7/5/26 Report - Local Treasure Coast History Revealed by a Metal Detector Find. Early Shipwreck Salvage on the Frontier. Lightning Threat. Nature.

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

McKee Jungle Gardens, Vero Beach Souvenir.

Al C. sent the above photo and following text about this metal detector find.

I was going through some of my dad’s old finds from around here and thought this was pretty cool. I remember going there when I was little...

Al also said that Subterrix will be adding additional beach info by the end of this month.

I recently did posts about some souvenir and token finds. This McKee Jungle Gardens souvenir pin is a very cool find and also a piece of local history.

Thanks for sharing Al.


The garden opened in 1932 as McKee Jungle Gardens and quickly became one of Florida’s top tourist attractions, drawing over 100,000 visitors annually by the 1940s

In 1922 land developers Arthur McKee and Waldo Sexton purchased an 80-acre tropical hammock along the Indian River in Vero Beach with the intention of growing citrus but realized the land’s natural beauty was too special to disturb. They hired landscape architect William Lyman Phillips to design streams, ponds, and trails, and consulted famed plant explorer Dr. David Fairchild to enrich the site with tropical plants from around the world. Its award-winning orchid collection, rare plants like pelican flowers, and native wildlife such as monkeys and an alligator named Ole Mac made it a draw for nature lovers. (Source: Mission and History - Mckee Garden)

The botanical gardens is still there but is now smaller and not what it once was.

There has been a lot of construction and earth moving around there lately.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was on the original 80 acres.

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Here is some interesting shipwreck salvage history that I just learned about yesterday.

James B. Eads (born May 23, 1820, Lawrenceburg, Ind., U.S.—died March 8, 1887, Nassau, Bahamas) was an American engineer best known for his triple-arch steel bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Mo. (1874). Another project provided a year-round navigation channel for New Orleans by means of jetties (1879).

James Eads educated himself by reading the library of his first employer, a St. Louis dry-goods merchant. At 18 he became purser on a Mississippi riverboat. Not long after, he began to consider means to recover by salvage the heavy losses from the frequent riverboat disasters. When he was 22, he invented a salvage boat, which he called a submarine; actually, it was a surface vessel from which he could descend in a diving bell he had also designed and walk the river bottom. He recovered lead and iron pigs and other valuable freight; on one occasion he retrieved a cargo that included a large crock of butter in a good state of preservation. So successful was his equipment that in 12 years of operations on the Mississippi and its tributaries he made his fortune.

Retiring from the river to marry and settle down, Eads set himself up briefly as a glass manufacturer, but the promising enterprise, the first glass factory in the West, was ruined by the Mexican War; by 1848 he was back in the salvage business. He built three new submarines, the third of which was capable of pumping out and raising a sunken hull from the bottom. Within a few years he had 10 boats in his fleet.

I'd like to read more about how he designed his diving bell from a beer barrel and his salvage career if I can locate that information.

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With this hot weather, thunderstorms are not uncommon.  Of course, the lightning can be a danger.

A Florida beach lightning strike killed one dead and injured three ahead of this July 4th weekend.

Here is that link.

Florida beach lightning strike leaves one dead, three injured ahead of July 4th weekend

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Did you know that seashells are no only collected by many tourists but can also sometimes be sold for good money?  That is another type of treasure that you can walk by while metal detecting, and I'm not talking just about those old, crystalized fossil shells.

Here are some examples

Top 100 Shell Auction | rare large shells for collectors

Like most types of collectibles, to be worth good money, they should be in good shape, but it doesn't hurt to notice shells you pass by and know something about which might be worth picking up.

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If you are out in nature metal detecting this time of year and know your Florida flora and fauna, you might notice a Monarch butterfly laying eggs on milkweed plants.  Here is what bigger plan is unfolding.

July Is all about Raising the Next Generation.

Right now, female Monarchs are busy laying eggs on milkweed.  Tiny caterpillars are eating around the clock, growing bigger every day, and transforming into butterflies that will continue the cycle. Each generation born in July helps produce the amazing "Super Generation" that will migrate this fall.
Without healthy milkweed and nectar plants available now, there are fewer butterflies ready to make that incredible journey.

The Monarch Butterfly “Super Generation”

The super generation of monarch butterflies is the fourth and final generation of the year, born in late summer (August–September) and responsible for the entire fall migration to Mexico Country Living+1. Unlike the first three generations, which live only 2–6 weeks and focus on breeding and moving north, the super generation lives 6–8 months — up to eight times longer than their parents Country Living+1.

