bags. At least that is one interpretation.  It seems that many still came through with sharp edges.

But my point is that coins are so routinely of the same shape that there must be a reason.  The flat front and back allows marking the coin with a message, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were something deep in the human psyche that is consistent with the shape that is so characteristic of what we think of as a "coin." 

Birds are very common, as are crosses, both of which suggest transformation and a duality of domains - heaven and earth.  The essential thing about birds is that they, having as their domain the air element, mediate between the earthly realm and the heaven world. The alchemist in observing the flight of birds, recognized in them a picture of the human soul undergoing spiritual development.

The common forms that we see on coins go back much farther than a few centuries.  Here are some coins from around the time of Christ.  Here is an example of the type of coin that was referred to in

the verse about rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.  (See Render unto Caesar - Wikipedia)

A couple thousand years ago we still see round coins, a legend that runs around the outer edge of the coin as well as the familiar circle of dots.

But there are other possibilities for the type of coin that was referred to in that verse.  There were the "tribute" coins of Pilate, such as the one below.

Here we see the familiar ring of dots.  I can't explain why that was such a common feature.  I suspect that they were easier to produce with the tools available at the time, but there is also a wreathe on some of the coins, which might remind you of the wreathe on a wheat penny or any number of coins.

Pilate 's coins are Roman coins, the words on them are Greek, they were circulated in Judea, and today they are to be found distributed among world-wide collectors after having spent 2000 years buried in the earth. They were minted and used during a period which produced an event destined to change the face of the world, and issued at the command of one of the principal actors in that event. An amazing and dramatic destiny for apparently such humble and unassuming little coins...

The laurel wreath is a symbol of power and victory, and figures on various ancient Greek and Roman coins. In Judea it can be found during the reign of John Hyrcanus I (134 to 104 B.C.E.). After that, Herod Antipas, speaker for Pilate, used it on all his coins. On Pilate 's coins, the laurel wreath figures on the reverse side of the latuus, framing the date...

The legends on Pontius Pilate's coins are written in Greek. Judea, governed by the Ptolemy dynasty (301 to 198 B.C.E) then by the Syrians until 63 B.C.E, came under the same powerful influence of the Hellenic culture which touched the other territories of the ancient Persian Empire won by Alexander the Great. In spite of a certain amount of resistance, this Hellenistic heritage eventually crept into every aspect of daily life. Apart from the dates, the texts on Pilate 's coinage consisted of only three different words: - TIBEPIOY KAICAPOC (Of Tiberius emperor on all three coins; - IOYLIA KAICAPOC (Empress Julia) added to the coin of year 29...

The Laurel wreath is a symbol of power and victory, and figures on various ancient Greek and Roman coins. In Judea it can be found during the reign of John Hyrcanus I (134 to 104 B.C.E.). After that, Herod Antipas, speaker for Pilate, used it on all his coins. On Pilate 's coins, the laurel wreath figures on the reverse side of the lituus, framing the date

Overall, I'm left amazed by how little coins have changed over 2000 years, and I think there must be something more to it than practicality, aesthetics, or the lack of imagination.  

I highly recommend the source article on Pilate's coins linked below.

Pontius Pilate - NumisWiki, The Collaborative Numismatics Project

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It seems I'm always hear about the KKK, but personally, I've seen more UFOs than KKK.

---

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Eduard has moved inland and there isn't anything else to watch on the Atlantic NHC map.  It sure has been a slow storm season.

The Ttreasure Coast surf remains small.

Source: Surfguru.com.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

9/1/26 Report - Tropical Storm Edouard Hits. Stamp Collecting and a Few Examples of Stamps as Money. Jobs in Coins.

 

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

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Edouard formed Monday in the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to gain strength before bringing potentially heavy rains and flooding into parts of Texas and Louisiana.

The storm was upgraded Monday night from a tropical depression and forecasters...

Here is the link for more about that.

Louisiana and Texas under tropical storm warning, while another storm aims for Hawaii | AP News

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It seemed to me that getting coins graded was becoming a bigger thing.  Everybody wants graded coins.  I think the counterfeit problem is one reason.  Coins that are graded are generally easier to sell.

Somebody has to do that, so I was thinking that there must be a lot of job openings for people who grade coins as well as related jobs such as coin conservation.

