9/30/21 Report - New Metal Detector User Finds Gold Hoard. The Flying Toad of Luck. Few T. C. Finds.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Ole Ginnerup Schytz had never used a metal detector before. He first gave it a shot on a former classmate's land in Vindelev, Denmark, in December.

Within hours of turning his detector on, Schytz stumbled across one of the largest treasure hoards ever found in the country.

"Well, that's the epitome of improbable luck," the rookie detectorist said in an interview with Danish outlet TV Syd earlier this month. "Denmark is 43,000 square kilometers, and then I happen to choose to put the detector exactly where this find was."

Here is the link for more about that.

A Danish man found buried treasure from the Iron Age using a metal detector, just hours after turning it on for the first time (yahoo.com)

Thanks to SuperRick for that one.

---

Pure LUCK!  It makes a good story.  Everybody likes to read about the sobbing fairy prince suddenly transformed into a beautiful maiden by the sudden kiss of a flying toad.  But is that how it really happens? 

You've read it before; "Ten-year-old finds pile of gold." or, "Lady finds rare gold royal first time detecting."  But if you look a little deeper you'll almost always find there is more to the story.

Take the today's lead story.  The new detector user was on a former classmate's land.  Do you suppose the classmate had provided some information about the possibility, or probability, of there being something good on that land, and maybe even gave some hints on good places to look?  Do you suppose the classmate suggested a good detector that worked well on the site - maybe even the same kind of detector that the classmate used?  

In most of these kinds of stories, it is not just blind luck hitting someone in the face like a flying toad.  Not only do they have some luck, but they also get some help.  You might call it borrowed skill.  That can be a temporary loan unless you build on it.

Usually you'll find out that the lucky ten-year-old just happened to have a very experienced and helpful father, and the first time user had some very knowledgeable friends along.

There are indeed those rare cases when blind luck strikes from nowhere like the proverbial flying toad that I just invented, but in the vast majority of cases there is more to it than that.

---

I mentioned that I did a little beach detecting Tuesday and mostly found small bits of lead and copper.  I took a few photos to show a small sample of the types of things I was digging in that one small area.

Here are a couple cuprous finds.  The one on the right is really small, thin and light, yet the Equinox picked it up with no difficulty.

Couple Small Cuprous Finds.

Below is a small bullet along with another view of the item shown on the left above.  At first I thought it looked like a the end of the casing that would go with the small caliber projectile, now I don't think so.

Cuprous Object With Small Caliber Dug Lead Bullet.

Some of the small bits of lead looked like flattened bullets and some I had no idea about.  The one below looks very familiar to me, but I can't come up with what it is.

Side and Top View of Small Unidentified Lead Find.

What do you think it is?

Below is what I thought at first was a button.

Front (left), Back (center) and Partially Cleaned Find (right).

After cleaning it, it doesn't look like a button to me.  Still don't know what it is.  It is the second largest item I picked up that day.

===

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Now we have hurricane Sam and tropical storm Victor.  It looks like they will all remain far out in the Atlantic.  It does however look like we'll have  a little higher surf on the Treasure Coast.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

The tides are pretty flat now.

---

Too bad our public health agencies have lost so much credibility with so much of the public.  Here is a good informative article. 

San Juan Summit: Undertreatment Cited as Cause for Deaths - Global Covid Summit

And those who claim to care so much about the disease completely ignore the epidemic of fentayl deaths.

---

Hoping you get hit by the flying toad of luck and increasing level of skill.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/29/21 Report - Detecting Deep Is Only The First Step.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the Exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Ripped Treasure Coast Beach Last Winter.
Photo by Alberto S.

It has been a while since we saw a cut beach.  Above is from last winter that produced some artifacts including a lot of musket balls.  The fellow using the electric drill, auger and bucket to retrieve items is shown in that photo, which is why Alberto sent me that picture.  I presume it is Robert J.  Many detectorists hit the beach that day and I'm sure many of you remember it.

Thanks Alberto.

---

I received an great email from Kevin K. and thought I'd post it.  I  have a couple of reasons for doing that.  I hope some of you will provide your comments in response to the questions, and I wanted to post some of my responses too.

