The Midas Touchby Jimmy "Sierra" NormandiPrinted by permission of Western & Eastern Treasures MagazineAll of us have met, at one time or another, a member of that elite fraternity of treasure hunters that I like to refer to as having the "Midas Touch." If they were gardeners, we would say that they had a "green thumb." Now, I don't mean that everything they touch turns to gold, or that gold follows them around; but it has always seemed strange to me that, when hunting side by side with one of these "gifted ones," if there was a gold ring to be found... they would be the ones to detect it. I know that it takes a certain amount of skill and expertise to be proficient at detecting gold jewelry, but with all of that equal, most of us ordinary souls get the coins and junk jewelry. I know what you are thinking. A lot of us get gold rings and such, so we must all fall into that category. Not so... I'm talking about situations repeated over and over again. Five detectors on a park, and only one gold ring is found... who found it? You guessed it. The same guy who wins the gold coin at your club meeting, while you win the salami. Now you know what I am getting at. Well, one such guy is Dennis Crisp from central California Dennis grew up as one of those little guys who was always finding pennies and such wherever his folks took him... playgrounds, beaches, or even on the sidewalks. Of course, his eyes were closer to the ground than the big folks, but I like to think the magic was just beginning to put its mark on Dennis. it was just ten years ago that Dennis decided to get serious about his attraction to gold. After much research and many hours of pawing through the various mining journals, he decided to invest in a gold dredge. But this was February of 1982, the mother lode was knee deep in snow, and it was much too early to hit those gold bearing streams of the Sierra foothills. All there seemed left to do was to play "armchair" prospector and go to Mining Council meetings and tell stories. Of course, Dennis didn't have any stories to tell, so he just had to sit and listen and dream about dropping his dredge in that cold mountain stream and begin to suck those elusive gold nuggets from the crumbling bedrock. This was much too frustrating for Dennis... he knew he couldn't hang on till spring and he let this be known to his fellow gold diggers. One enlightened member of the congregation advised Dennis to visit the local treasure hunting club and purchase a metal detector. This he did without wasting a moment, as Dennis is a man of action. Another "toy" was added to his growing collection of treasure hunting paraphernalia, and his wife Anita began wondering if he hadn't gone a little overboard. After all, none of his promises of covering her with golden treasure had been realized at this point. "Don't despair," he said, "once I get going I won't be stopped." He was right about that. I can only imagine the excitement in the Crisp home when Dennis returned with his first metal detector. All of us can share in the understanding of that magic moment - we have all been there, and it was the same for all of us - for this is the bond that we share as treasure hunters. Well, the paint was hardly dry on that new detector before Dennis was out the back door, with Anita watching from the kitchen window. Trowel in hand, he began searching his own lawn. What was the very first target he found? You guessed it... a gold ring! We know all too well the pattern that followed... parks, playgrounds, beaches, etc. The Crisp "treasure chest" grew, and Anita started to resemble the promised "Christmas tree." Dennis had gotten her attention, and it was not long before his was a "two detector household." Time passes fast when you are having fun, and Dennis was surely having fun. He had not, however, forgotten his initial plan; and as Spring neared, the icy grip which kept him away from the river was quickly melting away. June found him on the river at last, and every spare moment that first spring and summer was spent dredging the rivers and streams of California's Mother Lode. Dennis found a buddy with the same "gold fever," and by late fall the fireplace at the Crisp's was witness to many a yarn woven from the gold which they found and which they would find on another day. But the excitement of digging treasure with his detector was soon rekindled as winter approached and the dredge was again stored in the loft of his garage. In