4/15/22 Report - Medallion Finds and The Serenity Prayer. Meditating On Finds. Making Connections. Bigger Surf Coming.

 

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

Serenity Prayer Medallion.

This is a medal I found years ago.  I just happened to open a drawer last night and there it was.  I don't remember now where I originally found it or when.  It was probably a decade or two ago, but last year I posted the words of the prayer in one of my posts.  

Recently I received a note from a frequent blog contributor who found the prayer very helpful for her and her family.  She made a bookmark with the prayer on it and sent one to me.  She told me how meaningful the prayer was for her family.  I now have that bookmark in a book I am reading on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essene community that inhabited the Qumran area before the Christian era and up to about 70 AD.

Some people call it coincidence, chance or luck, while others think it is the intentional act of a greater intelligence., but things can show up at just the right time.  If you are a believer, you might think everything has a purpose, and all things work together for good even if you don't understand how at the time.

I received the note and bookmark just before a very challenging time for my family.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.

Then last night I opened the drawer and there was the medal that I had not noticed for a long time.  Like I said, I don't remember when I found it, and I don't know if I ever posted the medallion before.  I couldn't find it but I did find where I posted the prayer. back in 2021.

Yesterday I talked about butterflies in my post, and when I oopened the drawer and found the medal last night, I noticed something that I did not remember - on the side opposite the prayer is a butterfly. 

I've been thinking lately about how the butterfly lifecycle is like a resurrection.  And today is Good Friday.  Recovering lost items from the earth, reminds me of resurrection too.  

Butterfly caterpillars create a chrysalis and hang for a specific period of time in the chrysalis before emerging in an entirely new form.  They then hand until their wings are unfolded and become hardened before flying off.

Unlike the caterpillar which eats a specific plant (Monarch eggs are laid on milkweed leaves and that is what the caterpillars eat, and zebra longwings and fritillaries, are laid on and the caterpillars eat passion flower plants), the caterpillars eat leaves, but the butterflies eat nectar.  The zebra longwing, however, can eat both nectar and pollen.  It is unusual in that way.  But the point is, there is a very complete change from a caterpillar to a butterfly, and not only does the butterfly fly get wings, but becomes a very different type of animal.  It is really a very remarkable transformation.

Finds can be personally meaningful.  This medal was not only meaningful to me in a variety of ways, it was also very meaningful to the blog contributor, who once again passed it on to me at a very significant time.  And then, very coincidentally (or so it would seem) the medal once again emerged and showed itself with an additional coincidence of timing.

Digging up a lost find is something like a resurrection.  A find had a previous life.  It was a part of someone else's life.  It had a meaning for them.  I'll never know exactly why the serenity prayer medal was being carried by the person that lost it, but it probably had a meaning for them.  And I'll never know exactly why the medal shows a butterfly, but I can guess.  The designer had a reason, and maybe it was the same meaning I saw in it.

You can wonder, what the medal meant to the person who lost it.  Not only did the medal mean something to the person who lost it, but there was a designer and manufacturer who knew that someone would find it meaningful enough to purchase, own, and maybe carry.

Before I dug up the medal, there were others, and I don't know how many, that touched that medal.  It meant something to each of them, but after I dug it up, it is being posted, and the message is being passed on again.

It is obvious enough that when you unearth an object, it had at least one previous owner, but you never know how many people were touched by it.  And after you dig up the object, it becomes a part of your life, and likely many more lives.

The Serenity prayer, after being posted in the blog, touched at least one reader and the members of her family.  The reader returned the message to me at a significant time, and here I am talking about it again.  So the message, like found objects in general, can continue to connect and be passed on.

Meditate on your finds.  Let your mind wander.  What does the object mean to you.  What did it mean or what might it mean to someone else.. Consider where it might have been, the meaning, and where it might go in the future.

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Reinhold Neibuhr is given credit for the serenity prayer, which became popular through Alcoholics Anonymous.  

I remember finding another medal bearing the serenity prayer in a lake in Minneapolis.  I remember wondering when I found it if it was thrown in the lake or if it was just lost.  