Hello Treasure Guide-

I read today's article about metal detectors not having changed much, and I agree. And I have some questions about metal detector design.

1) The circular coils give a cone-shaped signal that from your sketches appears to have about a 45-60 degree angle from vertical. Does anyone know why it would not be cylindrical, but with a weakening signal as it goes deeper?

2) The D shaped coils apparently give a more rectangular planform, so why not make square coils to get the broadest signal planform?. Maybe this has been done on home made units, but no manufacturers appear to make these except for the older magnetometers with the horizontal tubes and a coil  at 90 degree opposed angles at each end.

3) Since most metal detectors run on about the same battery voltage (I think), aren't they all pretty much limited to the same signal strength and depth? Wouldn't a higher voltage, say a 24V setup give deeper penetration? It seems like having to wait for the renourishment sand to erode is a waste of time if you can detect pretty deep.

4) I have noticed that my ground penetrating radar machine (which can go 10' deep) reflects off of buried metal in a bright, distinct signal as opposed to rocks, roots, etc. which are somewhat transparent to radar unlike metal. It seems to me these would make metal detectors obsolete for metal detection, especially on objects deeper than the approximate 12" maximum depth a metal detector can go, at least in relatively dry soil that allows good radar penetration (which Florida beaches do).

Best Regards, Kevin Kerwin

I'll wait for your comments to the questions that deal more with the engineering and electronics of metal detectors, but I wanted to post some of my response to Kevin since I have a perspective that I don't believe is very often considered.

Who doesn't want to detect deeper?  Who doesn't want the most deep seeking metal detector they can afford?  What is not very often considered is what happens after you detect a very deep item. You still have to recover it.  I know that doesn't sound like a big problem, but it is something that needs to be considered.

Just yesterday I mentioned that I went to the beach thinking about getting a target that I was not able to retrieve on Sunday..  Targets are not always easy to retrieve, and there are a variety of reasons for that.  The particular target I left behind Sunday was stuck in some rocks and was in the swash zone where the water was crashing.  I couldn't get it out at the time and hoped to catch it during a lower tide.  The scoop was useless in that situation, so I took a hammer to break the rock.  I'm not sure if the item was down in a crevice or actually embedded in the rock.  Sunday, with the crashing water and rising tide I couldn't tell, and Tuesday I didn't find the target again.  

It isn't always easy to retrieve a target.  Imagine that you detected a signal that was three feet deep.  So you detected an object, but it isn't easy to dig a three foot hole in beach sand.  That is especially true in 90 degree Florida weather.  And if you are willing to dig the three foot or deeper hole, which will continue to refill in dry sand, not to mention how difficult it would be if the hole is near the water.  But let's say yor are able and willing to dig through three feet of sand to get the object.  How much time will it take you?  And are you willing to spend that type of time on a single hole, especially if you are not sure how good the object is?

I've written about this before, but it was along time ago.  Everybody wants to detect deeper, but detecting deep is only part of the problem.  The other part is retrieving those deep targets once they are detected.  Not only can it be difficult, but you also have to consider how much time you want to put into it.  Perhaps the auger system described by Robert J provides a solution for deeper targets, which also must be pinpointed fairly well.  And in some situations you will have to deal with targets that are too large, as well as rocks and other types of obstructions.

As you know, the governmental authorities seem to have problems with digging deep holes in parks and on the beaches and might put in new rules or laws to stop it if it became common.  

To summarize, detecting deep targets is only the first part of the problem.  Retrieving deep targets might not be as easy as you think, and in some cases might not even be the best decision strategically. 

---

Here is a good long article on the cronavirus.  It hits a lot of issues and provides a lot of easy to understand information.

https://spiritdailyblog.com/news/smoking-guns-and-just-plain-smove

---

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Despite the amount of activity in the Atlantic, no much is supposed to come our way.  Everything that you see there is going to stay pretty far out in the Atlantic.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

The surf predictions don't show anything big either.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/26/21 Report - Treasure Coast Beach Conditions and Some Finds. Notes On Innovative Recovery Tool.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

John Brooks Beach Tuesday Morning.

