2/11/26 Report - Treasure Coast Beach Projects Going On. Ancient Roman Shipwreck. Deer Antler Head Dress Found.

 

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

Fort Pierce South Jetty Park Erosion. Photo Credit: Treasure Beaches Report.

Over the weekend, county crews installed concrete barriers near two private properties along Jetty Park Beach on Hutchinson Isand after officials determined portions of the dune system were vulnerable to washing out...

“I was a little skeptical of it at first, because it does put concrete structure on the beach, but I do believe that it's a legitimate long-term solution to avoid doing the same thing over and over,” said James Clasby, St. Lucie County Commissioner and Erosion District Chairman...

Drone video from the area shows waves pushing close to the remaining dune line, which residents say once served as a buffer between the ocean and their homes. Neighbors say the shoreline has continued to retreat, leaving homeowners increasingly worried that the next round of high tides or rough surf could reach their properties...

County leaders say emergency sand deliveries are scheduled to begin Tuesday afternoon, with mobilization already underway. Crews are expected to truck in approximately 10,000 cubic yards of sand as part of a short-term stabilization effort designed to shore up weakened portions of the dune before a larger federal project begins. That is about 14,000 tons of sand...

Here is the link for more of the article.

Emergency sand project underway as beach erosion threatens Fort Pierce homes on shoreline

Thanks to DJ for that link.

My opinion is that people who buy or build on the beach should take responsibility for the risk they should know exists.  

Heavy Equipment Operating Wednesdayat Fort Pierce.

I got the above shot of the bulldozer at Fort Pierce. Wednesday.

Below you can see Fort Pierce Jetty South Beach. 

Fort Pierce South Jetty Wednesday Morning.

Below you can see the excavator working south of the Sebastian jetty.

Sebastain Beach Cam (South Beach View) Wednesday Morning.

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Ancient Roman Shipwreck.
Source: Archaeology Magazine.

Italy's finance police said Tuesday that it has discovered the remains of a large ancient Roman-era ship with a cargo of amphoras on the bed of the Ionian Sea off the coast of Puglia.

    The force said it made the find in June 2025 during an inspection but was only making it public now...

Here is the link for more about that.

News - Roman Shipwreck Discovered Off Coast of Southern Italy - Archaeology Magazine

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7,500-year-old deer skull headdress discovered in Germany indicates hunter-gatherers shared sacred items and ideas with region's first farmers

The discovery of a deer skull headdress and tools made from antlers at the site of a New Stone Age farming village suggests that hunter-gatherers were sharing ideas with the newcomers...

Here is that link.

7,500-year-old deer skull headdress discovered in Germany indicates hunter-gatherers shared sacred items and ideas with region's first farmers | Live Science

I've found a fossil tine on the Treasure Coast.  Always thought it would make a nice handle for something.

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

The wind is still from the west.  Saw some surfers taking advantage of the nice slow swells.  

Other than the beach projects, not a lot of sand being moved.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net.

2/10/25 Report - Corroded Cents Identified. Using Found Milk Glass. Religious Medallions. Turtle Fest. WWII Home Front.

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

1943 Steel Cent.

Yesterday I showed a couple coins that needed cleaning.  I thought they might be steel cents.  After a day of soaking in white vinegar, I could see enough to tell what they are even though they still weren't completely clean..  One of the two (shown above) turned out to be a 1943 steel cent.  You can make out the date on the coin and see the steel surface.

The other coin turned out to be a 2005 cent (below).

Partially Cleaned 2005 Cent.

The crust on the coins looked very similar. I thought they were probably from the same location and dug at around the same time.  I was really surprised when I saw that the dates were 52 years apart.  It is possible, I guess, that both coins were uncovered at the same time and that the steel cent was lost after 2004.  Or it might be that they were found at different times and places even though they look very similar.  Unfortunately, I don't remember when they were dug or put in the box.  Maybe they have nothing to do with each other than the very similar, and very stubborn crust.  From the crust, I wrongly assumed they would be about the same age and made of a similar material. 

