Treasure Hunting

Chichester, West Sussex, UK: A skeleton dating back to Roman times has been unearthed on an estate.

The rare find, which is believed to date back to the first and third Centuries, was found during a metal-detecting exhibition earlier this year.

An inquest in Arundel was told how a silver ring and a bottle that may have contained ashes were also unearthed next to the lead coffin.

The find, which was made by Ken Mordle from Midhurst, on April 7, near Chichester, was examined by the British Museum on May 12.

Under British Museum guidance the media are asked not to reveal the exact location of important historical finds.

The ring, which was dated to between AD43 and AD250, was found to be more than 10% precious metal and is therefore considered treasure by the Coroner of West Sussex Penelope Schofield.

The inquest was told that Chichester District Museum has already expressed an interest in exhibiting the ring.

It is not yet known how much the find is worth. This article is referenced from the Argus, UK news posting.

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The Sofia Echo news page reported later yesterday that archaeologists from Varna discovered one of the largest medieval treasures in recent times. This is also the largest discovery in 2010 during excavation works in the medieval city of Kastritsi in Euxinograd, on August 4, news agency Focus reported.

The treasure was discovered embedded in the floor of a home within the medieval stronghold, the report said.

According to associate professor Valentin Pletnyov, head of the Regional History Museum in Varna, the treasure consisted of a small jug dating back to the 14th century, containing 166 silver coins from the era of Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria and his son Mihail, Focus reported.

The archaeologists also unearthed parts of utensils and swords.

“We hope that more artifacts will be discovered during the excavation works ahead,” Pletnyov said.

According to the professor, this is one of the biggest medieval treasures found in Bulgaria in 2010.

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So it seems like smart phones can do just about everything. But could you compare a real Metal Detector to a pocket application copy of one? The android phone was one of the first smart phones to release the application, now Iphone has came out with their own metal detecting application as well. Check it out below!

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This morning, I came across a new event that the website www.welostourgold.com made videos which gives clues to unlock the mystery of where their “buried treasure” is to find.

An individual can now view the first video and unlock one of eight video clues since yesterday. The site claims there is $10,000 in US currency buried in a wooden chest somewhere within the five boroughs. All you have to do is decode the videos, and the treasures all yours.

“We wanted to create a real treasure hunt.” says a message posted by on the site by its creators.”And there’s a chest of “gold” waiting to be found. We’ve always wanted to experience the excitement of searching for pirate treasure, so we decided to give that feeling to everyone else.”

While the website is called “welostourgold.com” the creators say there’s no real gold out there. “The treasure is 10,000 US mint one-dollar coins. Most of them are Sacagawea dollars, or the new presidential one-dollar coins,” is posted in the frequently asked questions on the site. They also note that the new coins are gold colored so it will give you the pirate feel.

The site is leased through godaddy.com, and was created back in October of 2006, no owners are listed and the landlubbers say they are not telling.

We don’t know where the treasure is buried, but we can tell you that it’s not buried in Central Park. The site’s creators say they love the City but don’t want to encourage anyone to start digging up the park or anywhere else.

So you’ll have to trust the three puppet pirates and the ninja, watch the videos, and hopefully uncover the buried treasure hiding under New York City. Or else just be roped into the latest viral marketing campaign

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Glens Falls, NY– The massive hole in front of the Cronin High Rise in downtown Glens Falls is not from replacing pipes or construction. Excavation workers are digging out the remains of an old building that was buried there. It was causing the lawn to collapse in front of the prestigious High Rise.

“We had a lot of erosion and settling,” said Robert Landry, of the Glens Falls Housing Authority. That agency runs the senior high-rise on Ridge Street.

“It was creating sinkholes, and it made it difficult to maintain the lawn. The flagpole was even starting to lean.”

Landry said the city hired an engineer to do a soil test, and it was determined a previous demolition at the site had become unstable, causing the sinking lawn. Services Unlimited was hired to excavate the site, remove the debris of the old building, fill it back in with clean fill and re-tamp the surface.

“We’ll have a new lawn and new landscaping,” Landry said. “Our goal is to be the nicest looking property in downtown Glens Falls.”

