Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Bogota 2-Escudo Found at Nieves Site Recently. Photo submitted by one of this blog's readers. |
We've had a lot of good weather for treasure salvage work so far this year. There has been a lot of smooth surf. This escudo was recently reported found near the site of the Colored Beach wreck (aka Nieves or Douglass Beach Wreck).
Congratulations guys!
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I saw on the internet where a fellow was talking about how metal detecting was changing. He was saying that there weren't as many coins anymore. I talked about that years ago. People aren't using money much anymore. They use digital payment methods more these days and carrying less money.
And just a couple years ago I went to a State Park that I had visited many times before, but this day they told me they weren't taking cash. You had to pay by card.
People don't carry as much cash, and as a result, they don't lose as much change. And they don't lose as much paper money either.
You can find cash too. I've found cash washed up with seaweed. There was one dip in the water off a popular resort in Fort Lauderdale where bills collected. You could snorkel out and look for it.
I also remember one time when I was metal detecting in shallow water and a twenty dollar bill came floating by about a foot under the surface of the water.
But this fellow was talking about how there seems to be fewer coins.
When I began metal detecting, like many people I targeted coins. I tried to find more coins on each outing. I kept track of the number of coins I found. I've talked about that before. I counted the number of each type of coin, how many I found and the total face value.
I remember telling the fellow that ran Pot of Gold near the Fort Lauderdale airport (Jerry) when I found enough coins with my aquanaut 1280X to pay for the detector. As I recall, the price over $600 and I found enough to coins in the first year to pay for the detector. That seemed pretty good to me at the time.
But when you think of it, paying for your metal detector is only part of your expenses. There are batteries, travel expenses, parking fees, scoops etc. So the change didn't pay for your total expenses if you treated it like a business. But it paid for some expenses, and there were other finds of value like rings and jewelry.
I wasn't a coin shooter very long. I was at the beginning. That is how I judged my success at first, but it wasn't long before I quit keeping track of the coins. I then targeted gold instead. I then kept track of my silver and gold finds. I wasn't a coin shooter anymore. I was only a coin shooter for maybe a year or two. I don't remember how long off hand, but it wasn't real long.
One good find, like a diamond ring or Rolex watch, is worth many thousands of routine coins. Coins provided good information while hunting, but contributed very little to the total value of my finds. So for me, finding fewer coins is not a big deal.
Modern coins, shiny or crusty, provide good information on what is going on at a spot or a beach, even if they aren't valuable. I learned a lot by analyzing the distribution of coins. The same could be said of junk finds. I learned a lot by looking at coin lines and coin holes, for example. But I was no longer a coin shooter.
Of course there are coins and there are coins. There are old coins and gold coins that are worth a good bit. And there are the shipwreck coins that gave the Treasure Coast its name. But they haven't been lost for a long time and the only way they are decreasing in numbers is by continually being found. That isn't what the fellow was talking about. He was talking about metal detecting being changed in a big way by the fact that there are fewer coins to be found. But that is only a significant change for you if modern coins are what you target, and I haven't targeted modern coins for many years, so that won't change much for me.
Coins, as I suggested, do provide some information, and having fewer coins on a beach does mean you will have a little less information to help you assess the state or condition of a beach or area. If you find a crusty coin or older coin, that tells you something even if the coin isn't worth much. Having fewer coins will only change the basic nature of metal detecting for people who are actually targeting modern coins, and I don't think there are a lot of those anymore, especially on the Treasure Coast.
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Metal detecting hasn't changed very much over the decades. Some people point to advances in technology, but for me, those changes don't seem very dramatic. I know some people see it differently. Some people like the target ID and use it a lot, for example. For me, its ok, but no biggy. In the larger scheme of things, by itself, I don't think it will make a poor hunter into a good hunter.
There are a lot of new things, but many of them are expensive and not of great valuje. Of the detectorists that you know, how many have adopted a new technology that resulted in a great find? If you have a story about that, I'd like to post it.
In my view, things have changed very little over the past forty years or so. Did you know that the mailbox (blower) was invented in 1962. That is over sixty years ago, and nothing has replaced in in over half of a century. Innovation is slow.'
Tomorrow, or someday in the near future, I'll talk more about innovation in metal detecting and why things do or do not change very quickly.
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| Tropical Storm Cindy. Source: nhc.noaa.gov |
We have two tropical storms now. Bret is supposed to stay well south of us, and Cindy is predicted to turn north, staying well east of us and pretty much falling apart.
After looking at some of the maps and models, it looks like Cindy will be sending more south winds towards our part of Florida.
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Looks like a lot of people have discovered the TreasureBeachesReport.blogspot.com. It is getting thousands of views daily.
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Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net