Reale Topic :)

Danegeld · July 23, 2005 12:10AM

LordMarcovan AKA Mr. Shinnick said:

"Everybody has a GTI-2500, it would seem. Except me. I still use a lowly GTAx-550. And I used to use its predecessor, the old GTA-500.

I have heard stories about Padre Island. I understand it's no longer kosher to detect there, though. (As with the site where I got my 1776 and 1787 half reales)."

Here is that 2R I retreived in 81 or 82. I never knew it (S Padre) was off-limits for metal detecting

I was on Spring Break while attending college. I've never been a big drinker and rented a detector one morning and walked for miles down the beach. I found lots of change, a brass hanes (from a horse collar), the reale, beer cans, some unmentionables, and one HUMONGOUS BRA!!!

Ben

Sylvestius · July 23, 2005 1:02AM

I like the look of the smaller one. Actually i like them both, but the smaller coins get me more interested.

What is the smaller one and how big is it? Sixpence sized?

Danegeld · July 23, 2005 1:19AM

<< I like the look of the smaller one. Actually i like them both, but the smaller coins get me more interested.

What is the smaller one and how big is it? Sixpence sized? >>

I'm sorry I don't know how big a sixpence is but the 2R is about 29mm in diameter. Or just a little small than a US Half Dollar.

Take Care and Fight Terrorism
Ben

Sylvestius · July 23, 2005 1:42AM

Sixpences can be upto the size of a nickel if they are the early ones that i'm interested in, or down to the size of a cent if they are the modern ones.

Did they produce 1 reale coins?

SYRACUSIAN · July 23, 2005 2:00AM

Sylvestius,

you can't be so picky in metal detecting.

AuldFartte · July 23, 2005 2:09AM

Very cool finds

... um ... where's the pics of the bra

Danegeld · July 23, 2005 2:11AM

Oh yes, they were produced in 8R, 4R (hard to locate), 2R, 1R, 1/2R, and any other strange percentage which may have been lopped off by pirates (piece of eight) or others for the silver. I know Jean Laffete prowled the south eastern Texas waters as in Galveston Bay a dear friends father (now passed) found an anchor near the mouth of the Trinity River which Texas A&M attributed to the era, the early 1800's. Which makes me believe my 1774 2R was actual Pirate treasure!!!

Take Care
Ben

Danegeld · July 23, 2005 2:12AM

Oh, the 8R I bought recently. Only the 2R, the brass hanes (made a walking cane with it), and the Humongous Bra were taken back to our hotel, LOL

1jester · July 23, 2005 3:03AM

Excellent find, Danegeld!

Danegeld · July 23, 2005 3:08AM

<< Very cool finds

... um ... where's the pics of the bra

>>

Chuckle, the bra was made into a sling-shot if I recall. It was soooo many years ago, LOL.

Sylvestius · July 23, 2005 3:37AM

<< Sylvestius,

you can't be so picky in metal detecting.

>>

I was just thinking i have an idea for a new set, i'll not post that here at the risk of hijacking the thread but i'll post it elsewhere when i've done a bit of searching.

I must pay thanks to Danegeld for giving me some inspiration by showing me those two coins!

Danegeld · July 23, 2005 3:39AM

<< 

<< Sylvestius,

you can't be so picky in metal detecting.

>>

I was just thinking i have an idea for a new set, i'll not post that here at the risk of hijacking the thread but i'll post it elsewhere when i've done a bit of searching.

I must pay thanks to Danegeld for giving me some inspiration by showing me those two coins!

>>

No Problemo Buddy, Hijack Away

lordmarcovan · July 23, 2005 3:50AM

That 2-reale piece is NICE for a dug one. I'll bet you were thrilled to dig it.

If I remember correctly, that is also the first (no... second?) year they struck the portrait type instead of the pillar type.

1981 was the year I bought my first "real" metal detector. I think Padre Island was still accesible to detectorists when you found your coin.

Back in the 1970's, people like Charles Garrett, the creator of the brand of detectors that we both use, hunted Padre a lot and found lots of Spanish coins. I understand some of them went back to the 1500's and were from early shipwrecks there.

This is the only 2-reales coin I have found so far. As you could see when I posted it in the other thread over there on the Liteside, yours is a lot nicer. Mine is rough, but I love it all the same. It was found at the ruins of a plantation house where Aaron Burr stayed as a guest in 1804, just after his fateful duel with Alexander Hamilton. A few years before Burr stayed there as a guest, the sternpost of the USS Constitution had been cut from a big live oak on the site. So it is a site steeped in history.

I didn't show you the other two colonial coins I got on the site where I found that 2-reales.

Sorry 'bout the wretched pics, I did those back in my earliest scanner days. Need to redo 'em.

Danegeld · July 23, 2005 4:01AM

Dude, I still think your 1658 Maravide (sp) piece is incredable!!! As far as detecting up here in South Dakota we have a lot of Beauro of Land Mgt (BLM) land and most of it is in the badlands. There are still some areas where the trails of wagon trains are visable. Anyway when it cools off some (105 degrees today and 109 last Saturday) I plan on going out to an old abandonded town and poke around some. I've always felt there are some buried cashe's still around there. I bought some BLM maps and have been going over them pretty intensely the past few years as I like to deer hunt out there too. Unfortunately it's either like -40 or 109 when I can get out, LOL.

Ben

lordmarcovan · July 23, 2005 5:42AM

The 1658 4-maravedi is a fluke. It certainly blew my mind, when I realized what I'd found.

John Worth, the leading archaeologist and author on the Spanish Mission Period in Georgia and Florida, was quite impressed, and wrote me a very interesting letter.

Now, speaking of dug Spanish coins and Garrett metal detectors, look at what Steve Smith (aka "millennium" on the forums) found here in Brunswick. He uses the same model detector as you do.

The same site, when I hunted it, produced a washer, a grubby clad quarter, and a broken early-1980's vintage digital watch for me. Woohoo.

But it was not all Steve had found there...

If you wanna see some REALLY amazing detector finds,

check out Steve's photo album page!

Danegeld · July 23, 2005 6:00AM

Man-O-Man if that SLQ was a 1916!!! Instead of the 1917 Var1 which I think it is you'd be in the MONEY. BTW, the stuff I found was well back off the beach near some brackish pools.

lordmarcovan · July 23, 2005 6:11AM

It is a Type One quarter that Steve found.

Sylvestius · July 23, 2005 6:19AM

That is a nice $10!! wowzers digging up something like that...

lordmarcovan · July 23, 2005 8:16AM

Yeah, I'd have to change my undies.

I have hunted the same spot (where he found both that and the escudo) a few times, but it's not easy.

Reale Topic :)

Comments