5/24/26 Report - D-Day Flag. Memorial Day Flag Etiquette. Spying Cars. Coins and Art Conference.

 

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

The USS Corry (DD-463) was a Gleaves-class destroyer, that was commissioned a week after Pearl Harbor, and was launched 28 July 1941 from Charleston Navy Yard. Prior to her involvement at the Normandy landings, Corry was one of the most seasoned ships in the Atlantic fleet, participating in the 1942 invasion of North Africa, and serving with the British home fleet supporting convoys to Russia. Lt. Garay was transferred to the USS Corry in March of 1943, having served previously aboard the USS Charrette (DD-581).

When night fell on 5 June 1944, the Corry began her initial assignment, slowly and laboriously escorting heavy ships and transports crossing the English Channel. As H-Hour approached, the ship was deployed to shell German defenses along Utah Beach in support of troop landings. Dawn had barely broken when the Corry began exchanging salvos with the heavily fortified German batteries. The destroyer moved closer to the beach in an attempt to eliminate the heaviest artillery battery on the shore...

Here is the link for more about that.

(#2188) [D-DAY]. FLAG FROM THE USS CORRY, LEAD DESTROYER AT UTAH BEACH ON D-DAY, RESCUED BY LT. PAUL GARAY, 6 JUNE 1944

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Unlike other periods of national mourning, Memorial Day features a distinct flag etiquette. According to official guidelines from the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA), compliance requires adherence to a specific timeline:

Time	Flag Position	What it Symbolizes
Sunrise	Raise briskly to peak, then lower to Half-Staff	National mourning and collective grief for the fallen.
11:59 a.m.	Prepare for the transition.	The conclusion of the mourning period.
12 p.m. (Noon)	Raise briskly to Full-Staff	A celebration of the enduring legacy of those who served.
Sunset	Lower to peak momentarily, then lower completely.	Final respect at t

Here is the that link.

US Flags Ordered To Fly At Half-Staff in Every State - Newsweek

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For the first time, the worlds of art and numismatics come together in a high-level exhibition. For three days, the Bogotá Gun Club is transformed into a space where heritage and aesthetics converge with collecting and history.

Collectors, curators, academics, investors, and art lovers are invited to this unique event. It's not just another art fair: it's a dialogue between art and currency, memory and the market, with the content and international reach that the subject deserves.

Latin American Coin & Art Expo 2026 will mark a milestone in the region's cultural calendar, offering a curated experience with the highest standards of content, exclusivity and international projection.

For more about that, here is the link.

 https://latincoinart.com

Some coins seem much more artistic than others to me.  Should be an interesting conference. 

That reminds me of when I was invited to be the keynote speaker at a computer conference, the Primer Seminario Nacional de la Infomatica, at Antonio Narinio University in Columbia back in 1989.  The drug wars were hot and heavy then and I regretfully declined to go, but I sent a video presentation entitled Como debe ser la Instruccion programada por Computator.  I taught a lot of the classes for a Master's Degree in computer education for the group of educators from Colombian (one from Spain).  They came to the U.S. campus for the classes.  The same summer, I also had a class of educators from Norway. The Spanish and Norwegians were very different, but both groups were a lot of fun.  That was probably my most fun teaching experience.  I had the Spanish students for an entire program but the Norwegians only for a few days, so I got to know the Colombians very well and had a lot of fun with them despite the language challenges, which actually added to the fun.

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Speaking of spying cars...

By the 2020s, these telematics programs were becoming outdated. Vehicle internet-connected onboard computer systems now allowed automakers to more easily collect even more detailed driver behavior data—precise measurements of how fast you drive or how hard you hit the brakes or the accelerator pedal, among hundreds of other behaviors.

Automakers can use this data to understand how crashes happen and improve car safety features. But for them, collecting it also came to make sense from a business perspective. For example, at a 2023 industry conference in Detroit, a Hyundai executive said that customers who had the company's Bluelink app were more likely to spend money to get their cars repaired at Hyundai dealerships and stay loyal to the brand. “We have seen that our current connected customers, on average, spend a certain percentage more with our company,” said the executive...

