3/30/22 Report - Knock-off Minelab Metal Detectors: Beware. Early Conquistadors in The Americas and Race. Creole New Orleans.

 

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

If you find a metal detector listed on the internet, and you don't know the dealer, it might be a cheap knock-off.  JamminJack  alerted me to the long list of unauthorized dealers listed on the Minelab USA web site.  It is a long list of dealers that are selling knock-off Minelab metal detectors.  Not surprisingly, many are from China, but other countries are represented as well, such as the UK, Indonesia and Turkey.   As I think you know, China makes a major industry out of knock-offs and counterfeits.  I recently mentioned how many counterfeit coins come from China.

Below is a link to the Minelab USA site that lists those unauthorized dealers.  First on the list is Alibaba, which is a kind of Chinese Amazon.  The list is long.  Take a look.

Known Counterfeit Manufacturers | Minelab Metal Detectors

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Here are a couple paragraphs from a very interesting article about black conquistadors.

And here is the link for more about that.

black-conquistadors.pdf (latinamericanstudies.org)

And here is an article about one of the most well known of the black conquistadors.

Although most blacks who came to America in early years were slaves, records of the Casa de Contratación show that a good many black freedmen from Seville and elsewhere found passage on westward-bound ships.³ Some of them settled in the Caribbean region, and others followed the tide of conquest to Mexico and Peru, identifying themselves no doubt as Catholic subjects of a Spanish king, with much the same privileges and ambitions as white Spaniards. “Benito el Negro” and “Juan el Negro” (the latter’s real name seems to have been Juan de Villanueva) were encomenderos in the province of Pánuco and thus they should not have been slaves, but we cannot be sure of their origin.⁴ Spaniards might call anyone with a very dark skin “negro,” and indeed the fact that Villanueva was from Granada makes it seem likely that he was a morisco. On the other hand there is record of an African who apparently crossed the Atlantic as a freeman, participated in the siege of Tenochtitlan and, in subsequent conquests and explorations, tried his hand as an entrepreneur (with both Negro and Indian slaves of his own) in the early search for gold, and took his place as a citizen in the Spanish quarter of Mexico City. His name was Juan Garrido, and he was still alive in the late 1540s when he wrote or dictated a short resume of his services to the crown:...

Here is the link for more about that.

A Black Conquistador in Mexico | Hispanic American Historical Review | Duke University Press (dukeupress.edu)

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Interesting times when a nominee for the Supreme Court can't or won't define an elementary school word like "woman"  She said she isn't a biologist, but she uses the word endlessly (evidently without being able or willing to define it) and is advertised as the first black "woman" to be nominated to that office, but how are we to know if we don't know what a woman is.  I'd also be interested in an operational definition of "black."  But they just make it up however it suits them.  And how can a person who can't define such a basic word interpret the constitution or rule on women's rights, without being able to define the most basic terms.  Of course, it is likely that she is just being dishonest anyhow.  If it requires a biologist to define, which her answer seemed to imply, that would mean that gender is biological, which should upset some communities, such as the trans or bi.

If you read the above articles about black conquistadors, you'll notice interesting terms such as "mulatto", which is a antiquated term that was once used to indicate a person with one white and one black parent, along with other terms such as quadroon. 

You might want to read some of the novels by George Washington Cable, which give an more in-depth view of 19th century Creole society in New Orleans.

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Nothing new or exciting with the surf predictions.

Happy hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/29/22 Report - All-Metals Mode Versus Discrimination: Making the Decision. A Well Studied Bottle Find.

 

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

Chas. H. Fletcher's Castoria Bottle.

Here is another bottle I found Sunday.  It is a very common Castoria bottle.  I've found a few of them.  On the other side of the one, in script is embossed Chas. H. Fletcher's.  

Below is the new find with an older one found back some time ago.

Two Castoria Bottles of Different Ages and Showing Different Embossing.

The bottom one is the older find and is the older bottle.  It is embossed Dr. S. Pitcher's rather than Chas. H. Fletcher's.  

These bottles are so common and have been so well studied that you can arrive at a positive date by studying the bottle.  

For an extensive study see the following SHA site.

CastoriaHistory.pdf (sha.org)

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The Decision to Use Discrimination or All-Metals Mode.

There were several years that I never used discrimination.  They were some of the best detecting years of my life.  The detectors I used almost all the time back then didn't even have a discrimination mode.  They were designed for one thing - finding gold on saltwater beaches.  And that is what they did.

Several factors made it practical to dig everything.  First, the sites were beaches where the proportion of good targets to junk was high.  