I just found that one in an old post from treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.  Here is the photo from that post.  It doesn't have a butterfly on it.

Alcoholics Anonymous Medallion.

This side reads: To thine own self be true.  And, Unity, Service, Recovery. 

The III, as I recall, indicates the stage of the program completed.

The other side has an AA and the serenity prayer.   Also notice, that unlike the one with the butterfly, this one has a hole for suspension.

See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: Search results for AA alcoholics anonymous medallion

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Hooray.  The predictions are showing the possibility of a 4 to7 foot surf in the near future.  Hope that actually happens.  

The tides are better now.  We had a full moon last night.

Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox.

Blessed Good Friday to all.

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/14/22 Report - About Mudlarking. Precious Metals Price Trends. Meeting Nature While Metal Detecting.

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

ArchaeologyNow, the Houston chapter of the Archaeology Institute of America, has a good article about mudlarking.  As you might know, mudlarking has become popular, partly as a result of the videos on YouTube.  The most restrictive definition refers to mudlarking as beimg conducted on the banks of the Thames River in London, but the same type of thing has been done for centuries worldwide.  

Mudlarker was the term used to describe the very poor individuals of London, including many orphans who scoured the river mud for bits of coal or anything they could find that could be sold for their very subsistence. Mudlarkng on the Thames goes back to the 1700s.  

I've used the term mudlarkng in a broader sense to refer to what I previously called eyeballing when conducted along the banks of waterways other than the Thames.  It appears that the term has taken on that broader meaning in recent years.

I personally enjoy eyeballing as much as metal detecting, and some mudlarkers, even on the Thames, now occasionally use metal detectors, even though that is not typical.  There are rules about digging, diminishing the value of metal detectors.

The article in ArchaeologyNow talks about the rules and regulation involved with mudlarking on the Thames and what a tourist mudlarker should know.  There are permits and licenses and rules and regulations for mularking on the Thames these days, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme applies.

The article says, Two big concerns when it comes to mudlarking are protecting the foreshore’s natural and archaeological resources and keeping mudlarkers safe. I don't know how much of the natural environment remains. It seems to me that the banks of the Thames have been polluted by waste from industries and human habitation for a long time. Of course, there are the safety issues, such as making sure you are not caught without an exit when a high tide arrives.

Here is another quote. You could be cut off from your exit and swept away by the tide. You might slip on the rocks, fall into the water, and be run over by a speedboat or a garbage barge. You might puncture your foot with a nail. The PLA warns that you could catch Weil’s Disease, spread by rats’ urine in the water.

I've stepped on a few nails in my day, only once getting infected. Keeping your tetanus shots up to date is a good idea even though tetanus cases are not real common. Cutting yourself with broken glass or fishing lures or other sharp objects, such as barnacles happens too.

I recommend giving the article in ArchaeologyNow a quick reaqd. Below is the link.

What to Know About Mudlarking — Archaeology Now

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Gold futures traded between $1,966.30 and $1,985.80. They climbed 1.4% on Tuesday and they edged 0.1% higher on Monday.

Silver for May delivery tacked on 29.5 cents, or 1.2%, to end at $26.03 an ounce. Like for gold, the settlement was silver’s best since March 11. Silver futures ranged from $25.53 to $26.07. They surged 3% on Tuesday and they rose 0.7% on Monday.

In PGM futures on Wednesday:

• July platinum added $17.20, or 1.8%, to $989.60 an ounce, trading between $966.40 and $991.

• Palladium for June delivery declined $14.80, or 0.6% to $2,339.50 an ounce, ranging from $2,303.50 and $2,419.50.

Here is that link.

Gold and Silver Mark Fifth Gains and 1-Month Highs | CoinNews\

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After encountering a roost of Zebra Longwing butterflies one evening in a densely overgrown area I was trying to detect, I got interested in butterflies and my wife started raising them.  The Zebra Longwing is the Florida state butterfly and a personal favorite of mine.  They have a short wing stroke that gives their flight a slower and more leisurely, almost spiritual, appearing flight.  As caterpillars, they are more gregarious than most other types of butterflies that are common in my area.