I could have checked the steel cent hypothesis before cleaning by using a magnet before cleaning these coins, but I knew I wanted to see them anyhow, so just put them both in the vinegar bath.

Once again, I used a small milk glass cosmetic jar for the cleaning solution.  Those containers have several advanages.  One, they are small and require little cleaning solution.  Two, they are very white, so you can see every speck coming off.  And three, they have a slightly  rounded bottom rather than angled edges, which makes it easier to remove items and provides a little hollow on the bottom so the solution contacts both sides of the coin.

Here are examples of the kind of containers I like to use.  

Vintage Milk Glass Cosmetics Containers.

They probably held rouge or something like that.  

I found them when hunting bottles.  I always liked milk glass even though it usually has little to no collector value.  I've found these ones useful.

Also in the same little box of old finds was a couple religious medallions.

The first is very small.  It measures just a touch over 3/8 inch in diameter.

Small Religious Medallion.

This one is from a shrine to Saint Rita in Italy.

The second medallion is a little bigger.

Two Sides of Medallion.

This one is from a sanctuary in Carru, Northern Italy.  This one isn't silver.  Seems to be aluminum or something.

Coincidentally, both are from the area of the current Winter Olympics.

Next I'll have to go through the wheaties. 

===

So we know about copper pennies, zinc pennies and steel cents, but did you know there are more.

Off-metal errors rank among the most compelling artifacts of American numismatics.  those linked to World War II hold even greater appeal.  One such piece stands apart: a 1945-D Lincoln Cent struck o a 75% silver Philippines 10 Centavos planchet.

Here is the link for more about that.

Unique 1945-D Lincoln Cent Struck on Philippines Silver Planchet

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SAVE-THE-DATE
February 21-22, 2026 - 10am to 5pm
Loggerhead Park in Juno Beach, FL

Loggerhead Marinelife Center will host its 21st Annual TurtleFest on February 21-22, 2026. Over 16,000 guests came together at TurtleFest 2025, a free-admission event that promotes ocean conservation through interactive educational exhibits and marine life, as well as music, art, shopping, games, and other family-friendly activities.

Here is the link for more about that.

TurtleFest - Loggerhead Marinelife Center

As coin shooters, you might be interested in beach events that bring crowds to the beach, but besides seeing the turtles off, there wll be music, art and other fun events.

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One part of American history that most people know little about these days is life on the home front during World War II.  It was something I doubt we'll ever see again.  Everyone was involved.  There were drives to collect materials and all kinds of events to support the war effort.

My wife's aunt received training in welding which she completed when she was 17.  She got a good paying job working in a munitions plant. She told them she completed high school, but she didn't.  She told them she'd bring her high school certificate, but, of course, never did.  

The money was much needed by the immigrant coal mining family not many years out of the Great Depression. It was a feminist movement without being called that and provided a great opportunity for much-needed financial support.  

As a young girl, or woman, she worked on smaller shells, and she said she always wanted to work on the large shells because those ladies had wagons and got to move the large shells around the factory.

 It was a company that prior to the war made pressure tanks, but like many companies, during the war converted to war time products. It was a total country effort.  I don't think we could do that today.

Too bad people don't know the history of their grandparents and great-grandparents.  There are great stories that should be told and heard.

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SurfGuru Fort Pierce Jetty South Zoom Beach Cam Tuesday Morning.

Looks like some nice ridable swells out there this morning.  Saw one surfer catch one on the view above.

Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

The wind is still from the west but will become more south as the day goes on the surf decreases.

I wouldn't expect any improvement in beach metal detecting conditions.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/9/26 Report - Looking at Some Miscellaneous Finds. New Orleans Minted Morgan. Wedges, Electrolysis and a Post from the Past..