I looked into it a little and found that there are a lot of those kinds of jobs available.  I noticed that NGC listed a long list of job openings, mostly based in Sarasota but some of their openings were for positions around the world.  I think they listed something like 75 openings.

From a few postings I looked at, it seemed that many of those jobs can be done remotely too.  I don't know what the credentials are.

Here is a listing that for a job with PCGS.

PCGS Grader

Maybe there are some of you that need a job and have the right stuff.  Good luck.

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Stamp collecting is a very old hobby and a hobby that is very much like coin collecting.  I haven't posted ephemera very often, but I like collecting ephemera.  I like the graphics, especially when the graphics present a picture of historical times or is just aesthetic.  Coins do the same thing, to some extent.

Stamp collecting began in thd mid-nineteenth century, shortly after the introduction of the first adhesive postage stamps. The world’s first postage stamp, the Penny Black was issued by Great Britain in May 1840.  This small, black stamp with a young Queen Victoria’s image was designed by Sir Rowland Hill and marked the start of prepaid postage. People began collecting stamps almost immediately, as the new system made them both practical and collectible.

Postage stamps were used as a form of money during the American Civil War, specifically in 1861–1862 and for a short period afterward, when a shortage of U.S. coins made small change.

When the Civil War began in 1861, gold and silver coins were hoarded for their bullion value, and the U.S. Mint could not keep up with demand for copper-nickel coins. This created a crisis for small transactions, as many goods and services cost less than a dollar

On July 17, 1862, Congress signed into law an act that gave the Treasury Department the authority to issue “postage currency.” The postage currency utilized the then-current postage stamp design, printing them on Treasury paper. People generally interpreted this to suggest that postage stamps could be used as legal tender...

John Gault developed a method to encase stamps in a metal frame shielded by transparent mica that he patented as “New Metallic Currency.” The “postage stamp case” featured a sandwich of materials the approximate size of a quarter consisting of a piece of brass with a hole in the center (the frame), mica, a stamp, a piece of cardboard, and lastly, a brass backing.  (Source: Numismatic Oddities: How Postage Became Currency in the Civil War)

If I ever dug up a metal postage stamp holder, I doubt that I would know its purpose.

Stamp collecting is a common activity, but my experience with it hasn't been very exciting.  

My first stamp collecting began when I was maybe eleven years old.  My parents brought me a bag of unsorted stamps and an album.  I sorted them and pasted them in an album.   First mistake.  You shouldn't paste collectible stamps in an album.  Also, contained used cancelled stamps, which you might think is good because you can often see when and where they were used, but like with coins, collectors generally prefer unused mint condition stamps.  Some people, however, collect First Day of Issue or First Day Cover stamps, that are cancelled and collected on the envelope.  Most of them aren't worth anything.

Below is a picture of one of the pages of my first collection.  You can see that I started to cut some out to remove them and put them in a better album.

 

There are a few stamps that are worth a lot, but there isn't much of a chance of finding one.

The Benjamin Franklin Z-Grill is one of only two known examples and is valued at over $5 million today.

Printing mistakes like the Inverted Jenny have become some of the most coveted—and expensive—stamps in history.

Mystic Stamp Company, which began in 1923, specializes in buying and selling U.S. and worldwide postage stamps for collectors. Known for its extensive inventory and mail-order services, it remains a key player in connecting enthusiasts with rare and unique philatelic items.  There must be more stamp collectors than I know about because the Mystic Stamp company has annual revenues estimated between $100 - $500 million and 10-100 employees.  Somebody must still be doing it.

There are other stamp companies.

You don't have to go back to the Civil War to find stamps being used as money.  I remember many years ago when ads in comic books or magazines advertised inexpensive items that you could purchase mail order by sending postage stamps as payment.  I also remember receiving perfectly mint stamps in the mail that if you wanted to purchase you could then send in payment.  I might still have some of those even though I never purchased any that way.

The blue envelope below contained a group of stamps from the Littleton Stamp Co.  Evidently that is evidently a group that I received unrequested.  At the top of the envelope is the price - 6 cents.

Under that is one of the little celophane envelopes that were sometimes sent out.  It still has one stamp in it.

Here is a sample ad for stamps by approval.   This match book advertises a banana stamp and 111 stamps free. 

And here is the coupon for those stamps inside.

