How Would I go About Finding a Cache?

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

A Prince Albert can full of gold coins would set you up quite nicely. It also wouldn't be much of a signal. A rotted leather pouch with 13 colonial coppers would make your day also. Run the math on the wholesale value of $5000 in $20 gold coins. Face value does not equal value unless you are talking about modern banknotes with no collector interest. siegfried schlagrule

 

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[Connecticut Sam]

I agree with #7, research and more research.

 

[nuggy]

Hmm, done a little cache hunting - no finding yet, but I've been collecting stories for a long time - some of them might turn out ok - some were made up to start with by some story teller to entertain a gullible audience. Others were found long ago by relatives - not always those named in the will - so they kept quiet and slowly got wealthier. I do agree there are still a lot of caches out there, been close to a few that were recovered - by friends, nothing huge though.
Several from the forties - fifties, two from 1800's and 2 modern ones.

All were found by accident. One was a tobacco tin under a house, not buried - just out of sight sitting on framing, modern 1980's - contained just under 2 thousand dollars in notes.
Other modern one same era was small glass jar behind loose brick contained a couple of hundred in notes and coins.

One of the 1800's was in small tin, buried under a stone that was moved to build a garage foundation, this contained a few gold and silver coins, value in 1990's about $1,000. The other 1800's was built into a wall and found during renovation, was gold dust and nuggets - value not revealed but under $5,000. At about the time this was found I found, also inside a wall, a leather bag - containing carpentry tools and a sandwich (amazing it was still recognizable all dried out and leathery - can't say what was in it but it didn't look too good). I think the builder covered this over by accident. I often wondered who got the blame for "stealing" it!

About ten unopened wage packets containing cash from the 1950's were found in a secret compartment in a large wooden dresser. Some of these notes were sought after by collectors so value was quite good about $5,000.

A large preserving jar half full of bigger silver coins latest date late in 1940's, was dug up when removing an old clothes line post. Never got any indication of value but it would have been under $1,000 when dug, about 1980. Nuggy

 

[nuggy]

I found a jar of mercury that was quite valuable, in an old shed but I don't count that as a cache.
I have also found a quantity of very old hidden copper wire that I believe was more of a stash than a cache. It was on my land and I believe it was hidden there after being removed from an old mine that was closed down decades ago nearby, probably by an employee. I was short on cash at the time so I was very pleased to get it.

It seems to me that thinking about - researching who got their money in lump sums in the days when banks were rare or untrusted, may be a good way to start. People who got paid for cattle, crops, gold, hides or a hundred other things may have only received money once or twice a year. Some of them would have buried part of this to avoid theft - tax (oh wait that's the same thing ) or just to have some for a rainy day. Some of these people got diseased, accidently killed, developed senility or Alzheimers or didn't come back for other reasons. So some of those caches, I suspect a large number - are still out there. Good luck to you in finding them Nuggy

 

[GOLD1960]

___By Boulder Landmarks that can't be moved ______West / North / East / South / corners.

..

 

[Frankn]

Here we go ! First you must identify a target site. Talk to some of the older people of the area about excentric people and rich recluses. See if you can find their locations. These are good sites to hunt. Look in Tomas T. Terry's United States Treasure Atlas for listings in your area. The listings are by state and county. Look thru old newspapers for info. like robberies, disasters, and stories like rich people dying and no money being found. Pick a story and track it down. See if the people really lived at that time. See if you can verify the facts of the story. Now find the location and who owns it . Get permission to look for it. Now start swinging that detector. Frank

 

[Tuberale]

Hi-

How Would I go About Finding a Cache? Pretty straight-forward.

Straight-forward answer.

You need answers for Who, What, When, Where, and Why of the cache. Of these the most important is the Who, which is easier to track down than the others. Accept only verifiable fact. You can get fiction on Fox News.

Rarely, knowing Where is enough. If you have Where down to a few square feet, go for it!

 

[hombre_de_plata_flaco]

Many of these rural folks used to only trust the Bank of Mother Nature.

Alternatively, many of those rural folks had no monies to cache.

Don't underestimate the rural folk. Sure, many really are poor, but many are quite wealthy even though they may look like Ma and Pa Kettle.

I live in a rural area, and right out of high school I briefly worked at a car dealership. Some guys would pull up to the lot dressed nice and wearing what looked like Rolex watches. On the surface they appeared to have plenty of $$$, but when you got them in the office to sit down with the credit manager they would have bad credit and no cash for a down payment, even though they portrayed an illusion of wealth.

Conversely, on more than one occasion, you would have what appeared to be backwoods dirt farmers dressed in overalls roll up to the lot in an old clunker, then whip out a huge wad of cash to pay for their new truck. This would drive the credit mangers crazy. They would try to talk them into financing but the old timers didn't fall for it.

One of the most famous silver coin hoards ever discovered was the LaVere Redfield hoard. He always wore a t-shirt and blue jeans and drove around in a dilapidated pick up truck.

http://www.gainesvillecoins.com/tips/49/Famous-Coin-Hoards-Redfields-Silver-Dollar-Hoard.aspx

Looks can be deceiving.

 

[brucebob]

For the area that I'm in, old farm houses seem to be the best. Most of these old farmers did not trust the banks with all of their money so they would bury their money around their property. Plus, most of them didn't have any neighbors living with 5 miles so it was easy for them to bury it and not worry about anybody seeing them.

 

[GrayCloud]

Brucebob, Sounds like you have it figured out and on the right track. Even a small cache of gold or silver can be very rewarding today. Not to mention the excitement of the hunt.

 

[GoldBack]

Hi-

How Would I go About Finding a Cache? Pretty straight-forward.

Research areas that look promising (dated structures like farms, homes, stage coach stops, mines etc..); then more research on the area you find most promising to you, then practice your patients!
Good luck!