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Monday, April 22, 2024

4/23/24 Report - A Nice Coin Find. 18th Century Fort Artifacts. Groat Info. Coastal Warning.

 

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

Coin Found by John L. With New


John L bought a Manticore at Gary Mueller's Treasure Coast Metal Detectors shop in January, He said that although the learning curve has been higher than he was used to, he has done pretty well with the Manticore the dozen or so times he used it.  For example, John found the Barber coin shown above at an inland site he detects.

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A trove of artifacts — including cannonballs and coins — were recently found among the ruins of a centuries-old fort on a Caribbean island.

The discoveries were made during an archaeological excavation of Fort Gustav, a historic military outpost perched atop a hill on Saint Barthelemy.

Constructed during the late 18th century, the fort was occupied at various times by the French and Swedish militaries.

Among the artifacts unearthed were a collection of cast iron cannonballs, according to an April 18 news release from France’s National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP)...

Here is the link for more about that.



At the top of the secton is an entire round of grapeshot found at the same site by metal detectors.

I've told before about finding grapeshot before.   It was on a Carribean Island, and I didn't bring them home because there was a stiff fine for taking explosives on the plane and I didn't want to risk that, so I left them behind.

I left one at the foot of a tree and found it where I left it when I returned a year or two later.  I thought that was pretty remarkable.  

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A couple days ago I showed what could be a British groat that was found on the Treasure Coast by Tom.  

As I mentioned yesterday, they are fairly common finds in England and there are thousands of them in the PAS finds database.

Knowing next to nothng about groats I started doing a little research and found a site with some basic information.  Here is the link.


Here is a little information about groats I found on that site that could help date them when the date is not visible.

Over time, groats became lighter:

Edward III’s coinage (1351) weighed 72 grains (4.7 grams).
Henry IV’s coinage (1412) reduced it to 60 grains (3.9 grams).
Edward IV’s coinage (1464) further lowered it to 48 grains (3.1 grams).

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Surf Chart From SurfGuru.com.

Monday we had a nice north wind and some southerly longshore currents starting.  I'd expect a few washed out spots Tuesday morning.



WHAT: A strong, southward flowing longshore current and a Moderate Risk of rip currents is expected.

WHERE: Coastal Volusia, Coastal Indian River, Coastal Saint Lucie, Coastal Martin, Mainland Northern Brevard, Northern Brevard Barrier Islands, Mainland Southern Brevard and Southern Brevard Barrier Islands Counties.

WHEN: Through late tonight.

IMPACTS: Breezy north to northwest winds will produce a strong, southward flowing longshore current today, which can push swimmers into deeper water unexpectedly, making them more susceptible to dangerous rip currents.

Here is that link.


Good hunting,
TreaureGuide@comcast.net





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Saturday, April 20, 2024

4/21/24 Report - A Couple Recent Treasure Coast Finds Reported: British Groat and Lima Cob. More on Rope Thimble.

 

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

Coin Recently Found by Tomojr on a Treasure Coast Beach.

Tom found the following coin which he described in an email as follows.

Hi, I found this coin on a Treasure Coast Beach this past Wednesday.

I was under a boardwalk crossover, where the new sand wasn’t real deep. This came out of the dirt to my surprise. Not sure but I think it is a British Groat. I always wonder, how did this end up on a treasure coast beach. And to find it now with all the sand replenishment happening. Any ideas?

Tomojr

Thanks for sharing Tom.

I have little to no knowledge of British groats, which run from the 14th to 19th centuries.  That is quite a range, and I haven't narrowed down the range of this one.

 A search of the PAS finds database shows over 11,000 groat finds.  

Here is one example from the database.  It shows a profile looking left, which is not the most common portrait that I saw.


Here is the link if you want look through the PAS database for "groats."

Search results from the database Page: 5 (finds.org.uk)

Maybe some of the readers of this blog can add some information on this find.

