4/1/25 Report - Gold Prices Soaring Along with Other Metals. Platinum: Find, Coins, Prices, Marks, and Methods to Test.

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

 One of Early Platinum Ring Finds.

Monday the gold spot price got to over $3156 per oz., and it is $3162 early Tuesday morning.

Below are a couple excerpts from an article about gold.  It was written just a few days ago.

Things may change by the time you get to read this market commentary, but as this is being written, gold has broken through the psychological $3,000-an-ounce barrier...

So, is the new higher price of gold (as well as silver and platinum) a good thing or not? If you are a gold bug and ready to take profits, the answer is “yes.” If you are a serious collector planning to continue adding to your collection, maybe not. We don’t know if gold can continue at these values, but it wasn’t so long ago that we were surprised by gold breaking the $2,000 barrier. This is a good time to re-evaluate whether you are truly a collector or an investor.

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

Gold Breaks Value Barrier - Numismatic News

If you've been hanging on to your gold finds, you might be happy with the price increases you've seen.  Who knows where it goes from here.

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Gold isn't the only precious metal.  Of course there is silver, but one we don't talk about as much is platinum.  

At the top of this post you see a picture of one of my first platinum ring finds.  I remember it so clearly.  I was at a location that I only detected that one time.  I was using a Tesoro water metal detector.  I can't remember the name right now.  Oh, it was a Stingray.  See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 2/23/11 Report - Using Multiple Detectors To Clean Out a Spot

The signal from the platinum ring was very nice and solid but not loud.  The breakin the ring where the diamond is set could have been partly responsible for the weaker signal.

Here is what NumismaticNews had to say about platinum.

Platinum may be rare, but platinum coin collectors are even rarer. Despite ultra-low mintages, Platinum American Eagles often trade at bullion value—yet 2025 market trends could change the game. With supply tightening and demand shifting, will platinum finally shine in the numismatic world?...

While platinum U.S. coins aren’t necessarily being treated as rare, one of three known 1836 Gobrecht dollar restrikes, a Professional Coin Grading Service Proof 63 Cameo CAC, recently demonstrated what the opposite end of the market still does. The coin sold at auction for $192,000. Forty bids were received for the coin! Perhaps platinum coins are being treated as being not much better in price than their intrinsic value, but the opposite end of the market continues to surge ahead...

And here is the link for the rest of that article.

Adding Platinum to Your Collection - Numismatic News

Below is something I wrote back in 2013, over ten years ago.  Among other things, it gives a variety of ways to test platinum.


Months after being at around $1900 per ounce, gold is now close to $1400. That is a big drop, even though it is still well above what it was years ago. Silver finished at $22.55 yesterday and platinum, at $1511.

Years ago platinum was a lot more valuable than gold and then it got to be about the same. It seems platinum is regaining some of its edge over gold again...

Platinum looks a good bit like silver and also stainless steel or titanium, all of which are being used in jewelry these days. There are ways to tell the difference though.

Instead of the common marks that indicate silver or gold, platinum jewelry is usually marked either "PT" or "PLAT" or "PLATINON."

Here are some additional ways to identify platinum.

Check the weight. Platinum is almost twice the weight of the same amount of silver. Platinum is also very hard and resistant to scratching. Like gold, it does not corrode much.

If you put platinum in a spoon and heat it, the spoon will change color but not the platinum. You can also get acid to test platinum just like the acids you can get to test silver and gold. (I've done a post on acid testing metals some time in the past. You might want to look it up. One is the May 13, 2010 post.)

You can also use iodine to test platinum. A drop of iodine on platinum sill dry completely clear, unlike on gold or palladium, which will show streaks of brown or black from the iodine.

If you know your detector very well, you might get a hint from the signal. On one detector I use, I get a quiet but very stable and smooth signal when I detect platinum.

Hopefully your jewelry will be marked. As I often tell people, if you have a jewelry item that you can't test or identify, a pawn shop or jewelry store might help with that.

See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 2/23/11 Report - Using Multiple Detectors To Clean Out a Spot

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Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com.

It is starting to look like we're getting into summer beach conditions already.  Sometimes we get a nice storm in April, but I'm not expecting it this time.  I hope I'm wrong.

It won't be long before we start tracking tropical developments.

