Post hole banks

[Goodyguy]

Buddy there are a couple of Sears Mail Order Houses in Tensas Parish in Louisiana. One was for sale by United Country Realty a couple of years back. Who would have thunked it.

I believe you GrayCloud as I know you to be an honorable man.
However due to my curiosity I would still like to see a photo or a catalog or magazine ad for one.

The only posthole cache I personally have experience with, was buried in a mason jar at the base of a fence post, not under the post itself.


GG~

 

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[savant365]

Goodguy, I think there was a thread about post hole banks that had an actual ad for them. I may be wrong but if you do a search on Tnet you might find it. I know they have a lot of items nowadays that you can buy to hide stuff in but I'm not sure how far back the actual marketing of these things go.

HH Charlie

 

[Goodyguy]

Goodguy, I think there was a thread about post hole banks that had an actual ad for them. I may be wrong but if you do a search on Tnet you might find it. I know they have a lot of items nowadays that you can buy to hide stuff in but I'm not sure how far back the actual marketing of these things go.

HH Charlie

Thanks Charlie,

Only thing my search turned up was an out of focus approx. 3" dia. by 6" long iron pipe with a cap on each end, one end has a coin slot.



GG~

 

[maipenrai]

Maybe "Myth Busters" could do a thing about post hole banks, were they real, and how do they work. You would need a very private area if you used it often. I would think that a barn would be the better place to bury something, but people do strange things. My dad used plastic containers to hide his paper, but he didnt count on rodents loving the sweet taste, and nice nesting material, so lost a few bucks.

 

[Connecticut Sam]

Many great ideas, thanks.

 

[Frankn]

I have only found one post hole bank cach. It was a masons jar with a zinc lid which contained 13 silver dollars. The corner post was braced with a 45 degree brace and the second post was only 1' deep. the jar was below it. The wire was on nails bent 90 degrees so you could lift the wire off. I still have the 13 silver dollars. It was a lucky find at an old ranch house out west. Frank

 

[maipenrai]

Good to know that at least one has been found. How did you know that it was there, just luck or did you have a clue? But I still wonder if there were actually factory made banks, and what one looks like.

 

[Connecticut Sam]

#35... I hope that you keep your silver dollars for a very long time. Most coin dealers are crooks, buy a red book or coin magazines, and sell the coins in a coin auction.

 

[Frankn]

Maipenrai, It was dumb luck. I was wondering around back country roads looking for another location which I never found. I spotted this long ago abandoned ranch house and just poked around a little. I have seen a "post hole bank" in one of the many museums out west. It was called a "farmer's bank". It consisted of about 10 " of galv. water pipe with two end caps. Frank

 

[maipenrai]

sounds like a simple home made bank, but probably just for coins, not paper. I guess the modern day version is a PVC pipe with the caps glued on, but not for every day use. I will have to start checking fence post more carefully, but those that had rock wall fences, there are many hiding places.

 

[Frankn]

They have PVC end caps with screw in plugs that are used for cleanouts. These would make good "every day banks". Just use a post hole digger, only bury paper money and you have it made. Oh leave a couple of nails near the surface. Easy to find and the perfect hide! Frank

 

[Connecticut Sam]

I believe that bury paper money will rot.

 

[Randyd]

recently my told me the story again about back in the 40's when my grandpa went on vacation and buried his savings in a mason jar inside the chicken coop. When he got back a few days later, the chickens had scratched the dirt away and the jar was just laying there! (still full, apparently who ever fed the animals while he was gone didn't go in the chicken coup)
He said that was the last time he did that!

I told him grandpa had told me about his friend doing the same thing in the 60's. He came home from vacation and the chickens had scratched all the dirt away from it too!

Chicken coups and pig pens aren't a good place to bury something.
Randyd

 

[Ism]

Chicken coups and pig pens aren't a good place to bury something.
Randyd

Where I live (Michigan), the ground doesn't freeze inside of outbuildings. Seems it would be a likely place for a cache with that in mind.

 

[Tuberale]

sounds like a simple home made bank, but probably just for coins, not paper. I guess the modern day version is a PVC pipe with the caps glued on, but not for every day use. I will have to start checking fence post more carefully, but those that had rock wall fences, there are many hiding places.