On beaches, targets will be classified or separated, especially in the wet sand - not so much by weight ('I've talked about that myth many times before), but by density and shape.  Areas where aluminum and other junk concentrates will not be the areas where gold jewelry concentrates, so the strategy is to find the areas where you'll more likely find the good targets rather than spend your time picking through junk.  You might consider that a type of discrimination, I suppose - you are discriminating the areas that you hunt.  When doing that, junk targets are very significant because they can tell you where different kinds of things are concentrating.  Dug targets, both good and bad, provide good information and help you decide where to spend your time.  When you get to a good spot, there are few bad targets, and you want to detect those areas very thoroughly.  That tells you why you won't need, or want, discrimination, in those types of situations.

There are times, however, when you will want to use discrimination.  There are times when there is so much junk you simply would not have enough time to dig everything.  There are sites, such as many land sites, where there is little sifting and sorting of targets.  I say "little" because there can be sorting on some land sites such as when you have creeks or hills, etc., or where there used to be more active geological processes.

Anyhow, consider a few scenarios.

1.  My railroad wreck site.  There is so much junk there that it will take me forever to dig everything.  I've already covered it many times and there is still tons of junk (mostly iron) and possibly a few good targets remaining hidden.  Even if someday I actually clean it out, if that is possible, it is not a place that I would detect in all-metals mode until the very end.  I don't expect to do that.

2.  A beach like Walton Rocks that has tons of junk.  There are times when there is more junk than others, and there are times when you might find a few areas where you might want to go all-metals, but much of the time you will probably want to use discrimination.  Most of the time, it would be a real pain to use a metal detector like the ATX at Walton Rocks.  It would drive most people crazy and waste a lot of time digging copper and iron.

3.  Overhunted beaches or beaches where large areas have been cleared by recent high water and erosion.  In those cases, you will be able to read the beach to select the best areas for using all-metals.

4.  You have been hunting and found a hot spot and possibly gone over it a few times and know that it is an area most likely holding at least a few high value targets.  In that case, you can spend your time covering the hot spot thoroughly, going over it multiple times in all-metals mode.

5.  Consider a beach that you plan on hunting on a frequent basis.  Maybe it is close to your home.  If you pick up as much junk as you can on your visits, gradually the amount of junk will be reduced so you can use all-metals.  When I was hunting a lot, I cleared several beaches like that so there just wasn't a lot of remaining junk to worry about.

So the decision can be based upon several factors.  Those factors can include the amount of junk and number of good targets, the likelihood of high value targets, the condition of the site, the amount of time you have, and your personality.  Some people simply have less patience with digging junk.

It is not a bad idea to sample the area first to get a some idea of what the ground holds and then switch modes after you gather some information.

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We'll be getting some slightly negative tides and some small surf.  Nothing much other than that.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/28/22 Report - North Anmerican Union Coins. Learning to Use Your Metal Detector. Another Old Bottle Find.

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

Union of North America Amero Coins.

JamminJack recently sent me pictures of some Amero coins.  It seems that a private individual (David Carr) produced some of these as early as 2005.  On his web site he said the reason he produced the coins was to draw attention to the possibility of such a union and he wanted to give people the opportunity to voice their opinion one way or another.  He said he was against it.  It seems to me that his intent could have been to sell coins, and he does indeed have a web site to do that.

Of course, there are conspiracy theories, and I have no idea if there have been any serious official discussion of such a union or not.  Some sources, such as one radio program, claimed that such coins have been produced by the U.S. Mint, however I have found no convincing evidence of that.

I think others have produced similar coins, and I read somewhere that China has obtained images of the coins and might well produce them just as they produce counterfeits of so many other coins..  

While I do not consider Wikipedia to be the best of authorities, here is what they say about the Amero coins.

Amero coins[edit]

In August 2007, rumors and conspiracy theories began circulating across the Internet regarding alleged United States Treasury-issued amero coins.

The inspiration behind these rumors may have been the posting of images of medallions created by coin designer Daniel Carr.^[1] Carr, who designed the New York and Rhode Island 2001 statehood quarters, sells medals and tokens of his own design on his commercial website, "Designs Computed" (also known as "DC Coin").^[1] Among his designs are a series of gold, silver and copper fantasy issues of amero coins ranging in denomination from one to one thousand.^[1] The medallions have the legend "Union of North America" on the back with his company's logo, a stylized "DC",^[24] in small type.^[25] Concerning his amero designs, he mentions on his website:

My goal with these coins is not to endorse a Union of North America or a common Amero currency. I fully support the United States Constitution, and I would not welcome (in any form) a diminishment of its provisions. I expect that these coins will help make more people aware of the issue and the possible ramifications. I leave it up to others to decide if they are in favor of, or against a North American Union. And I encourage citizens to voice their approval or disapproval of government plans that impact them.^[26]

At this point I would consider amero coins to be fantasy coins despite whatever conspiracy theories may be circulating.

