Florida Sea Biscuit
This Murphy Bros., Press, Inc. postcard has a photograph and printed information about the Florida Sea Biscuit. The card has a note at the lower left on the reverse: “Story of The Sea Biscuit in Florida.” The code numbers: 76-34 appear just below the note.
This card caught my eye since the name was different, but the picture looked like the Sand Dollars we find here on the Pacific Northwest coast beaches. It turns out that the Florida Sea Biscuits are rounded, or puffed up, and not as flat as the ones we find here. There are many names and varieties of these round burrowing sea urchins that belong to the order Clypeasteroida. They can be found in New Zealand, Brazil, South Africa, and other places around the globe.
When the creature is alive it is covered with velvet-like spines. The white skeletons that can be found on the beaches have been bleached by the sun and were thought to resemble a very large silver coin. Other names include things like, sea cookies, snapper biscuits, pansy shells, and sand cakes. Folklore from Georgia (U.S.A.) says the sand dollars were believed to represent coins lost by mermaids.
Pacific Coast Sand Dollar, 2023
This Pacific Coast Sand Dollar is still alive and was found at low tide at Pacific Beach in Washington State. The flower like design that is very visible on the bleached skeletons can only be faintly seen on the living urchin. Amazingly early versions of these creatures have been around since the Jurassic period. When I was a girl there were thousands of sand dollar skeletons on the ocean beaches, now they are not as common. When Bob and I were hiking on Camano Island this fall it was heartening to find quite a few sand dollars on the beach there.
For additional information, see:
https://en.wikpedia.org/wiki/Sand_dollar
