Submitted by Stepper Camilleis
There were 24 attendees at our March 27 meeting. Treasurer Paulo Adams indicated that there is a balance of around $5700. Paulo recently went to a coin show and picked up several cool collector coins, mostly slabbed by PCGS, NGC or ANACS, for raffle prizes. First prize is an 1883 Shield nickel graded MS63, a 1936 Cleveland Centennial Commemorative alf dollar MS65, a 1943-D Walking Liberty half MS65, a 1940-D dime MS66 Full Bands paired with an 1883 Hawaiian dime, a 1913 Barber dime MS62, and a Deep Mirror Prooflike 1883-O Morgan dollar in MS61. Lots of high-grade coins here!
The MTHA welcomes new member Erica Fletcher of Roslindale. Erica came up an interesting find this month … a French inkwell stamp from 1859! Dan Schwartz mentioned that Longfellow used this type of device!
Broderick Gumpright led off the meeting by showing us a cool original Hires Root Beer bottle believed to be from the late 1800s, that he found while detecting a horseshoe in the woods. Nice find, Broderick!
A prime topic of discussion at the 3/27 meeting was the MTHA’s plan to seek out a new venue for live meetings when COVID blows over. However, at the present time we are no closer to finding a suitable and affordable site. We’re considering schools, meeting halls, libraries, churches and perhaps other types of locations.
We gave a recap of the March 20 “Leprechaun” beach hunt and party at Judi Batchelder’s house. Scott Ferguson told us how he miraculously won the Left-Right-Center game with the last dollar that was in play! Glenn Godwin attended the party and seemed to be getting around better. We wish Glenn continued recovery.
Marita Camilleis was feeling too weak to attend the beach hunt but she and Stepper came to Judi’s party. Thanks to Judi, Scott and everyone else who helped to organize this great event! Unfortunately, Sylvia Cross’ husband lost his wedding ring and noticed that it was missing at the beach hunt. He and Sylvia are hoping that it accidentally fell into a leg cast of one of his patients and that he will be able to retrieve it.
Scott aired the possibility of organizing an overnight field trip to a detecting site in Connecticut perhaps sometime in August. We would probably stay in a motel on Friday night and spend most of the day on Saturday detecting. (Heat an issue … perhaps have this in Oct instead?) Rick Smith also spoke of a camp site in Barre, MA that has conducted numerous activities for a long time, that might be a good spot to hold such a hunt.
On Saturday, April 30, a hunt is being set up on 15 acres of a Colonial farm in southern Rhode Island. Jim Meaney originally made contact on this through the Friendly Metal Detecting Forum.
Marita Camilleis told us of a similar hunt she went on with Stepper in October 2004 at a farm site in Oxford, CT, where she detected an 1860 Abraham Lincoln presidential campaign token. Dan Schwartz had also been on that hunt and he
remembered this.
For the raffles at the 3/27 meeting, Don Latino won a Morgan dollar and Christina Lamkin won a Peace dollar. Dan Schwartz won the 50/50 raffle, which was $55. The Barber half drawing was pulled for Scott Ferguson, but he didn’t pick
the winning envelope.
FIND OF THE MONTH
Pre-1900 Coin:
1st and Best of Show – 1754 Mexican 1/2-reale – Danielle Sanchez
2nd – 1794 Liberty Cap large cent – Kent Blethen
1900-Later Coin:
1st – 1934 Washington quarter – Kent Blethen
2nd – 1956 Washington quarter – Stepper Camilleis
3rd – British 50 pence – Aidan Shea
Jewelry:
1st – 1917 ring-top Mercury dime – Kent Blethen
2nd – 18K gold inlaid ring from 1873 wedding – Stepper Camilleis
Relic:
1st – World War II Model 8 pistol – Broderick Gumpright
2nd – 1839 French inkwell knob stamp – Erica Fletcher
3rd – Antique book end – Kent Blethen
Current Standings Treasure Hunter of the Year
| Jan | Feb | March | Total | ||
| Stepper Camilleis | 23 | 7 | 21 | 51 | |
| Kent Blethen | 11 | 28 | 39 | ||
| Danielle Suarez | 23 | 13 | 36 | ||
| Aiden Shea | 5 | 16 | 8 | 29 | |
| Broderick Gumpright | 11 | 11 | 22 | ||
| Joe Mishley | 2 | 13 | 5 | 20 | |
| Judi Batchelder | 16 | 16 | |||
| Mark Roberts | 10 | 5 | 15 | ||
| Scott Ferguson | 3 | 6 | 9 | ||
| Sylvia Cross | 8 | 8 | |||
| Bob Denault | 7 | 7 | |||
| Erica Fletcher | 7 | 7 | |||
| Mary McCue | 6 | 6 | |||
| Paulo Adams | 5 | 5 | |||
| Jen Welsh | 2 | 2 |