fact, I think it is still there. For, as Dennis sharpened his skills with the detector, more and more "lucky finds" were made, and his major hobby became "metal detecting." Dredging was great fun and surely a lot cooler in the summer than swinging a detector, but this new hobby was one which Dennis could share with Anita, and after all that is what a marriage is really all about. The next four years saw Dennis' collection of coins and jewelry grow, and he became exceedingly fascinated by old coins. Like all of us he experienced the thrill of "touching the hand of time" as he uncovered a coin which had lain buried for a hundred years or more. Most of us have dug Seated Liberties and Barbers, and each time we retell the story we relive that same excitement. But how many of us have recovered that elusive old gold coin? Of course, it is sort of like fishing. The more hours spent on the water, the more likely you are to hook a "big one." But is that necessarily so? I can recall taking my wife's little brother fishing one time soon after we were married. He was only ten years old at the time and had never been fishing before. I left him on my favorite large rock near Dollar Point on Lake Tahoe and went down the shore to test my skills. I came back a while later to find him struggling with a 10 lb. rainbow trout. Luck? I suppose... but then why is it that he rarely fishes, but when he does, be frequently comes up with the "trophy"? Back to the gold coins and 1986, and we find "Midas" Dennis hunting on the perimeter of an old schoolground. The school had been built on an old ranch site, and the story had it that gold coins had been dug in years gone by when the new lawn had been put in. Dennis started his first pass across the field and continued his normal grid pattern as he attempted to leave no part unsearched. Dennis tells me he hears a different sound from gold than he hears from other targets. Of course, we all use audio signals and visual identification meters to try to sort out the trash from the treasure, but a good ear for subtle differences can truly help. His 23 years working as a technician for Pacific Bell has obviously done something to tune his hearing for those faint nuances that mean a good target. In true fashion, he lived up to his growing reputation. In short order he had dug an 1879-S $10 gold piece, and exactly an hour later flipped an 1889-S $10 gold coin from the same field.
The next year, 1987, would prove another turning point in the detecting career of Dennis Crisp, for it was that year that he heard of the successes of metal detectorists prospecting for gold nuggets in the Sierra Foothills. Though metal detectors had been used for years for detecting gold nuggets, it was the Australians who really started the ball rolling back around 1979 or so when they began finding gold in the old mine fields of the 1800s. While the Aussies' gold was primarily being found in large pieces, most of what was left in our Mother Lode was small by comparison. But our electronic prospectors developed their own techniques, and better and better units were produced to make the job easier. Those first pioneers in this new field of "detector prospecting" kept things as quiet as they could and tried to prevent a new "gold rush." But, as always, "the truth will out." Rumors made the rounds of the detecting clubs and were soon backed up at "show and tell" sessions at the monthly meetings with little vials of tiny gold nuggets. Most were so small - measured in the grain category - that they could hardly be classed as "nuggets." But once in a while an honest-to-goodness nugget would surface and could actually be weighed on a scale. These were the "pennyweight clunkers." Dennis couldn't contain himself. He and his hunting buddy took off for the hills to try their luck. They dedicated their two-week vacation to finding the "elusive gold nugget" and try they did. The first two days produced nothing more than sore arms and lots of blisters. But as Dennis says, "It seems the harder I work, the luckier I seem to get." Could that be his secret... and not magic at all? Well, on the third day a tiny piece of gold surfaced, and then another. Soon they got the hang of it and by the end of the day that first flake of gold had nine companions with it in the 35 mm film canister. At the end of the two week vacation, Dennis and his cohort had collected about 100 pieces of gold, and they would never be the same.
