MY FIRST COIN CACHE !!!

[future]

I have been metal detecting off & on since 1971. Most of that time was spent in Alaska were I hunted gold nuggets....at which I was very successful! But in 1982 and 1983 I attended college out in the "lower 48" and spent lots of time looking for old coins in the local parks. I used a Whites 4000 D Series 2 detector, which was really good for the time. I found hundreds of Mercury dimes, wheat pennies, and even dozens of silver quarters during those years because the parks were not so hunted out back then. But I never found a coin cache. Time warp ahead to 2015, when I was fortunate enough to acquire a new Whites MXT All Pro detector. After hitting city & state parks hard for a year, I only had 8 silver dimes and some silver rings to show for it. Silver coins are getting VERY hard to find anymore. So, I decided to head to the desert area of the state and do some detecting around old abandoned farms and houses in the country. Its very dry over there and any coins are always in excellent shape, unlike the coins dug at the coast or the wet Cascade range. I had detected several abandoned houses with good results, finding several old Mercury Dimes and even a couple Barber Dimes in excellent shape. I was busy detecting in the hot sun when a pickup stopped and a man approached me. I thought "oh great....here comes trouble!". But he was very nice and suggested I hunt an abandoned farm (he called it a spread) not too far away. So I loaded up and headed over there. It was certainly abandoned and there wasn't a "no trespassing" sign anywhere. After walking the "spread" and not seeing any recently dug holes by other detectorists I started detecting in earnest! I'll never forget this day, August 20th, 2016! After finding the usual wheat pennies, horse shoes, tin, and scrap iron I decided to hunt in angles as seen from the living room window of the old house. I figured that if there were any elusive caches around, their location would have been where the owner could have seen them from his favorite rocking chair in the living room. After hunting out about 200 feet I had found little. Now the address of this "spread" was 249 East - - - - Road. So I put on my thinking cap and decided to go 249 feet due east of the living room window. After detecting about 5 minutes I got a very weak signal which indicated it was deeper than the 12" that my detector reads. I marked the place and went back to my truck and got my clam shovel that I always carry. Going back to the target place I started digging and got down about 10", which took almost 20 minutes in the rock hard dirt. The signal was still there but I couldn't get my pinpointer to read anything. I dug another 3" of hard packed dirt and tried the pinpointer again, and this time it sounded off. Carefully digging a little further I exposed a small white lid and thought, great just another scrap lid. But it was attached to something & wouldn't budge. The lid was 14" deep! After digging around it for 10 more minutes I had it loose in the hole. When I pulled it out I about fainted! It was an old bird seed jar filled with coins! I tried opening it but the lid was stuck on solid! It was getting late in the day so I put it in my bag and headed home. After I had carefully cleaned the jar I saw that someone had applied wax all the way around the lid, apparently to keep moisture and water out. The lid came off with some effort and revealed Buffalo Nickels clear to the top of the jar. Dumping them out onto a towel on the table I as stunned to see 7 silver dollars at the bottom! The coins were very clean and looked like they had just came out of circulation. The wax job on the lid had really worked! There were 108 Buffalo Nickels and 7 silver dollars, 4 of which were the old Morgan dollars. The oldest silver dollar was an 1880 and the newest a 1922. The oldest Buffalo Nickel was a 1918 and the newest a 1937, and one had a key date of 1931-S. I wish I would have had a camera with me that day, as I would have loved to photographed the jar in the hole and just after recovering it. I'll always have a camera with me from now on! I can't wait to get back to that "spread" and see what else might be waiting for me!

 

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[The Dirt Pirate]

That's awesome.

 

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[Kilohertz]

Amazing! Congrats!

 

[Honest Samuel]

Great finds, keep on looking.

 

[Guest 1551]

its amazing that the address was a map for you....a little too amazing imo. I don't know if that, or the condition of the paper on the jar surprises me more. And of course the Morgan's are as pristine as you would expect for being in circulation 40+ years for the other Buffaloes to be minted.

 

[DFW_THer]

A lovely detective story! Nice coin collection and very fun old bottle, clean as a whistle! Looks like something I'd buy at an estate sale.

HH!

 

[Ammoman]

Awesome! some day before i croak i will find a cache...even if i have to go back to Guam and recover the penny Cache i buried when i was 13. It was a good size jar with about 10 bucks worth of wheats and Lincolns.

