Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
One Page of Salvage Report from 2001 Along with Personal Notes.
I was looking at some old salvage reports while I was through some old papers, and I noticed one thing that surprised me. As a result, I have to correct something I've mentioned in the past.
I've referred to the large number of small reales found on the beaches as compared to the seemingly much smaller number of eight reales found by metal detecting the beaches. And I thought the proportion of eight reales found on salvage sites was greater in relation to the smaller denomination reales. That was not supported by these records. The number of small denomination reales found on salvage sites was large in comparison to the number of eight reales for the years and sites in these reports. My previous generalization about small numbers of half reales being found on salvage sites is at best an overgeneralization. These records for 2000 - 2002 shows many more half reales found on these sites.
You can see one sample page of those records above. You can also some of my own notes and calculations on that page. And below is a table from one of the reports along with some of my tabulations.
In 2002, for example, the combined totals for five salvage sites is 28 fragments, 28-half reales, 50-one reales, 5 two-reales, 37 four-reales, and only 9 eight-reales. That sample clearly fails to support my previous thoughts and seems very much in line with the proportion of reported beach finds.
2001 was similar. For the same sites, there were a total of 192 halves compared to only 18 eight-reales.
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| Page from 2001 Site Review with Some of My Personal Notes. |
In both 2001 and 2002 the majority of coins came from the Douglass site. I don't remember the exact years, but I remember somewhere around there, Mo Molinar and the Virgalona working very close to shore just shore. Many half reales were found on the beach along the same stretch of beach back in those years.
I suppose that eight reale finds, like gold coin finds, just get a lot more media and press attention, which could give skew impressions about the actual numbers found.
Of course, details of finds will vary from year to year, and between salvage crews and sites. The same thing holds for beach finds. Some years some spots will be good and other years not so. And some years one type of find will predominate while other types will predominate other years. Still, in my mind, one discrepancy between beach and salvage finds remains. I'm talking about the large number of silver ring beach finds compared to the total absence of silver rings reported found on Treasure Coast wreck sites. That is to me still a quandary.
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Good news on the mystery item. JD correctly identified it. Jim M. also came up with it. I had no idea.
Here it is.
And here is the answer. It is an end cap for a horse hame. Horse hames are used to distribute the the force of heavy lodes around the neck. Joe sent the following example.
Jim said his grandparents grew up on a farm and had them. He sent these pictures.
That is definitely it, and it makes even more sense when paired with other finds from the site (shown below).
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| Rustee Horseshoe Finds Each with Some Nails Remaining. |
Thanks Joe and Jim. I really appreciate it.
This type of hame would probably date to 1880 - 1930. The were often repurposed later for use as walking stick or cane handles.
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| Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com. |
The surf is still pretty high but the beaches remain pretty much the same. It is another example of what I say about it taking more than a big waves to cause erosion. It also takes good angles.
They did have a lot of erosion in the Palm Beaches. The shoreline is angled different there and they had already reduced beaches and sea walls and other structures that actually can increase erosion.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
