Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
Wow! The last few weeks have been a virtual tornado of world changing events on the national and international scene, and metal detecting on the Treasure Coast has been pretty eventful as well. First I'm reminded of the 1964 Bob Dylan song, The Times They Are a-Changin. If you are old enough to realize it, it isn't the first time it seemed like the world was tumbling out of control, but then you realize that the scenery and bit players might have changed, but the plot is the same. Then it starts to feel more like deja vu all over again. The pendulum swings one way and then another. When it gets to one extreme, then it swings back in the opposite direction.
We had an eventful few weeks of metal detecting that started with the big surf and high tides that occurred in October. There was a lot found, and there is a lot to be learned from those finds.
To name a few of the recent finds, there were all the musket balls, buck shot and small lead bits that I would guess were found in the hundreds. Some reales were also found, as were at least a couple silver splash ingots. At least one of the reales was older than what is typically found on the 1715 Fleet wrecks.
There were also more modern finds. I think I showed a couple buffalo nickels, as well as walking liberty silver U.S. coins.
And there were many of those small caliber lead bullets, both shot and unshot that were found at various beaches.
For metal detecting it has been an eventful Fall season. Some time soon I plan on taking a closer look at some of those finds and what they tell us. There is a lot to think about and a lot that can be learned from the last few weeks.
And the most recent Sedwick auction concluded, which I paid very little attention to even though there was an escudo that sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars - not to mention many other interesting items.
Back to metal detecting history - JamminJack sent me the following 1984 article from The Tribune that gives a first person account of the big Thanksgiving Storm that I frequently mention. .
Here is the Tribune article.
Thanks for a great article Jack!
Did you notice that John said there were fifty to seventy-five detectorists? You think that now there is a lot of competition. Seems like there was a lot in the past too.
Sorry about the large size of the article, but that was the only way I could make it big enough to read.
---
1984 was the year of the Thanksgiving Storm, but it is also the title of a novel that I suspect you've read - Orwell's Nineteen Eight-Four. If you haven't read it, you should. It is very relevant today.
---\
We are in for a week of nothing much more than a three foot surf on the Treasure Coast
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net