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It is much better to learn how to use your metal detector at home or in practice sessions instead of trying to learn on the fly and wasting your field time.

I mentioned that the Equinox is one of the only metal detectors that I've used mostly in a discrimination mode rather than an all-metals mode.  In fact, I used all my previous Minelab detectors mostly in all-metals mode.  

You might well wonder why anyone would operate in all-metals mode.  There are places where I would not use all-metals mode, but on the beach you can often use all-metals to advantage.

You might find that you will get a couple more inches on coins by using all-metals mode.  It will take time to learn how to identify signals from mineralization as distinct from signals from real targets, but with practice you can do it.  Dont' expect it to come easy, especially if you are accustomed to discrimination modes.  All-metals mode is different and requires new skills.

If nothing else, make sure you learn the basic icons and adjustments.  If you are using an Equinox detector you should be sure to know these icons. 

Pressing the first will give you access to the other adjustments.  Pressing it once will allow you to do the noise cancel.  Pressing the settings icon again will move you on to the next of the seven adjustments each time you press the setting icon.

I won't go into each one.  But you should definitely know how to use these, although you may not use them all.

My main point is that you will be far ahead if you take the time to learn basics like these before going out to hunt.  It doesn't matter what metal detector you are using, practice, practice, and practice with a selection of targets at home.

If you do use all-metals mode, besides possibly gaining some depth, you should realize that a fast sweep speed will not allow the detector to recover between targets.  As I've said in the past, practice to learn the optimal sweep speed.

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I went looking for bottles once again Sunday afternoon.  Once again, it didn't look very good.  I didn't see much glass, but did manage to find a couple older bottles.  They were not easy finds.  Both were in murky water and mostly covered by seaweed.  I cleaned a lot of the seaweed off of the Watkins bottle for the photo.

J. R. Watkins Bottle.
Probably 1920s or 1930s

The J. R. Watkins Company began in 1868 as a small home-based business in Plainview, Minnesota, founded by entrepreneur Joseph Ray Watkins.

Watkins distributed many different types of household products including cleaning products, food extracts and  flavorings, cosmetics,  home remedies, and other products.  (They did not actually make the bottles in which these products were contained.)   As business increased, in 1885 the company operations were moved from Plainview to Winona, Minnesota.

The very first bottles sold are assumed to date as far back as 1868, but I doubt that the very earliest containers were actually embossed with the “Watkins” name, but would have likely been “generic” hand blown bottles with a paper label affixed to indicate contents. (If anyone has more information on this, please contact me!)

By the very early 1870s, as business continued to expand,  it is likely that bottles were being embossed with Watkins or “J. R. Watkins Co.”   The earliest versions of the Watkins bottles were made in aqua glass, were handmade (with a tooled lip) and have the lip fashioned for a cork closure.  Later versions (I don’t know the exact year, but probably by the 1920s or early 1930s) have a threaded-style lip for a screw-on lid.

There are probably hundreds of slightly different Watkins bottle mold variants in existence that have been used over the last 140 years, with a variety of differences in font style, exact wording arrangement, size and shape of the bottle, and I imagine it would be a monumental task to find just one example of every single one of them.

Light aqua glass WATKINS medicine bottle, handblown with a tooled lip.  This type probably dates from sometime in the 1890s to 1910s. The base bears the mold number “64”.  The maker is unidentified as there is no glass manufacturer mark to be found.

Many of the bottles from the 1920s-1940s are quite common, and are usually in clear glass and rectangular in shape.  Sometimes the embossed company name is in a cursive font, and sometimes in a plain “block style lettering”. White milkglass salve or “ointment jars” were also sold.

Here is the link.

J. R. Watkins Company, Winona, MN ~ vintage glass bottles ~ Information. (glassbottlemarks.com)

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Still nothing very promising in the surf predictions.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/27/22 Report = The Old Spring House. Personal Detecting and What Was Once There.

 

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

Source: Sorry - not sure where I found this.  If you can find the source I'll be glad to post it.

