Did people have money to hide?

[neo]

I've read a bunch of stories online and in books where lots of times it seems like people in the past didn't have a lot of money. However there where bars, hotels, stores etc where I assume you had to spend money for tools and guns and anything else you needed. Even looking at prices of things back then certain things like firearms seemed pricey if the people really were extremely poor. I know according to karlvonm fur trappers had more money than we tend to think. So am I missing something?

 

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[Blak bart]

I hope they had money to hide. I think that at times people didn't trust the banking system much so they put there money in the safest place they could find. I know in the keys there weren't to many banks except in key west and miami for a long time. I know 2 people who found coins in there walls doing renovations on older houses. One guy tore his place up pretty good after he found a small pouch of gold eagles in his wall. I helped him look a few times in the backyard. He never found any more but he did tear up his wood floors looking. Another thing to keep in mind is that in rural areas where it was a long way to travel to a bank it might have been easier to stash it until it was worth while to make the trip. Or just keep it close by. Lets hope that at least some people thought this way.

 

[kingskid1611]

They were very frugal with what they had and had mostly a good work ethic. That said prices were cheap and taxes were low. So I imagine they would let on that they were poor so as not to get robbed by the gangs at the time......

 

[Old Bookaroo]

neo:

A couple of things to keep in mind. If you find a small glass jar with a farm wife's butter and egg money tucked away in the late 1800's the fact that is is just a few dollars face would't matter.

Back in the day there was a lot of barter and trade between people. Coins - silver and gold - were saved and tucked away. Silver dollars and gold pieces were birthday and wedding presents - and saved. Sometimes lost - particularly by children (birthdays, of course, not weddings).

And as others have pointed out, banks were few and far between. And often not trusted.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

 

[Blak bart]

neo:

A couple of things to keep in mind. If you find a small glass jar with a farm wife's butter and egg money tucked away in the late 1800's the fact that is is just a few dollars face would't matter.

Back in the day there was a lot of barter and trade between people. Coins - silver and gold - were saved and tucked away. Silver dollars and gold pieces were birthday and wedding presents - and saved. Sometimes lost - particularly by children (birthdays, of course, not weddings).

And as others have pointed out, banks were few and far between. And often not trusted.

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM

You mean like this old bookaroo
My friend from texas sent me this pic. His hunting buddy found this one about a foot down in hard packed dirt next to an old foundation. So ya people definitely buried money.
Looks like the farmers wifes butter money. Lol !!!

 

[dsdigger]

I remember reading about someone finding coins in a tin hidden buried in the dirt walkway of old clothesline area of a farm assuming that is where the wife hid here money while hanging sheets out of site of prying eyes but in here site most of the rest of the time. Also ready of people finding caches found along fence rows near posts in view of either the kitchen or front room windows assuming that must be where they spent most of the day and could watch over the money. These were supposed to have been found on old rural farms and would lead me to guess that it was easier to hide the cash than make the trip in as Blak bart stated. I always look at thing like that and trees that look like they have been around for a long time and hunt around the base as they may have been the "local bank". No major find other than few pennies but got to start somewhere.

 

[Goldfleks]

My Grandpa used to hide important jewelery/money/savings under the insulation in the attic. He used to talk about a spot he forgot to clean out in one of their connecticut homes back in the 50's that he always meant to go back to and offer to split the pot with the current home owners. It's probably still there as he never got a chance to go back to that house.

 

[Honest Samuel]

Back during the Rev. war and before, most people had lives on farms and raise their own food including animals, they pay their doctors and lawyers mostly with food. They had very little money, and very need for money. Good hunting and good luck.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I've told this story here before.

In the middle 1930's when Mom was visiting her grandmother here at the farm we live at now, she lost a nickel, couldn't find it. When her Summer visit was over she returned to Newport News. Her grandmother wrote her a couple weeks later and told her she'd found that nickel.

Money was that important back then. In 35 years of searching this property, I've found one Merc and a couple wheats. Other finds were modern ones, and no more silver. My folks usually traded eggs & milk for coffee & sugar, I remember being with Granny when she did the trading.

 

[hvacker]

Who need to save money today when ya got a credit card? Or so modern thinking goes.
Ya got equity in a house Spend it. It's free money right?

