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

8/28/26 Report - Remote Viewing by Ingo Swann. Mining the Dark Side of the Moon(?). Fictional Cipher for Captain Kidd's Treasure. Decoding: Ciphers and Symbols.

 

That is a simple symbol substitution cipher from  The Medjugorje Witness • The Language of the Cross

Armchair treasure hunters enjoy decoding coded messages, especially those that might provide clues to hidden treasures.  I don't know if it is that popular anymore. I don't think it is.

One of famous cipher was in the Edgar Allen Poe story, the Gold-Bug. The Gold‑Bug is about a fellow that discovered a hidden cipher on a scrap of parchment that provided clues to locate Captain Kidd’s buried treasure. The solved cipher gave step‑by‑step directions to the exact spot of the treasure.

The cipher, like the one above, was a simple substitution cipher.  The fellow used his knowledge of language to solve the cipher.  The process he used to solver the cipher is very instructive for anyone learning to decode those kinds of ciphers.  It started with the fact that the most common letter in the English language is e, so after counting the number of symbols in the cipher, you would have a start.  The next thing to help solve the cipher was the most common English words, one of which is "the."  

If you are interested, reading the story, which I'm sure you can easily find online, might be both instructive and entertaining.

If you are not the type that enjoys solving ciphers, you might enjoy looking at common pirate symbols that are supposed to point to buried treasure.  I showed some of those in an old post.  You can see a few of them by using this link.  The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 12/6/18 Report - Treasure Signs and Symbols. 3000-Year-Old Cache. EM61 Metal Detector. Your Personal Life Story.  You can find several pages of treasure signs and symbols by using the following link.  The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 12/6/18 Report - Treasure Signs and Symbols. 3000-Year-Old Cache. EM61 Metal Detector. Your Personal Life Story.

Frank Hudson also provided a list in one of his books.

Solving ciphers is good practice for general problem solving.  

We decode things all the time.  Take, for example, when we look at an old Spanish coin and try to interpret the abbreviated legend.  It is really a pretty similar type of decoding. 

Even when we go to the beach, we try to interpret what we see as it applies to our interests.   We look at the signs we see and interpret them. We look at the wind, waves, and shape of the beach, the cuts and shells and many other things, which you can imagine as a language of it's own.

I asked a couple AI agents to solve the above cipher and I didn't get the answer.  Chatgpt worked on it a good while.  Maybe if I had the more advanced version, it would have come up with the answer eventually. 

I did find one great web site that decodes many types of codes.  It even included things like the Klingon language, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sumerian, braille, etc. etc., but not the language of the cross.  There were many pages of apps for simple symbol substitution ciphers, not counting numerous other types of codes.  Really impressive!  You should take a look.  

Here is the link. List of Symbols Cipher - Online Decoder, Translator, Identifier.

Let me know if you can solve it.  I've given the task to a few AI assistants and they have not managed so far, but I haven't tried the more advanced versions.  I was curious to see if they could, or would, do the job.

I also highly recommend reading the Gold-Bug.  It a good treasure hunting story that is both informative and entertaining.  There are many possible benefits to reading it.

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Remote Viewing Mining Operations on the Dark Side of the Moon.

The few posts I did in the past that talked about remote viewing were popular well beyond my expectations.  Since that seemed to be such a popular topic, I thought you might also be interested in the story of Ingo Swann, who was by some accounts one of the most successful remote viewers for the CIA.  He was involved in Project Stargate, a project in which he reported viewing alien manufacturing and mining facilities on the moon.  He reportedly saw buildings and vehicles working on the moon.  He said they were not friendly. 

Here is an excerpt from a recent article on that subject.

“They have told us to stay away… They are not friendly, are they?” This phrase, reported to be spoken by an anonymous U.S. official in a scenario involving remote viewer Ingo Swann, has become the kind of quote that goes further than any document number could particularly when the reported location is the Moon’s dark side, a region that is perpetually hiding from Earth’s observation.