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Silver Cob Found by Duane on Treasure Coast About Ten Days Ago..

Duane said "Lima mint possibly 1712 date. Unknown if it was a possible neck hanger lost?"  That is about all he said about it.

Excellent photos Duane.  I thought I might see a seam around it in the photo, but Duane got a reputable coin shop to look at it and they said it was good.

Here is the edge.

Edge of the Same Cob.

So there are two examples of interesting Treasure Coast finds.

Thanks for sharing.

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Back to the EO found by Mark G.  A couple readers said it looked like a rope thimble.  Mark G. thought that was probably right.

John L. added the following.

From the size of it, it is exciting to think it could be a 1715 artifact, but it could also be from a modern commercial vessel such as a towing barge, etc. 

Knowing the metallurgical details would certainly help I would think. Most today are either galvanized steel or stainless. Within the last century though, they were exclusively made of bronze.

Mark then said, "It appears to be constructed with two types of material, see the circled areas in the photos. I haven’t figured out what the outer material is yet but I am willing to bet the construction will tell us when it was made."

Thanks to Mark for sharing the find and continuing with the cleaning and to my reader's for adding their information.

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I added the link to the 18th century book, Elements and Practice to Rigging and Seamanship, to my reference link list.  It is the newest addition and is at the bottom of the list.

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The next couple of days the surf will be only two feet or so, but Wednesday or Thursday there will be a little bump up to three or four feet.

Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net



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4/20/24 Report - Mystery Encrusted Object Identified. A Great Reference: 18th Century Rigging and Seamanship Book.


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



I found a great reference.  I can't say enough about it.  Above is the title page. 

It is an extensive work in multiple parts with some excellent illustrations, but before I get any farther into that, I want to return to some unfinished business.  A few posts ago I posted this photo of a partially cleaned EO found by Mark G.

Partially Cleaned EO
Found and Cleaned by Mark G.

A couple readers who really know what they are talking about identified Mark's find even though it isn't yet totally cleaned.  

First is what John L said.  Here is his email.

Hello again, 

I believe Mark's object is a thimble, still commonly used today on sailboats and anywhere a reinforced eye in, usually the bitter end of a line is needed, such as in an anchor rode, where chain meets line.

Just a guess, but an educated guess, from 55 years of experience on the water, messing around in boats, usually classic sailboats. 

I sail a Cape Dory 22D which I purchased in Huntington, NY in 1983. She just turned 41!

Hope this helps a bit. I am anxious to hear what Mark thinks he has.

John


John isn't alone.  Here is what Josh R. said.

 

I believe that the EO found by Mark G. could be a Thimble, commonly used with boat anchor lines to prevent chafing the line. 


They come in Stainless Steel or are galvanized.  They are also used on wire lines.

 

Thanks again for your relentless efforts providing information and motivation for me and all others.

 

Ron 


Thanks John and Ron.


Here is a photo of a modern rope thimble in case you don't know what John and Ron are talking about. 


Rope Thimble.


I wasn't familiar with that terminology and went looking to see what more I could learn. That is when I found the book I mentioned above, The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship, and I'm glad I did.  The title gives only a modest idea of the extent of that work and the detailed information on 18th century sailing.  When you reach the end of one part, you can click to go on to the next part.  There are several parts.  I lost count.


Below are a couple of the many great illustrations. 








It would seem that if you mastered this book you could build your own galleon.  Detailed measurements and more are included.


If you are really interested in the treasures of the Treasure Coast, you will definitely want to study, or at least browse, this reference.  You'll be amazed by the amount of information you will find.


Here is the link.


The Elements and Practice of Rigging And Seamanship (maritime.org)


I'll be adding the link to my reference link list.


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The Treasure Coast will have mostly a one-to-three-foot surf this week.  The tides are unramarkable too.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

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Thursday, April 18, 2024

4/19/24 Report - Lost and Left Behind Coins. Digital Communications. St. Augustine Mass in 1565. Gold Spewed In Air.

