7/31/25 Report - Penny Crosses and Hard to Scoop Items. Knight Burial. Gold Thrift Find. Raining Gold. Florida Fossils.

 

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

Recent Finds by Mark D.

Mark G. sent the above photo and following email message.

I personally have found many strange things on the beach even more now metal detecting. Most of the items I can recognize, justify and/or utilize but today I was stumped. I know there is a lot of competition for sand on the public beaches, I am seldom alone with a metal detector when I’m out there. I was stumped today when I found these very small crosses, small enough to fit through the scoop and only 2 within a few feet of each other. I didn’t look at them too hard figured charms or something, until later. It appears these crosses are cut from pennies with a die, no apparent jewelry implications and have not been there long, days or maybe hours if you know anything about zinc pennies. I’m not saying it’s malicious but I can’t recognize, justify and/or utilize anybody going through the trouble? I would just be interested if anybody else has found these, thanks.  

 

I actually counted them as a blessing when I dug the engagement ring shortly after (see finds photo). But the ring was marked TK316 (the latest Stainless) with a CZ stone that you can buy brand new for less than $20. Who gives their fiancée a $20 engagement ring????

Penny Crosses Found by Mark G.

Thanks for sharing Mark.

It can take a lot of time to get items that fall through the holes in you scoop.  It is even worse if you are detecting shallow water with poor visibility.

The most memorable of mine was a gold bead found not far from the first flag pole at Turtle Trail.  I don't know how long it took me, but it took a long time for me to get it.  I got it on top of my coil with a hand full of tan sand and kept moving it around and could hear it moving but still couldn't see it for quite a while.  It wasn't too far off the color of the sand and was very small.

One that took me a while in the water was a tiny miniature copper pitcher, like from a doll's house.  It kept slipping through my scoop before I could see it and the visibility was poor so I couldn't see it in the water.

Each item you pick up at a location presents a bit of the picture of what goes on at a site.  Beer bottle caps, fishing sinkers, or whatever.  Look at your finds like an archaeologists would.

---

Medieval knight's complete skeleton found under Polish ice cream parlor.

Experts have been working at the site in the historic Śródmieście (city center) district since 2023, and initially uncovered a medieval tombstone decorated with the carved image of a knight, according to a statement from Polish archaeology firm ArcheoScan, sent to CNN on Tuesday.

The tombstone was then lifted earlier in July, revealing the complete skeleton of an adult male, thought to have lived around the 13th or 14th century...

Here is the link for more about that.

Medieval knight’s complete skeleton discovered beneath Polish ice cream parlor | CNN

---

Gold Item Purhased for $1 at Thrift Store.

A woman was shocked to discover the true value of a pendant she purchased from a California thrift store for $1...

It was only years later, while selling off other unwanted pieces of jewelry, that Blackstone discovered the piece's true worth.

"A melt shop I was selling broken jewelry to recently offered me money for it on the spot," Blackstone said. "I realized it was worth valuing properly."

The amount offered there, on the spot, caught her off-guard: $240.

"I was surprised to hear the number as high as $240 from low melt value," Blackstone said. "So I decided to post it, to see what the experts think. I was curious about the origin, and what it would retail for as well."...

Here is the link for the rest of the story.

Woman thrifts pendant for $1—then discovers its value

I showed in a recent post how small the marks on gold items can be.  I've found some that I only fond with a microscope and would likely not be found without one.  I can see how easy it would be for a person to misjudge a piece of gold and donate it without even knowing what it was.  Similarly, the thrift store workers might easily misjudge an item, which means there is a possibility of picking up making a find like the one in this article.  

---

Something is raining gold across the universe. But no one knows what it is.

Here's the problem: Gold is an element, which means you can't make it through ordinary chemical reactions — though alchemists tried for centuries. To make the sparkly metal, you have to bind 79 protons and 118 neutrons together to form a single atomic nucleus. That's an intense nuclear fusion reaction. But such intense fusion doesn't happen frequently enough, at least not nearby, to make the giant trove of gold we find on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system. And a new study has found the most commonly-theorized origin of gold — collisions between neutron stars — can't explain gold's abundance either...

Here is that link.