It’s no wonder the phenomenon has endured. Between 1977 and 1995, a program dubbed Project Stargate attempted to harness the power of ‘remote viewing’ as if it were merely another arm of statecraft, as if the government’s commitment to satellites and signals intelligence would naturally include the study of mental perception at a distance. The images of the moon, the towers, the domes, the machines, and the sense of being watched, all of it is right at home in our contemporary fascination with secret agendas and concealed truths...

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

CIA’s Remote-Viewing Files Expose a Hard Limit on “Moon Warnings” | Modern Engineering Marvels

If you were very imaginative, you might wonder at least momentarily if that is the reason we didn't go back to the moon so many years after the moon landings.  I doubt it, but....  It was kept very secretive.

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Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

Tropical Storm Dolly disappeared, but there is still some disorganized moisture heading our way.

There is also some activity in the Gulf.

No change in beach conditions.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/27/26 Report - Historic Jackson Hole. Gridding: The Promise, Myth, and Value. Tropical Storm Dolly.

 

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

One of my favorite vacation spots is the Jackson Lake Lodge in Jackson Hole Wyoming.  It is a very historic place and has the best breakfast buffets in the world.  I know I'm going to sound like an advertisement, but it is just because I enjoy the place as much as any I've ever visited, and this week, like every year around this time, it is where the world banking conference will meet, so you'll probably being hearing something about it on TV - definitely on the business shows.

Above is the restaurant and below is the lobby, both of which looks out on the Grand Teton Range. People gather in the lobby and enjoy watching the changing light on the Tetons after a day of hiking.  You can see some artifacts in the display case (below) and more artifacts in the bar just to the right of the lobby. 

Jackson Lake Lodge

During the summer of 1926, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his family spent several days touring Jackson Hole with Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Horace Albright. Albright arranged the tour to inspire Rockefeller to preserve land along the base of the Teton Range. Albright showed the Rockefellers how telephone lines, billboards, a dilapidated dancehall and uncontrolled development spoiled the majestic views.

The party hiked up Lunch Tree Hill for a picnic, enjoying an unobstructed view of the Teton Range. After the tour, Rockefeller and Albright launched a plan to purchase Jackson Hole land and set aside this exquisite landscape for future generations. Visit the hill today to view the panoramic vista of Jackson Lake and the Teton Range.

... Over the next five years until the Lodge was opened, the town of Moran was removed from the landscape and moved about 11 miles to the west. The remaining land was regraded and re-vegetated, removing all traces of its former location. The “ramshackle” town was an eyesore in the planned view shed planned for the new Lodge. Many of the original cabins built by Sheffield were moved to Colter Bay, and those that were in rough shape were burned.

Actually, some signs of the old town remain.  For example, you'll see glass and porcelain shards along the path at the top of Lunch Tree Hill, which is a short walking distance from the lodge deck. You'll find an area like that near many mountain hotels or lodges.

The Jackson Lake Lodge rooms are not luxurious or fancy, but that is not what I look for anyhow.

You can raft down the Snake River, as I've talked about before, or take a day tour to nearby Yellowstone.  The lodge will soon be closing for the season. 

The last time I was there, the cold was settling in and the lodge was scheduled to shut down in a few days, and I went out late one night to see the crystal, clear sky while the coyotes were howling.  I fondly remember before door closed behind me, a mouse scurried in and ran around behind the reception desk.  Maybe he planned to stay safe inside for the winter. 

Anyhow, a great place to visit even though you aren't allowed to detect in the park.

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Gridding: Myths and Value.

It seemed that decades ago, I read a lot about gridding.  It seemed to be the big thing.  I don't read or hear about it so much anymore.  But that might be because I don't read the same kinds of magazines, which might have something to do with that, but the point I want to make today, is that gridding was not everything it was cracked up to be.

People talked about thoroughly covering the area, but didn't always realize how much was missed.  First of all, it is unlikely that anybody covers every inch despite what they think - even with overlapping and being very careful.

