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Friday, May 8, 2026

5/8/26 Report - A Miscellaneous Variety of Beach Finds.

 

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


Beach Found Shipwreck Wood.

I decided to show some miscellaneous finds today.  Here are three pieces of shipwreck wood found on a beach after a really rough surf day that washed up a lot of things.

All three pieces have been reddled by toredo worms.  Their tunnels and some shells remain.

The top piece is about two feet long and 9 inches wide.  It has only one broken spike piece of s spike remaining in it.  The other two spike holes are empty.

You can see the corroded heads of a spike in each of the two bottom pieces.

I think I showed one or two of these before, but I don't think all three.


Piece of Fossilized Bone.

It must have been one big bone originally.  

Here is the other side of it.

Piece of Beach Found Bone.


Below is a rock shell or fossil, or maybe all three.  I don't know how to classify it.


Mystery Object Showing Druzy.

I've talked about how calcite crystals can form when shells are mineralized, but that also can happen with bones.

Here is an example of a beach shell showing heavy crytalization.


Crystallized  Sea Shell.


And here is a bone that has crystalized.


Crystalized Bone.

I don't know what the one in the top picture is.  It could be a shell that mineralized and then embedded in stone.  I just don't know.

I can't explain the hole that runs through it either.  Maybe the shell is completely gone but the hole remains.

You can read more about the bottom two examples by using the following link.



Druzy refers to a layer of tiny, sparkling crystals that form on the surface of a rock or mineral. These crystals can appear as a glittery, sugar-like coating and are often found inside geodes or on the surface of other gemstones.

Druzy (also spelled druse or drusy) is sets of tiny crystals of minerals that form on the surface of another stone. These crystal intergrowths or clusters can be formed by many different minerals. The mineral species and shapes of crystals formed are dependent on fluid composition. Crystal size is a function of fluid temperature and pressure.

There are many types of druzy, because there are many types of minerals. Each type of druzy has particular characteristics, such as crystal size, luster and color.  Druzy can form from minerals like quartz, calcite, chalcedony, malachite, azurite, garnet, hematite, cobalt calcite, and uvarovite Garnet, each creating unique colors and textures.

Here is the link where you can read more about that.

What Is Druzy, and How Does It Form? – Geology In

You can find crystalized shells for sale online.  

Here is one more find for today.


Embossed Suibb Bottle.

I usually don't pick up screw top bottles unless there is something I like about the bottle.  I usually pick up cobalt blue bottle though.  This one is rather large.  You can see SQUIBB embossed on the shoulder.

Here is the bottom.


Bottom of Embossed Squibb Bottle.

It is nice when you find a patent date.  This one is embossed DESIGN PAT 87401.  

The design patent was registered July 19, 1932.  

You can look up patent dates or simply as AI, which I think is easier.

I believe this is a milk of magnesia bottle.  It is very similar to the Phillips milk of magnesia bottles  


By 1921, E.R. Squibb & Sons produces over-the-counter home remedies like bicarbonate of soda, castor oil, milk of magnesia and Epsom salts.

Here is a link for the Squibb company history.


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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

Looks like a few more days of smooth surf.

Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net


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Thursday, May 7, 2026

5/7/26 Report - Calm Seas. Treasure Auction Schedule. Dreams and Hopes versus Records and Data.


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


Ocean Reef Beach Cam (Vero) Thursday Morning.

.Looks like a mid-summer day with a lazy ocean.


Fort Pierce Area Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com

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The Sedwick treasure auction goes live Thursday morning.  Here is the schedule.


Session I, beginning at 9:00 AM EDT, will feature Gold Cobs and Shipwreck Coins. Session II will begin at 6:00 PM EDT, with Silver Cobs from the mints of Mexico City, Lima, and Potosí.


Friday, May 8, 2026
Session III - World Coins - 9:00 AM EDT
Session IV - Medals & Decorations, US Coins, US & World Paper Money - 2:30 PM EDT
Session V - Ancient Coins, Coin Jewelry, Shipwreck & Non-Wreck Artifacts - 5:00 PM EDT


Saturday, May 9, 2026
Session VI - Express Session - 9:00 AM EDT

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It is one thing to follow your dreams - an admirable thing to do - but don't let your dreams cloud your vision.  Be aware of the risks and costs as well as the rewards.  