I went out to the beach this morning.  I woke up thinking of one target I left behind recently, and thought I'd see if I could go get it.   When I left it, it was in rough water and the tide was coming in, so I gave up on it for the time being.  

I was hoping to catch it at a lower tide this morning, but the tides are pretty flat now.  I couldn't find the target I was looking for, but the area was producing some targets so I did a little detecting.

John Brooks beach was not much changed from Sunday when I was last there.  You can see that above.  The slope was still mushy at least half the way down the slope.

John Brooks Beach Tuesday Morning.

I found one small area where I spent some time digging a concentration of small targets.  You can see some of them below.  You can see how small some are.  There were a lot of pieces of lead, including a bullet, and also small pieces of copper.  The one object is the biggest object I found.  I'll take a closer look at some of those when I get the time.  I'm not sure what some of them are.  The dime was found in dry sand on the way out.

Miscellaneous Dug Items From One Small Area.

Yesterday I mentioned a variety of types of digging tools including one innovative one that makes use of a drill.   I heard from Robert J. who made that device.  Here is what he said.

I'm a daily reader of your blog and have been for years now.  I was reading your blog today and had to smile a little.  I'm a systems engineer by trade and am always looking to make a better mousetrap. The auger was one of my attempts.  Not sure if I'm the one you saw, but as far as I know I was the first to use it.  If it was me you saw, I would have most likely been on one of the more popular treasure coast beaches last Winter and had a protected cordless drill attached to an auger bit inside a bucket.  If not, imitation is one of the greatest forms of flattery!

Believe it or not, the "post hole digger" works much better than you would think it would. It especially shines in the shallow surf where traditional scoops can be frustrating.  The wave action actually helps to retrieve the object by sifting the lighter material (sand/shell).  It's also capable of quickly digging multiple targets without the concern of losing them.  Last November, my record was 11 musket balls and multiple other various pieces of lead in the bucket when I finally emptied.

There are however a few cons with the auger apparatus.  For one, it only weighs a pound or two more than a scoop but doesn't drag as easily behind you and is certainly bulkier.  Two, my drill clutch wore out after a year.  I guess not too bad since I estimate I dug well over 1000 holes.

I have made several improvements and variations to my original "post hole digger" now and am just waiting for the right conditions to put the latest version to use!

Keep up the great blog!

Best Regards,

Robert J.

Thanks Robert. I'm pretty sure it was you that I saw. I love the innovation and appreciate the pros and cons.

Thanks for writing, and good luck.

---

Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

Sam is going to stay far out in the Atlantic.  The other red x to the south is worth watching, although I would expect it to curve north too.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Not much hope for the coming week.

I received another great email that I'll probably comment on tomorrow.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/27/21 Report - Emeralds Found In Old Pots. Various Metal Detecting Tools and Circumstances.

 Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report. 

Source: See LiveScience link below.

Archaeologists in Colombia have found eight ceramic jars, with metallic figurines and emeralds inside, within a temple and its adjacent graves.

The ancient Muisca (also called the Chibcha) crafted the jars called "ofrendatarios" about 600 years ago. The Muisca, a people whose civilization flourished in the region at the time, were famous for their metal-crafting skills, and their work may have inspired the legend of El Dorado — a legendary city made of gold...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

Ceramic jars full of emeralds found in temple tied to El Dorado, a mythical city of gold | Live Science

---

Some people don't agree with me, but it seems to me that metal detectors haven't changed a lot over the last forty or more years.  Of course they have changed, and now you have some nice features, but I find most changes underwhelming.  Computers, by comparison, have changed a lot.  So have phones, which in the past did nothing other than allow you to talk to another person.  I remember the party line my grandmother was on.  It used something like Morris code to let the people on the party line know which person the call was meant for.  One short and two long rings was for one household, for example, and two short and one long ring was for somebody else.  You knew when one of the people on your party line got a call, and if you were like many of the ladies, you'd quietly pick up your phone and listen in on somebody else's conversation.

Perhaps one reason I'm not impressed by the improvements in detector technology is that I had a custom made metal detector that was better than those made by the major detector manufacturers quite a few years ago.  Another reason might be that I don't put a lot of importance on some of the advances such as the conductivity numbers, even though they can be useful or interesting.  I don't consider them hugely helpful, both because of the kind of hunting I do and the strategies I prefer.