Secondly, when coverage is considered, you are not attempting to cover a square or rectangular area.  There is another more important dimension - depth.  Even when depth is considered, the assumption is now that a cubic area is being covered.  The problem is that detection depth varies from area to area - sometimes very quickly due to things like changes in ground mineralization.  On a saltwater beach, especially in the low tide area, water is coming and going changing salt mineralization, not to mention other variations such as black sand, dug holes, etc. etc.  

We must consider a lot of variables, including our own behavior.  We aren't machines the coil doesn't move in straight equally spaced lines.  The coil speed varies throughout the sweep coming to a halt at the end of each sweep with the abrupt change in direction.  And the coil height also varies.  Most people tend to raise the coil near the end of the sweep.  The effects are subtle if you are very careful, but even then, the ground level changes, both gradually, sloping towards the water, for example, or suddenly where there are holes or other irregularities.  The point of that is that a variety of factors result in coverage that is irregular and inconsistent, at best, no matter how hard you try to cover it all.

I learned early on that I was missing more than I thought even when I had a small area to cover.  It was early in my metal detecting days, when a fellow at Hollywood Beach asked me if the metal detector really worked.  He buried his watch while I didn't look and then I searched for it.  I went over the watch and missed it.  I was very surprised and wondered why or how I missed it.  Now I know much more.  It could have been I thought my search was tighter than it actually was.  Now I know that the composition of the watch, how the watch was laying, and the settings on my detector could have had something to do with it.  Even the direction of my sweep speed relative to the watch.  But I learned that I was missing more than I thought.  Since then I've learned a lot, but I still miss things.  Even if you could thoroughly cover a defined area, you would still miss a lot to the north, south, east and west and below that defined area, but you are also missing things within the area.

The objects in the ground provide another obstacle.  There can be target masking, targets in stealth positions, such as coins standing on end at depth, disruptions in the soil matrix caused by holes or other things.  The direction of your sweeping coil can miss an object if it is position in a stealthy position.  I could go on, but I think that is enough to suggest that gridding does not necessarily provide perfect coverage even when done carefully.  Instead of detecting a cube, the covered area probably looks more like a block of Swiss cheese.  There are a lot of holes in it.

So, what is the remedy?

First, make sure that you really want to commit so much time and effort to the area as opposed to any other possibilities.  To help you make that decision, I recommend sampling that area as well as some other areas.  

Second, after deciding to focus your efforts on a limited area, be aware of the obstacles to complete coverage. Of course, you don't necessarily want to pick up everything, but that is another topic.  

Be aware of the tradeoffs.  Define what you most want to detect and what you are willing to miss and set up the metal detector and control your coil for best results.  

Cover the area multiple times with different detector settings and coil movement.  See (The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 7/22/14 Report - Tropical Depression Two Moving West & How To Conduct An Intensive Step Search.

Collect information as you go.  Don't finish just because you started.  Adjust.  As you assess your finds and what you see, consider the new information, adjust.  You might want to redefine your area of concentration.  It might not be a square or rectangular area anymore.  It all depends upon what you see and how you interpret the information you are collecting.  

There are many other relevant topics I could continue with here, but I'll stop now.

---

Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

You can see we now have a tropical storm Dolly in the Atlantic.  It seems headed in our direction but is predicted to fizzle before reaching us.

The surf charts are predicted nothing more than about a two-foot for the next week along the Treasure Coast.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

8/26/26 Report - A Miscellaneous Variety of Finds and Objects Researched. 20th Century to 450 Million Years Old.

 

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

Reverse of Token Find.

I noticed the above item sitting on my desk beside my coin microscope and a variety of other miscellaneous finds.  I couldn't really see the design on it because of the heavy patina.  I could just see a little of the design and figured it was probably one of those No Cash Value game tokens, so I didn't really pay much attention to it and it remained on the table unexamined for a good long time.  I looked through a group of pennies to see if I could find anything interesting, and I didn't.  I then decided, since it was there and I had my equipment set up, to slip the token, or whatever it was, under the microscope, and I was surprised.  Here is what I saw (with some sharpening and help from the photo editor).

