Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
A Christopher Columbus statue in Richmond Viginia was torn down, torched and thrown in a lake by protesters.
I suppose you can find a lot of interesting things in lakes, especially where there have been wars and uprisings.
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Speaking of Columbus, you might find Trinkets (f)or Treasure? The role of European material culture in intercultural contacts in Hispaniola during early colonial times, a 260 page thesis by Floris Keehnen interesting. It describes trade between the Old World and New World in the early contact days along with much history and analysis.
Below are a couple brief excerpts discussing the objects of trade.
European exchange commodities furthermore included “horses, saddles, and stirrups; cloth, caps, and hats; saffron, wine, wheat, and salt; and lead, iron, steel, copper, and brass” (Phillips and Phillips 1992, 55). Next to slaves and gold, the local African rulers offered “animal skins, gum arabic, civet, cotton, malagueta pepper, cobalt, parrots, and camels” (ibid.). Not only Portugal, but also Castile profited from the African gold that reached their markets in high quantities where it contributed to a flourishing economy. The Iberians were now making good profit from the trade in gold and slaves and this would continue for a couple of centuries more (Bovill 1995; Thomas 1997; Thornton 1998)...
In the above fragment of the first documented exchange, the things mentioned by name to have been
traded are red caps, glass beads and bells by the Spanish, against parrots, cotton and javelins by the
Indians. Indeed these were among the items that were most frequently bartered between the two
cultures. But also tableware, like “pieces of (clay) bowls” and “broken glass cups” (Dunn and Kelley
1989, 71, 107), “fragments of dishes and plates” (Chanca in Parry and Keith 1984, 87), as well as coins, clothes and lace-ends, were swapped. At one instance it is mentioned that some of the Spanish sailors had caught a sea turtle, of which the ship’s boys traded pieces of the shell, the size of a fingernail, for which they were given javelins in return (Dunn and Kelley 1989, 197). The exchange is remarkable, since the Spaniards here trade a local and, for the natives, familiar (though rare) commodity with the Taíno, assuming the presence of a certain ethos of hospitality or social strategy with strangers. As regards gold, this was not traded in the first couple of days of contact. Though, upon seeing some pieces of gold a Lucayan Indian was wearing as ornamentation, Columbus was covetous to find all there was. This he made explicitly clear to the local people by dangling gold, but also pearls, in front of them, asking where to find it (e.g. ibid., 133).79 As appears from the ethnohistoric accounts, the people of the Greater Antilles soon perceived the Spanish enrapture of the material, often before their actual arrival (cf. Mol 2008).
And here is the link for the entire lengthy thesis.
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Last night confederate statues were being torn down in Portland, and a statue fell and critically wounded one of the participants, so the protestors slinked off into the night.
Same type of things is going on in other countries. See https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/statue-slave-trader-toppled-threw-in-river-edward-colston-bristol-england-1.5602443
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Detectorists like metal detectors. If they find something they often credit their trusty detector, and if they fail to find something, the metal detector is one of the first things to be blamed, but there are a lot reasons you might miss objects.
I remember back many years ago not long after I began metal detecting I was detecting Hollywood beach and a fellow asked me if I could detect his watch. Of course I said yes, but he wanted to test me. He buried his watch under some sand as I looked the other way. Then I used my detector. I walked right over the watch without getting any signal from my metal detector.
I suppose that my sweep pattern wasn't very good. I was probably moving too fast and leaving space between sweeps, but it could have also been that I was using discrimination. Either one of those could have been the case, but I know that a Fisher 1280, properly used, should detect any watch. I am certain it was not the fault of the metal detector.
I do remember that in those days I was using discrimination, so that could have been the reason I missed the watch. In fact, at first I was finding a lot of men's rings, but few women's rings. I remember thinking that men must lose more rings than women. Of course later I learned that if I turned my discrimination down I found just as many women's rings. It wasn't the metal detector's fault that I was not getting the valuable women's rings with diamonds. It was my fault for not using the detector well. Of course you need a metal detector that works, but you also need to use it well.
I've often said, if I was depending upon someone finding me my next meal, I'd trust a wise old hunter with a bow and arrow over a novice with the best gun ever. There is more to hunting game than shooting it. It helps to know the habits of the game and where it can usually be found. It helps to know how to track it and get in position to get a good shot.
Your metal detector does make a difference. Some are better than others, but if you have a decent detector, and know how to use it well, there are other important factors, including knowing how to use it.
I know darn well that I miss a lot of things. I expect to miss things. You can't cover the entire beach.
Remember that your detector coil only covers a few inches at a time. And if you are doing a normal sweep, you are probably skipping some ground in between sweeps.
I often do a lot of checking around using a very loose pattern first, and then if I find a spot that looks more promising I'll slow down and cover it more tightly. I can't go into all the signs that indicate it is time to slow down and tighten the pattern now. There are quite a few of those. Some involve the lay of the land, and others include other types of clues.
As I've said before, unless I have reason to believe one particular area is worth inspecting well, I'm not going to slow down, and I know I might miss some things. I'm looking for an area that looks like it is a better area than most other areas and then I'll slow down.
If an area looks very promising, I'll not only cover it very tightly, but I'll cover it multiple times, and perhaps with more than one metal detector.
Yes the detector makes a difference, but if you have a decent detector for the job, how you use it is just as important or more important than the detector you are using. If you aren't finding anything or if you miss something, don't jump to the conclusion it is the metal detector's fault without checking to see if your settings, sweep speed and pattern and other things are good. Those things can make a huge difference. A poor detector used well can perform better than an excellent detector used poorly.
You can find coins without a metal detector if you know where to look. It will only be a fraction of the total you can find with a metal detector, but you can often find coins laying on the surface if you know where to look. If you do find coins laying on the surface, you can bet there will be a lot more just beneath the surface.
There is a lot more to say, but I'll stop there for now.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net