12/31/25 Report - Site of Mission of Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo Identified. Most Viewed TBR Posts of This Year. Holed and Bent Coins. In Store.

 

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

An archaeology team from Texas Tech University... found the lost site of Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo in early December. The site is located in Jackson County, Texas, on a private ranch near the Presidio la Bahía and Fort St. Louis...

The site was initially established in the 1680s by the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, as part of France's efforts to colonize the New World. He left the colony to try to find the mouth of the Mississippi before being killed by his own men. The remaining colonists were eventually killed or captured by the native Karankawa tribe.

Spain eventually settled on the site as part of its missionary efforts. However, their habitation was short-lived and became lost when the Spanish left in the mid-1720s. Archaeologists had been looking for the mission site for decades.

Spain eventually settled on the site as part of its missionary efforts...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

Archaeology team uncovers lost mission site of Espiritu Santo

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I can't say 2025 was the greatest treasure year for the beach hunters, but there were good finds.  2020 and 2022 were better.  But while the year is almost over, the winter season continues and there is reason for hope.  Some treasure coins have already been found this winter and I'm confident there will be more.

A couple days ago I looked at the most viewed posts from the old treasurebeachesreport site.  I started this site when the old site got too big.  That was in 2020, so all the posts in this blog were posted in 2020 or before.  

Of course, the most recent posts don't have as many views as they will in the future, so they should be underrepresented in the list of most viewed posts.

All but one of the blog posts that were among the most viewed in 2025 were posted in 2025.  The other was posted in 2022.  People tend to read the recent posts the most, but occasionally there is a reference to or revived interest in an old topic or post.  It is no surprise that most of the views this year were of posts published in this year.

Three of the posts that got the most views this year were posted in Oct. of 2025.  There could be a lot of reasons for that, but I won't get into all that now.  

Now I'll look at the list of  posts that received the most views in 2025.  The leader was a real surprise to me.  This blog's most viewed post in 2025 was the March 29, 2025, post on remote viewing.  I would never have guessed that a post on remote viewing would have been the most viewed post this year.  But it was.

The second most viewed post in 2025 was also a surprise, but for a different reason.  It was a post from 2022, but still was viewed a lot this year.  I can't say why it was so popular three years after originally being posted.  It was about beach conditions and research on a found ring.

The third most viewed post of this blog in 2025 was the 5/12/25 post that featured a salvaged silver shaker box.  Very unique artifact.

The fourth most viewed post this year was my 12/16/25 post announcing that treasure coins were being found.  That is one thing people always want to know.  Of course, they want to know when treasure coins are being found.  It is all the more remarkable that such a recent post could receive so many views so quickly, but instead of people losing interest in this post, it continues strong.  

You might also remember that earlier in the year this blog was listed as one of the top metal detecting blogs.

I won't go through the entire list, but here is the rest of the list from number five through ten: 10/13/25, 1/21/25, 10/1/25, 8/16/25, 10/11/25, and 5/4/25 posts.

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Sometimes things other than the popularity of a post will affect how many views it gets.   For example, just this morning I looked at treasurebeachesreport as soon as I got up and before 8 AM it already had nearly 2000 views.  The post at the top of the list for that morning was on holed and bent cons, which was a post that hadn't received a lot of recent attention.  The reason I believe it was getting all the new attention was the Oak Island TV show last night featured a supposed folded, or bent, coin   I thought that the girl in the research lab (Emma, I think it is) said there was no evidence it was a coin,  I don't watch the show carefully, so maybe I got some of this wrong, but then to keep the narrative going they had to bring in someone else to talk about the bent piece of metal being a coin.   From what I could see on the TV screen, it didn't look much like a coin.  In fact, the way it was bent made it look more like lead or something softer than most coins.  I don't know why they didn't show Emma's scan which would have showed traces of design elements or something.  Again, I don't watch that show closely, so might have missed something, but my point is that the show was talking about a bent coin and then all of a sudden, my post about holed and bent coins showed big bump in the number of views.  My point is that world events can drive views on particular topics.  So can references from other internet or news sources, such as when I was interviewed by CNN Travel.

Here is the link to that post.  The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 2/7/18 Report - Dug Coins With Holes and Bent Coins: Uses and Superstitions. Snip Pattern On Steve's Mystery Find.