There’s too much gold in the universe. No one knows where it came from. | Live Science

---

Florida’s sandy beaches and bustling theme parks hide one of the most remarkable fossil records on Earth. Beneath the Sunshine State’s modern landscape lies a treasure trove of ancient life that has rewritten our understanding of prehistoric North America. From massive marine reptiles to early mammals, Florida’s fossil discoveries have consistently shocked paleontologists and revealed stories of a world that existed millions of years before humans walked the planet. These aren’t just scattered bones in the dirt – they’re complete chapters of Earth’s history that have fundamentally changed how we view the ancient past...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.\

5 Times Florida's Fossils Revealed a Different Ancient Past - discoverwildscience

----

Surf Chart for Fort Pierce Inlet Area from SurfGuru.com.

I can't remember a summer with such a long period of nothing more than a two or three foot surf.  It has been a long spell, which means a lot of sand accumulated on beach fronts.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/30/25 Report - Oldest Firearm Found in U.S. Did You Know Lewis and Clarke Used an Air Gun? Another Research Tool.

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

In 1540, Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado set off from what is now central Mexico and entered the United States through southern Arizona in his search for the fabled “Seven Cities of Gold” in the American Southwest. Ultimately, the Coronado expedition traveled as far north as Kansas before returning to Mexico City in 1542. In a groundbreaking discovery that will change the history books, an abandoned town that Coronado established in 1541 along his route has recently been found in the Arizona desert. Wind and rain had erased all obvious traces of this town over time, but one of Coronado’s six wall guns was recently found at the site, where it was lost in a battle 480 years ago with the local natives, the Sobaipuri O’odham, irrigation farmers who lived in permanent settlements along most of the rivers in southeastern Arizona. It is they, not the Ópata as scholars have thought, who repulsed the Spaniards at this early date.

The Coronado gun is the oldest firearm ever found inside the continental United States and is also the first firearm found from this roughly 2,500-person expedition...

A Conquistador’s Cannon Unearthed | An Official Journal Of The NRA

Ngram Viewer Chart of Relative Frequency of the Names Mel Fisher (blue) and Art McKee (red) a Large Body of Publications between 1950 and 2022.

Yesterday I talked, among other things, about AI usefulness for detectorists.  Today I'm taking a look at another tool - Google Ngram Viewer.

Google Ngram Viewer is a tool that analyzes the frequency of words or phrases (n-grams) in a vast collection of digitized books from Google's library, spanning from 1800 to the present. It generates graphs showing how often specific terms appear in these texts over time, reflecting trends in language use, culture, or historical interests.

Above is a chart showing the relative frequency of "Mel Fisher" and "Art McKee" in publications from the period 1950 up to 2013. You can see that Art McKee was in the literature from about 1950. Mel Fisher was frequent in the literature later but reached much higher level of publicity.

There would naturally be a slight lag between the events and the time they appear in publications, but Ngram analysis gives you a decent timeline. I've long been interested in linguistic changes. While I'm interested for other reasons, linguistic tell something about the timing of historical events and changes.

I queried Grok about the what appeared to me to be some obvious errors Ngram Viewer. When I saw the chart for the terms "UFO" and "UAP" showing those terms being used in centuries old publications, I thought that was very unlikely, so I queried Grok on the errors. Below is Grok's response.

Retronyms and Backdated Terminology: The term "UFO" was coined in the 1940s by the U.S. Air Force to describe unidentified aerial phenomena. However, older texts discussing strange aerial sightings might have been retroactively indexed or annotated with modern terms like "UFO" in digital databases. This can cause n-gram viewers to show apparent usage before the term was officially coined.

OCR Errors and Misinterpretations: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, used to digitize old books and newspapers, can misread text. For example, abbreviations, acronyms, or similar letter combinations (e.g., "VFO" or "U.F.O." as a different phrase) in 19th-century texts might be misidentified as "UFO" by the software.

Besides errors produced by the Ngram procedures, there is the matter of context. For example, the word output was used fairly frequently in the 1800s in contexts having nothing to do with computers. So you have to consider the various usages and changes in the use of the term. Nonetheless, Ngram Viewer can provide clues to the timing in historical events corresponding to changes in word usage.

Below is a chart that shows the relative frequency of "buried treasure," "treasure hunting" and "metal detecting." That is the order of the lines, top to bottom.

So you can see that buried treasure was a term used frequently all the way back to 1800 and beyond. Treasure hunting being more modern in its usage and metal detecting only becoming common in the 1940s. That is pretty much what you might expect. One thing that interests me, though, is the dip in published references to "buried treasure," dropping to a peak in 1980. "Treasure hunting" shows a similar dip. It appears that the two dips are related, with the one slightly lagging the other. Metal detecting shows a relatively steady increase, but also maybe a little later and less pronounced dip.

