5/6/26 Report - Back Yard Find. Making a Collection of Your Finds. Safeguarding Your Collection. Small Surf Expected.

 

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

Newly Dug Bottle.

I normally don't dig up old bottles.  I depend on nature to uncover them.  But this bottle was dug.  My wife dug it up while gardening.  She dug up a really good dairy bottle in the yard about a year or two ago. This one isn't that great.  It has no embossing or interesting marks, but it is in great shape - evidently having been buried and undisturbed for most of its life.  

I'm showing it only to remind you once again, that if you have a yard, don't overlook it.  You don't have to travel far to find old things. It seems to me that you can find old things almost anywhere.  In very short distance from my home, I've found fossils that are thousands of years old, an indigenous pot shard as well as many 20th century items that I've shown in this blog.  And it seems there is probably still more waiting to be found.

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Here is an excerpt from an interesting article I just found on the subject of collecting silver.  

Collectors do not simply accumulate objects. They change the outcome of objects. This season, Heritage Auctions is presenting Georg Jensen silver from the Collection of Yousif & Myrna Hamati. There are over 100 lots. However, it did not begin as a collection. It began with curiosity. A piece here. A bowl. A cup. Something beautiful. Then Joe started to study the marks. Next, the designers. The realization that Georg Jensen was not a single hand, but a community — Harald Nielsen, Johan Rohde, and others — each shaping the evolution of form.

Knowledge changed the scale of ambition...

That is the moment a buyer becomes a collector: not when he purchases silver, but when he understands it.

Here is the link for more of that article.

Does Anyone Collect Silver Anymore?

I've long said that there is one find when you uncover an object, but that is just the beginning.  After that there is the search for the identity, history, meaning or significance of the object,

You can accumulate a collection of finds.  You don't have to purchase a collection.  The knowledge you gain about your finds transforms them.  Eventually they can become a collection.  The new knowledge can also help you find more items.  

Detectorists can go through several stages that I've referred to before.  You might start out finding objects with the hope of selling them.  But you might then become more interested in what you can learn from your finds. As you study them, you add to their value (both economic and otherwise) by adding to their story.  

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Here is an excerpt from a very good article on safeguarding your collection.  

... Camouflaging Valuables: Most people are predictable, and experienced burglars know all the “good” hiding places. Typically, people keep their valuables in the primary bedroom and home office. Guess where burglars go first? So, try to avoid these typical hiding spots and leave decoys. One gentleman we know has numerous coin albums (filled with pocket change) in plain sight on the bookshelves. Another has an old safe that is heavy but movable. It resides in the corner of his home office and contains absolutely nothing. Its predecessor was removed in a burglary during which the thief left behind several thousand dollars’ worth of electronics because he thought the safe was the jackpot. The homeowner now has a monitored security system and modern wall safe but still keeps a decoy as a reminder of the importance of security, and the burglar was the recipient of nothing but an empty box (and perhaps a hernia). If you don’t own a safe, small valuables are best hidden in a false outlet with an object plugged into it. A collection of small items should be spread over several non-obvious locations...

  

Let me add a little here.  

If you hide something in what you think is a safe place, don't leave the location entirely to memory.  As I've said before, it can be more difficult to find a piece of treasure in your house own than it was to find it on the beach.  I've learned that lesson, like many of the lessons I've learned, the hard way.  Tell somebody else where you put it and write the location down (perhaps in a coded form) in location where you'll be able to find it but won't be readily apparent to anyone else.  You have to keep track of where your notes on locations are too.  

Another thing you might do is leave items that look valuable but are not, such as fake gold rings or chains where a thief might expect to find the good stuff but be wise about where you keep the good stuff.  You might keep the good stuff in a safe deposit box, as I've advised before.  Just be wise about how you secure your valuables.

The article is really pretty good and covers a lot more.  I highly recommend it.  Here is the link.

Safeguarding Your Collection

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Fort Pierce South Beach from Surfguru.com

Beautiful Fort Pierce South Beach.  

Notice the small cut that is now filling and covered with seaweed.

The surf chart shows one to two feet for the next week or so.  

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net