It will be pretty warm all this week.

Good hunting

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/31/25 - More on the Remote Viewer Post: Reader Responses. UFO Experiences Sought. Nice Lead Weight Metal Detecting Find.

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

2 Oz. Lead Weight Find by Scott B.

Scott B. sent me the above find photo along with the follwoing email.

Good morning,

   I’m a few days behind on reading your posts, but just read about the coin weights. The attached picture is a lead weight I found near Fernandina Beach a few years ago. If you look closely, you can see it says 2 oz. In this location, I’ve found colonial shoe buckle pieces , musket balls and old buttons.

   Although I don’t think it was for coins, I thought you might like to see this. As always, thank you so much for all of your hard work and great information.

Respectfully,

    Scott

Thanks for sharing Scott. Great Find.

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It seems the Intuition/remote viewer post I did yesterday received a lot of interest.   

As a cognitive psychologist and biofeedback researcher, I actually have a longer history of studying consciousness, including, but not limited to alternate states, religious experience and meditation.  Back in the seventies when I was doing post-doctoral research in a biofeedback lab, I was also exploring computing science. Just for the fun of it, I developed a computer program that I referred to as computerized mantra meditation.  The computer repeated the Hare Krishna Hare Rama mantra as many times as you wanted.  I thought it was humorous but also presented a message.  Now, about fifty years later, the idea of computers and/or robots possibly having awareness or consciousness is now considered by some leading scientists.  That idea is taken more seriously because of the development of AI.  That is an idea I was hinting at with my mantra meditation program way back then.  

When I started to type my recent intuition/remote viewing post., iout of the blue, I decided to check channel 55, which is a channel I never watch.  I remember how the number 55 just popped into my head.  I punched it into the remote and what I saw next was "Sixth Sense," which is a  Bruce Willis movie.  You might know that movie.  But I was surprised given what I was just thinking about and then seeing Sixth Sense pop up on the TV screen.  It seemed like quite a coincidence.  

Anyhow, Tony S. sent an email in response to the intuition/remote viewer post.  You can see it below.  

Third Eye Spy film says it all.

RV is not psychic, rather a Scientific Double Blind Protocol established by Stanford Research Institute, where RVer only knows target # on outside of sealed envelope containing subject and question or grid coords. RV term was coined by Ingo Swann. check out his books.

ive successfully done this several times and developing it, and a variety of protocol and non-protocol techniques.

ESP - go on Audible, listen to the podcast, Telepathy Tapes. listen to episode 1 and 3.

You wont look at an autistic person the same way again.

Here's an interesting question to poll your viewers and see how the response flows... 

...has anyone here seen UFO/UAP or other related phenomena while metal detecting, along the space coast, or elsewhere? where were you, what were you doing, and what did you see, feel, or hear?

if you think that's a quack question, read Imminent by Lou Elizondo and Skinwalker at the Pentagon. Reviee Lou's background

Tony S.

Thanks Tony.

I'd like to talk more about that but can't do it justice in less than about five hundred pages, so I'll just leave it at that.  

I will ask my readers if they ever saw a UFO/UAP or related phenomena while metal detecting along the Space Coast or elsewhere.   Let me know if you've had any of those experiences.

I've related a couple experiences of my own in this blog.  I wasn't metal detecting at the time of the one I'll describe first, but I caught the photo shown below of what could be seen described as a UFO.   

Look closely just above the lip of the bottle towards the right side.  

Below is an enlargement.

I didn't hear anything and didn't see the object other than in the photo I took.  

I reported on that in a 2017 post.  See 

The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 10/25/16 Report - Recent Land Finds, Wood Hulled Ship Construction and Components. Little UFO Fun.

I did have one strange experience while metal detecting.  I was beach detecting on a stormy night when I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, and the surf was very rough.  I saw a light out in the water.  It looked like it was very close to shore, It was there through my entire hunt, but towards the end it looked like it was much farther out.  It looked like a ship sailing away, but I could figure out how it would have been so close to shore in such rough seas.  As far as distance, it could have been mistaken because of the darkness, and I had no reference points.  

If anybody ese has any metal detecting UFO experiences, let me know.

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Here is another email response to the same post.  This one from Mark G..