 

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

1887 O Morgan Dollar.

I mentioned that I got behind in cleaning finds.  I had one little box of miscellaneous finds sitting around that I finally decided to investigate.  There was a variety of miscellaneous coins.  Everything from a few modern Canadian coins, about 16 wheaties, a few more foreign coins, and seven or eight silver Kennedy halves.  For me, the most interesting was this 1887 O Morgan dollar.  

It is worn, as you can easily see.  I've found very few coins from the New Orleans mint.  And I've never taken the time to try to learn how to grade coins, but fortunately there are some good web sites to help with grading coins.  According to the guidelines provided by one site, I'd guess this one would be something like Fine, or possibly Very Fine.

Here are the guidelines.

And here is the link.

1887 Dollar Value: Mint Varieties, Rarity, And Current Prices - Coins Value

In any case, I'd guess there would be something like $66 of silver in it.

I didn't post yesterday because it was Puppy Bowl Sunday and I had a cold or something.  I just decided to get out that little box of old finds to check out.  I had no interest in the Super Bowl this year.  That could have been due to a lot of things, but perhaps having a funeral for a relative the day before was one of them.  

My last post was about the new 2026 SemiQ coins, and I mentioned Bicentennial coins.  One of those was in the little box too.  It was a bit of a surprise.  

1776 - 1976 Eisenhower Dollar.

No silver in this one.  That is a chunky coin, and I can see why people seldom carried those around in their pocket.  

These two heavily encrusted coins were also in the box.  I'd guess they are steel cents.

They are now in the cleaning pot, so I should soon be able to see what they are.

I'll be checking out the wheaties.

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I received these photos and the following email from Mark G.

I have cleaned up a few iron artifacts and some rusty junk using electrolysis never silver. My last project I am still working on is a giant wedge I call it that I dug out of the bank of the eroding recreational island under the same bridge I found the Reale and musket ball but west side. It’s about 12+ inches long and weighs about 5 to 10 pounds and it was completely covered in rust. I use an old computer charger puts out about 5.5 amps which is high for electrolysis but gets the job done fast. After first run the rust was flaking off the iron and I think one more run will finish it. However I never started the run again I could tell it’s modern probably used in the construction of the bridge in the early 2000s dropped and then dredged up and used for fill in creating the island.

Thanks Mark.

I've posted a similar wedge find in the past along with some other wedges and tools.

Here are a couple that I cleaned up and posted in the past.

And in that post I also had some links to sites on old nautical tools.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2016/08/81316-report-wedges-and-chisels-and.html

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.comm.

We have a west wind this morning.  Not much beach activity.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

2/7/26 Report -Variety of New Coins to Watch For. Gold and Silver Prices Drop. West Winds to Switch Before Long.

 

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

To celebrate the Nation's Semiquincentennial (SemiQ), the United States Mint is proud to unveil one-year-only changes to well-known American coinage, such as the circulating dime, quarter, and half dollar. The Mint will also release special numismatic coins and medals in 2026 featuring unique designs and enhancements for core products and annual releases.

These are the new SemiQ circulating coins of 2026.

Watch for these new coins to show up in your pocket change or in your scoop.

I still occasionally see some of the bicentennial quarters marked 1776- 1976 popping up from time to time.

There were commemorative coins minted for the centennial in 1876, but the first circulating commemorative U. S. coin was the 1921 Peace Dollar to commemorate the end of World War I.

OK, so now I have some bicentennial coins and expect to get some semi quincentennial coins before long, so the next ones I'll look for will be the 2076 issues, but by then we might not have metallic coins at all.

Let's see who is the first to find and show their semiquincentennial coins.

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Commodities prices, including gold and silver dropped recently.  

One Year Chart Showing Recent Gold Price Drop

The drop was large when considered in a short-term basis, but in my opinion the drop was to be expected, considering the long-term increases and the more recent dramatic prices increases prior to the drop.  My view is that it was to be expected and is basically a correction.

Silver and other metals did something similar.  Below is the silver one-year chart.

One Year Silver Price Chart.

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Fort Pierce Jetty -South Beach.

