Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
It has been quite a while since I looked at eBay. I used to occasionally check to see what shipwreck coins and artifacts were being offered there, and yesterday I decided to take a quick look. Here is the first thing that caught my attention. A 1715 Fleet Royal four-escudo being offered for $275. Nyow how can you get a royal for that price? It should be obvious - you can't. After you search out the description, you'll find that it is an electroplated reproduction. I don't know who would pay hundreds of dollars for an electroplated reproduction, but I would guess that someone occasionally does. But this wasn't the only one listed. There were more.
Somebody else was selling several nice looking reales. Some were greenies. The item photos showed the reales in-hand. I remember when that was seldom done. It was more customary to show things beside a coin for size comparison. Now it is very common to show items in-hand. When I started this blog, contrary to accepted practice, that is how I often photographed finds that I showed. I also think cell phone cameras had something to do with that. It is easy enough to take photos right on the beach with freshly dug finds using a cell phone.
I don't know now exactly when I started this blog, but I think it was back around when my dad was declining and I was spending a lot of time in caretaking so I wasn't getting out to the beach much. It is truly surprising how many readers have been with this blog all those years.
We've had a lot of summer-like surf already this year. Wonder if anyone has been wreck diving?
Some wreck items and a few reales are being found - not at the well-known wreck sites. I think I already mentioned the site west of A1A.
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Here is a different way to clean coins. Especially tough concreted Coins are being cleaned by laser.
Laser is possibly more effective for restoring surface details than either mechanically or chemically cleaning coins with hard iron concretions.
Here is the link.
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You might enjoy reading this transcript of a History Detectives episode that looked at the markings on an Atocha silver bar.
Here is the link.
Microsoft Word - silver_transcript_final.doc (pbs.org)
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If you look up Golden Sands Park on Google Maps (Satellite View) you'll see it being renourished. I don't know when that was taken, but seems like our beaches are continually being renourished.
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| Golden Sands on Google Maps |
You have to spend all the taxpayer dollars you can get or somebody else will get it. The tax system is an insatiable monster. There can never be enough to satisfy it.
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People talk most about the 1715 Fleet cobs found on the Treasure Coast, but there are others. Last year a few of the 16th century Carlos and Joanna coins were found, for example. They are more round and flatter than the 1715 Fleet cobs. And the Jupiter wreck cobs tend to be more round, but they are not as flat as the Carlos and Joanna coins.
I was remembering the time I just felt like running down to Jupiter to detect and found a cob that was just washed out of the dunes. That was several years ago. I used to visit Jupiter frequently when I lived in South Florida. I would always stop there on my way to the Treasure Coast. I haven't been down there for years now. The beach just south of the inlet doesn't look anything like it did before the 2004 hurricanes.
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We'll be getting a cold front or two that will hopefully stir things up a bit.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com |
As you can see, Sunday might send us some higher surf. I hope so.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net