First hand Cache stories?

Thought I'd add my 2 cents.

Mostly I am a relic and coin hunter, I don't fool with "treasure" caches because I beleive most of them to be bunk and have recovered plenty of stuff piecemeal, however I have hunted for supposed caches.

I used to own property south of Warrenton Virginia near a place called Auburn mills which was home to no less than three civil war skirmishes and both Armies camped
around there, it was said John Mosby used the house directly across from me as a sort of way station to exchange tired horses to stay a step or two ahead of Union pursuers. Local lore says there is a treasure of old coins and silverware buried around the house somewhere put there by several families to foil looting soldiers.

I also hunted for the Treasure Mosby supposedly buried after his raid on Fairfax court house when he kidnapped a Union general, I beleive this treasure was in Gainsville/haymarket area close to the railroad trackes....never found it but pulled up some nice CW stuff.

I knew an old black gentleman whose grandfather was a slave and showed him a bunch of coins that were "Walled up" in a house near Auburn, "up on a hill" he didn't take them because they weren't his, the coins were supposed to be there in (circa) 1990. He wouldn't divulge the exact location but pointed in the general direction....I was refused permission to hunt by the landowner.

In 1993 a friend of mine moved to Hillsville SW Virginia and became entranced by stories of local bad man and 1900's counterfeiter Sidna Allen (google him up). I went down to stay with him one weekend and we hunted several old abandoned houses that Sidna supposedly used in his moonshining/countefeiting days, local lore says he buried silver coins from his illegal activieties. I Never found Sidna's treasure but I pulled up some interesting relics, a few old coins and a few old bottles around the houses including my friends property.

The Flood City Kid
 

floodcitykid said:
Thought I'd add my 2 cents.

Mostly I am a relic and coin hunter, I don't fool with "treasure" caches because I beleive most of them to be bunk and have recovered plenty of stuff piecemeal, however I have hunted for supposed caches.

I never hunt for those bunk treasure...only the real ones. ;D
I agree with you, most treasure stories are just legends, and it's pretty easy to tell, because not a single one of the big name treasures has ever been found. On the other hand, many small cacxhes, such as the one the old black gentleman told you about, have been found. Great lead there...I would like to look for it.
 

Okay I agree there are no caches out there, so don't waste YOUR :thumbsup: time looking. :icon_scratch:
 

GrayCloud said:
Okay I agree there are no caches out there, so don't waste YOUR :thumbsup: time looking. :icon_scratch:

Yeah, they're all gone. Too bad, we came too late. :thumbsup:
 

Kentucky Kache said:
floodcitykid said:
Thought I'd add my 2 cents.

Mostly I am a relic and coin hunter, I don't fool with "treasure" caches because I beleive most of them to be bunk and have recovered plenty of stuff piecemeal, however I have hunted for supposed caches.

I never hunt for those bunk treasure...only the real ones. ;D
I agree with you, most treasure stories are just legends, and it's pretty easy to tell, because not a single one of the big name treasures has ever been found. On the other hand, many small cacxhes, such as the one the old black gentleman told you about, have been found. Great lead there...I would like to look for it.

Well good luck, I tried several years ago to get permission on that property and was turned down flat, I also suspect there are some great civil war relics on that property as Confederate artillery coming from Warrenton was known to be occupying the position during the battle of auburn (or Coffee hill).

TFCK
 

Thought I'd add another one since its a slow day for me, this one is in the Philippines
and I know how we all view that... ::) but since it comes from my ever lovin' I just have to repeat it.

When my Wife was a small girl, maybe 1970 or so, her Grandmother lived with her and had a prize possession which was a trunk, hand carved of probably a wood they call "Kamagong" or ironwood...which would make it a treasure in an of itself. Anyhow, my wife was playing in the trunk and found a bunch of coins which had "odd designs".

When Grandmother saw her playing with the coins she became frightened because the coins which used to be shiney had turned black (silver?) a sign of impending death to often superstitious people, possible oxidation of high content silver coins to the rest of us. Grandmother buried many of these coins outside their house and took the rest of them to the local Priest to bless and drive away anything evil. After this was done many of the coins were returned to the trunk but some which couldn't be blessed were buried.

Grandmother had aquirred the coins from her Grandfather who got them from trade with the Spanish and from the sailors who came into port in Northern Mindanao to trade and were part of her dowry under the old Spanish system.

Not long after that a great flood washed away most of the house and took the trunk
and most of the furniture. The house was rebuilt and my wife sold it in 1985 or so.
I went back with her a few years ago and we both searched the grounds (though NOT with a metal detector) and didn't find anything, either too much soils covers the lot or the flood carried the coins away....or somebody else found them

I'll be going back there in a few months to recheck the ground with my eagle spectrum.

This is in the town of San Miguel near Tandag, North eastern Mindanao, province of Surigao del Sur.

The Flood City Kid
 

I hear stories of buried loot all the time... none ever pan out, either no permission or they are not first hand stories... but there was one I got close to... the old guy told us that he knew of a location where a jar of pennies were buried (he buried them) and he would take us there which he did. we had to get permission from the current land owners... which we did... people out here love to tell storied so we stood ther chatting for a good 15 to 20 minutes after we got permission... then the wife came out of the house and found out what was going on and she was mad! she didn't want us to go out there and look for that jar of pennies... so we didn't push it and left telling the guy we don't want to cause any trouble, hoping that maybe we could look for it another time... come to find out the loot was searched for with metal detectors about 5 years ago and was never found, by this lady and her relatives!!! jeeze talk about greedy... she had her chance... they were not even her pennies! heck if we found it we would of split it!

