Found treasure hidden in the basement

brianc053

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The Title gives this one away - check out what I found in the basement of our house today. (I know you're looking at the picture already - that's what I do when I read others' posts!).

Here's the backstory: we bought our single story ranch home about 5 years ago; the person who sold it was the original owner, and she and her husband built it in 1971.
We are doing some renovations and a lot of the drywall is off the studs, so I've been taking this opportunity to rewire/relocate some outlets and to run cable and internet wiring to rooms that didn't have it.
Under the house is a finished (cement, not dirt) crawl space. It's tall enough to sit up and not whack your head. I did a lot of crawling in and out and around the space on Saturday and today; I'm not good at remembering everything I need every time I venture out into the crawl space (where's that circuit tester? Darn!).
Today I was in an area that's behind (i.e. on the dark side of) where I store some stuff: empty boxes, spare long pieces of trim wood (because someday I'll finish the quarter-round and crown molding...).
I was following a wire along the floor joists and came upon the box shown in Picture 1; it was closed though. I honestly thought it was an old mouse poison box and at first I turned away from it. But a few minutes later (yes it was minutes) my curiosity got the better of me and I kind of wiggled it - I didn't grab it at first. My wiggle revealed it was heavy, too heavy to be old mouse poison.
My next instinct was that it was a box of ammunition - it seemed like the right weight from my wiggle. So I grabbed it. And I opened it. And I was shocked, amazed, super-excited.

I've recently read the post by jun808bug about finding SOLID ROLLS at the bank that were turned in by an elderly lady, so I knew what an old dime roll looked like. And that's what I saw in the dim light of the crawl space - a bunch of old coin rolls!!!

It took me a little time to get out of the crawl space but I told my wife and 11-year old son from below that "...I found something." My wife asked "is it treasure?" and I surprised her with the answer "Yes, it actually is."

I brought the box of treasure upstairs and my son and I started to look at the contents:
- 3 rolls of pre-1965 quarters (my son HAD to tear into one of them immediately. A few are in almost-uncirculated condition; most seem lightly circulated)
- 4 rolls of pre-1965 dimes
- 1 plastic calendar of pre-1965 dimes (I took a look through these and some of them are in almost-uncirculated condition)
- 2 rolls of nickels (Not sure on the value of these. I opened the end of one of the rolls and there are highly varying years, from the 1940's through 1960s)
- and in the little pouch were 12 half-dollars. There are only 7 in the picture because the other 5 were 1971, i.e worth $0.50. My wife took them for lunch money for the kids). The pouch was the most fun (so far) because I poured it out on the counter and it could have been Anything! I'm not disappointed that it was half-dollars, but I'll admit to human nature and to wondering what else could have been in that pouch. A silver dollar would have been nice...Do I sound like a jerk saying that? Would I sound more jerky if I said I'd wished for a golden eagle?

Carrying on with the I'm-a-jerk theme, I also told my son he could not tear into all the other rolls yet. I don't know why, I guess it's because I didn't want to clean up all those coins (he certainly wouldn't have cleaned them up...). Plus I want the magic to last. I told him we'd save the other rolls for a rainy day (and it started raining tonight, and he said "hey Dad, it's raining....").

In conclusion, I'm not sure what we will do with this amazing haul. I want to keep it all; my wife wants to liquidate some of it to help pay for the renovations (she's a smart lady). Your opinions are welcome.

I hope you've enjoyed this story. I honestly never thought I'd have one like this to post on here. My son and I metal detect occasionally (we found a mercury dime at the beach last year and it was our prize find - until now), but this is a lifetime - multiple lifetimes - of detecting finds. I'm still a little in shock.

Anyway, again I hope you enjoyed.

- Brian

53hChou.jpg
as7gKi3.jpg
 

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jun808bug

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That's frikken awesome!!! Congratulations! It's such an awesome feeling to dump out a solid roll of silver in your hands. Everyone deserve to find a solid roll at least once. There are hundreds of people discovering rolls like these and exchanging them at face value. So glad it was you who discovered it, not an exterminator/plumber etc... I'm still looking for solid roll quarters. Once in a lifetime find for sure [emoji106]
 

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huntsman53

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Congrats on a super nice find! You definitely don't see a find like this every day. Make sure to check any of the Quarters from 1956 to 1964 struck at Philadelphia (i.e. no Mint Mark) to see if any were struck with Proof Reverse Dies. You can tell if the Reverses were struck with either Business (Circulation) Strike Dies or Proof Dies as the "E" and "S" in "STATES will be touching if the Quarters were struck with Business Strike Dies and if struck with Proof Dies, there will be a separation between the "E" and "S". These are FS-901 Variety Washington Quarters with the Type "B" (Proof) Reverse and they fetch significant premiums above Silver Melt value and generally even similar Dated Quarters of the same grade. See the link below for some sold prices on eBay.

washington quarter type b fs-901 | eBay


Frank
 

Zomotion

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Awesome story.... I'm gonna get a flashlight right now and go crawl under my house!
 