It seems the older I get, the more I think back to the distant past of my childhood, especially in the small silent hours before sunrise.  There was the shady area by the pussy willow tree where I happily created roads in the dirt with my toy tractor and where the little yellow duck I won at the county fair ate a toadstool and died.  It was the first time I felt that type of sadness.  Nobody else in this world has ever, or will ever, know that spot like I do. Like the many barns and outbuildings that have fallen down or been removed, or the huge old oak tree that was a landmark during both my mother's and my own childhood, the green valley of my youth is now looks very different - but only to the eye.

One of the most magical places was the spring house.  I wish I had a photo to show you.   In fact, it almost makes me mad that I don't.  Although I found many pictures of historic "spring houses," they all seem to be different and none more like the one I'm talking about than the hobbit house shown above.  Just take away the front windows and make the door rectangular.

This spring house was under a spreading oak on a green hillside not far from an old red barn.  It was a little stone building, mostly buried so that only a small part of the roof and one wall on the lower side of the hill was visible.  Bending down to enter the low door, the first thing you saw on the opposite wall was a short pipe extending from the stone wall.  Cool water trickled constantly from the pipe into a trough. that ran around all three sides of  the building, except for the side where the door was.  They were used to cool forty pound milk cans, so were a foot or a foot and a half wide and a about two feet deep.

The spring water always flowed, and it was always cool in the old spring house, no matter how hot the summer was.  The earth itself covered most of the roof and most of three sides of the stone building.  

The spring water kept the milk cans cool without any other source of power required. I always called it a spring house, but being in dairy country, it was sometimes called a milk house.

If cool living water flowing year-round from an unseen source isn't enchanting enough, that wasn't the most magical thing.  You could occasionally catch a glimpse of a very strange and elusive creature that it seemed you could only find there.  That craature, a salamander, not only was elusive but could actually regenerate body parts. 

I really wish I had a photo of that magical little building that peaked out of the hillside.  In fact, it almost makes me mad that I can't even find a photo of a similar spring house to show.  Despite the many spring house photos I've seen, they all seem to be different, and the closest thing I found is photo of the hobbit house shown above.  Take away the front windows and make the door rectangular and plain, and you pretty much have it.

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For more about spring houses - The Spring House :: Wayne County Historical Society (waynehistorypa.com)

I also found this..

(Taken from The Good Old Days, The Spring House, R.J. McGinnis, F. & W. Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, page 76.)

"Pioneers looked for a spring and built their homes near it. It kept their thirst (and that of their animals) satisfied and their food from spoiling. It was the only refrigeration known for years. Usually a house or building was built over the spring out of rock and a tree was planted near the door. A stone trough was built in the spring house. Through it ran cold, slow flowing spring water. Earthenware crocks of milk were placed, neck deep, in the water. It was always cool in the spring house, even in the warmest of days. A gourd dipper hung in the spring house so men coming in from the hot field could stop for a draft of cold water. 

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Maybe you didn't get much about metal detecting from all of that, but here are some hints.

Talk to the elderly.  They'll be glad to tell you where things were back in the day.  I know where there were buildings, ball fields, dumps and picnic areas, and where kids used to sled ride even though there are no longer any obvious visible signs of those activities.

If you get a chance, go back to  your old stomping grounds and detect the areas you know from times gone by.  I once had the opportunity to go back and metal detect some of the areas where I grew up, including the area by the pussy willow tree and was pleased to find some of my old toys including metal soldiers and trucks.  I showed some of those in this blog years ago.  I also detected the area where there was a Little League baseball field.  I knew where the benches were and where Coca Cola was sold and was able to pick up some silver coins in those areas.  Those finds have an extra sentimental value.  They bring back memories, including those of deceased relatives.

Some of My Old Toys That I Found.

See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 6/24/16 Report - Raw Beach Emerald Finds and My Most Sentimental Detecting Finds.

I'd love to go back again and explore some of the places where the old barns were, and also a couple of bottle dumps.  I hope to get a chance to do that again someday.  I'm more skilled now than the last time I was there.

I know where my dad picked up arrow heads by the creek when he was young, as well as other areas where arrow heads were found. 

I'd have a big advantage over most of the detectorists in the area that were not around seventy years ago.  I also have the knowledge of my parents and relatives about what was there even before my time.  And I have a lot of old photos that were taken before my time.

But if you can't go back to the place of your roots, you can talk to the old people that did grow up where you might metal detect.

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There isn't anything very exciting in the surf predictions, and the tides aren't big either.

Good hunting,

TreasiureGuide@comcast.ne3t

3/26/22 Report - Fort Pierce History Dug Up. Whaling Shipwreck Identified. Beware: Extent and Problem of Counterfeiting.