 

[future]

Wow, I wish I was more familiar with T.N. and posting pictures! I realize there is some skepticism on the coin cache I found on Aug. 20th, and I'd like to address 2 of the concerns I've read. The first concern was that half of the Buffalo Nickles were wore down so much they were dateless. Well I just counted the worn ones and there are only 12 that cannot be read, and not close to 50. As for the concern that the Buffaloes were so much newer than the silver dollars......all I know is that when I was a kid and got silver dollars, most of them were in pristine condition even though they were all old. I asked my Dad about this at the time and he told me that people saved silver dollars and only spent them when they needed to and they didn't see as much circulation as other coins did. As for the concern that all the coins wouldn't fit in the bird seed jar, I think the following pictures will prove they can. I don't blame people for thinking this, as the jar is only 4.5" high and 2" wide. The 1st picture shows the jar full looking from above, the 2nd picture shows a side profile of the jar with all the coins in it, and the 3rd picture shows the back of the jar where the label is worn away, and you can see the silver dollars on the bottom just like they were when I dug it up. As far as the label being in such good shape......I'm afraid I ruined a lot of it washing & trying to clean it. It was much better before that. A couple years ago the wife & I went back to my old deer hunting camp in Eastern Oregon that we hunted from in the 1950s. I remembered where they buried their trash, so we dug up some of it. I was specifically after my grandfathers old Prince Albert tobacco tins. We found several of them in the same condition as they were when they buried them. There were also tin cans there with the labels still on them that looked like they had been buried only last week. I remember the white potato cans looked almost new. We dug up peach cans, green bean cans, and a lot of corned beef hash and beef stew cans that the labels looked almost new on after being in the ground 65+ years. So I can understand why this little bird seed jar was in the condition it was. I guess if people still are skeptical that all the coins couldn't fit into a jar of this size, they should get 7 silver dollars and 108 nickels and try it themselves on a jar of similar size. I think the story behind this jar of coins is probably something like this. It isn't a cache where an adult was trying to save serious money. I think a child saved these coins, and every time they got a few extra nickels they socked them away in this jar. Perhaps over the years he accumulated these 7 silver dollars and wanted a safe place for them, and put them all into the bird seed jar, then buried it for safe keeping. When I was a kid I had a couple silver dollars that were so special to me I found a ledge by the chimney and put them there where no one else knew about. The only difference was that I remembered to retrieve them! Who knows what the story was, perhaps he was killed in world war 2 and never had the chance to retrieve them. Hope these pictures help those with a little well understood skepticism.

 

[BARKER]

Hi Future.; Great Find. So much so that I hereby Vote BANNER.!!! It will go in as "Depression Era Coin Cache Found." ok. CONGRATS. PEACE:RONB

PS: A HINT: If you go in the house. Scan where any beams meet together. Many times they would place Large Cents there as washers during Construction. Let us know. My Vote goes in now.

What say ye Folks ?? Vote BANNER ?? Please do it. Thanks. PEACE:RONB

 

[future]

What is a "banner award"? The oldest Buffalo was 1918 and its pretty worn. Most of them are pretty well worn with only the later 1936 and 1937s being in good shape. Surprisingly, the 1931-s was in great shape though!

 

[DetectingGodlikeOnOlympus]

What a coincidence! I carry a parakeet seed jar full of coins in my pocket as a wallet!

Great minds and all ...

 

[DiggerGal]

