Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
 |
| Slope Developing Yesterday Morning At Sebastian. Beach Cam Image Submitted by JamminJack. |
Jack sent in this beach cam image. He said this slope started to develop yesterday morning.
---
I had the following post ready to go a couple days ago but evidently didn't flip the switch.
Before I get into my main topic, here is an email and some find photos from Nick A.
Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. Thought I'd share my recent finds from earlier this week. This was 2 days hunt. Once on north island, once on south island. Water levels have still been high, but managed to find an assortment of stuff. Coins were all clad, no silver. I did find one earring and one small diamond/sapphire ring.
Happy Hunting
Nick
 |
| Couple New Finds Finds and photo by Nick A. |
 |
| Clad Coins Found by Nick A. |
 |
| Miscellaneous Finds By Nick A. |
Finds can tell you a lot. The patina, corrosion, or encrustation can provide useful information that will help lead you to additional finds. Instead of quickly tossing that old penny, silver dime or encrusted junk, take the time to inspect it and figure out what it might tell you.
There were a lot of pieces of old corroded iron being dug last week. Below is a clump that was dug up in an area where a lot of old heavily corroded pieces of iron were found. What do you think this item is?
 |
| Clump Picked Up A Couple Days Ago. |
Unlike the pieces of iron, this object had a heavy green crust. That is often a sign of copper. So I picked it up and took it home eager to find out what might be in it.
When the crust was removed, the item inside was indeed copper. It was what looked like a copper battery cable terminal clamp that looked very much like the one shown below, except it was entirely copper.
It could have been a copper coin or something else, but the green patina told me that there was probably copper inside.
You can tell a lot from finds like that. Sometimes the crust tells you something about what is inside, and other times it tells you something about where the object has been.
If you dig up any old silver from the cold fresh water lakes of Minneapolis, for example, the silver will not be nearly as corroded as silver found on salt water beaches. In fact it will often only show a nice bluish patina. Here are three silver medallions dug from a lake in Minneapolis. Even though they were found with coins from the fifties and sixties, they showed no corrosion.
 |
| Three Silver Religious Medallions From a Fresh Water Lake in Minnedapolis. |
Unfortunately you can't see the bluish patina in the photo above, but the silver coins and medallions found in the Minneapolis lake were all in great condition and did not show the grey or black patina of the heavily corroded silver that comes from our salt water beaches.
The following photo shows a silver dime with a bluish patina. It was taken from the same lake.
 |
| Silver Dime Found In A Minneapolis Lake. |
In Florida, even a lot of the lagoon finds are badly corroded from the acid environment of mangroves and other deteriorating organic material. Different environments produce different patinas.
On the Treasure Coast you will be interested in finding out if a beach find came out of the dunes, a lower level of sand, or has been tumbling in the surf. Often you can tell something about that from by the color and type of grains adhering to the object. That can tell you where to search.
It is always helpful to know where items are coming from. If you know where they have been and where they are coming from you will have a good idea of where to look for more old items.
Take the time to listen to what your finds are trying to tell you.
---
Not expecting much change in the surf or beach conditions for the next several days.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net.