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

This bottle reads: THE SILVER PALACE PHARMACY, PRESCRIPTIONISTS, FORT PIERCE, FLA.

I found this nice piece of Fort Pierce history Thursday evening, 95% buried in sand.  From the small piece of glass I could see, I thought it might be worth prying out of the sand, and I was right.

I found a one like this almost exactly one year ago.  I learned that the Silver Palace pharmacy operated from about 1927 to 1964 in Fort Pierce sy 2nd and Orange Ave. 

See Treasure Beaches Report: Pt. 2. (2020 and Beyond): Search results for silver palace pharmacy (tbr2020.blogspot.com)

I recently added a couple bottles to TGBottleBarnlblogspot.com, including the recently found Seminole Milk Company bottle.

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Tryworks found on shipwreck site.
Image by a NOAA ROV.   

19th-century whaling shipwreck identified in the Gulf of Mexico.  Native Americans and the descendants of enslaved African people served as crew on the vessel...

The tryworks was a cast-iron stove with two deep kettles that were used to render whale blubber into oil...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

19th-century whaling shipwreck identified in the Gulf of Mexico | Live Science

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Here are two paragraphs from a report by the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation to the United States Trade Representative.

Of course there is much more to the report.  The report identifies Amazon, Alibaba, Facebook and eBay as being huge markets for counterfeiters and points out that Amazon makes 15% from counterfeit sales and elaborates on the problem of Facebook pop-up ads and the Facebook marketplace and more.  I avoid using those sites, although in years past I did use eBay to sell old bottles and books.  I would never use Alibaba.

To learn more about the counterfeiting problem, use the following link.  You will have to download the first download to read the entire report.

Here is the link.  Regulations.gov

On a related topic, while the world's attention is on the Ukraine, China is using the opportunity to expand its military advantages around the world and gain leverage and business.  They are buying up agricultural land, and already own much of the United States agricultural property, including that in Florida.  They will profit greatly from the food shortage our President has warned us to expect.  All this while Nero fiddles.

See China is buying billions in US farmland and lawmakers are scrambling to try to stop them | American Military News

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No change in surf predictions.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/25/22 Report - St. Nicholas' Gold Ring Stolen. Metal Detecting Tips: Checking Settings and Making Common Beach Adjustments.

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

ROME -- A thief broke into the Basilica of St. Nicholas in the southern city of Bari overnight, stealing a gold ring from a finger of a statue of the saint, who is venerated by Catholic and Orthodox Christians and whose remains attract many pilgrims from Russia to the Italian church, officials said on Tuesday.

Corriere della Sera daily quoted police in Bari as saying video surveillance cameras showed a hooded and masked man breaking open a metal gate to gain entrance to the basilica before dawn on Tuesday. Church officials say the thief stole money left by faithful in a collection box and opened, without damaging anything, a glass case that displays a tall statue depicting the saint.

Besides the ring, the thief made off with a book, decorated with silver, that the statue of the saint held in one hand, authorities said...

Here is the link.

Gold ring stolen from St. Nicholas statue in Italian church - ABC News

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When you turn on your metal detector do you go through the settings to be sure you have the settings you prefer?  It might be worth it.

It is possible to make changes that are specific to a situation, or accidently make changes, and then when you begin detecting at the next site, you are using teh same settings whether you want the same settings or not.  Many metal detectors will save your previous settings between sessions, so you might want to check your settings when you turn on your metal detector. 

It might be a good idea to do a Factory Reset before you begin detecting and then make any other desired adjustments.  I think most people use mostly factory presets when detecting at the beach, so you probably won't have to make many additional changes after doing a Factory Reset.  

If you are using an Equinox detector, when turning on the detector, hold down the On button for around eight seconds and you will see a big FP appear on the screen.  That means that your settings have been returned to the factory default setting.  You can then make any additional adjustments you want, such as the sound volume or sensitivity.

I've talked before about the areas on the Treasure Coast where you might encounter noisy operation.  There are places that you will encounter electrical interference of some sort.  Many detectors these days have an option to do a noise cancel.  That might help in those areas.  In general noise cancelling can be pretty effective.  You might also want to adjust the operating frequency and observe the effect.

At the beach, I don't make many adjustments after a Factory Reset.  I do like the volume turned up, and I might adjust the sensitivity if I'm in the wet sand and getting a lot of noise from salt mineralization.  I'm talking about using a normal beach mode (1 or 2) now.

If you get into one of those areas where there is a lot of ambient electrical interference, you might want to use the auto noise cancel.  It is easy enough.  If you are using an Equinox, just hit the setting button, and when you see the noise cancel icon, hit the accept/reject button to initiate the noise cancel operation, and then the pinpoint button to continue detecting.  