It is fascinating to find the microscopic eggs, watch the tiny caterpillars emerge, go through several molts as they grow, create a chrysalis, and eventually emerge again,  pump up their wings and gly away.   

Monarch butterflies are a threatened species.  One day when I arrived at John Brooks, I saw hundreds in the field, evidently migrating.  (One Monarch is emerging from a chrysalis on my front porch as I write this morning.)

Metal detecting can introduce you to new beauties of nature while you are searching.  Don't miss out on that.  I've seen some amazing and beautiful sights while metal detecting.

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Source: MagicSeaWeed

Maybe we'll get a little more surf in the near future.  We have some small negative tides now.

I found time for a quick little bottle hunt yesterday but struck out.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/12/22 Report - Spanish Sword and Olive Jar Found in Cave. Pottery and Porcelain Marks. Denby Pottery History.

 

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

I found an interesting article having the title The Sword and the Olive Jar: Material Evidence of Seventeenth-Century Maya – Spanish Interaction in Central Belize by Jaime Awe.   As the title suggests, it is about a sword and an olive jar found in a cave.  The sword is shown above, and the cave  below.

Here is a paragraph from that article.

We believe that when the discovery of the Spanish sword, olive jar and glazed sherds is placed within the culture-historical context of the seventeenth-century colonial frontier in the Yucatan Peninsula, it is possible to provide a fairly accurate reconstruction of the events that led to the deposition of these objects in cave sites in the Roaring Creek Valley. In the case of the olive jar, it is likely that the Maya from Hubelna acquired it from Franciscan missionaries on one of the friars’ stops at Zaczus. The vessel may subsequently have been taken to Hubelna at some point between 1624 and 1641 following the Maya destruction of Zaczus and the relocation of the village upriver to Hubelna. We suggest 1641as the cutoff date for this event because on his trip to the Belize valley in that year.  Fuensalida reported that the church at Zaczus had been burnt and that the cacique had moved his community upriver to Hubelna. Some time after this move, and owing to the exotic nature of the olive jar, the Maya decided to place the jar and other objects as offerings in the cave. When the olive jar was deposited within the cave, the Maya pierced a“kill hole” into its base to ensure that, in accordance with ritual observances, the spiritual essence of the jar would be released and the vessel would never be used again for non-ritual purposes (see Helmke 2012: 65-67)...

The article is interesting reading.  There is a lot more than I presented here.

Here is the link, which I recommend using.  

(99+) The Sword and the Olive Jar: Material Evidence of Seventeenth-Century Maya – Spanish Interaction in Central Belize | jaime awe - Academia.edu

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Here is a link to an extensive manual of pottery and porcelain marks.  Very handy.  Take a look.

A manual of marks on pottery and porcelain; a dictionary of easy reference (museum.wa.gov.au)

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Not long ago, I showed a 19th century stoneware master ink bottle that I found.  It was from Denby Pottery.  \Here is a bit of the history of the company, which still makes pottery.  .

Here is the link.

Denby History (denbypottery.com)

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The tide isn't big and we're getting a lot of southish winds.  That isn't very encouraging for metal detecting, but you'll be able to find some interesting places to hunt if you are flexible and creative.

Happy hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

4/11/22 Report - Summer Conditions Getting an Early Start. Some Beaches Lower Than Others.

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

John Brooks Beach Monday Morning.

I got a chance to make a quick trip to the beach this morning.  It looked very much as I expected.  You can see the pile of sand that has recently accumulated on the front beach at John Brooks.  It looked very much like summer conditions already.

Surf At John Brooks Monday Morning.

As you can see, the surf was not big.

John Brooks Beach Monday Morning.

A lot of sand, and that is about it at John Brooks.

Below is a photo from Walton Rocks.

Walton Rocks Around Low Tide Monday Morning.

That was the scene well north of the Walton Rocks access.

Keep in mind where the various beaches have been for recent weeks, months, and years.  My estimation is that Walton Rocks has been lower than the ten-year average since late 2020 and hasn't filled in as much as most beaches since that time.   Although it has remained lower since late 2020, there have been fluctuations, of course.  It is a good idea to compare the current levels with the twenty-, ten- and one-year averages, as well as more short-term fluctuations.