Chukers
 

Curtis said:
On the PVC banks: Great idea and there are probably a lot of them out there. Modern technology has arrived and the PVC Banks are not safe form being found. No I am not talking about a GPR although it may work. Hi tech Element detectors are available now, mine will find the gold or silver coins no matter what they are in and good for at least 100 feet deep. I can see it coming soon that the elements (compound) for the PVC (chemical composition) will soon be available and then even paper money in PVC banks will not be safe from those equipped with one. I know this will be disappointing to many but you could always bury a bunch of them with nothing in them and hope anyone finding them would not find your bank before you caught them.

How would that device do with dozens of small gold caches spread out in a checkerboard pattern?
 

$200. in 20's behind the range exhaust hood vent.... Wife found it while cleaning, we had bought the house to use as an apartment building, the place, (and the money) was her parents home.....
She wanted to share it with her sister... I gave a loud NAY to that idea, our house, our bills....
 

Sheldon J said:
$200. in 20's behind the range exhaust hood vent.... Wife found it while cleaning, we had bought the house to use as an apartment building, the place, (and the money) was her parents home.....
She wanted to share it with her sister... I gave a loud NAY to that idea, our house, our bills....
:thumbsup:
 

Kentucky Kache said:
Has anyone ever been given a treasure lead first hand? I mean by the person who hid it. I don't expect you to give out your story...just wondering if anyone had such a lead. I have one. It was given to me by a guy who didn't know I was a treasure hunter. If you knew the story you would understand why/how he came to tell me, but I'm sure you understand why I can't tell it. I wouldn't dig up the cache as long as the guy is alive, but it's pretty neat having such a lead. Sometimes it seems like treasure leads are looking for you.

Anyone else?

I have two.

One is from and friend and I. We stored about $50 worth of coins and cash in a jar back in the 80's. We were kids, saving up out allowance so that we could build a bunch of wood ramps in the field cross from my house. We had it hidden in a little hole and cave we dug out. Well, woke up one morning to bulldozers destroying our track and leveling the ground. Its now under concrete and a house, pretty much lost forever about 2 - 3 feet down.

The other one is at my childhood home. My mom said she hid a jar of quarters and halves she had saved since I was a kid ( born in 74 ) and she forgot to grab it when she moved. If I get a chance to go back there, I will be sure to swing by the house and try to get it. I am sure there is some Silver in there.
 

I was going through some stuff the other day, boxing it up and cleaning, and I came across some of the flatware and silver plate from the bag. I will have to take a picture of it and post it here. I think a lot of it was damaged and got sold off, but my mom apparently kept some. I remember melting one or two pieces of the solid silver silverware down to make a ring in the 1980's.
 

I've enjoyed reading all these personal stories in this thread. In all my years of THing I've only recovered one cache - 52 wheat pennies in a baby food jar. Some child's buried treasure from the 50's.

I do know of one modern day story and i can give you all a first hand account of it because a good friend of mine was culprit.

I live in a large city in Michigan and around 1991 a gang of my teenage friends embarked on a criminal adventure. Seems my good friend figured out how to fool change machines with photocopied bills. He's always been an ambitious person and after he master the process he ramped up production, shared the knowledge with his circle of friends and began funding several months of non stop drunken partying. Back then survellience cameras were not as common place as they are now, but ever cautious my friend decided that self serve car washes were the safest place to hit. Few of those would bother with cameras and all of them had change machines. After a few weeks working in this county he decided that it would probably be a good idea to take the show on the road so all of them piled into an old Chevy Impala and began a multi week roa trip south down the I-75 corridor - their criminal enterprise funding one non-stop party.

As you have probably already guessed there was one major draw back to thier caper(besides all of it being a crime!). All of their ill gotten proceeds were in quarters! My friend told me that at one point they had filled the trunk of that old impala so full of quarters that the poor thing couldn't hold any more weight. Every thing they bought was in quarters. It was quite the hassle but it afforded them one non stop party. Eventually they decided to bury them. so they got 5 gallon pails and started burying them along I-75. He told me that every so often they would pull off the e-way and bury a bucket while writing down the general location. They made it as far south as Kentucky then worked their way back home to Michigan. Once home they abandoned the old car along with everything in it (including thier little treasure map it turned out) and tried to lay low while planning their next major road trip but it was not to be.

Within a week or two they were all arrested by the secret Service. Everyone involved was eventually convicted of multiple counts of counterfiting. It's been a lot of years since then and they are all done serving time now (the ones I still talk to any way) None of them ever went back for those buckets so I imagine that most of them are there.

It's not gold or silver (just a lot of clad coins) but a fun story none the less. Much of that whole time is one big haze for my friend. All of them partied non stop during the adventure . He can't remember anycertain locations but he does still have a picture of himself in a park with waterfalls in Kentucky and does distinctly remember burrying one there.
 

Don Jose,give us one of the many ! :icon_thumright: :coffee2:
 

The closest I can relate as a cache is my wifes grandparents had money buried in mason type jars around their house. A habit from the old days. As far as she knows they were never recovered. We live in the mountains and the area is overgrown. I've been after it for a couple of summers when I was able to go swinging. Retired now and able to search with gusto this summer.
 

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