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Someone asked about the store where I got the pictures of the treasure coins and artifacts.  It was G. Allen, but of course there are many other places on the Treasure Coast where you can find treasure cons and artifacts.

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

Nothing spectacular here.

I'm not one to make New Year' resolutions, but you might take stock and set some goals.

I'd like to see you 2025 finds, either the bunch or maybe your favorites.

Good hunting,

Treasuregudie@comcast.net

12/30/25 Report - One Detectorist's Metal Detecting Finds from 2025: Jewelry and Coins. North Winds Today.

 

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

Jewelry Found by John H. in 2025.

John Holt sent these photographs of his 2025 metal detecting finds from Florida.  Here is what he said.

Happy holidays to everyone. I have had a pretty good year with metal detecting on the treasure coast this year. I'm certainly not finding hundreds of rings and piles of gold, but I think I did reasonably well for the limited locations I chose to hunt. I found 9 gold rings and 25 silver out of 70 total. All were found on St Lucie and Martin county beaches from Herman's Bay South to Santa Lucia, about 9 miles of beach. This was my 4th year with the hobby. My goals for next year are to stretch my legs a bit and hunt some of the more populated southern beaches like Miami and Ft. Lauderdale for jewelry and Fort Pierce to the North on exceptional erosion days for shipwreck artifacts. I would like to thank you and Gary from Treasure coast detectors for all the information and inspiration that you freely give. the hundreds of hours of peaceful enjoyment that I have experienced by getting into this hobby and being moderately successful due to finding your blog, gaining knowledge and putting it to the sand. The work that you put into the blog is appreciated and I hope to see and hear from your other readers their finds of the year. John H

Some of my favorite foreign coins from top to clockwise.
2016 one euro cent
2002 50 euro cent
2015 one Piso Pilipinas
1960 one Franc
1980 Cincuenta centavos "fifty cents" Mexico
2008  one Ruble
1980's unk date Elizabeth II Canadian dollar coin
1980 10 Centavos Honduras Lempira
1921 One Florin "British King George V 50% silver

Some Foreign Coins Found by John 

Great finds for the year - great jewelry and nice coins.  

Thanks for sharing, John.

Its nice to have a such a helpful local dealer in Gary of Treasure Coast Metal Detectors.

Let's see what some of you other detectorists found this year.

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Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

It looks like tonight the surf will peak.

We have a nice north wind and cold weather this morning.  Looks like the wave/beach angles should be good today.

Send you 2025 finds, either the collection or favorites.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

12/29/25 Report - List of the Most Read TreasureBeachesReport.blogspot.com Site Posts for 2025 and All Time with Comments. Bump in Surf For Today.

 

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

We're getting very close to the end of the year.  It will soon be 2026, and then 2027 and 2028, if God wills it.  

The years seemingly pass faster and faster, but at this time of year, it is customary to look back to take stock of the year, assess mistakes and take stock of what you've learned.  

I've learned a lot and am sure you have too.  I hope I helped in some small way with that.

It has become my custom to look back at the posts of past.  I like to review some of the highlights of the year and my blog posts.  I'm always interested in what people like and what they don't care about although that is not my only consideration. 

I try to make the blog interesting and informative but am not driven totally by views or likes.  I haven't monetized the blog in any way.  There are no ads and I'm not selling anything.  I don't ask for anything (not even likes or subscriptions). I just do the blog to share what I've learned and also to help me keep learning.  

The readers of this blog can influence the content by providing feedback and input by email.  All email concerning the blog is appreciated, but not many people will take the time to write. The other source of feedback I get is the number of views for each post.  I take all emails seriously and try to respond to each either personally or in the posts, but as a sole writer doing almost daily posts, I occasionally forget to acknowledge input or make other mistakes.  Sometimes I put things off for a while and then forget or lose either emails or posts.

Today I'll start by looking at the posts of the treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com site that received the most attention during 2025. As you know I've been putting my new posts in this blog, so the old site hasn't had new posts since 2020.  Some of those old posts, some that go all the way back to around 2008, still receive some attention even though they are old posts.  That is gratifying.  The treasurebeachesreport site still gets tons of views each year.  I'm not sure what all drives that traffic, but it is pretty constant and self-maintaining.