During the time period of 1865-1910 in Western United States, paper currency was frequently deeply discounted. Many people didn't trust banks until after the FDIC was established after Roosevelt melted most gold coins in 1933. Even then, lots of people didn't trust the government's handling of their bank deposits, and kept their money at home. Which is why this topic is so appropriate for those of us on the West Coast.

Gold was reliable, at a time when anything not gold (even silver) were suspect.

Remember finding a Blue Mountain Eagle (John Day/Canyon City, OR) newspaper article about a bunch of guys drinking at a local watering hole where Joaquin Miller used to hang out. One guy reached into his pocket and found a handful of silver coins, as well as Indian Heads. Disgusted, he took the handful to the back porch of the tavern, and threw them all away in front of his drinking buddies.

I thought that was kind of interesting. So I got permission to hunt the nearest backyard to the tavern, and found my only Seated Liberty quarter so far. Didn't find any other older coins, and even the Seated Liberty was pretty worn. Reading about pocket spills or spill patterns is fairly common today. But in the 1870's it wasn't nearly so common. Even an inferior silver quarter would have bought you a good breakfast back then most places.

 

[Bum Luck]

I grew up on a farm and work with fences now.

I'm not going to disagree or advocate, just offer some thoughts.

-Corner posts. They have to support the fence, under a lot of tension. They would be tough to remove occasionally.

-Other in-line posts. Better chance of being post banks, but they still have to be removed occasionally. If they are not attached with staples, or loose, that would be possible. Best chance is if they're level with their neighbors so there's no vertical stress, you can discount those that aren't.

-I also can't conjure up a picture of a "Post Hole Bank" on Google except for that lone image of what looks like a home made one. That being said, I doubt that any farmer would pay money for one when a tin can would do, and be more secret.

-No farmer would need to have an identifying mark on a post. They would be familiar enough with each post (having it's own individuality - i.e., the one with the knot that looks like Aunt Tessie's mug). It may be post #13, but doesn't need to be.

-Not likely to have a specially crafted fence post. Wood working on the old farm was way too crude to escape detection.

-Possible to use posts as markers for specific distance away from it. Easier to detect also. It's not tough to dig a hole and cover it up so it looks normal.

-"Maybe it started from a gesture of putting a coin under a new fence post for good luck and went from there." Don't discount that; I've done it with section corners, can't explain why. Humans compulsively throw coins in fountains.

-My grandpa hid his whiskey in the barn in a variety of places; why not money? The animals would be an excellent alarm system.

-GoodyGuy has lots of good thoughts on this topic.

Good Luck!

 

[Lownslow]

Great posts! No pun intended. I think I read in one of H glenn Carsons books or Karl Von Muellers books tha a post hole bank could be sometning like the third post from the corner and in view from a window in the house like the bedroom. The other thing That was mentioned was that the staples or U nails would be cut at the bottom on each barbwire so the post could just be pulled straight up not catching on the wire but only made to look like it was holding. Something else I read not too long ago was talking about the depth would not usually be more than an arms lenght, or the normal depth plus the height of a fruit jar 16 to 18 inches plus 8 or 9. Oh well thats my 2cents worth, hope it helped. Good Luck everyone!

 

[nsdq]

would a concret type post hole be likely i am finding 1790s coins next to one at about 13inches down

 

[Tuberale]

Concrete would be unnecessary for a post hole, unless it is a recently constructed one. The coins you describe could be from a later coin collector's cache, and a concrete post would be both distinctive and attract attention to anyone search the property.

Others have mentioned fake posts used in the fence line. Quite possible. The corner post usually had a brace post on either side of it, which gave greater support to that all important fence line. Many property locations are still determined by those corner posts, so every attempt would be made to make certain they stayed in place. The brace post would also be important. But other posts on the fence line would be structurally less important, and therefore more likely to conceal a cache.

 

[goldfinder]

My grandpa hid a big tin of silver dollars in the root cellar of the farm house. When dad moved the grandparents to town to live w/ us grandma told dad of the silver. He went back and found the tin. Also found a tobacco can with a bunch of 20 dollar gold pieces. True story - I saw the tin, the silver, and the tobacco can of gold coin.