Just a lazy surf.  The surf is north but the wind is from the west.

Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

Looks like the wind will shift before long.

The tides are moderate.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/6/26 Report - Detectorists Finds Rare Figurine. PAS Expands. Blog Readership and Museums.

 

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

Image Credit: British Museum as published in ZMEScience.com.

The decoration was uncovered in 2024 by a metal detectorist scanning the dirt near Harlow, not far from London. It’s a high-status ornament that would have been used as a carriage fitting...

The owner wanted to signal that he’s living the good life, while also showing that Romans crushed the locals...

This specific find likely wouldn’t have been saved for the public if the British government hadn’t updated the Treasure Act. Previously, objects had to be made of precious metals (gold or silver) or be part of a hoard to be legally declared “treasure.” Under the 2023 amendment, other “significant” finds like this panther can now also fall under the government’s protection.

This means that instead of the figurine disappearing into a private collector’s drawer in New York or Tokyo, it was diverted to the British Museum. The find will be officially valued by an independent board. It will be valued, and the reward (often thousands of pounds) is typically split 50/50 between the person who found it and the owner of the land. It’s a system that encourages people to do the right thing and report their finds rather than selling them on the black market...

Here is the link to the entire article.

Rare Roman Panther Figurine with Its Paws on a Severed Head Is a Propaganda Tool Used in Britain

So the PAS has expanded to include more finds.  Of course it expands.  Never expect it to contract.

I wonder how fair the evaluation will be.

They presume that it would disappear if in private hands but not in the public trust.  Too often things disappear from museums or are never displayed.

In the past I've done polls on the publics access to the materials that are held by museums for the public.  One poll that I conducted found that only 5% of the respondents had ever seen any of the coins or artifacts held in the Florida Collection. The Florida Collection holds many coins and other items by the local salvage companies. That seems a very low number especially considering that the respondents were people that read this blog and are more interested in treasure than the general public. See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 10/12/13 Report - The Florida Collection of Treasure Coins and Artifacts and The Poll Results. 

That seems to be a very ineffective use of public resources.  If you want to actually see the items in the Florida Collection - good luck.  Most people know little about it - not even where it is located.  On the other hand, many respondents (over 75%) have visited the Fisher Museums and the McLarty.  Those institutions provide better access to the public than the Florida Collection.  If you want to see the coins salvaged on the Treasure Coast and taken by the state for the benefit of the public, I guess you can pay a hefty price to buy one of Allan Craig's books, which are not complete and are outdated.  My opinion is that the publicly funded institutions that supposedly take control of those items to preserve them for the public are actually doing a pretty good job of keeping them private.  Furthermore, I believe that publication of information about those items should be available to the public easily and inexpensively. Not only are they supposed to be held for the benefit of the public, but the public pays for them.

The McLarty Museum is part of Sebastian Inlet State Park and is one state museum that does a good job.  Many of the readers of this blog have visited the McLarty.  The admission fee is modest and the museum is assisted by volunteers, who you will find very helpful.  The mueum is on the site of a1715 survivor's camp.  

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I have a lot of cleaning to do.  I started some electrolysis back in December that I never finished. I need to get back to that.  

A cob I found in December I put aside and haven't seen it since.  I'll have to do a search or try to figure out where I put it.  I've spent more time looking for it since I brought it home than it took me to find on the beach.  

I think I might have posted one photo of it.

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I've been burning a lot of my paper and cardboard recyclables in the fireplace rather than putting them out lately.  Good cheap fuel for keeping warm on a cold day.

It will be warming up soon though.

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Fort Pierce South Jetty (South Beach Zoom) Friday Afternoon.

Surf Chart for Fort Pierce South Jetty Area from SurfGuru.com.

The surf is a little rough but not real high.