Be open minded. Learn from your experiences.  Don't be like some of the TV shows that try to make everything support their hopes. It gets ridiculous.  

It is important to collect the data., but the data will do you little good if you let your hopes distort your interpretations.  Follow the data.  Remain open to alternative interpretations.  

People sometimes have too much investment (emotional as well as other) in their beliefs.  They want to believe something so badly, they become blind to the truth. They resist changing their mind, so they don't learn.

Just because something might be true, doesn't mean it is true.  There are often other good alternative interpretations.  Beiing possible isn't the same as being probably.  Demand compelling evidence before settling on one explanation and even after that, remain open to additional evidence that might suggest something else.

If you know more, you'll have more alternatives to consider.  You'll be eager to admit to yourself and others when you don't know or aren't sure. That is a good attitude for a seeker.  

A scientific approach is largely a state of mind. Humility is extremely important.  Be as eager to prove yourself wrong as you are to prove yourself right.  It is the proven fact that is valuable.  Sometimes you need to change your mind and your approach.

Keep good records.  Use data. Question your assumptions and beliefs.  There is no benefit in trying to prove yourself right if you are wrong.

Do a lot of testing.  Sample sites.  But realize that there will still be some degree of uncertainty.  Samples are just samples.  Sometimes they are good samples and sometimes not.

I find data interesting in addition to being helpful.  I like to collect data and figure out what, if anything, it is telling me.

It is OK to just pursue a wild hunch or even a fantasy, but I think it is helpful to determine how realistic it might be.  You can bet big on a wild dream if you want, but you might want to assess how realistic it is and how to best proceed.  It is the learning process that is so much fun and valuable to me. Other people might enjoy just rolling the dice.

In order to collect useful data, you have to define your goal well.  Define what you want to accomplish and how to measure success.  You need to have defined goals and benchmarks to collect the most useful data.

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Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comocast.net.

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Wednesday, May 6, 2026

5/6/26 Report - Back Yard Find. Making a Collection of Your Finds. Safeguarding Your Collection. Small Surf Expected.

 

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

Newly Dug Bottle.

I normally don't dig up old bottles.  I depend on nature to uncover them.  But this bottle was dug.  My wife dug it up while gardening.  She dug up a really good dairy bottle in the yard about a year or two ago. This one isn't that great.  It has no embossing or interesting marks, but it is in great shape - evidently having been buried and undisturbed for most of its life.  

I'm showing it only to remind you once again, that if you have a yard, don't overlook it.  You don't have to travel far to find old things. It seems to me that you can find old things almost anywhere.  In very short distance from my home, I've found fossils that are thousands of years old, an indigenous pot shard as well as many 20th century items that I've shown in this blog.  And it seems there is probably still more waiting to be found.

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Here is an excerpt from an interesting article I just found on the subject of collecting silver.  


Collectors do not simply accumulate objects. They change the outcome of objects. This season, Heritage Auctions is presenting Georg Jensen silver from the Collection of Yousif & Myrna Hamati. There are over 100 lots. However, it did not begin as a collection. It began with curiosity. A piece here. A bowl. A cup. Something beautiful. Then Joe started to study the marks. Next, the designers. The realization that Georg Jensen was not a single hand, but a community — Harald Nielsen, Johan Rohde, and others — each shaping the evolution of form.

Knowledge changed the scale of ambition...

That is the moment a buyer becomes a collector: not when he purchases silver, but when he understands it.

Here is the link for more of that article.

Does Anyone Collect Silver Anymore?

I've long said that there is one find when you uncover an object, but that is just the beginning.  After that there is the search for the identity, history, meaning or significance of the object,

You can accumulate a collection of finds.  You don't have to purchase a collection.  The knowledge you gain about your finds transforms them.  Eventually they can become a collection.  The new knowledge can also help you find more items.  

