Need suggestions: gold coins buried in crawl space under house

[nightrider5020]

I tried my MXT detector but have only about 2.5 feet to work with. Not sure, if I actually have it ground balanced due to the constraint in room.
The story; my aunt claims my uncle buried gold coins under the house. (didn't trust banks) My aunt is not aware of the container used, my father believes it's a Stanly steel thermos bottle.
I remember finding some glass last time, which I thought was funny(to be in that area) at the time. Now I'm wondering if that was actually a mason jar?!

Any ideas? What about the Falcon detector?
Thanks,
David

PS-Weather wise I'm in Nebraska with the cold winter, but I believe the warm house should keep it from freezing below.

[warsawdaddy]

Take the box and the coil off of the rods.Hold the coil with one hand and the box with the other.It will work fine.Move the coil around with one hand and hold the box with the other.Just don't wear any rings and you might want to put a plastic bag or some kind of protector over the box to keep any dirt out.

[Timberwolf]

If you have a battery operated black light (ultraviolet), it will show you where the ground has been disturbed. This also works well with walls....it just has to be pretty dark for the black light to work well.

Timberwolf

[IndianaSmith]

Take the box and the coil off of the rods.Hold the coil with one hand and the box with the other.It will work fine.Move the coil around with one hand and hold the box with the other.Just don't wear any rings and you might want to put a plastic bag or some kind of protector over the box to keep any dirt out.

Get a square plastic/rubber dishpan for the box. Crawlspaces in older homes many times contain all sorts of bottles, especially if there's a partial basement/cellar. It was easy just to give the empties a "toss" into the crawlspace. I spent 30 years crawling around in 'em, watch for broken glass & other items that can cause injury. A set of leather kneepads wouldn't hurt.

Some older homes I've actually found cistrens under houses, check around support posts, well pipes, etc, anything that "catches your eye" first.

Smitty


Smitty

[ivan salis]

the old thermos had a glass liner in them by the way -- with a steel outer shell ---drop em and the liner could break easy --killed more than one of em that way ---

[CWnut]

and remember that your uncle only had 2 and a half feet to work in also. So i would expect to find it somewhere close, but hidden from view of the entrance

[Kentucky Kache]

A cache hunter dreams of sites that are narrowed down to the size of a house.
Just remember that, in the ground is not the only place to hide something under a house.

[BF750]

If you have a battery operated black light (ultraviolet), it will show you where the ground has been disturbed. This also works well with walls....it just has to be pretty dark for the black light to work well.

Timberwolf

I have never heard of this method, and would it work outdoors from something say 200 yrs ago. Excuse my ignorance

BF750

[Timberwolf]

BF750,

To be honest...I have never used mine.
I have been told by others that it works well on walls in a house.
It will show you where the wall has been patched.
I have also been told that it will show you where dirt has been disturbed in a cave.

I am sure there is someone here on Tnet that has actually used one...they could probably offer a little more info.

Timberwolf

[U.K. Brian]

I borrowed a black light unit last year which worked well enough to target wall disturbances the problem being that the contruction of the building was of two rough stone walls that had been infilled with soil/stone and a ton of old scrap iron. The upper half of the building had also been increased in height to allow full headroom in the bedrooms.
Before just using a detector I had struggled to recover a tin which turned out to contain roofing nails that had travelled down the newer cavity from when the later improvements had been carried out. I ended up hacking a huge hole to get it out.
Using a blacklight and detector together I only had to remove walling where they both showed something and eventually recovered the cache. Unfortunately I had wasted a good few weeks previously digging up the garden (3 foot deep paint cans etc) and checking water tanks ,drains etc.

In your case its not a huge area and the blacklight doesn't penetrate so I think you would be better breaking down your machine to make it be more managable.

[IndianaSmith]

lol, there was alot of houses I'd have loved to have had 2.5' of height. That's actually a pretty decent amount of room, thats 4 blocks high.

I've had to dig tunnels to get under them, had some where you go in on the side you needed (belly or back), because there wasn't room to roll-over, and had to retreive one employee once who'd got his coveralls hung on a nail & freaked-out.

Smitty

PS- look for things overhead too, on the bottom of floorjoists. Maybe a nail or 2, a piece of wire, anything he could have used overhead to mark the area directly below.

[JOE(USA)]

nightrider5020,

Well first off you ground balance OUTSIDE the crawl space not after you get under there. If you are having a problem getting under the house don't go, send the detector by itself. Take two cheap plastic wash basins, separate them by a couple of feet and attach together with two broomstick handles. Put the box in one and the coil in the other with the coil wire wound around one of the sticks. Put a light rope on each end and snake the rope to the other side of the house using the corners of the house. Turn the detector on and pull it under the house from the other side. Listen for a good signal, crawl under and dig. Joe

[watercolor]

Are there any 2" iron pipes sticking out of the ground or loosely fastened overhead that seem out of place or have no particular function?
If so, you might want to see if they "rattle" when bumped.

Good luck!

[boogeyman]

The blacklight does work well for walls. We used to call the patched areas wall pendants. And you can see a pendant under three layers of wallpaper. If you don't have the room to work try finding a wand detector, such as the ones used in airports and court houses to search individuals for weapons. Something as large as a thermos will make it scream. I think Harbor Freight Tools has a knock off for around $60 or $70.

Have you walked through the house? Look for patches in the floor around the kitchen and bathroom. Would be easier access to hide your goodies than crawling under. Another place to search is the wall under the medicine cabinet if there is one there. I have found that people would pull them out and drop goodies down the wall with a string (both cases the string broke) be careful! There almost certainly be a lot of discarded razor blades in there. Also check where the plumbing comes down.

[Timberwolf]

If it is a two story house...check underneath the bottom step of the staircase.

Also at the bottom of the staircase, check the railing and see if any part of it comes apart.
Some folks used to remove the wooden ball and hide stuff inside the railing

TW

[Connecticut Danny]

Look out for snakes.

[Tuberale]

I'm amazed no one has said the obvious. If coins were buried, there had to be a way to access and get out of the site.

Is there a basement or sub-basement access route? If so, coins probably buried very close to the access point: why do more than you have to? Yes, access might be from the sides of the building. But not always.

My home, for example, has an access route to the basement for checking on pipes which might get frozen, or even for storing cold crops (a root cellar in the east). In Europe, the first floor of a home was often for the livestock, kind of like a barn. But the upper stories were for the living quarters.

Need to know how old the cache is to suggest further. Different eras will have different solutions.

[MZKITY62]

Easy answer. Is the gold worth more than the house? If it is then blow the SOB up!!! If not, then check the insurance and still do it.

[Connecticut Danny]

Many great comments.