Minutes of the

Treasure Coast Archeological Society Meeting

May 4, 2011

The next meeting is on Wednesday, June 1, 2011.

The  meeting was called to order at 7:40 P.M. by Richard Hart, Sr., President of TCAS.

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Richard Hart, II.

The minutes can be read on the club website, www.tcas.us. They are also emailed to members with email addresses on file on the last Wednesday of the month.

General Notes:

30 Members present with 5 guests.

Richard Hart, TCAS President answered the question from the April meeting that arose from the discussions to stop giving silver quarters away for the Find of the Month. The costs of running TCAS are:

·         $147.00 per month / $1,764 per year for the TCAS meetings 

·         $220.00 for the library

·         $  39.90 Magazine for the library

·         $    8.00 Postage (box of stamps)

·         $220.00 Printing

·         $200.00 Website (for two years)

·         $283.28 Insurance

·         $100.00 Memorials (per occurrence)

·         $100.00 Speaker gratuities

·         $  25.00 Drinks / donuts (usually covered by the 50/50)

The above costs do not include any hunts the club has!

The club takes in $985.00 per year for  dues (currently 47 members)

Other costs are covered from the money made from the Annual Benefit Hunt.

 

The Vice-President, Mitch King, who talked about our clubs Annual Spring Beach Hunt.

The beach hunt is always held on the first Saturday after the May meeting, so it is fresh in members minds! A show of hands indicated 14 members would come. An ACE 250 will be giving away at this hunt. Cost is just $5.00 per hunter and a covered dish.
Show time was 9:30 AM with hunt time at 10:00 AM.

There was some discussions as to where the hunt should be, as some parks had been closed for beach refurbishment (adding sand to the beach!). One member said the Golden Sands Park was open the prior weekend, so plans were made for that park.

An email was sent on May 5th to all members to remind them / inform them of the May 7th hunt.

Now for the hunt results:

It was a beautiful day to spend on the beach. Not too hot, a slight breeze, gentle waves coming onshore...........just about picture perfect!  Twelve hunters braved these weather conditions search for the elusive metal items...........

Mitch planted over 1,000 tokens (painted penny's), 30 silver dimes, 4 silver quarters, 2 silver half dollars and 5 large hotel keys (real keys, not the plastic ones).

After the one hour detecting time and after lunch, the results were tabulated and the winners calculated.

Token Place	Name	Tokens	Dimes	Quarters	Half Dollars	Hotel Keys
12	Dale Thesenvitz	33	1	0	0	1
2	Joan Hart	111	5	1	0	2
11	Richard hart Jr.	45	3	0	0	0
5	Bob Grubb	100	2	0	1	0
6	Skip Watson	95	1	0	0	0
9	Jerry Davis	67	2	1	0	1
7	Jan King	80	0	0	0	0
8	Larry King	72	4	0	0	0
10	Neil Normando	57	3	0	0	1
1	Frank Rothery	133	2	1	1	0
4	Marty Hufnagel	105	2	1	0	0
3	Ryan Rathbun,	106	4	0	0	0
Totals	12	1004	29	4	2	5

 

Hunters had the choice of prizes from the table in order of the number of tokens found.

For the hunters that found keys. The keys were given back to Mitch, who placed five unmarked envelopes on the table. Each envelope had the prize written on a business card, so no one could tell what they there winning. The order for picking the envelopes went by the tokens found list. And the winners are................................

 

 

Our guest speaker for the night was Thomas Dankowsky, who talked about relic hunting.

 

Tom gave a brief history of Ft. Meade, FL, starting with its founding by George G. Meade on Dec 13, 1849.

 

Tom has been there 47 times in 3 years and has found evidence of buildings where they were not supposed to be! His day starts about 4:00 AM so he can be in the field at sunrise and works until…..

 

He is working with/coordinating his activity with archeologists and has a display case in the Ft. Meade bank (it is to valuable) to keep in the local museum! The case includes: cuff buttons, breast plate with the letter “A” for artillery, flint lock hammer for a 1816 Kentucky rifle, percussion caps……. If you are in the Ft. Meade area, stop by the bank and look at the display case. It is very interesting.

 

Tom found a gold coin that took seven months to learn about and probably was part of Meade’s pay. The military was paid in silver and gold coins back then.

 

He is using an elliptical 2D coil and generally is digging 17” to 21” deep.

 

Detecting in this area, on public grounds does require the permission of the city manager, so plan accordingly.

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Holshoe was asked to explain the "finds" table.             

 

Find Winners:

Ring:   Mike Kurczy                           Group Coins: Jerry Davis

Jewelry: Mike Kurczy                         Artifacts: Marty Hufnagel

Single Coins: Mike Kurczy                 Fossils:

Miscellaneous:

Find of the Month: Jerry Davis

 

 

Drawing Winners:

50/50:  $20.00 ???????                                                            Badge: Mary McGee

T-Shirt: Doug Wilsnack                                                          Hat: Skip Watson

 

Extra Winners:

Garrett Find Aprons: Jerry Davies and Neil Normando

Dimes: John Robinson and Neil Normando

 

Doughnuts/coffee/cooler:

Coffee will be brought by: Kira Thesenvitz

Doughnuts will be brought by: Marty Hufnagel

Cooler with drinks will be brought by: Ryan Rathbun

 

The meeting adjourned at: 9:30 P.M.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Dale T. Thesenvitz

TCAS Secretary