Parking Token.

I asked copilot for an identify and it failed.  Then I queried Grok, which gave the following response.

Your token matches a well‑documented U.S. “Antique Car” Parking Token, a generic brass token used by many private parking systems from roughly the 1960s–1990s, with continued re‑strikes into the 2000s. It is not tied to a specific city unless the reverse side carries additional wording (yours appears to have only the car and “PARKING TOKEN”).

I then did a search using U.S Antique Car Parking Token as the search term and found the item pictured and described in Token - Parking (Antique Car) - United States – Numista

The search process and results (as general as they are) turned out to be more interesting than the actual token.  I found Grok to be more helpful than Copilot.

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There was another token sitting there that I looked at too.  Here is the one side that was easier to read.

I cleaned the other side but wasn't able to get a lot of the corrosion off.  Here is that side.

At least I could see enough to see that it was a SUNOCO item.  So then I asked Grok about that one, and Grok again worked well and pointed me to another site where I could see the entire series.

Here is the info.

Introduced in 1969, one year after Shell Oil Company’s very successful "Mr. President" promotional coin game, Sunoco's "Collection of Antique Car Coins" was the first true collector's promotion. This promotion was based on the 75-medal Franklin Mint "Collection of Antique Car Coins" that was produced over two years and in three 25-medal sub series. Sunoco would only utilized the first two of the three 25-medal series. This exhibit will focus on Series 2. The promotion did include coins with special "instant winner" reverses like the Shell games; however, unlike the Shell games the two 25-coin sets were not broken up into prize groups with low mintage keys that had to be turned in to claim the prize making them unobtainable today. This meant one had a reasonable chance of actually assembling the aluminum set through continued patronage of their local Sunoco service station.

And here is the link to that display.  eExhibit - Sunoco Antique Cars Coin Promotion 2

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Jumping to another kind of object.  Here is a small lapel pin which I guessed was either a cub scout or boy scout pin. 

Grok identified it as a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) pin, not Cub Scouts, and the style places it roughly mid‑20th century, most likely 1940s–1960s.

While I had my microscope up and going, I took that photo as well as the insignia on a pen knife I found.  Here it is.

Scouting Pen Knife Find.

Close-up View of the Insignia.

Unfortunately, the light blurred out the "CUB" part of "CUBSCOUTS."  But that is what it is.  

Before taking a closer look today, I thought the insignia was a metal insert, but I found out that the surface of the insignia is a clear plastic. 

The wolf corresponds to a cub scout ranking.  There were other animals that indicated other ranks.  For each rank, or age group, certain activities were required to complete or obtain the rank of lion, bear, bobcat, etc.

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Polished Ordovician Limestone Containing Orthoceras Fossils.

I've found paperweights while hunting bottles before, but I didn't know about this one, so I just asked Grok.  Here is what it said.

Fossil: Orthoceras (straight-shelled cephalopod)

Rock: Polished black Ordovician limestone

Age: ~450–470 million years

Likely origin: Tafilalt, Morocco

I didn't know it was sold as a paperweight. I thought it was maybe just a example piece.

Both the age and source surprised me. Grok said they were commonly sold as souvenirs.

I can't say it is the oldest fossil I've ever found but it is definitely old.

That was a little something different for today.  I just got into looking up some things I didn't know much of anything about.  It shows the variety of oddities you might find on the desk of a long-time treasure hunter.

By the way, as an alternative to Wikipedia, which I've used in the past, you might check out Grokipedia.

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It has been a while since I've done any beach metal detecting.  I'm eagerly awaiting some good erosion but it doesn't look like it will be real soon.

A new invest is out there.  I think it is Invest 96 now.  

 

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Source: Surfguru.com.

Nothing exciting with the surf chart.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/25/26 Report - Valuable Diamond Ring Discovered That at First Looked Like Fashion Jewelry. What to Look For and What To Do When Wondering About the Value of Gemstones.

