My first purposely buried "Treasure"! But why?

[headly]

Well, I found my first purposely buried "Treasure" in the backyard of what was a 1920's homestead. I'm not sure why/when they buried these particular copper and brass items but the platters were stacked on top of one another with the cobra candleabra laying on top. The pitcher and vase were on either side of the platters about a foot underground.
Sure do wish it was gold or silver...oh well...maybe next time.

 

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[UnderMiner]

Certainly worth something in metal content, copper ain't cheap.
Probably enough to buy at least an ounce or two of silver! Great find!
Interesting mystery you've unearthed!

 

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[Chizzy]

Great score!! Can't see too many of the plates clearly, but...........



this one is listed as an English decorative wall plate valued at about $50 or $60.........sorry, no dates.............

 

[UnderMiner]

Very cool find!!

This reminds me of a famous silver thief. Most houses he went in and out of, they had no idea how until later on. He would run through and pick the houses, then in the weeds or somewhere under cover, pick through and only keep the silver items. NOT SAYING THIS IS what your find is. It just reminds me of him when I think of the possibilities of why and how it became buried. I don't remember his name. He hit a huge part of the east coast if I remember right.

Who knows? A cool mystery to think about and all possibilities!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blane_David_Nordahl

I don't feel it's related, but a link to who I was talking about.

I've been researching this man Blane Nordahl, it seems he burglarized for the adrenaline rush not for the money. Also despite stealing many millions of dollars in silver it seems he never really spent the money on anything. Also none of the silver he stole was ever recovered. These facts and more have convinced me that Nordahl never actually sold the majority of his plunder, my bet is he hid the vast majority of it. I mean some of the stuff he stole was very high-end and well documented historic silver. If it was sold at least some of it would have turned up by now and caught the attention of the authorities.

My bet is that there is some vast underground secret place - maybe a fallout shelter or similar - where Nordahl put all his plunder. I bet he just keeps adding to the pile. As he and the detectives have said, he doesn't do it for the money - but for the rush. So Nordahl is just like many of us in a way, we rarely sell our finds, but instead keep them and look at them from time to time to remember the moment we first found them and the rush that went along with it. Maybe it's just my 2 years of human psychology talking, but I don't think Nordahl would sell the treasure he lived to find. Maybe in a few years or more his vast lifetime of plunder will be discovered by one of us.

 

[Simon1]

Great finds.
could it be that the items found were all used for secret rituals or ceremonies?
Maybe some kind of Voodoo gathering?
Maybe someone didn't want the evidence of those ceremonies found in the house.
Ahhh, the imagination could run wild with this find.

Along the lines I was thinking. Those Cobras definately look like something from the occult. What state was this in ?

 

[Erik in NJ]

I'm gonna get myself a Scooby snack and while Shaggy (Tylerbdad) and Cinnamon (Velma) fetch the Mystery Machine

 

[sutphin]

HEADLY SIR JUST WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND , AND YOU SAY ALL OF THIS WAS PURPOUSELY BURIED IN THE GROUND . I HAVE SEEN AND COMMENTED ON A LOT OF FINDS BUT WHAT YOU HAVE HERE JUST BOGGLES MY MIND . ALL THIS BURIED AT SOME POINT AND TIME , MAKES A PERSON WONDER WHAT WAS ON THERE MIND . I GUESS WE WILL NEVER KNOW WHY THIS WAS DONE BUT NOW THAT YOU HAVE IT ALL WHY NOT HAVE FUN. PLATES OF UNKNOWN ORIGINS AND OTHER ITEMS THAT YOU HAVE ,, MAKES SEEING THEM ON TNET A SITE TO BE HAD. CONGRATS. HECK OF A FIND.....

 

[pepperj]

Along the lines I was thinking. Those Cobras definately look like something from the occult. What state was this in ?

Lots of countries use the Cobra in religious ceremonies and have nothing to do with the occult. Egyptian revival figural, and some references say they're from Israel, India and so on.