Why They’re Called “Super”

• Longevity: They enter a state of reproductive diapause, delaying mating until spring in Mexico butterfly-lady.com.

• Distance: They must fly up to 3,000 miles from the northern U.S. and southern Canada to the overwintering sites in the Sierra Madre mountains of Michoacán, Mexico Country Living+1.

• Speed: They travel about 50 miles per day, often riding thermal air currents to conserve energy Country Living+1.

How is the information and for this plan of nature preserved and passed from generation to generation, through the various phases from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly to egg, etc.?  You decide.

One day a few years ago when I stopped to detect at John Brooks, the field was covered with hundreds of migrating Monarchs.  That is something I've only seen once.

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Nothing new with the weather or beach conditions. Nothing new on the National Hurricane Center map either.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/4/26 Report - Happy Independence Day. Zooming in To Zoom Out. Microfossil Context.

 

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

Hard Shell Conglomerate After Some Cleaning.

This is the clump I've been cleaning so I could see what metal object is inside  The metal object hasn't been completely uncovered or identified yet but getting the clump partially cleaned, I looked at the surface a little closer and noticed the small shells, broken shells and other objects that could be thousands of years old.  

Being a detectorist, I've been paying attention to the metal and not so much the clump itself. I was missing the forest for the trees. 

I could see see silica and fossil shell crystals.  That doesn't happen quickly.  But I could also see some black specks that could very well be microfossils.  

Microfossils are simply small fossils - less than 2 mm.  I got into interested in microfossils some years ago and searched for them by dissolving fossil-bearing conglomerates.  The usual procedure used by teh Florida State Museum is to crush that kind of material and then sift it and then inspect the sifted materil microscopically.  I posted some of my suspected microfossils on the fossil forum site for identification and did indeed find some so I learned a little about identifying microfossils.  However, I found process very slow and tedious and didn't keep up with it.

After some cleaning of the clump shown above and noticing that it looked like it was the right kind of material and that there were some promising black specks, I decided to look at the clump closer to see what else it might hold.  

As I scanned the surface of the clump with the microscope, I got the feeling that I was touring the surface of a small planet. It took quite a while to go over the entire surface with high power magnification.  There were new interesting landscapes everywhere. Millimeter by millimeter I scanned the surface trying to cover it all but probably missing some areas.

Here is one interesting overhang I discovered.  

One Small Part of Shell Conglomerate Shown Under High Magnification.

The black spots are likely fossils or pieces of fossils.  Here is what the Florida Museum site says.

Black microfossils in Florida are typically microscopic fossils of foraminifera  —  single-celled marine organisms with calcium carbonate shells — preserved in sedimentary rocks. They are often found in Eocene to Pleistocene carbonate deposits such as the Ocala Limestone, Tamiami Formation, and other shallow-marine limestones (Collections Overview – Invertebrate Paleontology).

Here is another view of the landscape I photographed on the tiny planet.

In this view you can see one likely fossil sitting on the high spot just left and below the center of the photo and the much bigger one just a little above center.

There were many interesting views, and I didn't post pictures of all of them, but I wanted to give you a brief look at what I saw besides the metal object I was focused on before becoming interested in the smaller details of the clump.

If you are interested in learning more about microfossils, here is a good link to get you started.

What Are Microfossils and Why Are They Important?

Here are a a few examples of microfossils from the Florida Museum site.

The world is as big, complex and interesting as your brain can handle or allow.  There is always more - much more - and unfortunately (maybe fortunately) - we are only capable of processing a very very small portion of it all.  Zoom out or zoom in - there is no end.

We seek old item while constantly walking over things that are millions of years old.

They say that to the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail, but it is also true that when a treasure hunter has a metal detector, every treasure is metal.  It doesn't need to be.

Your world is as big and amazing or as small as you let it be.

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Bicentennial Medal.

Somebody (I think maybe grandma) gave me this fifty years ago.  The lasst fifty years flew by.

Happy Independence Day,

TreasureGuide@comcast.ne

Thank God for founding Fathers that thought big.

Happy Independence Day.

 

7/3/26 Report - Looking at Changes in Metal Detecting Over the Years. Florida Shark Attacks. Space Weather. More Flat Surf.

Have you ever wondered about the future of metal detecting?  I've been detecting for a few decades now, but I wouldn't say it has changed a lot since I began.  I'm sure some of you will disagree with that.   It takes a good bit to impress me.

