Friday the 13th Spanish Treasure Coin - 400 years old

smokeythecat

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Nov 22, 2012
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41,071
Maryland
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XP Deus II
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All Treasure Hunting
I went out with Megalodon and Tommybuckets during the nor' easter today. We were on the beaches, two different ones, for about 5 hours. It was a tough go for sure. We were looking for shipwreck coins, modern jewelry, and coins.

It was a tough go! I found one British halfpenny, it was almost on top of the sand! Not the first time that had happened. A couple hours later I wandered semi close to the spot I found it and got a screamer of a signal. It read 88 on the Deus. I was puzzled as to the tone of the machine, as something around 88 is a lot of times a big wad of heavy aluminum. I got my scoop out and pounced.

In the scoop was what looked like a piece of flattened chewing gum. Like what? I got it out and saw some degradation to the metal, and determined it was made of copper. I thought at first it was perhaps a misshapen broken half cent, but it was too thick. Then I thought it was a piece to one of the WWII artillery shells that get found on the beach. After we got it to the truck, I turned the light of my cell on it and could finally see some writing, at least it looked like writing, and a depressed circle with a "VI" in it.

So...what we have is Spanish 6 Maravedis copper cob! This style is most likely from the era of Philip IV. Right now I can't move, almost 10 at night after driving 360 miles and walking miles on the beach...so...I can't tell or see what is on the coin. It will need some serious attention before it will be presentable. I don't know how much of the inscription is still there. The picture I have now just shows "dog food", essentially. I think with the light of day in the am and my optivisor and Andre's pencils, I'll see what she looks like in the am. And THEN both coins will need to be submerged in fresh water for numerous weeks, with water changes to try to get some of the salt out. Doing it right takes awhile.

And the other coin? A mere 1781 Hiberia half cent, George III. Obverse is nice. It apparently had been sitting with the obverse up as the salt water damage is primarily to the back of the coin. It has that great red coloration, and probably has been sitting high in the sand for over 200 years. The ones from down below generally tend to be either thin "razors" or heaving encrusted. This one apparently has been beach tumbled for a bit!

Pics tomorrow when I have enough light to get them. Back in about 1989 or so I found my first Revolutionary War cannon ball on a Friday 13!
 

Upvote 34
I think this one was up in the dunes. The reverse is worse, and it looks to have been sandblasted. I'll work on the cob later today. Trying to find lamp replacement parts, but it may be better to get a used one off Ebay and scrounge the parts off it. It's an Artimide Tolomeo from Italy. My daughter bought it for me in Canada, so it's special.

I also had to chuckle at Tommy. He says "there's a wheat penny on the floor back here". True. Came from a park LYING ON TOP OF THE GROUND. A 1919 with very readable date. I had just dumped it out of the pouch for this trip! TOP OF THE GROUND.

I don't know about you, but I was also a bit sandblasted and after only a few hours on the beach. Who knows how long that coin sat on a sand dune exposed to wind driven sands? On the plus side, we got for free what some people pay for - what is it called derm-abrasion?

There were pennies on the floor of my side of your truck as well but they were memorial cents. Next time, I will search the seat cushions for silver and gold.
 

I was thinking about that spot and wanting to go down and detect there. Every storm I think about it. My health/mobility has me to the point of "I couldn't detect if I wanted to" I'm in the process of losing weight and I'll be getting my other knee rebuilt, then maybe my hip done also. I'll be like the 6 million dollar man, (remember that show,lol) I've been entertaining myself with fishing, but I sure do miss dirt fishing.
Nice work finding those finds, I know firsthand your difficulty in doing what we love. Treasure hunting old coins!
 

I guess I"m back to my old self after the major surgery mid June. I was dog tired by the time I got home last night. Didn't even try to run off the road. The cats were FAMISHED! It had been HOURS since they ate! I've started soaking the copper cob. While the halfpenny was up high, from the looks of the cob, it has been under water 400 years. Very little detail is left, however, I think it's Philip IV of Spain. There are apparently other, unknown shipwrecks lying off the coast there.
 

Amazing treasures Smoky! You never fail in giving us something out of the ordinary! :notworthy:

No doubt magical!
 

Reverse: IMG_0791.JPG
 

Still looks a lot better than most....nice !!
 

Don't get your hopes up on the cob. I can barely see a few things on it, but at least it's real! Real old too!
 

Banner find Smokey no matter how much more detail you get from it. Thats freakin cool now gotta get some scuba gear and go find the shipwreck thats leaking cobs
 

Banner find Smokey no matter how much more detail you get from it. Thats freakin cool now gotta get some scuba gear and go find the shipwreck thats leaking cobs

Probably long broken to pieces in the surf and the coins all scattered. Look closely for Tommybuckets swinging his Nox. View is from just south of the Indian River inlet looking north.

IMG_1333.jpgIMG_1330.jpg
 

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Banner find Smokey no matter how much more detail you get from it. Thats freakin cool now gotta get some scuba gear and go find the shipwreck thats leaking cobs

Probably long broken to pieces in the surf and the coins all scattered. Look closely for Tommybuckets swinging his Nox. View is from just south of the Indian R inlet looking north.

View attachment 1752824
 

Tommy got a few sinkers and some clad. Those beaches are normally extremely clean. The little aluminum is eaten up quickly by the salt water. A2Coins, the other Tommy, it is illegal to look for them with scuba in Delaware waters.
 

Nice hunt, the half penny is really awesome & BOL on your cleaning of the others, congrats & HH
 

Nice pictures.

Oh and the stuff in them :P

Well done.
 