 

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



At a waste-management facility in Morrisville, Pa., workers load incinerated trash into industrial machinery that separates and sorts metals, then sends them to get hosed down. The reward: buckets of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.

Americans toss as much as $68 million worth of change each year, according to Reworld. The sustainable-waste processing company is on a treasure-hunt to find it. The company says that in the seven years since it started the effort, it has collected at least $10 million worth of coins.

Coins are as good as junk for many Americans. Buses, laundromats, toll booths and parking meters now take credit and debit cards and mobile payments. Using any form of physical currency has become more of an annoyance, but change is often more trouble than it is worth to carry around. The U.S. quarter had roughly the buying power in 1980 that a dollar has today.

Because coins can be hard to spend, they circulate slowly through the economy—or don’t circulate at all. More than half of the coins in the U.S. are sitting in people’s homes, according to the Federal Reserve...

Many coins are also getting left behind. At airport checkpoints, the Transportation Security Administration collects hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of them each year. Coins are left in couch cushions or cars, then sucked into vacuums and sent to landfills, said Dominic Rossi, Reworld’s director of finance and business support...

Here is the link for more of that article.

68 millioin in coins thrown away - Search (bing.com)

I've wondered how many coins are lost at the beach and other places.  The number must be huge.

I dislike waste and have as long as I remember.  One of the things I like about metal detecting and treasure hunting, reclaiming things of value.  Coins are returned to circulation.  Metals are found and reccyled.  It is a very green activity, although many detectorists probably don't look at themselves that way.  They are easier on the environment than those who make a living off the cause by talking about it and at the same time consuming unbelievable amounts of energy and consumables.  It seems like the poles have switched in the political universe.  One side talks a good game but lives the opposite, whether the topic is freedom and civility or environmental friendliness.

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Have you ever wondered how an email sent from New York arrives in Sydney in mere seconds, or how you can video chat with someone on the other side of the globe with barely a hint of delay? Behind these everyday miracles lies an unseen, sprawling web of undersea cables, quietly powering the instant global communications that people have come to rely on.

Undersea cables, also known as submarine communications cables, are fiber-optic cables laid on the ocean floor and used to transmit data between continents. These cables are the backbone of the global internet, carrying the bulk of international communications, including email, webpages and video calls. More than 95% of all the data that moves around the world goes through these undersea cables.

These cables are capable of transmitting multiple terabits of data per second, offering the fastest and most reliable method of data transfer available today. A terabit per second is fast enough to transmit about a dozen two-hour, 4K HD movies in an instant. Just one of these cables can handle millions of people watching videos or sending messages simultaneously without slowing down...

Now that is something that really surprised me.  I thought more of it was transferred wirelessly.

Here is the link.


That surprised me.  I thought more of it was satellite.

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And for that — as well as for Catholicism as a whole–one can look to the City of Saint Augustine, Florida, which sits right there quietly on an inlet of the Atlantic.

The nation’s “very foundation”?

That’s said because the small (but growing) northern Florida community is the country’s oldest city.

It is also the site of the tallest documented Cross in the world.

It is where the first official Mass was celebrated.

Mendoza sailed across the Atlantic in 1565 alongside Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who was tasked by the King of Spain to remove French settlers and establish a colony in Florida. “He brought Catholicism to America and gave the first Christian mass in the United States,” says Professor David Arbesú of the University of South Florida...

Here is that link.

In Turbulent Time, Nation’s Oldest City Remains Under The Cross | Spirit Daily Blog

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Just the other day I was watching a TV program where they explained how gold got transported by water that eroded it down the hill and into the valley.  The trouble, as I saw it, was that the valley was many miles wide and the mountains miles away.  I just thought it seemed unlikely that the gold was washed so far across so much flat land unless the landscape had changed a lot since the event or unless it was a huge event like Noah's flood.

