Is it a trinket or is it a treasure? With the new friends they've made, the knowledge they've gained, and the chance to spend a lot of time out in the natural world, Jim Riendeau and Joe Bustamonte have certainly stumbled upon a priceless gold mine. In January, the two brothers-in-law, Bellingham residents, started a regional metal detecting club, Central New England Relic Hunters, that meets at the Bellingham Sportsman Club every second Monday, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Each month, they show off what they've found, vote on their favorites, hold a raffle and even conduct a food drive for Loaves & Fishes Pantry in Bellingham. To date, over 49 "detectorists" have joined, some local, and some from places as far as New Hampshire and Connecticut.

"It is such a really cool hobby. It's lots of fun and great people," says Riendeau, who got his brother-in-law Joe, president of the club, hooked on the hobby. The group, says Riendeau, has found relics and coins from around the area, involving historical societies and the local coin shops in identifying finds. One member, he says, "found a coin worth over $50K (an Oak Tree Shilling, a very valuable and rare coin minted in Massachusetts Bay Colony issued from 1660 to 1667, according to Numismatic Guaranty Company NGC®, www.ngccoin.com), and we also have found some George Washington buttons (made for Washington's inauguration in 1789), worth around $5K."

The value is beside the point for many, however, says Riendeau. "We all do it for the love of history of what we find and also the history of the towns we find stuff in," he says.

The group conducts about three or four outings together each year, careful to be sure to get permission, to pick up trash along the way, and to leave no trace of digging. The effort is worth the occasional brush with poison ivy.

On their first outing this year in Wellesley, John Silva, of Attleboro, found a Mexico Colony Spanish 8 Real, minted when Mexico was a Spanish colony (https://bullionexchanges.com).

There's more to it than just wandering around waiting for machines to beep. Bustamonte explains the detectorists will drive around and look for stone walls in historic areas.

"That's all boundary lines, so you go onto the old maps, and you try to research what

was there 100 years ago, 200 years ago. It's a lot of checking war sites, Puritans, colonists."

Buried metal objects turn up in unlikely spaces, he says, "You never know where you'll find it. You don't know if there was a horse rider and it fell out of his pocket."

A simple beep from the metal detector opens up a meandering path of investigation. The items found may be historic in nature, but modern technology plays a big role in identifying both sites to search as well as the unearthed finds.

"If it's public, we research (the land) through apps," says Bustamonte, adding, "We do a lot of computer work."

Oxford resident Robin Rivera, who's pursued this hobby for about 16 years, explains the apps use LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which uses pulsed laser light to produce 3D information about an area.

"We use it in grayscale. It shows you indentations in the land, so if there is an old foundation in the middle of the woods, you're apt to see a black square there."

Rivera, who lives behind historical Main Street in Oxford, has had the opportunity to metal detect some of her neighbor's properties for years. She recently found a small metal bird, and after researching, she discovered it was a sewing bird women used in the 1850s to hold fabric onto the sewing table, so their hands could be free.

Most of the items Rivera finds on the private properties the owners don't want, but in one case in which the property was owned by successive generations of a family, Rivera found a pocket watch. The property owner was able to find an old photo of an ancestor with that watch, so that item still remains with the family.

Many in the club enjoy it so much they join several metal detecting clubs. Marty Conceicao, of Carver, is one of them. He joined this one to meet new people interested in metal detecting, "and to metal detect areas I haven't done before." His friend, Steve Hassell, of Brockton, also belongs to a few clubs. "It's a fun time to be out and great people, "says Hassell.

Bustamonte concurs, saying the club is about "Friendships, laughter, and amazing finds. We're bringing history back to life, one hole at a time."

Find out more about Central New England Relic Hunters by reaching out to them on their public Facebook page.