Fleet wreck silver spoon?

If you watch this video to the end you see what is possibly a silver spoon found by a detectorist. What makes this find "suspect" is that we had very little erosion, no beach cut and definitely did not get down to the layer where we would need to be to even find this type of thing. We do have a slightly steeper slope but that sand is now just offshore on a subsurface sandbar and will be redeposited by mother nature in a few days or weeks. Maybe a turbulent undertow cutout, mixing the spoon into a large wave and dropping it caused it to be found. The concave design of the spoon may have aided in this....if in fact this was a true find and not someone looking to get on the news. For the most part those who made their way to this area were disappointed. You wouldn't believe the number of rental cars with fancy new detectors and shiny new scoops out there! I can see it now...land at Orlando International Airport, pick up rental car, drive to Kellyco, buy everything....go find treasure..retire! Well...hopes and dreams are what make life the journey it is......good for them! What fun to watch their techniques and swing style! Irene did not produce the severe erosion as predicted on this coast. The multitude of dynamics required were just not in place.

[www.wftv.com]

"You wouldn't believe the number of rental cars with fancy new detectors and shiny new scoops out there!"

LOL.........thanks for the report Bob..........reminds me of the 'uranium craze' in the 1950's. Like you local folks wouldn't have found it already if it was there for the taking.

If the spoon was silver, it would be black from being in the salt water? That spoon looked more like nickel plaited brass or whatever modern spoons are made of.

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Badger...the only thing I could think was because of all the turbulent wave action the spoon went through before being redeposited in the sand. Kind of like being put through a rock tumbler with fine grit.......the result is something VERY clean and bright. You are right...if this had been laying there just waiting to be found for the past few centuries it would have been BLACK. Thus my thesis as stated earlier as to "how" it got to where it was.

Those kind of people have no clue what it takes to correctly hunt a ocean beach let alone find anything of value. They also probably are the same ones that got tired of trying to flip houses. Even the silver I have found up here in the fresh water lakes turns black. I dont see how something that old could come out of the ocean looking like that!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2011 12:36PM by Aaron.

FloridaBob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Badger...the only thing I could think was because
> of all the turbulent wave action the spoon went
> through before being redeposited in the sand.
> Kind of like being put through a rock tumbler with
> fine grit.......the result is something VERY clean
> and bright. You are right...if this had been
> laying there just waiting to be found for the past
> few centuries it would have been BLACK. Thus my
> thesis as stated earlier as to "how" it got to
> where it was.


Your thesis seems correct, not that I'm an expert on Florida beaches. That beach looked like it had hardy moved. It's one of the most heavily hunted beaches in the world. It would take more churning than that to bring a spoon to the surface. There wasn't enough sand action to polish anything.



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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2011 11:59AM by Badger in NH.

You need a nominal 14' to 17' deep cut...... to ascertain Spanish Plate Fleet strata...... IRT the on-shore dunes.

Last set of storms, I saw two or three guys swinging a foot off the ground with their COIL FACING BACKWARDS, and most of them don't want your help. I've pulled a lot of spoons from beaches over the years, and they've never looked that good coming out until you get a chance to clean them up with electrolysis. There's no shortage of good 'stories' of finds after the storms, that's for sure.

Tom,
That is a amazing amount of sand your talking about to be removed all the way to the dunes...what categorie of hurricane would it take to do all that? Thanks

It happened in 2004.

A Cat-1 can do this.............. if it's "parked" on top of us for a few days. (( This has happened before also )). Hurricane (or NorEaster) hunting is a completely different set of rules/style. You can score big.... with proper knowledge.