Silver City Treasure Seekers Club Newsletter

Transcription

1 Silver City Treasure Seekers Club Newsletter Silver City Treasure Seekers Club News: Friday, 6:30 PM gathering, March 14th Bristol-Plymouth Technical High School, 940 County Street (Rt. 140), Taunton, MA Greetings fellow Treasure hunters... I am pleased to inform you that we have a tentative date scheduled for our 2014 "New England Treasure show." It looks as though this year's show will go forward at the Bristol Plymouth Regional High School on Saturday September 20, We have been assured by the school that this date will be exclusively assigned to us and that we just need to go ahead and make the final arrangements. This is great news as the BP High School has always been a terrific venue for the show as it offers all the amenities that we need for a successful event of this magnitude. In the coming weeks I will be meeting with school officials to iron out the details and will keep everyone posted on the confirmed date of this year's show. I know that just about everyone has had enough of the winter blues and can't wait for the snow to melt and the warmer weather to arrive. Each year around this time I encourage everyone to utilize this "down time" to their maximum potential. Without going into redundant detail I will just highlight a few key points. THIS is the time to be visiting the local library or historical society. THIS is the time to be talking to people and asking permission to hunt their respective properties when the ground thaws. THIS is the time to start putting together a list of potential sites, not the first good day of detecting when you're driving around aimlessly with your hunting buddy looking for a place to detect. Remember those six P's?...It applies to this hobby as well: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Be a step ahead, when the time comes and the ground thaws...you'll be ready to swing. On the equipment side of the house, I know someone who went out a couple months ago (in between cold snaps) only to have a potentially good day cut short because his one and ONLY battery was dead. Don't get caught unprepared. THIS is the time to be checking your equipment. If you have rechargeable batteries like me...put them on the charger every now and then and boost them back up. Check the batteries in your pin pointer and make sure they haven't corroded while sitting for several months. Inspect your coil and lower shaft assembly for cracks. Nothing worse than getting all the gear together on that first nice Spring day, driving 45 minutes or more to a site, only to be disappointed when an otherwise minor

2 equipment failure puts you out of business. I don't know about you... but when I go out detecting with friends, I like to detect too... not just sit there watching them. I suppose you could be a really nice friend and follow him or her around with your shovel and offer to dig for them! Well on that note...i'm not a golfer but if I was...i'd want to hit the ball too not just carry the caddy bag around. So don't let yourself be unprepared. Spring WILL be here before you know it... We have several interesting and informative guest speakers lined up for the next several meetings. We've worked hard to put all these presentations together. Please spread the word if you know someone who may be interested in attending as a guest or if you know a former member who for one reason or another has not been with us for awhile. Check out the clubs website for more details on upcoming meetings and speakers for March through May. If you are fortunate to find a soft spot that enables you to dig, please be sure to share pictures of your finds with the clubs webmaster. Tony has worked hard on the new site and we all like to see new and exciting recoveries. Happy and safe hunting! For the club officers, Joe B. President, SCTS

3 Finds of the Month Find of the Month category was a great turnout considering the weather we have been having. In the After 1900 Coin Category Sean Prodanas took the find of the month with his 1920 Walker half dollar. The Relic Category find of the month was a decorative colonial button found by Tony Branchaud. Sean Prodanas also took home the Find of the Month in the Before 1900 Coin category with his Trime. Relic Category Winner: Tony Branchaud with his decorative colonial button. Before and After 1900 Coin Category winner Sean Prodanas with his 1920 Walker half dollar and Trime.

4 Meeting Minutes Summary for January 2014 Club Meeting began at 6:30 PM. From President Joe B Jr.- A full meeting was held with a 50/50 raffle. 47 members in attendance. New Business We had a wonderful and entertaining guest speaker, Chuck Veit for February's club meeting. We enjoyed a few laughs with Joe and his comedic relief with his video titled: Winter detecting in New England, it's just a bad dream! Check it out at: Dave Jennings will be speaking to our club on Friday, March, 14th on the Aptucxet Trading Post. Atty. Christian McBurney on the "Rhode Island Campaign" will be speaking on Friday, April 4th. We received a letter from Granite State Treasure Hunters inviting anyone in our club to a large open hunt at the Rochester Fair Grounds. This info can be found on their website: On June 8th, 2014 the Granite State Treasure Hunters for Historic Preservation will hold its 40th Anniversary Celebration at the Rochester Fairgrounds in Rochester, NH. The event will include both an Open Hunt and a Planted Hunt. Over $5000 in prizes will be awarded. The Open Hunt will include a raffle for participants with a grand prize of a Garrett AT Pro Package valued at $750, complete with a Garrett Pin Pointer and Digging Tool. One raffle ticket will be included with the entry fee. In

5 addition, two tokens will be planted for (2) of the new Teknetics Euro Pro. A lunch will be served for those participating. The fee for the Open Hunt is $50 for Non GSTH Members. The Planted Hunt will include a raffle for participants with a grand prize of a Whites MXT Pro Package valued at $800, complete with a Whites Pin Pointer and Digging Tool One raffle ticket will be included with the entry fee. $200 in coins will be planted along with 100 tokens that will be redeemed for prizes. The value of the prize pool fro the tokens is $1500. Among the planted tokens will be town tokens for (2) Teknitics Euro Pros. A pig roast will be provided for those participating. The fee for the planted hunt will be $75 for NON GSTH Members. It looks to be a great opportunity to meet fellow detectorist, tour major supplier's booths, win great prizes and feast on some great food. This "Event" will be announced in the Western & Eastern Treasure magazine. We are limiting the number of participants for each hunt to 75 and will accept applications on a first come first serve basis. All entries must be received by May 1, With Spring hopefully right around the corner we have begun brainstorming about a club hunt for the Spring. Please bring any site location possibilities to a club officer. We will be hosting a Treasure Show on Saturday, Sept. 20th. There is much work to be done. Please see Dave Iglehart if you would like to participate in the Treasure Show. He will be putting together the committee. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. New England Treasure Show Saturday, September 20th at Bristol Plymouth Tech