Here is the link for more about that.

Stop Your Car From Collecting and Sharing Your Driving Data - Consumer Reports

That is only the beginning.

Trillions of miles of data: Your car is spying on you, and it's only just the beginning

When you pick up your new car and your salesman pushes connecting the infortainment system, the "free" radio service connection might include a lot more than you think.

Modern connected cars rely on a mix of wireless and wired systems:High-performance Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband (UWB), Near Field Communication (NFC), IEEE 802.11p (DSRC), and cellular networks. High-speed data connectors and EMI-shielded solutions for infotainment, ADAS, and EV systems. Communication with other vehicles, infrastructure, and the cloud for safety, traffic management, and mobility services.

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Melbourne Beach Web Cam Sunday Morning.

It looked like it was raining just ot the south of this beach.  Here is the link to the cam.

Melbourne Beach Surf Report and Melbourne Beach Surf Cam - Florida Surf Cams

Fort Pierce Area Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

Not much new at the beaches.  There should be a few beachgoers this long weekend.

Views of the Beaches Report blogs have typically been wellover 20k daily these days.

Have a good Memorial Day weekend.

Treasureguide@comcast.net

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5/23/26 Report - Most Valuable Rubies. Researching Decanter Bottle Find. Shipwreck Map Hangup. Half-staffed.

 

Estrela de FURA Ruby.

Rubies have been prized for more than two thousand years and are among the rarest of all gemstones. Composed of corundum with trace amounts of chromium, rubies are second only to diamonds in hardness and are revered for their vivid red color. In ancient Sanskrit, they were known as Ratnaraj—the “King of Precious Stones”—a title reflecting their association with royalty, protection, and power.

In the modern market, the most valuable rubies are natural and unheated, with origin playing a critical role. Stones from Myanmar (Burma) and Mozambique command the strongest prices, particularly when paired with vivid, saturated red color and strong transparency. The term “pigeon’s blood” is used in the trade to describe rubies of exceptional color and quality... 

Here are the four most expensive ruby rings.

Estrela de FURA 55.22 carats, Mozambique origin, unheated, cushion cut $34.8M

Sunrise Ruby (Cartier) 25.59 carats, Burmese origin, pigeon’s blood, Cartier setting $30.9M

Ruby and Diamond Ring 24.70 carats, Burmese origin, pigeon’s blood, diamond surround $11.2M

Graff Ruby 8.62 carats, Burmese origin, pigeon’s blood, Graff provenance $9.0M

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

A Closer Look at the Top Four Most Expensive Ruby Rings | Jewelry | Sotheby’s

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Pressed Glass Decanter.

This decanter was found along the banks of a river.  It is about 9.5 inches tall and in perfect shape.  The top is perfect.  It isn't chipped, the bottle was made with an irregular ruffled edge around the lip.

Bottom of the Same Decanter.

The bottom of the decanter has the FEDERAL LAW FORBIDS SALE OR REUSE OF THIS BOTTLE along with a variety of other numbers.  The Federal Law message dates from 1935 to 1964.  One of the number is a "62" which could be the date.

Here is the maker's mark found in the center of the bottom.

MTC Maker's Mark on Bottom of Decanter.

That is a mark of the Thatcher Glass Mfg. Co.

Here is a link for more information on that company.

4-page_spread

That site will also help to decode some of the other numbers on the bottom of the decanter.  I might do that some time.

I just posted the decanter in my tgbottlebarn.blogspot.com site.

And here is a link to an article that tells how to tell the difference between pressed glass and cut glass.

https://www.libraryofvintagethings.com/2025/11/11/pressed-glass-vs-cut-glass-how-to-tell-the-difference/

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In my 5/16/26 post, I showed a good Florida shipwreck map.  Joe D. found the map still available online being sold by the original publisher.  He purchased a copy, which measures 20 X 28, and said he is going to frame and hang his copy.