He said the excavation work should be complete by mid-August, and the lawn and landscaping should be done by September 1st. The project carries a price tag of about $50,000, which was covered by a Capital Fund grant covering infrastructure improvements.

But just what is it they are digging up? City Historian Wayne Wright said the structure was the home of Dr. George W. Little.

“Dr. Little had a conservatory on the right side of the house where he kept monkeys, birds and all sorts of plant life,” Wright said. “After he closed his practice, he handed out little spoons to the people who were still with him. Some of those spoons are still around.”

Little was eccentric, and his wife moved out of the house in his later years to settle in the Fort Edward area.

“There was a one-story addition built onto the front of the house for a storefront,” Wright said. “The structure came down during Urban Renewal in the early 1970s, and they just bulldozed it under.”

Landry recalls a pool hall at the spot in the ‘70s.

“It was the Chalk and Cue Pool Hall, and it was a popular hangout for St. Mary’s students, and since I was one of them, I used to hang out there,” he said. “Van the Shoe Man and Griffin’s Paint Store were also in this area.”

Robert Landry believes there might be a few interesting finds from this old demolished house, but they still have yet to dig and discover pieces of history. Citing and picture use from Post Star articles.

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Sebastan: Dozens of gold and silver coins hidden nearly 300 years ago were found Friday when a cannon recovered July 11 from a wrecked Spanish ship was being cleaned for preservation, salvagers reported this week.

Divers from the salvage boat “Gold Hound” brought up the ship’s bronze swivel cannon, a rare find in itself, in less than 20 feet of water between Wabasso and Vero Beach, said Anne Kazel-Wilcox, a spokeswoman for 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels, a private salvage company based in Sebastian and Jupiter.

A historic bronze cannon found near Sebastian contained gold and silver coins concealed inside, treasure on its way back to Spain before the shipwreck

The heavily-encrusted cannon was taken to the Mel Fisher’s Treasures facility in Sebastian for preservation, Kazel-Wilcox said, “and as workers were conserving it, the cannon became unplugged and coins were found inside.”

In addition to 22 gold coins found near the cannon, 25 gold coins and 63 silver coins were found inside, worth an estimated $500,000 or more.

“This is an amazing historic find,” Greg Bounds of Fellsmere, captain of the Gold Hound, said in a prepared statement. “We found treasure within the treasure. This is right out of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ except this is the real thing. For centuries there has been talk of treasure possibly hidden inside of cannons, but up until today that was only pirate lore. Now it’s the real deal.”

The wreck was part of a fleet of 11 galleons and war ships laden with gold bars, coins, diamonds, emeralds and pearls bound from Havana for King Philip V of Spain. The cargo included the so-called “Queen’s Jewels,” a 74-carat emerald, pearls and diamonds meant for Philip’s new bride Elisabeth, who reportedly said she wouldn’t consummate the marriage until she received them.

The ships sank in a hurricane off the Treasure Coast on July 31, 1715. Last month, 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels, a private salvage company, acquired salvage rights to the fleet from the heirs of treasure hunter Mel Fisher, whose family had retained the fleet’s U.S. Admiralty Custodianship of a 300-square-mile stake off Indian River County that extends from the low-tide mark into the ocean. Together with subcontractors such as Bounds, they are searching for a mother lode estimated to be worth $900 million.

By law, the state gets 20 percent of the haul and gets to pick the pieces it wants first. The rest is split 50-50 between 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels and the subcontractors who found it.

Bounds, one of about 15 subcontractors who have worked with Mel Fisher Treasure and continue to work with 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels, uncovered more than $12.9 million worth of gold chains, pearls, coins, swords and other artifacts in 2007 from the 400-year-old Santa Margarita site in the Florida Keys.

This article was found from a news blog site the Coin Docere.

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More and more gold coins seem to be found by prospectors all around the world. Citing from the Times of India Article, 744 antique gold coins found near Sathy jungles.

Coimbatore, India: A treasure trove was unearthed in a remote hamlet near Sathyamangalam jungles when local tribals stumbled upon a centuries-old earthen pot filled with gold coins.

As many as 744 coins, weighing about 300 grams, were found in the pot, sending the tranquil tribal hamlet of Kottamalam in Erode district into a tizzy on Saturday. The coins are believed to date back to the Vijayanagar Empire period and may be over 500 years old.

