What beaches do you KNOW and/or believe to have produced cobs?

[Jolly Mon]

I have been looking for documented finds of Spanish treasure coins on the beaches of the United States. One famous writer claims that cobs have been found on virtually every beach on the east coast of the United States. I rather doubt this, but, of course, it may be true. What I am interested in is areas that are not well known to produce cobs...we all know about the Treasure Coast beaches. No need to mention anything from Ft. Pierce to Indiatlantic. Most of us know about the New Jersey/ Maryland coin beaches as well. It is probabably in most peoples nature to be secretive about such things, I just thought it might be fun to get an idea of what infomation people have and how they got it. I know it is very difficult to "prove" that such and such coin was found at such and such beach. A newspaper or magazine article or book reference is not necessary, and, in fact, proves nothing anyway. It just seems to me to make the story more likely true. A good story or statement from someone you highly trust is also good enough. C'mon lets hear some treasure tales !!!

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A clipping like this does not prove anything. The coin, if actually found, may have been dropped and have nothing to do with a shipwreck. But it is suggestive.

 

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[stevemc]

I know of several cobs North and South of Cape Hatteras, much of the outer banks has produced cobs occaisionally. Also the beaches from North of Cape Canaveral have. And some around St Augustine. A few on the West coast of Florida have also. I wouldnt doubt that the Charleston area has seen it share of shipwrecks, as well as Savannah, Cape Fear, and many other ports. All of those ports have historic areas from the early 1700s. And they were probably used a lot prior to being settled.

 

[Jolly Mon]

Back in the late 70's I had a High School teacher who used to metal detect Morris Island S.C. for Civil War Relics. I had gotten my first detector (a Sears White's, can't remember which one) in 1977 and he knew I was very interested in the hobby. From time to time he would bring relics to show me. At one point he brought in the first cob I had ever seen. He knew almost nothing about it, saying he was fairly sure it was Spanish. He just wasn't that interested. He was pretty much strictly a Civil War relic guy and at that place, and at that time, had plenty of stuff to be interested in. I was not really interested in it either, frankly. I had never heard of Kip Wagner, LOL. Anyway many years have passed and I had not thought much about that cob until I ran across this article:

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Now, epistemology is a difficult thing in the treasure business. My anecdotal evidence proves nothing. The article from a treasure magazine proves nothing...after all, you can't believe everything you read. But the two together make me believe with a fair degree of certainty that there have been Spanish coins found on Morris Island. I do not know if they are shipwreck related, not for sure, but there has never been any sort of European settlement on Morris Island. Maybe they were dropped by a lighthouse keeper. It is possible. But I think it much more likely that there is a shipwreck located off the island somewhere...

 

[vor]

They still wash up on occasion on S. Padre Island but everyone knows better than to report their State of Texas owned finds. Or so the natives say.

 

[ScubaFinder]

Oh they definitely still wash up on Padre Island. And land finds are perfectly legal, it's going into the water that will get in trouble in Texas. The way the law reads, if you take anything man-made, that is over 50 years old, out of the water you have commited a felony. The spot to look is just south of the Mansfield cut...when they cut the channel, they ran through shipwreck debris. 3 wrecks from the 1554 fleet were found just north of the cut, several more are still missing. There are a few areas between the cut and the town of South Padre that are said to have produced cobs, but I've only found shipwreck material at the cut. North of the cut is a National Seashore, so metal detecting is not allowed. If you rent a 4x4 in South Padre and drive up the beach to the cut, you will find shipwreck debris and native american artifacts on the beach and in the dunes. It's creepy out there, I'm a skeptic about most "super-natural" things, but there is some bad mojo hanging in the air out there...you can feel it. :-)

 

[Jolly Mon]

Oh they definitely still wash up on Padre Island. And land finds are perfectly legal, it's going into the water that will get in trouble in Texas. The way the law reads, if you take anything man-made, that is over 50 years old, out of the water you have commited a felony. The spot to look is just south of the Mansfield cut...when they cut the channel, they ran through shipwreck debris. 3 wrecks from the 1554 fleet were found just north of the cut, several more are still missing. There are a few areas between the cut and the town of South Padre that are said to have produced cobs, but I've only found shipwreck material at the cut. North of the cut is a National Seashore, so metal detecting is not allowed. If you rent a 4x4 in South Padre and drive up the beach to the cut, you will find shipwreck debris and native american artifacts on the beach and in the dunes. It's creepy out there, I'm a skeptic about most "super-natural" things, but there is some bad mojo hanging in the air out there...you can feel it. :-)

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. Thanks ScubaFinder....