Searching "metal detector," "buried treasure," "treasure hunting" and "metal detecting," and shortening the timeframe to 1900 on, I got the above.

As you can see buried treasure, which is a term that was used earlier than metal detector peaks about the same time as the term "metal detector."  I can't account for the drop or leveling off of the two terms right

 around or a little after 2010.

 

Those two nouns are used more frequently than the two activities described as treasure hunting and metal detecting.  There are several possible interpretations, but metal detecting is a subset of treasure hunting, so it is not very surprising that the more specific term is less frequent.

That leaves a lot to speculate about, but ngram viewer is a tool that might help you assess the timing and popularity of things in history.  For example, if you found an old bottle, such as Coca Cola, and wanted to know how old it might, of course you could look up its history, since it is an extremely popular brand, but an Ngram Viewer chart would show you when it became common in the published materials of the day.

---

Below is something that really surprised me. I

History of Air Rifles for All the Nerds Out There

The first airgun can now be found in a museum in Stockholm and consisted of bellows being pumped to fire small projectiles. Beginning in the 17 century, air guns utilizing .30 to .51 caliber projectiles were used to hunt game such as boar and deer. Air rifles of this time period largely used some type of charging pump, such as bellows, to fill a reservoir with air and a trigger mechanism to unleash all of this pent-up air all at once, launching projectiles at velocities never before seen. Some ancient air guns were capable of 1000 feet per second (FPS)!

It was quickly realized that air guns had distinct advantages over other firearms such as the ability to be discharged in rain, unlike the matchlock and flintlock pistols. This quickly gave air rifles their place in warfare where they were used to quietly engaged enemies. Air rifles also took significantly less time to reload and didn’t have to be serviced and cared nearly as much as other firearms.

Primitive firearms were simply no match for a well-made air rifle of its time! The most commonly recognized combat air rifle is the Girandoni Air Rifle.

Countries such as France and Austria even had entire sniper units wielding only high precision air rifles which were called “Windbüchse” which means wind rifle In German. These rifles were designed by a famous watchmaker named Tyrolean in 1768. These rifles were roughly 4 feet long and weighed a little less than 10 pounds which put them close to the size and weight of a musket. They were the first to feature removable air reservoirs and could hold 22 .51 caliber lead balls. These could easily penetrate over inch-thick wooden boards, which puts their effective damage close to modern 9mm and .45 ACP pistols.

Roll up to 1804 and our best friends Lewis and Clark were touting air guns that shot .46 caliber lead balls while they explored the mysterious western world! That’s right, all of those photos you see of L and C riding around packing heat were actually air rifles!

The first commercially mass-produced air guns were manufactured in Plymouth, Michigan by the Markham Air Rifle Company. Their first model, which was a huge hit with hunters and explorers of the time was named the “Wooden Challenger” and was available to the public in 1886...

Here is the link for the rest of the story.

Oppps.  Can't find that link again, but think it is in americanrifleman.0rg. 

Here is something similar. Airgun History - AirGun Expert

---

No action on the National Hurricane Center map and nothing new with the surf or beach conditions for the Treasure Coast.

I jumped the gun on the tenth anniversary of the 1715 Fleet 300 Anniversary find. You'll have to go back a few posts to find that one.

Or, here is my original post. Remember, then I had to wait for the official announcement.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 8/19/15 Report - YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS! New Treasure Finds From The Treasure Coast - Just Released.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

7/29/25 Report - Inca Tunnel of Gold under Cuzco Church. Detected Old Flat Buttons. More on AI. Space Collectibles.

 

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

The Church and Convent of Santo Domingo del Cuzco

Anselm opened the trapdoor with his companions and descended down a set of stairs to a colonial crypt. There they noticed an opening that was partially covered with bricks. When Anselm asked the priest what it was, the prior said, “That’s Chinkana”—the lost city no one had publicly discovered and perhaps the greatest discovery since Machu Picchu...

Mummified Incan emperors are beneath what was the most sacred place in the empire. For when the Indians got wind of Spanish explorers, they took their most important artifacts into a tunnel beneath the temple.

“This tunnel runs for one mile,” notes explorer Timothy Alberino (in a Shawn Ryan podcast)–to other secret tunnels and repositories that span the city and course by or under other Catholic edifices.

The Spaniards never learned about the tunnels and galleries—the “Chinkana.”

Life-sized figurines in gold...

Here is the link for more of that story.