I'm going to start the yearend review by looking at the top treasurebeachesreport posts of 2025, which were actually posted five years or more ago.

The treasurebeachesreport most viewed post of 2025 wassss... The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 8/1 Report - Inscriptions on 1715 Fleet Gold Rings."  

I'm surprised that post got so much attention because the title says so little and does not suggest what I think could be the content that actually drew most of the attention.  It has been getting numbers of views month after month.  

The content on the gold rings was basically the following.

1989 gold ring: Z+DIA+BIZ+S+ZB+Z+HGA+BFS++
1996 gold ring: Z+DIA+BIZ+SAB+Z+HG+F+BF
Bracelet - beach find: Z DIA BIZ SAB ZHG BFRS

In later posts I decoded those inscriptions, but not in this post.

But in the same post I talked about the value of information and a treasure beaches map I purchased from Roy Volker many years ago and how that helped me.   I might be wrong, but I think that is what keeps getting the post more views than any other treasurebeachesreport posts in 2025.

The second most viewed treasurebeachesreport post of 2025 was the 1/29/14 Report - Treasure Coast Sea Glass and Fort Pierce Pirate Fest.  

That post has been attracting readers consistently for years, and 2025 was no different even though the post is now over eleven years old.  I'm surprised so many detectorists are so interested in a sea glass find, even if that sea glass is a truly remarkable and rare piece of sea glass.  Maybe sea glass collectors are the ones responsible for the continuing popularity of that post rather than detectorists.  I don't know.

The sea glass was a really exceptional example of sea glass, but the thing that makes that find a favorite for me is really how years later I learned much more about it.  I eventually found out that it was a piece of a lens, probably from a nautical buoy, treated with uranium.  I talked about how I made that discovery in later posts in tbr2020 the tbr2020 site.

The third most viewed treasurebeachesreport post of 2025 was the following: The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 7/19/20 Report - Unidentified Treasure Coast Fossil Tooth. Historic Backyard Meteorite. Tropical Wave Over Hispaniola.

I suppose the biggest draw there was either the fossil find or the meteorite, or maybe it was the combination. Again I don't know.  

The fourth most popular post of the treasurebeachesreport site in 2025 was The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 1/21/16 Report - Preparing and Cleaning Encrusted Coins. Another Front Going To Come Through..  Preparing and cleaning encrusted coins is a good topic

No surprise that detectorists are interested in methods for cleaning encrusted coins.

The fifth most viewed treasurebeachesreport post of 2025 was The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 7/6/15 Report - Corroded Silver Coins. Corrosion As A Clue. Coins and Layers of Sand.   

I can understand this one too.   It is about corroded silver coins.  In this post I showed silver coins in varying states of deterioration as well as a more difficult to explain half reale from Jupiter beach that was heavily encrusted on one side but not encrusted at all on the other.  

The sixth most popular post for the treasurebeachesreport site in 2025 was The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 3/13/20 Report - Green Cabin Wreck: Wreck of the San Martin. St. James Religious Medallion.  As you can tell from the link it is about a wreck site.  

And the seventh most popular of this blog site in 2025 was The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 7/9/16 Report - Why North/Northeast Winds Create Good Conditions and Wash Treasure Onto The Beach. Next Sedwick Auction. $15,000 T. C. Beach Find.

That one is about the effect of winds and angles on beach conditions.  That is a good topic that I've also addressed in more detail in much more recent posts.

The eight most viewed post of that blog site during the 2025 year was The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 9/2/20 Report - How Objects Sink in Beach Sand, Density of Common Metals. Movement of Sand. Tropical Storm Dolly

That is another one on the topic of beach conditions.  It, along with the seventh in this list could be precursors to my more recent How Coins Move on a Beach series that was published this year in tbr2020.blogspot.com.  I might add one more part of the first nine that I posted in that series.

The ninth most viewed on the list was The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 6/19/11 Report - Mystery Shipwreck & Three Common Metal Detecting Misconceptions

This one is about the Power Plant Wreck and three common metal detecting misconceptions.  

And tenth was The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 4/28/19 Report - Melted Beer Can or Space Debris? Some Answers and Tests You Can Perform.

Almost everyone has found some of those melted silvery pieces.   Some can be space junk.  I told in this post how to identify those.

