handle situations
at work and other aspects of my life. During the winter of 2018 a feeling came over me
to search for something -- the idea came to me to use my father's metal detector which had been
sitting dormant for years. At the time, I knew nothing about this hobby but did research
and prepared myself. On Oct 31, 2018 I put in my retirement papers and left the NYPD.
My hobby and journey began the next summer, in April of 2019. Searching with my detector
took me to various places where I would find coins and other interesting stuff hidden away,
but nothing major. |
The feeling that something was out there to find was always strong
and never left. One day that journey took me to my in-laws and their property in
Orangeburg, New York, just off Greenbush Road at the foot of Clausland Mountain. The home was built in the
late 1800s so I figured a few old coins would be the most I would find. I spent twp days hunting the grounds,
finding a few coins and some trash, but nothing really surprising. On July 4, 2019 , I spent
early morning to early evening hunting around. About 8pm I thought to myself ok, it's time to go, guess
that's all that I was destined to find. But something told me check one more hit, so I dug
about four inches into the last pocket and observed this coin, covered in dirt but in good
shape. I knocked the dirt off and saw the horse. Thinking it was an old American coin, I took
it home, ran it under water and noticed the back inscribed "J W Brunnermer" and "1917" (see picture above.)
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That began my research of correspondence chess and Mr Brunnermer. I collected the
history as best I could but the most fascinating read was a story posted in the
Atlantic Chess News Annual of 2017, written by Robert N Bernard, showing Brunnemer's first win dated 1921.
I didn't think it was coincidental that an article was written and the coin was found within 2 years of each other.
All of that led me to CCLA. A search of the house and conversation with the owners both indicated no connection
to J W Brunnermer. He lived a short time in Nyack, Ny on Lowland Drive. The only explanation I can think of is
Brunnemer dropped the medal while hiking many years ago. After Nyack he moved to NJ were he continued to play chess
and died in 1948. My feeling is J W Brunnermer led me to it and I know this coin is meant to be shown as a part of
chess history, not stored away in a box.
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