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

One woman browsing through a car boot sale in Isleworth, West London. Spotting some interesting bangles in a box of costume jewels, she paid no attention to a cocktail ring made up of a single clear stone. It might have been a gobstopper of a gem but it didn't sparkle like one: sitting in a rusty, old setting, it looked dull and filthy – certainly nothing special. The seller was offloading the lot for £12—our heroine haggled her down to £10. The bangles— and the ring—went home with her.

It was only in 2017, thirty years after that unremarkable car boot sale, that the owner thought to have the ring appraised...

The Sotheby's team sent the piece to the Gemological Institute of America for evaluation. It came back with quite the report: the cushion-cut diamond is enormous, weighing in at 26.27 carats, bears a color grade of I and an impressive clarity grade of VVS2. Once Sotheby’s had the diamond confirmed as genuine, the story of the car boot sale find—suitably nicknamed the “Tenner” diamond—went viral, making international headlines. When it entered the Fine Jewels Sale in June 2017, the high estimate was listed as £350,000.

After some frenzied bidding, the stone ultimately sold for £656,750, a life-changing sum for the owner.

The mount was unusual in a modern context. Composed of a blend of silver and gold (common in the late 19th century which is when we believe it was made), it tarnished over time, becoming darker and duller than mounts we typically see today...

Here is the link for that story.

The “Tenner” Diamond: How a Flea Market Find Became a Six-Figure Sensation | Jewelry | Sotheby’s

I've found a number of rings with gemstones over the years, but I still don't feel in identifying gem stones.  

Fortunately, some of the good ones are marked.

The mark might be a microscopic alphanumeric inscription laser‑etched onto the stone’s girdle that links the stone to its official grading report.

A 2‑carat diamond would be indicated on the band by a microscopic alphanumeric inscription laser‑etched onto the stone’s girdle, visible only under magnification. This is part of the diamond’s diamond inscription — a permanent, high‑precision mark linking the stone to its official grading report.

The inscription would typically include the carat weight in a standard format, such as “2.00” or “2.0” for a 2 carat diamond.

In some cases, the inscription may also include the GIA report number (e.g., GIA23478912) alongside the weight, so the full mark reads something like “2.00 GIA23478912” 

The numbers are precise to the hundredth of a carat (0.01 ct) for clarity and authenticity.

It might not be easy to find or read those numbers, but sometimes the band is marked with the stones weight.  Those can be easier to find, but not all rings are marked like that, especially the older ones.   

My first hint is usually the quality of the gold.  I don't expect to see a good stone in a low quality or junk ring.  If you find a quality gold ring there is a good chance the stone will also be good - but how good.  

And jewelry fashions have changed.  I've found rings that were made of gold and silver and wondered why anyone would do that, but it seems that was more common in the past, as illustrated by the valuable ring featured in the story.  These days you might expect a gold or platinum ring to hold a valuable stone, but it can be a mistake to dismiss a silver or mixed metals ring.  Again, fashions were not always the same and always changing.

Of course, you can use a diamond and gem tester.  I've talked about that before, but for myself, I don't find that necessary.  If I think something might be good, I make sure to get a genuinely qualified expert to take a look and maybe even pay for a written appraisal.

In the above story, Sotheby's sent the diamond to the GIA for an evaluation, even though they have some pretty good experts of their own.  And they will look at items for you.  I've had them give value estimates on items. 

Here is a link where you can request an estimate from Sotheby's.  Valuations | Departments & Services | Sotheby's

Other high end auction houses will do the same.

You can do a lot to learn to evaluate your own items, but if something might be valuable, you want to be sure to get the best and most authoritative opinion you can.  For really valuable items, don't play around with some guy you know or some place you trust just because you know them.  

And don't be too quick to assume a ring is junk or fashion jewelry.  It is possible to be mistaken.

For treasure coins and items, Sedwick Ltd. will always be glad to look at your items and give you an auction estimate if they are interested.

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I found an article that tells some of the factors that influence prices of gemstones.  It never hurts to know a little more, even if in the end you rely upon an expert opinion.

