Find of the Month and 2008 Find of the Year!

I am starting off this newsletter with Find Of The Month and Find Of The Year because that was what last month's meeting was really all about.

JEWELRY FINDS

1. 18K & 14K DIAMOND RING                                           BY: KEITH PAYNE

2. SILVER RING (BAND)                                                    BY: MIKE WALKER

3. SILVER CUFF LINK 1800'S                               BY: JOHN ASSENMACHER

       I was just waiting to hear the stories behind these finds. After all, those who follow this club's news on the Internet must understand that we have been locked into a terrible winter here in Michigan. Southwest Michigan has had it rough this year! I talk to customers who drive to my shop from the north of us and I ask them about the roads. In every instance, they tell me, "We didn't have any problem until we got down here."

    I'm sorry, you can believe what you want, but so can I! Global warming and climate change is so much hog wash! If God gave us a chance to vote on some kind of global warming, or not, I would vote for it! If using coal causes global warming, I want cars to run on coal! I hope you don't buy into this nonsense!

    OK, back to the business at hand. Several of our club members, including Mike and John, fled to the south for the Grand National Relic Shootout. But what about Keith, our winner? Isn't Keith mainly a water hunter? The answer is yes! So, how did he find this ring water hunting in this frozen mess? He found a fast moving creek that was not frozen shut and went in! But he also mentioned that he almost lost it when he got blind-sided by a floating ice pack! Well Keith, you sure earned your prize!

1. 1848 LARGE CENT                                      BY: BRIAN NORGAN

2. 1957 WHEAT PENNY                                BY: BRIAN MATECUN

3. 1844 LARGE CENT                              BY: JOHN ASSENMACHER

4. 1893 BARBER DIME                                        BY: BRUCE WOOD

John Assenmacher was our winner with an awesome 1844 Large Cent! Great find, John!

1. 5¢ MAVERICK TOKEN                                  BY: MIKE WALKER

2. 1915 FREE MASONS FOB                                 BY: BRUCE WOOD

        Bruce Wood was our winner with his 1915 Free Mason watch fob. I love to find Masonic items because there are e-Bay collectors looking for this stuff. I purchased a 14-K Yellow Gold Masonic Knights Templar Ring with a large dazzling diamond from John Corbin. It was one of his many great water hunting finds. John was asking $250.00 for the ring and I had no more idea what it was worth than he did. It was a unique design and I couldn't find anything quite like it on the Internet. The thing that made it rare was the nice diamond. I sold it to a chap in the UK for $500.00!

1. VERY EARLY BALE SEAL                                                                     BY: MIKE WALKER

2. CIVIL WAR FRICTION PRIMER                                                     BY: JERRY LIPSCOMB

3. GENERAL SERVICE BUTTON                                                    BY: JOHN ASSENMACHER

4.3 RINGER BULLET WAR LOG                                                           BY: HENRY HOADLEY

Jerry Lipscomb was our winner with a Civil War cannon primer! Wow, how neat is that? Good job, Jerry!

1. PART OF A NECKLACE                                                                   BY: NANETTE M. NOBLE

2. MODEL T SPINDLE CAP                                                                           BY: MIKE WALKER

3. 1897 INDIAN HEAD PENNY                                                                          BY: RICK BURCH

4. SARSAPARILLA BOTTLE                                                                  BY: GREG STONEROCK

5. BUTTON W. WHEAT SCYTHE                                                             BY: DEB WITTKOWSKI

6.1975 COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL                                                                 BY: BILL DRAKE

           Our winner was the very alert Rick Burch who found his beautiful 1897 Indian Head penny in his change from McDonald's. I would love to know the story behind that! One would imagine that some little thief got this out of grandpa's collection. But then again I wonder how many of these coins have been circulating unnoticed all these years.

       Back in the early eighties, my brother was still using half dollars in his restaurant's till for change. Needing change, he sent one of his employees to the bank to buy some coin rolls. When he broke open one of the two rolls of half dollars, he was surprised to see they were all silver Franklin halves!

       Right away, he broke open the other roll and they were the same! That is when he sent the employee back to the bank with a fist full of cash to buy all the silver half dollars they had. Again and again they opened roll after roll, but they found they had the only two rolls of silver half dollars.

