Here We Go Again…

Well here we go again. It’s Minelab’s turn to once again tap your brain, get you guessing, get you nervous and anxious and most important, get you to hold off buying another brand of detector. Yup the new game is now about the Minelab Manticore.

I have to admit I didn’t know what Manticore meant but I looked it up and guess what I still don’t know. Nah, just kidding it’s a mythical creature with the body of a lion, the face of a man, and the sting of a scorpion. At least that’s what I found. Not sure who at Minelab came up with this name but they have to know that’s a big word for the typical tekkie to digest. Hell I just learned “locomotive”…

Apparently the Manticore features a gazillion frequencies (because you can never have enough eh?) and is a cross between the CTX 3030 and the Equinox. According to a knowledgeable source in the UK it will retail at £1799. If that’s correct a pounds to dollars would make it retail at $2069 here in the states but don’t take my word on it. There’s already a lot of social media chatter going on and YouTube is full of the “listen to me if you want the scoop on this detector” vids.

Anyway it should be fun to watch this run up and if Minelab is going to do the parachute thing again or maybe shoot it out of a cannon. And how about a lottery on just when it will be ready to ship and how well it plays the all so important (and stupid) coin/nail/board game. Either way Minelab has now entered your mind and is playing with it. They’re not alone however, it’s marketing 2022.

Have fun with it all. It’s out of my league and definitely too rich for my budget.  Do try to remember that it’s not going to turn that hammered site into a gold mine and you’ll still have to walk over it to find it.

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A Once Upon a Time Story …

Joe working the FMDAC Atlantic City event, mid 80’s

I’ve mentioned Joe Attinello here a few times in the past but for the newcomers Joe Attinello sold me my first metal detector and was pretty much my first detecting partner, or at least I was a hanger-on, desperate to learn more from a real pro.

Besides knowing a helluva lot about detectors Joe was a thrifty guy as in he’d never fight you to pick up a restaurant tab. He was thrifty as in walking out if restaurants (diners were his first love) after looking at the menu and telling the wait staff “and you’re not even wearing a mask”. Thrifty as in never offering to drive when detecting or traveling to FMDAC meetings and thrifty as in suggesting we always go back to my house for “a bite to eat“….

Then one day, maybe a year or so down the road I saw another Joe, a softer Joe, a more generous Joe. It was shocking!

We were heading out detecting one day (I was driving of course)and Joe started telling me about an old farm we had permission to detect. It was located somewhere in the Pattenburg area of New Jersey, or at least that’s what I remember 45 years later.  It belonged to an older customer of his (Joe was an insurance adjuster) who came from another country and couldn’t speak much English. His name was Pete (again as best I can remember).

Anyway the following Saturday I picked up Joe at his house to go and give the farm a look see. He came out with his equipment and then went back in and brought out a grocery bag.  I asked what was in it and he said just something for Pete. During the drive Joe was telling me a little about the place we were going to hunt. It was built in the mid to late 1800’s and encompassed close to 100 acres. Said the owner Pete was a widower, didn’t farm any more, lived off social security and government subsidies and had trouble getting around.

When we arrived at the farm the house and surrounding area was decrepit, overgrown and I was immediately turned off and not enthused at all about detecting it.

We got out of the car, knocked on the door and after a long five minutes the old guy opened it and looked bewildered. Joe said something like “Hey Pete, remember me? Joe from the insurance company“…Pete sort of nodded but said nothing. Joe walked past Pete into the house and said “I brought you a few goodies” and proceeded to pull bread, butter, cereal, milk and a few other staples from the bag. Pete’s eyes lit up and he smiled. Joe went to the frig to put the milk and butter in and it was virtually empty.

Joe then opened a few cupboards and said “Damn Pete what the hell do you eat?” Pete just said sat there and shrugged his shoulders. Joe threw me with a holy sh*t look and nodded for me to come outside. When we closed the door Joe said “listen we need to do some work around here. This place is in terrible shape. Let’s see if he has a mower.”

We found an old rusted mower in a shed and surprisingly it started up when the cord was pulled. A near by gas can was empty.  Joe said “let’s take a break today and come back tomorrow with some gas, a weed eater and work on getting this place livable.” My first reaction was a “do what?” but but after thinking about it we couldn’t detect anyway with the weeds that high. I wasn’t all that enthused but I agreed to meet Joe the next morning and bring my weed eater.

On Sunday we went back to Pete’s house in Joe’s truck. Can you believe it? In the back of his pickup we had his mower, my weed eater, a gas can, our detectors, a box of canned foods and another two bags of groceries all paid for by Joe.  I was blown away. I offered Joe some money to help with the food and he refused it. It was then that I thought Joe might have been sick. Either that or he had found  a stash and didn’t tell me.

Once at Pete’s we took the food inside, put it away and spent the better part of the day mowing, whacking weeds and bagging humongous bags of grass and green stuff. All the while Pete sat on the porch with a big ole smile on his face. When we were done the outside looked pretty damn good. I was tired but happy that we helped the guy and anxious to spend some time digging there.

We worked around the house and outbuildings and found a few IH cents, a Barber coin or two and of course a helluva lot of trash. The best part of the day? Ole Pete smiling and knowing that for one day we did good. On the way home I said to Joe “you’re usually a tight SOB, why the open wallet for this guy?” He replied “because If we didn’t do it who would?”  That was day I realized he was a tightwad with a big, big heart.

We went back to Pete’s place maybe a two or three more times and always found a few keepers. Each time we brought food….

It’s important too to add that Joe Attinello was a private person in that he detested organized hunts. He didn’t understand why detectorists wanted to look for items that were planted and of course always brought up the cost to attend.  He would however volunteer his time to help out at the FMDAC hunts because he believed in what we were doing but that was it. I tried endlessly to explain the camaraderie but he wanted nothing to do with it. He was also someone who didn’t want his photo taken. The couple I share here are the exception and he fought me tooth and nail to not take the one of him helping at the FMDAC hunt.

Sadness on Two Fronts

Joe and his wife Irene

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