I'm always glad when people are able to follow up on and use the information in my posts

Thanks for sharing Joe.

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Unlike other periods of national mourning, Memorial Day features a distinct flag etiquette. According to official guidelines from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), compliance requires adherence to a specific timeline:

• Sunrise to Midday: The flag must be flown at half-staff from sunrise until precisely noon.
• The Midday Transition: At noon, the flag is to be raised briskly to full-staff for the remainder of the daya
• The Symbolism: This shift marks the formal transition from mourning the fallen to honoring the enduring legacy of those who served.

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Clip from Stuart Rocks Beach Cam Saturday Morning.

Southeast winds and swells on the Treasure Coast this morning, with about a two foot surf.

The tides are moderate.

Remember on this Memorial Day weekend.

Treasureguide@comcast.net

5/22/26 Report - Closeup Photos. Memorials Cents. Four Reale. Feeder Arms and Chinese Marks.

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

Lincoln Memorial at Night.
Actually the Reverse of a Memorial Cent.

The photo above is a close-up view of the reverse of a plain Memorial cent, which I made using my microscope. The lighting was decreased for some reason. There is something in the photo that reveals what I was trying to capture. There is a diagonal bar between the first and second column on the right. It is something you normally wouldn't notice without good magnification. It looks like a feeder arm or feeder finger mark, which is a common minor mint error worth just passing notice.

Feeder arm marks are small abrasion or scrape marks on a coin’s surface caused when the coin press’s feeder finger (a metal arm that clears a struck coin and positions the next planchet) accidentally rubs against the anvil die during production.

I just thought this photo was interesting, and it illustrates the interesting, detailed views you can capture with magnification.  Good results can be obtained by experimenting with the lighting.  Common coins can become very interesting as you note some of the finer detail.

Here is another close-up of the reverse of a memorial cent. This one uses normal lighting.

This one seems to me to show a figure-ground reversal.  You might not see it that way, but to me it looks like the a reversal of the columns and spaces in between.  The spaces in between columns look like they are in the foreground rather than the columns.  Some photos will do that.

Some Memorial cents show double-die errors on the columns. Some books on error coins will tell you which years to check for such errors.  I've never caught any of those.

Below is another example of what you can see with higher magnification.  Guess what it is.

Closeup View of Cleaned Four Reale Cob.

This closeup view shows a few things.  One is that the coin has been cleaned and rubbed.  The high areas are smooth, and in some views actually show the direction of the small abrasions caused by rubbing with a cleanser.  In this case, it was actually baking soda commonly used at the end of cleaning silver cobs.  You can clearly see the higher spots being much brighter and smoother than the low spots. To the eye, the contrast causes the deign details to stand out.  While most people accept the necessity of cleaning blackened encrusted silver reales, this also shows why valuable high grade collector coins should NOT be cleaned.  You can see the effect of the cleaning process and grading services will mark the coins as "cleaned," and lowers the coins grade.

Below is the four-reale that produced the picture shown above.  This is how it looked when found.

Four Reale Found at Treasure Coast Shipwreck Beach

It was found by an Equinox metal detector, although nearly any decent metal detector would have found it.

The area of the coin magnified in the other photo is near the top right center of this view.  See if you can find it.

A good coin microscope opens up a world of interesting observations.

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In a previous post I showed this mystery mark on a piece of found porcelain and wondered about it.

Unidentified Ceramics Mark.

Russ addressed the mystery mark in an email as follows:

I saw your post and since those Chinese markings drive me nuts too of course I had to look it up...lol. I'm guessing you want more depth than this but;

This stamp is from a late 20th century factory made item and the basic translation is Made in China. It is not handmade or hand painted because the square border around the marks indicate it was stamped. There are many traditional Chinese seal script characters that are not used in modern Chinese writings. It does not have a date or manufacturer.

The four characters are read from top right to bottom left The marks are translated as "Zhonggou Zhizao" the transliteral equivalent would be "China" and "Manufacture or Made", respectively.