Settings Icon.

Noise Cancel Icon.

Accept/Reject

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

\

While we often like to see a big surf, a very small surf can be good too.  After there has been recent erosion, a small surf can allow the old cuts to remain without filling in again very much so you can work it for a while longer.   The small surf can also let you easily detect lower areas of the beach that are difficult to detect when the surf is crashing.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/24/22 Report - Changing metal Detectors Will Require Changing Methods and Habits. Relearning. A Few Examples.

 

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

Morning On The Treasure Coast.

I've stressed the importance of getting to know your metal detector, and the importance of practicing.  It takes a long time for me to really get to know a metal detector.  When people test a metal detector after a few hours of use, it is not really a good test of the detector.  It takes time to get to understand a metal detector and to learn to use it well.

The Minelab Equinox detectors seem to be very popular these days.  I see a lot of them on the Treasure Coast.  Although I often use an Equinox, there are a lot of adjustments that I've never really tested.  I think most beach detectorists, perhaps unlike nugget shooters, tend to use mostly the default settings, perhaps with a few adjustments.  Tell me if I'm wrong about that.

One reason I haven't spent a lot of time talking about specific settings, is that there are so many settings and combinations, and there are so many other factors that are important - for example research, reading the beach and even the operator's personality.

Personality is very important.  Detectorists are different.  Some detectorists are happy hunting coins and modern jewelry. Some are only interested in old Spanish shipwreck treasures.  What you hunt and where you hunt it makes a big difference and so does you patience level and goals.

For a short list of important factors, see Treasure Beaches Report: Pt. 2. (2020 and Beyond): 5/4/20 Report - New Revised Formula For Metal Detecting Success. Gruesome Bit of Treasure Coast History. (tbr2020.blogspot.com).  

Some people just like to simply turn on their metal detector and go.  They'll use the default settings most of the time, making few additional adjustments.  Other detectorists study the manual, try out everything and often customize their settings to the site.

One thing that will affect how you use your metal detector is your past experience.  If you are not using your very first metal detector, you already have learned some things and have some habits that may help you, but you might also have to change some of your old habits.  You can't use every detector the same, and the transition from one detector to another can be easy or difficult depending upon the similarities or differences.

There were some detectors that I did not give a fair chance.  For example, when I tried a Garrett pulse detector (I forget the name of the model now), I didn't like it.  That was partly because of its super sensitivity to iron and partly because I was accustomed to a smoother threshold sound.  I didn't keep it very long.  I probably should have given it a chance and taken the time to learn to use it better, but I was accustomed to a smoother threshold and didn't like the way it worked mostly because of my past experience.  Your prior experience can help you when you can transfer the skills or hurt you when you need to do some unlearning and relearning.

Just to give a little history, my first good metal detector was a Whites - probably a Coin Master.  It was something like that if that isn't what it was.  Then a I got a Fisher 1280 and started doing a lot of water hunting.  I had a few Tesoros, which I didn't use a whole lot, but were good for special situations.  Tesoros, in my opinion, weren't great for detecting wet sand.  I had others that I preferred for that.  Then I got into my most productive gold jewelry detectors - the Steve Noga modified Nautilus detectors and the Herb MacDonald Aqua Sound detectors.  The Noga and MacDonald detectors worked pretty much the same and were excellent power machines designed specifically for saltwater environments.  They had no discrimination other than nulling on iron.  After that I got into Minelab detectors, including the Excalibur, Sovereign, and Equinox detectors.   I also had and still occasionally use an ATX, when I want capabilities similar to the Noga and MacDonald detectors, but the ATX is hot to iron and doesn't null out iron like the AquaSound.  The ATX and Equinox detectors are VERY different kinds of detectors.  I had a few others which I didn't mention, but I those are the ones I used the most.

The Equinox is the first detector that I use mostly in discrimination mode.  Before that I used mostly all-metals modes.  The Stingray, which was good on small gold and platinum, also, if I correctly recall, I used mostly in all-metals mode.   I think most people used the Excalibur and Sovereigns in discrimination mode, but I used them almost always in all-metals mode.