An Amazing Church | Spirit Daily Blog

----

Previously in 2025, I reported on a couple metal detected old flat buttons.  Here are some more.

Backs and Fronts of Old Flat Buttons I've Detected.

Here are some flat buttons I've found over the years.  About half are from Treasure Coast beaches.  The last one I found was from West Viriginia earlier this year.

Only a couple have decorative markings on the front.  More have back marks, which I'll mention going left to right, one to three, and then down the rows, one to three.

Row 1.  1. FINE TREBLE GILT.  2. Words and decorations but I can't read it.  3. Can't see words.

Row 2.  1. .PLATED.  2. STANDARD & ???  3. Nothing.

Row 3.  1. STANDARD COLOUR TREBLE GILT.  2. PLATED.

A flat button not shown in this group but shown in my 7/13/25 post simply reads ORANGE.

The domed and two-piece old buttons I've found are not included in this group.  I'm surprised I found that many since I've only a couple times hunted a battlefield (Pigeon Island).

---

I'm finding AI to be a useful research resource that can often save time.  Here are some that you might check out.  I've tried ChatGPT, Copilot, and Grok.  And the fact that I've tried them tells you that they are free.

Copilot is from Microsoft Copilot.  ChatGPT was made by OpenAI.  And Grok was made by xAI, a Musk product.  

They all use large language models to understand and generate text, but were created independently, and have different personalities, strengths, and styles.  Copilot seems like a chatty girlfriend that tries too hard to ingratiate or charm you.  Gives a kind of superficial feeling like you might expect of a robot. Grok seems more matter of fact. 

As useful and time saving as they might be, I'm not sure how much of your interaction might be siphoned up and used in ways you might not expect.  I've received incorrect answers at times.  They are gathering the information that is out there and available, but which might take you longer to find using other methods.  

I previously reported on how Mark G. used AI to prepare for a metal detecting trip.  Treasure Beaches Report: Pt. 2. (2020 and Beyond). : 1/31/25 Report - How Metal Detectorists Can Use Artificial Intelligence (AI): Promise and Hype.  AI provided a lot of good information, including sites to visit, times to visit, tides, and other facts and suggestions..

I don't know what they'll do with user input.  You might want to consider that. In general, user input is a highly valued and monetized product on the internet.

In summary, I do recommend exploring how you might be able to use AI.  It can provide good concise information to well-constructed queries that otherwise would take longer to find. 

I'm sure I'll have more specific applications of AI in future posts.

Microsoft Bing suggests several sources of possible error or bias in AI models included biases embedded in the training data and biases present in the AI training team.  All information requires validation or confirmation, including that produced by AI.

In any case, AI will definitely become a greater part of your life in one way or another.  There is also much written or discussed concerning possible negative or even apocalyptic scenarios.

---

Sally Ride’s Robbins Medals, NASA Mementos Bring $145K at Auction

America’s first woman in space remains a trailblazer as her historic estate sells for $145,666, led by Robbins medals from her personal collection...

Here is the link for more about that.

Sally Ride’s Robbins Medals, NASA Mementos Bring $145K at Auction - Numismatic News

----

In the future I'll have more on AI as well as some other internet research tools.

There has been no big change in the Treasure Coast surf or beach conditions. Also no significant tropical development yet.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

----

3/29/25 - Metal Detecting Outside the Box: Problem Solving, Perception, Attention, and Habits. Flesh Eating Bacteria Warning.

 

The last couple of days I noticed the ten year anniversary of the big 1715 Fleet 300th anniversary find.  I was a few day early, but I'm often a little early or late on things.  Nonetheless it is still there to be read.  Today I'm going in a different direction.

Above is a puzzle that will test your creative problem-solving skills.  You mi  ght have seen this puzzle before.  I think I even presented it once some years ago.  It illustrates something important that applies very strongly to treasure hunting.

Here is what you are supposed to do.  Connect all nine dots using only four connecting straight lines without hitting any dot more than once.

It might seem difficult, but it can be done.  

Here is one hint: think outside the box.  I don't generally like that expression, but in this case, it is very fitting.

The same thing applies to metal detecting.  People often metal detect "inside the box."  Here is a very good example.  I once stopped at a place that had picnic tables on an inland waterway beach.  There were a couple posts a little way out in the water and at the north and south ends of the parking areas.  