It won't take as much additional erosion for Walton Rocks to become productive as compared to many of the other Treasure Coast

I didn't get in much detecting today, but a little.

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Source: magicseaweed.com.

Just a little bump is expected Wednesday.  Nothing significant.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/10/22 Report - 12th Annual Treasure Hunters Cookout Coming This Month. St. Lucie County Dredging Project In Action.

 

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Michael T. sent the following message and photos of the dredging project in south St. Lucie.

Good morning! Mike T and Stuart here. I’ve been keeping an eye on the dredge project at the bottom end of St. Lucie County and it appears they finally started  pumping sand last night or early this morning. It’s not too often they pump sand from so close to the beach so it will be interesting to see if they pull up anything of value. They are pumping sand to the shore just south of Normandy Beach and they will fill back to Normandy and then all the way to the St. Lucie County line...

Thanks Michael!

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4/9/2022 I spent the first of three days in one room of a six-story steel and glass maze of endless bleak empty hallways and rooms.  Each hallway in the maze looked exactly like every other except for a few spots of color - the indecipherable signs that pretend to tell you where you are at.  

Off one of those hallways, I sat with a loving woman who hoped and prayed for her 96 year-old mother who was unconscious in a hospital bed.  She waited for her to regain consciousness and did everything she could to coax her mother to take a bite of food or a drink. 

It was a hostile 44 degree cloudy April day on the top of the mountain surrounded by leafless brown trees as the wind and chilling rain blew. The hospital  reminded me a bit of Frankenstein's castle, sitting high above the decayed brown brick buildings of the once vital town in the river valley below.  On the way home that night, by making a wrong turn and going through the old downtown area, we saw that the once happy town was vacant except for a few drug dealers that stood in the shadows of vacant buildings that were once buzzing businesses when the local miners, factory workers and their families came to shop, lunch, laugh and share the fun and gossip of the day.   The soul of those skulking in theh shadows seemed to be a perfect reflection of the old empty dark buildings.   Contrastingly, earlier I saw love polished by sadness, shining like a diamond in the tangled disorganized mess of the hospital room. Tubes, wires, endlessly beeping and flashing monitors and leftover dishes from the previous meal on a wheeled tray that could barely be moved in the crowded room could not hide the love.  

Sixty or more years earlier back in 1953 a little premature baby girl was born.  The entire hospital bill for the stay of multiple days was something on the order of 30 dollars.  I saw the yellowed bill not too long ago.  It was just a few years after the big war and young families homes and families.  A young mother and a young grandmother were as delighted as they could be.  At first they kept the tiny new baby in a shoe box.  They lovingly fed the little baby and changed her, and lovingly took care of every need.  Now she is my wife.

The circle turns.  The baby becomes the caretaker and the caretaker has taken the opposite roll.  The mother that took cared for of the little premature baby is now being cared by the sane grown girl.  Time has come and gone, and the rolls have reversed, and the love is returned.

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Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

4/9/22 Report - Detectorists Find Bronze Age Axe Heads. Finding Error Coins In Pocket Change: Great Example.

 

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

Source: BBC News link below.

Metal detectorists have made a "remarkable" discovery unearthing two Bronze Age axe heads on land owned by a farmer in Wiltshire.

Kay Stevenson, from Winterbourne in South Gloucestershire, said the finds could be about 4,000 years old.

"I knelt down and dug it up, then realised it looked like an axe head."

"I didn't realise the significance of what we found until we spoke to Bristol Museum, it's bonkers thinking about it," she said...

Here is that link for more about that.

Bronze Age axe heads found in Wiltshire field - BBC News

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Source: See Numismatic News link below.

G.J. Lawson of Hampton, Va., didn’t have to go far to end 2021 by hitting the jackpot. He pulled a small quantity of pretty major Rim-To-Rim Die Break errors out of a local store from mid- to late November. As an error-variety coin dealer whose ads you can find in Numismatic News going back as far as the early 1970s, he’s used to having to purchase his inventory from coin suppliers – but this time all he had to do was look in his pocket change.