You would send the coupon with 10 cents for mailing and receive the 111 stamps.  

I thought that was interesting.  I guess there must be somebody somewhere that collects stamps like this and specifically banana stamps!

People have collected stamps for a long time, from kings to kids.  There are high level collectors that can pay big dollars for super rare stamps.  Kids can learn a lot from stamp collecting.  One of the first things I learned was the various country names in the different languages.  I assume it is much like coin collecting, but I don't know how many people are doing it these days.  

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I don't know if you've ever tried Grokipedia.  It seems to work like Wikipedia, but I think it is better.

Grokipedia is a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system for Grok an AI-generated online encyclopedia developed and operated by xAI, accessible at https://grokipedia.com.

---

Source: Surfguru.com.

As you can see, no big change in the Treasure Coast surf.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/31/26 Report -The Legend of Finn McCool and the Giant's Causeway. Good Luck Coins Destroying a Geological Landmark. About the Author.

 

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

Conservation workers have pulled about 10,000 coins from the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. Altogether, they weighed roughly 45 pounds.

The coins had been wedged, and sometimes even hammered, into tiny gaps between the ancient basalt columns as little good-luck or love tokens.

It may have looked harmless, just loose change tucked into the rocks. But over time, that pocket change started acting more like a slow-motion wrecking ball, damaging one of the world’s most famous geological landmarks.

Getting the coins out was no quick job. Some came loose with pliers, but a single stubborn one could take more than 20 minutes to remove....

If you don't know about Giant's Causeway, in myth or lore it was made by Finn McCool a Giant, however it was actually the result of volcanic rock and geology.  Here is what part of it looks like.

Giant's Causeway Stock Photo.

Back to the article...

A 2023 geological assessment found that the coins were harming the site both physically and visually. Damp air and salt spray sped up corrosion. As mixed-metal coins rusted, their layers separated and expanded, pressing against the basalt until nearby rock began to flake or crumble.

Think of a coin as a tiny wedge that slowly gets thicker while trapped in a crack. The pressure may be gradual, but it does not stay small. Copper, nickel, and iron compounds also ran down the dark columns in rust-colored streaks, changing the appearance of the natural stone....

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

10,000 coins are being removed from the Giant’s Causeway after ancient rocks were damaged by a ritual performed by tourists

The article didn't mention why people were putting the coins there to begin with. I assume it was associated with good luck or something, but I didn't find why the practice became so common.

---

About the Author.

Six-thirty this morning I heard a message arrive on my cell phone.  I didn't get up to check it.  Somehow I knew what it was. 

I wasn't surprised at all to find out another relative passed sway.  It was a very familiar pattern.  After a seemingly long-drawn-out decline, hospice starts medicating to make the patient comfortable.  They make them comfortable and eventually they quit breathing.  I've seen it multiple times.  It seems it always happens early in the morning right after a hospice visit but before the family arrives.  Just observing. 

Thinking I was sure I knew what happened, before I got up I stayed in bad a little longer and thought about life.  It seems like I've lived several lives - each one in a different world.

In the beginning, if I might borrow the first phrase in the Bible, it was a fresh green world.  Everything was new, and everyone was young - even the old people were young.  My parents and grandparents were young.  And everyone was there.  

That life lasted a good long time. Not much changed. Yes, the kids grew and once a year changed rooms in school.  Even when that world was covered by a cozy blanket of snow, the green world remained fresh, waiting for its time to reappear.  We exchanged baseballs and football and bicycles or snowball, sleds and skates.  And Santa capped it off.

The world changed so slowly and in such a predictable way, that we barely noticed the changes.  The kids and parents that were there at the beginning were still there at the end.  The sun rose over the hill at one end of the valley and set over the trees on the opposite hill - everyday. 

That was one world I lived in.

The next world for me stood out was a small world.  It went by quickly, but it was very consequential.  

I arrived at that world after taking my first airplane ride.  The plane landed in a flatter world.  The center of it was a group of brick buildings that defined the university campus.  I spent time at another college campus before that, but that one wasn't distinctly new to me.  While there, one foot remained planted firmly plin the fresh green valley.