I did some metal detecting in the water in front of the picnic and parking area.  I could tell that the area within the rectangular area defined by the posts and the ends of the parking area had been very heavily detected and cleaned out.  Not so much as a pull tab was to be found within that area.  However, when I detected just outside of the rectangular area, there were targets.  In fact I found three gold rings very quickly just outside the bounds of the area marked by the poles.  It seemed that the previous detectorists took the poles very much like people take the dots in the puzzle as the outward bounds of an area.  That is natural perceptual closure.  While people stopping at the picnic site may have mostly used the area within the poles, they sometimes ventured beyond that, but the detectorist or detectorists that usually detected there, evidently did not.

Similarly, the solution to the puzzle above involves NOT seeing the dots as containing an area defined by the posts acting as corners.  Our perceptual system naturally sees the outside dots as a creating a border or boundary of a closed area.

The same thing happens many times in life and with metal detecting.   Most detectorists walk out onto a beach and turn on their metal detector at around the same area and then metal detect in front of the parking lot area.  Often you will find that going a little farther in one direction or another will produce more finds as you go a little farther than most detectorists.  I said that before one time and got an email from one reader that tried that and said they found more than ever before at a particular beach when they went a little farther north than they usually did.

Detectorists tend to detect the easiest areas and avoid some nearby areas that could be more productive.  I've often found that a mowed yard will be pretty well cleaned out but found some good things by sticking my coil in under bushes around the border.  Don't stick to the most obvious or easiest areas to detect.  There are times to think outside the box and the boxes are more numerous than than they should be.

Areas close to beach chairs or metal fences often produced good finds.  You can learn to detect those areas that others might find difficult because of the metal. Very often a beach in front of a resort will be pretty well cleaned out but by learning to detect closer to metal chairs or other objects like that you can do well..  In fact, it seems a lot of things are lost right at or under the chairs.  Watch for signs in the sand indicating that chairs have been recently moved.

You can also learn to detect along chain link fences.  You can do that by using an all-metals or pinpoint mode and moving the coil very slowly parallel to the fence - not back and forth towards and away from the fence.

Don't stop with those ideas.  That is just a beginning.  Think about other areas that you might have been skipped.  You can learn to detect other areas that might not be so easy to detect, such as around rocks that many won't bother with.  You can sometimes move things such as rocks too, or cut weeds, bushes or trees.  

Watch for perceptual boundaries and break out of them.  Get to know how your perceptual system and break out.  Break out of your old habits.  That will open up surprising new territories even if they aren't neat squares.  In fact, they'll often be squiggly odd areas.

People are very similar.  That is why creative solutions are so rare even if they were staring you in the face the entire time.

I recently noticed an article that popped up on the internet talking about TV viewers discovering "fakery" on the American Pickers reality TV program.  ( American Pickers viewers spot 'fakery' in reality TV show as ratings plummet).  In the past I've done posts about the fakery of reality TV.  How real can you expect reality TV to be?  You realize that reality TV shows are produced and edited to produce drama and get attention.  

Of course there is fakery in reality TV, but what the article was talking about concerning the Pickers show seemed very trivial to me.  The criticism was something to the effect that Jersey and Mike were talking as they rode to the pick together in one van, but the viewers noticed that Jersey got out of a different van than Mike at the site.   I didn't pay much attention to the details of the article but I hope that everybody realizes that TV shows are produced and there are camera crews and much editing before the show is complete.  What you see is only part of the story, and what you don't notice may be an even bigger part.

If you were of age in the 1970s, you probably heard McLuhan's theory that goes something like, "The medium is the message."  The point is that the content blinds the observer to the medium.". In other words, you see the content but at the same time don't pay attention to or notice the medium.  You can get lost in the content and forget you are looking at it on a 2 dimensional TV or movie screen.  You don't normally analyze how the shots were made or the scenes put together (or how the illusion is created) but the medium is a big part of the content.

The point I'd emphasize here is that humans have selective attention.  They are drawn to focus on some things while ignoring others.  The perceptual system is very active.  It reorganizes and filters.  That leads to natural tendencies.  You might them ruts. 

I very often go along a beach and later return the same way.  And often I find myself stepping on my own footprints coming the other direction.  I don't do it intentionally, but I choose a path, which often coincides whichever way I am going. People react to cues in the environment more than they realize.  Maybe they are drawn to a certain area of the beach not too far from or close to the water, or avoid seaweeded areas, or walk along firmer areas, which are slightly easier to walk on.  There are many things in the environment that shape behavior on a subconscious level.