The metal detectors are better today.  And there are more detectorists today than there once was.  A lot of targets have been removed, but here is continual replacement.  Whether there is less or more to find out there today, I can't say, but there have been changes of type.  Some of the accumulated coins of early days have been removed and coins in general are less used today.

I'd say the biggest difference is the vast amount and ease of accessing information today.  There is so much information out there.  In the past, you either had to subscribe to a magazine, buy books or join a club to get a lot of information.  And many of the best detectorists of past decades were very secretive.  You might never see them. And they'd often provide disinformation unless you were an especially trusted friend.

One of the unintended consequences of metal detecting being more public is the increase in laws against it.  There can be benefits to flying under the radar.  

Before you try to project to the future, you might first look at the past and present to identify trends - if there are any.  Eventually I hope to give you some far-out possibilities, as well as some changes that you might more expect.

In a very general sense, I don't think metal detecting has changed a lot over the past forty or fifty years.  Metal detectors have been around quite a while but weren't used much for treasure hunting until mid-20th century, after which they became common.  I bought my first serious detector (a White's) from a Sears catalog.  Of course, many of those metal detector companies, such as Whites and Tesoro are now out of business, while some newer metal detector companies have thrived.

I can't deny the advances in metal detector technology, but the basic form and function of treasure hunting metal detectors hasn't changed much.  We're still walking around swinging a coil on a rod.  The basic scoop has been improved upon, but in my estimation, we're still digging up targets in very much the same way.

For decades I saw metal detector ads saying something like, "See what's in the ground before you dig it."  Maybe it's just me but that kind of language made me think of a detailed enough image to be able to say what the item is.  We now have data to help us decide what is in the ground, but there is still a lot and I do mean a LOT of uncertainty.  It isn't what I think of when I hear about "seeing" something. Maybe I expect way too much, but I thought that was the promise, yet after some decades, the amount of uncertainty about undug objects is still pretty great, and you don't even know how great for the items you don't dig.

Think about way shipwreck salvage is done.  One of the most impactful innovations was the blower, and blowers have been around little changed for decades.  

SCUBA was the BIG innovation early 1940s although it wasn't patented until 1948.  Both SCUBA and metal detector development occurred back during World War II.  Seems like it takes the urgency of a war to inspire innovation on that level.  Maybe you can point to bigger and more impactful innovations, but those stick out to me.

Of course, before that was the diving bell, leading to manned submersibles, both tethered and untethered, followed by remote controlled submersible drones.

The internet had a large impact even for before and after the hunt, as has AI, which has yet to be largely integrated with detector technology.  

It can take a long time for innovations to be refined and widely adopted.  I have textbooks on AI published in the 1970s and 1980s, but it wasn't until much more recently that it became widely used.  The internet has been widely used by detectorists and treasure hunters for decades now, while AI is being adopted and shows much promise for the future.

In future posts, I'll speculate about future changes that I think are real possibilities.

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Lulu Gribbin was 15 when she survived a shark attack off the coast of Florida. She lost her left hand, part of her right leg and almost her life.

What she didn’t know when she entered the water on that day in 2024 was that another woman had been bitten by a shark 90 minutes earlier and just 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) down the beach. Had she known about the earlier attack, there is no way she would have been swimming, she said.

Gribbin’s story has inspired new federal legislation to authorize emergency alerts to mobile phones to warn beachgoers when a shark has bitten someone in the area...

Here is an interesting article even though it isn't directly on metal detecting. I certainly don't agree with all of it, but I think it is worth consideration.

The legislation, which Gribbin advocated for, authorizes the warnings by classifying a shark attack as an event for which an emergency alert can be issued. It is up to states to implement the warnings.

Here is the source link for that story.

Alabama teen's shark attack inspires national alert system | AP News

By the way, Sharknado has been on TV recently.  Amazing what celebrities will do for some cash.

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Here is an interesting article.  I don't agree with a lot of it, but it does bring up issues that should be considered.

Humanity has chosen to become idiots: This Brown professor switched to take-hom Ie exams after a mass shooting and discovered mass cheating

It is worth thinking about certain issues no matter whether you are agree with the expressed opinions or not.

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4TH OF JULY AURORA WATCH: Fireworks won't be the only light show this weekend if space weather forecasters are correct. Auroras could appear, too. CMEs are expected to hit Earth on July 3rd and July 5th, sparking consecutive nights of G2-class (Moderate) geomagnetic storms. There's a chance the storms could escalate to category G3 (Strong). If so, auroras would descend to mid-latitudes in the USA and Europe. CME impact alerts: SMS Text.