The ten most popular posts of 2025 from the Treasurebeacheresport blogspot site are not necessarily my favorites.  There are others that I think are more deserving.  

I'm surprised that the post announcing Captain Jonah's 300th Anniversary find of hundreds of gold escudos was not one of the top ten.  To be fair it does rank highly.  It has been in the top ten but this year just slipped down to something like number 12.

The post that I think everyone should read is the one that answers a question that answers a very important question.  Maybe it is an answer that detectorists just don't want to hear.  That post tells you how much metal detectors can be missed.  The post is based upon a case study by Russ P., on an old city lot that had been detected repeatedly before being sifted, which resulted in hundreds of silver coins being found after all the metal detecting that had been done.  Here is that post.  The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 3/26/18 Report - First Investigation Ever To Really Answer Two Big Questions: How Much Is Actually In The Ground As Compared To How Much Will Be Found Using A Metal Detector.

So this post gives you a list of the old posts (prior to 2020) that continue to remain among the most viewed.  They evidently have staying power.  Of course, this list shows once again that finds are always a popular topic, and that is not limited to metal finds.  Beach dynamics, leaning coins, wreck sites and identifying finds are also popular topics.

Below is the list of all-time most viewed posts from the treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.  (I call it all-time but the blogger statistics only count the last ten years, so some of the even older posts that would be on the list are not included.)  

The top nine most viewed posts from the last ten years of the treasurebeachesreport site, which ended in 2020 are shown below.  Note: I left out the actual number one, which is simply a redirect to the then newly created tbr2020 site.

The number one post about the 16th century gold pendant find.  That was a number one post for many years.  You'll see that several of those were also on the 2025 most read list, including the sea glass post, the 1715 gold ring post and the Green Cabin Wreck site post.

Like I said above, some of the ones that I would rate as the best do not appear on the list.  Sometimes they get overlooked for any of a variety of reasons, and sometimes certain posts get a big boost by getting publicity somewhere else, such as my interview with CNN, which gave a link to the blog.

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Surf Chart from Surfguru for the Fort Pierce Jetty Area.

We are seeing a little bump in the surf chart for the next couple of days.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

12/28/25 Report - De Soto's Camp Near Tallahassee Site of First Christmas in Americas. Reales, Escudos, Olive Jars and Other Local Treasures for Your Inspection.

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

Archaeologists uncover site of America’s first Christmas near Florida capitol

 Florida archaeologists have confirmed a stunning find hidden in plain sight: the site of Hernando de Soto’s winter encampment of 1539–1540 — and the location of the first Christmas ever celebrated on land that would become the United States...

"It was really astonishing that it’s here in Tallahassee," said Florida archaeologist Nicholas Yarbrough, who has helped analyze thousands of artifacts from the site. "It was kind of in plain sight but just underground."

The discovery traces back to 1987, when archaeologist Calvin Jones noticed construction equipment had churned up pieces of unusually old pottery. He stopped to investigate and spotted fragments of Spanish olive jars from the early 1500s. Soon, excavators uncovered armor pieces, crossbow bolts, and coins dating to the era of the De Soto expedition....

But the Spaniards were devout Catholics. Dr. Arbesú says they almost certainly held at least one Christmas Mass, likely in Latin, possibly at midnight and again in the morning.

"There would’ve been a celebration with food," Arbesú said, "but nothing like we would see today."

Dr. Noll notes the meal likely combined pork from the expedition’s pigs with traditional Apalachee staples such as corn...

The archaeological site, once nearly bulldozed,is now recognized as one of the most significant early-colonial sites in the United States.

Here is the link for more about that.

Archaeologists uncover site of America’s first Christmas near Florida capitol | FOX 13 Tampa Bay

Here is another example of discovery by accident.  You might remember the post in which I presented the results of a survey on how most discoveries are made, and one of them was earth being moved for construction.

Thanks to Dj for that link.

 

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Old Treasures for Sale at Local Shop
Including a Jug, Bottle, and Mounted Porcelain Shards and More.

While waiting for my wife while she did some Christmas shopping last week I was in one store on Midway Road, which like a lot of shops around the Treasure Coast had quite a variety of old shipwreck treasures for sale.  This was only one of several Treasure Coast stores that have a large inventory.  I will probably never buy anything like this, but I like to look at examples.  You might occasionally see something interesting or informative that way, and there really are a lot of examples to examine, such as the artifacts shown above as well as many coins - mostly reales.