If you are very accustomed to using discrimination mode, you might have difficulty using all-metals mode on a wet salt water beaches and in black sand

If you are accustomed to using a discrimination mode, will probably be bothered by noise caused by salt or black sand when using an all-metals mode.  In an all-metals mode, you might hear mineralization but you can learn to distinguish the sound of mineralization as being distinct from real targets.  When using an all-metals mode, I prefer to hear a little threshold sound and hear the changes in mineralization and have little difficulty distinguishing between ground mineralization and real targets.  That is partly because of the large amount of time I spent working in all-metals modes.  Of course, you don't want to hear so much ground  noise that you can't identify signals from good small or deep targets, but with time you can learn to tell the difference.  I find the threshold level very important when using an all-metals mode.  It is very much like using discrimination.  Turn the discrimination too high and you miss more good signals, and turn the discrimination down and you dig more bad targets.  There is a fine line, and selecting the best level takes practice and skill.  There is nothing wrong with hearing ground mineralization if you learn to tell the difference between ground mineralization and real targets.

The point I am trying to make here is that your past experience can help or hinder you when you are learning to use a new metal detector.  Some things will be similar, but some differences can require you to relearn and change some habits.  You will have to adapt your approach according to the detector.  For example, if you are accustomed to using a discrimination mode, learning to use all-metals mode effectively can be difficult.  You definitely have to relearn some things.  The metal detectors circuity can do some of the work, but your own neural circuitry is even more powerful.

Since the Equinox has become so popular and since I've been using it a lot, In the near future I plan to discuss various some of the adjustments you might choose to make on the Equinox.

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The surf is small today and will remain small for a few days.  The tides are getting smaller too.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/23/22 Report - Beach Conditions and 'Working the White Water At The Beach.

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

John Brooks Beach Wednesday Morning.

I went out to the beach this morning just to see what is going on.  Here is what I saw.

John Brooks Beach Wednesday Morning.

It didn't look much good near the access, so I took a good long walk until I found a better looking spot.

I did find an interesting area, but I was an hour or two late.  The good targets were right under where the waves were crashing on the beach.  I couldn't work it well, but I did manage to recover a few items.

John Brooks Beach Wednesday Morning.

Below are a few of the kinds of things I was digging low on the beach.

Items Dug Low On The Beach Wednesday.

Higher on the beach where it was easier to dig, there was more junk.  There was clear classification, and I knew I needed to be lower on the beach.  I should have been there at low tide.  I haven't done much rough-water detecting lately.  There were undoubtedly more good targets there, but the water was too rough .

Besides the difficulty of recovering targets in white water at the beach, I'm always afraid of damaging the coil.

If you notice the arrow shaped item above the shell, I dug a very similar item a few weeks ago.  I never really got a good ID, but it looks like part of a small latch or whatever.  The new part looks like it might fit into the one I found before, but it doesn't quite fit now, possibly due to the corrosion.

Upper Left; Old (left) and new find (right).  Upper Right: New find (top) and old find (bottom).  Closer view of one end of new find

.

It really looks to me like these two parts fit, or latch, together.  It is amazing to me to find those two pieces weeks apart.

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JamminJack owns the book shown below and says it is a good reference.  Looks like it would be interesting.

Cover of Book Recommended by JamminJack.

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The surf isn't big, and the waves have been hitting from a southerly direction, but if you look real hard, I'm sure there are some areas worth working out there.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/21/22 Report - Pirates You Might Not Know About. Grace O'Malley. 88 Cataloged Hoards To Be Studied.

 

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

Source: See the  MilitaryHistoryNow.org link below. 

BUCKETS OF INK have been spilled immortalizing Britain’s buccaneers, privateers and sea dogs.  Sir Henry Morgan, William Kidd, Blackbeard, and Sir Francis Drake are legends.   

Similarly, the French have their pirates Francois "Peg Leg" Le Clerc and Francois l'Olonnais, while the Dutch celebrate the exploits of their most famous corsair Piet Hein.

And although history remembers these nations` swashbucklers, a number of other countries have their own pirate heroes (and villains), as well — many of which you’ve probably never even heard of. Consider these:

Their list begins with the pirates of Spain and continues from there.

Here is the link.

The Unknown Pirates – Meet 13 of History's Forgotten (But Damn Fascinating) Sea Dogs - MilitaryHistoryNow.com

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One of the more interesting but less documented pirates is Grace O'Malley.

Here is a bit about her.

Grace O’Malley (a. 1530 - 1603) is one of the most famous pirates of all time. From the age of eleven, she forged a career in seafaring and piracy and was considered a fierce leader at sea and a shrewd politician on land.  She successfully defended the independence of her territories at a time when much of Ireland fell under the English rule and is still considered today ‘the pirate queen of Ireland.’

And here is the link.

Grace O' Malley | Irish female pirate | Royal Museums Greenwich (rmg.co.uk)

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The University College Cork of Ireland, Archaeology Department is studying 88 Viking-age hoards.

