Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| 1715 Fleet Gold Chain. Source: Sedwick Auction No. 29 Catalog (Lot 1394) |
Here is the lot description for this 1715 Fleet chain, which sold in the recently concluded Sedwick auction.
Yesterday I showed an Atocha gold chain that sold in the same auction. It weighed 86 grams. This 1715 Fleet chain, weighs 34.55 grams.
The 1715 Fleet chain sold for $16,000, or about $463.10 per gram. The longer and heavier Atocha chain sold for about $325.58 per gram. For both chains, that is an average of about $394 per gram.
Looking back roughly forty-four years, the Bowers and Ruddy auction of 1977 sold a 1715 Fleet gold chain that was 37.75 inches long and weighed 19.62 grams. That chain sold for $2200 in 1977. That would be just over $132 per gram. In 1977 the price of gold was about $160 per ounce, or about $5.64 per gram.
If you adjust for the change of the value of the dollar, the price of the 1977 chain in adjusted dollars would be something more like $9900 in today's money, and the value per gram would be about $25 in today's dollars.
Comparing the average price per gram for the 2021 chains with the dollar-adjusted price per gram for the 1977 chains, you can see that the recent prices are nearly eight times higher. From 1977 to the present, the price of gold has gone from around $160 dollars per ounce ( or about $720 in today's dollars) to around $1838 per ounce. So the price of gold from 1977 to today has increased about 11.5 times, but when you adjust for the reduced purchasing power of today's dollar, it is an increase of only about 2.55 times.
Once you adjust for inflation, the price per gram of a Spanish colonial shipwreck gold chain has changed about the same amount as a price of a gram of gold over the last 44 years.
Gold has increased in the last 44 years about 11.5 times (only 2.55 in adjusted dollars), and the price of a Spanish gold shipwreck chain (per gram) has increased about three times, but only about 2.5 times when the dollar is adjusted for inflation.
Check my math. If you see anything wrong with it, let me know.
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I have some recent finds to show that I'll post in the near future. Dan B. sent me some great ones.
Here is an old bottle I recently dug up while digging a metal detected target on the Indian River Ridge site.
It is a Stuart Bottling Works bottle, which dates to before 1933 or earlier.
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| Dug Embossed Stuart Bottling Works Bottle. |
Below is information I posted on the Stuart Bottling Works in the past.
Stuart's first bottling plant
In July 1913, James Elersly Weir, Jr., purchased a pitch pine wooden building owned by Joseph A. Lucas, a real estate developer, located on an isolated dirt road (Decker Street) south of Stuart; he had it converted into a bottling plant, Stuart Bottle Works. Soft drinks were bottled, sealed with large snap off caps and distributed in Stuart, Palm City, Jensen, Salerno, Hobe Sound, even to Fort Pierce and Jupiter. Weir only remained in Stuart a few years, joining family in West Palm Beach, in the plastering business and later, an auction house.
The bottling plant building was eventually owned by Ira L. Decker, who operated a concrete manufacturing business and was used primarily for storage. In the afternoon of Feb. 6, 1933, while Decker and local firemen were battling a brush fire nearby, the building caught fire. The wooden structure quickly went up in flames making it impossible for Ira to retrieve equipment, vehicles or machinery.
At least two bottles from the plant survive, clearly marked Stuart Bottling Works, one of which can be seen at the Stuart Heritage Museum.
I've found several of these bottles in the past, but this is the first dug one. On the Indian River Ridge site I've dug about six or seven bottles so far while digging metal objects, but this is probably the oldest other than perhaps the stoneware jug bottom.
I'll get back to showing more finds in the near future. I spent a lot of time on the chains analysis today.
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As you know many of the Treasure Coast beaches have been receiving large doses of sand. Below is a beach cam image of Fort Piece South Jetty.
I gave you some of my thoughts on what happened on Captial Hill back in January. Here are a few leaked seconds of the 14,000 hours of surveillance video that the government refuses to release to the people despite the rules of discovery and the bottom up form of government we're supposed to have. The video supports claims that Capital Hill police gave the protesters permission to enter as the Viking guy.
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| Fort Pierce South Jetty With New Sand. Image submitted by DJ. |
That is a lot of new sand. We'll see what, if anything, is in it as it starts to erode away.
The surf will increase Wednesday to about 4 - 6 feet and then the next couple of days to 5 - 8 feet. That is the prediction. Unfortunately the tides will be modest and the wind will not have much of an angle.
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Here is the link.
And the identification of the person who killed the protester is still being carefully guarded.
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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net