25 years of silver missing

[JDW]

Hello every one,

I will try to keep this short. ;o) I have never metal detected in my life but always wanted to, so my wife and I ordered 2 at gold’s and hopping the FedEX man would deliver today.

So here is the deal. About ten years ago I bought this old Farmstead, no one had lived here for more than 25 years before I bought it. the place has 13 structures including a house, barn, tractor shed, horse barn, pig shed ect. Completely over run with tall grass and newer trees and 27 pieces of old machinery, most half buried from years of mother nature, horse collars were still hanging on the wall. The house was ransacked over the years by kids no doubt but all of the belonging were still there, the old folks had died and their kids didn't want anything I guess.

Anywho, shortly after purchase my son and I started to clean the place up, every day was a treasure hunt finding all kinds of relics. One day as we were working a car pulled in the yard and 2 older gentleman approached us with metal detectors, come to find out they were the son's of the previous owners, grew up on the property and asked if they could meta detect in hopes of finding their fathers stashes of silver and said they would split any finds 50/50. As intriguing as this proposition was; I denied their request. through some research we found that more than 25 years of silver saving had been buried somewhere on this property. ( sound intriguing?)

We have cleaned this place up quite a bite in the 10 years since that day and now that my wife and I are getting up in age a little we thought detecting would be a great hobby starting with our own back yard. I have always heard that the old timers that did not trust the banks would hide their stashes by some old tree or fence post ect. There is still a foot of snow on the ground here but soon the birds will be laying eggs so we have been watching all the vids and doing as much research as possible which lead me to this site.

We know there will be a massive amount of iron buried here and I can only imagine if there are stashes of silver here what they may be contained in, old jars, tin boxes, cloth or leather wrappings, ?
I have no Idea where to start looking, all of the old fence lines were most likely ripped down by the farmer who continued to cultivate the land after the abandonment, older trees may have died and are now gone.
No photos are available of that time period but we took several hundred in the first few weeks of purchase and clean up. I can post these if it would help.

I am asking for any insight on how to approach this or where to start, even some of the best settings for the detector to minimize targets, This should be quite a venture and will post pics of our finds.
Really excited about this, not for the monetary value but just discovery.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions or help you may offer. Happy hunting everyone!! Cheers - Jeff

 

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[old digger]

Welcome to TNET! If you don't live too far, I would love to come and help you and your wife.

Here are some suggestions;

Baseboards in the house
Attic in the house
Garage walls, attic, and floorboards
Shed '' ,'' , ''
Old garden area

Just a few for starters.

 

[Ism]

Jeff, there is another forum here called "cache hunting". It would be a good idea to lurk, read, and research.
There is a wealth of good info and most of your questions are already answered. Cache hunting is a different animal and requires a lot of patience.
Many caches were buried in iron containers so you can't rule out digging iron. If it was buried in an area with winter freeze, the most likely place would be inside of a building with a dirt floor.
Chicken coops were a favorite because the chickens would act as an alarm. Depth often depends on how often the owner expected to access the cache.
I hope you find the cache but best not to broadcast your find to anybody!
Ran

 

[Jnicholson]

Hello every one,

I will try to keep this short. ;o) I have never metal detected in my life but always wanted to, so my wife and I ordered 2 at gold’s and hopping the FedEX man would deliver today.

So here is the deal. About ten years ago I bought this old Farmstead, no one had lived here for more than 25 years before I bought it. the place has 13 structures including a house, barn, tractor shed, horse barn, pig shed ect. Completely over run with tall grass and newer trees and 27 pieces of old machinery, most half buried from years of mother nature, horse collars were still hanging on the wall. The house was ransacked over the years by kids no doubt but all of the belonging were still there, the old folks had died and their kids didn't want anything I guess.

Anywho, shortly after purchase my son and I started to clean the place up, every day was a treasure hunt finding all kinds of relics. One day as we were working a car pulled in the yard and 2 older gentleman approached us with metal detectors, come to find out they were the son's of the previous owners, grew up on the property and asked if they could meta detect in hopes of finding their fathers stashes of silver and said they would split any finds 50/50. As intriguing as this proposition was; I denied their request. through some research we found that more than 25 years of silver saving had been buried somewhere on this property. ( sound intriguing?)

We have cleaned this place up quite a bite in the 10 years since that day and now that my wife and I are getting up in age a little we thought detecting would be a great hobby starting with our own back yard. I have always heard that the old timers that did not trust the banks would hide their stashes by some old tree or fence post ect. There is still a foot of snow on the ground here but soon the birds will be laying eggs so we have been watching all the vids and doing as much research as possible which lead me to this site.