Detectorists can go through several stages that I've referred to before.  You might start out finding objects with the hope of selling them.  But you might then become more interested in what you can learn from your finds. As you study them, you add to their value (both economic and otherwise) by adding to their story.  

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Here is an excerpt from a very good article on safeguarding your collection.  

... Camouflaging Valuables: Most people are predictable, and experienced burglars know all the “good” hiding places. Typically, people keep their valuables in the primary bedroom and home office. Guess where burglars go first? So, try to avoid these typical hiding spots and leave decoys. One gentleman we know has numerous coin albums (filled with pocket change) in plain sight on the bookshelves. Another has an old safe that is heavy but movable. It resides in the corner of his home office and contains absolutely nothing. Its predecessor was removed in a burglary during which the thief left behind several thousand dollars’ worth of electronics because he thought the safe was the jackpot. The homeowner now has a monitored security system and modern wall safe but still keeps a decoy as a reminder of the importance of security, and the burglar was the recipient of nothing but an empty box (and perhaps a hernia). If you don’t own a safe, small valuables are best hidden in a false outlet with an object plugged into it. A collection of small items should be spread over several non-obvious locations...
  
Let me add a little here.  

If you hide something in what you think is a safe place, don't leave the location entirely to memory.  As I've said before, it can be more difficult to find a piece of treasure in your house own than it was to find it on the beach.  I've learned that lesson, like many of the lessons I've learned, the hard way.  Tell somebody else where you put it and write the location down (perhaps in a coded form) in location where you'll be able to find it but won't be readily apparent to anyone else.  You have to keep track of where your notes on locations are too.  

Another thing you might do is leave items that look valuable but are not, such as fake gold rings or chains where a thief might expect to find the good stuff but be wise about where you keep the good stuff.  You might keep the good stuff in a safe deposit box, as I've advised before.  Just be wise about how you secure your valuables.

The article is really pretty good and covers a lot more.  I highly recommend it.  Here is the link.

Safeguarding Your Collection

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Fort Pierce South Beach from Surfguru.com

Beautiful Fort Pierce South Beach.  

Notice the small cut that is now filling and covered with seaweed.

The surf chart shows one to two feet for the next week or so.  

Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net



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Tuesday, May 5, 2026

5/5/26 Report - Trends in Metal Prices. Winter Park Coin Show in Orlando. Tips on Dating Porcelain Shards.


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

Five Year Price Chart for Gold.

Gold and silver prices have decreased lately, but not all metals have.  

Above is the five year chart for gold and below is the chart for silver.  

These charts are from ComexLive.org.


Five Year Price Chart for Silver.

Notice on the chart how silver had a sharper curve and then fell off more after the peak than gold.

The next two charts are following a different trend.  They might be considered industrial metals.

Here is copper.


Five Year Price Chart for Copper.

And likewise aluminum had a dip a few years ago but has since been recovering.


Five Year Price Chart for Aluminum.

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Here is the schedule for the Winter Park Coi Show in Orlando on May 6.



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Yesterday I showed a blue and white shard that was not hand painted, as you could tell from a microscopic view.  Kang-Hsi porcelain was hand painted.  Common later porcelain and pottery was decorated using other technologies

I found a nice chart that will help you date pieces decorated by these different techniques.  Here it is.



So hand painting, although continuing to the present, was the technique characteristic of 18th century and earlier porcelain.  Transferware became common in the late 18th century.  And decals became common 18th century and later, while laser and digital printing is the modern technique.

Magnification will help you identify each.

Here are some links to sites will help you date your porcelain finds.

The Chemistry of Porcelain: Understanding the Value of Hard vs. Soft Paste

Ceramic Glaze Crazing: Causes, Myths, Concerns, and Aesthetics

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The surf will decrease today and then the rest of the week we will have only around a two-foot surf.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net


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Monday, May 4, 2026

5/4/26 Report - Bronze Cup: Soldier's Souvenir? Using Magnification to Reveal Marks and Analyze Four Miscellaneous Finds.