Here is an example from another piece with a clear stamp. Note the partial English below it. Another clue as to age...;

Chinese Porcelain Mark.
Submitted by Russ.

Thanks much Russ.

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Friday morning Jupiter web cam view.

  

The seaweed is heavy down there too.

Some places they have beach cleaning machines that would pick that up along with an occasional watch or chain or whatever.

Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

No matter where you go to a Treasure Coast beach this weekend, you'll probably see a lot of renourishment sand and a lot of seaweed.  

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

5/21/26 Report - 100 Pesetas Find Photo. A Few Lessons. Busch League Anachronisms. Spying Cars.

 

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

1966 100 Pesetas Coin Find Photo.

I had this post done and ready to post around 8 AM this morning, but just before I posted it, I lost the entire thing.  Very disappointing.  And not only did I lose the post, but also some of the links that were included.  So this is my second attempt starting over again at zero.

I did still have the photo.  As I explained in my previous post, I liked some of the photos I made with my microscope system.  I was looking through those photos and really liked some of them.  Some I liked because they were nice photos and others because they were pretty or interesting in some way.

So the photo above is one of those.  It is a 1966 100 pesetas coin from Spain.  It is 80% silver.  

I remember finding it.  I was hunting on a rarely detected area along an inlet on Hutchison Island.  The area was seldom hunted for a variety of reasons, which I won't detail now, but I hunted it occasionally because I thought there was a possibility of some old things as well as a few modern pieces.  When I found the coin, I first saw the side shown above, and without taking time to examine it better, I stuck it in my pocket thinking it was probably a fake treasure coin.  

I generally don't like to take much time to examine finds in the field while I'm detecting.  For one thing, I don't usually have much time to detect and move pretty quickly.  However, sometimes finds will provide important information that will tell you how and where to continue looking and perhaps what you might focus on finding.

One time long ago, when I was a relative beginner, especially when it comes to old artifacts, I found a very rusted twisted piece of metal.  I failed to recognize the musket mechanism when I saw it, but later found a flint that it would have held.  I always wished I recognized the musket lock when I saw it.  I probably would have hunted the area more intensively and I would have been alert to the very real possibility of related items being found nearby.

Each find potentially provides data that could be useful in guiding your search.  Even junk provides information.  It can tell you what happened at the location and could tell you something about how different kinds of items are distributed on the beach.

The 100 pesetas coin was not the kind of thing I expected to find at that site.  When you find one of a type there is a good chance of finding more.  That holds for treasure coins, jewelry and even junk. Of course, I wondered how it got there.  At this time it seems to be something of an outlier, however I does affect how I look at the area where it was found.  

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Here is link to a map that purports to show 30 cities that will be submerged if sea levels rise three meters.

Map shows US cities that could go underwater if sea levels rise 3 meters - Newsweek

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I was watching a program about Budweiser beer on the History channel yesterday.  Being a bottle collector and having found many such beer bottles, including several by the Adolphus Busch Glass Company.  

The program had many reenactments of events in the history of the company, but the thing that I really didn't like was the brand-new beer bottles that were used to portray centuries old events.  They looked nothing like the bottles that were used at the time of the events being portrayed. They were obviously out of place and stood out to me as very distracting anachronisms. 

Maybe if you weren't into bottles, you wouldn't even notice, but it was a glaring distraction for me.  I wished they would have went to the trouble of getting period correct bottles or at least fake it with replicas or AI or something.  It was almost like Sitting Bull driving a car through the battle at Little Big Horn.  OK, so that is a bit of an exaggeration, but the effect on me was similar.  

I see something similar on the internet all the time.  Too many articles, sites, or whatever, throw in a stock photo of something that clearly is not accurate to the story or event.  You might or might not notice it, but you'll see it often, even in publications that you would think would be more accurate or honest.  Trying to pass a pile of gold coins off as a particular hoard, just doesn't get it.  You read a story and then look at the photos, and realize that the photo doesn't go with the story.  Those are the wrong kind of coins, artifacts or whatever.  I probably let a few those into some of my posts before I learned how common the practice is.  Now I realize that you have to check the photos and make sure they match the story before you make too much of the photo.