We know there will be a massive amount of iron buried here and I can only imagine if there are stashes of silver here what they may be contained in, old jars, tin boxes, cloth or leather wrappings, ?
I have no Idea where to start looking, all of the old fence lines were most likely ripped down by the farmer who continued to cultivate the land after the abandonment, older trees may have died and are now gone.
No photos are available of that time period but we took several hundred in the first few weeks of purchase and clean up. I can post these if it would help.

I am asking for any insight on how to approach this or where to start, even some of the best settings for the detector to minimize targets, This should be quite a venture and will post pics of our finds.
Really excited about this, not for the monetary value but just discovery.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions or help you may offer. Happy hunting everyone!! Cheers - Jeff

Where are you, I am in Western NY

 

[olfacere]

Sadly, you may have already lost the silver. Those kids of the guy who buried the silver were your one human link to the real information. They may have known where to start or where it actually was. If I knew it was my father who buried a bunch of silver on what used to be our land and if I had some idea of where it was, I would have made the polite offer to you and, when you said no, I would have come back after dark and acquired the silver for myself. It may or may not still be there! Getting 50% of that silver with their help was much more of a sure thing than 100% by yourself, and it really was quite generous of them to suggest a 50/50 split of their family's silver with you just because you happen to be there now. Other folks might have just waited for you to turn your back and figured, "I grew up here and it was ours when it was buried."

If you're looking for a place to start, there is no better resource than those kids who grew up on the property. They knew their father. Even if they didn't know where he buried it, they could probably tell you lots of places that he didn't bury it. They could tell you where he would spend time on the property. Think of it like man-tracking. People tend to keep valuables close to where they feel secure. If the house wasn't secure enough, then the silver is likely buried next to some old fishing spot, where no one else goes anyway, but, even if they did, they could walk right over it and never know. Never underestimate how well something can get hidden on a farm!

If the acerage is big enough, your odds of finding it without help are slim. If I were a farmer, I might consider burying a big stash about 3 to 4 feet under a plowed field. It could be paced off from significant structures or trees (that may or may not still be there), so that only one man knew exactly where it was. If that happened and the field fell out of use, then there would be absolutely no surface trace of where it's buried (could be in the middle of an open field; could be in the woods; could be under the house or barn). Contacting those kids seems to be your only way of increasing your odds (and it would be something nice to do for them). If you call them up and neither one is interested anymore, then you know the silver is no longer on the property.

P.S. It might also be a good idea to check and make sure they are who they said they were. You never know. :P

 

[63bkpkr]

Hmmm, You've already received thoughts of typical locations in the home, barn, shop, chicken coop, walls boards, attic, fence posts. Common walkways would be another location: from house to barn, from house to chicken coop, next to the front/back door. Various people stash things in places that make sense to them so possibly learning something about the family could help, old news papers and the like. Did they need to get at the money quickly or was it ok to take an hour or so to pull it from the hiding spot. Making a list of common places to look could be helpful.

You've been told already that cache hunting takes patience and it will to locate whatever might be out there. Make a map of your entire property then on the map cut the property up into chunks/smaller patches of ground then one by one you and your wife together detect each patch slowly with each of you going in a different direction so your detecting paths crisscross each other as sometimes detecting at a different angel will cause a target to "speak to you". Clearly mark each patch of ground and mark them off as you detect them. Lots of work but it will be time spent out doors together and make a picnic out of it with a basket of food and something comfy to sit on, do whatever adds something special to the time you two are working on this project.

Good Success..............63bkpkr

 

[releventchair]

If the barn had feed bins,under them could be disturbed with out notice.
Any/all walls including under outhouse seat,look for a discrepancy in dimension,a few inches difference could be a false wall. corners of out buildings in earth inside and out. Around posts and beams at floor. Under thresholds. Basement floor,cellar indoors or out. Tool or workshop worth a hard look. any pipes or beams that don,t make sense for location or routing. Check out repaired areas in concrete,brick or wood. Odd length board compared to rest of pattern. Inspect any junk removed and ground under it. Milk cans,drums,barrels. Fuel tanks on equipment,vehicles.
In time you,ll get ideas by being there and thinking where you would hide things. Have fun!.

 

[cudamark]

As mentioned, search the buildings or building sites thoroughly first. Next would be areas close by the main house. Think about it.....if you were wanting to hide something, you would want that spot within view most of the time and you would want to be fairly inconspicuous while accessing it. I'd get a detector that will go deep and have some coil size options. I'd also dig every sound, iron or not......even the small sounding targets, just to get them out of the way if nothing else. Have fun and good luck!