He found 18 of them at Harris Teeter Pharmacy. Because the cashier behind the counter was not authorized to sell or exchange any rolls of cents with him, he had to buy single packages of cheese and crackers, which after tax came out to 41 cents each, giving him a nickel and 4 cents in change each time he went back to buy more. It was the only way he could check out those cents. He believes the entire town is serviced by Brinks and that there could be many more of these errors to be found. That, of course, remains to be seen...

For reader edification, a die crack is just that: a crack with no metal missing from the die, resulting in a raised irregular line on the coin. On the other hand, a die break (which may start out as a crack or series of cracks) represents an area of the die that has broken and fallen away, leaving behind a void or what appears to be a blob of metal with no design in its place on the struck coins. The United States Mint refers to this as a “piece out” (which you can see printed on many of the certificates the U.S. Mint issued with the thousands of defaced dies it sold to collectors during the 1990s-2000s)...

Here is that link.

Lincoln Cent Errors Discovered in Virginia - Numismatic News

Cool that you can find multiple stages of a die error in its various stages by searching pocket change.  

Studying how a die deteriorates over time is fascinating.

I showed some of the error coins I've found before.  Even though it is rare to find a significant variety or error, it can be done if you are patient.

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Source: MagicSeaweed.com

So it does look like a slight increase in surf coming up in the next few days.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/8/22 Report - Mystery Item Identified. Hurricane Season Forecast. Markings.

 

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

Mystery Bolt.

I posted this mystery item several days ago, and just got a great repsonse.

James H. had the following to say.

Looks like the bolt of a fire wall mount starter solenoid. Still with the Bakelite plastic on it.They break like that when you over tighten the nut.  Other old car items were found not too far away in the past.

I think that is a good possibility, but never would have got it on my own.  Thanks James.

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DJ sent me the following comments and link.

Early forecast from the original hurricane forecasting institution. Dr. William Gray was the first researcher to predict fairly accurate seasonal tropical storms.

I always thought it interesting that in any year, major, hurricane and named storms are halved. If there are 20 named storms, there are approx. 10 hurricanes and 5 major hurricanes. This year it is 19, 9 and 4.

Forecast link:     https://tropical.colostate.edu/forecasting.html

Below is some of what you will find there.

Forecast Parameters	CSU Forecast for 2022	Average for 1991-2020
Named Storms	19	14.4
Named Storm Days	90	69.4
Hurricanes	9	7.2
Hurricane Days	35	27.0
Major Hurricanes	4	3.2
Major Hurricane Days	9	7.4
Accumulated Cyclone Energy+	160	123
+A measure of a named storm’s potential for wind and storm surge destruction defined as the sum of the square of a named storm’s maximum wind speed (in 104 knots2) for each 6-hour period of its existence.

CSU released its first extended range forecast for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season on 7 April 2022.

We anticipate that the 2022 Atlantic basin hurricane season will have above-normal activity.

Current weak La Niña conditions look fairly likely to transition to neutral ENSO by this summer/fall, but the odds of a significant El Niño seem unlikely. Sea surface temperatures averaged across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic are currently near average, while Caribbean and subtropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures are warmer than normal. We anticipate an above-average probability for major hurricanes making landfall along the continental United States coastline and in the Caribbean. As is the case with all hurricane seasons, coastal residents are reminded that it only takes one hurricane making landfall to make it an active season for them. They should prepare the same for every season, regardless of how much activity is predicted.

Thanks Dj.

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It is always nice to find helpful markings on a find.  Of course, what is helpful depends upon you - what you know and the research you do.

A couple days ago I told about how the incomplete information on a piece of an unimportant ironstone marmalade crock led from one discovery to another.

Even when a find is not valuable, inspect it for any additional identifying information.  You might have to clean the item first, and on an worthless item, that might seem like a waste of time, but it might turn out to be worth the effort.  

I've said this before, but sometimes digging a find is just the beginning of a longer and more interesting search.  

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Source: MagicSeaweed.com.

Looks like the possibility of some higher surf in the near future.

I've been dealing with some family medical problems lately, and might miss posting a day or two.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

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Information, Inspiration, Investigation

Identification, imagination,