GIANT SUNSPOT TOO BIG FOR CAMERAS: Sunspot 4478 is so big, astrophotographer Thierry Legault could fit only half of it in his camera's field of view. Even that much is big enough to swallow Earth (insert for scale):

Here is that link.

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroiHeds

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Can you believe I watched more soccer last week in one hour than I watched the entire rest of my life, and I did it voluntarily!  After the world cup I'll probably never watch an entire match again.

I don't like how they fall on the ground and act like they are dying every time they get bumped or kicked in the shin.  And I didn't thnk grabbing jersey's was such an important part of soccer.  

I find myself rooting for anyone who can score a point. Now I know why a GOOOAAALLL is such a big deal.  Scores are so rare, and I'm a person that loves defense in American football.  

Anyhow, the World Cup has been kind of fun, but the games are only a small part of it.

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Nothing showing on the NHC Atlantic map.

The upcoming week will have nothing but one foot or less surf along the Treasure Coast.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/1/26 Report - Jupiter Island at Risk of Breaking. Elongated Penny Metal Detector Find and Collecting. Clump in Progress.

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

Jupiter Island.

Coastal erosion and flooding, exacerbated by sea level rise, threatens homes and wildlife on Jupiter Island, one of the most affluent beachfront neighborhoods in the country.

Most of Jupiter Island, south of the St. Lucie Inlet, is considered critically eroded for more than 11 miles, according to an inventory of eroded Florida shorelines by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The erosion is severe enough to potentially "break through Jupiter Island" at a narrow isthmus at Peck Lake outside of town limits, DEP predicted...

Here is the link.

Florida island, home to celebrities, could be 'broken' by erosion - AOL

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Dug Pressed Penny from Frontier Land Machine.

On the end table beside my bed, along with a miscellaneous variety of other small metal detector finds was this tarnished discolored souvenir pressed penny from the Magic Kingdom.  It has been sitting there for a while, but this morning it caught my attention when I realized I knew where it came from.  I've seen the machine that made it.  In fact, the last time I was in the Country Bear Musical Jamboree lobby, I saw some grandparents with their grandchildren getting some made.  But the one above is an older version made a few decades ago before traveling from the Magic Kingdom to one of our beaches before it was lost.  

Pressed pennies are considered to be a type of exonumia.  By one account, the first was made in 1893 at the Chicago's World's Fair.  Reportedly some can bring thousands of dollars.  Even though they make a nice collectible, most aren't worth much more than you'd pay to have them made.  

With pennies disappearing from pocket change, the machines will probably start accepting other coins or make other changes but will undoubtedly survive.

Characteristics of the most valuable.

• Historical significance and rarity
• Condition and preservation quality
• Unique or limited-edition designs
• Provenance from famous locations
• Complete collections or sets

Devaluing factors.

• Common designs from popular tourist locations
• Poor condition or damage
• Modern zinc cents (less desirable than copper)
• Overproduction of certain designs

Here are a couple links for a little more about pressed penny collectibles.

The Hidden Value of Elongated Pennies: Are These Souvenir Coins Worth Collecting? - Home of the Coin Rings made from Silver Proof Coins

Are Elongated Coins Legal To Make? Legal To Spend? | U.S. Coins Guide

If you are really interested in elongated coins, here is the link to The Elongated Collectors News.

The Elongated Collectors

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Shell Conglomerate Containing Unidentified Metal Item.

I'm still working on cleaning this clump to expose the metal.  I soaked it in vinegar for at least twelve hours and made very little additional progress.  That is how micro fossils are sometimes found too.

I searched for microfossils in the past but found it too tedious for my liking.  I do think I might see a small fossil in this clump, but will have to put it under the microscope to get a better look.

This is something I'd use Muriatic acid on now if it had some at home.  As it stands, I might end up just breaking open the clump.  It is very hard.

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I just noted over half a million views on the treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com site last month (June).

Nothing new with the tropical weather or surf predictions.

Looks like more of the same.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/30/26 Report - Doubled Die Error Coin. Strike-Through Errors. Strawberry Moon. Another Killed by Alligator.

 

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

This Peace dollar has a doubled die error.  It isn't common to find silver dollars along the Treasure Coast where it is more likely that you'll find a Spanish reale, but like any other U.S. coins, has its share of price increasing mint errors to seek.  After seeing this one I think I'll have to get my Peace dollars and see if I have any of these 1934 error coins.

