3/20/26 Report - Treasure Coast Heavily Encrusted Shipwreck Spikes Freed. Post Cards as Collectibles and Research Clues.

 

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

A Sample of Heavily Encrusted Treasure Coast Shipwreck Spikes Freed.

Above are some of the heavily encrusted shipwreck spikes found on the Treasure Coast.  These spikes were all totally encrusted before being freed from the encrustation.  It was impossible to know what was inside the concretion as found.  A few looked like they might contain spikes, but others did not show a shape that gave any clue.

There are various approaches to finding out what is in a heavy crust.  One way to find out is to x-ray the clump.  Sometimes nothing remains of the original item, which has totally dissolved, leaving only a void.  I've talked about that type of thing before.

Here is a good link to a article about examining and treating heavily encrusted object. 

The Belle

That is a site that you'll want to read.  It covers the archaeology of the shipwreck La Belle, including artifact cleaning and conservation.

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Breese Farm, Indiana.

Some old post cards show places like they were in the past and therefore provide good tips on metal detecting sites.  I've written about that before. 

There are many old post cards showing Florida hotel and beach sites, but I'm showing the one above because it shows some of my ancestors.  I recently noticed it and asked Alberto S. to see if he could make the scanned image a little better, and he very kindly did that.  Thanks Alberto.

I like ephemera on its own, but also because of the history it preserves.  Long ago I was into collecting old books and found many other types of ephemera while looking for old books, and sometimes in old books.  Always look between the pages of old books for other items, which can include money as well as other interesting things.

But old postcards can have some value.  Some a lot.  

There are some things I like about old postcards and I've sold some in the past.  For one thing, they don't require a lot of storage space, unlike bottles, that take up a lot of space.  And they don't break, but they can get damaged.  They are very easy and inexpensive to ship.

I don't know the exact date of the post card shown above, ut it is probably in the in the 1915 - 1925 date range.  If I study the car, that might provide some clues.  

I don't know why the Breese's put their farm put on a post card other than possibly a desire to share with others -perhaps those that they left back east.  They didn't have email or any other of our modern convenient methods of communicating, and post cards were used a lot in my family back in the early 1900s.  I've shown some of those postcards before.

If you are interested in collecting old post cards, here is a good web site that will help you date them and determine if they might have value.

Guide to Collecting Valuable Vintage Postcards (Rare Finds to Look for)

Above is an old postcard that I showed in the past.  It shows Wabasso beach.

Here is an older post I did on postcards.

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 6/19/20 Report - Metal Detecting Hobby Makes Contributions to Archaeology. Digging Gold Mining Camp. Old Postcard Treasure.

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Nothing much new with the surf predictions or anything, but today is the Vernal Equinox.

Happy Vernal Equinox,

Treasureguide@comcast.net