In any case, metal detectors still look very much like they did back during the 1940s.  The are not as big and heavy, but they still have a coil on the bottom of a poll with a handle, and many still have the rectangular, or nearly rectangular, control box, and headphones.  You might say that is all cosmetic, but I don't think so.  I've considered alternatives and have on occasion made small modifications to that familiar and basic configuration.  

The shortened handle used for diving is one slight modification to the long handled configuration, but once people get into a habit they tend to follow it right down the drain.  I remember watching, not many years ago, one diver attempt to use the short handle configuration in about two feet of water for a while before deciding that he would be better off lengthening the handle and standing up.  It is easy to follow the predominant pattern or the established habit even when it not longer provides the best solution.

The same thing applies to digging tools.  Most beach detectorists use a long handled scoop these days.  There area few who use a short handled scoop or even a trowel.  

In the water, a long handled scoop is also useful a lot of the time, but if you are diving, you might do more hand fanning.  

Sand scoops are pretty much the same, although there are differences, and some differences are pretty significant.  Usually you have a long handle and a round or more square bucket with something like quarter-inch holes for sifting.  They are pretty good for sifting dry sand, but when it comes to wet sand or coarse shell-sand, maybe not so good.  On the Treasure Coast, you'll often see people dig with the scoop, dump the wet sand and spread it out before trying to find the object.  The holes might let out the water and sand fleas, but in situations like that, the holes aren't used to sift the sand.

Some people use a shovel, and one fellow has a power drill that works something like a post hole digger to bring up the target.  That is the most unique solution I've seen.  You usually don't see detectorists do anything that different from what everybody else is doing.

There are times when you might select something other than the solution you use most often.  You might find the long handle scoop the best solution for most situations, but there might be times when you are better off using a shovel or something else.

Recently I ran into a situation when my scoop just wouldn't work.  Your typical scoop won't work well in rocks.  Coins and things like coins can be covered by rocks or be caught in crevices.  Items can even be inside the rock.  I've seen what I would call sandstone form in less than ten years, and from what I've seen, mudrock can also form quickly.

Mudrock Broken in Pieces.

When the items are embedded in a rock that can't be removed or tighly fitted into crevices, you might start by hand fanning sand, but you might need something that can break the rock - maybe a crowbar or chisel.

You never know what conditions you might encounter or where your search might lead in any particular case.  It never hurts to be prepared with tools that you think you might not use but could end up wishing you had.

---

I added the Survey of Colonial Coins link to my links reference list.

---

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

Hurricane Sam seems to be headed north into the Atlantic, but there are two more behind him that look like they will form.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/26/21 Report - Treasure Coast Beaches Now. Old Beach Coin Finds And Condition.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

John Brooks North Sunday Morning.

We've been having some good high tides and yesterday we had some wind.  I hadn't been to the beach for a while and decided to go out this morning to take a look.

Here is what I saw.

John Brooks Sunday Morning.

The slope was mushy.  Only the flat in front of the beach was more firm, but low tide was before sunrise.  You can tell that from the footprints in the sand.

Frederick Douglass Sunday Morning.

As is usually the case, Frederick Douglass beach was very much like the John Brooks beach.

Frederick Douglass Beach Sunday Morning.

Rocky Area Farther South.

The days are getting shorter.  Sunrise wasn't until near 6:30.

The other day I was talking about some ways to store coins and the folders you can use.  That reminded me that I hadn't looked closely at a lot of the coins I have stored in folders.  I didn't even have my microscope back when I found many of those coins.  I noticed that some of those coins were almost like new, while others were black and very corroded.  

Here are a couple examples.

Here are a couple liberty head or shield nickels for example.

Two Liberty Head Nickels.

And here are two contrasting Jefferson halves.

1960 and 1953 Jefferson Half Dollar Coins.

The trouble with beach coins is that they are usually corroded or damaged to some extent.  It is very unusual to find one that will grade highly.

Cleaned Mercury Dime

Some beach coins clean up well but upon closer inspection show pitting.  You can see that on the above silver coin.  It shows little wear from circulation, but is corroded.

