The ESMDA Club's 2nd Annual Spring Silver Hunt!
Our second annual Spring Silver Hunt got kicked off on Saturday, May 15, 2021. It's an event for just paid dues members, that the ESMDA club started last year. Tokens were hidden within three different parks located in the Capital Region area. There were a total of 15 tokens planted, 5 tokens in each of the three parks. The tokens were Kennedy clad half dollars that were marked with a colored dot and they were all planted just below the surface of the ground.
From the stories that were shared with me, it seems that a fun time was had by all of the members who participated in the event. The hunt served as a great opportunity to network with other club members. A seeded hunt like this one also serves as a great opportunity to build on your metal detecting skills. The more you metal detect, the better you seem to get at it. Seeded hunts can help you to improve on your ability to recognize different signals. It's also extremely rewarding when you can find something that you know is hiding in the ground. It fills you with a sense of accomplishment and pride. When you are out metal detecting you generally don't know what is hiding in the ground. Sometimes you might have a general idea if for example you were looking for an item that someone lost. So you never really know for sure if you're not finding something because it's just not there to find or if you're not finding it due to another factor altogether. If you know something is hiding in the ground and the area where it is hidden and you can't seem to find it, well, then that right there is a learning experience and an opportunity for growth. And if you are capable of finding it, well, then that is rewarding in itself. Sure you might have just wound up getting lucky, but I think it's okay to give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.
Out of the 15 tokens that were hidden, a total of 14 were found. All 15 of the tokens probably would have wound up being found, but the grass in the area where the last one left was hidden grew rather quickly. Within a week of the hunt, it was up to your knees. By the end of the hunt it was up to your waist. That made swinging your coil to find it pretty darn impossible. The following club members all found tokens in the Spring Silver Hunt.
Dan Casey
Ben Colaneri
John Colaneri
Mark Delaney
Robert Diehl
Robert Francis
Marie Fryc
Jason Harbeck
Mike Holt
Bill Lawton
Roland Ozols
Jan Satterlee
Margaret Simmonds
The first club member to locate a token was Margaret Simmonds. The hunt was scheduled to end on June 20, 2021. On June 20th there were still 2 tokens left that had not been found so we wound up extending the hunt until June 27, 2021. We also allowed the club members who had already found a token to search for another, if they chose to do so, from June 20th until 27th. Jan Satterlee ended up finding a total of two tokens from the hunt. The second token that Jan found, during the last week of the hunt, actually rang in much lower on his detector. That may be why it was one of the last ones left in the ground. Apparently, when I planted it I unknowingly placed it right under an old dog tag. The dog tag caused the target to ring in much lower on Jan's detector. It just goes to show that the VDI numbers don't really matter all that much and it certainly pays off when you dig it all.
Each club member who found a token was rewarded with a silver dollar. Their names were also put into a raffle and one club member won a treasure chest filled with prizes. The winner of the treasure chest was John Colaneri. Congratulations to all the club members who found a token and received a silver dollar! I hope everyone has a great week! Happy Hunting!!