Einstein like me was problem solver. His quote and your thoughts are right on, but I have thoughts of my own which in a roundabout way may just say the same thing. Like Pavlov’s dog training becomes instinctive. Reading blogs and metal detecting gives us the data to process, we follow the data on intellect hoping the data is correct. When we find treasure that triggers the intellect and then becomes instinctive. Example: I read a blog of where I should hunt in the surf, I tried it the next day and I found a ring. This happens again and again my instinct each time I go to the beach is to head into the surf.

Intellect is limited to data analysis and is measured by success and also implies you know the solution to the problem. Intuition is not a guaranteed path to success; intuition is taking everything thing we’ve learned from safe data collection and reward and applying it to other problems.

Example: Your go-to surf line is sanded in, your instinct begins to panic, your intellect doesn’t know what to do, but your intuition says, if people loose stuff in the surf they must also loose stuff in the dry sand or even the parking lots.

So I agree to disagree with the definition of intuition, like you, and agree with Einstein with one caveat, you can not have intuition without intellect and instinct relies on both.

 

Thank You

Mark G.

 Thanks Mark.

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Definitions are crucial to every discussion. A look through a dictionary will quickly reveal multiple definitions for most words.  It helps to define words, but you can't define every word during a discussion or you'll end up in and endless loop.  There must be a large pool of words that are assumed to be mutually understood, whether they are or not.

You'll note that in my original post on remote viewers, I did take time to provide working definitions for two words.  In retrospect, there was one more that I suspected might be a problem as soon as I typed it and wish I had explicitly defined it too.  

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Looks like there will be around a two-foot surf for the next week or so.  

There will be a nice  -1 low tide this afternoon.  Check it out.

The more I learn the less I know (TG). 

Each new thing I learn opens a new door to uncountable mysteries.

Can you believe the first quarter of the new year is already ending.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/29/25 Report - Remote Viewing: Research and Application from CIA and Other Research Institutions. Intuition and Metal Detecting.

 

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

Fort Pierce South Jetty Saturday Morning.
Source: SurfGuru.com.

------------------------

Source: The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 7/9/17 Report - 2011 Law Concerning Ownership of Artifacts and Space Exploration Artifacts. Blog Poll Conclusions.

Back in 2017 I did a post that reported on a poll that I conducted in this blog.  I asked readers to indicate how much they rely upon intuition in their treasure hunting.  The chart above summarizes the results of that poll.  The chart gives the percent of respondents that reported relying upon intuition entirely, more intuition than analysis, equal amounts of intuition and analysis, more analysis, and entirely analysis.  As you can see only two percent of the respondents indicated going entirely by intuition and eight percent entirely by analysis, with the vast majority, using a mixture of intuition and analysis.  The most general conclusion is that almost all of the respondents rely upon analysis but also use their intuition to some extent.  

Below is a definition of intuition from Psychology Today. 

Intuition is the ability to understand something instinctively without the need for conscious reasoning.  It is often described as a form of knowledge that appears in consciousness with without obvious deliberation, allowing individuals to make decisions or judgements based on "gut feelings" or hunches...

That is not exactly how I would describe it, but it is close enough for most purposes.  I don't like using the term "instinctively" because to me "instinct" suggests something "inborn" while intuition, in my view, is the product of a lot of information processing. 

Einstein considered intuition very important.  Here are some of Einstein's quotes on the subject.

The only really valuable thing is intuition. I believe in intuition and inspiration; at times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason. The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery.  There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.

It is difficult to say how often our hunches, or intuitions, are correct but most of us must feel that our hunches are sometimes correct and helpful or for some other unexplained reason, at least compelling.  We remember the times when our feelings seemed to pay off and, we attribute those successes to something other than coincidence or accident even though we can't explain how or why it works.

Just recently CIA documents were made public that discussed how "remote viewers" were able to correctly describe details of distant sites that they had never visited.  Not only were numerous experiments conducted, but various organizations or agencies repeatedly called on "remote viewers from those projects, which suggests that the remote viewers must have been found helpful.

Below is a link to an article describing one experiment in which a "remote viewer" described the location of the long sought "Ark of the Covenant" as well as other details about the sacred treasure.

Declassified CIA files reveal psychic quest for the Ark of the Covenant - The Jerusalem Post

And here is a brief excerpt from that article describing what the remote viewer saw.