While you shouldn't clean fine coins at all (it can reduce value), I will clean some beach coins because they aren't in fine condition anyhow.

---

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

I'm not expecting either Sam or that other system to our east to affect our beaches much.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

As you can see, the surf will remain small.

Happy hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

9/25/21 Report - 17th and 16th Century Gold Coins Discovered. First Peoples of America and Florida. Grading Coins.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.  

"For decades, archaeologists have debated when people first arrived in the Americas," said Holliday, a professor in the Univeristy of Arizona School or Anthropology and Department of Geosciences, "Few archaeologists see reliable evidence for sites older than about 16,000 years. Some think the arrival was later, no more than 13,000 years ago by makers of artifacts called Clovis points. The White Sands tracks provide a much earlier date. There are multiple layers of well-dated human tracks in streambeds where water flowed into an ancient lake. This was 10,000 years before Clovis people." ...

Here is the link for more about that.

Earliest Evidence of Human Activity Found in the Americas | University of Arizona News

Every Floridian, full or part-time, should know about the world-famous "Vero Man" site and James Kennedy's history making find of a 13,000 year-old mammoth bone bearing a human carving.

Wikipedia describes Vero Man this way: Vero man refers to a set of fossilized human bones found near Vero (now Vero Beach), Florida, in 1915 and 1916. The human bones were found in association with those of Pleistocene animals. The question of whether humans were present in Florida (or anywhere in the Americas) during the Pleistocene was controversial at the time, and most archaeologists did not accept that the Vero fossils were that old. Recent studies show that the Vero human bones are from the Pleistocene and are the largest collection of human remains from the Pleistocene found in North America.

I've written about that before. See, for example, the following.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 1/21/20 Report - Vero Man and Treasure Coast Fossils. Kang Hsi Notes. Big Surf Coming.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 10/12/15 Report - 100th Anniversary of One World-Famous Vero Find. The Religion Of Christopher Columbus.

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Experts believed that Hird’s entire collection had been sold or gifted prior to his death in 1973, but these exquisite coins were recently rediscovered by his family. The sale of these "forgotten" coins provides collectors with a rare opportunity to acquire extraordinary pieces, many of which are the only known example in private hands...

Included are a 17th century Spur Ryal, a 16th century coin minted to honor Catherine of Aragon, and a 16th century Armada Rose Noble that features Elizabeth I on the deck of a Tudor Galleon while holding the royal orb and scepter. It is dubbed the "Armada Rose Noble" due to being struck at the time of the Spanish Armada and bearing the iconic Tudor rose.

Here is the link for more about that.

Rediscovered Gold Coins from Hird Collection in Spink Auction | CoinNews

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Here is a website that can help you grade your coins.  It has great photos of coins in various grades so you can match your coins with the coins shown in the photo.

www.pcgs.com/photograde

Perhaps easier, if you can take quality photos of your coin, is sending the photos in to the appropriate forum on coincommunity.com.  They will give you their opinions.  And they have some real experts.

---

We now have tropical storm Teresa and hurricane Sam.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

It looks like Sam will stay out in the Atlantic a good distance from Florida.  

Teresa won't affect us.

It looks like we should have a two to three foot surf for a couple of days and then maybe one day of three to four foot surf.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/24/21 Report - Gold Hoard Found. Fun Ways To Store Found Coins. Hurricane Sam.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

See LiveScience link below.

An amateur treasure hunter wielding a metal detector has discovered a stunning gold hoard buried by an Iron Age chieftain in the sixth century in what is now Denmark. The stash includes lavish jewelry, Roman coins and an ornament that may depict a Norse god.


The treasure hunter, Ole Ginnerup Schytz, uncovered the Iron Age hoard on land owned by one of his former classmates in the town of Vindelev, earning the stash the name "Vindelev hoard." Within a few hours of surveying the area with his newly acquired metal detector, Schytz heard the telltale beeping of possible treasure. It turned out to be one of the "largest, richest and most beautiful gold treasures in Danish history," representatives of Vejle Museums said in a statement released Sept. 9.

The 1,500-year-old hoard contains nearly 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of gold, including large, saucer-sized medallions known as bracteates...

Here is the link.

