Central Coast Treasure Hunters Association

The Search Coil

August 2011 Newsletter

Visit our web page @ http://www.cctha.org

Central Coast Treasure Hunters Association Founded June 16, 1984 P O Box 13405 San Luis Obispo, CA 93406

Monthly membership meetings are held the 4th Wednesday of each month, 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the San Luis Obispo County Schools office, Highway 1, across from Cuesta College.

 AUGUST CLUB EVENTS •  Membership meeting August 24 at 7 p.m.  Nomination and elections of Club officers.  Scavenger Hunt items due at meeting.  Snacks being furnished by Walt Bacon.  Auction─3 items donated by members.  Bragging Table─bring items to share unrelated to F.O.M.

NOMINATIONS & ELECTIONS OF OFFICERS

Club nominations and elections of Officers will be held at the August 24 membership meeting. All members are urged to attend and vote for the candidate of their choice. CENTRAL COAST TREASURE HUNTERS ASSOCIATION Meeting of Wednesday, July 27, 2011

GENERAL MEETING

The meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m. by President Roland Smith. Minutes of the June meeting were approved as written.

Membership: Membership Chairperson Joan McGrath announced that we had 33 paid members at the start of the July meeting. There were 17 members at the July meeting.

Recycle: John Richardson stated that he had $21.90 to turn in tonight, and that he has received more recyclables this evening.

Treasury: Kathy Copeland gave the treasurer’s report. Any member wishing to review the treasurer’s report, please see Kathy Copeland or Roland Smith. Kathy had brought the coins for the evening raffle as well as silver quarters fro each person with a “Show and Tell” display.

Raffle: John Richardson announced that he had 11 silver prizes for the evening’s raffle. John also sold tickets for the gold one/tenth ounce coin that will be raffled off in January 2012. The prizes for tonight’s raffle were taken from the 7 bags of coins that had been previously purchased for the purpose of the raffle.

Quarterly Hunt: The hunt was held Saturday, June 25th in front of the Sea Venture Hotel in Pismo Beach. Huntmaster John McGrath apologized for the mix-up where duplicate tokens were accidentally planted and there was not enough silver to cover them.

Scavenger Hunt: The April-August hunt ends at the next meeting. The new hunt will be published in the August Search Coil. Please do not start working on the list until AFTER the August meeting.

Website: John McGrath announced that due to a lot of work by his wife Joan, the CCTHA website is back up and running. Our website is located at cctha.org .

Find of the Month: See attached

Elections: Elections of officers for the 2012 year will be held in August. All positions are open for nominees.

Correspondence: None was presented. Auction: John Richardson held our first club auction. Four items were donated to the auction with no reserve (meaning that all monies raised go to the club). John Richardson donated 3 of the items—a Betty Boop Lunchbox (filled with feathers…), a 1850’s era brown liquor bottle, and 5 mint year coin sets (1972, 1977, 1978, 1984, 1989). John McGrath donated a set of new White’s headphones. The auction raised $97 for the CCTHA general fund.

NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business to discuss.

Next Meeting: Our next general meeting is August 24 at 7:00 p.m. Our next board meeting is September 28, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 Tom Williams will travel to Asilomar in Monterey County to attempt to find a lost wedding ring.

 William Sokoloff is taking a position in the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas. William will send us his contact information after he gets settled.

 Sam Burton mentioned that he is trying to get CCTHA the opportunity to detect at Dana Adobe. Members would not be able to keep anything that was found, in fact, they may not be allowed to dig at all. Work would be supervised by an archaeologist, and may just involve putting pin-flags in the ground where concentrations of metallic objects are noted. The work would assist the DANA group with their site characterization prior to opening the area as a park.

 Bubba Fields mentioned that a similar study had been done at Vandenberg A.F.B. . Gil Rivera added that he had ceased hunting the hills above El Chorro Park due the potential for unexploded ordinance (that might also be found on Vandenberg).

 Walt Bacon put two of his detecting books up for grabs. They were Treasure Recovery from Sand and Sea, and Coin Hunting in Depth. Both books were grabbed—thank you Walt!!

 Bill Skinner volunteered to donate some of his beach pennies to the club if someone wanted to clean them up. Gil Rivera said that he has had success in this endeavor by soaking the pennies in toilet bowl cleaner and tumbling them.

 Gil Rivera told an interesting story about a hunt that he had been requested to perform with other members of the club. An ambulance driver called to have Gil look for a missing body. Gil said we only hunt for metal items for the police or sheriff’s departments with our detectors. The driver responded that the body had keys in his pocket. Gil asked where the body was. The driver responded that it was in a rugged, remote area of Monterey County. Then Gil asked how long the body had been missing. When the driver said “two years”, Gil politely refused to do the search. REFRESHMENTS

Ray (Bubba) Fields kindly provided the ample treats for the July meeting and Mike & Dot Gullo brought brownies. Thanks Bubba & the Gullos! Treats for August will be provided by Walt Bacon.

After the break, the Find of the Month, Mystery Draw and Raffles were conducted.

FIND OF THE MONTH (The winner of each category got a Maria Theresa Silver Coin).

Artifact— John Richardson —LWL Token suspected to be of Civil War vintage. Found in Bakersfield. Coin— John Richardson—1923 P Mercury Dime from Bakersfield. Jewelry— Gil Rivera—White gold ring with diamonds found on Pismo Beach. Silver— Wayne Mills —Silver Necklace found at Pismo Beach. Show and Tell— Wayne Mills —Silver, Gold Rings, much clad coinage, toy cars, artifacts, 2 scavenger hunt items, and other items found between Paso Robles and Santa Barbara..