6 Interesting Articles about Metal Detecting Dave Iglehart found this interesting article online at California Couple Finds Cans Full Of Rare Gold Coins A California couple walking their dog stumbled upon something most treasure seekers have only dreamed of. LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Northern California couple out walking their dog on their Gold Country property stumbled across a modern-day bonanza: $10 million in rare, mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree. Nearly all of the 1,427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition, said David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, which recently authenticated them. Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000, some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million apiece. "I don't like to say once-in-a-lifetime for anything, but you don't get an opportunity to handle this kind of material, a treasure like this, ever," said veteran numismatist Don Kagin, who is representing the finders. "It's like they found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." Kagin, whose family has been in the rare-coin business for 81 years, would say little about the couple other than that they are husband and wife, are middle-aged and have lived for several years on the rural property where the coins were found. They have no idea who put them there, he said. The pair are choosing to remain anonymous, Kagin said, in part to avoid a renewed gold rush to their property by modern-day prospectors armed with metal detectors. They also don't want to be treated any differently, said David McCarthy, chief numismatist for Kagin Inc. of Tiburon. "Their concern was this would change the way everyone else would look at them, and they're pretty happy with the lifestyle they have today," he said. They plan to put most of the coins up for sale through Amazon while holding onto a few keepsakes. They'll use the money to pay off bills and quietly donate to local charities, Kagin said. Before they sell them, they are loaning some to the American Numismatic Association for its National Money Show, which opens Thursday in Atlanta. What makes their find particularly valuable, McCarthy said, is that almost all of the coins are in near-perfect condition. That means that whoever put them into the ground likely socked them away as soon as they were put into circulation.

7 Because paper money was illegal in California until the 1870s, he added, it's extremely rare to find any coins from before that of such high quality. "It wasn't really until the 1880s that you start seeing coins struck in California that were kept in real high grades of preservation," he said. The coins, in $5, $10 and $20 denominations, were stored more or less in chronological order, McCarthy said, with the 1840s and 1850s pieces going into one canister until it was filed, then new coins going into the next one and the next one after that. The dates and the method indicated that whoever put them there was using the ground as their personal bank and that they weren't swooped up all at once in a robbery. Although most of the coins were minted in San Francisco, one $5 gold piece came from as far away as Georgia. Kagin and McCarthy would say little about the couple's property or its ownership history, other than it's in a sprawling hilly area of Gold Country and the coins were found along a path the couple had walked for years. On the day they found them last spring, the woman had bent over to examine an old rusty can that erosion had caused to pop slightly out of the ground. "Don't be above bending over to check on a rusty can," he said she told him. They are located on a section of the property the couple nicknamed Saddle Ridge, and Kagin is calling the find the Saddle Ridge Hoard. He believes it could be the largest such discovery in U.S. history. One of the largest previous finds of gold coins was $1 million worth uncovered by construction workers in Jackson, Tenn., in More than 400,000 silver dollars were found in the home of a Reno, Nev., man who died in 1974 and were later sold intact for $7.3 million. Gold coins and ingots said to be worth as much as $130 million were recovered in the 1980s from the wreck of the SS Central America. But historians knew roughly where that gold was because the ship went down off the coast of North Carolina during a hurricane in Treasurer's Report: The details of the Treasurer's Report was read. The document was displayed on the head table for any and all members to review at tonight's meeting. A full meeting was held with a 50/50 raffle. Sandwiches, beverages and snacks were held after the meeting. Meeting closed around 9:30

8 About Our Club: The Silver City Treasure Seekers Club of Taunton, Massachusetts started back in 2001 by Bill Henderson and is dedicated to the promotion of metal detecting as a hobby. Membership is open to the public with the only requirement being that all members follow the Treasure Hunters Code of Ethics. The Club's yearly dues for 2014 are $35.00 for family and $25.00 per individual. We gather at 6:30 PM on the first Friday of every month at the Bristol-Plymouth Technical High School, 940 County St. (Rt. 140), Taunton, MA. There are currently over 50 active members that participate in various club meetings, Annual Treasure Show, club hunts and coin contests held each year. Monthly meetings are scheduled for two hours, the first hour being Club business and the second being discussions, coin and relic exhibits, find of the month contests with prizes, 50/50 prize and raffle drawings and an occasional guest speaker. Read more about our Club by visiting the Club's website at : Club Library The Club's library currently contains about 40 books, magazines and story articles relating to various treasure hunting subjects. Items may be borrowed for ONE month at a time. See Scott Arsenault at the next meeting to sign-out any items that you may wish to borrow. Your Club Officers for 2014 President-Joe Baker Jr. 1st Vice President-Dave Iglehart 2nd Vice President- Sean Prodanas Secretary-Shauna Harrison Treasurer- Joe Baker Sr. Club Mailing Address: Silver City Treasure Seekers Club P.O. Box 818 North Dighton, MA 02764