From that time forward, they spent every weekend they could on that four hour trek to the "gold fields" of northern California. That's four hours up and four hours back. But the call of gold is strong, and that is nothing compared to the hardships endured by the original 49'ers. Since that first trip, Dennis has detected 2,030 pieces of gold... one at a time. His largest piece is only 13/4 dwt., and his smallest is an almost unweighable piece of 1/16 grain... that's about the size of the head of a pin. Dennis has tried his luck in California, Nevada, and Arizona, and has his sights on Australia and Alaska for that day in the future when he finds the time... and knowing Dennis, I am sure he will find that time. I almost forgot, in between all those trips to the gold country Dennis still found time to detect his old haunts on nights, after work, and when weather closed the diggings - and was once more able to squeeze gold from sites worked over by the rest of us common folk. In fact, in 1991 he popped a beautiful $20 gold piece from a vacant lot on an old Victorian site... the magic was still working. Then in 1992 Dennis signed up for my second annual detecting tour to England. He had heard from those club members who went with me on the first tour in 1991 that it was a trip to be remembered. All of us found ancient coins and artifacts which often dated back over 2,000 years. After all, England had been occupied by civilizations who produced metal artifacts since the Bronze Age. One civilization after the other - Celtic, Roman, Saxon, Viking, and Norman laid down layer upon layer of relics and coins. England was a treasure hunter's dream and Dennis was a dreamer from way back. He and Anita hit the deck running, and I knew that if anyone found a "goldie" on the trip it would be Dennis. As it was to be, I was only 20' or so from Dennis on a course he had chosen across that beautiful, loamy, plowed field near Walmer Castle and the ancient village site of Ringwold when he stopped to investigate a good signal. His Sierra Spectrum gave a strong audible indication that the target was good, but Dennis himself doesn't remember what the visual display reading was. He wasted no time kneeling down and investigating.
Dennis already knew that he was to repeat once more a scenario dreamed of often but experienced by few. Listening intently, he rechecked the signal, nursing every bit of excitement out of the moment. He broke a clod in half and there, shining in the bright sun - exposed to the light of day for the first time in almost 300 years - was a gold half guinea struck with the image of King George I and clearly dated 1717.
Was this luck? Was it skill? Or was it the "Midas touch"? Needless to say, Dennis and Anita have already signed up for our 1993 tour. |
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Touching the Hand of History,
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Touching the Hand of History,
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Touching the Hand of History Again, Part Oneby Jimmy "Sierra" NormandiPrinted by permission of Western & Eastern Treasures Magazine"There he goes again," a comment once made by a prominent politician in response to an opponent's remarks, might soon become associated with my yearly articles on metal detecting in England. I hope, however, that it would be used as a positive response to the sharing of what has become one of the most rewarding and exciting phases of my career as a treasure hunter. I took my first trip to the U.K. many years ago and wrote about it in a series of two articles for W&ET. Even though my success was modest by any standard, I was bitten by the bug and my recreational detecting would never be the same. As I mentioned in previous articles, I made this first trip as a loner. I thought I could detect almost any where and duplicate the wonderful finds that I had so often read about both in our magazines and their English counterparts. Not so...l would soon find out. Sure, I was able to detect around a Medieval castle in Scotland, but the results were nothing to be bragged about. Fortunately, I made the acquaintance of a detectorist in London and was able to bring "a little bit of England" home with me. I vowed, however, that I would never return unless I knew that I would have a worthwhile place to detect. In 1990, that opportunity presented itself in the form of a fellow detectorist, Flemming Nielsen, and his wife Diane, who had planned a return trip to attend the South of England Rally at Deal near Dover. I have never been much for participating in treasure hunts as a contender in this country, as I would prefer to dig natural finds on my own. Those of you who have followed my other articles on metal detecting are aware that a good deal of my detecting time is spent developing, testing, and perfecting various models of metal detectors and improving techniques for their use, both in gold prospecting and general coin- shooting use. Though I enjoy any time I can get to use a detector, much of this is hard