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If you have a newer car, it is probably collecting a lot of data, which might be sold whether you know it or not.  Below are a couple excerpts from an article about that as well as the link.

Right to Limit the Use and Disclosure of My Sensitive Personal Information
This is a request to limit the use of your sensitive personal information—say, your driver’s license number, precise geolocation data, and biometric data, such as fingerprints and iris eye scans, to name a few—only in “necessary” or “reasonably expected” situations—for example, in response to a search warrant or subpoena from a law enforcement agency.

Right to Opt Out
This is a request to stop selling or sharing your personal info and data with any third-party company. This request covers both the initial recipient of your data—the automaker—and companies they share and sell the data to, including data brokers and insurance companies...

Here is the link.

Stop Your Car From Collecting and Sharing Your Driving Data - Consumer Reports

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Nothing new with beach conditions.  The surf remains calm and the seaweed is still out there.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

5/20/26 Report - One Favorite Find Photo. Evolution of Liberty & Minting Technology. Mystery Items ID.

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

Gold Coin Find from the Past.

Yesterday while I was using my microscope system to take photos of my mystery object, I noticed the many photos that I took with the microscope that I still have.  Some of them are pretty old, but I kept them. 

I noticed some that I really liked.  I thought some were very pretty - almost art.  I didn't take them with the intent of making something pretty, but some turned out very nice.  And there were some that weren't pretty in quite the same way but they were interesting and with just a little work could have been turned into works of art.  And there were some I just liked for some other reason, maybe they were especially good photos and showed the object or something about it especially well.

The bottom line is that I went through about half of them and picked out some that I especially liked for one reason or another.  The photo of the coin shown above is one of those.  I think it is a pretty coin and could with a little work be made even prettier, perhaps adjusting the background color and cropping.

The Coinage Act of 1792 stated that all circulating coins have an “impression emblematic of liberty” and the inscription “Liberty.” For more than 100 years of American coinage, that emblem would be the mythical goddess Liberty.

The U.S. Mint’s first coins were portraits of Liberty with free, flowing hair, such as the 1793 Flowing Hair cent. As the Mint refined its process, more detailed versions appeared... Designs featured classical symbols such as the liberty cap and pole, used frequently when representing Liberty during the Revolution. In ancient Rome, the cap was given to freed slaves and the pole was used in the ceremony to free them.

Starting in the mid-19th century... designs incorporated American symbols into the classical style. The Seated Liberty coins feature the Union Shield...

Coins then started to draw on Native American themes for an even more American identity...

Here is that link for the entire article.

The Evolution of Liberty on Coins | U.S. Mint

Looking at the figure on the 1914 shown above, I noticed what I thought looked like the face of Liberty used on Peace Dollars.  The designers of the two coins were different, and while AI tell me the faces are different and the version shown on the gold coin represents a Native American, that might be so, but the two faces are very similar, especially from the nose down. 

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Here is a good little series on the evolution of coin minting technology from the earliest days up to something like the 1800s.  

The Evolution of Minting Technology–Part I - Numismatic News

The Evolution of Minting Technology–Part 2 - Numismatic News

The Evolution of Minting Technology–Part 3 - Numismatic News

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Yesterday I told about how completely I was fooled by the mystery object I posted the day before and about another, which was a coin.  I got the following email from Mark G. after I did yesterday's post, even though he sent it before.  Below is his input on both objects.  I haven't really looked into the coin yet, but Mark identified it as a Kingdom of Sardinia coin.  Below is his email.