Below are some spikes, porcelain and some coins.  

Many of the coins I saw at this location were from the West Bay Trading Company of Vero.

Below are some gold coins and a gold bar (which I'm not sure was real).

I don't know how many coins were on display, but I'd guess maybe a couple hundred or more.

Here are some more.

This location did not generally display prices on the coins.  They also had some meg teeth, and a meteorite and much more.

What I am suggesting is that stores like these provide materials for inspection much like little museums.  Make use of the opportunity to browse and inspect what is available.

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The Treasure Coast surf is running about two to three feet and will decrease farther in a couple days.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

12'/27/25 Report - Found Gold Coins. What You Can Get for Silver. Super Low Serial Number Bill Found. Couple Good Beach Cams.

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

While surveying a Swiss bog, two volunteer archaeologists discovered what may be two of the oldest Celtic coins ever found in the country, and they may have been offerings to ancient gods.

The two gold coins were minted almost 2,300 years ago, around the mid-third century B.C. "This makes them part of a very small group of just over 20 known examples of the oldest Celtic coins from Switzerland," Swiss archaeologists said in a translated statement released Dec. 18....

Here is the link for more about that.

2,300-year-old Celtic gold coins found in Swiss bog | Live Science

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... The price of silver is sitting at $75.85 rper ounce as of December 26, 2025, up from about $29.38 just one year ago. Based on today's spot price of approximately $75 per ounce, a 100-ounce silver bar carries a raw metal value of about $7,500. However, what you'll actually receive when selling a silver bar depends on factors beyond the spot price.

While the spot price of silver represents the theoretical cost for immediate delivery of pure silver, the actual transaction prices can vary based on where and how you sell. If you're working with a reputable silver dealer or precious metals exchange, you can expect to receive close to the spot price. Most established dealers will offer you between 95% and 99% of the spot value for a standard 100-ounce bar, meaning you'd walk away with roughly $7,125 to $7,425 in today's market.

The specific amount you receive, though, can shift based on the silver bar's manufacturer and condition. For example, silver bars from recognized refiners typically command better buyback rates than generic or lesser-known brands. And, silver bars that remain sealed in their original packaging generally fetch higher prices than those showing tar...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

How much can you sell a 100-ounce bar of silver for right now?

Nobody will give you the current spot price and some places will offer a slightly better price than others.  

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... In 2024, vending operator Calvin Westfall found G00000001I in his Georgia soda machine – the #1 bill from the 2013 Series G run, which experts valued at over $10,000, with uncirculated versions hitting $15,000. Picture almost spending that on a Coke. Low serial numbers below 00001000 are highly sought after by collectors, with the absolute lowest numbers commanding premium prices.

Serial numbers starting with five or more zeros are considered fancy, and the more leading zeros, the better. Why such astronomical values? Think about it - these bills are literally the first ones printed in a series...

Here is the link for more about bill collecting.

Before you spend it: The $1 bill pattern collectors are paying a fortune for

The lowest serial number I've been able to find on a bill had four leading zeros.  I can't imagine finding anything lower, but I guess it could happen.

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One of the beach cams offers a few of a launch pad.  I'm wondering if I might be able to catch a launch from that cam.

Here is the link.

Jetty Park Surf Report and Cape Canaveral Surf Forecast - Florida Surf Cams

Don't forget the  Jensen and Bathtub Beach web cams.  Both offer several good views.

Here is the Jensen link.

s1latest.jpg (5184×3456)

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Fort Pierce Jetty Area Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

Not flat but not real exciting.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

12/26/25 Report - Ancient Gold Coin Cache Found. Silver and Gold Prices Now and Future. Promise and Limitations of AI Tools.

 

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

A thousand-year-old piggy bank has been discovered in Jerusalem. 

A small jug discovered in the Israeli capital's Jewish Quarter last month turns out to contain four gold coins — the equivalent of four month's salary for a common laborer at the time the coins were tucked away more than 1,000 years ago. 

Archaeologists discovered the hidden loot while surveying a site prior to the construction of an elevator to the Western Wall Plaza, a historic public square in Jerusalem's Old City. Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) inspector Yevgenia Kapil found the juglet, a clay vessel not much bigger than a coffee cup.,,

The coins were exciting not simply because they were gold, but also because they made it easy to determine the age of the treasure cache. They all dated to between the years 940 and 970, according to the IAA...