MYSTERY DRAW—(The winner of each draw got a silver half dollar) Envelope Draw #1 (3 keys) Won by Tom Williams Envelope Draw #2 (3 alcoholic beverage caps) Won by Wayne Mills by drawing the highest card

RAFFLE WINNERS— 1952 Half dollar — John McGrath 1958 Half dollar— Bubba Fields 1960 Half dollar— Gary Manninen 1942 Quarter dollar— Mike Gullo 1958 Quarter dollar— Gil Rivera 1961 Quarter dollar—Bill Skinner 1964 Quarter dollar— Bubba Fields Bag of four silver dimes— Bill Skinner Bag of four silver dimes—Bob Richardson Bag of four silver dimes—Mike Gullo Bag of four silver dimes— John McGrath

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. by President Roland Smith.

Respectfully submitted, Wayne Mills, Secretary CCTHA CCTHA SCAVENGER HUNT AUGUST 25, 2011─DECEMBER 7, 2011 (All items are metallic and are found with a metal detector within the dates of the hunt)

1. (1) Nail 4-inches long or longer (no RR Spikes) *

2. (1) 10 Kt or better gold ring or a .925 or sterling silver ring

3. (1) piece of chain 3 links or more

4. (1 each) AA battery, AAA battery, button battery

5. (1) knife, fork or spoon (eating utensils)

6. (2) charms or (2) necklace pendants or one of each

7. (3) junk rings

8. (3) toy vehicles

9. (3) coins from 3 different countries

10. (3) tokens or (3) flat pennies

11. (4) jeweled or colored hair clips or bobby pins

12. (4) keys

13. (5) metal buttons (jeans buttons OK)

14. (10) coins same denomination with consecutive dates

(e.g. pennies 2000-2009, or dimes 1981-1990)

15. (1) item 100 years old or older. Prove it.

* Longest nail of all displays gets extra credit for any one item on this list.

If you have any questions regarding the above list, contact Wayne Mills. BITS AND BYTES

A Great Day at the Beach Wayne Mills, CCTHA

The mineral show that I mentioned to you at the July meeting consumed a week of my time. We had a good show, and it was really nice to see Walt Bacon, Bubba Fields, and the Gullos there. But by the Thursday after the show, I was chomping at the bit to go swing the MXT. So I returned to the scene of much of my success in July—Pismo Beach. As I leaned against a piling near the Hinds Avenue beach ramp, eating my Lunchables ©, I watched an older lady slowly detecting amongst the sun-bathers south of the pier. I was saying a silent prayer for her to leave me a little something. When I finally started swinging myself, it seemed like a long time until I got my first non-trash hit—four dimes, a good start. And so it went for awhile, a lot of trash (I dug most of it), and a few coins.

After 45 minutes or so, I passed under the pier heading north. I slowly waved my way over the sand at the edge of the wet zone, and worked my way up to the second lifeguard stand, then moved over and worked my way south. Now I have about $.75, and a rusted chain with a cheap pendant that had given me a weird signal. Part way back to the pier, a guy stopped me and pointed out a couple of young men who were raking the sand in front of one of the hotels. “They have been at it for about a half hour” he said. “OK, I’ll check it out” said I, already heading up toward the swings. Almost there, one of the young men approached me and said “I need help”.

It turns out that his fiancée in a fit of pique had tossed her (gold with diamond solitaire) engagement ring into the sand. The two young men and the fiancée’s sister had raked a grid about 75 feet by 35 feet, so I started walking the grid. Up and back I slowly paced, slightly overlapping my swings. On about the third pass, I got a good signal—what I dug-up looked like a fancy barrette, so I put it in the pouch and kept walking. In about the middle of the raked area, I got another good signal. This time it was a ring. The young man beamed and said “thanks” and his fiancée’s sister said “Thank you Jesus!” He shook my hand, and that was it—I thought.

Near the wooden steps leading up to the concessions on Pomeroy Street, a cute, petite blonde carrying a metal detector, and another cute girl carrying a sand scoop approached me. “I hear you found my engagement ring” she said with a smile. “You shouldn’t be throwing that thing around” I cautioned her. After thanking me, she mentioned that she had rented the detector at a “blue house up the street”, and that the proprietor had said there was an “older guy” who hunted on the beach, and that he “might be able to help you”.

So, after another 15 minutes or so with no good hits, I headed home where I placed the contents of my pouch in a colander to rinse the sand off. Then I grabbed the “barrette’ and found it was actually a ¼ troy ounce gold-plated silver bracelet stamped “M925” and ringed with diamond- like stones. It was a pretty quick Karmic “pay-back”, and my second-best find of the outing. All in all, it was a great day at the beach. ELECTED OFFICERS APPOINTMENTS

President: Roland Smith Community Service Hunters: John McGrath Vice President: Larry Royal Editor: John McGrath Treasurer: Kathy Copeland Envelope Draw: Roland Smith Secretary: Wayne Mills Find of the Month: 1. John McGrath 2. Gary Manninen BOARD OF DIRECTORS Historian: Gary Manninen Chairman: John Richardson Hunt Masters: Larry Royal & John McGrath Members at Large: Librarian: Larry Royal Gary Manninen & John McGrath Membership: Joan McGrath & All Elected Officers Raffles: John Richardson Recycling Manager: John Richardson Scavenger Hunt: Wayne Mills Search Team: Gil Rivera Sunshine: Anita Smith Web Master: Joan McGrath