       I went in to pay for a gas purchase and the young gal at the counter dropped a quarter on the counter. The coin sounded funny to her and she said, "You don't want that one, it sounds strange!"

       I picked up the coin and found that it was a silver. I asked her if there were any more funny sounding quarters in her till. There were no others. Billions of coins pass through people's hands every day, basically unnoticed. Keep your eyes open!

JEWELRY

1.10K GOLD BRACELET                                                                          BY: RON JENNER

2.14K GOLD RING 10 DIAMONDS                                                        BY: JOHN DUDLEY

John Dudley was the winner with a very nice gold ring! Nice find, John!

1.1902 BARBER QUARTER                                                             BY: DEB WITTKOWSKI

2.1858 3 CENT                                                                                            BY: TOM BEILBY

3.1831 BRITISH LARGE CENT                                                       BY: GREG STONEROCK

4. MODERN COIN CACHE                                                                  BY: BILLY E. KNAPP

Tom Beilby was our Find Of The Year winner in the coin category. Nice find, Tom!

1.1919 ODD FELLOW TOKEN                                                            BY: CHARLIE TURNER

2. 5¢ DRINK AT THE BAR TOKEN                                                          BY: MIKE WALKER

3.TRACK MEDAL DATED 1950                                                                BY: TIM PETERSON

Mike Walker was our winner with a very rare Battle Creek trade token. The token is, "GOOD FOR 5¢ AT THE BAR, THE STORE, 41 EAST MAIN STREET BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN." Awesome find, Mike!

1. TEACHER'S SCHOOL BELL                                                                BY: LESLIE BEILBY

2.1835 NEW YORK BELT PLATE                                                  BY: JOHN ASSENMACHER

John Assenmacher was the winner of the Most Unusual category and was voted overall Find of the Year winner. Very nice, John.

WINNER FOR THE FIND OF THE YEAR WAS:

#2 MOST UNUSUAL--1835 MILITIA BELT PLATE FOUND BY JOHN ASSENMACHER

           This month we will have a very special program put on by Kim and Rick Sass from Sub-Aquatic Sports. Their business was started in 1980 by Richard J. Sass (Rick) in Battle Creek Michigan.

       I cut and pasted the following information from the Sub Aquatic web site (www.sassdive.com).

      "Originally located at 1483 W. Michigan Sub-Aquatic Sports and Service Exterior of old store(SASS) was conceived with a 3 pronged approach. Develop a well recognized educational program, grow the most complete Scuba retail store in the area, and become known for it's diverse dive travel program.

     The business model worked, the business expanded to the point a new location was needed. So Sass purchased land on N. Helmer Rd and built from scratch a new dive store. In the spring of 1989 SASS completed construction of their present facility at 347 N. Helmer Rd in Battle Creek.

     Since 1980 SASS dive educational programs have expanded from teaching one class a month at the local Y center to at present, teaching college accredited programs at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, Albion College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Kellogg Community College and Lake Michigan College.

     SASS is now the most successful dive retail store in mid Michigan. After over 27 Store Photo years in business SASS has taken it's divers on trips and expeditions to places like Egypt and the Red Sea, Truk Lagoon, Palau, Yap, Saipan, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Bali Indonesia, Fiji, Bikini Atoll, and Hawaii not to mention many locations in the Caribbean like Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, Roatan Honduras, Bonaire, Curacao, St. Lucia, Saba, the Bahamas.and many more. With dive trips to British Columbia, Maine, North Carolina, Florida, and Michigan (obviously!) SASS hasn't missed a chance to offer dive experiences to locations anywhere in the world.

      In 2007, Bronson Methodist Hospital asked SASS to take over the Hyperbaric Chamber at the hospital. Now Sub-Aquatic Sports, is the only Dive Store in Michigan that has access to and offers educational programs at the chamber. Experience deep dives without even getting wet!

        All club members are invited to the winter banquet on February 22nd, at 3:00. The feast will be held at Stir Max, located at

        4505 S Westnedge, Kalamazoo, MI 49008. A special price of $8.99 per person has been arranged.

            The following I borrowed from the antique bottle club newsletter. We have a program director and he picks out a theme for each meeting. For example, if we had a 'sample night,' folks would know to bring in their tiny sample bottles.