I just ran across an old (1997) magazine containing an article by H. Glenn Carson, who wrote several metal detecting books and published many magazine articles and was an editor for at least one magazine.  Glen was well known back in the day but passed away in 2013. The article was about paying attention to subtle and often overlooked clues in the environment.  That is one thing I am recommending today.

Here is the solution to the puzzle.

Yes, Viriginia, no one said you had to stay inside the non-existent box.

---

'Flesh-eating' bacteria Florida update: Vibrio vulnificus cases rise to 13.

Four Floridians have died from Vibrio vulnificus infections in 2025, with 13 cases reported statewide.

The bacteria are naturally occurring in warm brackish water and can infect people who eat raw seafood or have open wounds exposed to the water.

While the bacteria don't actually eat flesh, they can cause rapid tissue breakdown, sometimes requiring amputation...

Here is that link for more about that..

Vibrio vulnificus Florida cases rising from flesh-eating bacteria

Thanks to Joe D. for the lead on that story.

'

===

Surf Forecast for the Fort Pierce Inlet Area from SurfGuru.com.

More days of flat surf for the Treasure Coast.  Good time to take a dip.

Make sure to not get overheated and stay hydrated.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

 

7/27/25 Report - Nine Super Royals from the Anniversary Find. More About Eight Escudo Royals. The Day of the Find.

 

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

Nine Royals from the 300th 1715 Fleet Anniversary Find.

as originally posted in 8/20/15 Treasure Beaches Report

Photo Submitted by Captain Jonah

Of the hundreds of gold coins found that day, these are the kings.  Eight-esscudo Royals.  It doesn't get any better than that.

Below is what Daniel Frank Sedwick says about Royals in his article, “Royals”: a Cob by Any Other Name.

This name (Royal) is often criticized, for it appears to have been conjured up in the 1960s-1970s as a sales tool, when Hans Schulman decreed one such coin as being “a coin not struck for the public, but for the king only”!  Some researchers believe the proper term for these coins is “galanos” (gallants), a term that appears in mint records from the early 1700s, but these records do not make it clear what the “galano” coins are. Earlier U.S. numismatists used to call these coins simply “circulars,” “rounds,” or “presentations.” In Spain, commercial companies refer to these coins as “Tipo Real” (Royal type), while researchers tend to call them “redondos” (rounds), ...  But whether or not you believe these special round coins had some regal purpose, the fact is that “Royal” is the term that most properly relays the quality and importance of these pieces, so it has stuck...  (Source: Microsoft Word - royals)

You'll want to read that article.  Daniel also gives a list of known royals by date towards the end of the article.  Also a table of values for escudo royals (partly shown below).

Source: Sedwick:  Microsoft Word - royals

So the 8-escudo Royals shown at the top of this post, which are dated 1711 and 1712, would, according to this table, be valued in the range of $200,000 to $350,000 each.  Of course, that is just an estimate and the realized value might end up being much higher.

One of the problems with many articles on the internet is that the publication date is not provided or not easy to find.  That is the case with this article.  I don't know how long ago it was published, but I do know it has been around for some years, so things, including prices, have probably significantly changed since the article was published.

Anyhow it is a great article that you will want to read.

Captain Jonah positioned the Capitana pretty close to the beach when they made the find.

Celebration on the Captitana.
Photo originally submitted by Fred Banke.

I didn't know yesterday I was going to do a second post on this find, but I received emails on the topic, including the following one by Warren D. that I wanted to post.

... That first day, I and another beach hunter Stefi S, happened to be on the beach and witnessed the recovery of the gold coins. We had a running conversation with Jonah thru out the day while Danny and Bill were bagging and tagging gold coins. The word for the day was "surreal".

Heart racing adrenaline rushes occurred every 10 or 15 minutes until your body could no longer produce adrenaline. Then you became giddy, like being drunk. I remember every conversation, joke and facial expression. Witnessed a part of history, how often does that happen?

Keep hunting,

Warren D.

Thanks Warren.

I originally did six or seven posts on that find back in 2015.  Here are a couple of the links.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 8/20/15 Report - Nine 8-escudo Royal Beauties From Mexico. More On New Treasure Coast Discoveries. Brent Brisben on Fox News.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 8/21/15 - More On The Capitana's 4.5 Million Dollar Treasure Coast Finds. See The Video. Bombs On The Beach.``````````

---

The press release at Captain Hiram's was a fun time too.  The coins were on display, and I took some photos there, but my photos weren't the best although I may have posted a few.

