Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
I've been going through some old notes on Florida Spanish coin sites. There are several that I'll only lightly touch on because there has already been so much said about them, and they are described in great detail in numerous places online as well as previous posts in this blog.
I've the discussed the Jupiter Inlet wreck multiple times before, but a lot of my metal detecting at that site was before the cannon was discovered by lifeguard Peter Leo.
I've mentioned Dave before too. Dave spent a lot of time detecting that beach and found a many reales there well before the wreck was discovered in 1987. I don't know who was first to discover Spanish coins there, but Dave was among the first and undoubtedly among the most successful early detectorists on that site. I met Dave there on one of my first trips to the site and multiple times after that. I never got his last name.
Dave was very curious about my metal detector, which was basically a modified Nautilus. He noticed that I was digging some deep holes where he had already detected. I don't remember now whether I was using a Steve Noga or Herb MacDonald detector at the time, but both of those were very good for my purposes, and I wouldn't mind using either of them today. They were my favorite metal detectors. In fact when I got my first from Steve Noga, I used it just a few times before calling him up and buying a second one to have as a backup.
One day I spent hours digging a tons of coins (mostly old U.S.) on that beach while the lifeguard (don't know if it was Leo) watched me, and when Dave showed up, the lifeguard told Dave how much I was digging. That is when Dave told me the next time that happens, he would be there first.
Besides Dave, I think there were at least a few others that knew that beach produced silver cobs years before the wreck site was discovered in 1987. One was Dennis Rainey, if I remember the name correctly. Not sure if I got the name right, but the person I'm thinking of was a coauthor with Keven Reilly on the Beach Bank book. The same fellow found an escudo on a Treasure Coast beach during the Thanksgiving Storm of 1984.
Anyhow, when I started occasionally driving north from Broward to hunt the Treasure Coast beaches, I would sometimes stop at Jupiter and do a little beach hunting either on the way up or way back. I didn't find a reale on my first several visits, but I liked to hunt that beach because of the variety of finds, including modern gold and old U.S. coins. Back then I didn't have the resources I have today for checking weather and waves at other locations, so it was very much a hit or miss thing. That is something that has changed a lot.
The beach at Jupiter Inlet looked very different in those days. There was no paved parking lot or restroom. It was an unpaved path through a bunch of Australian Pines. People would pull off to park and park among the trees. Many of the beaches have changed a lot over the years and decades.
I don't remember exactly when it was that I found my first reale there, but I do remember that one day I just felt like going there. It was one of those feelings you get. Just a hunch. And after driving an hour or more, when I arrived the tide was near high and the water was very rough and bouncing off the face of the heavily eroded dunes. It was tough detecting. I was working in thigh high water rushing down the slope as it bounced off the dunes. Not easy. I got a signal, dug it up, and stuck the scoop out towards my wife so she could take remove whatever was in the scoop. After looking at it a little while, she finally said, I think you finally got one. It was the nice Potosi half reale that I've shown several times. Only one side was visible until a lot of cleaning revealed an exceptionally clear strike and monogram.
It won't be difficult to find more about the Jupiter site online, but some of the history on the site prior to the discovery of the wreck in 1987 might be new to you.
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I posted this newspaper clipping before, but wanted to return to it to address something I skipped over before.
It says, "The other half of the wreck was subsequently found in a mangrove swamp about 100 yards inland." Part of wrecks washing over the island is something that is occasionally discussed. 100 yards wouldn't likely put it into the lagoon. In most places it would be difficult for anything to be washed over the island, considering the mangroves, trees, etc. Yet there are places where it might be possible. In fact there are places where the island could be cut through.
I remember one time when blind creek was not too far from being opened to the ocean. The erosion was back very close to the lagoon, so I can imagine that happening.
When I think back to some of those kinds of things, I always wish I would have hit it harder at the time. After all these years, I realize how rarely those very exceptional conditions occur.
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One day I said Disney was going down the tubes. Here is what MSN (rated "left of center" by mediabiasfactchecker) had to say.
5 Major Problems That Disney Just Admitted To (msn.com)
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Don is now a tropical storm but so far out that it will have little to no impact on us.
Windy.com shows nothing but south and west winds the next couple of days followed by a light east wind, but nothing that will help beach conditions a lot.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net