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

The Berlanga Cup was found in four pieces.
(Image credit: Roberto De Pablo)

The cup was discovered in Berlanga de Duero, a municipality in central Spain, nearly 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) from the storied Roman defensive wall that protected the northern frontier of the empire in the second century. The hemispheric "Berlanga Cup" is about 4.5 inches (11.4 centimeters) wide and around 3.2 inches (8.1 cm) tall. It features colorful enameled designs and a Latin inscription that mentions four forts.

"The cup is a small representation of a functional vessel called a Roman trulla — a bronze or clay cup with a handle used to drink water,"  Jesus Garcia Sanchez, an archaeologist at the Archaeological Institute of Mérida in Spain and co-author of the new study, told Live Science in an email. "It is not only crafted with metals, but also expensive enamels, and later on customized...

An analysis of the cup revealed it was bronze — largely copper and tin — with a substantial addition of lead that likely came from mines in northern England. These findings strongly suggest the cup was made by a local artisan near Hadrian's Wall between A.D. 124 and 199, the researchers said. But how the cup ended up in Spain is a bit of a mystery...

Here is the link for more about that.

1,900-year-old souvenir cup featuring Hadrian's Wall and Roman forts discovered in Spain | Live Science

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Here are a few miscellaneous finds that will help me illustrate some of the benefits of using a good jeweler's loop or coin microscope to inspect finds for small details. 

A Few Miscellaneous Finds.

A quick look is not always enough.  Sometimes a little magnification will reveal what you didn't something you didn't notice at first.

Above are four miscellaneous finds that might or might not be what they seem at first site.

I'll start with the most obvious.  In the upper right corner, you see one of the older style pulltabs.  Or is it?  

Closer inspection with a coin microscope reveals the following mark.


Sterling Marked Silver Pulltab.

But you can aslo see what might appear to be FPUA, but it is really an incompletely stamped ERLI from another attempt to stamp the item STERLING.  It is, in fact, silver.  

The tem to the left of that, which might look a little like a broken stone, pot shard or fossilized wood is actually fossilized bone.

The real structure is is easily seen under microscope, as shown below.

Broken Fossil Bone Cross Section.

You can see the porous marrow structure inside.

The piece of copper beside seems to have some marks on it.  I thought I saw what looks a little like Muntz mark on it.  You can see what appears to be two parallel curved line near the corner next to the shard, but closer inspection shows that is not what the mark is at all.


Lines on Piece of Copper.

Under magnification, I could see that the lines were actually not parallel at all, which would be the case for the Muntz mark.

Below is an example of an actual Muntz metal find along with a copy of the mark on paper.


That comes from The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 4/19/14 Report - Gold Crucifix Beach Find, Muntz Metal Find, and Clarification On 1715 Fleet Salvage Contracts

Muntz metal was a new nautical sheathing invented in 1832 by adding tin to copper to replace the older copper sheathing.

The shard is a blue and white oriental design which might be thought to look like Kang-Hsi, which has been found on 1715 wreck sites blue on white shards are common and most are not the more valuable Kang-Hsi, which was transported from China on the Manilla galleons before being loaded onto some 1715 ships.

Here is the shard under magnification.


Closer Inspection of Shard.

That looks nothing like the Kang-Hsi  (or Kangxi) that I've seen.  This piece shows no brush strokes or variations in color intensity.  It appears to be applied rather than hand panted.  There are many other signs, but I'll get into that more some other time.  It is a topic that deserves a post of its own.  I've done post on that topic in the past, but I try to improve posts as I learn more.

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That was the most exciting Kentucky Derby I've ever seen.  Amazing.  And a real long shot.

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

From Saturday to Sunday the wind switched.  We are now having more of a north wind.

As you can see, Tuesday the surf will increase a little.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net.  

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Saturday, May 2, 2026

5/3/26 Report - Very Valuable Eight-Reale. Mystery Find for ID. Treasure Auction Schedule. Very Flat Surf Chart.

 

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


Rare Lima 8 Reales.  Lot 614 in Current Sedwick Auction.