Remote Viewer No. 032 described a container made of wood, gold, and silver, adorned with images of six-winged angels, and similar in shape to a coffin.

"The target is a container. The container contains another container inside it," Remote Viewer No. 032 stated, according to the New York Post.  The remote viewer further described the object as being "hidden—subterranean, dark, and wet," indicating the concealed nature of its location...

So, is the Ark of the Covenant buried on Oak Island? Additional details provided by the remote viewer seem to exclude that. The site is described as being in an area near gold domes and white robed people. 

You might enjoy reading more about the psychic's description of the location and the artifact in that article. 

Russell Targ, one of the primary researchers on government sponsored contracts on remote viewing, summarized the project in the 24-page article described below.

Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 569–592, 2019 0892-3310/19 RESEARCH ARTICLE.    What Do We Know about Psi? The First Decade of Remote-Viewing Research and Operations at Stanford Research Institute by RUSSELL TARG.

You can find it online for yourself, but below are a couple excerpts.

 In its 15 years of operation, the Fort Meade remote viewing program received 450 requests for services from various US Government intelligence agencies. Despite the CIA’s denial of the utility of remote viewing, they referred 34 missions to the remote-viewing human, The First Decade of Remote-Viewing Research and Operations at SRI 589 intelligence group at Fort Meade for their intelligence needs; with 122 from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and 172 from the Joint Task Force (JTF). This kind of repeat business strongly indicates that the customer was finding the information useful enough to keep coming back for more, thus lending support to the validity of psi and the utility of remote viewing. All the SRI–SAIC and government reports and reviews have now been published in four volumes as the Star Gate Archives by Edwin May, the former research director of the SRI–SAIC remote-viewing program (May & Marwaha, 2018a, 2018b, 2019a, 2018b)...

In 1978, a Soviet, Tpolev Tu-22 Backfire bomber went down in northern Africa. It was full of code books; and both the Russians and the CIA were eager to find it. However, since it crashed into the jungle, US satellite photography couldn’t locate it. We were asked by our CIA customer to try to locate the plane by remote viewing. Both a talented SRI viewer and an experienced female remote viewer from the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base made contact with the plane. They both described the locale and drew a circle on a map. When the CIA landed a helicopter in that circle, the first thing they saw was a group of natives dragging pieces of the plane from the river to the village, just as the SRI viewer described. This whole event is narrated by President Jimmy Carter in the opening scene of my 2018 documentary film Third Eye Spies...

It definitely seems that there is some experimental support for effectiveness of "remote viewing."  The intelligence agencies spent a lot of time and money investigating the subject.  It should be noted, though, that some "remote viewers" are much more effective than others, and some people have virtually no talent or skill for it.  

In the treasure hunting community, there is very little discussion or acknowledgement of such skills.  That seems strange to me, since treasure hunting is an area where such techniques would seem to be most helpful.  Treasure hunters acknowledge hunches or feelings, but as far as I know, have not investigated or systematically described techniques like those explored by the CIA and other research institutions.  The difficulty of describing how those techniques actually work could be part of the problem, not to mention how ESP phenomena conflicts with a materialistic or classical physics world view.  

Below are a couple related links you might enjoy.

Is ESP Real? Harvard Scientists Say They Have Settled The Debate | Science 2.0

The Flower Ornament Scripture A Translation Of The Avatamsaka Sutra By Thomas Cleary : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

In the first, Harvard scientists concludes that ESP does not exist based upon a failure to find expected brain changes associated with ESP tasks.  The assumption is that ESP activity would be shown by changes in brain function that could be detected by their imagining system.   

The second is a document that takes a very different view (ancient Buddhist) and provides techniques for developing what we might call ESP abilities.

Personally, I see intuition as being the result of developed information processing and assimilation. Observations and information are processed and assimilated to produce a higher level of insight, which is not easily broken down or explained.  

In contrast to intuition, I would define ESP is a process of gaining information that does not come through the normal five senses. So, intuition can be seen is a higher level of information processing, while ESP implies a means of input other than our normal five senses.

Your own position on ESP will depend to some extent on your personality, views and experiences.  If you are interested in the subject, there is a varied body of literature that you might want to explore.  Some of that literature describes methods for improving those skills.  You can find more on the Star Gate Archives online, but it may require some digging.