---

I'll probably get on some other topics tomorrow even though we are not yet to the date of the anniversary find is still a couple days away.  A lot of people do not discover the new posts on the day they are posted.   

I have some other topics that I've been thinking about.

---

Surf Forecast for the Fort Pierce Inlet Area from SurfGuru.com.

Well that is about the flattest surf forecast I've seen.

Nothing brewing in the tropics either.  More good salvage and shallow surf weather.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/26/25 - Time Flies. The Tenth Anniversary of the Famous Three-Hundredth Anniversary Find. 310 Years After the Sinking of the 1715 Fleet.

Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Tresure Beaches Report.

On July 31, 1715, just seven days after departing Havana, the Spanish treasure fleet sank, leaving the treasure that many still seek along the Treasure Coast today.

Can you believe it?  It will soon be tenth anniversary of the famous three hundredth anniversary 1715 treasure find made by Captain Jonah Martinez and the crew of the Capitana. 

2015 was a good year for the salvage crews operating along the Treasure Coast.  Many good discoveries were made that year, but the 300th anniversary find was the headliner.

As I said a couple days ago, the crew of the Capitana had been finding a lot of treasure, including the many lead shot that I posted a couple days ago.  I kept thinking they are getting close.  Jonah doesn't believe all the lead had anything to do with it, and he is the one to listen to, but I just having that feeling.  Coincidentally or not, then it happened.

I know this post is a few days early (depending upon when you read it) but again, something just told me to post it today.  

I had to wait to report the story back in 2015.  I knew of the find well before I was able to post it.  They wanted to do a big announcement and press release, so I kept it quiet until the big announcement on the CBS This Morning show

Below is my original post, which also included the photo above.

===   

I think I mentioned in one post recently that the salvage crews on the Treasure Coast were doing better than any year going way back to the eighties. Here is what I was talking about.

I had to hold onto the pictures until they were released. Now I'm able to show them.

Brent Brisben, co-founder of 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels LLC, showed some of the finds on CBS News this morning.  Congratulations Brent!

Here's the link.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/spanish-gold-coins-worth-millions-found-off-florida-coast/

Can you imagine how excited the divers were when they saw the glitter of gold on the bottom.

I remember when I got the picture of all the musket balls.  I thought, they are close.  I was right.

You'll undoubtedly see more on the news in the coming days.

Another Picture Of The New Treasure Coast Finds.
Picture provided by Captain Jonah Martinez.

You can see all denominations in there.  And look at the big 8-escudos and Royals.

These are just the first of the pictures that I will post.  There will be more.  I'll have some bigger closeups and other nice views and details.

Captain Jonah picked the hot spot.  Way to go Captain!

Thanks to Captain Martinez for sharing the pictures, and congratulations to the crew and all who were lucky enough to play a part in this great find!

====

Here is that link.  

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 8/19/15 Report - YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS! New Treasure Finds From The Treasure Coast - Just Released.

So, in a few days it will be the 10th anniversary of the famous 300th anniversary find.

They also then had a press release in Sebastian that was very well attended and a fun day.  I got some additional photos of the gold coins there.

I was pleased to find that the CBS link above still works, so take a look.

Hard to believe another decade has flown by.  

---

Nothing new with the weather or surf.

Finds are still being made and will be for a long time to come.

Good hunting,

Treaureguide@comcast.net

7/25/25 Report - 250-Year-Old Shipwreck Discovered in Dunes. How To Access Old Posts. Roman Pendant. Sea Biscuit.

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

A schoolboy’s chance discovery of the ribs of a wooden ship poking through the dunes of a remote Scottish beach sparked an extensive hunt by archaeologists, scientists, and local historians. Their mission: to uncover the vessel’s long-lost story.

Now, through a blend of high-tech science and dedicated community research, an answer has finally emerged.

Researchers announced on Wednesday that the wreck is very likely the Earl of Chatham, an 18th-century warship that saw action in the American War of Independence, before a second life hunting whales in the Arctic, and ultimately met a stormy demise...

Here are two links for more about that.

Archaeologists solve mystery of 250-year-old shipwreck found on Scottish island | The Independent

Shipwreck of historic 18th-century warship uncovered on remote Scottish island | Watch

There are places on South Hutchinson Island where shipwreck remains were at one time found up on the beach.  

---

One thing I dislike about the internet is that a lot of the articles are not dated.  It isn't easy to see how long ago they were published.  You see something and think it is good news, but later find out that it has been out there for many years.  That is one thing I feel like I've done right most of the time.  The first thing you see is the date of each post.

