Writtten by the Treausureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Happy Halloween. |
Did you ever go out at night and look at the grass with a headlamp and notice little lights like stars all over the place? I always figured the lights came from dew in the grass, but not long ago I discovered the grass was full of wolf spiders and the lights came from their reflective eyes. It was a big surprise to learn that I could be walking through a sea of spiders in my bare feet. I don't know how often that happens, but it seems to happen a lot now that I know about it.
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| 18mm Diameter Object Found. Find and photo by Duane |
https://mailchi.mp/a97aee2e4504/1715-fleet-8-escudo-coin-replicas?e=6c161d7c64
The site advertises a set of three 1715 Plate Fleet reproduction eight-escudo coins for $50. The are advertised as 24K gold-plated pewter. Those could cause some initial confusion.
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The current Sedwick auction presents an impressive variety of lots. It seems the auction includes something from every category. There are galanos, both gold and silver, tokens, world coins, maravedis, a good selection of Charles-Joana coins, but also fossils, amber, bottles, porcelain and various artifacts.
Auction catalogs provide great examples that can be difficult to find elsewhere. One artifact that stuck out to me this morning was kind of surprising. See if you can tell what it is. Here is the photo.
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| Lot 1371 in Current Sedwick Treasure Auction. |
Here is the lot description.
Brass golf putter head, very rare, ex-Santo Christo de Castello (1667). 215 grams, 4" x 1-1/2" x 1-1/4". This very rare artifact is the second one we have offered, the other being from the Dutch wreck Lastdrager (1653) off the Shetland Isles north of Scotland. This is no mere coincidence: As famous as Scotland is for golf, the fact is that the sport was imported to there by the Dutch in the 15th century, and wreck specimens like these are evidence that the sport was still being carried to the four corners of the world in the 17th century. Reportedly less than 25 golf-club heads up to the 18th century are known, including three more from the Lastdrager and this one from a Genoese wreck off Cornwall, all the shipwreck examples being the only ones known in brass as opposed to lead or pewter. Prices for these artifacts have reached as much as 9,000 GBP (Sotheby's Glasgow, July 17, 1989)...
Who would have guessed that you would find a golf artifact on 17th century shipwreck? Not me.
It is lot 1371, I think.
The auction ends with session V, which starts off with a variety of half reales and other reales, many in not great condition - the type of thing that you might most likely find on a beach. The session also includes a variety of interesting but inexpensive artifacts and other items, such as a fossil whale vertebra. Also included is another one of those stoneware master ink bottles, this one found in the Keys.
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Also in the auction is a stoneware ink master bottle from the USS Republic from 1865. I showed one in this blog just like it that was once found in the Indian River Lagoon.
See https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2011/12/122911-report-j-bourne-bottle-more.html
The original Treasure Beaches Report blog (treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com) still draws hundreds of readers everyday.
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There is still a little tropical storm activity on the map.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov |
And the surf is supposed to get a little higher early next week.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
Happy Halloween,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net