Y.T.C. was founded in January 1976. The planning started in October, 1975 after a Massachusetts TH’er club meeting. Walt Movchuk and Mike Krampitz stopped at Jack and Eleanor Hube’s for coffee, and Walt asked “Why can’t we have a Connecticut TH’er club?”
That simple question was the start of the largest Treasure Hunting Club in the New England States. Members have joined from Connecticut, California, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
The first order of business was to find a name. That sounds easy, “We’ll call it the Connecticut, etc.”. But what if someone from another state joins? OK, then how about the New England, etc. etc.; nope, there was already a club with the New England name, and besides what if someone from New York wants to join? Well, how about the Rusty Can Openers? Can you see yourself knocking on a front door and saying “Hi, I’m a member of the Rusty Can Openers, can I look for coins in your yard?” Sure… As you can see, when you name a club you have to consider all points of view. Picture this headline: “The blank blank Police Department, with assistance from the Rusty Can Openers Club, recovered some important evidence, but was laughed out of Court” … We didn’t use the word Treasure in our name because even in 1976 “Treasure Hunter” was becoming a distasteful word to many of the public.
The name Yankee Territory was finally chosen as it implied anywhere above the Mason Dixon Line. The word Coinshooters was used because not being well known outside of the TH’ing community, it gives one the opportunity to explain what you do when you tell someone that you belong to the Yankee Territory Coinshooters.
The By-laws and Constitution under which we function are the fine work of Mike Krampitz. With some discussion and little change the members adopted them, and over time there have been very few additional changes. Mike did a great job, and by keeping them simple and straightforward, over 30 years later the members still find them easy to live by.