 

[stevemc]

Well they might arrest you for taking pull tabs off the beach. They havent been made for about 40 years, and started making them in 1963, so they must be 50 years old now. Bad thing to go to jail for. In jail-in the holding cell, inmate says, "What are you in here for?" " Oh I was metal detecting and dug up some old beer can pull tabs and the State of Texas said I broke the law". Jason, I used to be a ghost sceptic, until I lived in a house with a/some ghosts or something that would bother me at night. I would just cover up and not let it bother me too much, and sometimes it would really mess with me grabbing and pulling my hand, pushing on me, pushing on my face, and blowing hard in my face, etc, but I would walk anywhere out on a beach day or night. For a cob or arrowhead.

 

[ScubaFinder]

I guess I will go anywhere for a cob or arrowhead too, because I went back a second time. :-) After the first trip out there, I do now believe that places where terrible things happened can retain some of that energy or something to that effect. Hard to explain, I've never had anything pull on me or anything physical like that. My skin was just crawling the whole time I was out there, the whole place just had an eerie feeling to it. Occassionaly, every hair on my body would stand up like I was grabbing a tesla generator and then it would pass as quickly as it came on. Several times I awoke suddenly in a panic, but there was nothing there of course. With that much shipwreck debris and indian artifacts all mixed together, I'm betting some Spaniards came to a horrifying end out there in 1554. Probably all in my head, but I've been other places where much worse events took place and didn't feel that unsettled. Enough ghost stories, how about some more beaches!

 

[Darren in NC]

Hard to explain, I've never had anything pull on me or anything physical like that. My skin was just crawling the whole time I was out there, the whole place just had an eerie feeling to it.

That happens to me every time I go to New Orleans. And I grew up there.

Almost all the small coastal islands of Eastern VA have stories of coins and artifacts found. Many a vessel foundered in this area as they never made their way into the safety of the Chesapeake Bay.

 

[mad4wrecks]

I agree with the "famous writer" that thinks cobs can be found on almost any east coast beach. Almost as quickly as the Spanish, French, English and Dutch began exploring the east coast, they began losing their ships and establishing forts, outposts and fishing villages.

And the piece of eight remained legal tender in the US until 1857.

Just a quick search of TreasureNet will reveal cob finds from Mass. down to Florida. I suspect even the beaches of Maine will produce cobs:

Its foreland location, jutting far out into the Atlantic Ocean, meant that its
shores were among the first parts of the New World encountered by European
explorers and settlers. By the mid-17th century, many of the small harbors of
central and southern Maine housed British villages. Settlement was kept out of
the interior by the American Indian population until the middle of the 18th
century.

 

[Jolly Mon]

Thanks for all the great information so far.

As for the supernatural: I agree that certain places just give off a bad "vibe".

While it is certainly true that cobs have been found in every east coast state for sure....and probably every state in the Union...I draw a great distinction between coins found inland and those found on beaches. Coins found at inland sites could have come from anywhere. Trade. Colonists. Collectors. Explorers. You name it. You could make the same argument for beach finds, I suppose. But the dynamic environment of the beach makes it much more likely that a coin found there might have its genesis in a nearby shipwreck. That is just my opinion, of course.

As to Maine, here are a few of clippings. One certainly shipwreck related, the others possibly so...

click images to enlarge

 

[LM]

There's a pretty hot spot off the West Coast of Florida, but that's an 'active scene' and we don't talk about that

Occasionally, they'd find Spanish shipwreck coins once in a blue moon off the State Park in St. Augustine, but the beach renourishment situation has been very aggressive over the past decade and a half, so all that ancient stuff has been heavily disrupted, covered up, blown out, etc. The North End of the island is still virgin and non-renourished, but you can't drive there anymore, so be prepared for a 7 mile round trip hike.

Padre Island was legendary for cobs and Spanish coins.
If anyone has a fear of ghosts/spirits/magic/demons/voo-doo/witches, let me know. I'll be happy to come along and protect you. I've been challenging that crap for years and it has yet to come out and kick my ass