Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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Perdue Ring Holding Atocha Emerald
Auctioned for $1.2 Million For Aid To Ukraine.
See links below. |
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Based on the meager information available, it is believed that Ms. Monroe had a farm at this well-traveled intersection, and likely operated a "rest stop" in the days of horse-drawn vehicles, offering food and rest for weary travelers. The farm was apparently located on the north side of present Highway 230 at the site where the DuPont Company's new dredge was assembled last year, and is now operating.
Also in this area was an Indian War Fort, Van Cortland, built for the protection of early settlers around Kingsley Lake and elsewhere in the sandhill area of Trail Ridge.
Bits of broken crockery, bottles and other household items have been found in recent years at the site of Mrs. Monroe's, as well as Spanish coins dating back to 1773, and several American coins, including a three-cent piece dated 1833, and others from 1840, 1846 and 1851. These coins were salvaged by Kenny Scarbro, a maintenance engineer with the DuPont Company, from the sump of the dredge that sucks up ilmenite ore from a moving lake. All of the coins were badly bent or mangled by passing through the dredge crusher.
"I would like to have been there with a metal detector before the dredge passed through." Scarbro said.
The discovery of the 29 old coins in a small area long Trail Ridge indicates activity around Mrs. Monroe's place at the junction of the Alachua Trail and Newnansville Road. It is easy to picture tired travelers stopping there for a meal and a night's rest for themselves and their horses...
That is part of a 1979 article from the Bradford County Telegraph (100th anniversary edition, Section 2, Page 3) sent to me by Chris N. who was doing some research. Here is the link.
KingsleyLake.Org / ALACHUA TRAILA metal detector is a great tool, but it doesn't replace every other tool. When you find out about a good metal detecting spot, you might run to your closet and grab your metal detector. The article speaks of items found in the sump of the dredge. There are other ways to recover treasure. Sometimes I think detecting is so much fun and so productive, that sometimes people forget about other approaches that could be a big help. Some very valuable treasures are not metal at all. Sometimes those treasures are found by tourists looking for shells or just playing around, or sometimes by other detectorists who appreciate other types of treasure.
Of course some treasure hunters do spend considerable time hunting non-metallic treasure.
Not all 1715 Fleet finds are made of metal. One of my all-time favorites is wax.
Non-metallic items can be valuable, but they can also provide information that will lead you to other treasures. Glass, crockery, bricks and other materials will often give you important information that will help tell you where to metal detect.
Another good thing about non-metallic treasures is they will often be available when conditions are not so ideal for finding coins. Like I always say, "There is always some place to hunt and something to find."
Just like the movement of sand, the presence of various types of materials can be informative.
If you look at the archeological record, you'll see that non-metallic materials were very prominent in Spanish colonial period, yet they seem to show up very infrequently along our beaches.
Referring to Kathleen Deagan's book, Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Flerida and the Caribbean, 1500 - 1800, there are lists of materials imported to the new world that virtually never show up as finds. Items made of glass, jet, bone, ebony and other non-metallic materials were very common but almost never reported as finds from our Treasure Coast beaches.
Take, for example, finger rings. One table in Deagan's book shows thousands and thousands of items shipped to the Spanish colonies between 1511 and 1613. We often hear rings being found on the treasure beaches, but when, if ever, have you heard of a glass ring been found.
Looking down that table, I see one row lists over 11,000 glass finger rings being brought TO the New World. Although there are twenty-three rows describing imported rings of many types, that row (Anillos Comunes De Vidrio (common glass)) shows the largest number - not gold, copper or silver rings.
The second largest category of finger rings listed in that table of imports is listed as Sortijas De Vidrio (rings of glass). Glass rings are by far the most numerous of the listed imports of finger rings. Rings of jet are second most numerous. After that there is a huge drop. There were nearly as many rings made of horsehair as those described as gilded.
Looking farther down the same list, you will find Amulets and Images. Just over half of those (roughly 6000 of 11,500) were of jet. How many items made of jet have you found?
I guess that isn't surprising. We know that the types of items imported to the New World would be dramatically different than those exported back to Spain, and the ship manifests reflect that. We also know that certain kinds of items will better survive hundreds of years in the ocean or on the beach, but I suspect that detectorists might miss those simply because they are not looking for them. Yet some people have found precious non-metallic items. I've already mentioned emeralds.
Deagan's book lists many items made of glass, including a cross, necklace, and many other items that you might not think would be made of glass.
I'll sum it up this way. There should be a lot of non-metallic items out there to be found but you won't find them by using a metal detector.
You can improve your skill and your chances for finding non-metallic items.
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At the top of this post you see a picture of the Perdue emerald ring. The ring holds an Atocha emerald and was sold in December for $1.2 million.
Here are a couple links for more information about that.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
Looks like we'll have some increased surf on the Treasure Coast in a day or two. The tides are getting pretty flat though.
There are at least a half dozen posts on Treasure Coast found emeralds in treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
