Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Two Sides of Mounted Gold Coin Find. |
We all know that you can't find a gold coin everyday. It isn't easy, but it is easier than you might think.
If you hunt modern jewelry long enough, you'll eventually find some nice old mounted gold coins. They aren't the wild coins that haven't been touched for hundreds of years, but they have a rich history that can be both complicated and interesting. In some cases those coins have been lost two or three times and, of course, found just as many times.
The pre-Civil War coin shown above has a rich history, but there are few to no clues to tell you where it has been. Most likely it was highly valued and taken care of very well. We don't know who owned it or how many times it changed hands, or if it was stored in a bank or in an old sock behind a wall. And maybe it was passed down through generations as a family heirloom.
One thing I just noticed about that coin is that the obverse and reverse appear to be incorrectly aligned. It could be a mint error, or the maybe coin was rotated in its setting between photos. I'll have to check that.
Mexican gold peso coins are among the most commonly used in modern jewelry. If you've found enough modern jewelry you've probably found a few of those. You will find them in both rings and pendants.
One gold dos peso ring was found at John Brooks beach some years ago while the detectorist was hunting older Spanish gold.
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| Gold Pendant and Chain Find. |
If you watched the Sedwick auctions or looked at the mounted coins for sale at the Mel Fisher museum, you know that there are a lot of 1715 Fleet and other Spanish coins for sale these days too - many of them mounted. You can find them for sale at many local jewelry stores. If there are more of them being worn, there will also be more of them being lost and found.
Above is a 1715 Fleet two-escudo mounted in a ring that was found many years ago on a beach. You can find rings like that available for sale by the Fishers.
Remember, if you find a mounted gold coin like that, it could have been first lost during a Spanish shipwreck, then found by a diver working for a salvage company, then mounted and sold, and worn and lost again before you were lucky enough to find it. In some cases, coins like that were lost by the Spanish and salvaged by the Spanish and shipped again and lost again before being salvaged in modern times.
Coins like that have been removed from their archaeological context long ago and so have no archaeological significance.
I know that some of you are only interested in hunting the wreck beaches for Spanish treasure and aren't much interested in modern items, but what I'm telling you today is that you can find old gold coins, maybe even Spanish shipwreck coins, by hunting modern jewelry. It does happen. And with all the coins that are being mounted and sold by museums and auctions these days, I suspect that it will be happening more often these days than in the past.
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Dan B. liked the look of this vegetation found in the River.
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| Vegetation Found In River. |
The river has been very calm and the visibility great - except for where the vegetation is pile up. There is a lot of it along the waterline in the river.
Anybody know the name of this type of vegetation? I want to call it seaweed, but don't know if that would be correct.
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Hunting modern items can pay off in several ways. I mentioned one of them yesterday. You will learn a lot while you hunt modern items. And what I'm saying today is that you can also find old stuff by hunting new stuff. You might consider those mounted coins that I talked about today to be coins repurposed as jewelry.
The surf this week will be mostly around two feet. Nothing special.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net