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Rip Current Statement issued March 28 at 3:13AM EDT until March 30 at 4:00AM EDT by NWS Melbourne FL

* WHAT...Dangerous rip currents expected. * WHERE...Coastal Volusia, Coastal Indian River, Coastal Saint Lucie, Coastal Martin, and Coastal Brevard Counties. * WHEN...Through late Saturday night. * IMPACTS...Rip currents can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water.

Rip currents are powerful channels of water flowing quickly away from shore, which occur most often at low spots or breaks in the sandbar and in the vicinity of structures such as jetties and piers. Heed the advice of lifeguards, beach patrol flags and signs. Entering the surf is strongly discouraged. If caught in a rip current, relax and float. Don't swim against the current. If able, swim in a direction following the shoreline. If unable to escape, face the shore and call or wave for help.

---

Source: Surfguru.com.

It is still windy and we have a little higher surf today but not as much as predicted yesterday.

The afternoon low tide will be almost one negative foot.  Haven't had a low tide that big for quite a while.

Take a look at the beach cam image at the top of this post.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/28/25 Report - Gold Coin Cache Found. Casual Visual Find to Be Followed by Metal Detecting. ESP & Ark of the Covenant.

 

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

A small jug discovered in the Israeli capital's Jewish Quarter last month turns out to contain four gold coins — the equivalent of four month's salary for a common laborer at the time the coins were tucked away more than 1,000 years ago. 

Archaeologists discovered the hidden loot while surveying a site prior to the construction of an elevator to the Western Wall Plaza, a historic public square in Jerusalem's Old City. Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) inspector Yevgenia Kapil found the juglet, a clay vessel not much bigger than a coffee cup. Weeks later, excavation director David Gellman, an IAA archaeologist, upended the juglet into his hand and was shocked when a handful of coins came out with the dirt...

Here is the link for more about that.

Ancient gold stash found in jug in Jerusalem | Live Science

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It is always nice to find a cache, no matter how big or small, and a gold coin or two always makes it a special day, especially if it is old.

• A passerby discovered a rare Viking-era iron bracelet in a wetland on the Swedish island of Öland.
• The open-ended bracelet style is rare in large part because of the use of iron.
• Officials plan to undergo a deeper search of the area to see if the find was a one-off or if there is a hoard stashed nearby.

...someone who officials are calling “an attentive person” discovered what first appeared to be an unremarkable, rusted-out bracelet. Instead, the find turned out to be a rare example of an iron arm brace from the Viking era...

Still, once the weather allows, officials plan to scour the area with metal detectors to see if they can discover more lost Viking-age treasure...

Here is that link.

A Passerby Discovered an Ancient Viking Artifact

Just yesterday I was talking about how a visual survey can be a useful first step before metal detecting.  This is a good example of the type of thing that can happen.

I've also talked about how come cold water environments can preserve metal materials.

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Classified documents on cold war ESP experiments were recently declassified.  One remote viewer seemed to identify the target, which was the ark of the covenant, as well as details about its location.  If he was correct, it didn't sound like it was on Oak Island, although it was seen as being in a wet underground location.  It was seen as being in a location with mosque domes, or something like that and white robed peoples.  

I'll get into topics like that more in the future.  A poll I did in the past showed that a good number of the people that read this blog rely to some extent on intuition.

===

Jensen Beach Friday Morning.
Surfguru.com Beach Cam.

It is windy this morning, so I checked out a couple beach cams.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Friday Morning.
SurfGuru..com Beach Cam.

As you can see, despite the wind, the surf isn't big yet.  The surf chart shows the same thing.

Surf Chart.
Surfguru.com.

Tomorrow the surf will increase.  Looks like three to five feet.

We also have some small negative tides today.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/27/24 Report - Hispania Coin Molds Discovered. Rip Tide Danger. Science and Philosophy. Descartes. Book Treasures.

 

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

Coin Molds and Coins.
Source: See link below.

A stone mold used for coin minting in Hispania found.


