“The
General”
December
2002 & January 2003
Well, It has been an exciting time since the last meeting in
November. Plenty of
warm days. I am sure the silver is
coming out of the ground and the playground hunters are doing well. The leaves are off the trees, temperatures
are cool and the snakes have crawled into a deep warm pile of rocks making
relic hunting a choice hobby this time of year!
As for me, I have only hunted twice since the last meeting finding only
a costume pendant and a handful of clad coins.
Hopefully, a planned trip to
The office of
Club President has evidently been very good on a resume! First Pete O’Brien left the area for a job
with the new TSA. Now John Steffel is leaving for a new job in
President: Michael Watts
Vice-President:
Secretary: Bill Pfautz
Tresurer: Michael Lapina
Newsletter Editor: Michael Lapina
The web site is being updated with a copy of the club constitution and a new entry form for your monthly finds. You need Adobe Reader to view the files. The program is very common and free to download at the Adobe website. If you have received this newsletter in the mail and would rather view it on the internet in full color, please visit the website at http://mikelapina.home.mindspring.com/SMTH/index.htm. The web site also contains the most up to date membership list, treasure related links and photos of the winning finds of the month back to October 2001. If your email is not on the membership list you may miss out on emails about hot places to hunt that may vanish within days. You may also miss other announcements or club meeting reminders. One special note about the email list, club members should not put other members on their “forward”, “cute story” or “funny joke” type email lists unless they ask permission first. Junk email can be fun, but it can also be a pain if you don’t like it.
The
6th Annual Treasure Hunt of the
Thanks to all of those who helped set up a great club hunt in November. Thanks to all who donated coins and prizes to the club. Thanks to all who helped dig up all of those deep coins! Thanks again to Mr. Garrett for letting us use his field for the hunt. Last, but certainly not least, thanks to those who helped clean up after the hunt and those who filled the open holes. Next year we will have to discuss the “Fill Your Holes!” policy more clearly. We all had a great time including those who came only to watch. Color photos of the hunt can be seen at: https://www.angelfire.com/rebellion/treasure/NEWS/november_news_page1.htm
As editor of the newsletter, I greatly appreciate contributions from members about their hunting experiences and other great stuff that is listed below. Please continue to fill me in on how your hunts are going so that we can have other nice newsletters like this Holiday Edition. If you type something up or have a photo of a great find send it to me at mikelapina@mindspring.com Remember I am only the editor, you make the news!
TOP TEN HUNTERS OF THE 2002-2003 CLUB YEAR
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Interesting
numbers since the July 2002 meeting submitted by John Steffel. We have averaged 18 people per meeting. There were 17 in November. There have been 35 entries in Artifacts, average of 7 per meeting. There have been 27 entries in Jewelry, average of 5.4 per meeting. There have been 36 entries in Coins, average of 7.2 per meeting. There have been 22 entries in Relics, average of 4.4 per meeting. There have been seven visitors for an average of 1.4 per meeting. |
Run down of the entries for the November meeting.
Jeff Herke entered three bullets and half
of a horseshoe in Relics. He also had
several coins: 1917 10 Centimes (French), 1918 25 Centimes (French), 1923
Mercury Dime, eight Wheaties with the oldest being a
1928-D. In the Artifacts division he
entered and won Find of the Month
with a Mercer /
Bill Robertson had thirteen coins entered: 3 Mercury dimes, 3
Stan Funk had entries in Relics, Coins and Artifacts. In Relics he had a heel plate, several harmonica parts, a US pin / rosette, some buttons, a lock and a carved minie ball. Information on the minie ball was that it might have been used as a checker piece. Stan’s coins were a 1905 Barber dime, 16 Wheat pennies including 1914 – 1919 - 1921, 1943 Walking Liberty half dollar, two Buffalo nickels, and a 1964 Roosevelt. His Artifacts included toy soldiers, cap gun pats, buckles, a bell, tokens, guides from buggy reins, and rifle shells.
Douglas Sortino took Find of the Month with his Relic entries. They were a 12-pound solid cannon ball, an Eagle Breastplate and several bullets. The cannon ball was recovered from almost three feet down.
Craig Nesmith had entries in Relics and
Coins. For Relics he had a 58-caliber minie ball and a Wisconsin staff button. He took Find
of the Month with his coin entries.
They were a 1939 Walking Liberty half dollar, 1964 Kennedy half dollar,
1952
Michael Lapina had entries in the Artifacts and Coins divisions. His Artifacts were toy cars while his coins were clad.
Boyd Langly entered an assortment of current coins in the Coin division.
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You Just Never Know |
by Jeff Herke |
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I had a couple of hours to
kill during the Christmas holidays. I
secured permission to hunt the area around three 1940 – 1950 era ranch style
homes that had been prepared for moving.
The oldest looking of the three homes had four very large trees (one
oak and three pecan) around it. This area looked to be the most promising, so
I began by hunting around the large pecan tree in the right front yard. I had gone about 10 feet toward the tree
and got a quarter reading at three inches.
I thought it would be a piece of junk but out popped a 1962-D silver I continued to hunt in rings around the
tree, but all of the other signals were miscellaneous junk. I was working along the edge of the
driveway under the edge of the house on blocks and got a high penny/dime
reading at four inches. Out came a
1937 plain Mercury dime! I moved toward the large oak tree in the
left front yard. I found a new quarter, dime and several pennies. My time was about up so I started to swing
a beeline back to the truck. About
half way back I got another high penny/dime reading at 5 inches. I saw the glint of a silver dime but could
not believe my eyes when I saw that it was a worn Seated Liberty dime! I quickly stuck it in my pocket to wash
later and re-scanned the area to if there were more or others in the
area. No such luck! I finished the beeline back to the truck
but was already planning a return trip for the following day. The Seated Liberty dime turned out to be an
1854-O in worn (good) condition. It
also had an indentation in the back like the tip of a knife blade. The indentation was about 1/16” long but
had not gone through the coin. The following afternoon, I re-hunted the area that produced the Seated Liberty dime at a 90 degree angle in a crisscross pattern. About half way across this area, I got another high penny/dime reading at 3 inches. I saw the glint of silver again! It was not a Seated Liberty dime, but a nice 1945 plain Mercury dime! In the next row of swinging I got a new penny reading but the depth was around 5 inches? This signal turned out to be a white lead fired two-ring civil war era bullet!
1962-D
1854-O Seated
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NEXT MEETING JANUARY 28th at