The above picture shows where to look to check for the double die error on the 34 Peace dollar.  But double die errors aren't easy to identify.  That is my opinion.  If you look at the coin forums, when people ask if their example is a double die error, most of the time it it not.  Most of the time, what they are seeing is what is called machine doubling.  

A true doubled die error coin is caused by a misalignment in the die-making process (hub doubling), where the die itself is struck twice at slightly different angles or positions. This happens during the hubbing stage, so every coin struck by that die will show the same doubling.

Machine doubling (the thing that causes some coins to look like doule die error coins) is caused by a loose or worn die that “bounces” or shifts slightly during the striking process. This results in a blurred, smudged, or smeared doubling effect, often with less definition than a true doubled die.

Here is a link to a site that will explain more about that and give you examples of both types of coin.

Machine Doubling vs. Double Die Coins: Here's How To Tell The Difference Between Valuable Doubled Dies vs. Machine Doubling Coins Which Are Not So Valuable | U.S. Coins Guide

For more about the Peace dollar doubled die obversed

1934 D Peace Silver Dollar Doubled Die Obverse Coin Value Prices, Photos & Info

I recommend checking your coin finds and pocket change for error coins.  Valuable ones aren't easy to find, but it happens.  There are also many mint errors that are worth a bit of a premium but not a lot.

Here is an example of an error coin that I found.  It is a strike-through error that might be of some interest to a collector but probably not a lot.

Something was on the planchet when the coin was struck, leaving the depression you can see running from bottom left and up the ST in STATES.  I've found a few strike-through errors, which you have to distinguish from post mint damage (damage done to coins after the minting process).

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I'm working on this conglomerate to see what might be inside.  So far, I've not made a lot of progress.

Of course, I'm trying the least destructive methods of cleaning first, but might end up cracking it open.

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A 31-year-old woman was killed by an alligator while swimming in a river in Florida, officials said.

The victim, her boyfriend and her best friend were hiking on Sunday when they stopped to swim in the Econlockhatchee River in Seminole County, just north of Orlando, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

They were in about 3 feet of water when an alligator bit the victim on both arms, FWC spokesperson Chad Weber said...

For more about that...

Woman killed by alligator while swimming with boyfriend, best friend

I've run into alligators in the Indian River.  One surprised me pretty good.  All I saw at first was a golden eye sticking out of the muck.   I almost ran into him.

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Known as the Strawberry Moon, the first full Moon of the summer will be the lowest-hanging Moon until 2043, which will also make it appear to be larger than usual.

A phenomenon called the Moon illusion makes the Moon seem bigger when it is close to the horizon due to its relative size compared to objects in the distance like trees and buildings.

June’s Strawberry Moon is always the lowest of the year, though this one comes at the low point of an 18.6-year cycle of extreme rising and setting points...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

The moon is about to do something that it won’t do again until 2043

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The full moons are giving us some nice negative low tides.

Nothing significant on the National Hurricane Center Atlantic map now.

Nothing big with the surf predictions either.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Thos

6/29/26 Report - Recent Finds. Old Books and Cartography. Coca Cola Bottle Dating Chart.

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

I haven't been out to the beach hardly at all this summer but finally got out early enough to beach the midday heat.  This is one thing I found.  It fooled me.

It has a gold tint to it but when I picked it up, it felt to light for gold, so I thought it must be junk, but when I got it under magnification, I could see the mark that reads, 925 MADE IN ITALY  MILOR.  The links are evidently hollow, which makes it lighter.  It must be vermeil or have an alloy that accounts for the goldish color.

The safety clasp that you normally see on good items should have tipped me off to the item not being complete junk.  You can see the post for it in the above photo.

In a dip in the shallow water, I also picked up an encrusted item that I'll have to investigate.  I'll start taking the crust off to see what is inside.

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If you want to find old maps or other good information, check out old books.  Christies has a current auction on books and manuscripts, including cartography.

Here is an example.

I've found a few good old books and maps in thrift stores in the past.

Here is the link for the auction lots.

Valuable Books and Manuscripts including Cartography

And here is a link to a post I did showing some more examples and giving a link to the University of Florida web site where you can find digital images of more old maps.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 6/26/12 Report - Old Florida Maps & Tropical Storm Debby

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Here is a recent link to an article on collecing Coca Cola bottles.  Just an introductory thing.  Not much detail.

Vintage Coke bottles are worth way more than you may have thought

Here is a link to an old post I did on that.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 11/26/16 Report - An Excellent Aid For Dating Sites From The Late 19th Century.

In that post, I showed this handy chart for dating Coca Cola bottles.

