Finding gold is doubly fun if there is history to the find. The history relates to this handsome chap, Sir Richard McBride, KCMG (December 15, 1870 – August 6, 1917). He was the 16th Premier of BC. This treasure story began when I met Tori. I was out cruising around my favorite park when he approached with the story of having lost a gold ring and asked if it were possible to help find it. Without skipping a beat I agreed and we were off to the area he thinks that it was lost.
There were two big problems that day. The first was that it had been lost a month ago, either along a well used dirt pathway in the bush, or off into the bush where he was gathering vines for his artwork. The second was that I had the 17" coil on the CTX.
Well I walked up and down that pathway twice, nothing but pull tabs and pennies. Two days later and I was back with a smaller coil on and off into the bush I went. There were plenty of targets in the bush were he thought it might be. Sadly his ring did not show up that day nor during the two subsequent days I have since spent looking.
When this was just a target in the ground it hit the CTX just like those old WWI 303 rifle cartridges. A hollow sounding 12/34, it is a real good thing that I do dig that signal because of what came out of the ground.
There is an inscription on the top which I miss read and I was researching R M Bride. The only thing Google wanted to show me was stupid bridal photos. My good buddy Micheal set me straight toot suite by saying that I was an idiot for not seeing the small "c". He also wondered if my assessment on this being gold plated was right, to quote "You sure it is plated".
Well I put it through the "BRUCE" cleaning process. First into reverse electrolysis to help with the crud removal. Then into the tumbler it went for half an hour. I was not satisfied with the results so back in the tumbler it went for another half hour. The next day I had it tested and the Spectrometer showed that it really was gold, 10.7K to be exact. Well back home I trotted and immediately popped it into a vinegar bath over night to finish dissolving the final bits of crud. A final half hour in the tumbler turned this out.
There was a British Columbia election in 1900, following which Mr. McBride became part of James Dunsmuir's cabinet. So the cane may have been a gift from his constituency honoring/celebrating either his re-election or his appointment to cabinet, or both of them. Given that the cane top is engraved to "Hon." (honorable), which title is accorded to members of cabinet and to members of the Privy Council, which would indicate that the cane was presented after July 19, 1900, when the then new cabinet was sworn in.
Bruce - Britsh Columbia, Canada