We'll have some north winds around Saturday.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

  

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My wife's mother recently passed away at 98 years of age.  My mother passed just a few years ago, as did my wife's mother.  One of those was 94 and the other 95.  We've watched the process as their health and capabilities deteriorated and we've been responsible for settling too many estates. It is a tiring to be responsible for health care decisions and managing affairs.  They were different people and they were in different situations.  One passed at home.  One was a nursing home for s short period, and the other went to assisted living, then had a hospital stay and then went to a nursing home. They all confronted similar difficulties and triials.  They slowly lost control of their lives, became less capable and less independent, and all three came to the realization that the end of life was near before finally passing.  In my opinoin they were cared for in a way that despite what you might expect, did not respect their humanity.  

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The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 4/24/16 Report - Top Treasure Coast Treasure Hunter Says No Silver Rings Ever Found On 1715 Wrecks.

2/5/26 Report - Spanish Colonial Silver Rings: The Evidence and the Mystery. Around the Treasure Coast in Beach Cams.

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

Bathtub Beach Beach Cam View Thursday Morning.

First, I decided to check some of the beach cams this morning.  It is a slow morning.  Cooler temperatures and very small waves at long intervales.  SWS winds.  Don't expect any new erosion today.

Jensen Beach Web Cam Thursday Morning.

The positive side of this is that you can get down into the low tide zone and where permissible, even do some shallow water metal detecting if you can take the cool temperatures.

Fort Pierce Jetty South View Thursday Morning.

Nothing much going on at either Fort Pierce of Sebasstian this morning.

Sebastian South Beach View Thursday Morning.

s

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From Sedwick & Associates...

Sedwick & Associates will be accepting consignments throughout the month of February. The consignment deadline for Auction 39 is March 10.

Meetings are available by appointment at our office in Maitland, Florida, approximately 30 minutes from Orlando International Airport. We will also be available during the Puerto Rico Coin Show in San Juan, Puerto Rico, February 18 to 21, registration required, and at the ANA National Money Show in Savannah, Georgia, February 26 to 28, Booth 111.

In early March, we will be meeting clients in South Florida and will then travel to London and Munich.

Auction 39 will be held live and in person May 6 to 9, 2026, at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott Winter Park, Florida. The sale will include colonial coinage, cob coins, paper money, artifacts, medals, ancients, and related historical material from the entire world.

A small boutique bourse with a limited number of established dealers will be held on May 6, the day prior to the auction, together with a dedicated section for lot viewing. We believe this added opportunity for direct interaction in advance of the sale will benefit both dealers and collectors.

Hotel reservations for the May auction are available at the following link:
Book your group rate for Sedwick & Associates Auction #39

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One reader recently brought up a topic that I addressed a few times over the past decade or more, but for me it is still something of a mystery.  It comes down to this: many silver rings are found by detectorists on the wreck beaches that appear by all accounts to be from the wrecks, but the top treasure salvage guy of the Treasure Coast once said that there has never been a silver ring found on a 1715 Fleet wreck.  That fellow worked the 1715 Fleet wrecks longer than anyone else, so there is really no better authority on the subject.  It leaves me wondering how to account for the apparent discrepancy.

I checked the Mel Fisher artifact database and searched for silver rings. I found no silver rings in the database. That supports the idea that if there are any at all, they are rare.

The next source that I checked was Deagan's book, Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, `1500 - 1800.  That book describes Spanish Colonial artifacts found on both land archaeological sites and under water. Thousands of finger rings are documented. Many are non-metallic. Many are made of jet and many others are non-metallic, made of glass, stone, wood and even horse hair.  Of the rings made of metal, the vast majority are made of copper alloys, and a smaller number are made of gold. Only one made of silver was described and pictured. It was from Santa Catalina and shows a flame-crowned heart that is very similar to the heart-shaped cobs that I've discussed in the past. 

Many beach-found silver rings appear to be from the wreck sites and were found along with reales and other wreck items and in close proximity.  That evidence seems very convincing as well.  

So the question remains: why are there so many silver rings attributed to the wrecks found on the beach while the archaeological and salvage records indicate that Spanish Colonial silver rings are so rare?  I haven't yet found a satisfying answer.