[FONT=arial, sans-serif]Very cool find, it would great if any of the copper decorative plates had makers marks. It's the why's that make this interesting, owner just getting rid of the collection, were they buried to age them? This is done in lots of countries where a new looking item is buried and retrieved a few years later and it has the patina and aging of something a lot older than it appears. This is done to dupe the unsuspecting tourist in believing they're purchasing an antique. [/FONT]

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Very interesting finds! They all look in great shape, congratulations!

 

[Erik in NJ]

Looks like Chizzy has IDed one of your plates. Please post better pics of each of them

 

[HenryWaltonJonesJr]

These seem to be items from the last supper...the last supper some group did and didn't want to clean...so lets just bury it.

Very interesting!

 

[G.I.B.]

Another theory:

During the beginning of WWII there was a big push on to collect all the metal that could be collected for the war effort. Our county needed to build tanks and ships and planes and guns...

Metal was collected by the ton from neighborhoods everywhere to supply the war effort.

Perhaps it was buried to protect it from being discovered and thereby being melted.

 

[Molewacker]

Interesting! I agree with pepperj on Cobra - Egyptian revival or India early 20th century - so far as why buried, here in Lucia Valley, families buried items when forest fires were headed their way.

Cool finds! HH

 

[headly]

Thanks to all for all the ideas and theories. Just another reason why I love this hobby. It was a nice adrenaline rush. I was not able to find hallmarks or makers marks on any of the items. I'll have to hit that site again and hope the find some "other" wink wink...types of metals.

To answer a few questions.
Yes, I hit it with my AT Pro and it did blow my ears out. I had been digging nice size pieces of scrap copper pipe from the old house so I thought it was just another chunk. Goes to show you gotta dig those big signals as well.

Items were found in Central Florida.

Thanks all

 

[Nitric]

Thanks to all for all the ideas and theories. Just another reason why I love this hobby. It was a nice adrenaline rush. I was not able to find hallmarks or makers marks on any of the items. I'll have to hit that site again and hope the find some "other" wink wink...types of metals.

To answer a few questions.
Yes, I hit it with my AT Pro and it did blow my ears out. I had been digging nice size pieces of scrap copper pipe from the old house so I thought it was just another chunk. Goes to show you gotta dig those big signals as well.

Items were found in Central Florida.

Thanks all

Like someone mentioned above about burying for fires, maybe buried at one time for hurricane!

 

[SeabeeRon]

I was thinking along similar lines to G.I.B.'s post above. You said 1920's era house, so thought of the '29 Market Crash and maybe this was all their worldly goods and they wanted to protect them from the bank or whomever. Could be anything, but that is what makes this hobby so much fun, just wondering about what we find is and why it is where it is!!

 

[Erik in NJ]

Another theory:

During the beginning of WWII there was a big push on to collect all the metal that could be collected for the war effort. Our county needed to build tanks and ships and planes and guns...

Metal was collected by the ton from neighborhoods everywhere to supply the war effort.

Perhaps it was buried to protect it from being discovered and thereby being melted.

Very good point as copper was one of the metals that was sought--as witnessed by the steel in lieu of copper cents produced in this era. This post I believe offers the most likely explanation. Everything was carefully stacked in the ground so unlikely that they were stolen goods that couldn't be easily sold and were quickly hidden--if so I think they would have just been tossed into the hole. Sounds like they didn't want their friends and neighbors to think they weren't patriotic by not supporting the war effort. An even more interesting question is why they were never retrieved.

 

[Army of 1]

Congrats headley , that is one awesome discovery , I'd call that " treasure " all day long ..cheers Mick

 

[wkrp43]

Interesting....nice digging!

 

[Argentium]

I'm the only one thus far who believes this is a Banner find - Seriously ?

 

[iloveshinythings]

I think I found your candlestick!

Carved Brass Cobra Candlestick | FS Henemader Antiques


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