6/1/24 Report - Some Cool Coin Finds. World Coins from Florida. The Narrative of Finds. Bigger Surf.

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

Australian One Penny Coin (1927 & 1934) Finds
Find and photos by Garry M.

I thought I would share this with you. I find it very interesting that I would find these in the ocean water detecting in Florida. Yesterday I spent about 8 hours in the water. I found some rings and some other jewelry but this was a real surprise to me. I found these two Australian pennies while working the trough. I guess it is possible that someone could have thrown their coin collection in the water. I will never know the reason why they were there but nevertheless I find it to be a pretty cool find. Here are some photos. I buffed them up some to take some of the tarnish off from being in the ocean. Everyday metal detecting is like having a birthday. You never know what your present is going to be. 

Have a great weekend. 

Australian One Penny Coins (1927 & 1934) Finds.
Find and photos by Gary M.

Thanks for sharing Gary.  It isn't uncommon to find foreign coins in Florida.  I've done posts on foreign coin finds before.  An Australian coin wouldn't be so hard to explain, but older coins like these are more to difficult to explain.  As Gary said, maybe someone was carrying some old coins around for some reason.  They don't look like they've been out there for so many decades, but they are bronze, which holds up a lot better than a lot of other coins.  One of those little metal detecting mysteries.

Here is a post showing some similarly old foreign coins found in Florida.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 8/8/18 Report - Older World Coins Found in Florida. Tropical Storm Debby.

Below is a nice display of world coins found by Keith and Barbara Ann S.

Display Showing Foreign Coins and a Bill Found on Florida Beaches.

By Keith and Barbara Ann S.

I posted it in my 4/9/20 treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com post.

It shows how finds can be enhanced by being displayed well.  They can also be repurposed in a variety of ways

In the same post I provided this list of foreign coin finds reported by readers of the blog. Here is that list.  I'm not sure it is the latest or most complete.  Probably not.

Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Haiti, European Union, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, Virgin Islands. 

One thing to remember about foreign or world coins is that many have a different composition than most US coins and some are ferrous or even aluminum and can be missed if you discriminate.   Being ferrous, some are attracted to a magnet.  I've used a magnet to separate normal and mostly magnetic Canadian coins from silver Canadian coins.  See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 7/4/18 Report - Super Quick Way to Scan Coins. Applied Lip 19th Century Bottles.

How often have you heard someone say about a find something like, "If it could only speak?"  We might wish our finds could tell their story.  We'd like to know where objects have been and how they got to where they were found.  That is part of the mystery and fun of metal detecting.

Some finds do speak fairly clearly, but they only tell you part of the story.  Coins can tell you a lot.  They often plainly tell you the date and place they were made and some things about that time and era, perhaps who was king or queen and maybe they show you some of the cultural icons.  Maybe they show you some of the materials they've encountered while waiting on you. 

Coins have their language, but so does the beach, the water and your metal detector.   Learning a little of each can be beneficial.

Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist who is very popular on the internet these days, referred to objects as micro-narratives.  I've talked a little about them that way but avoided getting into the psychology and phenomenology of it all. 

"Narrative" is a currently a much-used word in science and pop-science.  See for example "Trends in Neuroscience" (Narratives for Neuroscience: Trends in Neurosciences (cell.com))  Among other things, the article talks about how science needs to learn to use narrative to better communicate with the general population.  I touched on that topic in my post entitled "The Trouble with Archaeology," although I didn't use the now popular word, "narrative."  In a general sense, I don't think it means much more than story-telling.

One interesting story-telling technique is to take the perspective of an object.  One good example, follows the journey's of a bank note.  See The adventures of a bank-note : Bridges, Thomas, fl. 1759-1775 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

One of the most interesting POV switches I've seen in a short story (or sketch) by Ring Lardner.  A couple ladies were vacationing at the Grand Canyon when he suddenly presents the perspective of a mule watching all the "goings on."  He made quite a few unexpected changes in POV.  That was one of the best and, to me, most humorous stories I've ever read. 

You might try taking the point of view of a find as you imagine its journey.  Take some time to meditate on the object, whether it is a coin or something else.  If you have the right personality for it, you might enjoy and benefit from the exercise. 

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Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

So the surf Saturday will be a bit bigger.  I'm sure there will be a little stirring.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

T