M E T A L M A N 9

M E T A L M A N 9

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December 1, 2024 What are the odds of that…?

December 1, 2024 What are the odds of that…?

December 1, 2024 What are the odds of that…? I have an entire set of exciting stories and amazingly interesting pictures to share with you over the winter months. These will be about specific topics or concepts, mostly related to metal detecting, some not, but all touch on our historical past. Carbon 14 Dating, Dendrochronology, Archeology… check in monthly to Metalmann9.ca and find out what the buzz is all about! I plan to post at least one story per month and I might post a couple on occasion. Let’s see just how creative I get over the winter. Today, as I start writing this piece, it’s late November. I want to hit the ground running with a December post. Actual metal detecting is done for the year. My last outing was November 6th. The weather and soil conditions were good until mid-November but I simply couldn’t get out. Life gets in the way sometimes. Then it rained and froze. I’m looking forward to April already. But Hey!!! I can still get my weekly dose of metal detecting by watching “The Curse of Oak Island” on Sunday nights. Go Gary Drayton Go!!! A huge part of the draw and of the fun with metal detecting is what I call “The Fun of the Hunt”. The sheer joy of discovery! What also amazes me is the total randomness of finding a truly special item. What are the odds… ? What are the odds of finding a single nickel, lost for 41 years, under miles and miles of a forest floor? See: November 10, 2021- Sandilands Provincial Forest . I met Randy Gerylo about 2 years ago, quite by chance. It’s also on the same outing that I first met Monty. The three of us have been good friends ever since and we often metal detect together. They both feature predominantly on my posts. See: September 7, 2022 – Monty, Randy, Winnipeg Beach and Me . It is important for any metal detectorist to go out metal detecting with other detectorists from time to time because of the wealth of information and knowledge that we can gain from each other. And it is one of Randy’s shared stories that is the December feature. So on with December’s post… I have had some formal schooling on Odds, on Random Variables, the Bell Curve etc. Example: Your odds of winning the Lotto Max. are 1 in 33,294,800. But this… Well, Randy’s story takes “Odds” to a whole new level. A number of years ago, Randy was metal detecting on a farm field about six miles out, somewhere near Stonewall, Mb. where he found a coin. No big story here; yet. Yes, a lucky find for the most part. Common yes, but not near as common as it would be if a coin were found on a city park or on a school yard, but common enough. But the exciting part is that the coin was very old, dated 1806, and British. Once home, Randy cleaned the coin and that’s when he noticed a distinct circular “Shadow” across the face of this particular coin. Experience tells us that the discoloration or shadow was probably caused by another circular item touching this coin… in this case, possibly a second coin. The initial hole whence the coin had come from had been double checked but nothing had set off the pin pointer. This was year one. Fast forward to the following year, in spring, and Randy is back in the same farm field and he is metal detecting near the very spot where the 1806 coin was originally found. A second old coin is found. It’s an 1854 Upper Canada Token. It too has a distinct circular “Shadow” across its surface. Nothing else was found in that hole or nearby either. Now we fast forward again, to the fall of this same year and a third coin is found, all within a foot or so from the previous two finds. It also has a distinct circular “Shadow”. It’s an 1835 US Large Cent. It is when the three coins are placed together that the puzzle pieces fall into place. All three coin’s shadows overlap each other perfectly. These three coins are of completely different origins: Britain, Upper Canada, and the USA. They had probably been a pocket spill or pocket drop from a mid-19th century traveller. We can only speculate. The coins sat on top of each other for decades, long enough to clearly interact and react with each other long enough to create their distinct circular marks. Over time the area became a farm field and modern cultivation had dislodged and moved the coins away from each other, ever so slightly, until a lucky metal detectorist came along and reunited the trio. And this, over a time span of two years and three different outings. What are the odds…? The first series of pictures feature Randy’s three coins. The following pictures feature other coins, unrelated to Randy’s find, that have also overlapped each other for a long time underground. The take away from this story… • The Importance of checking your hole for a second or third find. • Keep an eye out for distinct “Shadows” across any of your finds. • Go detecting with friends from time to time. • Keep on metal detecting and discovering. Randy’s 3 stacked coins. What are the odds…? Roger Reference: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/lost-id-bracelet-gimli- scotland-air-force-training-base-1.6375496 https://garydrayton.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Oak_Island https://www.baldwin.co.uk/product/george-iii-penny-1806/ https://www.coinsandcanada.com/tokens-medals- banks.php?title=&id=118 https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1835-1c-large-8-stars-bn/1720

December 12, 2024 CBC Broadcast with Gordon Goldsborough

December 12, 2024 CBC Broadcast with Gordon Goldsborough

December 13, 2024 CBC Broadcast with Gordon Goldsborough. “ People who do detective work in search of historical treasure “. What a perfectly appropriate title for a radio broadcast about metal detecting. Gordon Goldsborough has a weekly radio spot. Today: December 12, Sunday morning, 7:45 in the morning, the broadcast featured our newly founded metal detecting club. Keystone Detectorists Club ( KDC). The radio piece also featured the Metalman9.ca website and our own local metal detecting supplier at OK John Metal Detectors. By the way, Robin at OK John also runs a Facebook page of the same name. Gordon Goldsborough narrates a program every Sunday morning on CBC Radio that originated from his Abandoned Manitoba book series. This morning’s program ran for 12 minutes in total. You can listen to the show and many of Gordon’s other talks about Manitoba historical sites by clicking on the link provided below. I had been mulling over where the KDC should go this spring for a group hunt. We had a great first hunt this spring. See: May 11, 2024 – The Group Hunt and the Finds . I think Gordon has solved my dilemma for me. You’ll have to listen to today’s program to find out what it is and where we are going or attend the KDC’s spring meeting to get on board. The spring meeting will be held sometime in April or early May 2025. Check out the homepage on Metalman9.ca. There will be an automatic dropdown screen off of the “Home” page a month or so prior to the meeting date. Anyone is welcome to attend but please, when the time comes, give me a heads-up that you're attending so that I can plan the meeting accordingly. Club membership is FREE. Looking forward to a new Metal detecting season come 2025. Roger Reference: https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/abandoned.shtml https://www.okjohnmetaldetectors.com/ https://www.metalman9.ca/index.htm https://www.mhs.mb.ca/info/books/moreabandonedmanitoba.shtml