 

[cactusman]

I had an uncle who buried silver coins and cash, all the time all over his large property in northern CA. He would smile and say that he had put down so many coffee cans and jars that he couldn't remember where all of them were. In the early to mid-80’s he even asked my dad to bring his metal detector to see if it could find some of them the next time we visited. Well, we never had the time to get back there, and several years ago he and my aunt moved to AZ, and I asked my aunt if my uncle had dug all the money up or not, and she laughed and told me that it was amazing how his memory came right back before they moved, and he spent a few days digging up cans and mason jars all over the place, and that he said he got everything. I never asked how much it was, but it was fairly substantial. He and his father before him used their ranch as a bank for their whole lives.

I dated a lady whose grandfather did much the same thing, and he was an avid metal detectorist, but had passed a few years before I got to meet him. Anyway, she said anytime her dad needed to borrow money, he went to his dad (her grandfather), and he would tell them to wait there, and he would go around to the back of the house somewhere, taking a shovel with him, and then come back a little bit later with whatever they needed. Her dad thought he was crazy for not putting his money in a bank, and he replied, "Why would I want to do that?" She said that he also buried most of his MD'ing finds. She said when he passed the property was sold, and to her knowledge, the money was/is still there. One of these days when I get the time I'm going to get back in touch with her, do some research, and hopefully see if I can get permission to do some searching.

As a kid, I remember burying a bunch of Star Wars figures and some Hot Wheel cars in a field out back of our house, for a reason I can’t recall, and after a year or two, I never could locate them, even with a lot of digging, so unless someone else found them, they’re still buried right where I put them, wherever that is, on two acres, LOL.

 

[kingskid1611]

I had an uncle who buried silver coins and cash, all the time all over his large property in northern CA. He would smile and say that he had put down so many coffee cans and jars that he couldn't remember where all of them were. In the early to mid-80’s he even asked my dad to bring his metal detector to see if it could find some of them the next time we visited. Well, we never had the time to get back there, and several years ago he and my aunt moved to AZ, and I asked my aunt if my uncle had dug all the money up or not, and she laughed and told me that it was amazing how his memory came right back before they moved, and he spent a few days digging up cans and mason jars all over the place, and that he said he got everything. I never asked how much it was, but it was fairly substantial. He and his father before him used their ranch as a bank for their whole lives.

I dated a lady whose grandfather did much the same thing, and he was an avid metal detectorist, but had passed a few years before I got to meet him. Anyway, she said anytime her dad needed to borrow money, he went to his dad (her grandfather), and he would tell them to wait there, and he would go around to the back of the house somewhere, taking a shovel with him, and then come back a little bit later with whatever they needed. Her dad thought he was crazy for not putting his money in a bank, and he replied, "Why would I want to do that?" She said that he also buried most of his MD'ing finds. She said when he passed the property was sold, and to her knowledge, the money was/is still there. One of these days when I get the time I'm going to get back in touch with her, do some research, and hopefully see if I can get permission to do some searching.

As a kid, I remember burying a bunch of Star Wars figures and some Hot Wheel cars in a field out back of our house, for a reason I can’t recall, and after a year or two, I never could locate them, even with a lot of digging, so unless someone else found them, they’re still buried right where I put them, wherever that is, on two acres, LOL.

Could you release the Addresses of the locations in the stories? Several on here would appreciate it.........

 

[Msbeepbeep]

And it still goes on today.
I stopped by a friends house, she was poking around the outside of her house with a curtain rod. She explained she had buried a house key and a little money and was looking for it. I told her if she didn't find it i'd look for it with the detector.
The only problem with some of the modern caches is there is paper money involved which doesn't last as long in the ground as the silver & gold coins, unless its in a water proof container.

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[verbious]

I had an uncle that passed in 2010. My Dad was his Executor. Uncle Jack hid silver bars and cash all over his house.

I work for a large telecommunications company as a service tech and people tell me fantastic tales of finding money in walls, in the attic, under floorboards and a variety of other places.

I've had people tell me that after the Depression was over people didn't trust banks and stuff got stashed everywhere!

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[neo]

Even if people were poor during the 20s and 30s there had to be a lot of money going around. Who else was making the bootleggers money?

 

[Doc Arey]

Here in the Shenandoah Valley during the War between the States they had to hide all valuables to keep the Damn Yankees from stealing everything. They knew they were coming and had time to hide their gold, silverware etc and many were not poor untell after they were burned out of house and home.

 

[Honest Samuel]

The Civil War should never happen. I feel sorry for all those who lost their lives on both sides and all those who lost their homes and businesses.

 

[Honest Samuel]

I am sure that most bootleggers buried their profits because they did not pay taxes. Good hunting and good luck.