The new flat world was populated by a lot of different people. I ate breakfast with an engineering student from Indian that cut his breakfast toast in neat squares with his fork and knife before eating each piece without ever touching it with his fingers.  I played soccer with guys from Thailand and Africa and ping pong with a law student from some city.  I seldom ventured out of that world, except to walk downtown on rare occasion or over to a nearby bowling alley. I worked on my thesis through the night and went to bed before sunrise.  

The most significant trip I made from the center of that world was to Fort Knox.  I rode there on a bus with a bunch of other guys I didn't know.  I followed the long-colored lines on the floor from one examination room to another.  I did good on the hearing test, but when they looked at my feet, they wrote something down.  I walked a long distance back to campus after failing the physical for some reason I never learned, but it kept me from being shipped off to Viet Nam.

Thanks to the night time work shifts, I didn't stay in that world very long before I graduated. Before leaving that world, I saw a job notice on a bulletin board after successfully defending my thesis. I quickly secured the posted job, which was conveniently located near my green valley, so I went back home, but now things were different. The other kids were no longer there.  

Again, I kept one foot in the green valley, but in my new life I was college instructor.  I won't go into that world very much, except to say, WOW.  I was a 23-year-old college faculty member during the at the dawn of the 70s.. Big changes!  Just like my other world's, I didn't stay there forever and there were others to take its place.

I'll skip many of those other worlds because it's probably on interesting to me and I've already gone on long enough., and now I live in a world where everyone is old.  All the people I knew from back in the beginning are gone. I know a very few that were once connected to that world, but they've moved on to other worlds too.

As I tell this, it might seem as if everything in my world got old, but that isn't true. My other lives still live.  All the memories are still there along with the feelings.  I can see those worlds as they were.  I wear them like layers of clothes. 

I can see each world as it was.  Each life still lives in me, along with my friends and family.  Those lives didn't disappear.  They were just layered one over the other - the first being closer to the heart of me forms the core of who I am, but each one adds on to that.

I'm sure there were bad things in all those worlds, but nothing I could blame anybody for, other than myself.  I nothing bad really sticks out to me.  Maybe I should, but I generally see the good of it.  I learned a lot along the way.  And I wouldn't give up any of it or have it any other way, except when I wasn't what I should have been. 

The advantage of being old is being able to look back through so many different worlds and lives and learning from each one.  I can look back at those lives various lives through many different eyes.  

I'm closer to the hill where the sun sets than where it rises.  In fact, I'm close enough to the top of that hill that I can see the other side of that hill faintly.  On the other side, I don't see anything that looks like streets of gold.  In fact, they look like winding unpaved roads leading to another green valley.  And further down the road, if I squint, I think I can see little homes and maybe hear children at play.  It is starting to look a lot like... where I started in the beginning.

Thank you, God!

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Source: NHC.noaa.gov.

There is now a tropical depression five in the Gulf.  It looks like tropical storm conditions will be hitting Texas.

On the Treasure Coast we'll have a one- or two-foot surf for the week.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/30/26 Report - Filling the Holes in Your Swiss Cheese. Gridding, Recovery Speed, Target Separation and Strategies for Metal Detecting Coverage.

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

A couple days ago I talked a good bit about gridding. I said the actual coverage area of a grid is like a block of Swiss cheese. By that I meant the coverage, despite your best efforts, will be spotty. There will be spots where the coverage is not as complete. There will be areas where the sensitivy is not the best.  In short, there will be holes in the coverage.

There are many things that can cause missing areas.  For one thing, your sweeps won't always be perfect.  Small and deep targets that might produce only slight signals can be missed or lost in other sources of noise.  There can be attention lapses, that combined with noise, results in misses. And there can be interaction between objects in the ground - sometimes one overlapping with another or two or more being in very close proximity resulting in masking.  That is just a brief summary.

As you sweep your coil, the metal detector is constantly adjusting to variations in the soil.  Soil mineralization occurs when minerals like iron oxides, salts, or other conductive/magnetic materials are present in the soil.  These minerals affect the detector’s electromagnetic field, producing background signals that can mimic metal targets or mask real ones. This reduces detection depth, increases false signals, and makes target identification harder. Metal object (trash or treasure) in the ground does the same thing. There are therefore shadows or holes in coverage -  some more complete than others.

Here is an illustration that helps make that clearer.  It is from the online Manticore user's manual.  It is about recovery speed.  If a detector signals in response to one target (or a source of noise, such as mineralization), the signal persists in time for a short time.  That can cause the next target to get lost in the signal if the first signal has not ended by the time the next begins.      