Treasure hunter finds gold hoard buried by Iron Age chieftain | Live Science

Thanks to Norbert B. for that link.

---

Whitman Coin Folder

Finding coins is fun, but what do you do with them?  After any cleaning you might want to do, you need to store them some way.

You are probably familiar with the Whitman coin folders that are made for U.S. coins.  You can get folders for each denomination for certain date ranges.  The folders have slots for coins for each date and mint mark but not for other varieties or error coins.  

The Whitman folders are convenient.  I like using the dated ones and try to fill in each slot until I get a complete set.  When I find a better example of a particular date and mint mark, I replace the old coin with the better one.  You can continue to fill each folder and upgrade it with the best examples you find.

You can get the folders that have a slot for each date and mint, or you can get folders with the slots not labeled.  If you get a folder without the dates and mint marks printed, you can insert multiple examples of a single date or whatever you want for that denomination.

Whitman Nickle Folder Without the Date/Mint Mark Labels.

Of course you can add your own labels to the slots in the unlabeled folders, as you can see I did on that the folder shown above.

You can enjoy your coins for years if you label them and store them well.  I can go through a folder and see coins and remember exactly where many of them were found.  Some of them are labeled with the location where they were found, but some I can identify by just looking at the coin.  For example, I found a lot of silver coins in a Minneapolis lake many years ago and can identify them from nice distinctive gun metal blue patina.

Although the Whitman folders are nice, there are some things I don't like about them.  Some coins are difficult to snap into the slots and some coins will fall out if the slot doesn't fit the coin just right. 
Sometimes you have to use some force to get a coin to fit into the slot, and I don't like handling fine coins that way.  I wouldn't use the Whitman folders for valuable coins.

I think they are excellent for kids or anyone who just wants to fill out sets from pocket change.

I really like the loose leaf notebook coin folders like the one shown below.

Coin Folder With Plastic Sleaves.

You can organize these anyway you want, and you can use cardboard flip holders to protect the coins that that you slip into slots.  You can purchase additional pages.

Of course you can label the cardboard flip holders, and insert any almost any kind and size of coin.  They don't have to fit the slots exactly like with the Whitman folders.

---

Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

The Atlantic is still busy.  The one to watch now is Sam, although it looks like it will stay out in the Atlantic.

Sam's Predicted Path.
Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

The surf today is three to four feet, decreasing for the next few days.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/23/21 Report - 17th Century Gold Coins Found. Couple Atocha Coins. Bag Marks.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Hundreds of 17th century gold coins were among 200 pieces of treasure, valued at €300,000, found by artisans working at a Breton manor house, and are to be sold at auction on September 29. 

The proceeds will be shared between the owners and the three workers who discovered the items.

The men were working on a construction project at the house in Finistère when they made the discovery in 2019.

They first found 154 coins in a metal box, hidden inside a wall; and then three days later came across the 239 gold coins, dating from the 17th century. They also discovered 85 gold coins in a purse...

Here is the link.

Rare gold coins found in Breton manor house to be auctioned (connexionfrance.com)

---

Here are two of four reales recently found on the site of the Atocha.

---

Wear and only wear determines if a coin can be considered uncirculated or not.  A coin can have marks and still can be considered uncirculated.

Since coins are shipped form the mint in bags, newly minted uncirculated coins can be marked by contact with other coins or marked when the fall into the bags.  Those marks are sometimes called bag marks or contact marks.

Below are some bag marks (I think) found on a 1998 one oz. American Eagle gold coin.  I'm not absolutely positive, but I think these marks might be bag marks.

First, an unmarred surface.

Unmarred Surface of American Eagle Gold Coin.

Bump Marks On Same Coin (upper left of center).

Bump Marks On Fourth Ray To the Left.

Those are marks I wouldn't notice with the naked eye but with magnification they can be clearly seen.

---

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

As you can see there is another area that could develop into a storm now, but it could follow the patter of Peter and Rose and stay out in the Atlantic.  I'll keep watching it just in case.

Surf Predictions.
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

The surf is a little higher but not much.  The high tides are still pretty big, and we'll be having some northeast winds, but I'm not expecting any big improvements in beach conditions.