You might or might not know this, but you can find older Treasure Beaches blog posts by going to the Blog Archive.  Both of my Treasure Beaches blog sites,  the tbr2020blogspot.com site as well as my older treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com site, have a blog archive where you can find all the old posts.  

The Blog Archives for both blog sites are found below other things so you probably will not see the archive unless you scroll down the main page.

On tbr2020.blogspot.com (this site) the archive is below the reference link list, which on the right side of the site to the right of the posts.

On the treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com the archive is on the left side below the Surf, Wind Waves and the Reference links, and Followers.  So you need to scroll down to find the Blog Archive below those things.

When you get to the blog archive, it lists all the years of posts.  When you select a year, then the posts for each month of that year will be displayed by title and you can select the one you want to see.

---

A team of Spanish researchers has made an extraordinary discovery at the Roman site of A Cibda de Armea, near Ourense (Galicia, Spain): a trilobite fossil, a marine animal extinct for millions of years, that was modified and likely used as an amulet or piece of jewelry between the 1st and 3rd centuries AC.  It is the first trilobite ever found in a Roman archaeological context, and only the eleventh discovered at archaeological sites worldwide associated with ancient cultures.

Trilobites are creatures that inhabited the oceans between 520 and 250 million years ago, long before the existence of dinosaurs...

Here is the link for more about that.

A Trilobite Fossil Used as an Amulet in Roman Hispania: The First of Its Kind in the Classical World

Very much like what we do today.  I've posted turtle scute fossil and probably other fossil pendants made from Treasure Coast fossils.

---

Sea Biscuit (Echinoid) Beach Find.

This is a Treasure Coast echinoid called a Sea Biscuit. 

Sand dollars are also echinoids.  I've seen a lot more sand dollars on our beaches than Sea Biscuits.

---

Have you noticed GPS errors?  If so they could be due to equatorial plasma bubbles.

Think your GPS is reliable? Not when the sky turns to Swiss cheese. A new study reveals how equatorial plasma bubbles—giant holes in Earth's ionosphere—disrupted GPS signals across the Americas during a recent geomagnetic storm. 

The March 23-24, 2023, event was remarkable because the bubbles were so widespread. They are normally confined within +/- 20  degrees of the magnetic equator, but during this storm, they spread at least twice as far, affecting population centers at middle latitudes. Peak position errors were wider than urban roadways.

Here is the link for more about that.  Spaceweather.com.

Enthusiasts find fossils at this island near Myrtle Beach | Myrtle Beach Sun News

---

There are a lot of studies of when people are most productive in different kinds of endeavors.  Most peak accomplishments come around middle age.  It depends to some extent upon the kind of activity you are talking about.  

Here is a link to an interesting article on how to become expert at anything.  You might want to read it.

http://www.businessinsider.com/anders-ericsson-how-to-become-an-expert-at-anything-2016-6 

If you read the article, two things are emphasized that I preach for metal detecting.  The author uses the term deliberate practice, which is more than simply hours of practice.  Here is an excerpt.

...To become an expert, you may need to be willing to sacrifice short-term pleasure for potential satisfaction of success down the road. A key tenet of deliberate practice is that it's generally not enjoyable.

Instead, it's about doing things that don't come naturally or easily, which can be tough. "Practice really involves failing a lot until you eventually reach your goal," ...

He cited research on figure skaters that found elite skaters spent more time than average ones practicing jumps and spins in routines they hadn't yet mastered. By contrast, average skaters spent more time going over routines they were already good at.

Most people like to work on those things they do well instead of their weaknesses.  Arnold Swartzeneggar always said,  "Work your weak areas."  That isn't natural.  Most people just like to do the things that come easy.

If you don't have a metal detecting goal that drives you, you probably won't accomplish as much in the field.  I've always said that the biggest factor in metal detecting success is the amount of time you spend on it.  Another thing I've often said is going a little beyond what most people are doing.  It might involve walking to a distant site that isn't easy to get to, or metal detecting difficult ground, or going when conditions are tough.  Following the crowd won't get you the best results.

If metal detecting is something you don't take real seriously, you probably won't do quite as well.  That is ok if you just want to go out and get a little exercise and enjoy yourself.  There is nothing wrong with that, but if you really want to do better, your chances will be improved by putting a little more into it. 

===

No storms brewing.  Just that low pressure area over in the Gulf.

We will have another week of small surf, but the low tides aren't bad.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net