Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
For a century, the items were part of the Vatican Museum’s ethnographic collection, known today as the Anima Mundi museum. The collection has been a source of controversy for the Vatican amid the broader museum debate over the restitution of cultural goods taken from Indigenous peoples during colonial periods.
Here is the link for more about that.
The Papal Bull Inter Caetera of May 4, 1493Vatican returns 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples in Canada | AP News
As is often the case these days, I see no relation between the photo and the article. The photo shows a headdress given to the Pope in 2022. The article is about artifacts from the Vatican Museum's ethnographic collection. Such is the state of journalism and the media these days.
Anyhow, the Papal Bull Inter Caetera, written in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI to grant Spain exclusive rights to newly “discovered” lands west of a demarcation line in the Atlantic, effectively dividing the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal. It legitimized Spain’s claims following Columbus’s voyage, forbade other nations from interfering, and laid the foundation for the “Doctrine of Discovery,” which justified European colonization of the Americas.
The Papal Bull is interesting reading and history. Below is one excerpt.
We have heard, of course, that though for some time you had intended to look for and find certain remote and unknown islands and mainlands, heretofore undiscovered by others, in order to return their local population and inhabitants to the worship of our Redeemer and to the profession of the Catholic faith, you were not able to reach the intended goal of this your sacred and commendable plan, as you were until now most occupied with the conquest and recovery of the Kingdom of Granada; but when the aforementioned kingdom was finally regained, as it pleased the Lord, and wishing to follow your desire, you designated [our] beloved son Christopher Columbus, a man certainly worthy and most highly recommendable and suited for a task of this magnitude, together with ships and men equipped for such an undertaking under the greatest hardships, dangers and expenses, to carefully search for remote and unknown continents and islands of this kind across the sea, where no one had ever sailed before;...
I highly recommend that you read the entire document, which is just a few pages.
Here is a link to a document which also includes an introduction and comments as well as a the translation.
The Papal Bull Inter Caetera of May 4, 1493
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The American penny is history. The nickel might be next.
The last pennies were pressed at the US Mint in Philadelphia on Wednesday, a victim of production costs higher than their worth coupled with limited usefulness. While the penny remains legal tender, banks and merchants are already reporting shortages.
But the factors that prompted the government to stop making pennies are even truer for the nickel. Pennies cost nearly 5 cents to make – 4 cents more than they’re worth. The nickel’s net loss is nearly 9 cents per coin....
Here is the link for more about that.
With the end of the penny, is the clock ticking for the nickel?
I was wondering if we couldn't simply accept the Canadian pennies be accepted. We didn't spend a penny to produce them and I suspect there are quite a few in drawers or boxes in this country. It would be something like when the Spanish real was widely accepted. Of course, that was largely because of the silver content.
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| Small Gold Bracelet Find. |
2.7 grams of 14K gold isn't insignificant anymore. As often is the case with found necklaces or bracelets, it has a broken link.
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Here are a couple other types of finds from nature.
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| Swallowtail Butterfy Caterpillar on Wild Lemon Tree Leaf. |
You can see all kinds of neat things in nature. The above is an example. Swallowtails lay their eggs on the wild lemon trees. The caterpillar above is on the third leaf up from the bottom on the right. It is only about 1/8 inch long. Another was found on another wild lemon tree. It was less than the size of the head on a pin. The "cats" will eat a few weeks and then form a chrysalis, and in the summer become a butterfly in about a week or two after that, but with winter coming, it probably won't emerge as a butterfly until spring. Then it will breed and lay eggs, only a small number of which will survive in the wild to become butterflies. Finding the eggs and small cats is challenging. Like metal detecting, it helps immensely to know where to look. They lay on the tender new shoots of the host plant.
Here are a couple more Florida nature finds from the same morning.
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| Passion Fruit Plants from Two Different Species of Passiflora incarnata. |
Passion fruit are used in Hawaiian punch drink. If you open these you'll get that familiar smell and be able to eat the contents. They can be found growing in wild Florida.
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I recently added a Fall's City beer bottle and a Horlick's Malted Milk bottle to tgbottlebarn.blogspot.com.
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I almost forgot about my How Coins Move on a Beach series. I'll have to see where I left on an pick up on it again. I know I was getting close to the climax.
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| Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com. |
Looks like a small surf for the next week or so.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net