Once again, we had outstanding attendance thanks to our new private (club only) and public Facebook pages along with this website and a very professional-looking newsletter (Thanks, Mary!).  We're gearing up for an early March club hunt at a local farm, and Betty has offered the use of her house on LBI so we can hold a club beach hunt sometime in the Spring.  There will be lots of other activities to keep the club busy this year.   The finds display table was laid out with some really nice Colonial to present artifacts, and Henry brought in an astonishing pile of old buttons he's dug over the past 20 years!

Welcome to new members Donna Pearl and Jennifer DiMeo, and welcome back to all regualr members!  Also good to see another family with young children come to the meeting!

The officers table...  left to right: John Komendat (Point System Keeper),  Rosemary Panzitta (Treasurer), Mike Warden (President),  Drew Waholek (Vice President), Donna Winzinger (Co-Secretary).

The members are in their seats and waiting for the meeting to start...

Here's Henry's 20 years worth of dug buttons.  There were some outstanding Colonial  Dandy's, Rev and Civil War, military, professional and civilian!

Two nice silver-colored buttons were pulled from the pile.  Henry said he hasn't gotten around to researching them and so many others yet.  He's too busy digging!

Another phenomenal find was Greg German's Colonial "Tallio" button!

Albert King is still "down in the dumps," but that's when he's happiest : ).

Our VP, Drew, dug an interesting assortment of Colonial coins and relics.

Angie and Brian Obitz got busy on land and sea:

Bill Fell has been treating us to some of his "Finds from the past" the last few months.

More exciting and motivational finds from our members:

I have a feeling this is going to be one impressive year on the finds tables!  We're very lucky to be living in a historic area relatively close to the beach as well.  Looking forward to seeing everybody at the farm hunt on March 3rd and 4th, weather permitting!  -  Amy

What we lacked in displays this month we certainly made up for in attendance.  We welcomed quite a few new members and visitors, along with our faithful "regulars."  It was quite a lively meeting and was just about standing room only by the time the meeting began!

Perhaps it was the celebrities who took the time to drive to our meeting that were responsible for the increased attendance.   Here we have Jocelyn Elizabeth with her children along with Mary Shafer.  Jocelyn writes a great detecting blog, has her own Youtube channel and is the featured June detectorist in the 2018 Garrett calendar.   Visit her website at relicrecoverist.com.  Mary has written a book titled, "Metal Detecting for Beginners - 101 Things I Wish I'd Known When I Started."  Her book can be purchased through Jocelyn's website and other sources.  Mary also writes for American Digger magazine.  Thanks so much for your valuable input to the hobby you two!

New friendships were also made!  Here is Albert King (left) with his new kindred spirit friend, Matty Tomaini.  The Tomaini family - Matthew, Nicole, Ashlynn and Matty - joined the club during the January meeting.  The family that detects together...  : ).  In addition to the Tomaini family, we'd like to welcome new members Jonathan Migdalof, Cliff Brown, Gary Graziano, Rudy Wilson, Jon Lawson, Ben Speidel and Jay Cook.

Henry Winzinger shows off the souvenir hat he bought during his and Donna's recent trip to China.  That's a great hat for this cold winter weather, Henry!

Albert King is investigating a dump and has been turning up some nice finds.  You can watch Albert's videos on his Youtube channel, Kinghouse BD.  Check it out and be sure to subscribe!

Other finds were sparse, but will soon be plentiful when the weather turns a little nicer.   Mark your calendars for February 11th and we'll see you at the next meeting! - Amy

Happy holidays, everyone!  What a wonderful Christmas party we had!  Once again, Keith worked his magic on an unbelievably delicious prime rib while the rest of the members brought side dishes and desserts.  Mike Warden also brought a melt-in-your-mouth ham.  One thing our club does very well is eat : )!  Attendance was very good and a nice time was had by all.  Here are the members waiting for the meeting to begin:

Part of the buffet was set up on the counter while the rest was laid out on tables.

Keith carves his special prime rib.  Yum!

Elections were held, and officers will remain the same with the exception of Vice President.  Hugh Hardgrove is stepping down and Drew Waholek was voted in as his replacement.  Thanks for coming forward, Drew, and thanks to the officers for their continued service!   Drew brought in some of his past finds as shown in the next 3 pictures:

Speaking of Hugh Hardgrove, here are some of his finds from November:

Bill Fell brought in a checkerboard of finds from past hunts:

Greg German was trying to guess what type of instrument these keys belonged to.  Well?  What did you find out, Greg?

Bob Truitt found this trap in the woods with 3 of the animal's claws still in it.  I'll let your imagination take over from here!

Albert King brought in a great assortment of early mason jars!

Here's Albert modeling one of the hand-knitted hats JoAnn Corbett made with club colors and logo patch.  There were 6 lucky winners who received them in a door prize raffle.  Wishing all of you happy, healthy, peaceful holidays, and a New Year filled with special treasures!  See you on January 14th! - Amy

Another well-attended meeting with an interesting guest speaker.  Thank you to David Martin for taking the time to speak to our club about the history and artifacts found at the Monmouth, NJ, battlefield!

We had several new guests as well as a couple returning previous members.  Here are the members waiting for the meeting to begin.

There were so many great displays, the most outstanding of which was Greg German's 4th Regiment Revolutionary War coat of buttons.  Amazing!

The rest of Greg's finds:

New member Jim Fell brought in a binder of some of his better coin finds:

Albert King is still killing it on the bottles!