The chart is from a 2010 article by the Society for Historical Archaeology entitled The Dating Game: Tracking the Hobble-Skirt Coca-Cola Bottle by Bill Lockhart and Bill Porter.

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Nothing interesting on the current National Hurricane Center Atlantic map.

No new changes on the surf charts for the Treasure Coast either.

Expect more of the same this week.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.netn.

6/28/26 Report - Aestel from Galloway Hoard and Other Antiquities. Academics Study Treasure Hunting.

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

Found by Detectorists as Part of the Galloway Hoard
  Currently Offered in Christies Auction of Antiquities.

You can learn a lot from auctions especially those like this Christies auction that offers an extensive collection of fine and varied antiquities.  Not only can you learn to identify many different kinds of finds but you will also see what they might be worth at auction.

Astels are thought to be pointers or handles, sometimes described as manuscript pointers, however there are examples that suggest other uses.  You might recognize this one as part of the Galloway Hoard found by Rob, Paul and Robin while using their XP Deus detectors in North Yorkshire.

This one has an auction estimate of 16 to 18 thousand British pounds.

This find is listed in the PAS database.  You can find it using this link and then scrolling down.

Search results from the database Page: 1

This auction ad reads as follows. 

From a Greek helmet to a dinosaur skull: wonders of ancient civilisations and the natural world

Offered online during Classic Week in London is a new auction, Ancient Wonders: Antiquities and Natural History, spanning four millennia of human achievement and 2.5 billion years of Earth’s history. Highlights include a Triceratops skull more than two metres long and an Anglo-Saxon treasure discovered by a metal detectorist...

Below is another example you will find when browsing the auction lots.

Here is the link to the auction if you want to see more treasures of this quality.

Explore Ancient Wonders: Antiquities and Natural History | Christie's

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There are several articles written by psychologists or anthropologists on treasure hunters, their characteristics and what distinguishes treasure hunters from the general population.  Having started out my professional career as a college psychology teacher and having spent many years practicing and writing about treasure hunting, I've thought about it quite a bit, conducted a few polls and written about it some.

Psychology professor Allen King performed a peer-reviewed study about these treasure hunters. He identified over 400,000, although his research was based on a much smaller group. Around three-fourths are male, and many are natural risk-takers. It’s the challenge and the striving with a clear sense of purpose that attracts them. They like the feeling of mastery when they link a clue to something that moves them a step closer to the goal (“Hey, a guy named Brown lived in that house!”). The problem is that they could be wrong about their interpretations, which, like Seyler, moves them closer to missing the fortune.  (Why Would People Push Themselves to Emotional Turmoil to Find Buried Treasure? | Psychology Today)

The next one is hard to read and starts out with the typical archaeologist's perception of treasure hunters as being primarily motivated to get rich quick but eventually it gets into something more worthwhile (if you can wade through the heavy academic jargon).

The author who focuses on hunters seeking antiquities brings came to see treasure hunting as an exercise in reviving historical (he calls it spectral) memory.  

Here is the link.

Seeking Ever-Elusive Treasures: Reflections on Collective Memory and Spectrality of the Past - Anthropology News

And here is one that focuses on the attraction of one particular type of treasure - crystals.

Rockhounding and Our Primordial Fascination With Crystals | Psychology Today

Below is a brief excerpt from that one.

Sam, a retired mining engineer, described being fascinated by rocks since early childhood. He told me, “As a kid, all I really wanted to do was analyze my rocks…I analyzed everything imaginable...I’m pretty much of a seeker, a looker, an analyst.” (S. Dunaway, personal communication, April 4, 2026). He described an innate satisfaction in searching and digging for rocks that people, even small children, enjoy for hours. They like turning over things on the ground and finding unique, interesting, and pretty pieces. Visits to the mine are filled with surprises. Sam marveled at how people love to tell the stories of finding their treasures.

I've shown some crystals found in Florida. We have those nice fossil shells.

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BIG ASTEROID FLYBY THIS WEEKEND: Earth is in a shooting gallery, and this weekend you can watch one of the bullets streak by. On Saturday, June 27th, a kilometer-class asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth in more than 400 years--close enough to see in a backyard telescope. Full story and sky maps @Spaceweather.com.

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One reader identified my recent mystery find as a cribbage board.  Thanks much

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NHC.NOAA.org.

Here is the current National Hurricane Center map.  A little development but nothing interesting.

The surf will get up to around two feet later next week.

Very few people on the hot beach this morning.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net