Here are a few excerpts that tell some of the factors can make a gemstone more valuable.

For diamonds, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is the most widely accepted lab. Their certificates provide information on color, clarity and other key factors that go into determining a stone’s value. Colored stones, with their many subtleties, are more difficult to quantify. The labs used by Sotheby’s include the American Gem Laboratory (AGL), the SSEF and Gübelin. Here, country of origin and the presence of treatment are most significant.

Value for diamonds and colored stones alike extend far past their size to include color, cut and treatment. “Emeralds, for example, are naturally more included compared to an aquamarine,” says Abbott. “Generally speaking, however, the clearer and cleaner the stone, the higher the price it will fetch.” It is helpful to note the quality of the cut, too. “I find the cut of a colored stone to be one of the most underrated factors in its appearance. The better the cut is, the more ‘alive’ it looks with the light bouncing around off the facets of the stones in the perfect way,” she explains...

White diamonds are the closest thing to a commodity in the gemstone world. Diamonds of specific sizes, colors and clarity tend to trade within a prescribed value band. This band is set by the Rapaport Report, a chart that tracks prices paid in the wholesale market and widely used by the industry. There is nothing that compares to this in the world of colored stones.

While depth of color and clarity are central considerations, a colored stone’s country of origin can have a tremendous impact on value. Much of this is tied to tradition. For centuries, the most highly prized emeralds have come from Colombia. For rubies, Burma (Myanmar) is the country of choice, and for sapphires, it’s Kashmir. Country of origin is so important, in fact, that an inferior stone from one country might command a higher price than a very fine example from another.

“The reason why country of origin, or provenance, is so important is because in certain cases, such as with Kashmir sapphires, there was only one mine producing these stones for just ten years in the 1880s, making them incredibly rare, and it's fascinating to see how strong they hold in the market due to this rarity,” explains Abbott. “That said, just because a stone comes out of a specific location doesn’t always mean that the stone will be extraordinary—it’s still crucial to see a gemstone in the flesh.”...

Ultimately, rarity is the number one factor in influencing a gemstone’s value.

Here is the link for the entire article.

A Simplified Guide to Buying Loose Gemstones | Jewelry | Sotheby’s

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Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

The system headed our way is expected to fizzle out and/or turn north and stay away from Florida.

No real threat at this time, but something to watch.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

8/24/26 Report - The Tools Required of a Pilot of a Spanish Galleon in the 17th Century That Could Be Treasure Coast Finds and Artifacts. Tropical Depression Forming.

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

Whazit Finds Made by JD in 2021.

You know how it is when you find a little doodad, thingamajig or whazit and wonder what it really is.   It can be especially difficult to identify an object is a smaller part or piece of a larger and more complex object.  

Some of the more complex instruments on board a Spanish galleon were navigational instruments. There aren't many complete or even nearly complete examples that have been found, but some really nice pieces have been found on Treasure Coast beaches.  One or two of those unidentified objects you've found could possibly be from one of those. 

Above is an example of the kind of thing I'm talking about.  The items in that picture were found back  in 2021.  They have been identified as parts of a sextant or octant, such as the one shown below.   You can see the same parts on that instrument.

The pilot of a Spanish galleon had to provide the necessary tools of his trade.  I found one document that described the tools that a mid-17th century pilot was expected to carry.  The list included the following.

Four compass needles fixed and well-conditioned with lodestone.

Six hour-glasses (ampolletas) - each of one -half hour.

A sailing chart for the voyage marked with compass points

An astrolabe weighing over ten pounds

A forstaff with three scales marked for the sun and stars.

150 brazas (9825) of sounding line - fine and thin and well-tarred.

Three lead weights of six, ten and fifteen pounds each.

A wooden quadrant.

A copper lantern.

Two clocks of the sort made in Lisbon.

A lodestone is magnetized magnetite, which was used to magnetize compass needles.

Below are the steps that would have been used to create a compass needle.