Thank you all. Both signals blew my ears off. We're hopeing for some better storms this fall. I have hunted the beach in a driving snow, and did well on that day.

I don't think I'll be able to get much off the maravedis. It was well worn when it went in to water.
 

Wasn’t there with Smoke this time but I did receive the pic soon it was found.

What y’all don’t know about me is that my other hobby is photography and photo restoration. That being said , of course I started to manipulate the photo digitally to enhance the contrast, black point, highlights .. ect.

I’m not great at identifying coins, but I can tell you that there were letters of some sort on that crusty hunk of copper.

Awesome find buddy!
 

I went out with Megalodon and Tommybuckets during the nor' easter today. We were on the beaches, two different ones, for about 5 hours. It was a tough go for sure. We were looking for shipwreck coins, modern jewelry, and coins.

It was a tough go! I found one British halfpenny, it was almost on top of the sand! Not the first time that had happened. A couple hours later I wandered semi close to the spot I found it and got a screamer of a signal. It read 88 on the Deus. I was puzzled as to the tone of the machine, as something around 88 is a lot of times a big wad of heavy aluminum. I got my scoop out and pounced.

In the scoop was what looked like a piece of flattened chewing gum. Like what? I got it out and saw some degradation to the metal, and determined it was made of copper. I thought at first it was perhaps a misshapen broken half cent, but it was too thick. Then I thought it was a piece to one of the WWII artillery shells that get found on the beach. After we got it to the truck, I turned the light of my cell on it and could finally see some writing, at least it looked like writing, and a depressed circle with a "VI" in it.

So...what we have is Spanish 6 Maravedis copper cob! This style is most likely from the era of Philip IV. Right now I can't move, almost 10 at night after driving 360 miles and walking miles on the beach...so...I can't tell or see what is on the coin. It will need some serious attention before it will be presentable. I don't know how much of the inscription is still there. The picture I have now just shows "dog food", essentially. I think with the light of day in the am and my optivisor and Andre's pencils, I'll see what she looks like in the am. And THEN both coins will need to be submerged in fresh water for numerous weeks, with water changes to try to get some of the salt out. Doing it right takes awhile.

And the other coin? A mere 1781 Hiberia half cent, George III. Obverse is nice. It apparently had been sitting with the obverse up as the salt water damage is primarily to the back of the coin. It has that great red coloration, and probably has been sitting high in the sand for over 200 years. The ones from down below generally tend to be either thin "razors" or heaving encrusted. This one apparently has been beach tumbled for a bit!

Pics tomorrow when I have enough light to get them. Back in about 1989 or so I found my first Revolutionary War cannon ball on a Friday 13!


Hey Deb(smoky) Meg(Phil) and all others who have hunted "Coin Beach " over the years to include myself in the 90s. Going way back in the "Wayback Machine" to 1993 I was recruiting for the Army in 1993 in Baltimore when a big hurricane hit . Wife and I had visited the Treasure museum just before that that and seen the many treasures from the Faithfull Stewart . We hunted it on Turkey day but fund nothing. The day after the hurricane hit I had left Baltimore and made the trip and on the beach at 3 am . It was indeed a nasty day with high winds and rain and the surf was pounding. Parked a many have done under that bridge . I guess no one nuts enough to join me s all alone and a bit dangerous. Anyway made that like 1/8 mile walk to where the ship had sunk and started hunting. It was kinda insane as the beach had eroded down and could see the ancient tree trunks. Walking up against about 8 or 9 feet of dune I found an old pewter fork fragment I am sure dates to the wreck .Also a thin anchor of brass and a semi precious piece if jewelry. On the high area tide area pulled out 3 KG111 coppers . Two sandwhiched together . One was pretty well toast as I understand many are due to the sands acting well like sand paper. I did pull the two coins to see a well preserved bust of the old king. SEnding up a pic if can find it . Did not find any gold guineas as I understand are the quest most folks are looking for.
Man that was an exciting day and took home some history. Deb congrats for finding one and decent at that. Here is a pic of what one of the guineas would look like if u found one. Still could happen and dream big and keep THinig my friends. Gary
 

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Thanks for chiming in Gary,
I've hunted that beach since the early 1980's. Its possible we passed each other there in that storm you described! But after that, I was turned away for 5 days in a row after a perfect storm by National Guard, state police, park rangers and every other person who could wear a uniform. So I gave up on it for over 20 years until Smokeythecat invited me to go with her. It is more fun to go with someone. I'm happy to have finally met Smokey and hunted with her. We learn from each other when we hunt together. I don't know if she learned anything from me - but I learned to examine finds much more closely, seeing her focused on that cob. I hate to admit it, but had I been hunting alone, the 6 maravedis she dug probably would have gone in my junk pocket along with the pull tabs. Now I'll look at those crappy looking little pieces of copper more closely. And Smokey has found a rose guinea there in the past with the same model I was swinging, but her machine was apparently tuned for gold and mine is maximized for pull tab depth...
Best, Rick (not Phil)
 

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Gary, thanks for the insight, it is a horrid beach to detect. Best stuff is usually in the black sands. Megs, as you might have realized, when I found the cob I probably spent 30 minutes staring at it. It was much more fascinating than the halfcent. That is a tough, tough place to detect. You can literally go 15 minutes or more without even a grunt on any machine. I talked to Tommy, he got 3 clad coins, dimes I think and 2 sinkers. Tough place.IMG_0002.JPG This is an old picture so it's sideways. And since my brain goes in loops, it's the guinea I found at Coin Beach the January after hurricane Sandy.


HOWEVER, if you zoom it the photo with put itself right side up. Go figure.
 

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