Recovery speed is adjustable on the Manticore and other metal detectors.  Here is a diagram from the manual to illustrate the effect.

The diagram shows, first, how a slow recovery speed with cause something like a screw to create noise that could overshadow that of a nearby coin.  And moving down the diagram, how a faster recovery speed results in shorter duration signals and better target separation.

    

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But continue down the diagram. recovery speed interacts with sweep speed.  And a higher recovery speed, while helping to reject ground noise, will also reduce detection depth.  People are not always aware of the interactions and effects.  There are tradeoffs.  There are times when rejecting ground noise (a good thing) results in reduced depth (not so good), such as with the higher recovery speed.  You might not be aware of all the effects, but you will be giving up one thing or the other and need to make a good decision.  Which do you need at this or that situation?  It is a strategic decision.  But no matter which you select, you are giving up something.  The result will be what I called a "hole" in your coverage.  Be aware of the holes in your coverage.  And take that fact into account.

One way to reduce target masking is by sweep sweeping in more than one direction.  In the top diagram, the screw comes before the coin.  That is if you are sweeping left to right.  If after gridding in one direction, north to south for example, you can then go over the grid area another time in a different direction.  Don't be surprised if you pick up new signals that you didn't get the first time, especially if you have a target rich area, which would often be the case if you decide it is worth gridding.  I'd only grid if I believe there was either a target rich area, or the possibility of a very rich target.  It can be either because of the quantity or quality of expected targets.

When you change the direction of your sweep on a second pass, you can accomplish several things.  Besides eliminating some cases of masking, you can also hit areas missed or covered poorly by an imperfect sweep.  Soil mineralization can also be reduced in some cases by simply changing the direction of your sweep.

I remember a fellow using a high-level gold detector costing a few thousand dollars (maybe twenty years ago) telling me he got better sensitivity sweeping parallel to the waters edge.  He mentioned it possibly being due to the earth's magnetic field.  But that wasn't the reason.

The salt mineralization and set/dry sand lines will run parallel to the water as the waves come and go.  You minimize that effect by sweeping in the direction of those lines rather than over them.  Sweeping across those wet/dry lines and the abrupt changes in mineralization causes the detector to have to adjust to all that.  The result is reduced sensitivity to targets that the detector has to separate out from the noise.

Notice in the Minelab manual, that it says a good swing rate is two to three seconds for an entire swing that goes both ways.  I'd guess that most people tend to swing faster than that.  In one old post I told how you can test for the best swing rate for specific targets.  Do a ground test with the types of target you are more interested in, vary your swing and observe the response.  Notice how the signal varies.  Identify the sweep speed that gives the best signal and most depth of detection in the type of ground.  I recommend doing that at the area you will be working.  You can find the best sweep rate with the specific type of ground you will be working.  A ground test is also good since you'll get the feel of the correct speed.  Practice it a little so you get the feel.

Similar to sweeping parallel to the water line is sweeping parallel to other features.  For example, if you want to detect near a metal fence, you will do better sweeping parallel to the fence instead of towards and away from the fence.  Same thing with a plowed field.  You'll generally do better sweeping parallel to the rows.  And that is basically for the same reason.

I won't go into all my recommendations for ground or garden tests again, but the type of object you most want to detect should be used and it is best if the target is buried in the type of soil or sand you'll be metal detecting.  

Don't think there are no holes in your coverage.  You might want to fill them instead.

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Just because your focus on owning precious metals is on the potential appreciation in the value of the metal content does not preclude you from also being a collector. There is a wide variety of gold, silver, platinum, and even palladium coins available at bullion prices, but they could be acquired to form a collection.

Perhaps the most popular such collection is assembling a year set of U.S. Silver Eagle Dollars...

Among our customers, there are many silver stackers who are always on the lookout for different designs of 1-ounce silver rounds or rectangles...


For those purchasing gold, there are some who accumulate year sets of any size of the U.S. Gold American Eagles (depending on someone’s budget). But another popular variation is to collect different bullion-priced gold coins from as many different nations as possible...

Here is that link.

Purchasing Bullion as a Collection - Numismatic News

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Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

Nothing that will affect our beach coditions going on right now.

Still nothing more than about a two-foot surf for another week.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net