Styfflin

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Awesome! It doesn't get much better than found silver. Thanks for sharing your story.
 

Iamrussell

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Awesomeness i read the story without going straight to pics
How fun for you and your family
 

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brianc053

brianc053

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Congrats on a super nice find! You definitely don't see a find like this every day. Make sure to check any of the Quarters from 1956 to 1964 struck at Philadelphia (i.e. no Mint Mark) to see if any were struck with Proof Reverse Dies. You can tell if the Reverses were struck with either Business (Circulation) Strike Dies or Proof Dies as the "E" and "S" in "STATES will be touching if the Quarters were struck with Business Strike Dies and if struck with Proof Dies, there will be a separation between the "E" and "S". These are FS-901 Variety Washington Quarters with the Type "B" (Proof) Reverse and they fetch significant premiums above Silver Melt value and generally even similar Dated Quarters of the same grade. See the link below for some sold prices on eBay.

washington quarter type b fs-901 | eBay


Frank

Frank, Thank you for the heads up on the FS-901 Type B. I would have never known about that otherwise.
This morning over breakfast my son and I had picked out the nicest quarters from the first roll we opened, and I put some of them in those little coin holders, so after reading your post I did a quick search through about six of these and I think I have a few of the Type B's. I've attempted to take pictures. I have to admit the difference is subtle and my eyes (even with magnification) aren't that great, but when I looked at a website dedicated to the topic Home Page - 1956-1964 Type-B Reverse Washington Quarters the one I have in picture 2 below seems to match their example.

Here are the pics:
1. The "normal" 1963 business strike coin:
IMG_3503.jpg

2. and the apparent 1963 Type B coin:
IMG_3504.jpg

Here's the best zoom I can get of the apparent Type B's E and S from "STATES":
IMG_3505.jpg
 

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ArkieBassMan

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...In conclusion, I'm not sure what we will do with this amazing haul. I want to keep it all; my wife wants to liquidate some of it to help pay for the renovations (she's a smart lady). Your opinions are welcome....

Its a great find! True hidden treasure. However, I'm thinking, you and/or your wife may think there is more value here than there is. Unless there is a rare date coin(s) or the like, you're looking at ~$650-$700 give or take, and thats retail. A pawn shop or even coin shop will pay substantially less.

A great find indeed, but liquidating part of it won't pay for a lot of renovations.
 

baddbluff

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Great story and awesome finds! If I were you, I'd make a deal with your better half: tell her you'll sell half of it to put toward the renovations and keep the other half. In my experience, keeping your wife happy is worth my than any treasure you might find. I put half my CRHing finds toward family vacay, and it has worked out well.
 

Argentium

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Were there any "mercury " dimes in those dime rolls ? A cache of 15 Franklin Halves made Banner , so I see no reason
this fine cache shouldn't make it - This is a rare and dream find ! (most of us will not get a Silver Cache )
 

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brianc053

brianc053

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Thanks for all the great comments everyone. Some quick responses:

For ArkieBassMan: you're right about the value, and we're realists. But every little bit helps! However...

For baddbluff: I love your suggestion about splitting the "take", and also your suggestion to use some for a vacation fund. My wife is a substitute nurse at a couple local schools and she's been saving her paychecks for a trip we want to take next year. Selling some of these coins and contributing the money - even a little bit - will win me a lot of brownie points. Thanks for the idea!

For Artentium: we've only looked at one of the four rolls of dimes so far, and they were all from the early 1960's. I'll tell my son that it's time to break into a few more rolls this afternoon/evening...

For everyone: since I'm an infrequent poster on Treasurenet, what's a Banner find? I found the Banner List from the Home page, but I didn't see anything about criteria.
I'm honored by all the "likes" that people have been giving the post - thank you.
 

ArkieBassMan

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Thanks for all the great comments everyone. Some quick responses:

For ArkieBassMan: you're right about the value, and we're realists. But every little bit helps! However...

It absolutely does. The way it read, I was afraid you thought there were thousands of dollars here. I certainly wasn't trying to poo-poo your fantastic find!

If the coins were mine, I'd go through them looking for key dates. If none were found, I'd put the box back where it was and wait for a really rainy day...or $40+ silver, whichever comes first.