Why are Spanish Colonial silver rings are so rarely reported in the archaeological record or salvage records, yet found so often on the wreck beaches?  Could it be that the silver rings found on the beaches were the possessions of the lower classes or sailors rather than part of the cargo and therefore not distributed along with those more precious items that are salvaged on the wreck sites?  Perhaps the silver rings were on bodies or carried by individuals trying to survive the wreck.  There are other possibilities.  The silver rings could being trade goods and perhaps associated with post-wreck salvage efforts rather than the original wrecking.      

The discrepancy between the archaeological and salvage records and the number of old silver rings found by detectorists near wreck sites remains a bit of a mystery to me.  

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Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

Looks like a higher surf Sunday.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

2/3/26 Report - Objects Composed of Parts from Different Eras. Matching Finds Made Many Years Apart.

 

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

It’s not every day that you find a medieval wheel cross, and it’s even rarer when the find matches another centuries-old artifact discovered over four decades earlier. But wait, it gets better. A volunteer made the discovery...

Volunteer archaeological conservator Juliane Rangnow found the bronze wheel cross, dated to the 10th or 11th century, in Germany’s Havelland region. Most notably, it perfectly matches a mold that came to light over 40 years ago in the Berlin borough of Spandau.

Its correspondence to a previously discovered casting mold “is unique for an archaeological find from this period,” and “it is also exemplary of the early Christianization of Brandenburg,”... 

The wheel cross finding took place during detector surveys, and the site also revealed coins, pieces of gold-plated jewelry, and iron weapons from around the same time period. Rangnow discovered the wheel cross near wooden church remains, after which it was restored and measured. It is the only known cast of the mold in question, called the “Spandau Cross,” which archaeologists unearthed in 1983 at Spandau’s Slavic castle rampart...

Here is the link for more of that story.

1,000-Year-Old Bronze Cross Perfectly Matches Mold Found 40 Years Ago, Shocking Archaeologists

It is always fun to find something that goes with something else you found in the past.  One of my most recent examples of that was the recent find of a railroad signal lamp that matches a signal lamp lens that I found a couple years ago.

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The Gosfield seal is made of a medieval silver seal bezel surrounding an ancient Roman gemstone...

A metal detectorist discovered the medieval seal in Gosfield, in the eastern county of Essex, in the fall of 2024. But a recent analysis of the seal by experts with the U.K.'s Portable Antiquities Scheme has revealed that the 800-year-old object prominently featured a 2,000-year-old Roman gemstone at its center.

"It's not common to have an object composed from two different time periods," Lori Rogerson, ... the finds liaison officer for Essex, told the BBC ...

The silver seal is just 1 inch (27.5 millimeters) long, and the entire keepsake weighs 0.23 ounces (6.44 grams), according to the entry for the artifact in the Portable Antiquities Scheme database. A loop attached to one end of the oval seal suggests it was suspended, perhaps on a necklace, rather than being a signet ring...

Here is the link for more about that.

Rare medieval seal discovered in UK is inscribed with 'Richard's secret' and bears a Roman-period gemstone | Live Science

Things are not always one age or another.  Sometimes, like with this ring, they are made of parts from more than one age period.  That can make figuring out the age of the find difficult.  I'd consider the item to be the age of the latest or most modern component.  But that might the loss might be much more recent.  People carry around old things sometimes.  It is possible to find a very old coin that was lost and found more than once.  I once found a ring with a mounted treasure coin that I have reason to believe was lost three times before I found it.  I think it was lost in a ship that was salvaged before being put on another ship that sank.  The coin was then salvaged and mounted as jewelry in modern times, and lost and found again.  I can't definitely prove all that, but that is what my research suggested.

All of those now very popular mounted treasure coins are all something like that. On older coin is mounted in a newer piece.

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

As you can see the surf will be calming down.  The wind had already changed and will be coming more from the south before the next front comes through.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net.