 

[Critical Recovery]

This story is depressing to me.

Years after their death, the kids show up with metal detectors looking for stuff their father buried?

I am willing to bet that they wanted nothing to do with him for years and then only showed up after he died when they remembered or were reminded that there was money involved.

They probably went and bought the detectors just for this payday, or after seeing a TV show about Boom Baby! or Roundness in The Hole.

"hey....didn't dad say something about burying silver"
"Yeah, I bet we could use a metal detector.."

I hope that YOU find it, because if they had ANY relationship at all with their parents, they would have been given it years ago.

 

[olfacere]

Not that it matters at all, but I would actually rather see the silver (or half/two-thirds of it) go to the kids. When kids don't want to have anything to do with their parents, then who raised them to be that way? Sometimes what parents get from their kids is the same as what they gave to their kids.

 

[JDW]

I knew this was going to the right place to post this story!!

Thank you all for responding you enlightened me. ;o)

There is one thing that has been bothering me and just don't make sense. why would the 2 sons wait for twenty some year after their parents died to come and look for the caches, that puzzles me. they were quite serious about finding something, and MD's have been around for a half century. Hmmm

My father played with their children back in the early 40's and when I purchased this piece of land he was 70 years old, he told me that on few occasions he would instruct everyone into the house until he returned, my father told me that he always had a shovel and told them he needed to go bury a dead animal, I can only surmise that he didn't want anyone knowing something and I doubt it was and animal he was burying, but kids at that age would believe it. If this is the case I can eliminate any land that would be visible from the house. at least for anything that may be buried, although he may have changed his hiding spots once the children were grown up and gone. I will not rule out any area but according to the kids which are dead now believe there may be as much as 50 to 100 thousand in face value, I have a hard time believing that!! this family was very well off but I would be happy with a hand full of silver dollar. We have no misconception about finding anything at all but junk, but their is hope and adventure.

I will respond later to some personal posts, but my wife wants to go out for dinner. I will leave you with a few pics for thought and catch up on this later.



Before



After



Before



After



Thank you all again - Cheers Jeff

 

[releventchair]

Interesting the ol boy had a shovel. With kids curiosity they would find "burial". If dad had a graveyard type area for animals,bingo.
Or the shovel could have been a diversion leaving any curious to be looking for digs. Were I to dig to hide blending surface when finished to blend effectively is time consuming. complicated by soil colors mixed or damp soil brought to surface. to much dirt left or not enough, them mixing leaf or what ever litter to match surroundings. Silo floor if silo not in use,or under a sheet of tin. Tractor shed floor(love that tractor!)or backside of buildings if shovel used. you could adopt a hunter in his 50s.

 

[smokeythecat]

Here's your key to success. Time. It's going to take a long time to find it. Since the kids showed up with metal detectors, chances are the stuff is buried. I'd start inside the buildings and the house if it has a dirt floor. Then I would methodically mark off squares of the whole property and grid it, back and forth, until that grid has been "cleared". It's probably not in the front lawn as he wouldn't want anybody passing by to see it, assuming the front lawn can be seen from a road. If it gets tedious, get your family metal detectors, rent a dozer for the weekend and take a foot of the back property, letting everybody follow behind the dozer (at a safe distance.) I've rented some of the small ones, they're really nice, ( And no, I'm not kidding.)

 

[63bkpkr]

JDW {aka: Jeff},
My you've put in a great deal of wonderful work on the "old place", lot's of sweat equity! Looks lovely.

Were there ever any comments about how long he was gone from the house 'burying an animal'. The amount of time he was gone could be a clue and did he bring the shovel back with him and was the blade dirty or different when he left with the shovel?

Quite a treasure tale you've got going here! With the man being that cautious I would also consider that he was likely to not put all his wealth in one hole/spot/cache/depository/tree or timber. I read a story about a fellow doing a rebuild on an 'old' barn, as he pulled down one particular beam it broke in half and when it hit the ground silver coins fell out of the hollow timber.

You've many more thoughts and plots going on about your location. As far as the amount that is there, if you were interested in making a better estimate of the possibilities you could look into old town records of grain sales or whatever the fellow did to make a good living and have a better idea of his status. Sounds like someone with a dread of bank failures and lots of family stories of the horrors of the Great Depression as well as someone with a great fear of having his buried wealth found so be careful as he may have set some traps.................63bkpkr

 

[JDW]

Welcome to TNET! If you don't live too far, I would love to come and help you and your wife.