Lots of coins and cars for Mel Sanders!

Bill Fell brought in an interesting assortment of coins and relics.

Hugh Hardgrove's finds for the month:

Among Bob Truitt's finds were a 1795 1/2 Real and a King George II copper:

Al Meier's and Betty Sullivan's finds:

 Here's a picture of our club t-shirt with embroidered logo.  See Keith for pricing and ordering information.  See you at our Christmas Party on 12/10! - Amy

Club member Albert King just announced on his YouTube channel a contest to give away one or more of his bottles once he reaches 100 subscribers.  Here's the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMx4_-tYOx0&feature=em-subs_digest  Please help Albert reach his goal of 100 subscribers to his YouTube channel.  Tell your friends and family, too!  His videos are well worth it!

Our October Halloween meeting was lots of fun thanks to Keith for bringing his grill and cooking the hot dogs and hamburgers.  The members brought side dishes and desserts to round out the feast.  Mike did a great job seeding the field with all sorts of spooky things while members searched with flashlights.  Once we were back inside, Mike called out certain items and the one who had found the most of those items won a silver quarter.  Next month we will have a guest speaker, David Martin.  The topic will be the Battle of Monmouth.  See you on November 12th!

The meeting opened and was followed by our Halloween night flashlight hunt.

The following are our member finds displays.  Bill Fell had an impressive assortment of older coins and relics.

Dave Wittman:

Hugh Hardgrove:

Betty Sullivan.  Check out the 16.3 gram 14k gold bracelet Betty found!

David Visokay found these silver coins right in his own yard!

Mel Sanders:

Greg German:

Bob Truitt:

Al Meier:

Our resident young bottle digger, Albert King, displayed some fantastic finds he made on his trip to England as well as locally.

Very interesting fossils, Albert!

One thing our club is very good at is eating!  Here are some of the side dishes the members brought in to complement the hot dogs and hamburgers Keith cooked.  The dessert table was just as delicious!  See you on November 12th!  -  Amy

There were lots of folks and lots of great displays at the September meeting!  Before we get underway with pictures, take note that we will have a cookout preceding the Halloween fun hunt at our October 8th meeting.  Please bring a side dish or dessert and the club will supply the burgers, hot dogs, etc.  It's going to be a fun night!

Here are some of our members milling around, chatting and checking out finds before the meeting begins.

Everyone is in place and awaiting the start of the meeting.

Henry brought in a jaw dropping display of some of his reales and George Washington inaugural buttons!

And here is his usual pile of beach finds.  Henry sure works hard at this hobby!

And Donna does, too!  Here are her beach finds.

Betty certainly puts her time in, too!  Here are her beach finds.

Jim Corbett and Dave Witman recently returned from a trip to the islands.  They both found very nice pieces of gold and silver.  Here's Jim's followed by Dave's.

David Visokay found a beautiful fairy pendant (left), and Mel Sanders brought in his many playground finds (right).

The next 3 displays were brought in by our "rusty gold" hunters, Greg, Bob and Al.

Albert King brought in some fantastic bottle finds as well as some artifacts he found on the Thames River and brought back from his trip to England.

Since Jim's birthday fell on the day of the meeting, we had a little birthday party for him.

And here's the birthday boy himself!  : )  See all of you in October!

Attendance was good for a summer meeting.  There wasn't much business to talk about so the meeting was a shorter one.  Upcoming events include a Bingo night and a Halloween night hunt.  There were a lot of good finds made.  

President Mike Warden with son Will on the left, open the meeting.  Mike is sitting in front of a new banner he had made.  It's smaller than our last one, which is still missing, but it will be a good travel banner to represent us at hunts and other events.

Members check out the goodies at the finds table before the meeting.

Since we didn't have a meeting in July, members brought in 2 months worth of finds.  Dave Whitman brought in this monster bag containing over 1000 coins, along with numerous pairs of sunglasses and gold and silver jewelry!

Bob Truitt also had an impressive display showing new and old coins, jewelry and an awesome buckle!

Jim Corbett scored a one ounce rose gold chain.  I guess we'll never hear the end of it!  LOL!  Congrats, Jim!

Derek Errickson always brings in an interesting assortment of finds.

I believe this is Greg German's box of finds.  Forgive me if it isn't.  I'll have to start taking notes rather than rely on memory, which is MIA at the moment!

The members favorite part of the meeting - break time!  As the song goes; "See you in September."  10th, that is : )  -  Amy

 This 3 minute 47 second video from our young club member, Albert King, will make you stop and think of the future of our hobby if we don't follow the code of ethics.  

youtu.be/-p9vsj5bUSY

We had another well-attended meeting with a very interesting guest speaker.  I apologize for the poor quality of pictures.  I didn't have my camera and had to use my cellphone.  Most of the pictures didn't come out well.  We also had several guests.  Welcome, Sue Brunker, Dan, Terry, Ryan and Angie! 

Here is our guest speaker, Drew Waholek, who treated us to a talk about his bottle digging and relic hunting experience and adventures.  Drew Brought in an awesome array of bottles coins and relics he has found.  He also belongs to 7 coin clubs and is very knowledgeable about coins.  Thank you, Drew!  Very motivational!

So sorry these pictures of Drew's finds are out of focus!

Our members listen to Drew's talk...

Henry needs his own space at a table to display what's in this month's bucket!

Don't forget to go to the right of this blog and fill in your email address to receive notifications when there is a new blog post.  Have a great summer and we'll see you in August!