The discovered object is one of the two valves of a bivalve mold used for producing coin blanks (raw, unminted metal discs used to manufacture coins) through molten metal casting. The piece, measuring 11 cm in height, 13.7 cm in length, and 5.4 cm in width, has a flat surface with circular casting marks and evidence of thermal use. Petrographic analysis has determined that the stone used for its manufacture comes from the geological unit of Porcuna, confirming the local exploitation of resources for industrial tool-making in antiquity...

The discovered object is one of the two valves of a bivalve mold used for producing coin blanks (raw, unminted metal discs used to manufacture coins) through molten metal casting. The piece, measuring 11 cm in height, 13.7 cm in length, and 5.4 cm in width, has a flat surface with circular casting marks and evidence of thermal use. Petrographic analysis has determined that the stone used for its manufacture comes from the geological unit of Porcuna, confirming the local exploitation of resources for industrial tool-making in antiquity.

X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (µ-XRF) analysis revealed the presence of a binary copper-lead alloy in the mold’s metallic impressions, consistent with the compositions previously identified in coins...

Here is the link.

First Stone Mold Used for Coin Minting in Hispania in the 2nd Century BCE Found at the Obulco Site in Jaén

So there is the possibility that they would find molded coin blanks that weren't yet struck, if I understand this.

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Rip Current Statement issued March 27 at 2:49AM EDT until March 28 at 4:00AM EDT by NWS Melbourne FL

* WHAT...Dangerous rip currents expected. * WHERE...Coastal Volusia, Coastal Indian River, Coastal Saint Lucie, Coastal Martin, and Coastal Brevard Counties. * WHEN...Through late tonight. * IMPACTS...Rip currents can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water.

Rip currents are powerful channels of water flowing quickly away from shore, which occur most often at low spots or breaks in the sandbar and in the vicinity of structures such as jetties and piers. Heed the advice of lifeguards, beach patrol flags and signs. Entering the surf is strongly discouraged. If caught in a rip current, relax and float. Don't swim against the current. If able, swim in a direction following the shoreline. If unable to escape, face the shore and call or wave for help.

Rip currents can create some nice treasure holes, but you don't want to get into something you can't handle.  

--

There is so much noise on YouTube, but it seems that quantum physics is leading a lot of physicists and other thinkers to the conclusion that consciousness is a basic determinant of the material universe, which is quite different than prevalent recent theories that consciousness is product of the physical brain.  Quantum physics is also leading many to conclude there must be a God.   

The consciousness first theory is one I've held for at least fifty years.  I've hinted at it in this blog from time to time.  

Descartes is perhaps best known for the statement, "I think therefore I am."   If you ask yourself how you know whatever you know, and then how you know that, etc. etc. and continue that process long enough, you will eventually come down to the realization that the only self-evident and undoubtable thought or realization is that you are conscious.  The basis of science is a pervasive doubt and questioning.  Doubt is as basic to science as knowledge.  If they ever studied Descartes (and perhaps also operationism) they could have come to the same conclusion about the place of consciousness without waiting for the development of quantum physics.  

Instruction in science should begin with philosophy - especially the philosophy of science.  Philosophy of science is a field that deals with what science is, how it works, and the logic through which we build scientific knowledge. It involves examining metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical issues related to scientific inquiry (wikipedia).  How can you have science education without philosophy?  You can't.

Descartes Book I Picked Up When A Local Library Was Deaccessioning.

Books are among my favorite types of treasure.  In the past I sold some for good money after picking them up for almost nothing.  The Descartes book probably wouldn't bring hardly anything, but it has been a treasure for me because I like the physical book, and I also appreciate the information contained.  Few people would consider it to be much of a treasure, but I do.  Some treasures are more personal than monetary.  And for me, the personal ones are the best.

Deaccessioning is a strange word that they use to refer to weeding out a library collection.  You can get a lot of free books that way.  And sometimes they might charge a dollar or something like that.

I used to look through libraries and see some real gems that are totally unappreciated.  I've saved a few of those.  One library had an entire collection of collectible books.  They didn't realize what they had.  Librarians often don't know about rare, collectible or antique books.  

It is amazing how often I've found old books, hundred years or more old, that have never been opened or read once.  I've seen books on the shelves with uncut or untrimmed pages, so I know they have never been read.

I ran on too long and have to stop before I get too depressed about our educational institutions.