I'm shocked no one has condemned you for not returning the coins to the previous owner of the house. Being just one previous owner, there is no doubt who hid them. From a legal standpoint, I remember reading about a new homeowner uncovering buried gold coins under his house. A family that lived there prior somehow proved their father had buried them, and while they knew about them, had been unable to find them before selling. A court forced the homeowner to give the coins back to the family of the man who had buried them. Just food for thought.
 

Graciegirl

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Very cool for you and the kids. It will keep you and them hooked on CRH and MD. It's nice to hear these stories, it helps keep the hopes up for the rest of us. All the best. happy hunting.
 

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brianc053

brianc053

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ArkieBassMan, your point about the potential for returning the coins to the original owner was something we discussed over dinner as a family. We talked about the reasons to consider trying but also the reasons we felt we weren't obligated to do so. Some points that were made:
- on the sentimental front, we all agreed that it might be a nice gesture to try to find the previous owner and return some or all of the haul to her. However...
- we didn't feel like we were being dishonest if we didn't try to find her. We felt like this wasn't the same as a wedding ring or other personal treasure; it's just as stash of US currency.
- on the legal front, our opinion was that we have no obligation to return the haul because the contents of the house not declared as "excluded" during the sale transferred ownership with the house to us.
- on the "it makes up for the past" front, when the previous owner moved out she left us some furniture because she thought she was being nice, and without our OK. We literally couldn't give it away and had to pay around $200 to have it hauled away (it was massive, crazy heavy and a very '70's style that I've never seen before or since).
- on that same making-up for the past front, in the 5 years we've owned the house we've had to do A LOT to correct for the lack of maintenance and updating of the previous owner. Just like we didn't know the coins were in the basement, we did not know about some of these hidden "features" of the house until after we owned it. (example: her disclosure said she got water in the crawlspace once or twice in 35 years; we had water the first year and during an October ice storm in the second year we had 2 feet of water that ruined a bunch of stuff. I put in a sump pump after that second year. I cannot believe that she didn't have worse flooding than she disclosed.)
- on the practical side, as you pointed out originally we're not talking about that $200,000 original Apple computer that someone recycled (in the news recently) or a similar value; it's less than $1000.

Yes we thought through all those points, and probably a few more, and in the end we didn't really consider tracking her down to try to return some coins. I honestly believe they will mean more to us than they would to her.
As I mentioned originally, your (everyone's) thoughts are welcome. I like to hear how others think about these things, and I hope you enjoyed hearing how we thought about it.

- Brian
 

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ArkieBassMan

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ArkieBassMan, your point about the potential for returning the coins to the original owner was something we discussed over dinner as a family. We talked about the reasons to consider trying but also the reasons we felt we weren't obligated to do so. Some points that were made:
- on the sentimental front, we all agreed that it might be a nice gesture to try to find the previous owner and return some or all of the haul to her. However...
- we didn't feel like we were being dishonest if we didn't try to find her. We felt like this wasn't the same as a wedding ring or other personal treasure; it's just as stash of US currency.
- on the legal front, our opinion was that we have no obligation to return the haul because the contents of the house not declared as "excluded" during the sale transferred ownership with the house to us.
- on the "it makes up for the past" front, when the previous owner moved out she left us some furniture because she thought she was being nice, and without our OK. We literally couldn't give it away and had to pay around $200 to have it hauled away (it was massive, crazy heavy and a very '70's style that I've never seen before or since).
- on that same making-up for the past front, in the 5 years we've owned the house we've had to do A LOT to correct for the lack of maintenance and updating of the previous owner. Just like we didn't know the coins were in the basement, we did not know about some of these hidden "features" of the house until after we owned it. (example: her disclosure said she got water in the crawlspace once or twice in 35 years; we had water the first year and during an October ice storm in the second year we had 2 feet of water that ruined a bunch of stuff. I put in a sump pump after that second year. I cannot believe that she didn't have worse flooding than she disclosed.)
- on the practical side, as you pointed out originally we're not talking about that $200,000 original Apple computer that someone recycled (in the news recently) or a similar value; it's less than $1000.

Yes we thought through all those points, and probably a few more, and in the end we didn't really consider tracking her down to try to return some coins. I honestly believe they will mean more to us than they would to her.
As I mentioned originally, your (everyone's) thoughts are welcome. I like to hear how others think about these things, and I hope you enjoyed hearing how we thought about it.

- Brian

I'm 99.9% sure I would keep the coins too. Just like if I was walking in the park and found a paper sack with $1000 in it...Right or wrong, I'd most likely keep it - even though I'd be legally guilty of theft. However, its doubtful that I'd ever be charged because I wouldn't tell anyone about it...which was the point I unsuccessfully tried to make in my previous post.
 

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