               Scott Hendrickson, our program director, selected this "Down In The Dumps" for our February meeting theme. This month you could bring in one of your favorite dug bottles or anything interesting that you found while searching for bottles. I have a large, tin, Buddy L steam shovel from around 1920 that Mark Churchill dug somewhere. It is very restorable but I don't know when I will find the time to do it. I used to buy non-bottle items that one of the local diggers used to discard until he met a sucker like me. I have a bone toothbrush, a bone shaving brush, and even some carved bone chess pieces.

           Many of the items that I have purchased are antique doll parts. I had one tennis-ball-size doll head that was stamped "Germany." It was in perfect condition. It had everything going for it. The collectors like the opening and closing eyes and open mouth. I didn't have the eyes, but the very fact that they were missing said that this doll had opening and closing eyes.

         I put the doll head on e-Bay and the auction was one to watch! At the end of all the bidding the doll head sold for over $350.00!

         I also have a large collection of clay pipes and one was never smoked-- it was flawed! When they bored the stem, the drill hole missed the bowl and came out the front of the bowl! I guess the inspector of quality control missed that one.

         Shortly after I joined the club someone told me an interesting story. I may not have all the details right, and I don't remember who shared this with me. It seems like a bottle club in Pennsylvania, or thereabouts, had a real dilemma on their hands. Some company or local government purchased several blocks of property in the oldest part of a city and every house would be destroyed.

         The bottle club approached the city council, begging them for permission to dig the privies before all of the history they held would be lost forever. Well, permission was granted but an impossible time frame was set for the club. To make the most of the situation, the local club sent out invitations to other diggers in other clubs. I was told that some of our club members went down to take advantage of this opportunity.

         One of the last digs was a privy that was part of commercial property, like a hotel or saloon. At the very bottom of the privy, in one corner, curled in a fetal position, was an adult human skeleton! Clearly what they uncovered was evidence of a murder!

         Don't bring in any skeletons! I remember I was digging with Mark Churchill in Plainwell on property that was then owned by my grandmother. In the 1800's the property was used as a large poultry operation with lots of employees. When we found the privies, there were several pits all in a row. I don't recall anything good coming from that dig, but there was something that I will never forget. I dug a treadle sewing machine in it! Try digging one of those out! That was very hard work.

         Another memory was digging with Duane Nickerson in Plainwell on property that was owned by a dear family friend. I couldn't stick around for the whole dig, but when it was all done, Nick found two of the first issued Michigan porcelain license plates! As I recall, they were in perfect condition and sold for a couple hundred dollars.

        I have seen marbles the size of tennis balls, breast pump parts, oil lamp parts and many other tools an trinkets. So bring in your favorite dump or privy treasures to this "Down in the Dump Meeting!"

        While on the subject of down in the dumps, what an awful miserable winter this has been. One of the ways I like to entertain and support myself during these dreary Michigan winter days is with e-Bay.

        I have never been able to part with any of my own personal detecting or bottle digging finds. I cannot explain why for sure, I guess they represent little trophies to me. On the other hand, I don't have any problem selling things I buy from other treasure hunters. There are a couple guys in the detector club who offer me the chance to buy the gold that they find. Being somewhat of a wheeler dealer, I try to counter offer their asking price.

       These fellows have me figured out pretty good by now. If they have X-number grams, of say, 14K gold, and they want to get $200.00 for it they will offer it to me for $250.00. Because I am so shrewd, it only takes me a few minutes to get them down to my price . . .$200.00.

        Not always does this work out right for them, so they will usually have a card up their sleeve, something to sweeten the deal. Generally this sweetener is silver rings, catholic medals and trinkets which they will throw in as a bonus.

       I have as much fun selling this stuff as I do the higher ticket items. I sold a silver Indian ring that was somewhat crude for $107.00!

 I also sold an old brass lipstick tube for $20.00! Even the old costume plated jewelry with rhine-stones get plenty of bids!

Left is a bone handle shaving brush. I have a friend who raises horses, she got me the horse hair.
When you dig these out of an old privy they soon dry out and  start to break down so, once they dry put a coat of varnish on them,
Center This is a Native American ceremonial wedding cup.
Right  is a bone carved chess piece

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING FEBRUARY 17th MEETING STARTS AT 7:00