Happy hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

9/22/21 Report - How To Have More Good Luck With Metal Detecting. Beach Conditions.

 Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Wabasso Beach Tuesday Afternoon.

DJ sent in these three beach photos that he took Tuesday afternoon.

Seagrape Trail Beach Tuesday Afternoon.

DJ said that Wabasso beach had lost some sand since he was last there.

Turtle Trail Tuesday Afternoon.

Thanks DJ.

---

Good Luck!  

We say it all the time.  There is definitely an element of luck in metal detecting, but luck by definition isn't something you can do much about unless you believe in the power of your lucky coin, wear your lucky underwear or do good deeds to build up some positive karma, but I'm not so sure any of that will work, and even if it did, I couldn't give much good advice about it.

Two days ago I gave you my formula for success once again.  It doesn't include the luck factor.  It only refers to specific things you can do or control to increase the amount of success you will have over the long term. 

Luck will even out over time.  You can correctly call heads or tails a number of times in a row, but if do it long enough, you will tend towards getting it right about 50% of the time.

For me, skill is about numbers.  A small number of finds, no matter how exceptional, does not indicate skill.  Skill will win out over the long term, even thought there may be some remarkable exceptions due to what we call luck.

As I once defined skill for some graduate students at the University of Louisville, skill consists of specific deliberate actions that increase the probability of success.  

One dictionary definition I found online defined luck as success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than one's own actions.  And they defined chance as something that happens unpredictably without discernible human intention or observable cause.

Skill does not guarantee success on every attempt, but over time the skillful person will have more success than the unskilled person as luck tends to evens out. 

A champion marksman, for example, will hit the bullseye a lot of the time, but sometimes he will not.  Variation will be caused by wind other factors that are not entirely under his control, but the more skilled the marksman is, the smaller his scatter pattern will be.  An unskilled shooter might hit the bullseye a few times, but his scatter will be all over the place when compared to the skilled marksman.  The variance will be smaller when the marksman exercises greater control over those factors that can be controlled.

As Edward Gibbon said, The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

Thomas Jefferson said, I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Einstein said, Luck comes from interest, focal point, perseverance, and self-criticism.  That is a good one that is worth thinking about.

Self-criticism is important.  People who do not take responsibility for their own actions will have difficulty improving their circumstances.  

I won't dispute that there is such as thing as luck.  We all experience those fortunate circumstances and events which we did not earn and suffer difficulties that we did not bring on ourselves.  Luck can be seen as a factor, but a factor that we can not control - at least not with regularity or precision.

It seems that some people have more good luck than others.  There is a reason.  They do the things they need to do to provide the opportunity for good luck and when those opportunities do occur, make the best of it.  If you are out there metal detecting a lot, you have a much better chance of a pleasant surprise than if you spend very little time detecting.  That is obvious, but also a clear example.

I occasionally talk about being at the right place at the right time.  That might sound like a matter or luck, but there are things that you can do to dramatically increase the chances that you will be in the right place at the right time.  One is more a matter of effort than skill - being out there a lot, but if you know the beaches and can read a beach well, you dramatically increase your chances of being at the right place at the right time.  Those who randomly wander around will have some rare good luck, but not as often as those that have learned something about being in the right place at the right time.  By studying the history and dynamics of beaches and knowing your beaches and their current state, you will more often be in the right place at the right time.  That is why I began this blog - to help you with that.

Some people depend upon luck more than others.  While there will always be some level of what we call luck involved, skillful people depend more upon skill, while the less skillful depend more upon luck.   By being out there, you increase the opportunity for a stroke of luck, and by exercising skill, you increase the probability of success.

It is a natural human tendency to attribute success to your own good actions and attribute failure to bad luck.  People tend to take credit for success and seek other things to blame for failure.  A more effective strategy would be to analyze both good luck and failure to see if anything can be learned from either.  

For some people, the world is a chaotic place, and they are the victim.  For others, what happens to them is seen as being determined to a large extent by their own actions.  Those differences are at the root of differences between political parties.

Placing emphasis on luck is a less effective strategy than placing emphasis on those things you can control.  Seeing the world as a place where things are determined largely by luck, is self-defeating.  It prevents analysis, learning and improvement.  