Your mystery coin is a Kingdom of Sardinia coin (Victor Emmanuel I or II)

Minted between ~1800–1860 Obverse: VICT · EM · MAN (Victor Emmanuel) Reverse: CIVITAS SARDAE / SARDINIAE with heraldic eagle

This matches:

• Wreathed head
• Latin legends
• Heraldic eagle with wings outstretched
• Eagle holding a ribbon/scroll (looks like pearls)
• Circular lettering on both sides

Your mystery object with only the manticore reading could be anything because of it's size the manticore will give a high reading to everything from aluminum to steel. Obviously if your scratch testing it must be heavy like silver, not aluminum or the color of steel. If it was pure silver I would expect the manticore reading to be higher. 

Thanks much Mark.

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The metal doesn't seem to me to be silver, but I don't know what it is.  It seems harder, but that is just an impression at this point.

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Jensen Beach Cam.

Fort Pierce Beach Cam.

Tons of sand on the Treasure Coast beaches and in the shallow water.  Kind of nasty and not very good for metal detecting.

Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

Pretty calm surf all week.  

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

5/19/26 Report - Shipwreck Treasure History. More About the 1733 Fleet. Bamboozled I Was!

 

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

Closeup View of Small Section of
Yesterday's Mystery Object After More Cleaning.

I soaked yesterday's mystery object another day and then brushed it off.  You can see a closeup microscope view of a part of the object above.

I was bamboozled, dumbfounded, and flaberghasted - an honored member of the Bumbas region. Or to put it more clearly, I was just plain and completely wrong.  

After getting so much of the surface crud off, I saw the object differently.  The object itself is metal.  Before I was convinced there was something inside.  Now I can see that there was only a thin encrustation.  And there is some remaining mostly white material that is extremely hard to remove.

Below is the entire object after another day of cleaning.

Mystery Object After More Cleaning.

The metal is a very hard metal as tested on a touch stone.  In the microscopic view above you can see the granular look of the surface metal. 

What remains of the white stuff was not removed by two days in undiluted 5% acid white vinegar.  Most of the darker material that looked like rust is actually quite granular too, but it mostly came off.  One of those rusty areas on the precleaned object looked like maybe something sticking out of the encrustation.  That was not the case.  

Here is what the remaining very hard enrutation looks like under the microscope. 

An even closer inspection of the remaining whiteish encrustation (below) shows it to be very hard to.  It looks more like mineralization or even a type of quartz matrix.  I need a geologist right now or an XRF test.  Now I'd just like to know what metal it is

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Here is a little treasure diving history.

    The story of the contemporary shipwreck treasure era in the Keys probably began in 1938 when Islamorada fisherman Reggie Roberts looked up Homestead diver Art McKee to show him an old "cannon wreck" he had found.  The wonderfully curious McKee wrote to Spain after he discovered Spanish coins on the wreck - and received back a salvors' map of the locations of ships of an entire fleet that had wrecked in the Keys in 1733.  It is one of North America's greatest maritime disasters, an event totally unknown to us until the letter from Spain arrived. There is a copy at the Islamorada library of Spain's National Library's letter to McKee stating they had forwarded his inquiry to the Archives of the Indies.  It is dated "28 febrero 1938" to "Mr. Arhur McKee, Jr., Phone Key Largo, 3731, P. 0. Box 165, Tavernier, Florida (U.S.A.)"

I've written before of the time I met Art in the Keys.

And here is another piece from the same article.

 John Colcock of Charleston was sailing near the Dry Tortugas when the hurricane struck and later told the governor of South Carolina that he himself barely survived it and that afterwards at the Keys his ship was approached by a launch with 20-30 survivors aboard, who asked if he would take them to Havana.  He did so and his merchant ship with a cargo of hides was immediately seized by the Spaniards and pressed into the rescue and salvage operations, leaving him and his crew to wander about Havana for the next five weeks.  Upon complaint they told him that "he had two remedies - patience or beating his head against the wall."  Another colonial American ship, the John, was also pressed into the rescue service while at Havana...

Here is the link for more of that article.

IK 1733 Fleet Wreck

That bit about the English boaters and the Spanish fleet.  Here is a little from another article.

