Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Ornate Gold "Toothpicks" Sold at Auction in 1977. Source: Bowers and Ruddy Treasure Auction Catalog. |
Some very remarkable artifacts have come from the 1715 Fleet salvage efforts, including the gold toothpicks shown above. The lot description tells much of the story. I don't know how many of these were found. The lot description says they were worn by the fleet "captains."
I reported on a gold "snowflake" toothpick in my 4/18/14 post in the TreasureBeachesReport.blogspot.com site.
Here is that link.
In that post, I reported on information I received from Christopher James. Here is an excerpt from that post.
In my 4/9 post I had some information about some big finds made on the Treasure Coast. It started after I mentioned the 1715 Fleet diamond ring that is the current Sedwick auction. Bruce Beck was kind enough to help set the record straight.
Christopher James, Bruce's dive partner, added the following.
Hey there you are correct about the butterfly brooch but not correct about the rest. I did indeed find the butterfly on my own but also went back and found the large brooch containing 170 diamonds in it and the gold snowflake toothpick before the boat was pulled over to the spot. And Bob found the earing containing 54 diamonds and I found the other one three days later. They started blowing with the boat after that. I do believe that the large stone to the center of the round brooch is still out there and is about 10 carats, according to Captain John Wilson.
The toothpicks shown at the top of this post sold at auction in 1977 for $1100. Adjusting for inflation, that would be the equivalent of something like $4,840 in current dollars.
I like to get an idea of how prices change over time and how well certain items perform as investments. If an items sells for $1100 many years ago and then sells for $5000 later, the first impression is that it increased in value about five times. That seems like a very good investment, but once you consider the changing value of the dollar, there might not be much, if any, actual appreciation.
It would be interesting to see what these items would bring today if they come for auction again.
Anyone know where they are today?
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| Area Being Dredged For Fort :Pierce Renourishment Project. Submitted by DJ. |
Old Spanish cobs were found in renourishment sand dumped south of the inlet at Boca Raton many years ago, for example.
Just a few years ago silver U. S. coins were dumped along with the renourishment sand on Ambersands beach. I believe that sand came from the Sebastian Inlet area.
On Forr Pierce South Jetty beach I've found some older stuff in the renourishment sand. I remember finding a WWII hat badge in the renourishment sand on year, and once an 18th century button.
And in 2020 some of the best finds, including some of my best, came from dredged sand.
DJ sent the above image that shows where the dredge barge has been obtaining sand out from Fort Pierce. There are at least three old wrecks around that area. To the North is the Wedge Wreck, to the South is the Douglass Beach wreck, and inland and not too far from the inlet is what some refer to as the Archie's wreck.
DJ used an app you can find online that tracks ship movements. Thanks DJ.
At Fort Pierce South Jetty Monday an excavator was taking sand from the shallow water and dumping it into a sifter (below).
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| Excavator Loading Sand From Shallow Water Into Sifter. |
The next photo didn't come out as good as I hoped, but what I wanted to show is the water and sand being pumped into this sifter before being spread on the beach.
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| Sand Being Pumped Through Pipes and Sifter Onto The Beach. |
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com |
As you can see, the surf will be pretty small for the next few days.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net