work and doesn't provide much relaxation or enjoyment, which is the very reason I gave up my career in pharmacy and switched to metal detecting in the first place. I also have written a good deal about various detecting adventures I have had in the search for hidden and buried treasure...some successful and others not. ..but all rewarding in their own way. These hunts have always been exciting and fun, but they are a serious business and thus always require a kind of concentration and intensity which, again is far from being described as relaxing. Because the aforementioned activities don't allow much other time for that part of detecting which I still regard as my "hobby" or "sport," I have to make that time, and arranging my trips to England each year does just that. So, when Flemming informed me that the English "rally" was really an excuse to get together and hunt an historical site with good expectations of finding rare or ancient coins and artifacts, I jumped at the chance to try again. Off I went to England in '90 with my wife Win and the Nielsens. The rest is history. I wrote about the success of that trip in subsequent articles, and when I returned to England the following year in 1991, I brought my first group of 15 American detectorists with me. This was a courageous group. With no experience as a tour guide, I needed all the help I could get, and their patience and advice helped me to develop the talent and expertise which would be required of me on hoped-for future trips. The trip was a fantastic success. The founders and producers of the South of England Rally, David Barwell and Roger Reid, arranged for the private fields for our group to detect on after the rally weekend. The detecting days were balanced with some great sight seeing trips to museums, castles and ancient cities and cathedrals. Top this off with wonderful meals, and we had some "happy campers" when we headed for home. Four of the 15 returned with me in '92, along with 38 eager detectorists from across the U.S. ... one from as far away as Hawaii. And from this group, 16 have already signed up for the 1993 trip. I guess we are doing something right after all. What better combination of objectives could I ask for? I get to share with others the experience and excitement of a sport to which I have dedicated a good portion of my life. Watching the excitement of someone when he unearths his first hammered silver coin dating back to the 13th or 14th century makes me relive that same exhilaration over and over. I still remember the look in Aaron Pingree's eyes when he showed me his first hammered silver coin on the '91 trip, an Edward I dating from A.D. 1272 to 1307. Aaron was one of that group that returned this year on the 1992 trip. His list of finds this time included over 30 Roman coins dating to the first century A.D. and included two beautiful silver Roman denarii to add to his growing collection of Medieval hammered silver pennies. Aaron found something that is fairly common in English fields. ..a "love token." These are usually silver sixpences and were created all through the Medieval period. A young lover would take a silver sixpence and bend it on opposing sides in opposite directions, thus deforming the coin to the shape of an "S" when viewed from the side. The legend is that if the young maiden accepts her lover's advances, she keeps the token; if she rejects them, she tosses the token away. Given the numerous "love tokens" that I and others find... I have found at least one or more on every trip.. .there must have been an awful lot of unhappy suitors in days of yore! Oh yes, Aaron's "love token" was fashioned from a 1692 silver sixpence from the reign of William Ill. It seems like the English Tour is becoming a family affair for Aaron. In 1991, he brought his wife Elfie and his daughter Nancy, and on this '92 trip he was accompanied by his son Jim and grandson A.J. Do you think Aaron might be finding things I am not learning about? Just kidding, Aaron. I am sure it is really just the same pleasure of sharing which prompts me to return over and over again as well. In fact, I too brought some more members of my family with me this year. My son Jim and his wife Carol joined us at Sherwood Forest on the second week and interviewed many of the group on a video camcorder. After the tour, Jim and Carol chauffeured us on a two week tour of Wales and Scotland, ending at White's Electronics' factory in Inverness. I can truly appreciate the joy Aaron has gotten from bringing his family with him. I am sure they appreciated it as well, as both of them dug some very nice Romans and hammered silvers. In fact, Jim unearthed an 1805 King George, an extremely rare coin, even though not particularly old by English standards, and A.J. recovered part of what is probably an ancient Bronze Age sword blade, as well as a part of a Bronze Age tool, both dating back to 1000-1500 B.C. Our next adventure continues, with more ancient coins, jewelry, and artifacts. Don't miss Part II of "Touching the Hand of History Again."