---

Descartes was smart but totally bipolar in his mind/body dichotomy.  (A Short Poem by T.G.)

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Source: SurfGuru.com.

Bigger surf tomorrow.  Small negative tides today.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

3/26/25 Report - Eye-Balling and New Mystery Find. Shiver Me Timbers and Other Phrases. Gold and Copper Prices.

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

Possible Stone Scraper.

There was a nice hard but brief rain yesterday.  It is a perfect time to scout or search land sites.  The vegetation is thin from a winter season that was very dry along some coastal areas and the recent rain would expose surface items.

Just this morning in my own yard, with that all on my mind, I looked around some sandy areas where  near-surface items could have been exposed by the recent rain.  One thing I noticed is the above stone, which could have been used as a scraper.  I am not certain that it was shaped for that purpose, but if I was without tools and saw it, I would have picked it up and added it to my tool set.  

Possible Lithic Scraper or Cutting Tool.

I know very little about lithic tools and don't see what I can say for certain are worked surfaces.  Nonetheless, it fits the hand remarkably well.  For use as a scraper.  You can see the cutting edge, which is the edge that looks most like it could have possibly been shaped by human workmanship, yet due to my lack of knowledge about such things, remains, in my mind, questionable.  You can also see where downward pressure would be provided by the forefinger and the impression where my thumb fits nicely.  If it was not formed for use as a scraper, it could still be seen as a happy accident.

I won't say this is an artifact, because I don't know for sure, but it is an interesting item, and the point that I'm making today is that it is a perfect time to visually search land sites.

Here it is in hand.

Scraping Tool(?) In Hand.

It worked well when I tried it out.  Cut a nice line across hard wood.

Any thoughts or opinions on this find?

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Gold Price Chart.

Gold this morning is $3048, as I type.  That is not the absolute high, but close.

Similarly, copper prices are right up there near all-time highs.  

Maybe that will hasten the demise of the one cent coin.

---

I had this post nearly finished last night when a mistaken stroke of the keys lost all I had completed.  That is always annoying, especially when I can't easily reconstruct it.  Sometimes I don't feel like trying to reconstruct what I lost, and I take the loss as a sign to start over and leave my old attempts to remain in wrack and ruin upon the digital rocks.

The phrase "wrack and ruin" evolved over the centuries.

Henry Bull moved the phrase on to ‘wrack and ruin’ in his translation of Luther’s Commentarie upon the fiftene psalmes, 1577:

“Whiles all things seeme to fall to wracke and ruine.”

Eventually it became "rack and ruin."

I'm always interested in how the waves of words and phrases move through the language and culture.

Below is the frequency chart for "rack and ruin" in printed material.

As you can see, it was most used around the 1920s but was being increasinly used in print during the later 20th century.  

Have you noticed that "Thanks" has increasingly become "Thanks so much" when used on TV.  The "so much" seems unnecessary and repetitious, but I guess is added for emphasis and flattery, especially on TV, when there are fawning contestants.

There was a while when everybody was talking about dissonance, but that has faded in more recent times.  

You watch the flow of words and ideas to watching the changing frequency of use.  The internet is a big spreader.  People adopt there ideas without having to think.  They copy a lot.  One common phrase that was used a lot as applied to education and memorizing is "regurgitate."  Thankfully, I don't hear (or read) that one so much anymore.

But back to nautical phrases, the phrase "shiver me timbers" came to mind.  That phrase is nautical slang and is a reference to the timbers, which are the wooden support frames of a sailing ship.  In heavy seas, ships would be lifted up and pounded down so hard as to "shiver" the timbers, startling the sailors. Such an exclamation was meant to convey a feeling of fear and awe, similar to, "Well, blow me down!", or "May God strike me alive and well". Since on the high seas the ship was the sailors' 'world', it may also be interpreted as an exclamation for "shake my world" as the subject being referred to could be or may be considered a potentially 'world shaking' event. (wikipedia)

I like tracking the source and adoption of words and ideas interesting.

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Sand Being Pushed Around at Fort Pierce South Jetty.

Surf Chart.
Source: Surfguru.com.

We're supposed to get a little more surf later this week.

Did I mention that Fort Pierce is talking about starting paid parking at some of their beaches.  I don't know if I got that posted before losing it.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net