If you want to know what makes a coin valuable, this lot provides the answers.  It already has a bid of $45,000.

Here is the lot description.

PERU, Lima, 8 reales, Philip II, assayer R (Rincón) to left, king's name as PHILPVS, legends HISPA / NIARVM, motto PL-VSVL-TR, very rare, NGC AU details / environmental damage, ex-Ugaz, ex-Ponte. S-L1; KM-13; Cal-651. 25.57 grams. Superb full inner details with nearly full crown and legends on a full and round flan, no doubling, the interiors bold but weaker in peripheries (king's name clear), darkly toned with only a hint of surface porosity, among the finest known of this important unauthorized issue that represents the first "dollar" coin struck in South America.

The three primary cob-producing mints in the Americas—Mexico, Lima and Potosí—all started with an assayer named Rincón, and at each mint the Rincóns produced 8 reales in very small quantities, making them all very rare and desirable in our time. The Potosí Rincón 8R, made in 1575, is the commonest of the three, with a few dozen known, struck shortly before Alonso Rincón’s death; at the other end of the scale is the Mexican Rincón 8R (struck under Francisco Rincón, Alonso’s brother), of which only three are known from what had to be an experimental run in 1538, due to the reported difficulty in making such large silver coins. In between in rarity and chronology is the Lima Rincón 8R (struck under Alonso Rincón), like the present specimen, with a known population of seventeen and highly coveted as the first “dollar” made in South America, struck in 1569 without proper authorization and quickly discontinued.

To categorize the die varieties of these Lima 8 reales, there are two distinguishing characteristics on the obverse and two on the reverse:

Obverse (shield side): king’s name spelled either PHILIPVS or PHILPVS, with two types of flowers in the crown above the shield, either three of the same kind or the middle flower larger than the other two flowers

Reverse (pillars side): legend continuation as either -NIARVM or -RVM, and motto as one of three versions: PL-VSVL-TR, PL-VSV-LT, or PLV-SVLT-RA

Based on these characteristics, we have identified three obverse dies and four reverse dies, as follows:

Obverse:
1. Legend lettering of PHILIPVS . II . D . HISPA, three equal flowers in crown (seven known)
2. Legend lettering of PHILPVS . II . D . HISPA, three equal flowers in crown (one known)
3. Legend lettering of PHILPVS . II . D . HISPA, middle flower larger and different from other two flowers (eight known)

Reverse:
A. Legend NIARVM . ETINDIARVM . REX, motto PL-VSVL-TR (seven known)
B. Legend NIARVM . ETINDIARVM . REX, motto PL-VSV-LT (six known)
C. Legend NIARVM . ETINDIARVM . REX, motto PLV-SVLT-RA (two known)
D. Legend RVM . ETINDIARVM . REX, motto PL-VSVL-TR (one known)

Known combinations:
1. 1A (one known)
2. 1B (four known)
3. 1C (two known)
4. 2D (one known)
5. 3A (six known)
6. 3B (two known)
7. Unreadable

The present example is 3A, meaning that the king’s name is spelled without a second I and the middle flower in the crown is larger than the ones that flank it, while on the other side the legend begins with NIARVM and the motto reads PL-VSVL-TR.

Featured on back cover of printed catalog. Pedigreed to the Jorge Ugaz Collection and to the L.R. Ponte Collection (stated on label).


Obviously the condition is great.  It has a full details and is well-centered design, but that is only the beginning.  It is the finest known of its type, which is a very scarce type with few know examples.  It has great provenance, being from multiple well known collections.  It is an unauthorized version and the first "dollar" coin made in South America.  

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Mystry item for ID.




This glass object is 4.7/8 inches across rom rim to rim.  Top to bottom it is 3 7/8 inches.  And the glass if a full 1/8 inches thick.

I don't really know which is the top of bottom but the frilled metal makes a decent stand.  The metal is bolted to the glass in the center of a cross bar (right photo).  From the bolt, it definitely looks modern era.

I can't figure out what it could be.  What do you think.


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Below is the auction schedule for each of the sessions.


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