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Touching the Hand of History Again, Part Twoby Jimmy "Sierra" NormandiPrinted by permission of Western & Eastern Treasures MagazineOur 1992 trip was the first for Jim and Joanne Lowe of Plymouth, California, and a far shot from the kind of detecting they are used to in the heart of the Mother Lode country where they live. However, Joanne must have brought this familiarity with nugget shooting with her to England, for she "banged out" a beautiful 150-year-old gold wedding band from the first plowed field that we worked after the rally. Finding a gold "any thing" while detecting is always a special occurrence, and this goes for hunting in England as well as in America. It is especially fun to find wedding bands in England, as the hallmark inside the ring can date the age of the find. Joanne went on to find a number of nice coins, including a silver Roman denarius of Phillipus (244- 249 A.D.) in excellent condition, and her husband Jim made a find that made my mouth water when he uncovered a brass horse bridle decoration with the initials J.S. engraved on it. Don't you know that "Jimmy Sierra" was supposed to find that one, Jim? The plot thickened later that afternoon when Bob Livesay also struck gold. Bob and his wife Hazel are also returnees from the first tour and by coincidence are also natives of California's Mother Lode, residing in Railroad Flat, and no strangers to gold prospecting. In fact, Hazel found a beautiful quarter- ounce gold nugget while coin hunting on a slope near her home just a month before the trip. Well, Bob popped a gold wedding band as well.. .this one was 24K and hallmarked in the mid 1700s. Even the English hosts were duly impressed. It seems awfully strange that both of the gold rings were found by our "Gold Country" detectorists. Of course, Bob and Hazel are fast becoming old pros on the plowed fields and amassed a beautiful array of Medieval hammered silver coins, Roman bronzes, and silvers, as well as some great artifacts. Bob donated a rare Medieval brooch to the Dover museum after his last trip. I can't possibly list all of the finds recovered by our group, or you would either die from anxiety or boredom, but I would like to mention some of the more interesting items. As you can see, the most frequently dug items were the Roman bronze coins of varying denominations. This year we were fortunate to get into a number of fields which insisted on producing Roman silver denaril. To give you some idea of the relative values of Roman coins, it would take four sestertii to make a silver denarius. A sesterius is a bronze coin about the size of a half dollar, but much thicker. It would take two dupondii to make a sesterius, two asses to make a dupondius, two semisses to make one as, and two quandrantes to equal one semis. Twenty- five silver denarii were equal to one gold aureus. Now that you understand the coinage... think about this. At the time of the Romano Britain occupation, during the first four centuries A.D., a loaf of bread cost about one as, an amphora (about 25 liters) of wine cost 250 denani... now that is expensive... far more than a slave boy, which only cost 175 denarii. But then you had to feed the slave boy. Peaches were a luxury in Romano-Britain and cost on average about 7-1/2 denarii each. To put this in perspective, a Roman Legionary soldier earned 225 denarii per year and lived a very rough life. On the other hand, a senior civil servant could earn as much as 50,000 denarii a year... sort of like our politicians today. Another of the more interesting items recovered from the plowed fields are jetons. These are bronze or copper coin-like pieces with elaborate designs on them. They come in varying sizes and were manufactured all over Europe as well as in England, starting as early as the 13th century and continuing well into the 18th century. English manufactured jetons are quite rare; the most frequently found are those that were made around Nuremburg, Germany in the 15th and 16th century. I found my first jeton just outside of London... it was a Damianus Krauwinkel from Nuremburg. These "coins" were actually counters and used on a checker-type board to calculate business transactions, like the oriental abacus. This is where the post "Chancellor of the Exchequer" comes from. With that bit of trivia, it becomes more interesting when one of these unusual "coins" is found, and Tom Johnson, of Petaluma, California did his share to fill his "exchequer board" as he managed to retrieve five of them. I think he might have set an all-time record for our group. John Rebman came from the farthest away to experience his English adventure, with over 17 hours in the air, starting in Honolulu with a stop in Los Angeles. Add that to the usual airport delays, and we have a real marathon. It is lucky he started as the youngest of our group, because I am sure he aged a bunch before he landed in London. None of this dampened his ability to detect, however, as he managed a unique find on each and every day, including a very nice Roman fibulae (a brooch used to fasten a toga and probably the world's first safety pin) and a bronze Roman finger ring; but the one which almost got away was an exceptional