Then I saw a headline about a volcano, Erebus, spewing gold into the atmostphere.  Here is an excerpt from that article.

An active volcanic peak in the Antarctic is spewing a fortune's worth of gold into the atmosphere every day, as per a report in the New York Post, Mount Erebus, one of Antarctica's 138 active volcanoes, is known for emitting pockets of gas containing approximately 80 grams of crystallized gold each day, valued at almost $6,000 (Rs 5 lakh), according to experts.

The dust is present as far as 621 miles away from the volcano which stands at 12,448 feet. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Earth Observatory, gold dust is just one of many things that are being spewed out of Erebus...

So that amount of fine gold might not seem like a lot, but I can also imagine a mega eruptions in the distant past, maybe like those that formed caldera in Yellowstone Valley, throwing larger particles, perhaps even nuggets great distances. I don't know, but maybe that could explain it.

Here is the link.

This Volcano In Antarctica Is Spewing 80 Grams Of Gold Dust Everyday (ndtv.com)

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Biden's education secretary vows to shut down the largest Christian university in the US.

Here is the link for more about that.

Biden's education secretary vows to shut down the largest Christian university in the US | Fox News

No change in beach conditions expected.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

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Wednesday, April 17, 2024

4/18/24 Report - Dug Encrusted Object In Process of Cleaning. Remington Closes. Creativity and Problem Solving.


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

EO Found by Mark G.


Mark G. is still working on this EO he detected some time ago.  Here is what he said.

If you recall I was asking about shipwreck iron and I had a few conglomerates to work on, 2 were modern, the 3rd was that huge chunk of conglomerate and I’m still working on it. The thing about electrolysis is you need a good connection with the base iron to let the current do it’s work. I tried Muriatic acid to break down the conglomerate, that was messy but got a good start. I then tried CLR which was good for removing the shells and lime deposits in the conglomerate which worked well with a wire brush but to get to the object itself I had to resort to chisel and hammer. I have put it through electrolysis 3 times so far and have some of the object exposed it is going in again. I think I know what it is, it will have to be fully cleaned to suggest it might be from a shipwreck but possible it looks like a part of ships rigging and looks twisted and strained. I will include some pictures but it is not time to play guess what this is yet I don’t think.

 

The parts I have exposed are very fragile it will not be whole when it gets totally cleaned, if I get there, and very puzzling for what I think it is. The metal I’ll call it metal for now probably iron or both. A piece chipped off and it exposed what looks like metal clad in iron or something? The metal center is very strong and what looks like iron clad is very brittle. I’m perplexed could be an modern application, I don’t know?


Same EO After Some Cleaning.


Thanks for the note on your progress. You are to be commended on your patience.

One more note on cleaning EOs.  It is a risky, but you can sometimes remove some of the crust physically.  I like carefully using pliers or a vice instead of striking, which can break the item.

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The Remington gun factory, the nation’s oldest gun manufacturer, is closing its doors in New York after over 200 years and moving to Georgia.

Here is the link for more about that.

America’s oldest gun maker closes after 200 years (msn.com)

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I've talked about this a little before, but it is an important and interesting topic.  Being an old psychology professor, I studied and taught the subjects of perception and cognition and am interested in how those areas of study apply to metal detecting and treasure hunting.  It is good to understand your metal detector, but it is also good to understand the operator.  

As detectorists and treasure hunters we are often faced with the difficult task of identifying unidentified objects.  We also look for clues and try to determine the possible significance. Mystery objects are something like ink blot tests.  Different people will see the ambiguous forms differently.  A persons past experiences, hopes and fears affect their interpretations. 

You often see it on TV programs.  People interpret things in a way that is supported by very little or no evidence.  They see a key or a hinge, and automatically think it must be from a treasure chest, or they find a spike and immediately determine, again with very little or no evidence, determine that it is from a Spanish galleon.

What if you notice some rocks organized as shown below.  What is it?  Well, the first impulse might be to call it a cross, even though there are six points that may or not be related.  