During the summer 2004 season, a crew of four archaeologists from the Bureau traveled to the Florida Keys to conduct the field portion of this year-long project. This chapter reports on the results of this research, describes the public interpretation of this intriguing historical event and attempts to answer the question: how can managers interpret significant shipwrecks allowing unlimited access, but also begin to limit the amount of human disturbance they receive?

returned to Havana just after Spanish admiralty officials dispatched a small sloop

to assess the fate of the fleet. Survivors reported seeing several large ships

grounded near a place called “Head of the Martyrs” (present-day Islamorada).

Nine rescue vessels were loaded with supplies, food, divers, and salvage equip-

ment and sent to the scene of the disaster (Smith, 1988a).

Several salvage camps were constructed in convenient locations and the sal-

vage operations were overseen by soldiers sent to protect the precious cargoes.

Nearly half the vessels were re-floated and towed back to Havana; those left were

burned to the waterline enabling divers to access the cargo holds and concealing

the wrecks from freebooters. Salvage of these vessels continued for several years.

When the final calculation of recovered materials was made, more gold and sil-

ver was retrieved than had been listed on the original manifests, tell-tale evidence

of contraband aboard the vessels (Smith, 1988a).

Here is the link for that article.

(PDF) Creating a Shipwreck Trail: Documenting the 1733 Spanish Plate Fleet Wrecks

That is one of those articles written from the perpecitive of an academic, so you know what you'll get.

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The surf is a little rough and a lot of seaweed is washing up onto the beaches. Beware the little irritating creatures that can ride the seaweed.

Here is the link for the Jensen Beach Cam.

Jensen Beach Live Webcam Stream

Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

The surf will calm a little.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

5/18/26 Report - A Mystery Find Challenge. Cleaning Two Mystery Objects. A Difficult Mark.

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

Couple Mystery Objects.

The challenge today is the bigger object on the left. This is a hard one - in more ways than one!  I've had it sitting around for quite a while because I didn't know how I wanted to clean it. I don't know what is in there, but it gave a good clean signal on the Manticore. Below is the readout.

Clean signal, center line, good number. It looks good to me, yet to the eye it looks like nothing more than a roundish flat rock with some orange specs that could be rust.

I soaked this mystery challenge object in vinegar for a day, and here is closeup of the object after the vinegar removed the whiteish surface layer.  

Here are a couple other views.

Mystery Object After Light Cleaning.

It looks just like a rock.  I probably wouldn't pick it up if I just saw it lying on the beach.  Below is a side view.

Tapered Edge on Mystery Challenge Object.

By looking at it, it seems the right size and shape to be a possible coin, but I've never seen a coin in this type of very hard encrustation, but obviously something is in there and the Manticore is giving a possible coin signal.

I hadn't cleaned it before, simply because I didn't know how I wanted to proceed.  I didn't have much hope that the vinegar or acid would work, but it might make some progress.  We'll see.  I've been tested to break it open, but don't really want to do that.  I'll start with what I think are the least dangerous measures and proceed from there.

See if you can guess what it is.  

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At the same time, I cleaned another object, also seen in the top picture.  It is what appears to be a ancient Greek or Roman coin.  Unlike the challenge object, it cleaned easily.  Here it is along with the challenge object.

It appears to be a fake ancient coin, but I should look into it more.  I need new test acid.  As expected, the surface corrosion came off easily.  Here is what it looked like after a little cleaning.

Obverse and Reverse Views of Cleaned Coin.

I never took this coin too seriously (I don't even remember where I found it), but I should test the metal.  I expected to see a COPY mark on it somewhere but didn't find one.

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Unidentified Ceramics Mark.

Here is a mark found on a broken piece of what looks like oriental porcelain.  I can't identify it, but it is probably a decorative mark rather than a real mark of antiquity.  I find these Chinese markings impossible and have to depend upon other observations.  I probably can identify the Kang-Hsi mark, but have not been lucky enough to find a piece with the mark on it.

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Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

Just a rainy day - unfortunately with some thunder and lightning.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net