For the family of Maadhi Veerayya, a tribal widow in Kottamalam, it was almost a dream tryst with fortune. On Friday morning, Maadhi and her granddaughters were clearing the thorny bushes near their house at Kottamalam.

Suddenly, her granddaughters Vinitha and Nagamma, noticed broken shards of an earthen pot in the bushes. When they rummaged deeper, they found coins smaller than 25 paise coins. Immediately, they called their grandmother, who dug deeper and found more coins. As they tried to quietly stash away the coins, curious neighbours gathered. And a frantic treasure hunt began. By afternoon, nine tribal families in the village collected over 700 coins and hid in their houses.

However, the village administrative officer got wind of the treasure trove and rushed to the spot. It was not long before the police too landed up, and launched a drive to recover the coins. “We have so far recovered 744 coins,” tahsildar K Shanmugham told TOI. The police are probing if more coins have been stealthily hidden away.

The coins are made of 18 carat gold and said to have been in circulation during the rule of the Vijayanagar kingdom between 14th and 16th centuries. The coins have an image of a tiger on a fluttering flag on one side and on the flip side, a picture of a mangalasutra’.

“It is said these coins may belong to the pre-Krishnadevaraya period, perhaps during the reign of his immediate predecessor Veeranarasimha Raya,” a revenue official said.

The coins have been handed over to the Erode district collector, R Sudalaimuthu. Curators from the government museum in Erode will examine the coins and present a report to the government.

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The famous King Tutankhamun as known as King Tut died between 1330 B.C and 1340 B.C. After being discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter, many have proposed theories on his death. However, after many scans, DNA test, and X-rays with the technology we have from this decade, Scientist have finally shed some light on the obscurity of King Tut’s death.

From sickle cell disease to a blew out kneecap or even the hole in the back of his head, King tut had many ailments that led up to his death back in 1300 B.C. Scientist believe Tutankhamun’s health was stressed due to the multiple complications at one time. Also, after the test came back it was shown that he also may of had a harsh case of Malaria Disease.

Researchers of Tutankhamun’s death knew it was not bad luck that killed King Tut or a murderer, but the culture of keeping a bloodline that put stress on his life. It is believed that King Tut’s father Akhenaten, married Tutankhamun’s full blood sister which led to his many physical disabilities after birth. From club foot to weak bones and low immune system, King tut died at a early age.

This research is the final most probably theory based on evidence that they have found on King Tut, and although his life was short, he was cared for and glorified especially through his death. His tomb being layered in gold, hoped to have led to an eternal peaceful life by his people.

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I was researching the internet, and found a answers to questions I have had for a while on NPR’s (National Public Radio) online website. My questions were “Why are gold prices rising?”, “What would be the purpose to store large amounts of gold?”,and Most of all “Why is gold important in international trade?”. This article summed up all my questions into one concise article that answered these questions and more. This article clarifies most questions on why gold is of interest to many.

The IMF is selling off some of its gold stash, and governments and central banks are buying.

The IMF sold about 15 tons of gold in April, Bloomberg News says. With gold trading at about $1,200 an ounce, that’s roughly $600 million dollars in gold.

The fund has been selling some of its gold on the open market this year as part of a plan to create an endowment. In all, the IMF plans to sell just over 400 tons of gold, or roughly one-eighth of its total holdings. That should bring in more than $8 billion in total, the WSJ says.

Meanwhile, central banks and governments have been stocking up. Worldwide, governments and central banks added 425 tons last year to their holdings, which now is more than 30,000 tons. That’s the most since 1964 and the first expansion since 1988, Bloomberg says. Holdings are likely to grow again this year.

The price of gold, of course, has gone through the roof in the past couple years. People say it’s a “store of value”,that is, a place to put your money when you’re nervous about inflation, which drives down the value of paper money.

Treasure hunters, keep this in mind when you find a mint of gold, saving this could be the smartest choice when it could be worth much more in the future.

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Kellyco wants to acknowledge the social networks involved with its store and the fan base affiliated with them. The coupon below is exclusive to social sites such as Facebook, Myspace, & Twitter. You may use this coupon on your next metal detector purchase till July 26, 2010. Buy a metal detector and live an amazing treasure story of your own!

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