They points can be connected by straight lines in quite a variety of ways to form figures other than a cross.



Below are just a few of the many alternative ways to connect the dots.




The dots could be seen as forming a diamond, arrow, upside down Christmas tree, unraveling bow tie, or any of quite a variety of other shapes.  And all of those takes the view of a vertical orientation with a cross bar near the top of the vertical bar.  The figure could just as easily be oriented horizontally or at a 45-degree angle.  

Changing the orientation presents the following possibility.

And we haven't yet considered many other possibilities.

Why is it assumed that the dots are end points rather than midpoints, for example?  The below figure takes the points as being midpoints rather than end points.



I've only addressed a few alternatives so far.   There are many more possibilities.  It could be a dot code or something else.   And there is no reason to believe that all or any of the connecting lines would be straight.  Or that they form one single figure.

I'm not saying that the figure does not represent a cross, but it can be looked at in a variety of other ways.  Do not jump to conclusions.  Creative problem-solving means opening up your mind, not jumping to conclusions.  

We do a lot of processing automatically, which generally works well, but when you are trying to solve a problem, the best solution might not be what seems like the obvious conclusion.
 
Your world is bigger when you open your mind to more possibilities rather that reducing your world to fit your preconceptions.

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We are still having a small surf and moderate tides.

Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


















See a Restored Ancient Roman Helmet—and Two Shiny New Replicas (msn.com)


The progressives are anything but.


Trash. 






Once your parents are gone, you can only go home in your mind.  





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Boswell Embalming Bottle House – Sanca, British Columbia - Atlas Obscura


As far back as 9,400 years ago, hunter-gatherers in what is now Brazil created dozens of stunning rock art designs next to the fossilized footprints of dinosaurs, a new study finds.

Researchers described the petroglyphs and dinosaur tracks, which date to the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago), in a study published March 19 in the journal Scientific Reports. They think ancient humans purposefully put the rock art next to the dinosaurs' prints, as many of the petroglyphs are a mere 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) from the fossilized marks and some of the glyphs appear to be illustrations of the prints.  

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Tuesday, April 16, 2024

4/17/24 Report - Treasure Coast Wreck Beach Silver Treasure Find. Excavation Yields Skeletons and Coins. 1715 Fleet Talk.

 

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


Lion on Piece of Silver Artifact
 Found on Treasure Coast Beach

Here is a piece of silver I found while metal detecting a Treasure Coast shipwreck beach. It is about an inch high and curved. I don't know what it came from.  I have a couple guesses, but no evidence.

I really like how clean it is and the fact that the lion is complete, and the edge is so nicely scalloped.  To me, it is just a nice little find.  

I didn't have to clean it.  There was almost no corrosion.  That is the way it was found.  Once in a while you find a piece that survived the centuries without much apparent damage.  It reminds me a little of the silver pistol side plate I found, which has similarly raised ornate edges. 


Closeup of Lion on Beach Found Silver Piece.

Here is what one site says about the lion in Spanish symbolism.

The lion is a symbol of great importance in Spanish symbolism, representing strength, courage and nobility. The rampant lion, with its majestic and powerful posture, is an emblem present in the coats of arms of numerous Spanish cities and regions, as well as in the coat of arms of Spain. In addition, the lion is associated with the medieval history of the country and with the figure of the king, representing royal power and authority.

Here is the link to that site.  ▷ Spanish Symbology: 10 Signs, Origins and Myths (mythology.guru)

Of course, it may not be of Spanish origin although that is what you think of when you think of the Treasure Coast and the 1715 Fleet wrecks.  The lion is a common symbol in many cultures.  It could be British, for example.  Lions are also stapples in heraldry, symbolizing nobility, strength, royalty, power, and valor.

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Gaylen C. sent me this notice of an upcoming 1715 Fleet talk at the Brackett Library in Vero.



Thanks Gaylen.

