5/15/24 Report - One Find I Didn't Recognize Soon Enough. Atocha Coins Found. WW II Era Foreign Notes.

 

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

St. Francis Medallion From 1715 Shipwreck Beach.

A few days ago, I mentioned a new personal first.  It wasn't a great find, but it was a first nonetheless, and I found it surprising to finally find one after so many years.  Of course I'm talking about the horn mouthpiece.  It reminded me of a lot of other firsts, some of which I listed in a previous post.  They were some of my most memorable firsts.  Here is that list.

My first ring.  It was a silver skull ring.  Nothing that I consider special in any way today.
My first Rolex watch.
My first multi-carat solitaire diamond ring.
My first national championship sports ring.
My first escudo.
My first piece of shipwreck silver.
My first gold shipwreck artifact.
My first raw gold nugget from a treasure wreck beach.

Of course there were others, but.some very good firsts were  not included in that list. There are variety of possible reasons for why a first might have not made the list, but some firsts are not remembered well.  I think of one, for example, that I didn't recognize as such a good find when it was found.  I didn't recognize what it was.

I did one post suggesting that you might not be ready for some finds.  That was evidently the case with the one I'm talking about because whensome slight  I found it I didn't recognize it, and worse yet, I cleaned it improperly and did some damage to it before I recognized what it is.  I'm talking about the St. Francis medallion shown above.

I've told part of that story before, but you might be wondering how in the world I failed to recognize that one.   It was encrusted just like a bunch of other coins I dug that day and like a bunch of other modern coins I had sitting around waiting for a good cleaning.  When I say encrusted, I mean so heavily encrusted so that looked round like the coins.

So I put the medallion along with a bunch of coins into a tumbler for an initial cleaning.  Thankfully, I had learned to not leave things in any cleaning method too long without checking on the progress.  When I inspected the partially cleaned load, I noticed the cross shape of the medallion and didn't put it back with the other coins that were going to be tumbled some more.

St. Francis Medallion From Shipwreck Beach.

As you can see, the medallion still had some sand on it when I took the photo.  I also noticed some silver gilt remaining.  I forget what I

I thought the medallion was round and didn't see the cross shape until some of the crust was removed.  As you can see, it still has sand on it after some cleaning was done.

Had I recognized what it was when I dug it up, I definitely would have remembered the details of the find.  As it is, I don't remember it well.  Now I don't even know what year it was found.

Quite a bit of time elapsed before I got a lot of information on the medal. Here is a link to a 2011 post giving what I learned about the medal.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 9/21/11 Report - Puzzle of Medallion Solved & Help from Rain

After some cleaning I could only make out a few Latin words on the back of the medallion   I learned from a reader of the blog that the Latin on the back is the May the Lord Give You Peace prayer.

May the Lord Give You Peace prayer
on the back of the medallian.

My main point is that I do not remember much about when I found the object simply because I saw it as nothing more than another encrusted coin.

A second point is that sometimes it is better if you don't find a certain type of object until you have learned enough to treat it well.  Or as I put it once before, sometimes you are not yet ready for certain types of finds.

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I received the following email from the Fisher organization.

Thrilling news just in! We've discovered a whopping 6 silver coins at the Atocha site so far this trip - let the celebration begin! Our diligent crew is pushing through the Atocha mud trail, moving beyond the area where we found 6 copper ingots in our past expeditions. This zone is largely unexplored, fueling our anticipation for the treasures we'll uncover next.

The crew plans on staying out at the site as long as possible. The wind has picked up some but is supposed to lay back down on Wednesday.

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Here are some foreign bills that I found.  I think some were probably sent back home by my dad, but I'm not totally sure of that.

World War II Era Foreign Bills.

The first (top) is a 1964 Bank of Indonesia1-Sen bill in great condition. I don't have any idea where it came from.

Below that is a 1939 Bank of France 10 francs bill.

Below that is a 1940 Bank of Italy 50 lire.

REGNO D'ITALIA BIGLIETTO DI STAT1939 ISSUE 5 LIRE

And below that is a 1934 Bank of Italy 5 lire.

Down the right side are 1944 2, 5 and 10 franc Bank of France notes.

Those three were "printed in the U.S.A. and issued by the Allied military during the initial stages of the liberation of France in 1944. They were not approved by the Provisional Government of the French Republic but were accepted by banks and for payment of taxes. The larger denominations were demonetized in June 1945 but the 2, 5 and 10 francs were not demonetized until the introduction of the euro."

Here are the other sides.

Other Side of Same Foreign Notes.

As you can see, most are not in great condition.

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The surf will be small the week.  No big tides now either.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net