brianc053
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2015
- Messages
- 1,021
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- Location
- Sussex County, DE
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 3
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Equinox 800
XP Deus 2
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
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
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
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