1. Obtain lodestone – A naturally magnetized piece of magnetite.

2. Shape it – Strike or carve the lodestone into a thin, pointed needle or a spoon-like form.

3. Mount it – Balance the needle on a low-friction pivot (like a fine needle point) or suspend it from a thread so it can rotate freely thecompasshistory.com.

4. Align with Earth’s field – When the needle is free to move, it will naturally align with magnetic north and south.

5. 
   

The earliest directional devices used lodestone, a naturally magnetized form of magnetite. Historical designs included magnetized pieces that were suspended, balanced, or placed so they could turn. Later, a magnetized iron needle could be floated on a small support in water or suspended from a thread, reducing friction enough for it to align with the magnetic field.  (Source: TheCompassHistory.com.)

I wonder if any detectorist ever came across a lodestone from a wreck and didn't know what it was.  I probably wouldn't recognize a lodestone.  And maybe I have.  Now I know a little better.

On to the next item.  The sandglass was a necessity for every galleon.  In fact, as you can see, there would be more than one, but I don't know of any hour glasses ever being found on the Treasure Coast beaches.  That is not surprising since they were made of wood and glass, which wouldn't likely survive the centuries.

Spanish Colonial Half-Hour glass.

The most important job of a page, who was the lowest ranking crew member on a galleon.  It was up to a page to turn the sandclock every half-hour and keep time so the pilot the pilot could determine the course.  A page that didn't do his job would receive serious punishment - maybe lashes.

Jumping to the astrolabe now - the astrolab was used to measure the positions of the stars, Sun, and planets in the sky so that by finding one fixed point the user could then turn the dial of the astrolabe and have an accurate (if two-dimensional) view of the whole celestial hemisphere. The instrument can be used to determine the height of prominent geographical features such as mountains. The device can also be used to measure time.

Below is a 15th century astrolabe.

I think many of those parts would not be the most difficult to identify.  They were often made of gold and might also have silver or other metals.

I had a picture of a Spanish pilot with an astrolabe seemingly hanging at his side from his belt.  I'll post that if I find it again real soon.

Here is a picture of a forstaff being used.  It seems there are a variety of names for the same instrument.

And here is a full color picture.

You can see some parts there to watch for or that you might have seen.

Several sounding leads have been found on the Treasure Coast.

You can use the following link to see one that was found on the Treasure Coast back in 2012.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 9/8/12 Report - Head High Waves and Good Surfing on the Treasure Coast

I want to finish this post.  I won't comment on the last two items of the list now, but maybe I'll get back to them and leave you will a link to a 1717 book entitled Practical Navigation.  There was also at least one prior18th century edition.

Here is the link.

Practical navigation; or an introduction, to the whole art, ... By John Seller, ... 1717 : Seller, John Hydrographer. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

It isn't the easiest to navigate and the text isn't always clear, but it all there.  Much of it was devoted to extensive tables.

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Source: NHC.noaa.gov.

The one headed towards us has a good chance of becoming a tropical depression by the end of this week.  That is something to keep watching.

The Treasure Coast surf won't get any bigger than 2 feet for the week.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/23/26 Report - Sunken Treasure of King Charles I. Old Wells as Metal Detecting Spots. Various Metallic and Silver Artifacts. Tropical Wave to Watch.

Written by the TreasureGude for the Exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Portrait of Charles I, painted by Anthony van Dyck around 1637. (Public domain)

On 10 July 1633, the ferry known as the Blessing of Burntisland was travelling from Burntisland to Leith during Charles I’s Scottish coronation tour when rough weather struck. The king’s baggage was aboard the ferry, according to the Burntisland Heritage Trust’s original account of the search. Another vessel carried Charles himself, while only two of the 35 people on board are believed to have survived.

The cargo reportedly included royal jewelry, textiles, coins, and precious-metal plate valued at about £100,000 at the time. Later accounts linked it to a gold and silver dinner service associated with Henry VIII. No complete inventory has ever been established...

