Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Boyd's Canning Jar Cap Liner Find Age Unknown. |
EVERBODY knows about coin lines now. At least they know something about them. They know the basics that I've been talking about on the internet for around fifteen years now. But that is very little of what there is to know about coin lines.
Actually, a coin line can be more of a band than a line. It can be feet or yards wide. Of course a band usually means there are more targets, and they are spread out on the slope.
A coin band (having more width than a line) has a lot of features that can provide important clues. Coin bands (and lines) can contain more than coins. I've said that before. And if you know how to read the pattern of items within a band, you'll know where to look for the gold.
One important feature is the density of the coin line or coin band. Targets can be packed more tightly in some bands and in some portions of the band. Different types of items will tend to be found in different parts of the line or band. I'll have to put that altogether some place other than a blog post. It would take many pages.
But one thing that I wanted to mention today is that the same way coins are sifted, sorted and distributed over time on a beach, so are other types of items - such as glass and bottles, which get sifted, sorted and distributed according to the same physical principles too. Sinkers, fossils and shells are some other examples. Density and shape are two very important variables.
Bottles show up occasionally, just like coins. And, just like with coins, there is a reason they show up when and where they do, so if you know how things work, you will know where to look. I guess I could tell you to follow the physics.
I've often said that an item's density will have a lot to do with where the item ends up on a beach, but I also include the item's shape as an important factor. In the past I've shown simple experiments demonstrating the effect of shape on how items of the same material are moved by water. Some items present more surface area for the water to act against, and some are more streamlined or aeredynamic. Coins have a very different shape from most rings, for example, and that affects how they are sifted and sorted.
The same factors act on glass and bottles too, of course. Bottles can be a little complicated because of the variety of sizes and shapes, etc.
Below are three bottles I picked up on a short walk yesterday. Note the similar size and shape.
From the shells attached to the bottles, it seems the bottles shared something of a similar history.
The bottles aren't worth anything, but they are older, and that provides some useful information about the area and what kinds of other things might be found there.
I also found the Boyd's porcelain cap line shown at the top of this post. I've found a lot of canning jar cap liners in the past, but they were always milkglass rather than transparent. So this one was a bit unusual for me.
Here is an advertisement for Boyd's lined caps. It dates to the 1850s. I have a hard time believing the cap liner I just found could be that old, but haven't found any information on its age yet.
If anyone can help date that one for me I'd appreciate it.
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Yesteday I mentioned Florida's giant ground sloths. I have found fossil sloth teeth, but they were not of the largest species. The ones I found probably came from a species that only got up to about 1000 pounds - still a hefty animal.
Here are pieces of some big fossil bones from the Treasure Coast.
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| Broken Pieces Of Large Fossil Beach Bones. |
I don't know what animals those came from.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov |
There is a lot of action on the weather map. I'm most concerned about the yellow ones, which are still far away from us. The one heading towards the Yucatan is doing pretty much what Marco did. I hope it doesn't head north the same way.
We won't have much more than a two foot surf this week.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net