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| Source: See LiveScience link below. |
A handful of Arabian silver coins found in New England may be the last surviving relics of history's most notorious act of piracy — and perhaps one of the most famous pirates who ever lived.
Evidence suggests the distinctive coins were spent as common silver in the American colonies in the late 1690s by the fugitive pirate crew of Henry Every, also known as John Avery, who had fled there after plundering the Mughal treasure ship Ganj-i-sawai as it was returning pilgrims from the Muslim Hajj..
Their discovery has also cast new light on Every's whereabouts shortly before he vanished with his loot. "We can prove beyond a doubt that he actually was in the mainland American colonies," Rhode Island metal detectorist Jim Bailey told Live Science.
Bailey found one of the first of the Arabian silver coins, called a comassee, in 2014 at the site of a colonial settlement on Aquidneck Island, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Providence.
More than a dozen similar coins thought to be from the pirate raid on the Ganj-i-sawai have now been discovered by metal detectorists and archaeologists elsewhere in Rhode Island, and in Massachusetts, Connecticut and North Carolina — maybe the last evidence of one of the greatest crimes in history.
Here is the link for much more of that long article. (Thanks to William K for the link.)
Silver coins unearthed in New England may be loot from one of the ‘greatest crimes in history’ | Live Science.
Interesting project to link all of the areas where those types of coins were found.
Detectorists, it seems, are getting mentioned in articles like this more often these days.
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Dan B. sent the following email.
I like looking for "road finds". Over the years I have spotted many valuable things lying in the roadway just waiting for me to pick them up. I have always wondered what kept people from seeing or picking these things up. Tools, wallets, ipods, jackets. Hats and gloves are super common. I guess maybe some people would be embarrassed to run out in traffic and retrieve a 10$ wrench, but not me. I already have alot of practice saving turtles! Just another form of treasure hunting I guess.
I noticed in my travels a triangle shaped area inside most intersections that intrigues me. They are full of funny objects. Screws, plastic, glass, bolts...you name it. Usually small stuff. Sifted and moved by tires, weaker materials break and turn to dust, while more resilient items stand the test and get filtered into this area that encounters the least amount of traffic. I still can't decide if it would be considered a trap, or it's value as understanding probabilities or paths but is something I notice often and thought would be fun to share.
Always Looking
Dan B
In the past I did some articles for magazines on eye-balling. Urban eye-balling can produce good finds. I've found watches, lost earrings, rings, and gold chains on the streets before, as well as an occasional bill - my highest being a twenty in front of a Bealls. But a walk along almost any busy road will turn up at least a coin or two.
One time when I was going metal detecting at the beach, early in the morning I parked in front of a beach-side bar, and when I got out of the car there was a gold chain in a puddle in front of the bar. Didn't even have my detector out yet.
Here is an old post in which I told about one fellow who prospects the city streets in the New York diamond district.
Keep your eyes open in department stores and grocery stores, especially under the racks and on the floor next to the display cabinets, especially the frozen food section. See if you can figure out why.
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I keep exploring the Indian River Ridge Site. Now three different holes filled with railroad spike have been dug up. Each has nearly a hundred, such as the latest (shown below).
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| Another Pile of Spikes. |
This is on only one lot about 125 feet across, so if it is typical, the discarded iron along the railroad is tremendous.
This pile is used spikes. Many are very bent. Now I'd say that the site does not go back to the original construction, (not entirely anyway) but is a accumulation of discarded items over time.
The spike holes are very densely packed. It is hard to pull them out.
Of course there is also the miscellaneous junk. The north boundary has the most modern junk. The center and south side of the lot has very little modern junk.
I've picked up many nails now. One spot had a lot of nails bent at ninety degree angles, such as those shown below.
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| Dug Bent Nails and Bottle. |
Many more nails were bent at ninety degrees. This bottle was dug, as were a couple more bottles that didn't have much age.
With the leaf build up over the years, old coins will be deeper. At some point I'll start using a more deep-seeking metal detector. So far I've done most of the work with the Ace.
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| Big Heavy Dug Piece of Metal Along With Spikes. |
Over all, there are holes containing quantities of related items. There are the big spike holes, the holes with scythe blades, the button hole, a couple nail holes, etc., and then there are the scattered individual items. There is a target every few feet along a north to south strip about a hundred feet across. When you get a couple hundred feet from the tracks the railroad stuff mostly disappears. I don't know why so much heavy railroad hardware is buried as far from the tracks as is the case. The heavy spike holes are a good distance from the tracks, as were the other buried discarded railroad items. I have noticed a tendency for the heaviest items, such as the big piece of metal shown above, to be closer to the tracks, but still not real close.
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Here is the surf prediction. There is a nice high tide later today, although the surf is runing only about two or three feet.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
If you can find a spot where the sand isn't accumulating because of some sort of obstruction or something, there might be some sifting going on.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