Roman "hare brooch" found the last day of detecting in Sherwood Forest. In fact this find points up the most important "credo" of detecting in England... "Don't throw anything away until you find out what it is." As we were leaving the field that day, John came up to me and showed me what he had found. It was a very sparse field compared to others we had hunted, and he didn't have an awful lot to show. Had it been found on one of our busier fields, it might have been overlooked as unimportant. It looked like a child's pin from a Cracker Jack box. It was obviously an animal, but looked like a rat. It was actually a rabbit with ears flat against the body and it was striped with yellow and black stripes. This inch-long pin was actually Roman and over 1500 years old! The enamel was still intact and colors clear. Its crudeness testified to its antiquity and marked it as a much sought-after find. One of the great things about detecting in England is that there is rarely a field void of metal targets. If man has occupied the land for any part of the last few thousand years, you can bet on finding targets to dig, whether it be ancient coins or relics or Victorian "modern" artifacts. Tom Elliott from San Jose, California filled out his digging pouch with numerous nice artifacts, along with his allotted Romans and Medievals. I particularly liked the solid silver spur-strap buckle which he found at the rally site, and the beautiful silver 18th century thimble which he dug in a field near the site of the ancient village of Ripple. This Medieval village was mentioned in the Domesday Book, compiled in 1086 A.D. by the order of William the Conqueror. It is these small artifacts which do the best job of linking us with the people who lived on this land. When we handle the items that they handled, we are truly touching the hand of history. Many of these items have not seen the light of day for hundreds or even thousands of years, and bringing them to the surface lends a special importance to items as simple as the lead tokens, book clasp, or Medieval key which Tom also found in his plowed fields. I must not forget to mention a very common item found in the fields, and that is buttons... You've got it... plain old buttons. Suspender buttons to military buttons, copper buttons to gold gilt buttons, pewter buttons to brass buttons, buttons of all sizes and descriptions. My button collection is growing every year and is as important to me as my coins or other artifacts. Terry Chamberlin of Kerman, California found a beautiful silver button at the South of England Rally site, and I am sure she values it as much as anything she found. I have been displaying them just as I do my coins, but I had never made any attempt to clean them till this year, after I saw what one of the English detectorists did with his collection. Mine all looked alike - the color that is. The pewter and silver ones did look different, but most were a nondescript dirty color, and the designs were in many cases totally obscured by corrosion. I cleaned the silver and pewter buttons just as I usually clean my silver coins. However, I used a pickling solution I got from the local lapidary shop to remove all the corrosion from the copper, brass and bronze buttons. I then tumbled the buttons for only about 20 minutes with steel shot to restore the original luster. I couldn't believe my eyes! There was a variety of designs that I had never dreamed of. The military buttons, most of which dated to the 18th and 19th century, were extremely interesting and elaborate. One of the buttons I dug in Sherwood Forest revealed the head of a stag after it had been cleaned. I was told that it probably came from the coat of a gamekeeper for the local manor, Thoresby Hall, and dated to the 1700s. Back to the Chamberlins for a moment. Terry's husband Phil produced one of the most sought-after finds of the trip... an Anglo-Saxon sceata. This very tiny but thick silver coin, in Very Fine condition, was minted around A.D. 690 and bears the image of a porcupine on the face. It is fondly referred to as a "porcupine skeet." The Celtic and Saxon coins and artifacts are the rarest of the finds to come from the plowed fields in England. A find like this is enough to make an entire trip worth while for any treasure hunter... me included. I could go on and on, as you can probably guess, but an article like this is no substitute for experiencing the plowed fields of England for yourself. I have therefore made a pledge to myself to return each year for as long as my old legs will carry me, and to bring a group of American detectorists with me as long as they will follow. Roger and David and I are already planning our trip for 1993, and with the help of the critiques of the participants hope to make the tour even more enjoyable than ever. One of the attractions we are adding for '93 will be an authentic Medieval feast in Chilham Castle in Kent, just for our group... complete with entertainment in costumes of the period. We have also been given permission to hunt on the 300+ acres of the castle grounds. Cheerio for now, and I hope we will cross paths on one of England's ancient fields someday soon!
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