Here is the link for more about that.

Ancient gold stash found in jug | Watch

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Gold and silver and other metals have been hitting record high prices.

... Markets have been jittery. A Russian general was killed by a car bomb in Moscow on Monday in what is a suspected, but unconfirmed, attack by Ukraine. Separately, the U.S. launched rockets at 70 different Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday.

Futures contracts for gold traded in New York were 1.87% higher, at $4,469.40 a troy ounce, a new record high according to Dow Jones Market Data and surpassing October’s peak of $4,336. It’s been a strong year for gold, up 69% since January, with some could reach$4,900 in 2026....

Here is that link.

Gold and silver prices surge to record highs on Venezuela, Russia tensions. How they can soar in 2026

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... Silver's price will likely continue to see increases in 2026, Joshua D. Glawson, content manager for Money Metals Exchange, says, especially as the demand for other investment vehicles like precious metals exchange-traded funds and bonds increases.

"ETFs are creating more 'demand' than there is actual physical metal above ground. And some countries' governments are now promoting these silver ETFs, which are driving up the price of silver futures and silver spot price," Glawson says. "My prediction, although I cannot tell the future, is that the price of silver is going to continue to rise in 2026."...

Here is the link for more about that.

What is the silver price forecast for 2026?

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AI has become an important research tool.  I've posted several ways that it has been used by detectorists including gathering information about possible detecting sites to identifying finds.  You might remember the post in which Mark G. reported on his use of AI to give him information on a location before his visit.  If you didn't read that, you should Treasure Beaches Report: Pt. 2. (2020 and Beyond). : 6/20/25 Report - Using AI to Prepare for a Metal Detecting Trip to a New Location: A Case Study.) 

It is important to understand both the capabilities offered by AI, but also the limitations.  Here are an excerpt from a good article on why AI couldn't solve a historical research problem.

... I made an important discovery that was published last year: The baptistery was built not by Florentines but for Florentines — specifically, as part of a collaborative effort led by Pope Gregory VII after his election in 1073. My revelation happened just before the explosion of artificial intelligence into public consciousness, and recently I began to wonder: Could a large language model like ChatGPT, with its vast libraries of knowledge, crack the mystery faster than I did?

So as part of a personal experiment, I tried running three A.I. chatbots — ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini — through different aspects of my investigation. I wanted to see if they could spot the same clues I had found, appreciate their importance and reach the same conclusions I eventually did. But the chatbots failed. Though they were able to parse dense texts for information relevant to the baptistery’s origins, they ultimately couldn’t piece together a wholly new idea. They lacked essential qualities for making discoveries.

There are a few reasons for this. Large language models have read more text than any human could ever hope to. But when A.I. reads text, it’s merely picking up patterns. Peculiar details, outlier data and unusual perspectives that can influence thinking can get lost. Without eccentric or contrarian ideas, I never would have made my discoveries. For example, in his 2006 book “Toscana Romanica,” Guido Tigler, a professor at the University of Florence, argued the baptistery was built later than generally believed. It’s an idea that’s not widely accepted, and I believe that’s the reason the chatbots never presented it to me when I asked them what they would read to solve the enigma of the baptistery. Although I ultimately found reason to reject the later dating, Mr. Tigler’s unorthodox ideas taught me to more strongly consider the possibility that past scholarship had gotten the timeline for the baptistery wrong...

AI is a great tool, but don't forget it has limitations.  The above article provides important perspective.

Here is the link for more about that.

Opinion | What Happened When I Asked ChatGPT to Solve an 800-Year-Old Italian Mystery - The New York Times

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Surf Chart from Surfguru.com.

As you can see, the surf will be decreasing.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

12/25/25 The Timeless Treasures of Christmas.

 Under the Tree.

I talked before about how aging can add depth and richness to the soul.  It's true!  I'll show you how that is true for me.

First of all, I love the middle of the night when most of the world is asleep, and it seems so quiet you can hear the stars twinkle.  

Late last night on Christmas Eve, I awoke in the middle of the night, as I often do, and gazed at the scene under my Christmas tree. Above you see part of that scene as it appeared this year.  It is an odd or incongruent scene composed of items not carefully laid out or situated.  

