$28,000 in Jewelry, Coins and Silver : Treasure Hunters Salvage Valuables From Scene of Fire

Wearing survival shirts, carrying canteens and swinging metal detectors, a group of determined treasure hunters has found an estimated $28,000 in jewelry, coins and silverware in six homes destroyed by the Normal Heights fire.

They didn’t keep even a buffalo nickel.

About 15 members of the Gem & Treasure Hunting Assn.’s search and salvage team volunteered their time for nine days along Mountain View Drive, which rims the canyon wall and was devastated by the June 30 blaze.

“When I saw the big fire, I knew what was going to happen,” said George Mroczkowski, president of the association. “If there wasn’t people like us, the valuables would go to the dump.”

Treasure hunters, who worked furiously to keep ahead of bulldozers, finally called an end to their work in the Normal Heights area Thursday. Before they did, they had recovered three coin collections.

Volunteer Merle Williams found two of them. “Before this week, probably the only thing I’ve ever found was a spoon,” he said. “That first gold coin I found made my whole week.”

One of the collections Williams discovered was valued at $20,000 before the fire. Williams was scooping through the ash, when he started spotting a few coins. “Oh man, what a feeling when I saw more of those silver medallions. It was really exciting.”

“They did a good job of recovering; they are an asset to a community,” said Sam Angello, who owns the collection. “I don’t know how much I would have found by myself.”

The collection included Indian pennies from the 1890s, John F. Kennedy half dollars, and nickels from World War II.

“Coins tell a history of the country,” Angello said.

Angello estimated the present value of his collection to be $7,000. Many of his coins were valuable because they had never been circulated, and the fire tarnished them, he said.

Williams said helping people out was the best part of the treasure hunting. “I can’t remember a time in the last 30, 35 years, that I have felt so good about being able to help people.”

Mroczkowski, who owns the Gem & Treasure Hunting Assn. in Old Town (the association is actually a store that sells metal detectors and mining supplies), said he started the search and salvage team after the Aerospace Museum in Balboa Park burned in 1978.

“We found a pen that an astronaut used on an Apollo flight,” he said. “It went to the moon and back. They were glad when we found that.”

Members of the association have also use their metal detectors to help police find bullets and guns used in crimes, Mroczkowski said.