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So archaeologists weren’t surprised when a construction project at the church uncovered several skeletons — but the grave held an 800-year-old mystery, too.

Archaeologists began excavations at the Brahekyrkan church in Visingsö to prepare for the installation of a geothermal heating system...

On the first day of the excavation, the team found two skeletons, Anna Ödéen, an archaeologist with the museum, said in the release. One belonged to a man between 20 and 25 years old, but the other was not identified.

As they cleaned the grave, three silver coins emerged, Ödéen said. Then, more coins surfaced near the skeleton’s left foot...

Here is the link for more about that.

Rare 800-year-old silver artifacts found at church in Sweden — and spark a mystery (yahoo.com)

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I hope you enjoyed the real versus fake cob quiz I posted yesterday.



The surf will continue to be small this week.  And the tides are nothing special.

Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
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4/16/24 Report - Imitations and Real Cobs: A Fun Quiz For You. Detectorists Find Important Image and Buckle.

 

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



Metal detectorists have discovered a "unique" artifact that archaeologists say features a depiction of Alexander the Great, and is mystifying the experts surprised at the location of the find.

Finn Ibsen and Lars Danielsen came across the object in question, a small bronze fitting measuring around an inch across, near Ringsted—a city located centrally on the island of Zealand, Denmark.

"[A] mysterious and absolutely incredible find in the field," Museum West Zealand said in a Facebook post. "Finn and Lars were out with the metal detector in a field near Ringsted, and their eyes widened when it dawned on them what they had suddenly found. It is tiny and absolutely spectacular."

The bronze disk is thought to date to around the year A.D. 200 and bears a portrait of Alexander—one of the greatest rulers of antiquity—on one side...

Here is the link for the rest of the story.

Metal Detectorists Find "Incredible" Artifact Depicting Alexander the Great (msn.com)

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Here is a little game for you that will test your cob identification skills.  See if you can identify which of the following cobs are imitations and which are real. 

Study each of the following five coins and decide if each is real or an imitation.   I'll give you the answers later.


A: Real or Imitation?



B: Real or Imitation?



C: Real or Imitation?



D: Real or Imitation?



E: Real or Imitation?

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A SHOE buckle thought to have belonged to a Jacobite clan chief wounded in battle at Culloden has been discovered by archaeologists among other artefacts.

Among the discovered artefacts are a large number of musket balls and grapeshot which were uncovered in a 60 square-metre area close to what was the British government frontline at Culloden Battlefield...


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You can use the following link to find some antique maps of Florida.


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I hope you enjoyed my little game.  There are a lot of different kinds of fakes.  There are toys, reproductions or copies, and counterfeits.  I think the term imitation most closely corresponds to counterfeit.  Copies, or reproductions, on the other hand, are often marked and not meant to deceive.

The five coins shown above are all listed lots in the current Sedwick auction and are called imitations.  Some imitations are more realistic and convincing than others.  

A - D are all described as imitations in the Sedwick catalog, while E is the only genuine cob of the five.

Here is the link to the auction site where you can get more detail on each. Upcoming Live Online Auctions - Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC (sedwickcoins.com)

The lots shown above are lot numbers 1207, 1441,1446, 1447, and 807.

Too often detectorists get fooled by a souvenir treasure coin sold in local shops.  It has happened to me.  I remember a couple times when I was a newbie that I was fooled for quite some time.  It cana be disappointing to discover what you thought was a nice treasure coin is actually a fake.  There are many very good fakes that you can buy online by mistake.

To learn to identify fakes, study the real thing.  “Federal agents don’t learn to spot counterfeit money by studying the counterfeits. They study genuine bills until they master the look of the real thing. Then when they see the bogus money they recognize it.”  That is one reason I like to browse auction catalogs.  You learn to recognize the real thing.  When you do that, you'll learn to quickly identify many fakes, which  "just don't look right."


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The surf will be small all week, and the tides are moderate.

Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

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