Here are some suggestions;

Baseboards in the house
Attic in the house
Garage walls, attic, and floorboards
Shed '' ,'' , ''
Old garden area

Just a few for starters.

Hello Old Digger, thanks for the reply, we can eliminate the first 2 on your list, with in a year of settlement, we completely gutted the house all but stud walls and siding. We checked everything very closely including any nooks and crannies atop beams everything, we did find some interesting things but no caches of coins.

The rest on the list will warrant further investigation. In pic #4 you can see and old carriage shed and the contents is virtually untouched to this day, one of the last ventures of visible things I never got to, now I will have to consider the none visible aspect once it's cleaned out. (Dirt Floor) first off I will remove 6 inches of dirt and sift, there will be no doubt more steel buried with in the first few inches then I care to try and sort out with every hit on the MD, then go from there. sound about right?

The only other dirt floor will be in the tractor shed, ( Pic #7 )about 5 years ago I added 2 inched of lime stone over the top to try and keep down the dust some and I know there will be lots of steel in that place. Not quite sure how to handle that, most likely have to grid that out, pull back the lime stone with the skid steer and go from there, unless someone has a better idea. I will set the the MD with Iron Discrimination fist, maybe get lucky ;o)

I have no clue where the garden was at, mystery.

I think over all from what I read that it would be prudent to spend 40 to 100 hours digging area's where the coin caches (if there are any lol) would most likely not be to become comfortable with the features, setting and readouts of the AT Gold's. We purchased 2 these, I hope they will be adequate to do the job.

Thanks again!! Cheers- Jeff

 

[JDW]

Jeff, there is another forum here called "cache hunting". It would be a good idea to lurk, read, and research.
There is a wealth of good info and most of your questions are already answered. Cache hunting is a different animal and requires a lot of patience.
Many caches were buried in iron containers so you can't rule out digging iron. If it was buried in an area with winter freeze, the most likely place would be inside of a building with a dirt floor.
Chicken coops were a favorite because the chickens would act as an alarm. Depth often depends on how often the owner expected to access the cache.
I hope you find the cache but best not to broadcast your find to anybody!
Ran

Hey Ran, Appreciate the reply and info!! Will be looking into cache hunting forum.

I see know that with all the replies, everyone has confirmed my worst fear; this could take years. ;o( there is so much area to cover. the only good thing about it is it's right out my back door. ;o)

Fact is that as we cleaned this place up we found hundreds of smaller pieces of steel laying everywhere and I can only imagine what mother nature has covered up. (wow) there will be no shortage of targets that's for sure and for certain.

I live 50 miles north of Green Bay WI so definitely freezing weather here. only two building with dirt floors, there was an old chicken coop but it was collapsed and ended up burning it, did make sure there were no coins or paper money in it first.

Once we found out that there was possibly sliver here we methodically checked each and every item that was either burned or removed, so the chance of us throwing anything out is highly unlikely, there is a good chance this silver is still here somewhere.

Thanks again - Cheers Jeff

 

[JDW]

Where are you, I am in Western NY

North of Green Bay WI, be a hell of road trip, ;o) thanks Jeff


Edit: almost midnight. will have some time tomorrow for more. Good Night.

 

[hikerdude]

Wow, what a beautiful place you have there. One important thing I believe, document where you hunt. You don't want to have to back track, or rehunt places you have hunted because your not sure you looked in those places before. I hunt parks alot. I will log onto "showmystreet.com" and print an airiel view, and cross off the areas I hunt so I keep close track of the places I hunted already, and not have to worry maybe 6 months down the line wheather I hunted an area or not. I think I might start out by, just hunting for anything and everything. Metal detecting is alot like fishing, you never know what might be under your coil when it rings out, just like you never know what might be nibbling on your line when fishing. You might find some pretty interesting things (other than a stash), like maybe some copper pennies, or wheat pennies, or clad quarters and dimes, and I get very excited when I find a silver dime, or quarter. MDing is fun, especially when you find old stuff. I would be afraid of being dissapointed every time I went out if I were just looking for a cache and didn't find it. Have fun finding other stuff, and one important thing, learn to use your metal detector well, use head phones, it saves on batteries, and have fun.

 

[Joseph Gilbert]

I would grid the entire property off section by section using a steak and engineer tape detect the area first marking off each metal hit with a flag then dig all the hits ounce all the hits are dug move to the next area.

 

[DomCal]

What an amazing place to hunt! It's all yours to find and all you have to do is walk out your front door and get after it. Like everyone has said, start to grid off sections and work from there. You will find a lot more than the buried silver. All we ask is that you post pics of your finds. I don't post often, but I will be following this one as long as you let us.....lol