This project will result in the publication of study and catalogue of the eighty-eight Viking-age gold and silver hoards containing non-numismatic material of Scandinavian character from Ireland, c. AD 800-c.1000, and will discuss these finds in the context of related hoards from Britain and Scandinavia. Undertaken in conjunction with the National Museum of Ireland, this project details the hoards and their components and examines the social and economic impacts of the Vikings on early medieval Ireland.

Here is the link for more about that.

Hoards | University College Cork (ucc.ie)

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Yesterday I posted photos of a tag found by Jamminjack.  Here is what he said he learned about that.

Got an email from someone saying that it is a Surveyor's license number. I checked with Property Appraisal and it is connected to Donald A. Maclean 2047. He surveyed a lot of land in this area. They could not give me a specific time period(?) but said it had been a long time ago. If they had the location of the property then they could give me more info. He could had surveyed the land before the park was built or could be dirt from elsewhere.

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Nothing interesting in the surf predictions.  It is still breezy and the tides are decent.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/21/22 Report - Treasure Coast Dug Maravedis. Survey Markers. Losing Signals In Holes and Ground Tracking With The Equinox.

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

Some Finds, Including Maravedis.

In my 2/18/22 post I mentioned a hoard of maravedis that were found. JamminJack told of some Treasure Coast maravedi finds and sent the photos I am posting today.

Maravedi Submitted by JamminJack.

Below is what JamminJack said about the maravedis finds.

As for Maravedis,  we still found the most ever on TC.

JW, NL, and I found a 5 gallon bucket of them. We put them on eBay for $5 a piece. Soon, buyers were relisting them as pirate's coins and getting $25 and up. We decided to stop selling them. I had about 50 for a long time and kept ones that were rarer or unique. They were found south of (when they were building) Wabasso Disney Resort. Believed to be part of the Green Cabin Wreck, but some of the coins, like the Charles II would be related to Corrigan Wreck. I miss the bluff that protruded outward. Would find some GOOD STUFF THERE!😎

Treasure Coast Maravedis Finds
Submitted by Jamminjack.

JamminJack had the following to say on another topic.

Been searching this park a few times and was told where the old fill dirt was. Found a lot of interesting items, but this was cool when I saw it. It is Public Land Survey marker about size of half dollar and older. They use plastic chips now. This will probably tell me where the dirt came from. Was really deep.

Public Land Survey Marker Dug by JamminJack.

Jack continued...

Anyone else having problems with Equinox 800 when you dig an item out of the hole and do not get a signal anymore. 

I switched to all metal and pinpointing from Park 2 when item is out. What am I doing wrong? Never had this issue with any other machine especially my Sand Shark and CZ21.

Not long ago I mentioned that the same thing happens with the Equinox 600.   Targets can seem to disappear when you dig a hole.  This can be caused by the target slipping deeper in the hole or changing position.  For example, a coin might be turned on edge, which reduces the signal.  But targets can also seem to disappear when digging a hole causes a disruption in the soil mineralization requiring the detector to filter out the target.  In a way, you can look at it as a kind of masking.  The soil can be either more or less mineralized outside the hole.  If you've checked to make sure the target has not been removed from the hole, one approach is to simply keep digging.  You'll find the target again.  In a previous post I described how you can dig the hole so it has sloped sides rather than creating a sharp drop-off.  I won't go over that again.

Here is how Minelab describes what is happening.

1. Ground Balance. The default is ground tracking on. Tracking attempts to keep up with and smooth out the variations in the ground. In doing so it has a filtering effect and can possibly tune out the slight audio variations that come not just from the ground but from very small or very deep gold. Tracking off is therefore the most sensitive setting, with adjustments made via the Auto (pump) method or manually.

Digging a hole causes a sharp variation in soil mineralization, especially on wet saltwater beaches or black sand. That makes it harder for the detector to adjust to the variation and can cause the signal to be lost. You can adjust detector settings that affect tracking. There are differences in how the 600 and 800 works and the beach 2 mode is also different. There are too many differences for me to get into all the details here. While I prefer to employ different methods, you might want to adjust your detector settings so it will track faster.  On the 800 you might try the gold setting to see how that works.  I tend to just dig the hole deeper and wider until I find the target again.

Of course, you are more likely to lose targets that are small and create a less distinct signal to begin with.

If you have other solutions, let me know.

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If you can find more information on the Seminole Milk Company, I'd love to learn more about that.  I haven't found much yet.

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The wind switched yesterday.  It was more from the north.

The tides are still big, but the surf is not.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net