Hi everyone, I just returned from the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, where I met Michael Stadther, saw the jewels (WOW) and met Robert Underhill, the jewelry designer. First and foremost, (to those of you who asked for general impressions) my immediate impression is that Michael and this contest are very legitimate. He was swarmed by schoolkids and delighted to tell them about the fairy tale, the jewels, etc. He loves kids--that's VERY apparent! Additionally, to those of you who are familiar with the dubious treasure hunt contest in the 80s, "Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse": I asked him why the British Masquerade contest inspired him to write ATT, rather than the American "Golden Horse" contest. At the end of the 5 yr Golden Horse contest, when no one had found the buried gold horse, the contest sponsors refused to provide their official solution to the puzzle, leaving thousands of contestants in an uproar. This all was pre-web, and so contestants couldn't easily share info, etc. ?Eventually,(to avoid threatened legal action my numerous State Attorneys General), 2 contestants were purportedly "given" the location of where the horse had been buried, and they then worked backwards from the answer to find clues and publish their solution in a metal detecting magazine. Few, if any contestants accepted their illogical explanation. ?But when I asked Michael Stadther about The Golden Horse contest, he spontaneously said he had worked on it and actually solved it (also too late), but then proceeded to quickly draw a brief sketch of HOW he solved it, why he thought a part of the contest was unfair ("very, very hard") Yet the way he interpreted the clues made much more sense to us than the solution previously published. He is very credible, extremely articulate and obviously gifted.
OK, so those observations are my personal reasons for believing what he had to say about the following:
I asked him if there had been an inciting incident to cause him to recently change the wording on his website from "As of today, no tokens have been found" to "As of today, no tokens have been REDEEMED". He IMMEDIATELY and EMPHATICALLY responded, "NO! No incident! I just wanted to be extremely clear w/ my language because there's some crackpot out there (and I think he also mentioned his name) who is claiming it's been found!" I told him that I also am an author, and understand the importance of words. He restated that he wanted to make it perfectly clear that as far as he knows, as of today, nothing has been redeemed or found---but he can't come out and say that publicly or (I think he said "legally"??). And then he added, "At least that I know about"... To others who asked that I relay questions, he said he is not British, Helen is his wife, somebody asked about Helen of Troy and he said (in reference to his wife), "She's Greek". Sorry, but no comment on his religion. We moved on, as he was literally swarmed by people wanting him to sign their books. I strongly suggest that if you're in one of his tour cities, you attend a book signing. You'll find him a remarkable, intelligent and engaging man! And, the jewels
UNBELIEVABLE!