The items are not expensive.  In fact, some are downright cheap.  Most show the wear of the years.  Some are broken or incomplete.  They come from different years and different eras and even different homes.   

The items in the scene aren't as magnificent as the items I imagine under the trees of Elon Musk or any of a million other rich and famous people, but in a way these pieces are much better.  Each item under the tree has a richness of depth of feeling that only accumulates through the years.  It is deep, like looking into the starlit sky at night and into the black darkness in between the bright spots that you know must also hold distant stars yet unseen.

Looking at my little scene under the tree, I see my mom, and dad and grandma and grandpa.  They, like some of the items, according to the vision of the eye, are now missing from my personal Christmas scene - but they are still there. I see what is there in the present, but in my heart, I see much more.  I see the accumulated depth and richness of the years.

I see the ornaments my grandma made.  I see how proud she was of her crafts.  I think she intended all along for those items to be around well beyond her years.  And they are.

She always tried to make the Holidays special.  And she did.  They are not forgotten.

She was not alone.  In my scene, I see my dad working hard each day, getting up and going out to work before I awoke.  He got to work early, got his tools ready, and climbed electric poles in rain and sleet and hail.  His hands were thick and hardened.  He was tough.  He did it for a purpose - one that made my life much easier for me and provided many of the extras, as little or large as they might have been. 

Under the tree, I see much more than is really there.  I see the Lionel trains dad purchased and the toys that filled the front room of the house he built with his own hands.  And I see myself through the years excitedly emerging from my bedroom to see what awaited me under the tree each Christmas morning.

In my little scene, I see the cheap little cardboard houses covered with glitter that were made in Japan and sparkled under my tree.  Some of my wife's little houses and figures are there too.  Our scenes became combined.  I can see her excitement as a child too.  I've seen some of her pictures as well as the items she brought from her childhood.  But I can also see it in her very being.  Maybe she had fewer toys under her tree, but I'm sure it was no less special as the kitchen buzzed with her grandma and mother as they made potica (pronounced, po-TEE-tsa), a traditional Slovenian food that my wife was taught to make by her mother.  My wife came from the same optimistic post-World War II world although she grew up in somewhat different circumstances.  Now are two worlds have become one.

But as I sit late at night in the room lit only by my Christmas tree and gaze at the scene under my tree, I can see through the years.  I see the skater and skier frozen in position exactly as they always posed around Christmas time on grandma's buffet, which was a piece of furniture beside the dining table where we always had our Christmas eve meal.  Grandpa sits at the end of the table, my sister and I next to the windowed wall, dad at the other end and grandma next to the kitchen door through which she disappeared and appeared several times through the progress of each meal.

The metal skater with one leg raised and extended was always on a mirror that looked like and frozen icy pond, and the crouched metal skier skied on a layer of cotton cloth.

I could go on to describe the history of each piece under my tree, including the missing pieces as well as those that are present under the tree this year, but I won't.  To do so would be to describe what made me and who I am.

Just the other day I saw the metal sledder somewhere.  He's still around here, and of course, he is still wearing his blue jacket, but I didn't see his yellow sled.  His mitten covered hands are still grasping the yellow sled that isn't there, but I can still clearly see the sled.  Another scene appears.  I was riding my own sled down a snow-covered hill behind grandma's house when the sled hit a small stump buried in the snow.  My sled came to a sudden halt while I continued to slide across the encrusted snow in the same position but without my sled.  I always thought that was funny.  

When I gaze at the scene of miscellaneous surviving pieces under the star-like twinkling lights, the magic happens.   Some important pieces are missing - most importantly many of the people that made my life are no longer here.  That part brings a tear to my eye.  But when I look again at the little scene under the tree, it all comes back.  I can see the years of life all combined into one deep rich scene. 

The years aren't gone.  They are still there.  I can see them.  Grandma is still orchestrating the holidays.  Mom is helping.  Dad watches after making so much of it happen, and grandpa is smoking his pipe.  And sitting here in the midst of all that on Christmas Eve, I smile.  Thank you, God.  It was a wonderful life.  It was a wonderful life, but It still IS.*

Merry Christmas to All.

And Wishing You the Many Timeless Treasures of Christmas.