Monitoring success and progress is important.  It is difficult to improve without doing that.  People improve when they analyze, put two and two together and adjust their behavior.  Feedback is important, and you only get that when you monitor progress.  Keeping track and keeping data helps.  Attributing success or failure to an amorphous thing like luck does not help.  

To sum it up, I'll accept that the element of luck plays a roll in metal detecting, but by developing and employing skill, you diminish the roll of luck.  Some people seem to have more luck than others.  Some of that (not all) is actually the result of skill.  Some very unskillful people have been very lucky.  It happens.   But over the long term, skill will tend to overcome the element of luck.

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There is a  new area to watch, but nothing that will affect us much real soon.

Source; nhc.noaa.gov.

 

The surf will be two to four feet for the next few days, maybe increasing to three or four feet after that.

The high tides are nice and high.

I'll end with the Serenity Prayer, which seems fitting today.

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change; 

courage to change the things I can; 

and wisdom to know the difference.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/21/21 Report - Survey of Metal Detected Colonial Coins and How To Do It. Facebook Counterfeits.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Source: See link below.

I was thinking of talking about something else this morning but just discovered the most remarkable survey of metal detected colonial coins.  It is a 69 page document stuffed with tons of data and many detailed tables.  My hat is off to the author who did a super job of metal detecting over a period of more than thirty years, kept flawless records, studyied and analyzed the finds and publishing the detailed results.  

The document is SURVEY OF COLONIAL COINS RECOVERED IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY by  Wayne H. Shelby.  It begins as follows.

After the publication of my first two articles in the C4 Newsletter titled “SURVEY OF COLONIAL COINS RECOVERED IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY” (Winter-2003, Volume 11, Number 4) and “SURVEY OF COLONIAL COINS RECOVERED IN SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY PART II” (Summer2005, Volume 13, Number 2), I have recovered and documented a number of additional finds from the Burlington County and Southern New Jersey area. I believe the additional recoveries and the inclusion of tables 10 thru 15 will provide a more in-depth picture of coin type use and availability during colonial and early American times. Most additional finds are the result of my locating new metal detecting sites (72 thru 90). However, some finds are the result of my continued effort metal detecting at my former sites numbered (1 thru 71). Many Additional single finds have been documented by township and/or county since 2005 and are listed accordingly...

Here is one example of the many interesting tables.

Notice the number of Spanish colonial coins and the description of other artifacts recovered in addition to the coins.  Included is also a lot of information on recovered buttons and other artifacts.

In fact I found an example of an artifact I was trying to identify in a photo of a bunch of recovered watch winders.

Here is another interesting table that shows recovered Spanish "holed" coins.

Source: See link below.

This is a remarkable survey of recovered coins and other items.  I highly recommend that you take a look at it.

Here is the link.

Survey of Recovered Colonial Coins

That is the work of a real metal detection expert.

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Three major numismatic organizations that sent a letter to Facebook executives to complain that the social media platform "has become the predominant choice of some fraudsters" are disappointed with the lack of a response by Facebook and the continuing appearance of pop-up advertisements selling counterfeit coins. No response has been received in the month since the letter was sent.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (www.ACEFonline.org), Numismatic Guaranty Company (www.NGCcoin.com) and the Professional Numismatists Guild (www.PNGdealers.org) sent their joint letter on August 19, 2021 to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, chairman & chief executive officer...

"The Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force has identified Facebook as a major platform utilized by counterfeiters and criminal organizations to sell counterfeit coins and precious metals. It is critical that Facebook executives recognize the criminal abuse of their platform by crooks who are preying on unsuspecting and uneducated victims who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But most importantly, the misuse of the Facebook platform undermines the integrity of the U.S. monetary system."

Here is that link.

ACEF, NGC & PNG Send Facebook Joint Complaint About Counterfeits | CoinNews

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Busy Atlantic.
Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

Peter looks like it is where it could affect us, but it won't.

In fact, we're not going to get much of anything for at least a week.

Source: MagicSeaweed.com.

We had a nice full moon last night, an are having some nice high tides.

Are you enjoying the higher prices?  Now Fed Ex is raising shipping prices.  Everything is going up.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net