The phrase “millions in treasure” makes a compelling headline, but it is not a measured valuation of a recovered hoard. The trust gives the cargo’s contemporary estimate as roughly £100,000. Modern figures depend on inflation, rarity, and what survived the sinking.,,

The search has been unusually persistent. Burntisland Heritage Group took over after an American exploration company withdrew in 1996. It became Burntisland Heritage Trust the following year and secured protected-wreck status in 1999.

The next stage is timber dating and archaeological assessment. If those steps connect the structure to the 1633 ferry, a local legend will become a major piece of Scottish maritime history. If not, the search will continue beneath the Forth...

Here is the link for more about that.

Hope is High for Finding Charles I Treasure Wreck Located in Scotland | Ancient Origins

Here is link to another site on the subject.

Burntisland Heritage

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Maybe you've come across an old well at some time.  There are some just behind some of the Treasure Coast wreck beaches.  For example, one was found at Frederick Douglass in the mangroves, but there are others, such as those in the Sebastian salvage camp area.  I've also found them other places such as the barrel well on Pigeon Island in St. Lucia.  Wells attractive and therefore artifacts.  They don't even have to be constructed wells.  Springs and watering holes are also good places to metal detect.  And then, of course, there are wishing wells, or waters that have some superstitious or religious connection.

Below are a few excerpts from a paper that studied artifacts found in some very old wells.  

Concerning those particular old wells...

The relative lack of metalwork in comparison to other materials, like ceramic, is not surprising. It should be expected that metalwork was less likely to have entered middens and would have been selectively retrieved from debris if found due to its recyclability and residual value...

P. Mountjoy identified three forms of well deposit: 1 ) whole pots, usually water jars, related to the well’s use and in a primary context; 2 ) a gradual fill of rubbish that builds stratigraphically up the shaft; 3 ) a deliberate fill of rubbish, brought in from elsewhere and deposited in a single operation... 

When wells are no longer used, they are often filled with rubbish or dirt so they might not be apparent and the older stuff will be found deeper.

Here is the link for the rest of that study.

978-2-503-59991-5_bookblock.indd 

If you want to read it, I'd recommend the PDF version.

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Archaeologists in Germering unearthed a 3,000-year-old wooden wishing well, the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection said in a Dec. 20 news release. Unlike today’s coin-filled fountains, this well was filled with over 100 well-preserved artifacts.

At the bottom of the 16-foot well, archaeologists found a variety of items that appeared intentionally placed. Considering the depth of the well, the artifacts may have been ritual offerings or religious sacrifices made during a long drought, archaeologist Marcus Guckenbiehl said in the release...

Additionally, archaeologists found a mounted animal tooth and a wooden scoop inside the well. The number and quality of items indicated the artifacts did not fall into the well accidentally, experts said.

Wire Wrapped Animal Tooth Found in Old Well.

That one reminds me of the wire wrap mounted objects you'll see today and those that have been metal detected such as quartz stones, shark teeth, and amulets.

You can also see that one in the following picture of metal artifacts found in this well.

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article270969882.html#storylink=cpy

I showed some wire-wrapped pieces before - both new and very old. 

See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 1/12/15 Report - Wire Wrapped Jewelry. Quartz Crystal Find. Difficulty Of Identifying Age.

Wire wrapped items have been found in Spanish Colonial sites.  I've found evidence and seen other sources that suggest the presence of a jeweler or craftsman on the wreck at the Frederick Douglass site.  You'd expect some pretty crafty people on those ships.  

I've found what appears to me to be an unfinished silver strap bracelet at Brooks.  Jonah M. found a similar copper strap bracelet at another wreck site. I couldn't find that post right off.  I'll have to take a new photo of it.

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Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

There is a tropical wave headed in our general direction that has a good chance of developing.  That is something to watch.  So far, I think everyone has fallen asleep on a very uneventful hurricane season.  Don't be caught sleeping.

The Treasure Coast surf might pick up a foot or two at the end of the week, but nothing very significant.

Good hunting,

Treauseguide@comcast.net