View attachment 1354173 View attachment 1354174 View attachment 1354176 Wow, I wish I was more familiar with T.N. and posting pictures! I realize there is some skepticism on the coin cache I found on Aug. 20th, and I'd like to address 2 of the concerns I've read. The first concern was that half of the Buffalo Nickles were wore down so much they were dateless. Well I just counted the worn ones and there are only 12 that cannot be read, and not close to 50. As for the concern that the Buffaloes were so much newer than the silver dollars......all I know is that when I was a kid and got silver dollars, most of them were in pristine condition even though they were all old. I asked my Dad about this at the time and he told me that people saved silver dollars and only spent them when they needed to and they didn't see as much circulation as other coins did. As for the concern that all the coins wouldn't fit in the bird seed jar, I think the following pictures will prove they can. I don't blame people for thinking this, as the jar is only 4.5" high and 2" wide. The 1st picture shows the jar full looking from above, the 2nd picture shows a side profile of the jar with all the coins in it, and the 3rd picture shows the back of the jar where the label is worn away, and you can see the silver dollars on the bottom just like they were when I dug it up. As far as the label being in such good shape......I'm afraid I ruined a lot of it washing & trying to clean it. It was much better before that. A couple years ago the wife & I went back to my old deer hunting camp in Eastern Oregon that we hunted from in the 1950s. I remembered where they buried their trash, so we dug up some of it. I was specifically after my grandfathers old Prince Albert tobacco tins. We found several of them in the same condition as they were when they buried them. There were also tin cans there with the labels still on them that looked like they had been buried only last week. I remember the white potato cans looked almost new. We dug up peach cans, green bean cans, and a lot of corned beef hash and beef stew cans that the labels looked almost new on after being in the ground 65+ years. So I can understand why this little bird seed jar was in the condition it was. I guess if people still are skeptical that all the coins couldn't fit into a jar of this size, they should get 7 silver dollars and 108 nickels and try it themselves on a jar of similar size. I think the story behind this jar of coins is probably something like this. It isn't a cache where an adult was trying to save serious money. I think a child saved these coins, and every time they got a few extra nickels they socked them away in this jar. Perhaps over the years he accumulated these 7 silver dollars and wanted a safe place for them, and put them all into the bird seed jar, then buried it for safe keeping. When I was a kid I had a couple silver dollars that were so special to me I found a ledge by the chimney and put them there where no one else knew about. The only difference was that I remembered to retrieve them! Who knows what the story was, perhaps he was killed in world war 2 and never had the chance to retrieve them. Hope these pictures help those with a little well understood skepticism.

You do not need to explain to anyone. The mere fact that you found such a find so new into the hobby is amazing!
The dates as to why the variance? Who really cares? People didn't carry SD's in their pockets, they were too large and heavy. No matter how great the find you will always have the doubting Thomas' , aka skeptics. Pay them no attention when they ask you to "prove" something.
Congratulations! Excellent job, keep on hunting and discovering!

 

[JJ1965]

Did you wash the jar in the dishwasher? I can't see any evidence of wax at all around the top of the jar in any of the pictures. Or dirt either, for that matter. Its a shame that there are no photos from the actual site when it was found. Its a great story, and I am not accusing anyone of anything, I just find it hard to believe. If there were pictures from the find and pictures of the jar before opening with the wax and dirt, etc.....I would be inclined to call this a banner find. As it is, there are too many questions. Congrats on the silver dollars and the nickels at any rate!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

FUTURE, did I misinterpret your story or was this cache of valuable coins taken from private property without permission from the owner? It almost sounded like you were just taking a road trip and stopping at every abandoned homestead you saw that wasn't posted...

Glad you shared your find - it gives people getting started in this hobby incentive to keep digging trash.

For those starting out- respect private property.
You would be surprised how easy it is to research ownership these days and many people are willing to grant permission if you take the time to ask.

 

[future]

I dont hunt private property without permission. I'd have to write a short book to explain all the facts of this find and there isnt room in this forum.

 

[future]

No dishwasher.....just very hot water & dish soap. The wife made sure all the wax was gone as she didnt want the jar in the house unless it was VERY clean. You know how wives are.....lol Yes, It was a shame I didnt have my camera with me to record this find but I wasnt planning on needing it and I'm not a professional treasure hunter. I was just happy to find this cache & wasn't thinking at the time I had to comply with 20 different steps just to satisfy all the would be naysayers.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I dont hunt private property without permission. I'd have to write a short book to explain all the facts of this find and there isnt room in this forum.

Sorry for the mis-understanding.

This part is probably what got me side tracked from just drooling over your find.

"It was certainly abandoned and there wasn't a "no trespassing" sign anywhere."

 

[bill from lachine]

Good score on the cache obviously someone had taken their saved coins and stashed them for whatever reason it was a common practice back in the day as many people didn't trust banks.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[1637]

cool find thanks for showing us.
brad

 

[JJ1965]

No dishwasher.....just very hot water & dish soap. The wife made sure all the wax was gone as she didnt want the jar in the house unless it was VERY clean. You know how wives are.....lol Yes, It was a shame I didnt have my camera with me to record this find but I wasnt planning on needing it and I'm not a professional treasure hunter. I was just happy to find this cache & wasn't thinking at the time I had to comply with 20 different steps just to satisfy all the would be naysayers.

You do not have to satisfy anyone except yourself. Maybe all of us doubters and naysayers are just jealous, ya know?

 

[future]

No offence to anyone out there.....lol